Have you ever considered adding pondering to your day-to-day? Pondering is a time to reflect, think, and meditate.

In our fast-paced, go go-go-go, hurried world, it seems counterintuitive to slow down, ponder, and reflect. Slow down to speed up? Yep! That's exactly right.

There is great power in pondering. And the benefits are pretty remarkable.

• Improved decision-making: Pondering allows for thoroughly weighing options and potential consequences, leading to more informed and rational decisions.

• Deeper understanding: Pondering can reveal deeper insights and a more comprehensive understanding of complex issues by taking the time to consider a matter from multiple angles.

• Increased self-awareness: Pondering can promote introspection and self-reflection, leading to a better understanding of one's own thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

• Reduced impulse reactions: Pondering can help to slow down impulsive reactions and allow for a more thoughtful response in challenging situations.

• Enhanced creativity: Pondering can spark creative thinking and lead to innovative solutions by exploring different possibilities and connections.

• Greater appreciation: Pondering can deepen our appreciation for the world around us, fostering a sense of wonder and gratitude.

• Improved memory: Pondering helps to consolidate information and make it more accessible for future recall.

• Reduced stress: By allowing for a calm and thoughtful approach to situations, pondering can help to reduce stress and anxiety.

• Spiritual growth: Pondering can be a way to connect with one's inner self and explore deeper spiritual questions.

A greater sense of purpose: Pondering life's meaning and purpose can lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful existence.

In this episode, we talk about pondering, its benefits, and give some suggestions on how to add this into your day! Give it a try!

Do we look in the mirror and see that we are the queens and kings? Do we see that? Or do we see the person that could be better, isn't good enough, has no value, talents, or worth?

In this podcast we talk about an experience Megan had with a little girl who handed her a Burger King crown after a loss at a pageant. This crown reminded us both, we are queens even withouth the "title."

Do we act that way? Do we see ourselves in a way that we put our best foot forward and connect, create, and spread light?

Listen in as we talk more about this, how this mentality chages our behavior, and how even though we are royalty we are here to become "mountains" with unlimitted potential!

The Greatest Salesman in the World

It seem's like we can find conflicting information in everything. Politics, for sure. Health, for sure. Parenting. Education. You name it. So how in the world are we supposed to navigate all of that? How in the world are we to know who's right and who's wrong? It feels like we are in the weeds a lot of the time! Sorting and just looking for the "right" answer!

One quote said, "I'm more confused than a chameleon in a bag of Skittles!"

We live in a world where we can have access to information anywhere, anytime, and on any topic! However, this can be troubling because there is just too much! For example, when I walk into a store with too many items, I get completely overwhelmed!

In today's podcast, we are going to discuss how to get answers when there are opposing ideas.

First, consider your source.

Second, look for evidence.

And Third, experiment.

Listen in for more details to see if you can find some answers to your opposing ideas!

The Body Reset: How Women Should Eat & Exercise for Health, Fat Loss, & Energy | Dr. Stacy Sims

It's March Madness! And, we're all rooting for our college basketball teams and brackets! We've all been following our teams, watching games and highlight reels of upsets, wins, victories, and celebrations. It's easy to just breeze on by and not pay much attention to the other team. The losers of the games. One morning I had the TV on watching ESPN and the highlights of the winners, but then they switched to a reel of the teams that had upsets and losses. They did press conferences with many, and there were tears. BIG tears from players, coaches, and one young coach even had his 10 year old boy next to him during the press conference and he just cried and cried.

Those players and coaches have put in HOURS of work, practice, training, and time, and their season has come to an end. Unfortunately, there has to be a winner and loser in these games. There has to be one that walks away with the chance for one more game, and there has to be one that is done.

I was quickly reminded after watching this that this, my friends, is life. This is part of mortality. The highs and the lows, and it's very easy to forget. It's very easy to love the highs when they are high, to think "we've made it" and that it will last forever. And then, when there's a low, it's easy to get frustrated, resistant, mad, and gain the perspective that this "low" will last forever, never end. But this is not the case! These "losses and low points, they are part of the plan. They are part of life. And it doesn't serve us to resist the lows.

If we want to make our lows a little less low, we need endurance.

How? What does endurance look like and mean for you and I?

Today's podcast is Six Tips to Enduring Well:

1. Believe that you are made for this!
2. Work
3. Learn
4. Be Humble
5. Pray and Express Gratitude
6. Write down your experiences.

Listen in to hear more!

Lessons on Endurance by Ty Hopkins

In this episode we talk about how to handle any hard.

There is hard all around us. It is supposed to be that way. We are meant to be here to struggle, work through challenges, learn and grow. But, it can be gruelling sometimes!

The way to handle ANY hard is to look beyond today. Look toward the future, get a bigger picture, a better perspective, and that is through focusing on something bigger than we are.

I focus on Jesus Christ, the atonement, and the Plan of Happiness.

When I do so, I feel peace, confidence, and comfort.

He knows what we are in for.

He knows our challenges.

And he knows our hearts.

When we focus on him, we will be better able to handle ANY hard!

