I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation before where there was something that we wanted or needed to do, but our fear was so great that it kept us from taking action.

Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking all about courage.

We’ll discuss the four components of courage, what we often get wrong about fear, and the importance of having a supportive community of encouragers!

I’ll also tell a story about watching some courage in action that I recently experienced, and the power of having a compassionate witness to help us navigate the scary times.

Plus I’ll share some thoughts on how to navigate fear and make better decisions by changing our emotional state before taking action.

KEY POINTS:

• The Concept of Courage

• Autism Acceptance Week

• Actor Michael Sheen + The Assembly

• Four Components of Courage

• Feeling The Fear

• Changing Emotional States

• Compassionate Witnessing

• Encouragement and Support in Personal Growth

• The Nest: Spiritual Mentoring Group + Community

KK BIO:

Karen Kenney is a certified Spiritual Mentor, Writer, Integrative Change Worker, Hypnotist, and Coach. She’s known for her dynamic storytelling, her sense of humor, her Boston accent and her no-BS approach to Spirituality and transformational work.

She’s been a yoga teacher for 23+ years, is a Certified Gateless Writing Instructor, and is also an author, speaker, retreat leader and the host of The Karen Kenney Show podcast.

A curious human being, life-long learner and an entrepreneur for 20+ years, KK brings a down-to-earth perspective to applying spiritual principles and brain science that create powerful shifts in people’s lives and businesses.

She works with people individually in her 1:1 program, THE QUEST, and offers a collective learning experience via her group mentoring program, THE NEST.

She works with both the conscious and unconscious mind by combining practical Neuroscience, Subconscious Reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, and Spiritual Mentorship. These tools help clients regulate their nervous systems, remove blocks, rewrite stories, rewire beliefs, and reimagine what’s possible!

Karen wants her clients to have their own lived experience with spirituality and to not just “take her word for it”. She encourages people to deepen their personal connection to Self, Source and Spirit in tangible, relatable, and actionable ways without losing sight of the magic.

Her process called: “Your Story To Your Glory” helps people to shift from an old thought system of fear to one of Love - using compassion, un-shaming, laughter and humor, her work is effective, efficient, and it’s also wicked fun!

KK’s been a student of A Course in Miracles for close to 30 years, has been vegan for over 20 years, and believes that a little kindness can go a long way and make a miraculous difference.

Hey, welcome to the Karen Kenney show, I'm wicked excited to be

here today because this is, this is something that I that's been

on my mind, you know how like you come across, whether it's a

piece of music or you watch a movie, you see a show you read a

book or you hear a story and it just like stays with you. And

this has just been kind of like ricochet ravening around my head

for the last week or so since I first saw this video that I'm

going to tell you about, which is the inspiration for today's

episode.

So before we dive into it, I just want to say thank you so

much. If you're a loyal listener, and you're here and

you're back, I appreciate it so much. I really do. I mean, you

could be doing anything else besides listening to this sucker

or watching it. And so the fact that you're choosing willingly

choosing to be here means so much to me. And if you're new

here, welcome. I'm so happy and welcome. Welcome. Join the other

weirdos Okay, speaking of weirdos what you can see right

you can't see is Toby pajamas. Toby pajamas. My cat. He's right

down there. Toby's like, possibly 17 Now you guys he just

had his birthday. He's a rescue. We don't know how old he is.

Okay, you can also see in the background if you're not

watching. I got Bob Ross. I got little Bob Ross joining me. Joan

evoq. Couple of Jesus's my mother's over here. Good dash,

whatever. I got a lot, a little fox over there. I get so many

helpers that are helping me to bring if I had sponsors, I'd be

like, sponsored by Baba, my Bob Ross stuffy.

Okay, and we're back. Alright, listen. So I don't know if it's

like a podcast player an app, whatever it is, I saw this video

on what's called BBC One. So I kind of think of that as almost

like our PBS here in the United States. Okay. So BBC One.

Unfortunately, I can't watch the whole interview that I'm about

to tell you about. I've only seen little clips of it, like,

you know, like real like, like 90 seconds, whatever. And it's

an interview series, and it's called the assembly.

