Episode 82: The Abundance of Life

Welcome to the 100% Awesome Podcast with April Price, you might not know it, but every result in your life is 100% because of the thought you think. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome!

Hello, podcast universe! Welcome to Episode 82 of the 100% Awesome Podcast, and Happy Thanksgiving. I'm April Price, and you might be able to tell I have allergies today. I'm a little bit congested, and so I'm sorry if I sound a bit underwater today, but as usual, I am so grateful to be here, and so grateful to have you out there listening today. Especially on Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for you, I so appreciate you, and I feel really, really lucky to have this platform to be able to share my ideas with you. And I hope they are making your life a little bit easier, a little bit more fun, and helping you even just a little bit more out of what you want out of this life. So, I think it's kind of fun that because my podcast comes out on Thursdays, every year I get to have a Thanksgiving edition to the podcast. And I didn't realize that when I created my podcast, but I kind of think I'm awesome for doing that.

So, I wanted to start today by acknowledging that for so many of us, this Thanksgiving is probably going to be different than most of the Thanksgivings that we've ever had, right? Our gatherings are going to be smaller, some of the traditional activities that we usually have planned are going to be different, right? Maybe there won't be a Turkey bowl, maybe we'll have a trip to the E.R. but like even football on television is different, right? Like, I think it's so weird when I'm watching television, and there's all the sounds of a crowd and then they, like, expand the audience, and there's no one there, right? It's like such a weird time in our lives. But even though Thanksgiving might look different at your house, and there might be a whole bunch less people around your table, the heart of Thanksgiving always stays the same. That is, of course, noticing what we're grateful for, like looking around, and taking notice, really paying attention to what we're really grateful for.

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And you'll notice that is not the default setting of the brain, right? And in the regular, ordinary day to day activities of our life, our brain is not noticing all the things that we're grateful for, right? Our brain always is noticing what we don't have, not what we do. And let's be honest right now, if it if our brain wants to find something negative, there's a lot of material to work with, right? And so, it's really powerful for us to stop, and notice, and make our brains take notice of the amazingness and abundance in our lives. To make them notice and take note of how much we have to be grateful for. And the more that we could do that on a daily basis, the better, of course, but today, especially, give your brain the job of noticing the abundance in your life, and being grateful for your entire life as it is, right? Your actual life. The life you are actually living, this version, right now, without wanting to be any different.

And that kind of reminds me of a client I have right now, this year, she turns 50. And so, she made this project for herself where she was going to, she made a list of fifty of her closest friends, and family. And every week she takes someone on that list, every week of her year of fifty, and she takes someone on that list, and expresses gratitude for them, and tells them why they are important to her, why they have made a difference in her life, and why she is so grateful for them, and their love. And she said, it's just like having a remarkable effect on her feeling about her life in general. And I think that is the amazing power of being grateful. So, give your brain a job, my client has given her brain a job, and it's like changing her life. And I love that, right? So, give your brain a job to notice the abundance, to notice all the amazingness. And this Thanksgiving is a perfect time to do that.

Okay so, today I know that you are baking pies, and putting turkeys in the oven, but I wanted to give you a few quick little thoughts that I hope will help you in your life. So, I have had some experiences recently that have made me see things a little bit differently, and these experiences have made me so grateful for things in a slightly different way. And I just want to talk to you about that today. Okay, so the first thing that I've been particularly grateful for recently is I am thankful for the people in my life who have been willing to do hard things, who have been willing to feel bad, even if lots of negative emotion so that my life could be better, right? So, you might have heard by now that I'm starting a new group coaching program, but over the last month, as I have prepared for that, and getting ready for that, and and kind of worked out my beliefs to be able to create that program, my brain has been freaking out, right? It doesn't want to do this new scary thing, it doesn't want things to change, it thinks my coaching program is going along smoothly, and beautifully exactly as it is, right? It really likes feeling comfortable, and confident where it is right now, and doing the things that it's good at. And as a result of that, my brain is offering me all kinds of fear, and self-doubt, and anxiety all the time, and trying to talk me out of doing this thing.

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And so, a couple of weeks ago, in fact, it got to a point where I was, it was just like almost more than I could stand, right? I was just feeling so much negative emotion, and I remember one night driving in my car, and thinking, like, "I just can't take this. I just can't feel this bad, right? I am so uncomfortable right now!" And in that moment, in my mind's eye, I suddenly had these flashes of people who had made an enormous impact on my life, people who had completely changed the trajectory of my life, and blessed my life. And I realized that each one of them had had moments exactly like the ones that I was experiencing. And that every person who had made my life better for me in some way by using their gifts, and their talents, and their thoughts, and their ideas, had undoubtedly had moments where their self-doubt, their insecurity, and their fear had just like roared at them. Like I thought about my coaches, right? And where I would be if they hadn't been willing to feel scared or inadequate.

