The Self-Awareness and Self-Compassion Podcast Blaze Schwaller

It's been a wonderful three years of creating and producing this podcast, but for now it's time for a break. I am so appreciative to all of you who have joined me for each episode, supported me on the journey and contributed to its success.

I figured an appropriate topic for this last episode would be looking at how we decide when we are complete with a project, and how do we choose to part ways. It can be emotional, cathartic, and exciting all at the same time. What might you be able to accomplish next with the energy you free up from the old project?

I wish for all of you to connect with your inner knowing, to be at peace with your decisions, and to move forward confidently in all that you tackle. May your 2024 be filled with delightful experiences, and may you always trust yourself to know what your next right step is. I'm cheering for you! 
Support the showYour donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts Thanks for listening!

It’s important to refuel yourself regularly if you want to have the energy and inspiration to take care of others or make a huge impact on the world around you.

It is often our most selfish hobbies and downtime that allows us to have the energy to serve others.
This week we look at the signs and symptoms of overwhelm and explore ways we can provide more kindness and tenderness to ourselves to interrupt that trajectory.

Restorative time sprinkled with praise and appreciation for ourselves creates so much hope, love, and desire to return to the outer world and give from our hearts.
May you recognize all of your accomplishments and discoveries this year and pave the way for your future endeavors with grace and ease.
Support the showYour donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts Thanks for listening!

When life presents us with difficult situations, we often forget to pause and assess ourselves for all of the things we are capable of and offer. But when we do, we can bring so much more to the situation and give ourselves a lot more appreciation in the process.
Last week I listened to Matt Khan giving a Loving Kindness Meditation and this podcast explores my takeaways from that transmission. I really enjoyed it!
There are ways to address ourselves that give us a great deal of energy, love, and kindness as well as respect. There are ways we can undermine ourselves by unconsciously judging ourselves for the situations we find ourselves in and the way we may have dealt with things in the past.
So this week, we contemplate how life might change if we addressed ourselves with great love and belief, and how to make a habit of thinking of ourselves that way.
Support the showYour donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts Thanks for listening!

When we’re stretching for a goal, we often find ourselves procrastinating and not understanding why we aren’t doing it.
We can easily self-sabotage when working toward a goal by believing that it’s not worth bothering to try because we have unreasonable expectations about timelines.
One of the lies we tell ourselves is that we can start tomorrow, and we believe that somehow tomorrow we will feel better about it or it will be easier to start than it is right now – but that’s not true. It will be just as hard tomorrow, we will have only succeeded in putting off what we could have started today.
We think something outside of ourselves will make it easier to do something, but really it is through the action of doing a thing that makes future repetitions easier.
When we know that, we can relieve ourselves of the expectation that it will feel better tomorrow or that it will be easier another time. This frees up more space to tackle the issue with the energy we have now.
It is wonderful to nurture the thought that you can do hard things and that having some stress in your life is a good thing. Especially if the stress is from something you chose to do rather than something outside of your control.
A great strategy to overcome procrastination is to allow yourself to consciously indulge in something restorative before tackling the goal – and then stick to your timeline and practice your goal for a short burst of time. This is more doable than dedicating an entire day or several hours to your project and can jumpstart your ability to begin.
Setting our sights too high to reasonably accomplish also can derail us from starting.
There is a lot of energy gained from building in praise for yourself for your efforts and rallying yourself and/or others to cheer you on and give positive feedback to you to sustain your efforts.
Support the showYour donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts Thanks for listening!

Sometimes we have feelings about the hobbies we choose to pursue, despite starting with all good intentions.
Part of learning any new skill is coming to terms with being terrible at it in the beginning and facing our own frustration with this each time we show up to learn more.
We can get through a lot of the initial frustration by focusing on curiosity or interest in the process of learning how to get past each obstacle.
When we are kids, we have a large amount of this kind of curiosity and interest and it allows us to learn all kinds of new things before we give up, especially about topics that we find particularly interesting.
It’s okay to be frustrated and feel like we aren’t getting anywhere. We don’t need to see success every day or even every week – progress is happening and when we are in the process we might not be able to notice our own improvements.
It can help to think of practicing new habits or hobbies as a ritual because at the beginning we don’t know what to expect. We can create some safety and predictability by creating a simple ritual that gets you started and embarked on the journey.
Accepting that the feeling we have at the beginning of learning a new skill is generally fraught with frustration as well as interest. It is what it is – and as you progress, your feelings may swing more toward accomplishment, pride, joy, and inspiration. It’s OK to not be overwhelmed with inspiration at the beginning, that’s just how it is at the beginning.
Rest and sleep are super important when learning new skills, too. Without that rest and sleep, we don’t consolidate the new information and skills – and with it, we accelerate our learning, which is amazing and so much fun!
It’s also helpful to have an idea of where you want to end up with each of your goals and come up with ways to move toward that result, with a timeline for evaluation.
It also helps to consistently ask yourself for small amounts of time to practice instead of demanding hours of your time, which is harder to commit to in general and even more so when you’re feeling frustrated or disappointed in your progress. Small chunks of time accumulate into big wins over time.
Support the showYour donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts Thanks for listening!

Friendships change throughout the course of our lives. As children, it seems like friendships are much easier to initiate than as adults. Friendships grow easily with shared experiences. 
When we are kids, we are put into the same environment and mutual situations as entire classrooms of peers, whereas in our adult lives, people live separate lives and have fewer shared experiences than they did when they were younger.
As our experiences diverge, creating closer relationships becomes more challenging. 
This is why creating opportunities for shared experiences has such a huge impact on our friendships and intimate relationships. We become closer the more common experiences we share. 
It’s why choosing to show up for each other is important – if we don’t make the time to be together, even if it is virtually online at the same time – we stop having anything to talk about or agree upon. We no longer have shared memories.
As adults, we are fortunate that we have had time to decide what we truly enjoy and want to spend time doing, and hopefully find others who equally appreciate the same activities we do. Once we are in charge of our lives, we are no longer at the whim of whatever after-school activity fits our parents’ schedules or going to the class we were assigned to rather than where we wish we could go.
The best relationships have withstood arguments and strife and overcome that together. The people who are there for us in our most difficult moments are the ones we have put time and love towards as well.
Prioritizing friendships leads to a whole host of benefits that even resonate into our physical health. It’s OK to inconvenience ourselves to spend time with others, because what we get back in return is so much more than the effort we put in. It’s great to enjoy our relationships with each other and bring more joy into the world. 
What would bring you a lot of delight and joy, and who could you share that with today? 
Support the showYour donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts Thanks for listening!