Now, again, because I can't watch it consistently or at all

really, other than little clips that get put on social media. I

don't know if this is something that they do again, and again

and again. But all I know is I think that this episode was in

celebration of autism acceptance week, I have some notes here

just so I don't forget, I don't want to misspeak about somebody

else's thing. And so I guess the format is, is that there's an

audience. So there's a guest who's been invited to be you

know, interviewed, and the interview is in the audience,

like 35 people, and they're either people who are autistic

neurodivergent, or learning disabled adults, and they were

like young adults and older adults and stuff. And then I

think there are some people who may be, you know, guide them or

work with them, who are also kind of scattered around the

room.

Okay, so who they're interviewing is an actor and a

director named Michael Sheen. And I just love Michael Sheen. I

mean, I love his work. I feel like there are certain actors

and certain people now of course, sometimes you can be

fooled, right? Maybe they're putting on a persona or

whatever. But I think sometimes you can get it just kind of a

sense of somebody's nature. You know what I mean? And Michael

Sheen was in good omens he was in underworld. I think he was in

Masters of Sex he was in what was the other one? The Vampire

is? Right. Oh, my God. It's like I can't I can't believe I can't

think of it but it's like with Robert Patterson and the other

you know, the the vampires could glamour you or whatever. Oh,

Twilight Twilight. Yeah.

And we're back. Okay. I'm pretty sure he was in that. Okay. So

let me set the scene. So Michael Sheen is sitting at the front.

He's surrounded kind of like in an oval, like, the people are

like, all the interviewers are in chairs in front of him kind

of like in a semicircle. And the promotion for this show, right?

Because I've seen various little clips. They said, be prepared to

like to be asked any question from this audience and there was

like a little like Spitfire clip. And somebody asked him,

Are you afraid of bats? Somebody else asked him. Do you like beat

boxing? It was so fantastic. Somebody else asked him if he

could cook if he could bake. Somebody else asked him a

question like, what's it like? I swear to God, they get up and

they said, What's it like to date somebody to date somebody

who's only five years older than your daughter? I was like, Oh my

god. So fantastic. Right. So I totally mean makes you want to

watch that. The whole interview and just see how Michael Sheen

responds to this. Okay?

But there was one in particular, a young man. His name was Leo.

And Leo wanted to ask a question. Now if I could

describe Leo, I would just because I'm a very visual

person, right, as a storyteller, I like to be able to imagine

things in my head. So Lille looks pretty tall, maybe, I

don't know if he is in real life, but from from my aspect,

he looks pretty tall. He had kind of like Sandy blondish like

light, light brown hair, kind of like cherub cheeks. That got a

little flush, because he was nervous. And he has the mic. So

he gets handed the mic. And the announcer one of the helpers

says, the next question is from Leo. And Michael Sheen says,

Hello, Leo, you're very kind, you can just it was so kind. And

so Leo goes to speak. Like, he stops himself. He goes to speak,

he can't get the words out. And he's just like, it's he's really

like trying to ask this question. And you can just see

from his face, what he's doing with his mouth, that, you know,

the way his body is being held that he's struggling, and he's

having a hard time.

Okay, so it's taking him a bit of time to do this. And the

people around him start to say things like, you can do it Leo,

don't paw like, don't worry, you know, all this stuff. And while

his, you know, his friends and his peers around him, I saying

these things, Michael Sheen says to him, you know, like, take all

the time you need, like, we're not in a rush. And at one point,

there's such a long pause, that one of the guides or teachers

leans over and puts her hand on him and says, Do you want me to

ask it? Do you want me to ask the question, or do you want to

do it? And Leo says, I want to do it, I'm just nervous.

And like, your heart just goes like, Oh, my God, like, you

know, if you've ever known anybody who has stuttered, or

has had a brain injury, or has, you know, has any kind of, you

know, learning disability where they're challenged, trying to,

you know, grasp the words, they're trying to say, whatever,

you know, you have such, well, I can't speak for you. But for me,

I have such compassion for that to be able to communicate

freely, you're trying to find the words. And just knowing when

you're that nervous, and you're talking to like a movie star,

right? Like what that could be like for him.

