Comedy Through The Chaos

Hello friends, and happy Thursday to you, cadres fear. Thank you for joining us. If you are live, hanging out there and doing your best on this caregiver Thursday, I am Miss Shannon and always happy to be joining you. I'm going to get my water and hydrate as we begin this conversation. I hope that everybody is well. I'll bring you up to speed if you wonder who the lady with blue hair is talking to you. I am miss Shannon Paul and I'm a multidimensional event MC hubbing out of the great state of Minnesota.

So that means that I kind of hang out in the land of stand up comedy, storytelling, voice acting, event MC and benefit auctioneer. But the primary motivation in my life and the main reason that I get up and continue to breathe every day other than reflex is because. Hello, Luke. Thanks for joining me. The other thing that I primarily do is I happen to be the mother of an adorable 16 year old boy who also happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum. It's always good to see your name, Luke.

I appreciate you so much. So, you know, as I was preparing for today's livestream here in the Cadre sphere, one of the things I was thinking about is the fact that we so much, especially when we're talking in this land of being a caregiver, is that we are very much in the realm of, we know that we are supposed to take time for ourselves and do things for ourselves. And that's one of the things you read all the time, like, you can't give from an empty cup and you have to fill your well and you have to put your oxygen masks on first.

I read all the same things you have, folks. And then I also know how hard it and practice, practice and practicality, how difficult it is to actually do that because you probably have a bunch of days like mine, like my kiddo, basically, from the moment he wakes up. It's like a starter pistol goes off in our house every day. As much as I try to make sure that we are in a Zen place with the lo fi hip hop music playing in the background and the essential oil diffusers throughout the house and all of the smart light bulbs changing to a red color at about 830 so I can start our circadian rhythm.

And then you know what ends up happening? We still end up just off and running from the moment we wake up to the moment that one of us falls asleep, and then whoever's still awake, which is usually mom, has a minute to exhale. But then the list of what else should I be doing? Starts running through my head. And today was just an interesting day because obviously we all have additional things normally that we're doing other than being caregivers, if you're like me. And so of course I have career things and relationship things and friend group things.

And how do you prioritize the additional things that you need to do and especially when other things drop in your to do list? Like, honestly, I'm here in the chat right now. I might not even be doing it right because I got an email that said I was supposed to update some stuff and I think I did and maybe I didn't. So what? See if this works. If not, I'll check in with y'all next week because that's really what I want to share with everybody, is that that to do list is going to always stay there and you are always going to have things that you have to get done.

And hopefully you're able to prioritize those things that help you manage your to do list but also continue to fill your cup. Like today I went to the gym and hung out with my buddies in this group fitness class that I do. And I, I kept telling myself, you should stay home and going, no, that's not what I'm going to default to. I'm not going to default to the thing that I should do to make sure I can get more ticked off my to do list for my health and well being. I need to go to the gym and figuring out a way to prioritize that and then not only prioritize it, to figure out how to mentally be at peace with that decision.

And that is the hardest part. Hello, Shannon. Hello. And I agree. It is so. And, and I always have to agree with myself and go, you are allowed to mentally be at peace with the decision you made to prioritize your health because it doesn't feel like it, it feels like a luxury or a narcissistic tendency or that there's a mistake that is being made by not prioritizing either the needs of somebody else or the desires of the people who want to be added onto my to do list. And that's just the reality is that, you know, I just have to sometimes go, this is what I'm going to be able to get done.

And that is a great, great amount of movement and it's a great amount of completion and it is an acceptable and enough amount. That's why I love watching our friend JC, who's going to join me tonight for our show in person, which is great, because I have not had a chance to see JC perform live in person as the wonderful, talented human being that he is. So I'm excited to see that this evening. But it is a matter of saying enough does just have to be enough because that's all you have is whatever you've gotten done in that point.

And as much as you'd like to be able to have that, you know, I read a lot of Sci-Fi books. We'd all love to have that time machine where we could roll back and give ourselves more time to get a little bit more done. But would that really make you feel any better? Or would it just become a never ending time turner of I went back and I did a little bit more. I went back, I did a little bit more. And you still aren't fulfilled because you weren't happy with whatever the enough is that you have. So I encourage you to wherever your enough is right now, that is all that it is.

It is enough. You don't have to do more than what you're doing right now. You will get around to doing more on another day and there will always be more to get done. Trust me. I don't think that this plan is going to stop spinning. You know, I don't think it's going to stop adding things onto your plate. It's not going to stop having expectations for all of us to complete a little bit more than whatever we're completing. So complete what you can give yourself time and space to hydrate, to take time to work out, to take time to rest and refuel, to take time to figure out a way how you can show up and be fully present for the people that you are caretaking for and full up and be fully present for yourself, because that is difficult.

And if we are helping at all with that journey while you join us here in the Cadre sphere, thank you for letting us be part of that whole thing and that recipe for you feeling that you are refueled and refreshed and enough. So, JC, I adore you. I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight. For everybody else out there, thank you for joining us here in the Cadre sphere, for all of our live streams and all of the content that we have pre recorded and otherwise, we appreciate you being a part of it. So if you are looking for information, we encourage you, please to always ping us and let us know that you would like to hear a little bit more of any particular kind of content.

If you have any suggestions, we are always open to them and hope that we are providing a great resource for everybody that is out there. So in the meantime, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to find you next week. And if not, I'll see you on the other side. Yes. Be fully present for yourself. Thank you, Chels. We appreciate you. Yes. And Chels, since you're in mn, if you ever need anything, man, reach out. A bunch of our contributors are here in the great state of Minnesota, and we would love to help build support for you here, especially as we move into this next season, because it might actually have a winner here.

So we appreciate you all. Yes. And I'm going to see everybody on the other side. So have a great week. We encourage you to stay connected here in the cadres fair. And I, we'll talk to you all soon.