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"Sparked While Struggling" #81 ✨ SPARKLE SNACK SERIES
11 Plays5 months ago
In this SPARKLE SNACK (shorter episode) @Betsyhoo and @HalcyonPink talk about why it is so important to stay sparked when times are tough. And they share some of the practices and perspectives that help them to be in the world without loosing faith.
HOSTS
BETSY FINKLEHOO is a healer of massage therapy, CranioSacral and Dharma Coaching. She is an 8 year burner and has spent the last several years seeped in the personal development world, cultivating her passion for transformation and growth. Her recent project, The Power Affirmation Journal and virtual group empowers women to cultivate self awareness and healthy habits so they can live in greater freedom, mind body and spirit.
http://poweraffirmation.com/
Click here to get a FREE affirmation for Stay Sparked Listeners!
HALCYON is full-time Love Ambassador. He is the founder of Hug Nation YouTube channel and daily zoom gratitude circles. He is co-founder of the Pink Heart Burning Man camp and the 1st Saturdays project for people experiencing homelessness. In his free time he coaches individuals on how to live joyfully and authentically. His other podcast is "Hard on the 80's."
http://LifeStudent.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Backgrounds
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Stay Sparked.
00:00:08
Speaker
This is one of our Sparkle episodes on a Sparkle series aimed to spread some light into your life today.
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm Betsy Finkelhoo, the creator of the Power Affirmation Journal and Somatic Bodyworker.
00:00:22
Speaker
I am John Halcyon, host of the Hug Nation YouTube channel and the Heart Centered Men's Gatherings.
Gratitude and Love for Mothers
00:00:28
Speaker
I am starting with my gratitude today for springtime flowers.
00:00:32
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They're blooming everywhere, and I picked like five bouquets in the last few days.
00:00:38
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I am grateful for my mama's love today, feeling very grateful for mom.
00:00:45
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Oh, I love my mom too, and your mom.
00:00:49
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All right,
Inspiration Amidst Challenges
00:00:50
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so on today's Sparkle episode, we are going to dive into a short conversation around
00:00:56
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how we shine in the shadow.
00:00:58
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How do we stay sparked when we're struggling?
00:01:02
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I think it's a really important conversation and continuous practice because there is a lot of things in the world that are very challenging.
00:01:10
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We are on a rock hurling through space and there's just all these different crazy things happening in the world.
00:01:17
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And it's
00:01:18
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How do we stay inspired through it?
00:01:20
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How do we cultivate that light when there's a lot to be upset about, many things to be grieving, a lot of just challenges that we face?
00:01:32
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And I will share one of my experiences.
00:01:34
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favorite ways to stay sparked through the struggle is through tending to my environment because that is one place that I know fuels me and there's even science and the psychology of keeping a a clean space because if I am in a down place say grieving or angry or processing something then it's helpful for me to be able to sit in a sanctuary and
00:02:03
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Rather than in an environment that is chaotic, as well as channeling some of that feeling of struggle into tending to my space is so helpful.
00:02:14
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It's one of my
Environment and Empathy
00:02:15
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go to's.
00:02:16
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How can I shine through the struggle?
00:02:18
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I love that.
00:02:19
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And I think what it also does, it puts your focus into your physical world, into your actual physical environment that you are living in.
00:02:28
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Because we are alive in a time when through our screens, we have access to the suffering of every human on the planet.
00:02:38
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And we have evolved into
00:02:41
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in a way that does not really give our... Our brains are not equipped to be able to have sympathy and empathy for billions of people.
00:02:50
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And so it feels like we should.
00:02:53
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Every time we hear of anyone suffering, how could we not...
00:02:57
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feel
Activism and Positive Action
00:02:58
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deeply but the reality is we are we can't and so it's a really difficult and I think important discipline of how can you stay awake to the suffering and challenges and the oppression in the world as but not be overwhelmed to it so that you cannot also have joy and celebration it's a delicate delicate walk
00:03:21
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Absolutely.