And so Michael says to him, Michael Sheen says to him, take

all the time you need. And he's Michael is doing these little

things. Like he gives him a little wink, he gives him the

most warm smile, like all these gestures, and we're going to

talk more about that later, and why that matters. But as I'm

watching this whole scene, like my heart is just like, you're on

the edge of the seat, and it's like, you know, Leo goes to

speak, and he opens his mouth, and then he shuts it again. And

then he puts the mic to his mouth, and nothing comes out.

And then he just says to himself, right? You know, like,

right, okay, like, you can see he's really trying to do it. And

then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, his little buddy, his

little friend that's sitting next to him just kind of like

shouts out, he just kind of blurts out, increase your

courage. Increase your courage.

And when I tell you Dear Listener, I almost fell off my

chair! Like my heart was just like, Oh my god. Excuse me, what

an incredible thing to say. What an incredible thing to say. He

shouts out, increase your courage. Excuse me, which is the

name of today's episode is the title of today's episode,

because it hit me like a ton of bricks for a bunch of different

reasons. First of all, I just thought it was so beautiful. It

was such a powerful thing to say. He didn't say, Don't be

nervous. He didn't say Hurry up. He didn't tell him how not to

be. He just simply says, increase your courage.

Which means now I want to talk about courage and fear. Because

telling somebody as it is a beautiful thing to say, and I'll

in it and again, we'll dive more into that in a minute. Increase

your courage. It was also he had to increase his courage because

he was feeling something else, which is fear. And this is what

I find really fascinating. So let's talk about this because we

live in a society where there's a lot of like,

feel the fear and do it anyways and we're gonna dive into that

to feel the fear and do it anyways right? I come from New

England, right? I come from Massachusetts, right the home of

the Massholes where everything was like suck it up and stuff it

down. Just do it right no pain, no gain, like doesn't matter

right. forced through it. Push yourself like all of this It's

kind of tyranny, tyranny, which, you know, I get it and a lot of

us, you know, admit, yep, it made us tougher. Yep, we

survived it. Yep, we got a little dopamine rush from when

we felt terrified. And we still did it afterwards, right?

However, alright. There's also a lot in our society, no matter

geographically, like where you live this kind of this thought

system and Nelson Mandela. So I'm gonna I'm going to tell you

a quote about Nelson Mandela said about courage. And then I'm

gonna tell you what the dictionary calls courage, and

then we're going to talk about it from somebody else's point of

view as well. And here's the thing about courage, we do not

have enough time to kind of go through what the writers say,

and the literary artists and the poets versus the scientists

versus the, you know, the theologians versus the whatever.

If you just Google courage and how to increase your courage,

you'll get 1000 write different hits on on the Google. Okay, but

Nelson Mandela said this, he said, I learned that courage was

not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man

is not he who does not feel afraid. But he who conquers that

fear. So Courage isn't me. You know, I don't have any fear.

It's the triumph over it. It's the one who conquers that fear

me Toby. Just waking up for his nap. Okay, so then I looked up

courage in the dictionary and I was like, Okay, what what is

that? What is what is it they have to say? So it means mental

or moral strength, to venture to persevere, and with stand

danger, fear or difficulty? Okay? It comes from the old

French supposedly, karate co I ag E, which means hat. Like hat,

like I'm making a hat with my hands, right? It means hat,

okay. In the hat as being the seat of emotions. Okay, so it

comes from also, here's some other other, I looked in a

couple of different places. It was also described as spirit and

temperament courage, right your state or frame of mind, meaning

valor or quality of mind, which enables one to meet danger and

trouble without fear. Also, it is a metaphor, sometimes karate

or courage for inner strength. And I thought this was really

interesting. Because some people think that courage is not

innate, right is not something that is built in, it's more of a

skill that people can develop over time. When the relic

courage comes from having the right skills in place. And like

I said, we can go down the rabbit hole, but I just want to

give you a little sip, sip, as Linda Thai says, a little taste

of these different kinds of points of view about courage.

