On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, I dive into the idea of “adjusting your sails”- a message that came to me one morning and has been bopping around in my mind ever since.

Sometimes, life throws us winds that we can’t control, but we always get to choose how we respond.

So, I talk about taking a pause and tuning in, and getting wicked intentional about the direction we're heading… especially as this year wraps up.

I invite us to look at different areas of our lives - whether it’s physical health, relationships, finances, or creativity - and asking ourselves: are my current choices pointing me in the direction I really want to go?

We discuss the little habits that can trip us up (like staying up too late or scrolling on your phone) and the importance of taking a “fearless moral inventory” of what’s really working, and what isn’t. 🫣

There’s also some truth-telling about the baggage we carry… the old stories, beliefs, and resentments that weigh us down and keep us stuck on shore, and definitely not catching the wind.

I share inspiration from my own spiritual teachers, reminding us that the “Winds of Grace” are always blowing…

But we need to patch up our sails, let go of what no longer serves us, and then raise those suckers if we want to move forward!

If you’re ready to stop waiting around for the “right time” and want to start making more thoughtful, aligned choices and changes now…

Then this episode is your little nudge from the universe (and me!) to take some action. 

So, go grab some paper, and find a cozy spot, to create some space to both honestly reflect, and to dream.

Thanks so much for tuning in to the show and remember - the power to adjust your sails is always in your own hands. ❤️

BIO:

Spiritual Mentor and writer Karen Kenney uses dynamic storytelling and humor to bring a down-to-earth, no-BS perspective to spirituality and self-development. 

Bringing together tools that coach both the conscious and unconscious mind, Karen also helps clients deepen their personal connection to Self and Source, in relatable, practical, and actionable ways, so they can discover their unique understanding of spirituality.  

Her practice combines neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, somatic work, Spiritual Mentoring, and other holistic modalities to help regulate the nervous system, rewrite old stories, remove blocks, and reimagine what’s possible.

A passionate yoga teacher for 25+ years, a longtime student of A Course in Miracles, and a Gateless Writing instructor, Karen is also a frequent speaker, podcast guest, and retreat leader. She coaches both individuals and groups via her programs The Quest and The Nest. 

With The Karen Kenney Podcast, she encourages listeners to shift from a thought system of fear - to one of love, compassion, and personal responsibility. 

CONNECT WITH KAREN:

Website: http://karenkenney.com/

Podcast: https://www.karenkenney.com/podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karenkenneylive/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenkenneylive/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KarenKenney

It's the Karen Kenney show. Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen

Kenney show. I'm super duper excited to be here with you

today, and the third time is a charm. I've tried to stop this

thing three times that I keep making myself laugh.

Baby Jesus in a walnut shell, helped me. Okay, and we're back.

Hi. How are you guys doing out there? All right, we're gonna

dive. I'm just gonna start. I'm gonna start with the story.

We're just gonna jump right into this thing. So I may have told

you guys in the past that a lot of times when I wake up in the

morning, like, first thing I do is I stop my spiritual practice

even while I'm in bed. But there are some mornings, like, I wake

up and literally immediately there is a thought in my head. I

kind of talk about it, like word impressions, like all of a

sudden there is like a message or something like in my head. So

I woke up the other morning and the first thing that I heard in

my head was, adjust your sales. Adjust your sales. And meaning,

like, imagine if you're on a boat and, like, a sail boat.

Okay, so this is kind of like what happened the towards the

end of the year, right? I know a lot of people wait until like

December 31 they start thinking about, you know, New Year's

resolutions, New year, new you like all that stuff, and I'm not

really into the resolutions. I do like to kind of take a look

back on what my year has been like. I like to kind of start to

think about the kind of year I would like to have. I like to be

intentional in my mind. I like to decide what I'm going to

commit to, what I'm going to let go of all that stuff, and maybe

I'll do an episode about that again towards the end of the

year. But things have been on my mind about it. And when I heard

in my brain, right, when I heard in my mind, adjust your sales,

right? I woke up, I heard it, and it was like, you need to

adjust your sales. And one of the things I was thinking about

is this, are the things that I'm spending my time doing, are the

people that I'm spending or not spending time with, or whatever?

