Get Merry

This episode was inspired by the many questions we’ve been receiving about meditation from our 1 on 1 conversations with MerryBody members. We keep hearing things like “I want to be good at meditating, but my mind just goes on and on” or “I just can’t meditate, I want to, but it feels impossible”. Can you relate? 

• The spinning thoughts are actually normal. This doesn’t mean you suck at meditating or that you can’t meditate. This is just your mind doing what it’s designed to do, think!
• There are distractions everywhere so it takes more effort to slow the mind down.
• Create an anchor for your practice. 
• Meditation is a tool to ease the suffering of life.
• Meditation and Yoga give your body a chance to rest and recover.  
• What’s the best way to sit when you meditate?

We hope that this has inspired you to either continue your meditation practice or perhaps begin a meditation practice. Take a listen to 296: Embody Guided Meditation (seriously go to bliss town in 9 minutes), one of our guided meditations. It’s all about focusing on your body and a technique to quiet down the mind.

How do you go with your meditation? Do you struggle? Do you have more questions? If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve been listening to the Get Merry Podcast for the last two hundred episodes, you know we enjoy talking about money. It’s a very important subject as this impacts every part of our lives. Today, we’re talking about how to spend your money.

This subject was inspired from a podcast with Tim Ferris and Ramit Sethi, it got us thinking about our ‘rich lives’. That is, figuring out where to spend your money in order to create the most joy.

• Removing the taboo around money especially for women. We should have great knowledge of money even if we’re not technically earning it.
• Don’t feel bad about spending money on things that bring you joy. Allow yourself to feel joy.
• Sometimes it’s just nice to go out of your way to be generous. Our friend Dr. Lea Freeman paid for our dinner the other night just because… and we’re like that’s Lea living her rich life. (Listen to our podcast episode with her 217: Let’s Talk About Boobs with Dr Lea Freeman)
• Have your own money rules because then it makes your decisions on how to spend money easier.
• When you have great knowledge of money, you feel empowered about your decisions, you feel stronger and more confident, and you can plan better for your future.
• Think of an amount that you can spend on yourself right now. Spend it on something that you really want and love with no guilt… oh and on you, not your kids, pets or your partner.

This topic is an interesting topic to delve into further. If it has brought up anything for you, maybe you should dig a little deeper, reflect and see how you can become more confident and empowered around your spending and saving habits.

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this episode, we chat about the current theme inside the MerryBody Studio. The theme is ‘One Step at a Time’. It’s great to have the end goal in mind, a big vision, but this message and this mindset shift is a reminder that all massive goals can be broken down into increments, into small steps. This action alleviates unnecessary suffering and stress.

This one mindset shift has got us through some very difficult times. 

• We have all these plans for our lives, but the situation we’re actually in is not supporting that vision. How can we welcome the peace, contentment and acceptance of what’s happening right here right now?
• Goals help us get connected to our true desires. Enjoy your journey from point A to point B.
• No one is good at multitasking. Multitasking does not allow us to be our best in our job.
• Your first step inspires your second step, which inspires your third step and so on. The first step is the hardest step. Focus on your first step.
• Take one tiny step. It doesn’t have to be a leap. It’s just taking that one step.
• When there is less stress, less anxiety, less overthinking and less overwhelm, there’s so much space for other things to come in.

Begin living what you want to feel in your life.

If you want love, give love. If you want friendship, be a good friend. If you want joy, allow yourself to feel joy. If you want to be a writer, write. If you want to be a singer, sing. If you want a business, start a business. If you want to get to that goal, start with step one.

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Check out all the Get Merry Podcast episodes on iTunes and Overcast and Stitcher for Androids. Plus we are on Spotify over HERE!

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we chat about giving up. That is knowing when you should actually give up on your goals or whatever it is you’re working towards. Oftentimes we’re told to never give up and keep going. But, is there a right time to actually stop and let go of a dream? 

Stuff we talked about…

• Attachment to a goal, is this the real problem?
• Find out what it is you actually want from life.
• It’s ok to give up on things that are working but don’t feel good anymore.
• Giving up is not failure. Maybe the idea failed, but you’re not a failure. The only real failure would be if you stop doing anything at all.
• Giving up is not the easy way. Maybe the easy way is not beginning. If you haven’t even started to work toward your goals or desires listen to Episode 300.

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we celebrate our 300th episode, we go back to where it all began and reflect on why beginning something new is so hard (or maybe it really is all very simple!).

When we decided to record our very first podcast episode, there was a thought that we were too late and that there were too many, should we even bother? We had the same thought process when we started our blog.

It can be really overwhelming to begin something new. We had to push these thoughts aside and not be afraid to be a beginner.

Stuff we talked about…

• People are afraid of being a beginner because they don’t want to look foolish. They fear failure. They compare themselves to experts.
• If you’re pretending to be an expert, the inauthenticity screams through. Start with your truth.
• Addiction to be perfect and the feeling of not being good enough make you not begin.
• If you figure out what you want to do, if you follow your bliss, if you do what lights you up, and create a goal.. Boom! Maybe you just will have the ride of your life.
• The hero and the coward both feel the fear of beginning. The difference is what they do after the fear.
• Meditation is a great tool to help you get past the fear of beginning. It’s all about mindset.

Instead of thinking about what’s the worst, think about the best, actually think about both. Don’t let the fear stop you. Jump into the beginning with excitement.

The beginning is full of surprises. We look back on our beginning with great fondness.

You don’t have to know everything. You’ll figure it out as you go. And, Google is your friend!

