Let's remember who we are.
Let's remember the choices we did make, the things that we did make it through the experiences and memories and accomplishments that we do have, no matter how big or small.
Look at all the mistakes you've made and how they've led you to this point.
Who would you have been if you didn't learn those things, or if you didn't go through those hard periods and those times that you were not okay?
Look at you now.
What did you do?
Who helped you through that?
What did you learn?
You persevered, you grew, you can do it again.
Hey guys okay, hi guys.
Welcome to another episode of flowering philosophies.
I am here at my kitchen table.
We are making a very autumn inspired arrangement today.
I was very excited about the colors that we could kind of experiment with in this season.
We are stepping into the cold days, the colder days.
It's not super cold where i live, but fall winter seasons.
Maisie, my kitty, is right down here.
Yeah, we're having a cozy evening in, and I get kind of depressed at this time of year, to be honest with you.
Sorry, we're diving right in but, like you know, when the days change, it gets colder seasonal depression.
The days are shorter us, American.
Folk are here celebrating Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving is usually a time when we reflect on what we're grateful for and thankful for.
And I think sometimes it can be hard to focus on that in the midst of change or hardship or wanting to bring a change to your life or wanting to see a change in the world.
It can get a little depressing at the end of the year, like looking back on certain things that have happened, or maybe things that we wish could have happened differently.
The end of the year and these colder days, it really is a time for reflection.
Here.
We tend to always try to get to the bottom of self-discipline and how to improve our lives and change for the better, but sometimes I think we just need to have a celebratory moment for ourselves.
Remind ourselves what we have been capable of and what we have grown to become capable of therefore, what we can accomplish and the confidence we can step into the following year with.
Look at these little grasses.
I feel like I haven't worked with any grasses before.
That's dangerous next to a flame.
Guys, I promise I'm safe here.
Everything is under control.
Maybe don't try this all at home, but I hope that you are enjoying the looks of my table setup here.
I think...
What are we?
I feel this is pretty elaborate with my candles.
I feel like I should have brought my candelabra down.
We'll do that next time.
Emphasizing growth and change and moving towards what we want to see is great and motivating ourselves is great, but in order to do that, we need the strength and empowerment and confidence within ourselves and our abilities and our actions.
And sometimes we can get that from reflecting on what we have done.
I feel like we are so focused on how to change what we've done wrong, what we could be doing better.
That's why I'm saying that this time of year is kind of depressing, is just sort of having the weight of the year on your back and looking back and reflecting on maybe what was great, but maybe also what you don't feel so great about.
Sometimes we tend to put ourselves down like we didn't do enough or you know the pressure of new year's resolutions like how can we improve and grow, and sometimes looking back and comparing ourselves to a version of the past or to an idea of what we thought we would be.
Okay, i can't tell.
If this is way too dark, i might need to turn on some lights here.
Okay, i will give you a.
The more strenuous the hardship or the challenges or the growth that we go through, the more that we need to reflect on what we are grateful for and what we're grateful for learning and going through and persevering through.
Like, look at what you have done.
And I'm saying this from personal experience.
It's so easy to get caught up in what we have not done yet and what is left to do, and even just the anxiety of what could be what is going to happen, fear of the unknown.
But we have to learn from our past and we have to learn from what we have persevered through and what we have learned, and what we do have and what we can use.
We're so focused on what we haven't done, but what have you done?
What have you done?
What has gotten you to this moment?
What beautiful times and memories have you experienced?
Aren't you so happy that those have happened?
I get so caught up in more, more, how can I do more?
How can I create more?
How can I do more things?
Instead of thinking like, wow, remember this beautiful time?
Remember what happened?
Remember how happy I was?
Remember when I wanted this thing so badly or I was working towards one thing?
Doing this and I ended up learning that and I ended up meeting this person.
We're not very encouraged to sit back and reflect on our life, so much when we are in the constant pressure of going, and going and moving and trying to provide for ourselves and others, and on the constant move and go.