Are the thoughts that I'm thinking, are the things that I

am doing in my day to day life? Are they taking me in the

direction of where I really want to go. My current choices taking

me in the direction that I really want to go. And when I

woke up, and the first thing that I heard like, s, t o, t, J,

spiritual team on the job. And I hear in my mind, adjust your

sales, like, Hey kid, you got some things where you need to

shift and adjust your sales because they are not taking you

in the right direction, right? So I'll just give you an

example. Let's say you have a habit of like, staying up too

late. Okay, and so let's say you had made a commit. I'm just

making these up, but I'll give you a personal one in a minute.

But let's just say you had made a commitment that you were going

to get up every day and you were going to move your body or go to

the gym or work out or stretch or do something, and you but you

were self sabotaging, or you were just consistently staying

up late, and then the morning time would come, and then you

couldn't get your ass out of bed, and then it was like You're

basically self sabotaging yourself from the get go, then

you have no energy. You don't go to the gym, you don't move your

body, take your walk, go for a run, whatever your thing is. And

then you're like, in this slump, and you're like, I don't feel

good. And then the end of the day, you have no energy. And

sometimes we have no energy because we haven't been moving

our bodies. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but you get

kind of sluggish. Things start to get kind of like I said,

instead of having like, like lightning in your veins or

energy like coursing through your body, things start to turn

to, like maple syrup and molasses, right? You start to

get like a little jelly inside. Oh, my God. Okay, let's say that

one of your goals, right? This would be a personal one for me,

that one of my goals is to at least five days a week to make

progress on my book, to write every day, not every day, or

five days a week, or whatever it is, in the direction of getting

this first draft finally fucking finished, right? But I somehow

start to make other aspects of my life more important, like

I'll get distracted by, I gotta get do a pod. Hello. I gotta, I

gotta get this podcast done, or I gotta send out this email. I

gotta remember to send the reminder emails for the nest. Or

I gotta do this. Or I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I

gotta. There's always gonna be shit to do, all right, but

there's only one book I'm working on, and it needs my

time, it needs my attention, or whatever. So just giving you a

thing, right? So it could be in any area of your life. It could

be in your personal relationships, where like, you

like, want to be more present with your children. You want to,

like, show up for them, and like if you're going. To be like, on

a walk with them, like to be with them so that you're seeing

what they're seeing and hearing what they're hearing, and you're

literally recording memories of their childhood life. And you're

starting to recognize, like, what catches their eye and what

lights them up in your present instead of being on your friggin

phone. So let's say that your goal was, I really want to be

present for my kids, like when I'm with them, I'm with them,

but yet you find yourself like being on your phone, and you're

starting to feel like, like their little, like

interruptions, like it's an inconvenience for you, right?

Because you get sucked into the world of the internet or

whatever, but So like, if your goal is, I want to be more

present for my children, but you're like, constantly got your

face embedded in your phone that is a place where you need to

adjust your sales right, because they are not the way that is

blowing is not taking you in the direction that you want to go,

that your current choice is not taking you right towards the

outcome that you really want to have. Let's say that you're you

know, you want to repair your relationship with your sweetie,

or you want to have more connection with somebody, a

friend, a lover, your partner, your wife, your whoever, right?

But yet you find yourself falling into the same old

patterns of the way that you respond and react and think

about them, etc. It's like, Hey, kid, better adjust your sales.

Okay, so I was just thinking about this. So I think it's

important that as we're moving towards the end of 2025, and

we're sat, look, this suck is going to be done in like six

weeks, and we're wrapping this up, we're wrapping this year up,

and it's like, Who do you want to be? How do you want to be in

the world? And I know I talk about this a lot, because I

really feel like this is one of the most important things in our

lifetime. I think being really, really aware of how we're being

physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and

spiritually, a lot of times gets like, left off, you know what I

mean? But like, Who are you being? How are you showing up?