00:03:22
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And, you know, just recently I was feeling really inspired by some of the outrage and the fire that is coming through so many people's voices around what's happening in the state of our country.
00:03:35
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And there is a lot of shine in that fire.
00:03:41
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It's so beautiful when somebody can take that deep reservoir of anger and channel it for good.
00:03:49
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I see that as shining through the struggle rather than just creating more dissonance or hiding or, you know, just being angry.
00:04:00
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It's powerful when we can actually turn our pain into purpose.
00:04:06
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I think that that is one of the most powerful ways to shine through the struggle.
00:04:10
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And I think it's depending on how we are wired, some of us turn our anger into action.
00:04:18
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And it's good to know yourself and know if you sometimes can be overwhelmed by by too much.
00:04:24
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Like I know that if I get too too overwhelmed, I become paralyzed.
00:04:32
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But I do know that if I if I keep enough awareness, it does.
00:04:36
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I can I can stay connected to action like this.
00:04:40
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Two weekends ago, I had my first Saturday's homeless outreach.
00:04:44
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And so that is a piece of activism, a piece of of positive work that.
00:04:52
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If I get too big thinking, it's meaningless.
00:04:56
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It doesn't do anything.
00:04:58
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Nothing matters.
00:04:59
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So for me personally, it's trying to find what is the correct or the healthy amount of outrage that doesn't make me collapse upon myself.
Grief, Gratitude, and Spiritual Growth
00:05:12
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Yeah, so powerful.
00:05:13
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I feel like one of the other great teachings that I recently, I think you and I have gone through together is in our grieving of our dear soul brother, Janus, how he taught me in his passing that grief and gratitude can coexist in the same moment.
00:05:30
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And I think the gratitude that I held for everything that went along with his passing really helped me to be able to move through the grief with so much more grace.
00:05:42
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And that gratitude is that light in a dark moment.
00:05:46
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And sometimes it's just a tiny little spark.
00:05:48
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Right.
00:05:49
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And it's just such an important thing to keep coming back to gratitude, which, you know, so well.
00:05:54
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And if you those of you out there don't know, John Halcyon has been holding gratitude circles virtually for years now.
00:06:02
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And just bringing people into that, remembering that gratitude can be a guiding light.
00:06:08
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Yeah, and I think it's important to remember that going to gratitude is not a dismissal or a ignoring of pain and suffering.
00:06:18
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As you said, it's both.
00:06:20
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You can be aware of both.
00:06:22
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And in fact, I think that that is the grand goal of a spiritual path is how can I hold the suffering and the joy?
00:06:30
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How can I, in every situation, find my connection to
00:06:37
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to gratitude, even if it's something that is hard or you can't make peace with or you're struggling with, what about the situation is a lesson?
00:06:47
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What about the situation is giving you grit?
00:06:51
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What about the situation is allowing you to let go of something that might be anchoring you to a part of yourself that no longer serves you?
00:06:59
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Absolutely.
Embracing Emotions and Finding Joy
00:07:01
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And also, how can I give myself permission to feel all the feelings?
00:07:05
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You know, because oftentimes it can feel like, oh, I don't want to feel angry.
00:07:10
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I just want to go back to joy and I'm going to use gratitude to bypass.
00:07:14
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But that actually does not serve.
00:07:17
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But when we allow ourselves to feel, I know personally, if I feel angry and I give myself the space to do what I need to do to move that energy, whether that is
00:07:27
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dance or for me personally I love listening to loud music in my headphones and raging and moving it through my body maybe growling and really giving myself that space to express then that kind of breaks up the density of the emotion and then I can find that authentic joy again and it releases from the body I mean we think about children right when they're struggling they have a tantrum and they scream and they will throw themselves on the floor and then they're fine right
00:07:56
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So to find find that sparkle through the shadow is to give ourselves permission to be with the shadow and know that it contains a gift, as in the words of Richard Redd.
