 Good morning and welcome to Sunday Morning Coffee with Bridget. Nice to see you today. I thought I'd try something different. This is a live version of Sunday Morning Coffee with Bridget. Yes. Oh boy. Look at this hair. All right. It's cold here. I'm in the greenhouse. It's going to be warm today though here in Minnesota. I'm grateful for 60 degree weather. I'm going to be going for a walk soonish. But I have other things on the to-do list today. I got some things to do today. One of those things is to start to decorate. Yes. I am one of those people who really, very, very much enjoys the holiday season. Here. Let's fix this. It looks a little wonky. And I can use some joy. Therefore, I'm going to decorate. Oh boy. Okay. So you guys. So I traveled like a week or so ago. It feels like 100 years ago, but it hasn't been that long. It was like forever ago. And when I did, I brought my tripod here and I think I kind of put the nail in its coffin because it's really kind of screwy and I'm not able to get it quite how I want it. So frustrating. All right. So I do have my coffee. Yes. Good morning. I do have my coffee. I did actually record Sunday morning coffee podcast. An audio format, but I just, I felt like maybe just popping on here before I start my day of decorating. And by the way, I'm not going to like decorate all day. I'm just going to do a little stents. I just do little, little segments of decorations. So today I'm going to start with the stairway. And I'm going to do the stairs. And then we have like this window with a ledge on it. And that's where I put garland and like I have this little train that I set up there that lights up. I know, I know you guys. I'm so cheesy. It's perfect. It's awesome here. First spirited within it comes to the holidays. And then we hang our stockings up the fancy stockings, not the ones that the kids get to take down, but the fancy stockings hang up there. And then I have a railing banister kind of scenario that actually goes downstairs to where the kids rooms are. The big kids rooms. And it's like all open and stuff. It's really open. And on that, those railings, I put garland or I have a couple of different things. I like a variety. So I change it up. So I get a variety. And so I'm not sure if I'm going to use these really cool light up garland things that I have that are like, they look like candy, kind of hard to explain, but they look like candy. They're so cool. I love them. Probably use that instead of actual like evergreen stuff because that gets all messy. So and then we put, I put the stockings right there and I put the stockings facing like the hallway so that the kids can take stuff out of them because I do this thing with my kids called the 12 days of Christmas. Sometimes it's only like the five days of Christmas or the seven days of Christmas. But before Christmas, we, I put stuff in their stockings every day so that you can kind of spread it out and enjoy that. You know, we also do, and I just, I love that. It's, it's fun. And we also do advent calendars too. So the chocolate kind or this year it's Legos and I'm even giving one to my husband. He doesn't know. Hopefully he won't watch this. He might actually watch this and I just maybe wrecked that. But he gets one on his birthday is December 1st, so he's going to get one for that. I don't know if he's going to like it, but it's more for me anyway. Like that's kind of the joke here in our house is like I buy stuff for him that I like because it's hard to buy for. Do you have people in your life that are hard to give gifts to? I bet you do. I bet you do. Okay, I am going to make sure here that before I pop into the actual talky talk part that I've got. Let me just check my chat settings here and make sure that you guys can hear me. Okay. Let me just pop over. I'm going to pop over to my laptop, which I also have set up, which is why I have my glasses on in the first place. So let's check this out and find out if we are alive or not. Let's see. I think we are, but I want to make sure. Oh, I am. Oh, it looks like it. Oh, yes, I am. See if I can watch myself. Get to check the technical stuff, you know. Hey, okay, good. So I'm going to go share this link here myself. So let's just share this link with our friends so people know that we're here. We're going to pop on over to the Facebooks to do that. And then we'll get to Sunday morning coffee. Now get your coffee, get your tea, get your water, whatever you need. I have coffee and water. I have both. So I'm going to go to my page. I have two Facebook pages. One is for Bridget inspired. That's also my Instagram. And one is live stream now for Sunday morning coffee. I can spell, which I can't very well. I used to have an assistant like a hundred years ago and, you know, cutbacks budget. No, actually, I'm a, I'm a pain in the butt to deal with, I think, as a boss. All right, so we're going to post this. We're going to share it. I'm going to share you guys to above life channels. And that's also, yeah. All right. I know how much you hate that when I clean my throat into the microphone. Sorry about that. Sorry. But it's the morning and it's like, you know, where is my, oh, here's my mug. This is what I got from a client. Actually it's an Elvis mug. About a year or two ago she sent me a mug. Isn't that sweet? That's so sweet. I do get presents from time to time and I love them. This mug actually is my merch. If you look on YouTube, you can see a kind of a banner below this video. And it's a bunch of different kinds of merch that I've designed and created. This is one of them, God's spirit. Let's do our Sunday morning coffee. I had a couple of different topics I was actually thinking about. And I'm just going to kind of feel in to what feels right in alignment this morning. Okay. Those of you who are watching now, sorry. Those of you who are watching now, you can go ahead and put a time stamp in the description to when the actual Sunday morning coffee part starts. Okay. So let's just feel in. Oh, I get really emotional. I can feel it. My eyes are teary, almost