Are the choices that you're making actually in alignment? Is

there congruency between what you say and like what you

actually do? And I was just thinking about like, all the

different places you can look at, right? Your physical health,

your physical well being, and that itself can be broken down

into a bunch of different ways. Right? Talking about your

nutrition, your your your nutrition, like what you're

putting in your body, your sleep, your hydration, your

movement and exercise, your rest and relaxation, like your

nervous system, like all these things, right? You can look at

your finances, right? That's another one. Let's say that you

like, are like, hey, I really want to set up an emergency

fund. I want to have it. And I'm just making this number up,

right? I want to have at least $1,000 saved it as a as a

security blanket, like in my savings account, in case

something you know, crazy happens or whatever. And yet you

find yourself buying $5 $7 coffees every day. Like that is

not moving you in the direction. And I know I'm not saying skip

your coffees. We can all find places where we are, where we

have a leak, right? Whether we have a leak in our spending

habits, when we have a leak in our energy spending habits, like

where we're putting our attention, we have a leak where

we're pouring into a project, a person, a program, a thing,

where there's it's not like giving you or you're not, you're

not like, receiving the outcome, right? You can look at this

thing and you're like, This is not going to end well, right? I

need to adjust my sales, and while I was thinking about all

of this, right? So if you're looking at your health, your

finances, your relationships, like, all the different buckets,

right, all the different buckets that you might have in your

life, you can, like, go right down the line, your business,

your creativity, your mental well being, like, all of it

right time with friends, creativity, whatever it is. But

we want to start looking at these things. You don't have to.

I'm just inviting you to because I know for me, it

really helps me with, I always say, with the time I have left

on the planet, and no time is guaranteed, so with the time I

have left, I really do want to be living intentionally, right?

I want to be committing to things. And I'm going to do a

whole other podcast. Note to self, I should just write this

down. Hey, I'm going to write I'm literally going to write

this down so I don't forget, okay, about commitment and

consistency. Okay, done. All right. Here's the thing. This

also, when I was thinking about adjust your sales, this is a

little bit of, like, of a pot too. So number one, I'm going to

invite you to kind of take a look at your life. Take a look

at some of the different areas. And if that feels too

overwhelming, literally, you guys, like, get a piece of

paper, right? Like, I'm holding up, get, get a pad of paper, get

a piece of paper, and literally, just write down the different

buckets of your life. Again, it could be your health, right? And

your physical so you can do, like, physical, mental,

emotional, spiritual, financial, like, whatever, all the

different buckets, and then kind of go through and look at be

real, take a fearless moral inventory, as they say, in the

20. 12 step programs and like, Get Get clear with yourself

before you can't get right with yourself until you're clear with

yourself. You can't change something until you know that

there's a problem. How do we know that there's a problem when

our sales need to be adjusted because we wanted to go south,

and we find ourselves at the North Pole, right? We might want

to, we might want to tweak some shit. Okay? But this also got me

to thinking about something that one of my spiritual teachers,

Eknath, ashwaran, you guys have heard me talk about ashwaran

Like endlessly on the podcast, and ashwaran one time quoted,

and this is how I first heard the quote from Sri Ramakrishna.