Okay. Now, Erica Dawson. She's a professor at Cornell, I think

business school or whatever. She did a keynote speech speech on

this, I'm on courage. And she describes this and I would love

to hear what you guys think courage is, but I wanted to,

like I said, I wanted to come at this from a couple of different

point of views and not just my own. Okay, so she did a whole

talk on courage. She says courage is defined as having

four different components. Number one, there needs to be an

action that has an uncertain outcome. And the reason why the

uncertain outcome is so important is if we knew how it

was going to end, like if we knew it was going to work out

and everything was going to be fine. It would not require

courage, right? We just be like, hey, yeah, I got this in the

back. It's no big deal, right? Okay. Number two, the person

right, who the person must be fearful. Again, these are the

components right? Number one, an action needs an uncertain

outcome and then the person must be fearful, right? There has to

be fear involved. Number three, right, the presence or perceived

the presence of a perceived or real risk, this is another

component that is necessary. And then number four, the individual

who perceives the risks and feels fear, where the outcome is

uncertain, then also takes action. And it's that piece

right there, that even though they are feeling fear, and they

are perceiving a risk, they have an outcome that is uncertain.

They still take action. She defines this as courage, which I

find so fascinating, and really landed for me. And can you hear

Toby just demanding so many things? Okay. So when I was

thinking about this, this feeling fear doing it anyways,

right? It reminded me of something that also happened the

same week, right, which is Is it reminded me of something that my

hypnosis teacher, Melissa tears, who is brilliant, by the way,

she does these great Instagram lives if you have that don't

follow her don't know, know who she is go check her out. She's

brilliant. And one of the greatest things about Melissa is

as brilliant as she is, she remains curious, she remains a

lifelong learner. And I always kind of love the point of view

and spin that she puts on things. Okay, so this is what

she said, she did a whole Instagram live on this. And she

was calling it was like a little mini series. And she was like,

Colin bullshit. And she's like, I call bullshit on this whole

phrase, feel the fear and do it anyways. Okay, because she says,

feeling the fear and doing it anyways, can actually oftentimes

make matters worse. And she says, it's much better to

actually change the entire wiring of the brain, right to

change the emotional state first, before you then do the

thing. And why this when I was listening to this Instagram

Live, like, it moved me so much that I sent her a message and I

was like, Holy shit, I was like, this explains so much of myself

to me. Because when I tell you that I spent most of my life

like terrified, like, most of my life, like deeply on the inside,

like on the outside, like Tough act, you know, like, on the

outside when I was younger, tough act. But on the inside, I

had so much fear, which makes total sense. If you look at my

upbringing, if you look at my childhood, if you look at my

mother being killed, if you look at, you know, moving in, like

all, like my whole childhood, just kind of looked at the

collective consciousness of the culture I grew up in, if you

looked at the things that happen, the events that

happened, the lack of support the different things that

happen, the trauma, right, it makes total sense that I moved

through the world, just kind of like white knuckling it right,

like, Oh, my God, like still doing everything. And it was

like, even like on spring break, I remember being on spring break

one time, down in Mexico. And there were like some local

people who had some like, land, like some sand shacks, right,

like swimming around, like down in the water. And all these

college kids are like, up on this pier, like around and you

know, the folks that were there was a man and a woman in the

water. And they were waving at the kids to like, jump in. Like

they just like, jump in. And everybody's like, Do it, do it,

do it. And nobody wants to do it. Because everybody's afraid

rather than we're like, okay, there's people down there and

but all they really seen is shocks in the water. Right? So

my whole group of friends, what do they all do? They look at me

and they go shall do it kinky. We'll do cable do it. And I'm

just like, and I just jump in, I just jump into the ocean with

the sharks, right? And it's just like I was, I was afraid. I

couldn't come across as looking kind of feel this. But of

course, my heart was like a Ganga, Ganga Ganga. But as an

animal lover, I have to tell you, I'm wicked excited, I did

do it. And it was like, nothing hostile to them, you know, I got

to, you know, swim around with the sharks. And that was like,

really cool and stuff like that. But my point is, is that I have

often put myself in situations, I always say, like, I'm an

introvert that makes herself do extroverted things, right?

