115: What is Your Most Valuable Resource?

Speaker 1 00:00:03 Think meditation is hard. Do me a favor, take a slow, deep breath in and now breathe out. Congratulations, you just meditated. Hi, I'm Crystal Zukowski and this is Breathe In. Breathe out a weekly mindfulness and meditation podcast for anyone ready to own their own shit and find a little peace while doing it. Speaker 1 00:00:28 Hello and welcome back to Breathe In. Breathe Out. I'm Crystal Jankowski and I'm excited that you're here. I think that you're going to get a lot out of this episode because it, it gives you a different take on things. What is your most valuable resource? This is the question I want you to think about for a minute. Is time or money your most valuable resource? Money pays for all of our bills. Money helps us take care of what we need to buy new clothes. Keep a roof over our head. Go on trips. Is money a most valuable resource? Is time your most valuable resource? We've heard that Time is money. Time is money leads us to believe that time is absolutely our most valuable resource. There's only so much time and it's impossible to make more, whereas you can make more money. You just work harder or win the lottery. <laugh>, we go through our lives working to make money, to support ourselves and our family. There's a never ending amount of work to do, whether it's your career, housework, gardening, cooking, food, cultivating relationships. Like how often have you uttered the words, if only I had more time or time goes so fast, there aren't enough hours in the day when time runs out, it's gone on your death bed. Will you be thinking of all the things you didn't get to accomplish because you ran out of time? Is time really our most precious and valued resource? Speaker 1 00:02:03 Hmm. So we have money. I think we just proved that's not it. We have time. That's a pretty valid argument. When my third grandbaby was born in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, she was born in a little town in Arizona and they needed to LifeFlight her to Phoenix because she was having blood sugar problems. My son called me and said, mom, she's here. I was like, oh, I'm so glad she's here. How are mom and baby doing? Not good mom. They're life fighting, baby. Oh shit, honey, what do you need? His response was, I need my mom. I need my mom Here. Breaks my heart. It's the pandemic. Flying commercially was a terrifying prospect and quarantining on that second side was not an option. They needed me now, not in two weeks would the baby survive Two weeks. How would my son do for two weeks waiting for his mom? Speaker 1 00:03:09 Through our network of friends and business partners, we were able to find a pilot and a puddle jumper, which got me where I needed to be the very next day, early in the morning. On that day was time. My greatest resource. Two weeks would've really been rough. Was money my greatest resource? Or perhaps it was the relationships and community connections that we had made that were my greatest resource. Well, if relationships and community is my greatest resource, then it's definitely not time or money. Without them, I would not have been able to be by my son's side in that moment. Gotta tell you, I talk about our four bodies, our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. One day I was in the airport and I've told you this story. I was having a panic attack. I'm a recovering germaphobe <laugh>. It was my first time flying after the pandemic. Speaker 1 00:04:11 People weren't wearing their masks the way that we're supposed to. We were stuck in the tube on the tram going. I was like, my hands were sweating. I couldn't breathe. I was, I just wanted to cry. I was panicking and worrying that everyone was looking at me funny and terrified of the germs that were going on, like mentally I was a mess. I ended up pausing. I went into a corner and I tuned into my higher power and I said, Hey, what do I need to do? And my higher power said, well, first off, you're gonna put some AirPods in and you're gonna put on some calming music that's gonna help your mental body and helping your mental body calm down will help your physical body calm down and your heart will relax. Which it absolutely did. Whew, such a gift. And because I stopped sweating and my heart stopped racing and I stopped wanting to cry, my emotional body was improving too. Speaker 1 00:05:03 In that moment, was my spiritual body, the connection to a higher power was that what was my most valuable resource, my connection to my higher power? Through that, I have done so much <laugh>, including navigating a divorce, finding a new encouraging and loving relationship, finding, purchasing, and creating this amazing space that I live in and get to host people in and help heal people in. I tap in frequently and I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for my deep, beautiful, connected relationship with my higher power. And maybe that's my most valuable resource. The connection to an all-knowing power who loves me unequivocally supports me completely. He knows the best path for my highest purpose and greatest good. And without that connection, I would be utterly lost time, money, connections, and community. My higher power. I sit here in this room today telling you that none of these are your most valuable resource, not a single one of them. Speaker 1 00:06:20 As we built these gardens here on this property, it was an amazing summer. My brother and his wife and their family came into town to live with us for six weeks. They were in between jobs and needed a little bit of a break from their town and this was an opportunity to reboot and breathe and we were blessed enough to provide that along with some physical labor, which is always so good for the soul <laugh>. It was fantastic. It was beautiful to be able to provide that and have them here. And at the time, my cousin and her husband also lived with us. A good friend Tanner lived here too. My mom lived seven miles away and was working on getting her bearings and she was falling down a lot, which meant that I was concerned often about her wellbeing. And in the middle of all of this, my older brother decided that his family of nine should come join the party too. Speaker 1 00:07:17 Now don't get me wrong, it sounds like a lot and it was, however, I love being the one to provide connection and respite for people. I was more than delighted to have 21 people here filling every nook and cranny while we built the labyrinth, the gazebo, the walkways. It was amazing. My cousin, she really wasn't able to do the physical labor, so she volunteered to be the camp cook. She learned <laugh>, she learned how to cook for a variety of dietary issues ranging from meat lovers to free to vegans. I mean, it was vast. The menu she came up with were nothing short of inspiring and amazing. She was a culinary rockstar and I seriously don't know how we would've gotten through that time without her. It was amazing. Uh, as much as my family fuels me and succeeding at building all of these things and seeing them come to life, it was so beautiful and it really did fill my heart and soul. Speaker 1 00:08:24 One day I was a little bit irritable and prickly and my cousin came to me and she said, Hey, let's go for a ride. Now, going