But it's important to have those periods of reflection and gratitude for ourselves and our lives that have taken place, has happened, to be thankful for what has happened, to be excited about it definitely gears us up for more.
If we want to do more, we want to progress in life.
Let's hold that feeling of gratitude for what we have done to fuel us as we keep going.
We need that.
I don't think we always see how much we have done and how much we have grown and progressed in life.
Because it's easy to sort of get stuck in the same reality, every day doing the same thing, same routine, same thought patterns.
Why would we really have a moment of, wow, look at everything I've done.
I think it's easy to just have our blinders on and just sort of keep going focusing on the negative too.
Reminding ourselves how we got to this point is so important, and it's encouraging to whatever we need to do next.
If we are grateful for what we do have and for the strengths that we do have, for the ideas and aspirations that we have, we can continue to build upon them and feel confident.
Look at all the mistakes you've made and how they've led you to this point.
Who would you have been if you didn't learn those things or if you didn't go through those hard periods and those times that you were not okay?
Look at you now.
What did you do?
Who helped you through that?
What did you learn?
You persevered, you grew.
You can do it again.
I know it's sometimes tricky because we never want to be grateful for our bad experiences or the bad things that have been done to us or any damaging things in this life.
No one likes to feel pain or difficulty, but inevitably they exist in all of our experiences.
We don't have to be grateful for those negative things, but we can be grateful that we had the strength to get through them, that we stuck it out or we saw it through or we cut it off or we created it.
It's easy to look at the things that have been taken from us and that we no longer have or that we wish we had.
But what if we look at what has happened, what we have done, the changes that we have made, the changes that we have lived through?
How much has progressed?
We forget because we're always caught up in it.
And it's great to be in the moment, but there is so much power in realizing that you are doing good.
You are doing a lot just by existing and moving through life.
And change is inevitable.
Growth is inevitable.
We're all just learning how to do it in a way that makes sense to us and what we want.
That in itself is something to be grateful for.
The fact that we are still here, that we're breathing, that we're watching this video.
We will get to the things that we want so bad or that we feel a lack of.
We will get there.
But right now, let's think about, in order to build confidence and be excited about progressing in life, starting a new chapter and season.
As the new year comes about, let's remember who we are.
Let's remember the choices we did make, the things that we did make it through the experiences and memories and accomplishments that we do have, no matter how big or small, just the fact that we are here and alive and continuing to try again every single day, like collectively.
I am proud of us.
I am proud of you.
Look at what you have done.
I know that it doesn't always feel as gratifying and as easy to look at the things that we have done.
They are there.
They exist just as much as all of the things we are complaining about or the things that we don't have yet. there is so much more evidence for what we have done and what there is to look forward to. anytime we're seriously considering what we want to accomplish in the new year and what we want to get better at moving forward, it's important to pair it with how can i use what has happened and what i have gained towards what I do want.
And something that I am very grateful for that has happened throughout the year is that I've gotten to travel to multiple places.
I got to visit different family members this year all over the world, really.
I get so caught up in my everyday life and sort of the mundaneness of things.
But when I look back on what has happened this year it makes me realize what I want to do more of in the immersed in different cultures and continue to learn and meet new people and form different connections.
It's something that I am planning on doing in the new year.
I have a trip to France planned for a very very very very special event.
Saying that, I would like to quickly thank the sponsor of today's video, Lingoda.
Even though I took French in high school, not much of it stuck with me, so I don't feel totally confident going there communicating in the ways that I need to, even if that's just minimally trying to understand.
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I am going to be taking French classes with Lingoda, which have been extremely effective as they really cater to every student's personalized learning needs.
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I don't think we should be living in the past or the future necessarily.
I think it's so beautiful to appreciate the present moment.
But I'm currently putting together a collection of work.
I will give you more details soon.