There's a part of me that is afraid of a lot of things. And I

always make myself do it. And I was thinking about this while I

was listening to Melissa, and I'm going to tell you more about

what she went on to say, and why am I work with her and what I

have learned as a hypnotist, and just my work as a spiritual

mentor, and all the work that I've done, right on myself, you

know, over the years, and then I continue to do with others. This

made so much sense. Because anything that is done with

repetition, right, that is felt deeply with emotion and done

with repetition, it gets can wired into your brain. And so

here I have been from a very young age, being told basically,

doesn't matter that you're afraid suck it up. Don't be, you

know, all the things they used to say, don't be up, see, like,

you know, like, don't be so thin skinned, don't be so sensitive,

right? It doesn't matter. It didn't matter. Growing up, if

you were afraid or not, it didn't really matter. And when

you think about when you're a little kid, even if you're

growing up in a healthy environment, where there is

great attachment happening, you

feel safe, your nervous system feels pretty good most of the

time, right? Little kids have if you really just pause and think

about how little control they actually have over their lives.

Right now, of course they're not old enough or you know, mentally

developed or physically developed enough to do most of

the things to take care of them. selves. But that's not my point.

My point is, is that they're told when to go to bed, they're

told what to eat and when to eat. They're told don't do this,

do this, right, like little kids really much just to like get

bossed around their whole childhood, they're often told,

doesn't matter what you think it doesn't matter what you feel,

doesn't matter that you don't want to eat that, do that hug

that person, kiss that person go to bed at this time where that

do, right. So as little kids, we really get programmed. And one

of my programs was I was not allowed to feel afraid. And not

to be afraid, or to have big feelings or whatever, right?

weakness was not tolerated. Right. My stepfather did not

tolerate weakness. So it crafted in me this ability, yes, to have

a fear and feel something and then just kind of like, whoa,

bulldoze through it. But look, do you think that was helpful to

my nervous system? Do you think that that was loving and kind to

the parts of me that maybe needed a little more gentleness

or a little more tenderness or a little more inquisitiveness?

Right, you know, what I'm saying? So this whole idea of

like, just kind of like, you know, push through your fear and

do it anyways. So as hypnotists as change workers, as spiritual

mentors, and yoga teacher, whatever, you know, there's a

lot of tools and not just myself, other coaches, other

people, you know, we have gathered a lot of tools. And one

of the things that Melissa really talks about is that, you

know, again, neurons, right, Rick Hansen says, neurons that

fire together wire together. So if we do something repetitively

enough, this is how we get, you know, habits. This is how we

create stay on beliefs and identities and states of being

is we do something and believe something and say something and

think something enough times. Okay? So she said, rather than

feeling fear, or and if you're not watching, you can see I'm

making these like, like nervous movements, these jerky movements

with my hands, like, ah, like, I'm afraid, rather than feeling

the fear, and then wiring in Oh, we just do it anyways. Right?

Why would I want to create that association with that thing that

I'm trying to do? So I just keep wiring in Oh, fear in this

thing, fear and this thing? It is much better. And we have so

many tools to do this tools that I have learned from Melissa, you

know what I mean, to first change the emotional state, and

then approach or go ahead and do the thing, okay. And I wrote

this down, because I want to make sure I you know that I'm

very clear in my language. First, we change the emotion, we

change the emotional state, we change how we feel first. So for

me, one of the big ones is, when I'm curious about something,

almost nothing will stop me, right. But curiosity for me is

more like a love feels like Right? When I'm wicked curious.

That's the thing that makes me want to go forward and lean in

and say yes, and kind of follow that impulse, that divine

impulse, right. And so I would much rather feel curious or

calm, or less, like freaked out, like more kind of like, present,

and like being able to make a good decision, because that's

the other thing when we're in that fear state. Right? So for

me, if I break it down spiritually, I would say I'm

either in a state of love a state of mind of love, a thought

system of love, or a state of mind and a thought system of

fear. I'm either choosing the teacher of love, or I'm choosing

the teacher of fear, right? And so if I'm in that place, where

I'm calm and curious, and leaning in, and I'm in like

that, yes, state, my body, like my nervous system feels like

calm, right? That's a lot different than going into

something from that fear state. Because when you're in that fear

state, the parts of your brain in the front of your brain that

actually make good decisions, it is not available to you it is

offline, like the clothes for business, right? So why make

decisions from a fear state because there can be dire

consequences. When you just kind of are like, it doesn't matter

what I feel, it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna push through and

do this thing. Now, of course in life and death situations,

right? Maybe that is necessary. But I'm just talking, like think

about phobias. Think about all the different ways that we can

be afraid in our life. Okay. So what changes the brain is to not

keep feeling the fear and then do the thing. It's to change how

you feel first, using lots of different tools, right? We have

so many tools to do that these days, right? EFT, bilateral

stimulation, right? The tap is technique like breath work. I

mean, there's a bunch of different ways to do it. Okay.