Listen in to today's podcast to hear more about handling any hard, hear experiences, and examples, and be lifted!

When we go out to the cold, we layer. I love layers. I put on thermals, hoodies, coats, jackets, hats and gloves. I love layers in seven layer dip and I love layers in lasagna.

Sometimes, layers aren't helpful.

Sometimes, we layer emotions, only to amplify the emotions and make them worse.

We get frustrated over being frustrated.

Mad about being mad.

Irritated about being irritated.

In these scenarios, layering isn't helpful.

In today's podcast, we talk about our emotional layers and how to stop layering.

We talk about being aware, watching ourselves and paying attention to when we do this.

We talk about offering self-compassion, which is so hard to do sometimes.

And we talk about getting to the truth.

Today's podcast will help you recognize when you may be layering your emotional experience and how to stop!

Listen In!

Be Ye Therefor Perfect-Eventually by Jeffrey R. Holland

Spiritual Treasures by Russel M. Nelson

Jason Hunt is a human physiology professor at BYU Idaho, a husband, father, and lover of motorcycles! Besides teaching in the classroom, Jason also speaks to audiences about managing and overcoming weaknesses through deliberate actions of humility, self-love, and love for others.

He uses his knowledge of the human body and human behavior and the gospel of Jesus Christ to help others understand emotions and coping mechanisms we use to find relief. We learn about the "room" that we enter when we are trying to escape uncomfortable emotions, how to leave the "room" using the ACE acronym, and how to act deliberately based on our values system to have humility, love for ourselves, and love for others.

This interview is POWERFUL and will help you see the patterns and behaviors of yourself and others in a different light. One that will invite growth, learning, self-discovery, and change.

Managing Weakness YouTube Video

Managing Weakness PDF

The zoo is one of the funnest places to go as a kid. I remember taking a trip to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City one summer as a kid and observing the monkeys! It's crazy how much they resemble humans sometimes!

We all have a part of our brains that are monkey like. This is the part of our brain that wants to keep us safe, have fun, and conserve energy. This monkey part, although it is very helpful when in actual danger, sometimes isn't very helpful and can create problems.

In this podcast we talk about watching this part of our brain when it becomes dominant. Watching our own behaviors and patterns and what tendencies we have when activated.

We talk about our 3 teams.

Team Hyper

Home Team and

Team Hypo

All day long we hope to be flexible and go back and forth between these assigned states, and one of the best ways to practice being flexcible and moving back and forth is to observe the monkey! Then, reassure that monke everything is fine.

We all are just big, scared kids inside looking for safety and validation it's all ok.

We all do our best to cope with stress and manage our monkeys every day, but maybe taking a step back to be an observer and then reassuring ourselves are just the steps we need to be flexible and aware.

Listen in for more!

When shopping for a used car we always look for one that has had regular oil changes, good tires, good breaks, the interior is clean, and it's been maintained.

When you think about all the places our cars take us, you need them to work! We drive them to school, to work, to activities. Our baseball games are just about to get started and we'll be on the road many of the weekends from March until July and we need to be confident our vehicles will get us there.

Our cars drive through many different conditions! Today, snow and slick roads. Tomorrow, who knows here in Idaho!

Sometimes we go off-roading, sometimes for a nice drive in the hills, sometimes down gravel roads. We accelerate and hit the brakes all day long, sometimes easing into it, sometimes hard braking and quick acceleration!

We put our vehicles through a lot of stressful situations!

Our cars are like our bodies! They are put through many stressful situations.

We run at a faster pace than we should a lot of the times, we slam on the brakes here and there. We go on long rides, short rides, gravel, and bumpy roads, and sometimes we offroad with our bodies. And, We need to do some maintenance on these bodies of ours, or like our cars, we go nowhere.

Today I want to talk about 3 things we can do to manage the stress we put our bodies under.

And they have to do with our diets. We are going to use guardrails, greens, and grace to manage our stress!

Listen In!

Weight, weight loss, the scale, food—all of these can be very tricky and touchy topics for some of us, especially women.

Many of us want to maintain a healthy weight but don't know how to do so.

Or, maybe you've tried for years and are tired of the battle.

In today's podcast I share two simple tips to help you maintaintain a healthy weight.

Yes, there are a million tips, tricks, and other things, but today, just two.

1. Weigh yourself regularly.

Hold on, hold on, don't leave me yet! I promise the scale isn't the enemy. There is a lot of unpacking to do around the scale, safety, and what happens when you are on the scale. But having a healthy number, a measurement, or how your clothes feel gives you some parameters to prevent extreme ups and downs in weight, and thus extremes in dieting.

1. Listen to your body.

The "natural man" part wants all the sugar, fun, and exciting foods. It's normal to want all the desserts, but not the one we want to listen to all of the time. Listen to the part of you that drops down, takes a pause, takes an inventory of your fullness and how you feel. When you get that initial "urge" this is the part of you that wants the fun, exciting, and easy food, but a small pause will give you the headspace and time to think through, take an inventory and assessment, and make a conscious decision.

You can do this! Try these two tips this week and see if it makes a difference for you!

The Heart of the Matter by Russell M. Nelson