Journey to Iconic Podcast

Overcome Challenges: Channel Your Energy in a Powerful Way

• Kirsten Barfoot • Season 1 • Episode 4

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What if the key to overcoming life's challenges lies in unlocking your highest potential through transformation and intuition? 

Join me, on the Journey to Iconic podcast as we explore the incredible power of channeling your energy into fulfilling activities, even when other aspects of life feel overwhelming. 

Inspired by a friend's story of finding joy in seemingly mundane tasks, we'll uncover how focusing on activities that boost self-esteem and confidence can rejuvenate your spirit and enhance well-being. 

Together, we'll discover the transformative impact of redirecting energy towards service-oriented tasks or creative outlets, cultivating a renewed sense of value and contribution.

Embrace the journey to becoming your unique, iconic self with insights into the importance of self-care and finding joy in everyday activities. 

Trust yourself, embrace your individuality, and continuously move forward with confidence. 

Connect with our community for more support and resources, and remember, your journey to iconic begins with taking the first step. 

Subscribe, rate, and share your thoughts to help others discover their path to unlocking their highest potential.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Journey to Iconic podcast, where we unlock your highest potentials through transformation and intuition. I'm your host, kirsten Barfoot, ceo of Journey to Iconic. Each week, we dive into the realms of personal growth, intuition and authentic leadership, guiding you to become the best version of yourself. Whether you're looking to enhance your personal brand, align with your true direction or tap into your inner wisdom, you're in the right place. Let's embark on this journey together and start transforming your life today. Hello, hello and welcome to this episode where I want to talk about what activities we're doing that bring about a sense of satisfaction or success, or something that makes us feel like we're doing good, that generates a feeling of confidence and self-esteem within us. Because what has inspired this episode is a friend recently came over and was helping me fix something in my house and later, earlier on that day or even that weekend, this this person had just been buzzing all over the place making improvements to our complex that we live in, and then, like this kind of fix it person when, like a pipe, a pipe broke and here he is in there fixing that and I was like what, what is it Like? You're in there and you're do you like? Get an immense sense of satisfaction of doing this kind of thing, or is it this manual type stuff? And he was like you know, things aren't going that great at work at the moment and so for me to channel my energy into these kinds of activities really, really fills me up. I might be paraphrasing a couple of those words, but that's the intention and it just was such a revelation to me because I was like, oh my gosh, here is somebody who might not be satisfied in one area of his life and yet has found a way to channel his energy so that he feels a sense of satisfaction, feels useful, feels like there's a sense of value and contribution that is going outward and therefore he is filling his soul and light and, you know, self-esteem and confidence within himself, so that then that energy gets pushed back into into the work environment.

Speaker 1:

Now I was talking to a client today and you know it's the same thing. It's like we battle and battle and battle with these situations in life. So you know, this particular person has found a way to channel his energy into a way that that it has really worked for him. As well as give me a revelation which I'm now sharing with you and I shared with my client today and she was like, oh my god, that is so amazing. You totally need to write or do a podcast episode on that, because you know we need to hear this.

Speaker 1:

And the thing that we were talking about is that there can be areas in our life and, let's face it, sometimes the working environment is a big one for people, especially at the moment, there's a lot of burnout being experienced by people, and hopefully you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about through this episode, because this is really relevant for what we are going through, for what I can see around the world, from what I can see on social media, from what I can see from my clients, what you know, what I can see from friends and family. It's like people are battling, battling, battling, battling, like it's something's not working, and then it's like but I need to put more energy into it, I need to work harder, I need to do this, I need to do that, and then, all of a sudden, there's this exhaustion that takes over. We know it as burnout, but we are doing it to ourselves. We are trying to fix something that you know with a depleted energy, and so what we're doing is depleting all of our energy. We're then putting in depleted energy into something that we need to fix and the thing's not getting fixed and we're getting depleted at the same time, and so nothing is actually working. And then you might start to notice that these things are filtering into other areas of your life, like, maybe relationships, maybe health, maybe, you know, into the family dynamic. You know it might filter into the, the money side of things. So there are many, many areas that you might start to see where this thing is now starting to filter into.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you take my neighbor as an example, who has now figured out a way whether it's conscious or unconscious doesn't really matter he's figured out a way to channel his energy into something else, like take his mind off the problem, which is something that's not working very well for him right now, and he is channeling his energy into something that is valuable and is, you know, contributing to other people. Which also reminds me of a time when I was struggling a few years ago, and you know, struggling from a self-conscious perspective, like really battling with my own self-esteem and confidence within my own abilities and my own. What was happening in my life, and my coach at the time said to me, kirsten, when in doubt, focus out. And he said what you need to go and do is go and coach some people for free, or do you know? Just, it's not about the money side of things, it's about being there for other people and contributing and seeing how your work is valuable, or just seeing the revelation in other people, or just seeing the revelation in other people. And he was so right that when you put some value into the world, in that case it was helping other people see things in a different way, like shifting the perspective of what might be happening in the world into something else. And same with my friend, who has also found a way to channel his energy into service base, to help other people or to put value into the world in some capacity. That generates a sense of reward for other people, but by other people being satisfied by the outcome, or being inspired by that, or grateful is that that then replenishes our own internal mechanisms. And so for me, it was like this sense of contribution was being mirrored back and there was this sense of gratitude that was coming back towards me and that made me feel, wow, okay, there is a sense of fulfillment in supporting other people who might be going through something or needed to see something in a completely different way.

