Comedy Through The Chaos

Hi everybody. I'll presume that it's working because it looks like it kind of worked last time, but whatever. I've had a lot of little things. Like I noticed I have a hole in the sweater which I need to darn later. But small problems. Anyway. Hi everybody, I'm Ms. Shannon. A variety of word related things like a comedian and a corporate speaker and a voice actor and event mc. Hello Andy. Good. I'm glad to see somebody in the chat. I was a little worried. Worried. Andy, I need, I need emotional support because I found out I have a hole in my sweater when I found out.

Noticed found out is, is phrasing it poorly. But good to see you in the chat. I've been having some issues signing on lately, so I'm glad that it seems to be working. So happy Thursday to you friend. And happy Thursday to anybody who ends up watching this in the replay. If the replay is working for me, that would be outstanding. If you're not familiar with me, I am Ms. Shannon. I help out of the great state of Minnesota and Minneapolis adjacent and I, I'm always happy to join you on this. Hello.

Hello. I am going to darn it. Yes, I'm going to darn it. I have the things to darn it as I'm trying not to pick at it. Hello, Christy. I'm just complaining about this hole. Darn. Which I will darn it after I say darn it. But yeah, I'm disappointed. I like this sweater. Anyway, I think that is a good entry into what I thought I would share with you this week as we are here on. I know Christy isn't. It's just the worst as we are talking about a variety of subject matters on these Cadre caregiver Thursdays.

If you're not familiar with me, I am also the proud parent of an adorable 17 year old kiddo, soon to be 18. Soon to be 18. We are now less than a month away from his 18th birthday and he happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum. Yeah, I, I think it's an order. I liked it as an order. Didn't you like my interpretation of it, Andy? It's both. So the thing that's been going on lately, especially for those of us who are living in the the Twin Cities, is that there are layers of complexities that are going on in addition to what we might already be dealing with.

And so me specifically, I mean I, you know, maybe you've seen my kiddo kind of photobomb some of my live streams, but since I have A biracial kid. I've been extremely worried about him. And dealing with all of that additional anxiety and realizing that it's been pushing me into the land of you should haves. And so for me, particularly, those you should haves come from things like, why didn't you get them a passport center? Why didn't you do this? All of these things that I didn't necessarily have a big reason to do before, but now it seems like, in retrospect, I should have rushed out and done them.

And I think that that happens to us sometimes. We armchair quarterback ourselves and we end up sitting there going, you should have known that you needed to get this done or that this would have benefited you if you had those type of things. And so I really had to be honest with myself on some of those things and go, no, you were doing them on the time schedule. That seemed appropriate at the time. And the other thing that I've had to be honest with myself about is I have a tendency. I'm one of those humans that very much will kick her mental wellness can down the road, Especially when it's things like being honest with myself about where I am feeling emotionally on that whole ladder that we live on and where I'm feeling, as far as, you know, the.

The amount of space I give myself to admit that I might just be tired, I am terrible at that. I've been working on it for, geez, as long as I can remember, working on things that had to do with me. And then I'll take little mini steps like, well, you got better at giving yourself a bedtime routine, so you've been washing your face so you don't look exhausted or you got better. Look, you took time to, like, fix the hole in your sweater, and that counts. And I have to go, you know what? Sometimes you need more than that.

Sometimes you need to admit that you're tired in that way that sleep doesn't really fix. I don't know if you've ever been tired like that, where it's not about sleep, it's about feeling depleted and not giving yourself enough time to refuel. And for me, sometimes not even knowing what it is that I need to do for myself to feel refueled because I don't really give myself enough time to examine what it is that's making me feel exhausted or the combination of things that are happening for me to feel depleted because.

Especially because I am, then that position of, you know, I'm the caregiver, I'm the one that needs to step up. I'm the one that needs to make sure everybody else is feeling okay. So you land in the world of continually saying I'm fine and not in a position of. It's like this contract you have with yourself, but it's more like if you say it enough times, you really will be fine. So if you keep saying it, it'll magically become true. And so that's something that I've had to admit to myself lately is that, you know, it's not from this huge, scary perspective.

It's not nearly as bad as it's been in the past when my anxiety was creeping up on me to the point that I'm like, you need to fix this, sis. It's more of a continually to pretend that I'm fine when I need to admit that I am holding a lot. And you might be in that position as well there, you know, just being able to admit to yourself that you are holding a lot, that you are holding more than you would normally all of these things. And it's not really that you're even to this point that you're falling apart.

It's just this way that you're tired in, like, a professional way. Like, this is just what I do is be tired. And sometimes you could just need to admit to yourself that it's like, hey, you know, I can't professionally tired myself out of this situation. I need to figure out some other way to do it. So as good as I am at adapting, I am also good at saying, you know what, sometimes there is a problem. And so instead of putting all your energy into problem solving for other people, you need to do it for yourself.

So for me, I'm just doing more personal exploration, giving myself more space to say, okay, here's why you're tired. And little things that normally wouldn't frustrate you that are frustrating you now are valid. But they're also a little sign that you're letting yourself get a little bit farther out of pocket than you need to. So that's part of what I am working on this week, is trying to, as my sister puts it, not let my Aries get in my way, because I will. Here's a new project, or here's a new thing that I have to get done, or here's a.

