Leading With Love 💕

Hello, Cadre Sphere. It is Anila. Rounding out today's Wellness Wednesday. I am someone with lived experience with mental health conditions, anxiety being one of them, along with a host of others that are all sort of related. R. strand and R. Stigma and Jules. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Today has been kind of like, hey, Luke. Good to see you all. You know, a lot of times I come on here with something that I want to talk about, a story or something I read that's inspired me to help us all. Lead with love.

Good evening. Good evening, Good evening. Very much needed. Wind down. I feel you completely. And I'm loving all the hearts coming my way and coming your way right now. The biggest thing I don't know, today has been kind of like a year and a day, if you will. I think we're all. I don't know. Last night I didn't watch. I didn't watch the numbers. I just went to sleep and I Woke up at 12:45 in the morning and looked at my phone, which is not a good thing to do. But I just saw a message from a friend of mine from Texas, and she said, are you up?

And it was 10 minutes later. It was 10 minutes earlier than when I woke up. No doomsday. No doom scrolling. So let's hope scroll right now together. I like that, Luke. Just hope. And so we were talking about what was going on, and it's something that I kind of. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if I'm grasping at straws, but the way I see it is in 2022, I got breast cancer. In 2022, my body and the world around me was telling me, anila, you're not doing it right. You're not living right, you're not taking care of yourself.

You're not eating right, you're not exercising. You're not taking time for yourself. You are go, go, go. You are with the wrong things. And it all came crashing down with that breast cancer diagnosis. And so my friend and I last night were talking about this idea of a lot of times, whether it's mental health or physical health or just problems in our life, we don't take action until we hit rock bottom. And I see it too, kind of in our body. Focus, repetitive behavior community. People with hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting.

There's no impetus to take action until it's gotten so so and so. Maybe that's kind of what we need still. We haven't hit rock bottom yet. I don't know. I'm grasping at straws as to why so many folks are unwilling to choose love and hope and how much fear they must be holding on to. Then we also talked about this idea of possessions versus people, which is fear. People want to hold on to what they have more so than they want to help others hold on to what they have. It's just not our time. But we're getting there.

I feel like we're getting there. I feel like these moments allow us to see who is for us, who is with us, not necessarily against us, but who just hasn't hit the bottom yet. Not that I ever want that for anyone, but it seems to be the only way to take action, to take loving right action. Our stigma. You looked at the phone last night too. I know, right? It's just this temptation. The crazy thing is all day yesterday I was like, I'm not checking the Internet. And my husband was like, you're silly.

Because then all day yesterday, there's no numbers. It was only at night, obviously post 7pm here that the numbers are starting to come in, but it was. It was actually kind of nice to like, not to kind of have that. I'm not gonna look at the Internet today. Thanks. Speak. Wonder about the butterflies. Yep, this is. I'm sitting in my kids room today. I'm always in a different room, my kids room. So you can see a caricature of them from a trip to Duluth and some butterflies. Butterflies to me are hope.

The whole idea of the chrysalis and you know, starting out with something that is. I don't know why caterpillars, people think are kind of gross or creepy or crawly, but I don't know, when you see them, they're so colorful and interesting looking. But that idea of, you know, starting out one way, going into the little cocoon, developing and coming out in this beautiful, magical, fluttery flutter by butterfly. Maybe that's where we are right now, is where that creepy crawly thing, America is that creepy crawly thing.

We're gonna go into our holes, we're gonna cuddle up in our cocoons, we're gonna come together in love and we will emerge a butterfly. New beginnings. And together, together, we will all get through this. I think that's the other thing is like, we're all just sitting here with like fear of what does it all really mean and how much of what people say is actually what they mean and what they will take action on. It's hard. It's hard. And oh, man, the love today from my husband, actually, before I get to the love today from my husband, the love today from my dog.

Came downstairs in the morning, made my kids lunch, cutting the apple, and then I finally started bawling and my dog was just like, mama, why are you crying? Like, what's going on? And I fell to the floor in tears. And he just put his little paw on my knee and came over and nuzzled me and hugged me. And it's just so sweet, so sweet. The love that even a little animal can sense that I needed. Then of course, my husband heard me and came downstairs and talked me off my little ledge. He is my teacher, man.

This idea of equanimity, this idea of balance, you know, in Buddhism and in Hinduism, probably a lot of other eastern philosophies, this idea of when something happens, whether it's good or it's bad, just always be here. That even keelness. And for someone with a body focused, repetitive behavior, like I do with hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting, these are signals that we've gotten on our. Off our baseline. And these behaviors are a response to that signal as well to get us back to baseline.

And so this idea of equanimity, this idea of calmness through the storm, that's mental health, right? That's mental health. And right now, some of us may feel like we're in a storm and some of us may feel great about what's ahead. And I'm trying to get there. I think. I think everything's gonna be okay because like Luke's saying, hope. Hope is what we need to keep having, you know, the positive mindset, looking forward, eyes open, eyes wide open, but leading with love all around us. It was good to see all of you tonight.

I send you tons of hearts back your way, and I sit with you whether you're feeling tired and scared and. Or you're feeling exhilarated for what's to come. And let's come back, let's find a way to find a balance between those two, and let's find a way for all sides to work together towards something that works for as many people as possible instead of what's happening now, where different groups are getting kind of sidelined and kind of pushed down so that others can rise to the top. Like, how do we stop?

That is the question that I will sit with for the next until I figure it out, I guess. I don't know. I feel like that's been something I've been thinking about since childhood. But one day we'll get there. Someone will figure it out. Some group will figure it out. All right, I've rambled. I hope you're all ready for bed. Ready to meet this moment, the exhaustion, with good sleep. To new beginnings. As speak wonder says tomorrow is another day. And as I draw from Eastern philosophies, I also draw from Christianity and other religions.

And I'm not gonna lie, I love my Christian rock radio stations. And there's a song that says, if it's not good, it's not done. And we gotta just wait and see. Keep going inward, onward, upward I'm wishing you love, strength and awareness. Keep finding moments every day to lead with love in the communities that you serve, in your family and also back at you. To lead with love, to take care of yourself and to listen to the signals that your body may be giving you so that you have strength to do this necessary work that's probably going to be coming up for us.

All right, Good night. Bye.