Speaker 1:

And as I was talking to my client about this today, because you know I was saying to her, we can get caught up in um, in thinking that we, that our well-being, has to come by investing from a financial perspective. Like, what am I talking about here? I'm talking about like when people talk about self-care and they say, oh, I'm going to have a massage, but the massage might cost like $100. And so if money is a bit of a problem, then, one, you're going to feel a sense of lack because, one, maybe you can't afford it. Or two, you're going to go and spend the money and potentially feel guilty or um, or shameful, because maybe that money could have been used elsewhere. So the question then is that something then is good for your wellbeing and potentially not, because one, maybe you experience the lack which is really not self-care, or you go and do it and then feel guilty about it afterwards.

Speaker 1:

So the whole idea is to find self-care or wellbeing exercises that are not in any way, shape or form, derived from any financial outlay, and I think this is a danger that we get caught into, especially with social media and the way that they talk about self-care. Self-care is something that we do, that is priceless, that does not require anything. We can go for a walk in nature, we can go to the water, we can go and um have some time with a friend, and we can read a book, we can listen to music, we can dance. You know, there are so many ways in which we can generate a sense of well-being within us by taking our mind off the problem, um, and that gives us a sense of replenishment within our being. But we don't. We don't do that so often, you know.

Speaker 1:

Getting back to what I started with is that where you know it's like there is, we get this false sense of honor in, like almost beating a dead horse. It's like banging your head against a brick wall trying to make something work that's not working, but then you keep working, working, working, working, trying to make it work. And so a lot of the time I will talk to my clients and say you know, at this point of time, you know, doing nothing is actually the action like relaxing. You know, doing nothing is actually the action like relaxing, finding some space, because it's in the space that we get the revelation. It's in the space that we have an opportunity to receive insight and we have to create the conditions for this, for the insight, because that's when we can have those light bulb moments that really are the thing that are going to support us to make the change in, potentially, that work or financial situation.

Speaker 1:

So when I asked her, so what do you like to do that just gives you that sense of like this fills my soul, that does not require a financial outlay, and she, she was saying I like to clean my house. And I was like, oh, my god, that is such a great example because the whole energy and the frequency about decluttering or cleaning is like when you are in that space of you know you're decluttering the house or you're cleaning up, you're like clearing space and you know, energetically, that's also what you're doing. And it's often at those, those times when we're, uh, caught up in the mundane, like the cleaning the house, cleaning kitchen cleaning, the, the dishes, or caught up in, up in a mindless exercise is that we really are creating that space for the insights to occur. So it was really quite wonderful when she was saying that, because I was like, yes, it is that real, you're putting that energy into clearing up something and you're actually clearing up that, that frequency within yourself too.

Speaker 1:

And for me, you know I realized as well that, when you know, when I started volunteering, I do a do some volunteering for my son's school and, and you know, I just, and you know I just couldn't get over how much immense satisfaction I was getting from just doing the volunteering and I realized that so many of my skills get used by doing the work that I'm doing in that capacity, which never gets in, my hardly ever gets touched in my own business. And so there's this real sense of like, all that project management type stuff or some of that real detail, nitty-gritty stuff that I don't necessarily use in my own business. But there's another side of me that gets to be, uh, those, those, those gifts or those, um, you know, those, those parts of me that then get to be expressed in a different way and this brings about, you know, that sense of like. The whole of my being is being utilized in some capacity. So I might use certain skill sets in my coaching and, you know, then I use another set of skill sets when I'm doing my podcast and then, you know, as a volunteer, I step into some others, and this allows me to then not feel like parts of me are unexpressed. It's like really putting that, that expression, out into the world, but in the capacity that's right for each parts of those, each parts of your, your life.