That's what changes the brain So now we come back to Leo and why

this is important. So I started to think about what his friend

blurted out and why it landed so deeply in my heart when he said,

increase your courage. It was, it was like a great piece of

just the words like increase your courage and the way he said

it. It was so powerful. It was brief, it was impactful. But

when I thought about why did that move me what was so

powerful about it? What it was, it wasn't so much that he was

saying, increase your courage, it's what those words were,

which was encouragement. He was in COURAGING, his friend. Now to

encourage I look this up to to give you a quote unquote,

official definition, to encourage means to make strong

to Hatton like think hot right to had to Hatton somebody to

inspire with courage and confidence in spirit or hope, to

heighten them to warmth, right? To make warmth, to cherish, to

foster, to foment to support, and I thought, ah, that's what

moved me. That's what I'm feeling right and in with, right

to be in with courage to be given that courage to be

encouraged. That's what was so powerful to me. And when I

started to think about what Michael Sheen was doing with his

body, with his face with his tone of voice, I don't even know

if he knows that he was doing this. He seems like a wicked

smart guy. So maybe he does. But it was everything. And this is

what I noticed when Leo was talking, because it's pointing

back to what Melissa is saying, to change your state first, and

then do the thing. Okay, this is what I was perceiving. This is

what I saw in this little 92nd or whatever it was clip. I don't

know how long it was. A couple minutes, maybe. Okay. Leo stands

up. He's really nervous. He's got the mic. He's trying to find

his courage. Okay. What does he do? On camera, I see him take

several good deep breaths. Exhales it out through his

mouth. Right away.

I know he's allowing his parasympathetic nervous system,

he's inviting it to come online, right? The vagus nerve is down

regulating, he's taking those breath, his nervous system is

like seeking like, Okay, we want to feel different, right? So we

know that that breathing pranayama and yoga breath work,

right breath control can really help us he takes Number one, he

takes a couple of deep, deep, deep breaths. Number two, he was

given cues of safety. So the nervous system number one thing

it is looking for cues of safety. The number one question

it's always asking is, Am I safe? Am I safe? Am I safe?

Right? So Michael Sheen in his brilliance in his maybe

subconscious wisdom, right? Gives him physical cues of

safety with his face, which I'll talk about in a minute. Then the

aide who leaned over and said or the guide, or the teachers who

said, Do you want me to read the question? Do you want me to ask

it? Right? So she put her hand on him. So now he has a physical

sense of support and safety. While that's happening, Michael

Sheen is looking at him. He gives them a little head nod

that says yes. So deeply subliminal. He winks at them.

Not in a creepy way gives them a little wink. And he nods. And he

says, Yes, he gives them a verbal permission, right to take

his time. So we get an offer of help from the teacher. He's

getting all these verbal, he gets a verbal cue right in his

ear from his teacher gently not to embarrass him, right? Just

says it quietly to him. And that's when he responds, like,

No, I want to do it myself. Right. He's finding that

courage. And then he's like, but I'm just nervous and he gets to

say it out loud. He gets to say what he's feeling out loud. And

all of these people around him who care about him, I'm

assuming, right? Because of the way that they were acting

towards him, it seemed as if they cared about him. They are

supporting him. They're encouraging him. So he is

getting what I would call compassionate witnessing. Okay.

He states his fear, he states his need, like I'm afraid I'm

nervous. And then the people around him, offer him help. He's

surrounded by people that want to see him when they want to see

him have a great outcome to this. And he hears the words of

love and support around him. He was en couraged and all of those

little things. That is what starts to show left what he's

feeling? Because after the friend, you know, people are

saying, Don't worry, Leo, you can do it Leo, right. He's

getting all this encouragement, he's getting cues of safety.