like, but there's no water. There's just this softness. Let's talk about softness. When I feel into this energy of softness, it soothes me. My eyes feel soft, softer. And that is a form of love. Feeling deeply can feel contained and constricted and tight inside. And yet when we lighten ourselves up a bit and allow ourselves the presence of awareness with our own emotions and feelings, not to identify them, label them or call them out, but to know them in a coexistence kind of a way, there's a softness that comes. Like I can literally feel this softness and it comes into my eyes. It's coming through my eyes right now. That's what's inspiring me for this episode, for this moment. Softness. So it's love. Softness is love. It's a warmth that comes with familiarity. It's beyond comfort. It's more of a knowing, just this recognition energetically of essence. And that's what softness is. Being soft, we can think of in terms of the balance or the shadow side or the opposite of which is hardness, right? Harshness. Soft, softness, harsh, hardness. What do you perceive as strength or strong? Is it the softness, the gentleness, the sweet loving connection? Or is it the essence of the strong, harsh kind of pushing back, keeping away so that the tender softness and the loving softness can be held within? But if we're holding that tender loving softness within us, aren't we just so frustrated? What's the point of that? Suffering? Suffering isn't noble. It's not something that proves your worthiness, your value. It doesn't attract love to you. It doesn't amplify the knowledge you have within you, the wisdom within you to understand and know what this energy is of this sweet softness. If you just feel that energy for a moment, let it come over your face. As you breathe in, let it come in to your awareness here. Let it be in your face. Let it feel you feel it on your forehead and your cheeks and your chin. Feel the softness. I know it can be very difficult but physically, tangibly touch your face. I know it can be hard because sometimes you're like, oh, I'm not happy with this or I don't like that. Come on, people. It's a good thing. I know. I'm like getting older too. I totally get this whole, it's hard to feel yourself and you think about the negative. So let yourself do that. Just touch yourself on your face. Just feel yourself. Feel this mind. Play your fingertips, which mine are very cold, by the way. My hands are always cold. To know me is to know I have cold hands. But you know what they say about cold hands? Cold hands, warm heart. So touch your face. This beautiful, brilliant mind, soften it with your fingertips with your hands. Soothe your head and your racing mind by touching with the softness of your hands. Just let your hands just hold your face. I just felt that clearing in my throat. Just hold your face with your hands. Just hold. Take a breath in. And exhale out. I'm responding to my own senses as I'm doing that. I feel the coolness of my hands touching my face. And it doesn't even feel like my hands. It feels like a buffer of energy that creates this presence of holding. Where I can soften my jaw. Soften your jaw. Soften your cheekbones. Soften your eyelids and close them if you like. And be embraced by the softness as you're held. I'm feeling kind of inspired to touch the back of my head. I want to touch my throat. So I'm going to kind of hold my chin a bit on my, rest of my chin on my hand. And release the back of the throat chakra here. It's a little bit lower here. But right here at the base of the top of the spine and base of the skull here. That sweet spot right there is the exit of the third eye. And so for me, that's really sacred. And so I'm going to touch my chin, honoring my throat chakra without covering my microphone. And my third eye. And I'm going to release some of the images, the preconceived notions or ideas from other people about how I am supposed to feel about soft. Being soft. How I am supposed to show up and present as a professional person, as a coach. How I'm supposed to be in all of my roles as a mother, as a lover, as a wife, as a business person. And I'm giving myself a mission to just be here now, right now with you. Right here. Softness is sacred. It's about a gentle kindness or compassion within ourselves. An awareness of ourselves. And a part of ourselves that is rather delicate. Someone said this to me recently to this word delicate. And I had really strong reactions to it. Maybe how you're feeling about the word soft. Where it's delicate to me felt like weak. Like what? What do you mean delicate? What? What are you talking about? Excuse me? What? And maybe you feel like that exactly like that about softness. So let us transcend our traditional mental expectation and allow for energy of these words and what they represent or may represent in our energetic field to be different, to be fluid and flowing and unique and empathetic and powerful and strong. Like what if soft and delicate is this beautifully intoxicating strength and superpower? It is beautiful. We know that. And beauty is something that we all gravitate toward, don't we? And yet there are different ranges, phases and states of beauty, isn't there? What do we do with the softness? Is softness the light? Is softness the good or is it the shadow for you? This is great. Grab out your journals and use that as something that you will go deeper in for yourself this week. Softness. Is it the shadow or the light for you? And eventually there should be ranges or variations of the hues of softness. So too we could talk about hardness, being hard. Hard core. Like this is like we use hard core as this way of describing a commitment and follow through and being loyal and trustworthy and hard core, like so committed, so good. And yet being soft, softness, being gentle. That's what you want when you're most vulnerable. That's what you want when you feel like you need love and support. You want the softness. You want that energy of softness to be present. You don't want somebody to come at you hard core and push you