And I thought about where I would be if they hadn't started their podcasts, or their businesses, or hadn't shared their thoughts with the world, and they had, like, let their fear get in the way of that. I thought about the prophets, right? From the beginning of time, down to now, and where I would be if they hadn't been willing to seek for answers, and feel inadequate, or disappointed, or discouraged, or heartbroken, or even devastated, right? Every one of them had to feel enormous amounts of negative emotion in order to bless the world, and do the work that God had for them. Like, I don't know if you know the story about President Russell M. Nelson, who is the prophet of the church that I belong to, and before he was a prophet, he was a heart surgeon. And when he went to medical school, there was no such thing as open- heart surgery, right? None of that existed. And there were all of these like unscientific assumptions about the heart, and that, like, you couldn't touch it, you couldn't operate on a beating heart, and all these other things. And he, and some other physicians came up with this like heart bypass machine that would pump the blood through the body while they operated the heart, and stopped the heart, and did operations on it. And he was a pioneer in this.

And there was a family who had three children, and they each had this heart defect, and they came to President Nelson, and they asked him to operate on their child. And every time he did so, the surgery wasn't successful, the child died. Well, when they came to him with their third child, like he really didn't want to do the surgery, and they begged him to please, please try, and please try and save their child. And again, the surgery wasn't successful, and he went home from that surgery, so devastated, right? Like, he was just heartbroken. He cried the whole night, and he was just like, I cannot do this anymore, right? And he said that as the dawn was breaking, his wife said to him, "If you don't do this, if you quit now, someone else will have to make the same mistakes as you did." So, he went back to work, and he was able to figure things out, and learn things. And it changed medical care for our patients in America, in the world, really. And as I thought about that in my car that night, I just thought, like, how did he stand that? Right? Like, I have a little life coaching practice, if I do it wrong, no one is going to die, no one's child is not going to wake up. Like, how did he have the courage to keep going so that other people's lives could be blessed?

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And each of us, I think, have a work to do, but fear keeps us from doing it. And so, as I watch these people in my life, who have blessed my life, because they were willing to be uncomfortable, and face their fears, I am so inspired by that. And I'm so grateful for their example. And then, of course, there is our Savior, Jesus Christ, who experience the most negative emotion, right? All the negative emotion in order to be able to save me. He felt the incalculable load of all the sorrow, and all the suffering of the whole human family, so that our suffering could be alleviated. And I am so grateful that others have been willing to fail, and willing to feel bad, and willing to suffer, and do all those hard things, right? Do all those brave thing, so that I could create the life I have, so that I could find answers, and happiness, and make the most of my Earth-life experience, so that I could try again. I feel incredibly lucky to be the recipient of all that discomfort, and I ask myself all the time, like, "What if they hadn't been willing? How would my life be different if they hadn't been willing to feel bad?" And it helps me see that feeling bad is just part of the process of being able to help others. And it's only our brain telling us that it shouldn't be hard, and that we shouldn't suffer, and that it shouldn't be painful that gets in our way. If there are things you want to do, if there are people you want to help, if there are things that you came to Earth to accomplish, feeling bad is going to be part of that.

And not only is that okay, but that feeling bad is only ever created by our brain, and when we can learn to manage that, then we can do all those things that we came to do. Being willing to be uncomfortable is what allows me to do what I want, and continue to do it, in the future. And I'm so grateful for all the people that have shown me that this is the way of it, that nothing has gone wrong, that this is how you do it.

Okay, secondly, recently, I've been really grateful to myself for daring to believe that I mattered enough, that my pain mattered enough, and that my dreams mattered enough to do something about them. So, let me see if I can explain this, and let's just get really honest here for a minute, okay? So, for lots of years, I felt like I had failed my life. I think you already knew that, right? I felt like I had kind of blown my Earth-life experience, and I didn't think that I would ever really be able to get it together. This made me really sad, but I also thought that that sadness was ridiculous, right? That I didn't have anything really to be sad about, that I had a good life, and I should stop being so miserable about it. Like, if I was miserable because my life was a mess, then I should stop complaining about that, and just get it together. And so, I was just I was sad about the way I was living my life, but then, I was just disgusted with myself for being sad, right? And even I would even sometimes fantasize about just driving my car into a lamppost, right? And just like revving the engine, and turning the wheel and being done with it, right? It wasn't really that I wanted to kill myself, it was just that I just kind of hated myself so much for being miserable all the time when I wasn't supposed to be, when I shouldn't have been. Because the thing was, I had a really good life. I had a beautiful family, I had a home, and an education, and running water. I had the gospel of Jesus Christ, like I had it all. I literally had nothing to complain about.

