Episode Summary: This episode delves into a discussion with Brian and Kristina on Eco-Anxiety selected from Episode 86. 

Climate change impacts mental health as learning about the facts and science behind climate change can be stressful and overwhelming. So what can we do about it?

While we encourage our listeners to learn as much as possible about climate change and take action, we also sometimes experience eco-anxiety ourselves. 

Kristina recounts an incident where she nearly had a panic attack after coming across a stack of plastic cups that reminded her of her potential negative impact on the environment. To manage the situation, she used Katie Byron's 4-question framework.

To listen to the full episode of ‘Tips and Framework To Deal With Eco Anxiety’ go here.

For more information on the project and to order your copy of the Carbon Almanac, visit thecarbonalmanac.org

Want to join in the conversation?

Visit thecarbonalmanac.org/podcasts and send us a voice message on this episode or any other climate-related ideas and perspectives.

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!

You can find out more on pages 154, 155 of the Carbon Almanac and on the website you can tap the footnotes link and type in 252

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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributor Brian Tormey and Kristina Horning.

Brian is a Real Estate Title Insurance Professional and Goat Farmer in the US. 

Kristina has a background in architecture and engineering. Currently in Prague (that it is where she is originally from) and her base is US.

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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.

This is Brian.

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Excited to be here with everyone again

and talking today about eco anxiety and

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this topic of sort of becoming aware

of the challenges facing our planet

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and our culture and some of those,

the awareness of those challenges,

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filtering in and creating a sense.

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Uh, you know, attentiveness,

awareness, focus, that can

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lead to anxiety, challenge,

possibly other emotions as well.

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Um, and I'll share, you know, from a, my

personal side, as I've been getting more

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and more involved, which I've loved being

involved with Carbon Almanac and this

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podcast, these are things, my awareness

of some of these issues has expand.

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And with some of that and doing some

of the specific projects I was working

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on and diving into and meeting some

of these really impressive thought

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leaders who were out there making

really big impacts on the world.

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Um, the, my awareness started

to move into a place of creating

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a sense of anxiety as there was

sort of this sense of incongruity

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of like what I knew to be right.

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And what my own actions were and

what I was seeing happen around me

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with, you know, my own family and

friends and colleagues and things.

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And you know, and there's this, uh,

I don't know, I don't remember the

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exact quote precisely, but I know

one of our past speakers, Josh spk,

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references it, um, more beautifully

than I will about and quote from

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Abraham Lincoln, a former president

here in the United States about one.

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Worst things you can do is act

differently than, you know, to

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be, what is the right thing to do?

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Um, and I think that's this,

at its core, that's where this

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place of eco anxiety comes from.

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Sort of knowing better but

still acting in a certain way.

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And, you know, I'll share that

for me this last, you know,

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fall, winter, early spring.

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It really was building up and coming to

a head in a, in a couple ways of just

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sort of this anxiety, um, and a little

bit of tunnel vision on all the different

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moving parts that were problematic.

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And, you know, if, if, if we came home

from the grocery store in our groceries

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included, you know, something with

plastic packaging, it, I got stressed.

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Uh, and it bothered me.

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And, um, and a whole host of other things.

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Um, and so, You know, sort of this

place that like led to some, some extra

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anxiety for me in my own personal life.

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And you know, Christina, we were

chatting and you had, you had a really

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interesting perspective to share on this

and sort of how you approached not just

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eco anxiety but things, and that can

create concerns and worry and anxiety.

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So I wanna share it over to you.

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Thanks.

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Uh, yeah, I have been thinking about this.

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One of my, uh, eco anxieties happened.

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Last, uh, fall, I went to Edinboro

and the Garbagemen were on strike,

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and everywhere around there were,

uh, piles from the tourist of

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coffee cups and plastic bottles.

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And I realized walking through

the park, I realized, oh my

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God, this is what's showing me.

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It's showing me all my cups through my.

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I gathered and thrown out into the

universe and, uh, it, uh, I was really

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sad and I started literally panicking,

like, I have to stop everything I

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have to, and I just got wild up as,

uh, what you were talking about.

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And I remember I went through the school

of the work training, which is, it

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calls the work and it's done by Byron.

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She asked these four questions and

turned around, and when I started

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panicking, I went, okay, is it true?

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Do I know a hundred percent that

this is true, that these all cups

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are looking at me and that, and it

calmed me down, kind of I realized,

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okay, I have to come back into the

reality of it, what's going on, and.

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Go in the direction of inspiration

instead of fear and sadness and panic.

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So that was really helpful.

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Yeah.

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And, and so this is, um, Byron Katie

is this, uh, author and speaker

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who has created this concept.

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And, and you, you mentioned, and I've

just been reading up on this since you

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had told me, But you mentioned that there

are four questions, and so I'm gonna

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walk through the, the four different

questions here for our listeners.

