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LIVE YOUR FECKIN' LIFE
Episode 385 • 24th September 2026 • The Karen Kenney Show • Karen Kenney
00:00:00 00:22:08

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OK, so here's the thing.

Somewhere along the way we all got told to "document everything." (I’m looking at you Gary Vee )

Now it feels like we can't go to the grocery store, a concert, or our kid's soccer game without thinking, “How can I turn this into a post?”

The other day I left my phone at home (once on purpose, once by mistake).

At first I was like, "Oh no!" (mostly because I want to be able to call AAA if it’s necessary )

But then it turned into this little taste of freedom. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

There were no pictures taken, no texts pinging, and no little red numbers glaring back at me.

It was just me, being right there - in the right now.

Because, once we start planning for how we'll share a moment later… we've already left it.

We're warp-speed time traveling into the future - instead of being there in the room having the full-fledged experience with our sweeties, our friends, our human or furry kids, and our people.

We end up missing the moments that make up our life.

I'm not saying that devices are evil. (Trust me, I love sharing a wicked cute picture of Toby Pajamas or Bunchie.)

This episode is just an invitation from my heart to yours to give it a try it for a few hours.

Or heck, even for a whole Sunday.

Put the phone down and just go live your feckin’ life.

Report back what it was like if you want to - you know I’m always curious to hear!

And wherever you do go, may you, your love, and your real in-person, real-time presence be a blessing.

KAREN KENNEY BIO:

Karen Kenney is a writer, speaker, podcaster, certified spiritual mentor, and coach.

She’s known for her dynamic storytelling, her sense of humor, her Boston accent, and her no-bullshit approach to spirituality, self​-discovery, and transformational change work.

Karen helps people to navigate this whole “being human” experience with more love, curiosity,​ courage, and creativity.

She encourages people to learn and explore by using personal stories and a bunch of different practical tools and universal principles.

KK has been a yoga teacher for 25+ years and has been offering Thai Yoga Massage since 2008.

She's also the creator of WRITE CLUB , and the host of The Karen Kenney Show podcast.

She coaches clients individually 1:1 in her HEART-TO-HEART DAYS and in her program, THE QUEST.

CONNECT WITH KK:

🌐 KAREN KENNEY WEBSITE: https://www.karenkenney.com/

📬 GET MY EMAILS: https://www.karenkenney.com/signup

📝 WRITE CLUB: https://www.karenkenney.com/writeclub

💆🏼 THAI YOGA BODYWORK: https://www.karenkenney.com/thaiyoga

❤️ HEART-TO-HEART COACHING DAY: https://www.karenkenney.com/hearttoheart

🗡️ THE QUEST - 1:1 MENTORING: https://www.karenkenney.com/quest

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Transcripts

Karen Kenney:

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

Karen Kenney:

Welcome to the Karen Kenney Show. I'm super duper excited to

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be here with you today, and I gotta tell you, I had a little

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plot twist. I just, I just pivoted on myself because I

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thought I knew what I was gonna talk about today, and then when

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I went to hit record, I was like, no, no, no, no, no! I want

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to talk about something else. So I'm just gonna like dive right

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into this sucker. I don't know what the title of it's gonna be

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yet. However, it's a jumping-off point. I was thinking about this

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the other day. My sweetie and I actually had a conversation

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about this. And when I was out on my walk run today, I just got

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back, and because you gotta look at at my age, you gotta move it

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or lose it. You gotta you gotta use it. You gotta you boy, you

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gotta use it or you're gonna lose it. But I just got back and

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I was like, no, I'm gonna talk about this instead. And I came

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upstairs and hit record. And here's the thing: I think it was

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don't hold me to this, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere

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around like 2006 ish. Like, remember Gary V, Gary

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Vaynerchuk. So Gary comes on the scene, and he might have been on

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the scene for a while. But I just remember distinctly at one

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point he started pushing this whole idea, and maybe this

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wasn't in 2006, but I just remember it being like 20

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friggin' years ago, and Gary was kind of doing this whole thing

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about like document your life, document everything, and he

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would say instead of you know quote unquote creating content,