And I thought it was ridiculous that I was mostly miserable all the time. And I hated myself for not being happy, like especially, because I thought I was supposed to be. And I told myself all the time that my unhappiness, and my suffering was ridiculous, and it didn't matter, that my problems didn't matter, right? That I was making too big a deal about things. But all that did was reaffirmed to myself over, and over, and over, that I didn't matter. That I didn't matter. And I was embarrassed to talk about that, I was embarrassed to talk about my pain. I thought I shouldn't be having it. And I thought I had no right to feel bad about my amazing life. And so, I just thought, like, I am never going to get the Earth-life right. What is the point of this? The other day, I got a message from a friend, who told me that his mom had recently turned 60, and she had told him, and confided in him, that she thought her dreams at her life didn't really matter anymore, and that she was just waiting for God to take her. I texted him back, and I'm like, that's how I felt when I was 40. I was just like, what is the point of this, right? I'm never going to get it right.

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But what changed all of this for me was this idea that my coaches gave me, that I wasn't miserable, and I wasn't failing because there was something wrong with me. I was miserable, and I was failing, because there was something right with me. My brain was working correctly. There was nothing wrong with me. I just had a brain and it was working correctly. Everything was going right. All they could see were the things that were wrong, and all I could like notice were the ways that I was failing. But that was just one opinion. And if I decided that I mattered enough to work on it, I could change that opinion. I could think different things about myself. I could work on my brain. But listen, I had to matter enough to myself to do something about these default settings, I had to matter enough to myself to try. I had to matter enough to myself to work to get something different. I had to stop discounting my pain, and telling myself that I shouldn't have pain, that I shouldn't feel bad, that if I was good, I wouldn't have it, or if I was faithful, I wouldn't have it, or if I was less concerned about myself, and I was more selfless, I wouldn't have all this pain.

My pain had to matter enough to me to be able to do something about it. I also had to stop discounting my dreams, and telling myself I couldn't have them, stop telling myself I wasn't disciplined, or talented enough. I had to stop telling myself that I should just be happy, and satisfied with the way things are, that I had more than I deserved already. I had to stop telling myself that all I could do it later, it's not that important, or it's not a priority. My dreams had to matter to me enough to be able to do something about it. And I am so, so grateful to myself for daring to believe that I mattered enough, that my pain mattered enough, that my dreams mattered enough, that I mattered enough to get the life I wanted. That belief that I mattered enough, to try, is what changed everything for me, and I want you to know that you matter. Your pain matters, your experience of life matters, your heartache matters, your dreams matter.

They aren't ridiculous and you are wrong for having any of them. You've probably told yourself a million times like I did, like none of this matters, right? And you can't expect more, and you should just be happy. But you aren't wrong for being unhappy. You just have a human brain, and it's programmed specifically to do what is all that is wrong with you, and all that's negative about you, and your life. And you aren't ridiculous for wanting something else, right? That high part of you, that is the holy part of you urging you toward your dreams, and it's only you're scared, fearful, human brain getting in the way, telling you that you can't have what you want. That you'll only be disappointed, that you should just be happy where you're at. You matter enough to get what you want. And in fact, you matter way more than that.

Okay, the last thing I want to touch on today is that I am so grateful for the Earth-life experience as it is. So, the Earth-life experience was not designed to be easy. I know that each of you have your own sorrows, and suffering. I know that each of you are watching other people in your lives that are suffering, and that is adding to your own suffering, right? The last couple of weeks, many of our friends have been dealt devastating blows, and we have shed lots of tears at our house for them, and for us. It's not easy, I know that, right? Tensions are high, conflict is intense, loss, and grief are real. But if they weren't, if they weren't there, and if they weren't part of the plan, that there would be nothing to choose. There wouldn't be any skill in choosing to think, or in exercising our agency, there would be no becoming in our Earth- life experience.