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The first question is, and this,

these are questions you ask yourself

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about this thought you're having.

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Right?

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So one simple thought.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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A simple thought.

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So we'll use your examples since

you've shared it here of like, is this

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the universe showing me every coffee

cup I've ever disposed of, right?

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Yeah.

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As I walked down the street.

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And so the questions.

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Is it true?

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That's the first question.

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Um, and then the second question, which I

find interesting cuz it's like, it's like,

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it's like checking you a little bit again,

is can you absolutely know that it's true?

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So it's in an, in an interesting

twist on the first question, my mind.

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The third question is, how do you react?

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What happens when you

believe that thought?

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So like, sort of how does that change your

behavior, your reaction, your actions?

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And then the fourth is, who would

you be without that thought as

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if you like deleted a thought

and you weren't using it?

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And so, Christina, do you wanna

sort of talk through this?

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Are you comfortable talking through this?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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We can.

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Uh, example, oh yeah.

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So is it true?

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I, uh, in that moment I felt, yep.

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Yeah, that's it.

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This is it.

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And, uh, when I repeated,

well, am I absolutely sure?

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No, I'm not absolutely sure of anything.

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And, uh, so that kind of stopped

me from, uh, feeling, uh, in such

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a various, this is it no other way.

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So it kind of calmed me down.

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Yeah.

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And how would you.

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It comes back to where does that

impulse, I'm doing something wrong.

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When did I see something that,

uh, it's, I'm not good enough?

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And all these kind of thoughts

coming back in from different things.

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So it's not just about the cups

is just also about inability

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to accept what's going on and.

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Get inspired by it and start

thinking, okay, what can I do?

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What, uh, what are the easy steps to do?

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And when I, when I, uh, turned it around,

who would you be without the thought?

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There is this pause.

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During this process, Katie Byron

has a, uh, has a website where all

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this stuff you can get for free.

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In this four question, there

is this beautiful pause.

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You just feel it.

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What would it feel in the body and

in mind without that, that thought?

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Because, and, uh, it's so peaceful.

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It's so peaceful.

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And when it's so peaceful, there are all

these, okay, I can do this, I can do that.

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Do I, for one of the things, I

have been remembering that made

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me remember to put a pla a cup for

coffee or juice, a pla Uh, I have

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some glass or plastic cups with a lit.

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Mm-hmm.

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So I have it in my back and, uh,

whenever I get some drink outside,

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I'll ask them to put it in the cup.

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So, and I, and she also has turnaround.

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Uh, people can read up on, on her website

what the turnaround, it's a process,

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but for me it was input for remembering.

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Uh, now it's five months or so after

Scotland, and I still remember.

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That pile.

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And so when I go out, I still ta

I remember taking the cup, wash it

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because I usually take it out, wash

it, and put it back in my back.

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Oh, and I think that's important to get

inspired and make these tiny steps that

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will lead towards, so that was my process.

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Yeah, I think that's,

thank you for sharing.

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That's, you know, well shared

and, and beautifully said.

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As I reflect on some of what you're

saying, I think, you know, there are

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many thoughts that create anxiety

for us that that very first question

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of these four questions, is it true?

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The answer is no.

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And you know, you know, there are

self-doubt questions that I think

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many of us, the world over deal with.

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You know, if I get wrinkles,

will this person stop loving me?

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And we feel that, but it's not.

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And then that second question helps

validate that or sort of helps strike out.

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Can you absolutely know that it's true?

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And the answer is no.

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I can't absolutely know

that's true either.

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But within our environmental challenges,

there's, there is a lot of truth to the

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challenges that we're facing, right?

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And to the impacts of these

decisions and actions that we

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individually and thus we as a larger.

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You know, uh, culture and

set of ecosystems create.

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And so for me, in my own personal sort

of approach with this, like I think I

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moved past question one and two and, you

know, reading the I P C C reports and

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everything, like knowing that like, I

think these things really are true and

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I absolutely can know that some of these

things that I'm worried about are true.

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I moved through those first

two questions and with this

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like, oh yeah, they are true.

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Um, and that's part of, for me, I think

where some of this, like this anxiety

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that normally I don't worry about if

I get wrinkles, my wife won't keep

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loving me, honey, if you're listening,

I hope you keep loving me even if I

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get, um, but I move past that cuz I

think I can sort of ask that question.

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Is that true?

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No, I think she'll love

me even as a wrinkly old.

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Um, but I move into this

then how do you react?

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What happens when you

believe that thought?

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And this is where this, you know,

sort of leads me to, and Christina,

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as you were just saying, like a need

to have an impact and to sort of make,

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like do something about it, you know?

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And, you know, leaky, I wanted

to turn over to you cause I think

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you had some good perspectives on,

on this and how action helps you

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deal with these kind of things.

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