for a ride is code was code for us. It meant we're hopping in Little red, which is a, she's a convertible and we're going for a ride up to lions and we're gonna go to the dairy bar. We're going to have ice cream and french fries and we are going to talk. It is code for I'm a little emotional and I need some time. Do you have time for me? It's a very loud engine, which means that you can't really talk. You just turn up the music, you let it go and you drive. It was beautiful. The wind in our hair, the ridiculously noisy engine a couple hours away from the hubbub, that was our life. Delicious ice cream and french fries. Speaker 1 00:09:15 Great conversation. When we came back, I realized how spent I had been, how prickly and irritable I had been. Even though I loved what we were doing and the memories and connections we were making. I whole, my sister-in-law literally said to me, yeah, I told the girls to kind of give you a wide birth because you were really struggling. I didn't realize it. And that is when I learned. Energy is our most valuable resource. Not time, not money, not connections, not my spiritual higher power. Our energy is our highest, most valuable asset. If you don't have the energy to work, how can you make money? Speaker 1 00:10:05 If you don't have the energy to get up and function because you're completely burned out, then where is the value in time? If you don't have the energy to reach out to your network for support and assistance, what value do they have? They can't take action on a situation they know nothing about, and yet you have completely spent your energy and left your yourself isolated. If you have no energy to tap into your higher power for loving guidance, how can they be of value to you? You say, yeah, hey, higher power up there. I'm going to sleep right now. I just, I need you to watch over me, or I need you to fix this issue. And then you fall asleep. You are not listening to the response. You can't listen to the response cuz you're so exhausted. Your energy <laugh>. Think about it. Without energy, what does any of the other stuff matter? Speaker 1 00:11:04 When all of the energy is gone, where does that leave you? In my previous examples, as long as I monitored and managed my energy, I could accomplish so much more in a day than I can when I've burnt the candles at both ends and when I've pushed so hard, I can barely keep my eyes open. When my son needed me, I had the mental, physical, emotional energy and bandwidth to give love and support with them. Can you imagine if I had said, I'm sorry, son, I've run my well dry and have nothing extra to give hope. You make it through this. It took time, energy, and patience to build my relationship with a universal loving God. There have been times I was exhausted and a meditation was about more than I can do, and the idea of thinking was already so exhausting to my mental body that I was shutting down and there it lies. Speaker 1 00:12:09 When our energy is gone, we shut down. Think about a normal ordinary day average. You get up, you shower, get ready for work or whatever you're gonna do. Coffee, food to start the day. What's the first thing you do? Lunch. Do you actually eat your afternoon tasks, your evening meal? Do you eat? Are there energetic ups and downs that you've waited through? Did you have that three o'clock lull? And if you did, did you do anything to help get yourself over the hump? Did you have a little snack? Take a nap? How did you help manage your energy through the day? Each one of us has energetic ebbs and flows. We are constantly using energy to function and accomplish the tasks we need to throughout the day. If we're constantly expending the energy, then how are we rebuilding and nourishing it? What do you do to refuel and regenerate? Speaker 1 00:13:10 There's a natural rhythm to life, an ebb and flow, so to speak. There are times when we feel more outgoing and we feel like we can conquer the world. The image of Rocky Balboa, the top of the stairs comes to mind. There are these times you feel confident and ready for whatever life sends your way, and then there are other times when you might feel more reserved and withdrawn. Hibernating is be in bed, is way more enticing than any SI social situation that presents itself. Begin paying attention to your energetic ebbs and flows in that way. You can begin treating it like a savings account. As you have more energy, you can prepare for the inevitable outward flow. You can find ways to make it easier on yourself and be more compassionate. As you pull back in order to refuel, you'll find that there's a cycle and a rhythm to your life. Speaker 1 00:14:03 Energy flow. Everyone experiences this. Energy is your most valuable resource. A really easy place to start is with your four bodies. Yes, I've got the online course and yes, I highly encourage you to take it because it helps you bring them all into alignment. But in the interest of just helping you along on this path, because I really want you to get this, I want to help you understand this and work through this. My questions for you are numerous, and you may need to pause this and write 'em down. I don't care how you do it, but I So for your mental body, what are you spending your mental energy on? Are your thoughts mostly positive and uplifting? Are there things that you ruminate on and you allow energy to leach out? Is it time for some daily mantras and reminders to help you seal up those leaks and be able to shore up your mental energy so that you can process better? Speaker 1 00:15:00 What about your physical body? What does it need? If it's low on energy, what can you give it? How can you help it? Food, exercise, rest. How can you support and improve your physical body emotionally? What weighs on you? There is no such thing as positive or negative emotion. They are all energy letting you know something needs attention. How does your emotional body feel? How is your emotional energy as it is expressed, suppressed, open and free? Maybe it's bottled ready to blow. What do you need to do in order to help your emotional energy be healthy and strong? And how is your spiritual connection? When was the last time you checked in? Have you ever, do you know their face and how they communicate with you? How does your spiritual energy feel? Is there an ebb and flow between you and your higher power, or do you need to give a little bit of a boost to that connection? Speaker 1 00:15:56 I'm here to tell you on so many levels, energy is your most valuable resource, and if you learn how to work with it to recognize it when it's struggling, how to fuel it and feed it when it needs a little bit more, life will be so much better. I hope you have a wonderful day. I hope that this podcast gave you some thought-provoking ideas, things that you want to ruminate on and work through and feel more inspired. Take care of yourself. Know that you are loved, know that you are amazing and you've got this. And I look forward to seeing you again here next time on. Breathe In. Breathe Out. I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace. I'm Crystal Dukowski on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon. I look forward to being with you again here on breathing. Breathe out. Until next time, Speaker 0 00:17:06 Take care.