00:08:08
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I think I want to my spark here is is that to give ourselves permission to to feel the rage and the anger and also give ourselves permission to not.
00:08:23
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It sometimes can feel an obligation because we know there's so much suffering that it feels irresponsible or unkind almost to
00:08:33
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to like, how can I dance while there are others that are hungry?
00:08:37
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And I think the practice is when you are grieving, grieve.
00:08:44
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And when you are dancing, dance.
00:08:47
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And also, and be aware that others may be in a different place.
00:08:51
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I know that I often,
Daily Practices for Inner Radiance
00:08:52
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if I am connected to my joy in a moment, and I'm not sure how someone else is doing, I'll say, how are you doing?
00:08:58
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I will say,
00:09:01
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Wonderful, all things considered, which kind of gives space for I don't want to ignore the things that are difficult.
00:09:09
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I don't want to dismiss whatever you are struggling with.
00:09:13
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But I am holding on to some of my joy and acknowledging that there is a lot right now.
00:09:20
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Absolutely.
00:09:20
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And my closing spark is really about the cultivation of inner radiance as a consistent, steady practice, especially when things are difficult.
00:09:32
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Because I know personally, if I'm not doing my breath work or my meditation or my
00:09:38
Speaker
gratitude journaling or movement or going for nature walks or all these different things, exercising, those things really contribute to sustaining the access to that inner radiance.
00:09:51
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And if I'm not doing that and then something challenging comes into my mind or my experience of life, then I get thrown off my center and it's much more challenging.
00:10:01
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I end up having to process the emotions are just not as difficult.
00:10:06
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fluid.
00:10:07
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And so that's why I am committed to the cultivation daily to that inner radiance and charging the batteries because it's a crazy world and we got to keep our energy batteries high because you never know.
00:10:23
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A hurricane might come through.
00:10:25
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There might be fires, but God forbid, you know, all the different things that are just, you know, coming at us every day.
00:10:32
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So
Community and Connection
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let's just keep coming back to that inner radiance and know that it's our self-responsibility to tend to it.
00:10:40
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I don't oftentimes preach on this show, but I am today because it feels important for me to remind you all out there to keep tending to your sparkle.
00:10:51
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The world needs your light.
00:10:53
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It's so important.
00:10:54
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Testify.
00:10:54
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That's right.
00:10:55
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Preach.
00:10:59
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Well, if you want to find more of us in the world, you can find me at the Hug Nation YouTube channel as well as lifestudent.com.
00:11:08
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And you can find the Stay Sparked episodes on YouTube as well, as well as please leave us a note on our Instagram page.
00:11:15
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We would love to hear what you are thinking, what you're grateful for, what you're struggling with, and what is sparking you.
00:11:22
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Yeah,
Closing Affirmation and Interaction
00:11:23
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well, you can find me on poweraffirmation.com or finkelhoo.com.
00:11:27
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Both of those share all of my offerings in the world.
00:11:30
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I love helping people to get through some of the muck and find the radiant light that is your inherent nature.
00:11:38
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And so feel free to check out my products that help you do that.
00:11:41
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Also, I work with people one-on-one, so please do reach out.
00:11:46
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And in the spirit of our closing affirmation, I would love to offer us a little reminder to keep coming back to our inner shine.
00:11:56
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And the affirmation is, I honor my unique light in the world.
00:12:01
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I honor my unique light in the world.
00:12:04
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I honor my unique light in the world.
00:12:07
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I honor my unique light in the world.
00:12:12
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Thank you, Betsy.
00:12:13
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What a joy to connect with you.
00:12:15
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And thank you, everyone, for joining us.
00:12:18
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Thank you, Halcyon.
00:12:19
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Stay Sparked, people.
00:12:22
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Stay Sparked, friends.
00:12:24
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Find us on Instagram at Stay Sparked and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.
00:12:29
Speaker
Thanks so much for helping us spread these sparks.