This collection of writing is sort of an articulation of me being very eager and excited for the future and my vision of the future, while also honoring the past and my foundation of life, the relationships that were such an integral part of my upbringing and who I am, that maybe I don't have anymore, or maybe material possessions or homes or places or friends or feelings that I'm moving on from, belief systems that I'm moving on from.
Stories I had about myself or my capabilities that I'm moving on from, just sort of like reflecting on the past and seeing how important everything that maybe I'm moving on from, or maybe things that don't even exist in my experience now, how wonderful they were for what they were.
The winter is sort of a cold time of loss and empty branches and things falling and ending and dying and leaving, and this year I've experienced grief on a familial level that I never have before, and that's just one example of a relationship that i hold so close to my heart and has made me who i am.
But there's so many other examples.
How beautiful is it that those things had an impact on our lives and that those relationships made us the people that we are today.
Maybe we don't always have the same people in our lives as we grow up life keeps moving but we can always Be grateful for what those things were and how beautiful those things were, and find comfort in knowing that maybe those relationships or those things or those memories are not actively happening in our experience now, but nobody can ever change what they did gift us at the time.
I start this collection of writing talking about how this darker aspect of me or my insecurities or the things that were holding me back whether that be fear or just this heaviness being grateful for them, too and being grateful for the lessons that they have provided me.
My insecurities and my shortcomings or the difficult moments that I've gone through in this life have shown me where I get to discover more about myself, learn how to accept certain parts of myself.
Things don't always appear to be working out in our favor.
There have been seasons of life that i've gone through that have kind of felt like a waste of time or just like difficult seasons and periods of life, but looking back in retrospect, they gifted me the perspectives and the motivation for change that has brought me to the place that i'm in today.
How have we used our strengths?
How have we gotten to this point?
Why do we even have the motivations that we have?
Let's be proud of this.
Let's be grateful that we have this desire to introspect or think about these things or want to change or move forward in our lives.
If you guys are a part of this community, then you are actively thinking about your own feelings and seeking out further understanding about yourself and your mind and your life, and that is something to be grateful for.
That is something to be excited about, that we have each other on this journey and that we're all going through similar things.
Like i said, i have been a little depressed recently and i was reflecting back on a time where i remember i was very, very happy and it was last summer.
It was a very leisurely season of life where i was just with my friends and having a good time and we were all just laughing so much and the days were warm and we were swimming.
That felt like the opposite of winter depression, if that makes sense.
I was thinking back to that and i was remembering how the basis of that happiness and that joy and that peace and that relaxation that I was experiencing in that season, the basis of it, was gratitude and excitement for what already existed.
Gratitude was the precursor to enjoying my life and my days and my friends, like because I had that foundation, the way that the chemicals in my head were working at the time and just sort of like with my friends, this collective joy that we were all experiencing.
That gratitude was affecting my outside world, with how I was responding to it and sort of the situations and events I was attracting.
I remember just feeling like, wow, so much of this is coming from within me.
I have a choice to feel this way.
I have a choice to think about these things and to be happy about these things and to be grateful and excited about these things and allow myself to sit in that.
I'm just shifting my attention and my focus.
I'm just choosing to be excited.
I'm choosing to be hopeful.
I'm choosing to smile about all the things that do exist and that have happened and that are actively here to be excited about.
And like I said it's, It's very easy to just get caught up in our cyclical days of what we're expected to do and how we're expected to think and just kind of coping to get by in general.
And you know, when I look back on that summer, I'm not sitting here saying, I need to go back.
I wish I could be as happy as I was back then.
I'm just grateful that it happened.
I'm grateful that it taught me that I could feel that way.
I'm grateful that there was a time in my life that was so happy.
Wow, that exists.
And that will happen again through so many different forms.
It will show up in so many different ways.
My happiness and peace and joy and comfort from the past that I felt in my life, in my childhood, in anything.
Those beautiful memories and the experiences I've had, nobody can ever take that away.
And I don't need to crave the past and miss it and want to go back.