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just document everything and then put it everywhere, like put

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it all over social media. And I think it was around that time,

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and I could be wrong, but I think it was around that time,

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where when everybody like when Facebook and different you know

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quote unquote social media things came out, the whole idea

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was for us to be social with the people that we loved, with our

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friends and family. It was an easy way to kind of like almost

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on a mass level to stay in touch and to update people about

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what's going on. Blah blah blah blah blah. That's what these

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sites and all of that Facebook, Instagram, all these different

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things were originally for. Right now, they're not actually

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social sites. They have totally turned a corner. But more

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importantly, what I want to say. So we we would consider them

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more like entertainment vehicles now. I don't consider them as

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actually being necessarily the best social tools for being

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social. I think the best social tools is to you know see people

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in person, to have relationships and friendships where you

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actually get together and see each other. And if you live far

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apart, maybe you call each other on the phone, or maybe you write

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letters. Remember writing letters? Oh my God! But here's

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my whole point about all of this. When Gary started telling

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everybody, I'm not blaming this on Gary. I'm just saying, back

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at that point, he was telling everybody to document

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everything, and I think something happened to the

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collective psyche of all of us. Right? I really believe in a

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Course in Miracles is this concept that like all minds are

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joined, right? So it's kind of like this idea, like how on one

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island, right? There can be two separate islands where the

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monkeys don't know each other, they don't talk to each other,

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but something happens collectively where the monkeys

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on one island will start to figure out how to use a tool.

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They'll figure out how to use a rock to like smash nuts and get

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the goodies inside, and then all of a sudden, somehow, magically,

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mystically, on the other island, those monkeys also start doing

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it. How does it happen? I believe it's because there's a

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universal consciousness of some kind. So something kind of

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happened to the human universal consciousness where we went from

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we used to just live our lives. Maybe that's what I'm going to

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live your fucking life. Just live your life. But

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let me get to what I mean about that.

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Before social media, before this whole idea of documenting

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everything, like remember, there used to be like movies and

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books, and then when we wanted to go deep on something, we some

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some filmmaker would create a documentary, right? Now we

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almost treat everything, everything, like as a

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documentary. Meaning, I the other day, let me give an

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example. The other day, I went out, and I well, this happened

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twice. One, I intentionally left my phone at home. I think my

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sweetie had his on him. You know, because nowadays, if like

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if you're gonna, you know, if you're gonna, you don't want to

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break down on the side of the road or whatever, not have a way

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to call for help or whatever, right? If you or as a as a

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woman, especially you're going out for a run, you're going out

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to do something, you want to make sure that you have a means

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of communication. But in these rare times when you just like

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leave your phone at home, so one time I did it on purpose, and

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one time I did it by mistake. And at first I was like, "Oh no,

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I forgot my phone at home, and then slowly it started to become

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like this little taste of freedom, and I. Was just like, I

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can't take any pictures. I can't call anybody. But more

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importantly, nobody can call me. Nobody can text me. I mean, they

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can do it, but they're not going to get me because my phone is

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somewhere where my body isn't. You know what I mean? Somewhere

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where my brain isn't, and it became this little sense of

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freedom. I was like, "Oh my God, no! And I don't really have

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notifications turned on, anyways. But like, no little

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like red numbers telling me how many messages I have on any app,

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right? Like, no emails, no voxing, no text messaging, no

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phone calls, like nothing. I was just like free, and it got me to

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thinking about this thing, about how back in the day we used to

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just live our lives, and if we were going to document anything,

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like as writers a lot of times, writers we have some sort of

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writing utensil or you know piece of paper, a little

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notebook, a journal, or something on we scribble on the

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back of napkins, whatever. But if an idea occurred to us, if

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something came up, we would find a way to like write it down or

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do something that was fine, right? And if you had a camera,

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if you wanted to take pictures, that's how we used to document

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things, right? Is we would take a picture at a wedding, we would

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take a picture at your kid's graduation, you would take a

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picture to of a beautiful sunset or some waterfall or how cute

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your dog is, whatever it is, but we used to do these things and

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then we would put them in like photo albums, which you might

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then share if your friends came over to your house. Do you know

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what I mean? But that human element was there, but now it

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feels like, and this is the point I'm trying to make. I feel

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like so many of us have lost just this simplicity, and this

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clarity, and this freedom, and this spontaneity and fun of just

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living your life, because it's almost like this dictum, right?

