This is a follow-up to Episode 30, titled "Less Stress, More Happiness." In that episode, I talk about a simple daily practice that I learned from a friend. To do it, all you need is to take a moment to breathe in and out, and then say or think one simple statement. 

For all its simplicity, this practice is incredibly useful in lifting one's focus from stressful thoughts to higher, happier ones.

I have found, though, that adding a few words to the original statement gives it context and can make it more understandable, so that's what this follow-up episode is all about. I use both versions.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

This short essay is the second in my "What if ..." series. The first in the series launched Everyday Creation, which debuted in early February 2024. However, I rewrote and re-recorded that early episode so many times — I truly lost count — that it took me nine months, off and on, to get it to the point where I was ready to move on to the second essay in the series. 

I say all this to explain why the first "What if ..." is Episode 1 and this one is Episode 68. Quite a spread between the two, isn't there?

I also have other essays related to this theme. They're Episodes 55 and 57: "Smile on a Summer's Day" and "Picturing a Kinder, Gentler World," and Episodes 30 and 69: "Less Stress, More Happiness" and "Lessening Stress, Increasing Happiness: An Afterthought."

Hope you find these essays worth your while.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

This is the first of four excerpts from a longer interview with family medicine physician Adeola Fakolade, MD. In this short episode, Adeola traces her path from Nigeria to the U.S.

The full interview with Adeola is episode 62, and the other excerpts are episodes 65, 66 and 67.

Hope you enjoy listening to this accomplished professional who's good-humored, personable and a delightful teller of her stories.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

This is the fourth excerpt from a longer interview with family medicine physician Adeola Fakolade, MD. In this episode, Adeola talks about why having access to healthcare is so important and how we, as patients, can maximize the time we have with our doctors. 

The full interview with Adeola is episode 62, and the other excerpts are episodes 64, 65 and 66.

Hope you enjoy listening to this accomplished professional who's good-humored, personable and a delightful teller of her stories.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

This is the third excerpt from a longer interview with family medicine physician Adeola Fakolade, MD. In this episode, Adeola talks about lifestyle medicine and disease prevention. 

The full interview with Adeola is episode 62, and the other excerpts are episodes 64, 65 and 67.

Hope you enjoy listening to this accomplished professional who's good-humored, personable and a delightful teller of her stories.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

This is the second excerpt from a longer interview with family medicine physician Adeola Fakolade, MD. In this short episode, Adeola talks about having a positive outlook on life and also discusses the WHO (World Health Organization) definition of good health, which is about thriving.

The full interview with Adeola is episode 62, and the other excerpts are episodes 64, 66 and 67.

Hope you enjoy listening to this accomplished professional who's good-humored, personable and a delightful teller of her stories.

On a related note: If you like what Adeola says about the importance of having a good relationship with oneself, you may want to check out an earlier episode I did with Dr. Darcy Lord. That episode is about self-love, a concept that may sound selfish but is anything but. Darcy's full interview is available as are short excerpts. 

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

I'm not a pessimist by nature. However, the 2016 election kind of threw me. I started thinking about it Sunday night, after reading a Substack post by Greg Olear about Leonard Cohen's song, "Hallelujah." In Olear's post, there's a link to Kate McKinnon singing part of "Hallelujah" for SNL's cold opening on Nov. 12, 2016. 

Her performance touched me deeply and prompted me to share this brief story eight years later, not that I expected to experience the same outcome in 2024 but to express the feelings that so many of us had back then. So here it is, a simple story and the profound lessons learned since.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

Dr. Adeola Fakolade is an accomplished professional and a delightful person to talk with and get to know. She's a family medicine and public health and general preventive medicine physician who's passionate about patient access to high-quality healthcare and what that means for people in terms of their ability to thrive. 

To that last point, Adeola talks about the World Health Organization's definition of good health. WHO, she says, defines it as much more than the absence of disease. In this episode, she expands on that subject and talks about a range of topics that include the small pleasures of a long commute and ways to maximize your healthcare appointments.

Adeola also traces her own path from medical school in Nigeria to Ashtabula, Ohio, which is in Ohio's northeastern-most county. It's considered a rural area with many under-served residents, meaning they don't have adequate access to healthcare. Adeola is working to change that, one patient at a time. 

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

Welcome to Everyday Creation, a show about purpose, awe, and good vibrations. 

This short essay was the first episode of Everyday Creation when I started the show in early February 2024. It sprang from one of my journal entries and, since I first wrote and recorded it, I've tweaked it many times. This is the latest version, and I like it well enough that it's now the first in a series of spiritually themed musings. 

I also have other essays related to this theme. In case you want to check them out, they're Episodes 55 and 57: "Smile on a Summer's Day" and "Picturing a Kinder, Gentler World," and Episodes 30 and 69: "Less Stress, More Happiness" and a follow-up to Episode 30 titled "Less Stress, More Happiness: An Afterthought."

By the way, Episode 68 is the second in the "What if ..." series. It's about this grand adventure we're all on. 

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.

Marla Grant is an Advanced Grief Recovery Specialist and Founding Affiliate Leader of Helping Parents Heal Tampa. She helps parents who have experienced child loss, as well as individuals who are grieving other types of losses, move “from heartache to healing.” 

She also teaches Mental Fitness Mastery as a Certified Positive Intelligence Coach to help clients infuse their world with more kindness and empathy and less judgment and stress.

In this extraordinary interview, which covers physical loss and spiritual connection, Marla shares what she's learned and how she's grown from the loss of three of her children. She encourages individuals who have experienced grief to seek help and support, and to know that healing is possible.

She says that personal responsibility, acceptance and willingness (PAW for short) all were important for her own healing. To learn more, please listen to the episode and visit Marla's website. 

You also can find her on Instagram and Facebook under Inspired Grief Recovery.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.