Speaker 1:

But getting back to what we were talking about at the start, about that channeling the energy, is that when you can channel your energy into all of these places and you can feel that sense of contribution or you can see that that value that you're putting in has actually been picked up, it fills your being, it fills your soul with that sense of well-being and that sense of self-esteem and confidence in the person that you are. And it's not necessarily so. It's constantly being replenished and refilled. Refilled, yeah, it's constantly being replenished. And then this is the energy that then you start to put in to that tricky, that tricky situation. And so you're starting to put that sense of yeah, I got this. You know you feel filled up by the other activities that you're doing, the ones that you get that sense of satisfaction, the ones that you get that sense of success from, and then you then create potential insights. But further to that, then that's the energy that gets put into those more challenging areas of life, and that could be in a work situation, it could be the money situation, it could be the relationships or the health or whatever Any of those things.

Speaker 1:

It's like the. It's doing the opposite of what potentially we're taught to do. It's like focus on that, fix that. It's like stop fixing. I really very anti-fixing anything. I don't think we do need to fix anything. I think a lot of the time we create issues by feeling like we need to fix something or something needs to be done about the thing that doesn't work. It's actually no, it's just accept the thing that doesn't work. A lot of the time we can get a sense of peace and well-being by just accepting that we might be feeling a little bit crappy right now. So it's like that ownership of this is not working for me right now and what I'm going to do is I'm going to just chill out. I know that part's not working, but what I'm going to do is I'm just going to take a little bit of time for myself. I'm going to look after myself. Maybe I'm going to get a really good night's sleep. I'm going to have a nice cup of tea or like just do something other than battling with that. I need to fix it because it's in the acceptance, it's in the shifting the perspective into something else.

Speaker 1:

It's about you know what, if you, if you're a parent, it's about like of small children. You know, have you ever noticed that when you start playing or start relaxing with your kids, that there's these revelations? It's like medicine for the soul to sit and just take your mind off and let these kids show us how it's done. They seem to make it so simple and we like to make it so hard. And you know, just spend a bit of time observing how they they problem solve and and get those revelations. I tell you, I've had so many insights from watching my son. He's and you know he's he's not the only one. It it's kids. They just have this thing.

Speaker 1:

So today, that was the thing I really wanted to share was that you know, let's do something a bit different. Like if you find that something's not working in your life. It's like, accept that, okay, we are allowed to go through challenges in our life. You, it's this gritty stuff, it's the things that don't work, it's the hard stuff. But if we can start to learn to love that hard stuff, accept the hard stuff, know that we're going to get through the hard stuff, but we don't have to battle it the whole way. We can shift perspective, we can move away from it for a moment. We can offer our brain and our body and our whole emotional, our whole being. We can give it some space, we can give it a point of um, opening it up to something new, uh, keeping it whole, knowing that it is whole, knowing that it is always working for us, and we just need to trust it that it's going to give us the information that is required at the right time.

Speaker 1:

And so find something that you can feel your sense of contribution is is valued, something that you enjoy, something that you know. Like you don't have to be talked into. It's like, yeah, I instantaneously know what makes a difference to me and I've used a couple of examples like, um, you know my client who said she liked to clean. I talked about my friend who liked to help other people in terms of fixing things and just always working on things like that, and myself, you know, in terms of working at the school and as a volunteer and just putting those additional uh skill sets to to use that might not be used in the business that I'm currently in.

Speaker 1:

So have a think about that and if you are experiencing the challenge you know in some area, my invitation is to really take your mind off it for a while. Have the courage to give yourself some space. Mind off it for a while, have the courage to give yourself some space. Have the courage to go and take that walk, or go and talk it over with a friend or have that cup of tea outside while you're sitting with your feet up. You know, like, have the courage to actually give yourself some space to relax.

Speaker 1:

And, you know, notice how you start to feel after that and notice, um, if there's any insights that come, and don't say no, they didn't come and it's not working. It's like it's not necessarily going to come, but it's more likely to come when you create the space for the insight, rather than, you know, keeping on working on something that isn't working and then it's just creating more exhaustion for you. So I'll leave that with you today. Uh, if you've got any questions, of course, reach out, let me know, because we can always take this a little bit deeper and, um, but yeah, I just felt like that was something that needed to be shared today and I hope it's been helpful for you. All right, have a wonderful day and I look forward to you speaking to you on the next one. All right, bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Journey to Iconic Podcast. I hope you found inspiration and practical insights to help you unlock your highest potential. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate and leave a review to help others find us For more resources and to connect with our community. Follow Kirsten Barford on LinkedIn and other socials, or visit our website at wwwkirstenbarfordcom. Remember your journey to iconic starts with embracing your unique self and stepping into your power. Until next time, keep moving forward, trust yourself and remember I've got you.