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We've been dictated, we've been told by all the marketing people

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we've been told by the Gary V's of the world, and again, I think

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Gary Gary has done some good in the world. This is just the old

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thing. Document everything. And here's the thing: when is the

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last time? Now, if you're in an older older generation, you

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might be like, "I do this all this time, all the time. Well,

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then this isn't for you, right? Thank you for being here, and

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I'm not saying this to you, but I'm just asking the general

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public, whoever listens to the show, right? When's the last

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time you just went and had an experience and didn't feel the

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need to like? I have to take a picture, I have to think about

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this, I have to mine. I have to mine this experience, right? So

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that I can make a post later.

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And whether whether you're trying to think like, oh, what

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are the five lessons that I took away from my visit to Market

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Basket today, or what's a way that I can turn this into a

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post? What's a way that I can put this online and and make it

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content. How can I add value by taking this story that I'm going

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to tell so that I can get clients? Like da da da da da. Do

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you know what I mean? We used to just live our fucking lives, and

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then we might come home and be like, "Sweetie, let me tell you

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what happened, or you would share a story with your friend

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or whatever. But we weren't mining and just milking and

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trying to squeeze every single thing that we do, so that we can

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then share it later with a bunch of strangers on the internet.

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Now, yes, some of those people you're sharing with are your

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friends, and to be clear, I post pictures of Bunchy online,

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right? My my pug. I post pictures of Toby Pajamas, my

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cat. I do share things too, right? But I'm usually sharing

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because it's something I love, something that made me laugh,

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something I learned, something that's lighting me up, something

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that I want to, you know, make somebody else laugh about or

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whatever. But the other day, I was just like, it just kind of

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hit me, and I think why it's hitting me is not so much that

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we like to share parts of our life. It's that the social media

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overlords, right, the Zuckerbergs and the Elon Musk

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and all the people that own all the platforms. It became less

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about you being social with people you love, and more about

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you creating content for free for them, so that they can then

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use that right to manipulate and do things where they're trying

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to like gamify everything, so that they can keep your eyeballs

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on their platforms and the posts and the content of other people,

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so that they can sell more advertising to people, so that

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they can track how long your eyeballs are literally on a

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thing. So they're basically using you and your content to

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get fucking rich, and they've created this incredible

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ecosystem where they've. Got you convinced that you need to do

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these things, or you will no longer be relevant in your life.

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That your business will suffer. That you'll never find another

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client or another friend. Do you know what I mean? And it's all

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such a racket. And so, really, this is just like a little

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reminder that that you could just live your life. You don't

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have to take pictures. You don't have to post about it. You don't

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have to like find the seven tips and hacks, or here's my hot take

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on this meal at some frigging thing, or this is what I think

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about what so and so did or said. It's like all of it. It's

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like oh my god, right? It's just again, this is just an

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invitation from my height to yours, to just say I don't know.

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Once in a while, try it for a few hours. Try it for a day,

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where you just go out and live your life and have experiences,

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and don't think about what you're gonna do with it

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afterwards, right? Because what happens is when you're in the

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present moment, just having the experience with your sweetie,

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with your furry kids, with your human kids, with your family,

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with your group, your yoga class, whatever it is. As soon

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as you start thinking about, I need to take a picture so that I

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can then post it. You have already left the present moment.

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You are no longer present. You are already time traveling,

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right? Like warp speed time traveling into how am I now

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going to share this in such a way to promote my business, to

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promote my program, to promote my product, to like do you know

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what I'm saying? Now, some of you might say this doesn't apply

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to me, and that's great, awesome. If you're already

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living this way, awesome. And I'm not saying we should never

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post on social media or anything again.

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I'm just saying notice how we pull ourselves out of the

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moments with these people, with the people you love, your

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friends, your family, whoever, so that we can then start to

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think about how I'm going to milk or mine or use this for

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something later to tell a story or to add value or to hit my hit

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my criteria or my quota of posts for the day or whatever it is.