to your limits because you already have past your limits. And you're like in a puddle and you're all messy and your guts all over the floor and your guts are just oozing and you're like, can you just be soft with me please? And that is not an easy thing to request of someone. So I am going to put that into your mind. I'm going to drop that as a thought into your mind when you're interacting with friends. People that you care about, that you know that you kind of have a rhythm or a pattern with that you know really well maybe for long term friends, etc. Be gentle. I'm not gentle. Give yourself a awareness of softness. Like how can I be softer? How can I soften the edges of this structure of friendship and relationship that we've created? Maybe try this with your spouse. Maybe try it with your kids. How can you soften the edges? And it's hard, right? Because as a parent, especially you have created a structure of scaffolding as to how you are going to parent and those kids need to learn from you and there's so much pressure as a parent anyway that therefore you got to show up and kind of be hard or harsh or tough love. No, no, no, no, no. Soften. Soften doesn't mean freedom to do whatever the F you want. Soften means an awareness of the fact that rigidity of rules and old thinking and old patterns and old behaviors are number one, boring, so boring and that's why people get bored in relationship and that's why people stop listening to you like your kids stop listening to you. Because you're just saying the same things over and over again and they just tune you out. Same with your spouse. Tune you out. So you got to soften the edges of a structure that you have created or participated in or accepted as your own, soften it. Soften the edges a bit so that there's wiggle room. That's what creativity is. That's what co-creation is. So you got to use softening as a tool like an artist to kind of give a little bit of a different feel. If you start to shift your attitude a little bit softening the edges or softening introducing a different perspective by softening your rigid expectations or your rigid automatic patterns your automatic patterns are not soft. They are hardcore. They are hard ingrained. Your thought processes, your thought patterns you're overthinking, you're over analyzing that's hardcore. Soften the thinking. You can still think. You need to think. You need your brain, body, mind, heart and soul. You need all parts of you. But you got to soften the brain. Loosen it up so that there can be opportunity for what innovation, sensory connection, deeper understanding of yourself and more expanded freedom. Because freedom doesn't come by leaving yourself. It comes from being yourself. Freedom comes from being yourself and you've got to come in and expand inside. Inside is where you renovate. Inside is where you realize what your truest capacity is. What makes you happy. What makes you feel good. That's what the freedom is you seek. It's not outside of you, outside your body. If only I could leave this job. If only I could leave this relationship. If only I could do this or move here. You're the same person wherever you go. So go inside. Go inside. Soften your unrealistic expectations of the world and embrace through softening the edges a new structure. Over time, tweaking things a little bit here and there are soft little subtle changes. Not a bulldozer because right now we're about the softening. As we step into November 2021 we round out this year and step into a new year. Soonish. Like in two months. That's soonish. Softening. A technique. An energetic perspective. A mindset. That's what will create change over time and that will make you and everybody else around you more susceptible and agreeable to the changes when they're subtly softening the edges. Yes, yes, sometimes massive change and harsh hardcore commitment and a push, push, push through is needed. But most often what really makes change happen what really makes you feel more free more open more connected to your spirit your truest self is the softening of the harshness that you've held in attitude, expectation or belief within yourself. And that's just the truth. That's just the truth. Now as a coach I am hardcore with people at times I push but I'm also able to step back and watch them soften. And you can request that in your relationships from yourself soften. Can you, can you, can you just and like people will say can you tone it down a bit? Can you say, can you just soften your presentation to me a little bit communication? Can you soften your request just a little bit? Can you? Oh, I need that softer instead of making them change there's a better way. Can I get that softer please? Can we try a softer version? Can we just rewind? Can we just rewind and let me, let me let me try to soften this. Soften this and take your breath your heart space and soften it. Soften. Soften. Soften. Work with the heart and the mind together and soften. Oh, this was good. This was a good one. I think this was a good Sunday morning coffee with Brigitte. I hope you've enjoyed it. Let me just take a peek and see what I've got here. Good. We're good. Just want to make sure we're still alive. All right. Thank you so much for watching Sunday Morning Coffee with Brigitte. This is a live stream version of the podcast this week. There are many, many, many other audios under the playlist for Sunday Morning Coffee that you can binge listen to, especially if you need it over the next two months there's like over 50 of them. So you can listen to whatever talk topic you need a little pick me up on and that maybe will help you through this holiday season. I hope so maybe, right? If you're looking for me to get a session with me go ahead and check out Brigitte inspired on Facebook. There is a link to book with me and you can book a session with me there. All right. All right. So I hope I've inspired your spirit today filled you with some hope. Encouraged you to live your life. This is your life after all. And you get to live it. Just live it. Thanks for being here.