There's a quote that says, the grace of God is a wind which is

always blowing. The grace of God is a wind which is always

blowing. I've also heard people say that it's the like Grace

they take. If you don't like the word God, you can just take the

word God out, but you can say grace is a wind, right? That is

the Divine is a wind which is always blowing. Don't get weird

about the name. I always say to people, don't get too hung up on

the name, right? Because you miss the whole point of it. You

miss the heartbeat of it. But the grace of God is a wind which

is always blowing. And this is the thing. The second part of

this is it's up to us to raise our sails, because the wind is

always available to us, right? But we've got to, because I was

thinking about this whole thing, like we need to adjust our

sails. Well, that's implying that we actually have some sales

in the game, like we have some sales raised, and if we do Amen,

right? Double Amen, hands. Hallelujah. But some folks are

sitting around and they're not even raising their sails. You

know what I'm saying? So we're going to get into this a little

bit, because I was started to thinking about, well, adjusting

our sails. And I'm like, well, sometimes the wind is blowing in

such a way, right? And I'm like, I know that I cannot control the

direction of the wind, but what I can do is adjust my sails and

respond right? Respond. So make some tweaks, as I was saying. So

if I can't change the direction of the wind and the way that

it's blowing, maybe I can tweak how I'm responding to that. So

whatever life is bringing to my door, right? I get to decide how

I'm going to open that door and receive what is coming my way,

how I'm going to respond to it, the choices that I'm going to

make. So ashwaran kind of talks about it like this, you know, so

if the winds of grace are always blowing, all we need to do is

raise our sails. This means we've got to do our part. You

know, a lot of times people talk about this idea of, like,

manifestation, like, I'm gonna manifest my dream job, I'm gonna

manifest my dream partner, I'm gonna all of us. I'm gonna

manifest, you know, friggin Lamborghini, or a bunch of

money, or a wicked nice house, or whatever the thing is. And

they always just think, well, I did my part, I made my order.

And I'm always like, look, God's not your Aaron boy, right? Like

the like, you don't just like, place your order at the drive

thru window and then sit back and wait for your wishes to be

fulfilled. This isn't rub the lamp and the genie gives you

three wishes. Like, you got to do your part. You know what I'm

saying. So ashwaran talks about it like this. He has, I mean, I

have over there, I'd show him to you, but I have all of his

books, right? And one of his, one of his books that is one of

my favorite books, is a book called Words To Live By. Words

To Live By. And I'm gonna, yeah, well, I'm not gonna mention it

right now, but okay, Words To Live By. It's a daily guide to

leading an exceptional life. That's the book. And this is

what he said. And I love this. He says, All that you and I so

this is it starts with the quote, the grace of God is a

wind which is always blowing. That's Sri Ramakrishna. And this

is a Sharon's commentary on that. He says, All that you and

I have to do is to put our sails, put up our sails, and let

the wind of grace carry us across the sea of life to the

other shore, but most of us, this always makes me laugh, but

most of us are firmly stuck on the shore.

Our sail is torn and our boat is overloaded with excess baggage,

our likes and dislikes, our habits and opinions and all the

resentments and hostilities which we have acquired right?