He's getting all this stuff, what I would call his balcony,

people are cheering him on and supporting him. He's starting to

shift how he feels he's moving out of feeling too nervous to

ask, too, then finding within himself something clicked

something changes, right? He his state is changed enough that He

then asks the most eloquent and beautiful question about I think

it was about Dylan Thomas, or about Michael Sheen's favorite

writer. It was such a lovely question. And as soon as he

finds the words, and he says it out, he gets rewarded, again, a

little dopamine hit again, because Michael Sheen says back

to him. What a fantastic question. So his courage is

like, rewarded, it's paid off, in the moment is just so

beautiful. He was encouraged. And this, I believe, is what

helped him to increase his courage. And I just thought to

myself, how different would the world be? If instead of

everybody spending so much time trying to tear each other down,

trying to attack each other in the comments on social media,

trying to make other people feel stupid or embarrassed or to

shame them? What if instead, our intention was not only of

course, kindness, compassion, right? All these things? But

what if it was encouragement? What if our encouragement helped

to increase other people's courage? It would be a totally

different world, if we felt like we were safe. We were supported.

We were seen. And we were being encouraged from the people

around us. So if you currently do not have those kinds of

people around you, I would highly encourage you to find

some, and the timing might be perfect. Because I am reopening

my I have a spiritual mentoring group called the nest. And the

nest, I ran it for three years, I took a pause for a year. And

now in May, we're reopening it. And I'm so excited. And if you

want to find out more about it, you can just go to Karen

kenney.com/nest, all the information is right there. But

this is an incredible group of people who are there to do their

own spiritual work their own personal development, but

there's such an incredibly supportive and warm and loving

and encouraging community. And it's an incredible thing. So if

you are lacking that kind of stuff, maybe in your day to day

life, maybe the people around you are not that encouraging.

Maybe you are like, okay, there's a big change, there's a

big step. There's a transformation that I'm trying

to make. There's a relationship, I'm trying to leave, there's a

job I'm trying to go for, I want to ask for a raise, I want

whatever the thing is, I want to sign up for this race. I want to

finally write this book, I want to start a pot clap podcast, I

want to start a business, I want to start sharing my app more

whatever it is, you know, the nest is a very powerful place.

And if you don't have those kinds of encouraging people

directly around you in your, maybe your origin family or your

friends or your workplace or whatever. The nest is a place

where maybe you can find that kind of community and that kind

of in this guaranteed shenanigans. Katie, Katie, I

know you're Elizabeth is guaranteed shenanigans also in

the nest, but it's a fantastic community. And I would love to

have you be a part of it. You get like I said, you can find

out more Karen kenney.com/nes Check it out. But you guys, I

hope that this was helpful for you in some way. I hope some

part of this story at the very least was entertaining, but

maybe it was educational in some way or encouraging to you or

enlightened you in some way. That would be my hope it made

you feel something. And if you happen to see the clip, okay,

check out BBC One, the player Michael Sheen, you will find it

Google it. Look up Melissa tears go follow her watch that little

video on calling bullshit on feel the fear and do it anyways.

It was so enlightening to me about how when you get anxious

about something when you have a fear around something, whatever

that fear might be, that when you just keep forcing yourself

to do it. You're basically wiring the brain to associate

fear with that thing. So one of the things we got to do and this

is what we do in my work that I do is we try to change As the

emotional state, we try to change how we're feeling to

something more resourceful and positive and helpful. So then we

can say the thing, do the thing be be the way that we want to do

start to change and shift that relationship to whatever that

scary thing might be. Now, of course, we know common sense

here, right? I'm not talking about, you know, common sense

here. Okay. So, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you

enjoyed the show. As you know, one of my goals is to always

leave people better than how they first started the episode,

right? So hopefully something from this landed in your heart

or in your mind. And it's how I always end the show, right? My

goal here, one of my you know, the biggest heartbeats of this

show is to simply spread more love in the world. So hopefully,

I was successful in doing that little tiny bit, maybe just a

little bit, a little bit more love. Okay, so you guys,

wherever you go, may you leave yourself in the animals and the

other people and the environment, the things and the

people you come across. May you also leave things in people

better than how you found them. Wherever you go. May Your

presence may your being there. May your love be a blessing.

Thanks. Bye