A runoff, and let's jump off this new diving board and see how the water feels. So I am putting some of those things on hold, just putting a little pin in them. They will still be there. They will be fine. So that I can take care of a couple of other things before they continue to unravel and become a bigger problem. So that is where I am at. So I wonder where you may be at in your journey. Are you continually to just kick that can down the road of being actually fine by saying that you're fine when maybe you're not, or maybe you're not completely falling apart, but maybe you could stand for.

Stand for a little bit of respite and true respite, you know, true. That. That. That actual, okay, I gave myself time to do something. And that, I think, is different for all of us. Like, I am not one of those people that if, hey, a lot of the things that you see on those lists of, hey, you feel relaxed if you do something. Those things don't really work that way for me. Like, I know. I always think it's interesting when you see those things. Like, you should go take a bubble bath. That does not sound relaxing to me.

I don't want to just sit there in some water and turn it into Miss Shannon soup. I don't. I don't feel like doing that. Thank you, Christy. Yeah, I mean, and I. I think that that's part of it. When you say recognizing what you need when you need it, that has been part of the learning process for me because I wasn't good at that. And I'm still not always good at recognizing what it is that I need. I think that's part of the conundrum, especially for me, is going, I don't even know what I need sometimes because I'm so busy doing that I really am not organically good at being.

So some of those things that probably would be what I need. I don't even know how to articulate them to myself in my head. So I certainly don't know how to articulate them in a way that I could ask my support system for help and do those things. So that's one of the things that I am trying to build into my particular process or this week is being more honest with, okay, just admit that you're tired. What can you do about that? What is helping lead into those things? What's getting in my own way so that I can't really wind down or do what it is that I normally would do to make myself feel better.

And so that's really what I'm working on right now and reframing things and going. That doesn't mean that, you know, I'm giving up. It doesn't mean that, you know, I don't give myself credit for all of the great things that I do and the lot of work. It's actually the opposite. I'm giving myself for a credit for saying, man, you're carrying a lot, and there's a lot of stuff going on. And sometimes going, I have to get everything done all at once is part of the issue. And so I'm just gonna back up if you guys wonder.

I'm actually in my studio again today, and so that's my ceiling because it's a voiceover in a production studio. So I have a lot of soundproofing, but this is the. The calmest, most quiet place in my house. So sometimes it is nice just to hide out down here because, you know, I wander around the rest of my house. I can actively hear how much louder other parts of my house are. So this is my respite spot. You know, sometimes it's the guide down here, even though it's also where I work. And that's, I think, another good example of kind of where I am in life is going, no, go set up your space.

You know, do what you can to change the energy where you're at so that I have more room to decide what it is that I need right now. And, you know, I just wonder if that's anything that you guys have ever had, is that you know that you need something, but you're not really able to articulate what it is that you need. Like, you know, that something doesn't feel quite settled, I guess, is the way that I would describe it. But even though you have that knowledge that things aren't settled, you're like, but I don't know what to do with that information.

And so that's where I am right now. It's just going, okay, what's the next step? And I'm sure it'll come to me, but I also know that pushing it isn't really where I need to be right now. It's not one of those things where I'm like, I can force through that particular breakthrough and go, if you can just sit here long enough, you're going to come up with the answer to what is going on in this miasma in my brain right now. So I'm just going to pick a thing for right now. I'm doing something today that I don't normally do.

I'm going to go meet a friend over for happy hour later today. And I haven't done that in a while because the world has felt heavy. And I also have been extra. If. If I'm not working, then I should be home hanging out with my kiddo. Today. I'm gonna let him hang out with his friend. I have his PCA coming over today and instead of cramming in more work when his PCA is here, I'm gonna get what I can get done today. Done. And when his PCA gets here, I'm gonna go meet a friend for a glass of wine and see how that works for me.

And it's been a while because that has not been a priority. So I will see if maybe creating some community like that makes me feel a little bit better. Maybe it'll feel good to be able to have somebody face to face that I can, I don't know, share with, build community with, do something different with. So I'll see how that works. And you know, no heavy expectation on this is going to be the thing, but it's something that I'm just going, you know what, you don't normally make room for this, so let's see how that works.

So maybe there's some things in your life that you're putting off. Maybe there's some things that you go, hey, this doesn't feel quite right. And you just keep putting it on like a sweater that you've outgrown. So let's get some things that fit and let's work on that for this week. I am glad that you were able to see me because I was a little worried because I had been one of those people that was having a couple of technical difficulties here in the app. And I am so grateful for all of our tech support people that I know have been working diligently to get things up and running for everybody.

Please continue to let us know how we can build this experience for you. That means not only on the side of us telling all these things and sharing the things that we do, but also if you have any tweaks technically that would make this app more beneficial to you, please let us know that as well because we're always working on all those kind of things. So I will do a little recap that I'll put in the app later. I'll do a little video for this and I'll also put just so that you get a good, a good payoff, Maggie and Andy and Christy, I will put in a picture of after I darn this hole.

So I do plan to see you back here on Saturday morning here at 10am Central again in the app. I always look forward to that. So we'll see how, how we are going as we check in again later this week. So I always want to remind you, please be kind to yourself. I hope that that. Thank you, Christy. Please be kind to yourself. I hope that the day treats you well. If it does not, shame on it. Not shame on you. Thank you for joining us here in the app and I will see you back here soon. Bye, everybody.