The Exploration Hour

Listen now | How cultivating radical self-acceptance sets the stage for belonging and steps away from changing our selves in order to fit in. With quotes from Dr. Brene Brown

Hello and good morning friends! Happy Friday. I'm Coach Kate coming to you with another Exploration Episode. I host this space weekdays as well as the Exploration Hour, and I am so excited to grow in this space with you all. This space is all about what things we stumble upon that excite us, intrigue us, or that we can dive into and explore together. I usually find a quote, or a piece of literature, or even art or perspective, that makes me go, hmmm and makes me want to learn or explore more. So this space is all about that! If that sounds like something you would be interested in too, feel free to give me a follow so we can explore together. 

So today's episode is all about belonging and it was inspired by Brene Brown's poignant interview about this very subject.

So Dr. Brene Brown I've quoted here before and for good reason, she is a leader in talks about belonging and shame, and she has done incredible research into this innate desire for community and belonging. Here is what she has to say about belonging

“The opposite of belonging is fitting in.” ~ Dr. Brené Brown.

This is so important to reflect on because we often put these two things in the same bucket: Fitting in, and belonging. True belonging is where we are accepted for who we are, and fitting in is where we need to adjust to the status quo. Here Brene Brown dives in a bit deeper:

“The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you're enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect.”

When we are allowed to exist in spaces where we feel safe, we belong. The truth is, everyone here on the planet, everyone who ever was here, and everyone who will ever be here belongs simply because we exist. We don't have to earn belonging. We don't have to be right, or perfect or prove our worth in this space of belonging. We are unimaginably enough to just exist on this planet here and now.

You are here for a reason, and if you ever doubt that for one single second, I want you to remember something: there are people out there just like you that need exactly you in their lives, and your community that big wonderful community of those people? They are out there just waiting for your kind of light to shine so that they can shine with you. It's all out there, and you're going to make the world better by owning that light and finding those spaces where you shine best. 

So this beautiful Friday-- get out there. Find the places, people, the songs, the foods that make your light shine.  And never, ever ever forget: You belong exactly as you are. 

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for listening today and being a part of this community with me. Give me a follow-- looking forwards to building this together as we connect, and share and BELONG in this space here together. 

Thanks for reading Kate’s Space! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thank you for reading Kate’s Space. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Good morning. Happy Thursday Friends. Coach Kate here with an Exploration Minute for us all today. I host this space and the Exploration Hour weekday mornings where we dive into ideas that matter together. Today's episode is a shorter one, but hopefully we'll have time to explore this idea together today, and in the future too. 

Today's talk is on Breath. Specifically the air we breathe, what exactly we breath out, and how to find balance with it all. Breathing is essential to life. Breathing, along with the constant beating of our hearts, are the two most foundational aspects of being alive, aware, and present. Although we tend to have little control over our heart and its various rhythms directly, our breath is a more dynamic component to being alive. We can hold it, we can breathe rapidly, we can slowly release and even put conscious effort in just observing it. We can also change how we do it, where it comes from and modify it for activities we engage in like eating and swimming. So even though it's a foundational block to living, it can be adjusted and fit into our lives in necessary or meaningful ways too. With that said, without breath, the repercussions are typically swift and dismal. We need it to not only survive, but thrive too.

Today's quote is from a poet Jenny C. Bell, who is an author and advocate for self-healing journeys and here is what she has to say about Breath:  

“The breath is a small daily reminder of the cyclic nature of life. We are constantly inhaling and exhaling in our lives. We take in information and let it go. We rise like the breath and we also fall. Sometimes we feel full and sometimes we are empty.”― Jenny C. Bell, In the Cave of my Heart: Poems

This quote is beautiful because it showcases a unique aspect of air: emptiness. Sometimes in life we fill like we aren't doing much, we aren't seeing progress, the world around us and within us feels empty. The truth is, the world around us and even the impact we have to others, our own bodies, and our goals-- is much like air, we can't see it, but sometimes if we pay attention, slow down, breathe in deeply and lovingly we can feel that essential side to us that is necessary and important and it allows for us to live and thrive. Day after day. Breath after breath. With live not in large, overwhelming moments, but we live breath by breath, day by day. And slowing down to acknowledge and even celebrate those small moments where we just breathe is enough. 