I can just be grateful that it happened.
I can carry that with me as I move forward and therefore I will attract more and more experiences similar to that, but great in their own way.
Great for the chapter of life that I am growing into and stepping into.
We can look at our history and what has happened and the changes that have happened and the things that we have seen.
If we're wanting to continue to make change and grow in this upcoming year and we want to see change in the world, we have to look at how was it ever made.
Seeking strength and empowerment in our past and in our history can strengthen us as we make change now, being grateful for the examples that we have and for the people that did persevere for us and are the reasons behind the change that we benefit from now.
I'm realizing how many ways you can really think about that, because I was thinking about it one way, but then I just realized, like even being a daughter of an immigrant, I think about all of my family, or just anybody.
It doesn't even have to be first generation anything, just anyone thinking about all the people who came before us, what they did, what they went through, how we're here today, whether that is on sort of a generational family level or just in human history in general.
What are we benefiting from now?
That is a product of people working towards change in the past or creating change in the past.
So much has inherently happened To be grateful for.
We are here for a reason.
Our personalities are the way they are for a reason.
Our friendships, anyone that we have in our lives to be grateful for.
We have those people now for a reason.
We have endured.
We have gotten through things before.
We have created things before that we benefit from now and we can continue to do it, and we will keep doing it.
There's just no other way.
Like inevitably, we will continue to stand up and to change.
You are going to continue to grow, you are going to continue to change, you are going to continue to learn about yourself.
Life will always keep moving, but Sometimes we need the empowerment and the strength to get through it, and I think that we can find that through the evidence of our past and the things that we have accomplished and gotten through and the things that have been done before us.
We get the privilege of using those experiences for us, using those lessons for us and in our favor, even thinking about why we have the interests and aspirations we have.
So, talking about this collection of work that i'm putting together, there is a poem at the end of it, closing it out, called silk knives, and silk knives is a metaphor that has been in my life for a long time.
That kind of represents maybe, an attitude or a mindset of something being so powerful and sharp, but also presented in a way that is soft and intoxicating and luxurious at the same time, and that is sort of like the visual and the feeling and the idea that I try to bring myself back to all the time and that I try to ground myself in is that I can be powerful and hard-hitting and my actions and my words and my decisions and my life has so much gravity and meaning and my aspirations and my dreams.
I see it and it is sharp and it is there and it is powerful.
I want to make a big impact and difference in this world.
So I always feel that kind of like heaviness and that hard-hitting drive and motivation, but there's so much power in being free-flowing and softer as well and never succumbing to becoming too hard and rigid and intense.
You kind of have to balance out that hard-hitting power with a smooth soft, loving understanding of ourselves and our feelings and accepting what we're going through.
I always wanted to dedicate a whole poem to it.
Each poem on this collection is pretty lengthy and narrative, but this one in particular is a love letter to my past the things to be grateful for but also to my present and my vision of the future.
It's just sort of celebrating the fact that my vision of the future and all these things that i glamorize and that i want and that i'm working towards that only exists because of the past that i have lived and because of the experiences that i've gone through, the relationships that i've cultivated and had and experienced, and everything that has happened has made me who i am today And has crafted the inspiration and the motivations that I have for the future, if that makes sense.
I don't know if any of this is making sense, but hopefully to some it is.
It's not always an easy act to be grateful for our past while also thinking about what we want for the future and what we're striving to become.
And writing has always brought me to a place where I can sort of reflect on all of it at the same time, because it all exists simultaneously, and that's sort of what I wanted to celebrate in this collection.
All of this is a work in progress, guys.
I technically shouldn't even be sharing any of this, but it is just so relevant as to what I'm going through and what I'm working on and even what I'm talking to you guys about.
I would like to show you our final product here with the arrangement that we've been building.
I hope that you're having a wonderful autumn season and that you're staying cozy and having fun.
Thank you so much for watching, And I will talk to you very, very soon.
Thank you.