And this is what A Course in Miracles would say is like your

grievances, right? You can have a grievance and you can have a

miracle, but you cannot have both. Okay, he goes on to say

this, but just as it is we ourselves who have acquired this

baggage, it is we who can also gradually learn to toss it

overboard. Right? The wind is blowing, but we have to make our

boat seaworthy. Oh, my God, I love this. We can patch up our

sail and unfurl it to catch the wind that will carry us to the

other shore. Okay? So a lot of times, not only do we not even

have our sails raised, we also have a boat right, and we have a

sail that has holes in it, and we have a boat that is not

seaworthy, it is not ready. We are carrying all of this shit

from our past, all of those old stories, the beliefs, the

identities, right, those experiences that we had in our

earliest years in our environment, the beliefs that we

started to create, the meaning that we assigned to the awful,

traumatic things that happened, and the way that they can just

keep holding you down, man weighing you down so your boat

can't even get off the shore. It is like moored. It is like

stuck, like the anchor is like stuck on the ground. It's not

even sea worthy this boat. So we gotta do some shit, like we have

to be proactive. And so much of the work that I do with people

is about this. It's like, how can we create not only a nervous

system that is more resilient and resourceful and responsive,

right? But how can we, like, as a person, like, respond to life

from a place where we're not afraid, we're not as fearful,

because I said not as right, we're always going to have a

little fear that comes with the human experience. But how can I

show up in the world in a less fearful way? How can I show up

from a place of love and more safety? How can I respond to my

life and know that I have the inner resources to respond to

whatever life brings to my door like I am resourceful, I am

responsive, I am able right to be able to like I trust myself

to know, like so much of the work that I do is like helping

people to let go of, and I don't mean let go of like, Oh, it

didn't happen. And we pretend like, no, it's like really

reimagining what's possible for us, rewriting those old stories

and like, like, literally giving ourselves the tools that we need

so that we can navigate through life. This is like helping us to

set our sails. Number one, getting a sail, unburdening your

damn boat, right? Getting in the boat, having a sail that's

patched up so that it can blow you where you actually want to

go, right, so you can have the kind of life and relationships

and etc, etc, right, that you that you want to have. And it's

like we the wind is always blowing, if the wind is always

blowing, and we're just sitting there and we're not raising our

sails, opportunity just blows right over our head.

Opportunities for love and compassion and connection and

friendship and joy and playfulness and creativity,

right? All the good stuff of life just blows right on by,

because we don't even know first of all that the wind is blowing.

Can't be bothered to even look up, to recognize to go outside,

to get yourself in the element of life, like, oh yeah, some

shit, some shit, some winds blowing. What do I want to do? I

want to raise my sail, and I want to use that energy to take

me where I want to go. I don't know about you, but I want to

right be using that current of wind. And I can't always choose

which direction the wind is going to blow, but I can choose

how I'm going to adjust my sail to still get myself where I want

to go. And you know, I was thinking about this, and I made

a few notes here, and it's like, we have to prepare, right? We

have to prepare. So if God's grace, or the universe's grace,

is constantly, like, available to us, if it's always blowing,

it means that it's not dependent on, like, the mood of the day.

The winds of grace are always blowing what's needed from us,

each person, each individual, we have to prepare ourselves to be

able to catch that wind, to receive the wind, and we do this

through our own efforts, our own preparedness, our own

willingness. Like to show up and to go, Hey, to notice, pay

attention. Enough like, oh yeah, the wind is blowing right. The

opportunities are there. There's love all around me, there's

compassion all around me, there is divine favor all around me.

But if we're not going to unfurl our sails, we're not gonna catch

jack shit, you know. Or we're just gonna keep choosing, right?

We're just gonna keep choosing, you know? And it is. I mean,

there's a thing, there's a thing that we talk about, like, oh,

spiritual amnesia. Sometimes is a spiritual amnesia. We're like,

where we just kind of forget who we are and to whom we belong.

But there's also what I can kind of jokingly call, like a little

spiritual laziness, where you're just not participatory. Like you

want an outcome, you want a particular outcome, but like you

don't want to do the work to get that outcome. You just want to

wish it into the atmosphere. You just want to wish it into the

ethos and expect. Like the angels to, like, float down on

their little wings. I'm making like, little flappy things,

like, I have little wings, and come down and deliver it to you.

I'm like, No, hello, Queen of Sheba, you are not, you know

what I mean. So we can't be weighed down by all of our

nonsense, our likes, our dislikes, our bullshit, our

baggage, our preference is like, you know, we got to be able, you

got to be able to adjust those sales man, because they can take

us to some pretty incredible places. That Divine Wind can

take us to some pretty incredible places, but we've got

to adjust our sails. So here's the thing again, it's an

invitation do it or don't do it. But I hope you do do it, because

when we sit down and spend some time with ourselves, and we

start to get honest with ourselves, and we start to look

at our lives, and we say, oh, like, how would I want this to

be different? Is something going on in my life that I'm not happy

about if I'm not happy about it, right? We always and can't just

blame it on other people. It's your life. It's your choices. We

got to take a look at our own role in things. And I love that.

You know, a lot of times people are afraid to look because

they're afraid to find out. They think, oh, it's all my fault,

and they feel guilty and ashamed, and they do the blame

game on themselves. First, I'd like to blame other people, and

then you get a certain amount of spiritual maturity and you

realize, like, oh, you realize, like, Oh yeah, I'm the common

denominator and all the shit in my life. I'm the captain of my

ship. Oh, my God. So I but I love that, because that means

that I actually do have some control. I do have some will. I

do have some say, You know what I mean? So this is, this is what

I'm saying. Like, I woke up and I heard in my head, you need to

adjust your sales. And so I took a good look. I've been thinking

about it, right? I've been thinking about it for the past

few days. And here's the thing, I'm taking action. I've already

taken action on a couple of things, which I'm really excited

about, you know? And I don't spend time beating myself up.