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You know, I personally have found when I post about like if

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I post a picture about Bunchy or I post like oh I just made a

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huge batch of vegan tempeh stew yeah like 50 people will like it

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a bunch of people will comment on it sometimes even more you

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know I have a post on Instagram where we we've had for I haven't

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seen her this summer so I'm a little heartbroken because I

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don't know if she's around, but we we have had this beloved

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three legged dia, who has graced our property for like the last

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seven seven years, and I did a video of her and I put it on

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Instagram. It's gotten like 2.3 million views or something, 2.1

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million views. I don't know, it's pretty high, but it's over

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2 million views, and it was just posting a picture, like a little

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video of my dear friend Trixie, who I love, right? So, but so if

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I just post about like animals or I post something silly,

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right? Tons of views. Anytime I try to post about something

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where I'm trying to help other people, like whether that's I

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post about my podcast episode this week or I post about my

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Write Club workshop P.S. That's coming up this Saturday,

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Saturday september 26, at the 11th letter writing gallery in

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Concord. If you want to come, but if I post about my yoga

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class or my Thai yoga massage or stuff that I'm creating and

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offering, it just gets buried. It gets buried and nobody sees

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it. And these are things that I really want to share with people

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because I'm like, this could be the solution to somebody's

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problem. This could be something that somebody needs to hear.

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This could be a story that could make a difference. You know what

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I mean? So, but none of those things actually make it

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anywhere. Maybe like three people see them because the

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thing now with the algorithm is, if or the business side of it

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is, if you're not spending money on Facebook ads or Instagram

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ads, they don't want to share your shit. They're like, "Yeah,

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no, we're not doing that anymore. We're not giving you

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guys free advertising. So the things that really matter to you

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for your business, or the things that you're trying to promote to

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help others, we just bury that shit, you know. So all this to

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say, you guys, it's this isn't that deep of a of a of an

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episode, except to say I just kind of clocked the other day

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that it's like so often we lose just this real innocence of I'm

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just going to be here in the moment watching my kid's soccer

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game or watching this thing, and just fully being there and not

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feeling like we have to capture it or document it or use it to

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put it out there. Do you know what I mean? And if this doesn't

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resonate with you, that's okay. Thank you for listening and

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scroll on by. But I think it's important that we look at how

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and the reason why it kind of gets like you know, as we gets

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like you know when it when it does. Or a cat, like the

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hackles. They're hackles. Why my hackles get up about this is

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that they have trained so many of us. Meaning they, the as I

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say, the social media overlords, the mettas and the mus and the

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Zuckerbergs and the AI, all of them. They have slowly been kind

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of like trying to train the collective conscious, you know,

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the consciousness of all of us that if we don't post, we're

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invisible. If we aren't having an online life, then we don't

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have a life, and it's just not true. I think my prediction is

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that more and more and more and more people are going to be

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leaving, going to be leaving these apps, and they're gonna

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get back to some basics.

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They're gonna stop planning. Like, when's the last time?

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Think about it. When's the last time? Now, some of you, again,

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you might host your family all the time, but when's the last

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time you had just like a dinner party at your house where you

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invited some people over and you all just sat around and talked.

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Everybody put their phones away, and you were totally present

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with each other. You know what I mean? Like these things are so

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important. There's so many arts that we're losing, like the art

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of conversation, the art of communication, the art of

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cursive writing, the art of knowing how to write a letter,

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the art of knowing how to do. Do you know what I mean? Like

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meeting face to face, and having genuine like conversations. All

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these things, right? I'd rather you like show me your photo

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albums. Do you know what I mean? And now even it's on phones.

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Everything's on phones, and people just go scroll, scroll,

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scroll. Oh, look! Here's this picture. Here's this picture.

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Here's this picture. And now I'm not bagging on all the

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technology because I do think it has been helpful. In some ways,

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it has allowed us to stay connected, but it also, in a lot

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of ways, has us hyperconnected, but in more shallow ways, right?

