The Art of the Mindful Pause: Finding Stillness in Turbulent Waters

What do you do when life presents you with the ultimate duality: a season of profound celebration alongside a season of "unthinkable" challenge? In this raw solo episode, Michelle pulls back the curtain on her own currently "messy" reality. From the joy of witnessing her son’s wedding to navigating complex personal waters, she explores why we don’t have to choose between being human and being divine. We are always both.

Michelle discusses:

• The Urge to Hide: Recognizing when pride or embarrassment makes us want to "tuck things into boxes" instead of feeling them. 
• The Choice to Sit: Why "moving through" an emotion sometimes just means being in a pause. 
• Nervous System Signals: How nature (and even birdsong) reminds us that we are safe, even when things are complicated. 
• The Rock in the Stream: A powerful visualization for staying grounded when the current of life feels too fast. 

This episode is a gentle invitation to stop judging your own process and to trust that you have every tool you need to figure it out. Take it one drop at a time. 

This podcast is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute providing professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or professional healthcare services.

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Music Credit Through Season 3 Episode 41
Title: Ebb and Flow
Author: Fabian Measures https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fabian_Measures/
Source: Free Music Archive https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fabian_Measures/Singles_Album/Ebb_and_Flow_1829/
Licence: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hi, and welcome to Hypothetically Intentional, where we ask the question: what if we set intentions with everything we do? I'm your host, Michelle Albers, and today my intention is to embrace and tap into and show up from my humanness as well as my divine self. And to really be connected in that duality, in my human and in my divine, or in the human experience and in the divine experience. But today I find myself in the duality that is uh the unthinkable on one hand. And then in another aspect or another part of my life, there is the um blissful, joyful, exciting pieces happening. So uh I'll start with the exciting. My son is getting married, or actually, by the time you are listening to this, my son will have gotten married. And I'm just so excited for he and his bride. I am witnessing them plan a wedding and come together and um create a day that is for them um to celebrate. And they're both people who don't necessarily love being the center of attention, or maybe don't at all love being the center of attention. Um, and it's a beautiful thing as a mother to witness uh them coming together and really crafting it in a way that works for them and um understanding that I don't know, I guess nothing is perfect is the way it comes in or the way it feels, and that there's compromise um in choosing to have uh even a small wedding. There's compromise in having a small wedding versus eloping versus choosing not to get married versus right, all the other choices that exist. So I'm just really excited to drop in and honor them and their experience and to be in the room with them as they take this next step on their journey. It's a really exciting time, and I'm really grateful um to see happiness and joy uh in my kids' faces, and both of my kids and and their partners um all seem like they're they're walking that path toward um honoring their self and their need, their needs, their selves and their needs. And then on the flip side of that, there's this unthinkable experience that really is. I mean, it feels impossible. Obviously, it's not impossible. We're in it. Um, and there's just this I find myself in my human experience feeling all the emotions anger, frustration, sadness, um just a lot of different things, understanding too, compassion, love. Um, but nothing about it is simple. It's complicated. And I'm not sure there is a right answer. I think there's a right answer for the people involved, and um but only the people in it can know what's right for them, right? Stress levels get high, and then we tend to go into that place of protection and fear and attachment and guarding and all of those things, um, in the name of finding something comfortable in the discomfort. And I just I'm reminded of a handful of other experiences in my life where it just gets complicated because what we want isn't possible and our needs are harder to navigate. And I guess the point I am making in telling this story is I'm really finding myself this time, you know, I've learned from every experience like this, but I'm finding myself understanding that it's going to be uncomfortable, accepting that there's really not a lot I can change about it. But really honoring that how I show up and how I'm using my mind, body, spirit is really important right now. And understanding that if I can't get to a place where I'm, I guess I call it spiraling out, where I'm not spiraling out, then it's not a good time to make a decision. And that I really kind of want to like tuck things away into boxes and numb out or disappear or hide. And I am actively making the choice to sit in it, sit with it, move through it. But sometimes moving through it just means being in a pause and feeling all the feels and also having that layer of, I guess you could call it faith, of knowing that divine exists, that there's a higher self, divine self, uh, innate wisdom and intentional connected to divine wisdom within me that is supporting me on this journey. And I'm specifically not sharing the details of the journey because they're not mine to share. My part is, and that's what I'm sharing. But the rest of it is just um another experience that is tricky and challenging and complicated, I guess I would say. And I don't know, was it maybe three days ago? Well, by the time you listen to this a week ago, I was not okay. And I was okay with not being okay. And I did need time alone. I pulled away. I needed time alone to be with myself. I needed time alone to cry and scream and and move that energy, but it's not just about moving it, it's about actually feeling it and letting it tell me something, right? Sometimes it's telling me you just need to scream and cry. And um, sometimes it's telling me there's something here. This isn't about what you think it's about. And so that's a really tricky thing to do and to get into. And so I find myself knowing that I need to plug in and finding ways to do that. And sometimes that looks like saying yes to hanging out with a friend or maybe going to grab a quick bite to eat together. Sometimes it's a verbal vomit on a phone call. And sometimes it's saying no to those things and just coming into self and really getting to know what I need. That's something that I didn't consider for a long time. Um, I didn't know how. I didn't know how to understand what I needed because I was always busy either tucking myself into a box for security or um hiding because uh out of pride or embarrassment, right? I just didn't want anybody to see me, quote unquote, that messy. Um and really to discover and uncover what you might need in any given moment is such a beautiful thing. And that for me, that hasn't been an easy journey. And so I think today, this podcast, I'm here to say if you're in it, if you're really in it, if you're a little bit in it, or if you're if the duality of the world, of your life, of yourself is really loud right now, know that they can both be in the room at the same time. And it's okay to ask for help and to receive support. And it's okay to just need to be alone sometimes. And you're the one that's gonna know what that needs and sometimes, or know what you need, and sometimes it's harder to choose the thing you need the most. And I guess I'm just inviting you or encouraging you to lean into that, to lean into you and what that might look like, what you might need. And to know that sometimes listening to podcasts or doing something to engage your mind in a different way, just to give yourself a pause. You know, it's less about avoidance in that moment and more about a pause so that you can regroup and come back into the emotions, to the feelings, to the circumstances, and maybe just maybe land on clarity. And I don't know, I just, I just literally saw myself in the middle of a stream uh on a big rock, but a safe rock. It's like big and flat on top, easy to climb up to, but the water is like rushing around me. And then, you know, the weather is doing all the things. It's going from cloudy and rainy and stormy to bright and sunny, with the water being more still and birds chirping. And I guess that's how things feel right now: turbulent and sunny. It just depends on the moment and what I'm focusing on. So I want to say congratulations to my son and daughter-in-law. And I want to say thank you for being a listener on this podcast. And I want to say, if it's rough right now, which for many, many, many people it is, um, hang in there and really drop into yourself. And if I can support you in any way, um, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm really excited for season four. We kicked it off on Mother's Day with a conversation with Sam, who is about to become a parent in just a few months, and um, maybe it's less than a month now. And we'll just continue going on this journey of choose yourself and what that might look like. I have a a book coming out. There, it's in progress. Section one is complete, and I have a couple more sections in progress, and I'm really excited to get this out into the world, and maybe I'll share some of it on the podcast uh as well before it's done, before, before it's completed, because why not? I hope you have a great day. I'm wishing you well. Um, I'm offering compassion, love, space, curiosity, playfulness, and don't forget celebration. Find pockets where you can celebrate. Take that pause and find even a moment of peace and find something to celebrate. Have a great day.