Bouncing Forward with Amy Purdy

In this bonus episode of Bouncing Forward, I share a clip from my latest episode with Liz Gilbert on getting through life's most difficult moments. This clip was my personal biggest takeaway from the interview: Giving ourselves MERCY. Have you ever done that before?

Liz says during her hardest days she was literally fighting for her existence. She was in so much pain and shame because she had no mercy for herself.

So she started saying this to herself, “You are experiencing the dilemma of your humanity. You don't know what to do and why should you? None of us do. I see you. I see the pain that you’re in. I see how hard you’re struggling. And I want you to know I love you. You are no less deserving of love than any other person in the world. I’ve got you.”

How amazing is that?! Think about how our lives would change if that were how we started speaking to ourselves!

Be sure to check out Episode 9: Liz Gilbert on Getting Through Life's Most Difficult Moments to listen to the full episode. 

In this episode of Bouncing Forward, I’m joined by the amazing Liz Gilbert. Not only is she an amazing human, but she is also an amazing friend. She is best known for her memoir, EAT PRAY LOVE, which chronicled her journey alone around the world,  after a difficult divorce. The book was an international bestseller, translated into over thirty languages, with over 12 million copies sold worldwide. In 2010, EAT PRAY LOVE was made into a film starring Julia Roberts. The book became so popular that Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and outside of that, she has been one of the most influential people in my life as well.

Together we dive into discussing her divorce 20 years ago as one of the most difficult moments of her life and how she got through it. She speaks about the difference between forgiveness and mercy, why it’s important to invest your yourself to your fight whatever that may be but not invest your spirit into an outcome, and she speaks of how to give yourself unconditional love when you need it most.

Before you dive into this episode,  if you press pause and subscribe to Bouncing Forward more people will hear this amazing conversation today plus it will ensure our continued journey together.

What we discuss: 

[00:03:34] How Liz has been an inspiration for Amy

[00:06:57] One of the greatest challenges / hardships Liz experienced in her life

[00:11:32] How Liz got through this challenge

[00:14:05] Experiencing the dilemma of humanity - finding mercy

[00:18:01] Empathy and grace towards ourselves

[00:19:20] The teachings of pain

[00:22:18] Giving our spirit vs. our mind and heart

[00:28:26] Despair is the false idea that tomorrow is going to be exactly like today

[00:32:27] Cultivating the best relationship with ourselves

[00:39:02] What does Liz attribute career success to?

[00:51:19] One thing Liz knows for sure

P.S. After I went back and listened to this episode, I got even more from it than when I did the interview. Elizabeth Gilbert is brilliant!

Doesn't it feel like when it rains it pours? For me, it always feels like I get hit not with one stressor, but multiple stressors all at one time. Where do I begin? How do I navigate through it? It feels impossible, overwhelming, and down-right stressful. I know I'm not alone in feeling these things, and that's why in this episode I share a simple trick on how I started to compartmentalize my problems to make it easier to navigate and overcome! 

In this episode of Bouncing Forward, I interview one of the most important people in my life: My mom. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today. That’s why I wanted to bring her onto the podcast, for her to share her best insight into bouncing forward.

We specifically chat about my upbringing and how it shaped the work ethic I have today, how we both rely on positive thinking and visualization to get through hard times, and why it’s so important to allow people to take care of you when you need it most.

What we discuss:

00:46 - Describing Amy's mom in 3 words

02:18 - Describing Amy in 3 words

04:58 - Was there anything about Amy's work that surprised her mom

06:05 - How Amy's upbringing shaped her work ethics

10:30 - When Amy was in the hospital, why didn't her mom allowed in the room nyone who

cried?

13:32 - How Amy's mom dealt with the kidney's transplant surgery

17:06 - The best part of taking care of Amy

21:25 - How Amy's mom takes care of herself

22:20 - What hobbies Amy and her mom do together

23:56 - Advice for someone going through challenging times

25:40 - Rapid fire questions

Sometimes when we are experiencing adversity, it feels like we are facing the end of the world, right? I know for me, fighting to walk again for the second time in my life, it's so easy for me to fall into that mindset of believing "It's the end of the world." Although, this mindset isn't going to help me bounce forward. In this episode, I explain how I overcome this toxic mindset through putting my life into perspective. So if you are feeling like "it's the end of the world", this episode is for you!

During my last surgery, while isolated in the hospital alone for days, I had the most amazing epiphany  It finally became so clear to me what the key is for getting inspired and getting motivated – something I recently had been struggling with and I know something that many of you struggle with as well.

In this episode of Bouncing Forward, I share the amazing revelation I had on getting inspired and motivated. I dive into why we should allow ourselves to get bored so we trigger ourselves to daydream, why it’s important to be in an environment with no distractions, and why it’s up to us to create that environment and avoid all distractions possible for at least an hour each day.

What I discuss:

2:23: What Amy I did/didn’t do with my time in the hospital

3:49: The power of procrastinating

4:27: How I got so inspired

4:54: The obstacle of distraction

7:43: The importance of daydreaming

8:43: How we disable daydreaming when we pick up our phone

9:20: The importance of the environment we are in

11:49: Why we don't day dream more

If you follow me on social, you might believe I'm always positive, but let me tell you, that's not always the case. In fact, I don't believe it's healthy to always be positive. I think it's important for us to feel all of our feelings, whether they are positive or negative. And in this bonus episode, I explain why!

We hang on to things that they may not be right for us just to avoid the worst case scenario. But sometimes it’s the very thing we’re holding onto that is holding us back and it’s the worst-case scenario that we need to actually bounce forward.

In this episode of Bouncing Forward, I share an amazing thing I learned from my latest surgery: Sometimes the worst-case scenario is actually the best-case scenario. I also discuss the amazing adaptability of the human body and how having spiritual faith provides us with strength and comfort.

What I discuss:

[02:10] My grandfather passing as I’m going into surgery

[03:46] Connecting with my grandfather as I head into surgery

[04:59] My realization post-surgery on the “worst-case scenario”

[09:07] The incredible adaptability of the human body

[12:13] What I learned about being afraid of a change

Who would have thought at the age of 40 I would be fighting to walk again for the second time in my life? Definitely not me. Once was more than enough. But here I am, whether I like it or not this is the situation I am in.

In this episode, I share with you why I currently can’t walk, the hard choices I’ve had to make in order to bounce forward to walk again, the journey of my latest surgery, and how I’m currently dealing with the uncertainty of it all.

The biggest takeaway from this episode is that we can’t allow ourselves to sit in the worry of uncertainty and instead, we need to face it head on.

What I discuss:

The number one question I get asked is how I rose above my greatest setback of losing both my legs at the age of 19 to turning it into my greatest successes.

Looking back on my life, the challenges I've faced and the accomplishments I've had, I realized none of it would have happened had I have not lost my legs. And had I not faced some of the biggest challenges of my life, I wouldn’t have gone on to have some of the greatest experiences of my life.

So in this episode of Bouncing Forward, I share my entire story of how I not only bounced back from my adversity, but how I used it to my advantage to actually bounced forward. I know the mindset shifts and perspective changes I share in this episode will help you do the same.