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you react less and respond better? We chat about this and more during this episode.

Can you relate? You’re having a simple chat with your partner, sibling or best friend and they say something that frustrates you. You then blow up with a reply that almost shocks you?!

We both can definitely relate to this!

And this is why learning to respond rather than react reduces a whole lot of suffering, creates more happiness and stronger relationships.

Stuff we talked about…

• Be more empathetic and considerate of others. Shock horror, the world does not revolve around you, sorry.
• Don’t take things personally. Practice stepping out of your story and stop relating what they’re doing to you.
• Add space where possible, whether it’s a breath or time to go inwards to process and reflect on the situation. It could also be a meditation, going for a walk, doing a yoga or Pilates class. It’s shifting your environment creating space between what happened and your response.
• Create a practice that helps you become better at responding before the situation even occurs. 
• We have to have the awareness, the want and the desire to work on how we respond. This is the first step.
• Don’t keep things inside you. If something upsets you then figure out how to talk about it with your partner, friend, sister, parents or whoever.

Choose one takeaway from this episode, work on it and see what happens! 

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we chat about my nose job. Emma has been asking me to write a blog post about my nose job experience and finally, I did. Here’s the full story: No, you shouldn’t get a nose job (advice from someone who has had two).  It got so many comments I wanted to chat about it further on the podcast.

Stuff we talked about…

• I thought I had a ‘bad and ugly nose’.
• I thought the ideal nose was a small button nose. I thought fixing my big nose would make me the best version of myself. 
• Your uniqueness and your magic is the beautiful thing about you. Your differences are what make you amazing.
• If you’re struggling with a body part of yours, remember that there’s nothing to be ‘fixed’ with your body.
• The only thing that needs to be fixed is your sense of beauty, your thoughts around the word beautiful and what it means to be beautiful.
• If I can use my story of pain and regret to help someone not to go through with it, I feel like there’s a purpose to my journey then. Maybe I can help someone learn my lesson before they need to learn their lesson.
• If you consider any form of body-changing surgery, think about it again and everything that’s involved. You’re so much more than what you look like. You are your kindness, humour, creativity, compassion. You’re all of them.

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is inspired by a real life conversation with a great friend of ours. She told us that she hadn’t done Pilates in five days straight and felt guilty and really bad about it. And yep, we sure have felt this in the past too!

Also, if you missed the last episode, number 296, we published one of our favourite guided meditations from MerryBody Online Studio. Embody Meditation is a technique that guides you to really focus on every single part of the body. Check it out after you listen to this episode!

Stuff we talked about…

• Maybe you had a great meditation routine and you were eating healthy, exercising every day and now… you are not. You were doing something “good” but then life happens. Your focus went elsewhere. This is life, right? The ebbs and flows of everything.
• Sometimes, you need to change your routine and it’s okay! The most important thing is to tune in to what you really need right now. 
• How do we stop from punishing ourselves for missing that session, or having a week off? Acceptance. It’s accepting what is.
• We were obsessed with thinness. We used to think that thin equals beauty and achievement. But beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that we get to choose what is beauty.
• Your humanness is the magic. It’s not something to be ashamed of, or something to punish
• If you’re struggling to understand what acceptance feels like, then forgiveness is a way to help you feel it.
• Forgive yourself for skipping those days. Don’t beat yourself up. You’d rather spend time with people you love. Life is short, get yourself a gelato. (If you’re in Brisbane, visit a gelato shop called La Macelleria Gelateria — soooo good!)

Experience this moment right now and really reflect where you are. Look around. Breathe it in. Feel it. Maybe you’ll feel gratitude or joy, definitely, you’ll feel a sense of presence. 

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Embody Meditation will guide you inward to feel every inch of your body and become completely present. A few moments to fully embody this amazing vessel that is your home. This guided meditation is from our MerryBody Online Studio... learn more at themerrymakersisters.com/merrybody

Find a comfy seat, close the eyes and let’s welcome in a MerryMind. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We skipped a podcast episode last week as we were in Canberra, once upon a time we would have been like “we’re failures” because we let everyone and ourselves down. But now, we’re way kinder to ourselves. We go with the flow, we’re more flexible. We forgive ourselves. And this is the perfect introduction to today’s episode as self-forgiveness is a form of self-care.

In this episode, we chat about the importance of self-care and what it really is.

Stuff we talked about…

• Self-care is different for everyone and it’s different every single day. Your self-care might be to relax. Or to push yourself and take action.
• Self-care is tuning into what you truly need and desire in life. It’s living your truth.
• If there’s one thing you can start doing as part of your self-care practice, it’s taking a moment to tune in and connect with yourself, whether it’s sitting, having a cup of tea, walking in the sunshine, reading a book or doing yoga. Doing these things help us better understand ourselves.
• Setting your boundaries is the ultimate action of self-care.
• Saying “yes” when you actually want to say “no” creates anxiety and bitterness.
• Any time you spend on self-care is better than none.

Self-care is going inward to discover yourself and then taking action. It could be something really small or grand. Whatever it is, it’s what you truly desire and that’s the most important thing.

If you have any A-HA moments, questions, comments or feedback about this episode, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or message us on our Facebook and Instagram accounts @themerrymakersisters.

Join our 5-day MerryBody Challenge and get direct access to 10 minute Yoga and Pilates classes. Sign up at themerrymakersisters.com/5days

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

P.s if you ever need further help or guidance please contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue. Asking for help is pure courage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.