I'm Coach Kate. This has been an Exploration Minute today. Thank you for listening here and for being a part of our wellness Journeys together here on NoomVibe. If you liked what you heard today, give me a follow.

This space is ours to live, breathe and thrive in together, and I am so glad you’re here. 

Thanks for reading Kate’s Space! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thank you for reading Kate’s Space. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello again everyone! Happy mid-week! We are back again today for another Exploration Hour! In fact, this is the first time we'll extend on a subject because this subject on yesterday's show was so popular and it really opened the door for lot's of discussion, connection and the carry over of ideas. If you missed yesterday's show, don't worry, I'll give an overview of what we talked about, and what happened so that we can keep this conversation flowing again today. As we wait for others to join us, let me tell you all about NoomVibe, this space, and how you can join in on these discussion too! 

My name is Coach Kate and I host this space on NoomVibe weekday mornings along side the quicker version of this show, Minute Explorations. Now NoomVibe is a health and Wellness community centered on connectedness and collaboration as we all seek out our better selves here together. This show is a collaborative one, I usually pick a subject, an idea, a quote, or a piece of literature that I am vibing with, and share it with you all here and we then explore what it means or what is could mean, together. I open up the exploration Hours to you all, so that you cna also jump in the discussion, add your ideas and perspectives, or share some stories and meanings with he community here so that we can all grow and learn together. If that sounds like your kind of space, or like a community you'd like to grow with, then go ahead and give me a follow so you don't miss out on exploring with us all here. 

So yesterday we were talking about space. The spaces we occupy, the energy they bring, and even how to hack that energy to create positive, peaceful spaces for us all to grow and thrive in. This talk started very centered on the ideas around decluttering your spaces, and how that can help declutter you mind. So today, we are going to do a brief recap, open the discussion to those who didn't get to share, and then bring this all together to talk further and deeper.

Yesterday’s talk was about decluttering your space to declutter your mind, and then we evolved it into a talk about how making our inner lives and vision is just as important as making the world around us beautiful too. There is so much overlap with space. Inner and outer space. And today, I wanted to dive into the correlations with keeping peaceful spaces for ourselves both inwards and outwards as we continue on this amazing journey called life together. Here is a great quote from Mother Theresa about how decluttering out of love can be a significant act of service as well:

“Wash the plate not because it is dirty nor because you are told to wash it, but because you love the person who will use it next.”

- Mother Teresa.

This quote is absolutely beautiful, because it associates decluttering not with negatively, or as a chore that we loathe, but it redirects this notion with kindness and love instead. So an interesting perspective listeners brought to the table in yesterday's discussion was about how eating habits affect our spaces too: both inwardly and outwardly.  

Sometimes we clutter up our bodies with our habits, much like how we can clutter up our spaces with our habits as well. We can have the habits of holding on to things that we grow out of, or that no longer serve us, we tend to accumulate clutter. Clutter in the body can look like a lot of different things, intrusive thoughts, anxiety, extra weight, worry, acne, indecisiveness, hair loss, and more. It can be so easy to look around our spaces and take inventory of the clutter, to name it, to know what it will take to organize it, the time it will take to go through it, or to let it go by selling or giving it away. The clutter we accumulate inwardly, often isn't as easy to acknowledge, name, organize, or clean out. A lot of time we don't know what it will take, how much time it will take, or what it would mean to commit to cleaning that inwards clutter. When we look at clutter as weight, we can then name it and create a plan around it moving forwards. Acknowledging our habits around food is a great first step in looking inwards to reorganize some of these habits. Have you even held on to a gift that you didn't like because it had sentimental value from the person who gave it to you? So instead of moving on from Grandma's sweater she knitted for your mom back in 1995, it just sat for yeeeears at the bottom of a drawer? Much of this same thought process to holding on to that sweater goes into also our eating habits as well. For example, Grandma makes a dish that you don't necessarily like or want, or need, but she made it, so you eat it, but you also end up storing it much the same way as that sweater. We shouldn't treat our spaces or our bodies as long term storage. We are meant to live and thrive in both of these space for what we need today, here and now. 