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Or we're just become more lazy in our connection and our

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communications. So that's it. Just a little something, just go

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out. I guess that's it. Live your life. Go out and just live

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your life. Don't worry about like even like I see it all the

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time too. He has another example because my sweetie is a

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professional musician. I see people go to shows and they hold

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up their cameras and they record the whole show or the whole time

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they're worried about going live or taking pictures that they can

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post later to show people or whatever, and so they're viewing

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the actual people in performance through the lens of their phone.

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They're not professional photographers who are setting up

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a tripod and capturing the whole thing and then watching the show

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with their own eyeballs without a screen between them and the

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actual performers, right? We're we're not even being present for

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our lives as it's happening, because we're using these. It's

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almost like putting friggin' like you know when people look

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through something through binoculars, right? Back in the

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day, you put binoculars on to be able to see long distance or

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whatever, and now we put this like screen, this block between

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us and the art, us and the music, us and the dance, us and

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whatever, because we're so concerned about documenting it.

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And I understand the urge. Trust me, I love taking a good

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picture, but I also love just putting my fucking phone down

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and just being there with people and being in the room and taking

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it in and I'm like, you know what? My mind, my brain, my

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subconscious, like that's also my photo album. This is where

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the memories live, you know. But I wanna, I don't wanna, and I've

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said this to my sweetie before because there'll be times when

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I'll say to him, "Hey, I'm gonna film for you because sometimes

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he likes to hear, you know, his tone back, or he wants to hear

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his, you know, his voice back, or whatever. If especially if

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he's doing a new song, I'll say, yeah, I'll capture these. And I

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used to just hold up my phone for him, like for a lot of the

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show. Not saying he made me do it or anything, but lately I've

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said to him, like, hey, if there's a couple of songs you

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want me to record or take picture, I'll do that. But I

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just want to put my phone down so I can just be there and have

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the experience, you know. And I'm a documenter. Don't get me

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wrong; like I'm a writer. I love to capture things. I love to jot

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down notes. I love to snap a picture here and there. But I

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think we've we've kind of traded real life for the digital life

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in a lot of ways, and I think a lot of people are getting rich

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off of it because they've trained us to think that we need

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to share every single aspect of our lives, and we don't.

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And not only that, a lot of people don't care, and a lot of

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people don't have your best interests at heart, and a lot of

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people they hit the like button and they move on, but there's

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really no real connection. So for me, I think I just want to

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start really being more present in my life. I mean, I'm pretty

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present in my life, but even more so, like put down the

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phones, just live your life. Don't worry about the seven

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steps or the five. Or the posts, or how you're going to mine this

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thing. What like just be there, just be there for yourself, be

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there for your experiences, be there for your relationships,

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and let's just see what happens. And if you take me up on this,

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and like I said, do it for half a day, do it on Sundays, do it

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for a few hours, whatever it is. And I'm not saying oh, digital

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detox, you know, I'm not saying oh these devices are evil. I'm

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just saying I think we're going to start to have a shift back to

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people just wanting more simpler times and and less just less

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digital life and more real in person life. So that's what I

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got for you today. Thank you so much for listening. If you want

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to find out what I'm up to, anything that's going on, like

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anything like Thai yoga, body work, Thai yoga massage, if

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you're local to you know the Concan New Hampshire area, my

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yoga class is sold out, so that's why I don't really

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promote it that much. And my you know I do hot to hot days like

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coaching, I do all those things, right? Yeah, you can find

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everything. Just go to KarenKenney.com, Write Club,

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whatever it is. It's really easy to find me, and I would love to

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to bump it to you in real life sometime. Wouldn't that be so

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cool? So thank you for listening. I appreciate you so

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much. Wherever you go, may you leave the animals, may you leave

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the planet and the other people in yourself better than how you

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found it. Wherever you go, may you and your energy and your

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attitude and your love and your real in person, real time

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presence be a blessing. Bye. Hey, thanks so much for

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listening to the show. I really love spending some time

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

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benefit from this episode, please share it with them and

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

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

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over to karenkenney.com/signup and join my list. It'll be

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wicked fun to stay in touch. Bye.

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