That's not that interesting to me. It's not that I don't take

accountability, but, like, if there's other people, I would

need to make amends to, like, get that done, but with myself,

it's like, yeah, I get to adjust. And it's, it's spent

energy, it's wasted energy, just sitting there, like, wishing I

had been different three days ago or three months ago, or

whatever. I'm like, What can I do now? The wind of grace is

blowing right now I'm going to raise my sale and I'm going to

adjust my sales accordingly, and that's what I want to invite you

in to do too. Don't be afraid of taking an inventory. Don't be

afraid of taking a look, an honest look, at what's going

down in your life, in your relationships, in your bank

accounts, in the your habits, the ways that you're being

physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually

and like, this is your life. Like you got to take it

seriously. We don't get to push it all. Keep saying, Oh, well,

next year I'll do this, or when i do when i Then I when I then

I, like, No, right now, right now. We got six weeks left to

this year. Let's sit our asses down. Let's get out some fun

paper and pen, some highlighters, some markers, some

crayons, right? Vision boarded, whatever you want to do, but

let's be honest about where we haven't been raising our sales,

where we have holes in our sales, and where we need to

adjust our sales. Okay, so that's my little love letter

from my heart to yours. I hope it's been helpful to you in some

ways. And I believe that Ramakrishna also talks about the

sails, is like your mind, right? Like, like the winds of the

Divine, God's grace is always blowing right above our heads.

But we have to raise our sails. We have to elevate our minds to

catch it. We got to catch the wind, right? So this is where I

always encourage you, if you do not have a DSP, a daily

spiritual practice, if you don't spend any time kind of

contemplating, the deeper the the more mystical the whatever

you want to the mysterious, the spiritual aspects of this human

this human experience, like we are. We are spiritual beings

having this human life, this human experience, we get to

experience ourselves and express ourselves. And what a gift,

right? So it's like, we got to raise ourselves. Part of this is

we got to elevate our minds, right? We got to go above like

this, like the baseline animalistic like wants and not

wants and the likes and the dislikes and the grievances and

all that shit. It's like, No, we got to kind of remember who we

are, right? Remember who you are, remember to whom you

belong. Catch that sale. We do this through, you know, effort.

Efforts not a bad thing. We kind of shrink away from discipline

and effort. I'm going to talk about that a numb boy. I gotta

keep writing myself little notes. Okay, these are good

things. These are good things. So, yeah, that's what I got for

you today. Okay, I love you. I appreciate you so much.

Remember, you can always find out all the different ways to

connect with me, work with me, take a yoga class, take a

writing salon, like participate all of it right at. Karen

kenney.com it's k, e, n, n, e, y, right.com. All my stuff is on

there. And if you want to get this in your inbox each week the

podcast, if you want to find out what I'm up to, I'm gonna have

some new things I'm doing in 2026 so if you want to find out

what those shenanigans are, just get on my email list. Karen

kenney.com/sign up one word. Okay, thanks, you guys. I

appreciate you so much wherever you go. May you leave yourself

in the people, in the place, in the animals, in the planet

better than how you found it wherever you go. May you and

your presence and your love and your energy and your sails and

the wind right. May the wind be at your back right, may it

wherever you go, may you be blessing. Bye. Hey, thanks so

much for listening to the show. I really love spending some time

together. Now, if you dig the show or know someone that could

benefit from this episode, please share it with them and

help me to spread the good word and the love. And if you want to

be in the know about all of my upcoming shenanigans, head on

over to Karen kenney.com/sign up and join my list. It'll be

wicked fun to stay in touch. Bye. You.