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So, I grew up in a religious tradition that taught me that I get to choose, like from the beginning, I knew that I had the right to choose. I knew since I was a little girl that I had the right to choose, and I was taught to choose the right. Like in our church, we sing a song that says, "Choose the right, when the choice is placed before you." But it wasn't until I found coaching, and learned that my thoughts were creating by experience, and only my thoughts were creating my experience, that I really understood what it meant to choose. I didn't know the choices were being placed before me continuously, and almost instantaneously by my own brain. I didn't know the choice was being placed before me by my own mind. And in every single moment, in every single circumstance, I had the power to choose how I wanted to think, and feel about anything. Even me, right? Even the opinions I had about me, I got to choose. Choose the right. And so, I'm so grateful for the plan of God that allows me to come to Earth, and have this experience, and learn this skill.

And for the million chances he gives me to learn it. I am so grateful for the contrast that is provided to me by my human brain. The opposition that it provides in my life, so that I have something to choose between, so that I have something to work against in order to grow my capacity to choose and use my agency. In order to grow my capacity to conquer, like my humanness, with my eternal spirit, with that highest part of me. I am so grateful that my brain finds offense, so that I could learn to choose love. I am so grateful that my brain offers me fear, so that I can choose faith. Like it all provides an opportunity to grow in a way that I couldn't do on my own, or outside of a human body, outside of the human experience. In so many ways, I am grateful that there isn't an out from the negative 50/50, that there isn't an out from conflict, and grief, and loss, because I know I would never choose it on purpose myself, and then I would never learn my own power at agency, to choose my experience no matter what. I don't like suffering, and I don't like other people's suffering, and if I had a way out through the circumstance line, by being able to change the Earth-life experience that I'm sure I would take it. But since I can't change the Earth-life experience, I can't change that we suffer 50% of the time, I have to learn to change me. I have to learn to change the way I'm thinking, change the emotion I'm choosing, change my experience of it. I have to learn where my power to choose is, because I can't control anything else.

And believe me, I would love to be able to control everything else. I would love to be able to control the circumstances, control Earth-life. I'd never like to suffer, or watch other people suffer. And I've always wanted to fix things from that circumstance line, right? And like right now, David is the Bishop, and when he sees people in our congregation suffering, like he's just heartbroken about it, right? And he just wants to fix it for them. The other day I was joking with him, and I was like, "David, we are going to make terrible heavenly parents, right? Because we are just not good at watching suffering, and we just want to change it for everybody." Right? But that's not the experience that was designed by our heavenly parents. The experience is to learn to change ourselves in these difficult circumstances. And listen, this is why I love that this is our Earth-life set up, because we have to learn, we have to learn where our power is to create our experience.

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There isn't an easy button out, right? We can't change the circumstances, we've each been given circumstances that in most cases we would not choose, we did not choose. But we are never stuck because in every circumstance, no matter how difficult or challenging, we always have the right to choose how we think about it. And that not only makes us powerful in a world that we can't control, but as we exercise that right to choose the highest part of us, that holy part of us, the spirit grows. It starts to expand, and enlarge in capacity, and skill, and that starts to change our whole life, and our whole experience of our life. And I love that Heavenly Father designed it this way. It is the most perfect learning environment ever created. And the more you can see your own agency as the power to choose your thoughts in any given set of circumstances, the more you will be able to make the most of your time here in your human body. And I am so grateful to finally understand that. It has changed the way I live my Earth-life experience. And I love that!

Okay, my friends, that's what I have for you today. I am grateful for all the people that have blessed my life by their willingness to fail, and their willingness to feel bad. And I'm grateful for all the ways their work has changed me, and given me a different experience. I'm grateful that I decided that I mattered enough to get what I want, and I hope you will do the same. And I'm grateful for the brilliant structure of the Earth-life, educational experience, and for my endless power to choose my experience in it. And I am grateful for you. I hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving. If you want to learn all of this on a deeper level, and decide that you matter enough to get what you came for, I invite you to join me in my group coaching program. I will show you where all your power, and all your agency is, and they will help you love your life exactly as it is, and show you how to create anything else you want that is always your right and your power as a child of God. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome! I love you for listening and I'll see you next week.

Applications for my group coaching program made for more are now open in aprilpricecoaching.com your brain was program for survival, but you were made for more than that. You were made for more love and more accomplishment and more joy right now. And I can show you the simple way to get all of that. Join me in Made for More where we will spend six-months coaching, and reprogramming your brain so that you can get the most out of this life. And the next go to aprilpricecoaching.com to apply. And I'll see you there!