The Thin Space

Well, hey there, Cadre. Happy, happy Sunday. And even if it's not a happy Sunday, you are still in the right place. You can be having a cruddy Sunday and you still belong right here. It is self care Sunday in the Cadre sphere, meaning all day on Sunday in live streamland. We take some time to share ways from real people, talking about real stuff from professionals and peers, showing that there's many pathways to wellness. My name is JC Lippold, and if we've never shared space and time together before, thanks for the opportunity to share some time and space with you.

If it makes you uncomfortable to hear someone say, thanks for spending time with you, I am perfectly okay with you being uncomfortable. I don't care if I make you uncomfortable. It is my job to make you feel safe or to create space where you can be safe, in space where you can be brave. Hey, Katherine. Hey, Jules. Hey, speak wonder. Hello. Hello. Good morning. No matter where you are, I am north of the border for a few more hours in Toronto, and then I will be just south of the border back in Minneapolis.

So wherever you are, I hope you are feeling some safety, feeling some bravery, some curiosity, some courage to do the things. Later on today, you'll see Jean and Daryl and Tiffany and Jason, and hopefully you'll also hear those voices in your head and heart saying, ah, where am I gonna go today? What am I gonna do today? Voices that'll lead you to successes and failures and attempts and all of the things, all of this stuff. So the thin space. The thin space is derived by a practice from a bunch of franciscan monks where they would look for the space in between, between day and night, beginnings and ends, seasons, good and bad.

You know that space in between, they would say, in that space, there's something there. We can call that presence. We can call that a lot of stuff. But you know what? I'm going to talk about marketing today because I'll say I think part of the reason why things like wellness or mental health or health or fitness or nutrition or simply stuff that should be really easy to sell to people, why humans are really bad at selling it to people, and it's because people are really bad at marketing. People think that if something's good sometimes, that we need to work really hard to sell it.

We need to put it on a high shelf. We need to convince people that they're broken. We need to convince people that because we have this thing, we're good and therefore they are bad. We need to convince people that we are perfect or that we are happy and that we have all the answers. So two things that I'm going to raise up today. Number one, I think the key to success is quitting. I think the key to success is giving up. And I'm going to put that into the situation of finding the thin space today.

But I think it's bigger than that. But I'm going to use this thin space as the example today. But you're going to hear me talk about quitting and giving up quite a bit over the next coming couple of weeks. So here's what I mean. Do you want to find the thin space? Practice quitting and giving up. Quit. Like if you want to find the thin space, take a couple of minutes. Quit focusing on the past for a couple of minutes. Like, think of it like that old game show, supermarket sweep. You have five minutes to run around the supermarket and quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit for the next five minutes, focusing on the past.

Take everything in your cart that's from the past and throw it out. Throw it out, throw it out, throw it out, throw it out, throw it out. It's like the opposite of supermarket sweep. Run around the supermarket and just chuck everything. And all the planning that you're doing for the future, all the worries, all the hopes, all the excitements, all the things you're looking forward to. Stop. Just get rid of it all. Quit. Stop doing it. Just for a moment, not even just for a moment. Be in that space in between everything that has been and everything that will be, and see what there is defined there.

I think there's something magical to that. There really is. Or at least I've found there to be. It's liberating. It's also really scary because sometimes you think, well, if I let go of those things, those worries, hopes, fears, concerns, desires, what if they don't come back? But I tell you, normally we put ourselves down here and all those other things are above us. Sometimes when we get rid of those things and we let ourselves see the daylight, don't worry, when we bring those things back, we're still there and so are they.

Okay, so that's number one step. Number one, quit. Give up. That's a good way to find the thin space. Number two, sometimes thin space is seen as kind of a style of meditation, right? It's like presence, work, and people go up, can't do it, because it's all about clearing your mind and it's about getting rid of stuff and not go to clear my mind. Because the second I try to clear my mind. All these thoughts come on in. What a really bad marketing scheme or scheme, depending on where you're from. I like saying scheme.

I actually think meditation and presence isn't about clearing your mind. It's about the opposite. It's about cluttering your mind. Have you ever like, sat in the dentist office and you're waiting? You notice the fish tank in the corner and the fish just go like this. And the fish just go like this and go like this and go like this. They just go. They just keep going. When you give yourself a moment of stillness, what happens? All those thoughts that have been waiting for a moment to have a moment, they take their moment.

That is what happens when we give ourselves the thin space. The things that have been waiting for a moment get their moment. All those things down here that have been under this stuff, they've been waiting give themselves that moment. Everybody. So if you're one of those people, I like to call them humans who struggle with clearing their mind. And you want to know what? I'm gonna be kinda. I'm gonna be kind of racy for a moment. If you are one of those, one of those humans who say, oh, I'm really good at clearing my mind.

I don't believe you. Maybe you are. Maybe you really are good at clearing your mind completely. Maybe. Maybe you are. I wanna meet you. I've never met one of you. I meet lots of people. I've never met one of you. Maybe you are. I really want to meet you. But I'll say, we have so many things in our minds and there's nothing wrong with that. And the reason why I get playful and I say I don't believe you is because there is nothing wrong with having things in our mind. And the thin space isn't about going, haha.

Look, I cleared my mind. Why should we get a prize for that? The thin space isn't about creating emptiness. It's about creating a banquet hall where all the things that normally aren't enough for our time and space finally get invited to the party. So quit. Give up on worrying about the past, give up on stuff that may never happen and take a d*** moment to be in. The moment that is. Y'all go out and enjoy this moment. We'll see you later.