It takes a lot of work to throw out the old, to lose the weight, to reorganise your habits, so creating habits alongside your wants and needs in the present moment is one of the most important things you can do for yourself in the here and now-- whether you are trying ot lose clutter, or lose that weight too. Really doing a deep dive into your soul and asking yourself if what you are accumulating-- whether it's random stuff in your house or pounds that you are carrying with your body-- is really serving the person you are now, or the person you want to be is hard, but so necessary for change ahead too. 

When we live in untidy worlds, we relinquish our power to that chaotic environment, rather than molding that environment to empower us instead. It's ultimately up to us. We give up so much just by letting the chaos drive our choices and our future too. Getting on top of our environments and habits allows us to walk in spaces where we are confident and thriving and controlling our outcomes, not bogged down by things that can control us instead. WE are meant to walk in the world with intention, in confidence with our bodies and our spaces, and getting intentional about our environment and our bodies, instead of passive, is a way to set the stage for success. Success is change is met with intention. How our space looks, is how our mind looks, and often how our bodies look as well. So often when we create pathways to decluttering and working out what's important or not in our lives, we also declutter our mind, make healthy changes to our bodies, and prioritize the things that matter to us with intention as well.

I hope you take care today, and I mean: all of you. Take your time and find ways to declutter your space, your mind, and your bodies with kindness and in love.

— Coach Kate

Thanks for reading Kate’s Space! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thank you for reading Kate’s Space. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Listen now | How letting go can empower us to begin the journey of happy internal and external spaces-- with podcast guests Dwight, Lisa, and Laura sharing their experiences

Hello Hello Welcome back to another episode of the exploration hour. I'm your host Coach Kate, walking us through some fun ideas, quotes, literature and more in this space. I host this show weekdays to explore with you all and to dive into some wonderful and fun things together with you all. A few notes about what this space looks like and how you can interact and participate as well-- because this space is an open and collaborative one-- and also because I love hearing from you all and connecting as well! NoomVibe is a Health and Wellness community and it is our mission to connect together to create, healthier, more vibrant lives with you all. We know the the power of community and connection is essential to self-empowerment, and by holding space to connect together, we can create avenues together for success as well. There are a bunch of different talks on this app that cover many aspects of wellness, so I encourage you to explore some other categories and even curate a list of people or talks that are up your alley and that you feel currently aligned with. If you find a live talk that speaks to you, feel free to come up and join in on the conversation as well. 

So today, the topic I mediated on this morning for a long time this morning was Space. Now those that know me, know that I'm a huge space nerd, and this isn't that kind of space, but I hope we get into that one day. Today the space I want to talk with you about is our own space we take up in the world. Not ourselves, but our own personal environment and what that says about us, and how we can hack it to create a space that not only represents us, but also ushers us into creating a bolder life for ourselves ahead. You see, the space we occupy can be uplifting, it can also drag us down too, so we have to start making careful, intentional space for ourselves so we can tap into what makes us thrive in our lives. That can start with how we surround ourselves in our environment too. Not only do we influence our environment, but we can also be just as easily influenced by our environments as well since so often a clean space equals a clean mind too

So Today, I thought we could do an activity where we can acknowledge the space that surrounds us and see what things we'd like to see surround us instead. To start, let's look around ourselves at this very moment. It doesn't matter where you are, just take in wherever you are right at this moment. What surrounds you right now? No matter where you are, there are probably things that surround you that are influencing you either positively or negatively-- right in this very moment. So check in with yourself. How do you feel? Isolate one thing that is helping you feel good in this space. It can be a pet, a plant, a color, a book, a trinket, something soft, etc. Next highlight one thing that is influencing you negatively in this space. This can be a mess, an unfinished project, a bill, a task ect. 

Now envision your space with less of the negative things, and much more more of the positive things. This mental space that you're envisioning right now: all those positive things are now a roadmap to your inner and outer peace. We give so much weight to the things that surround us, because those things are indicators that we are alive and take up space and matter, because the environment matters to us too. We know that is is alive and it exists, and therefor me must be alive and exist too. It's a way to acknowledge our presence, our place, and all we can do with our existence. When we allow our space to empower us rather than distract us, we open the door to realizing the positive influence we can give things and the places that surround us too. 

So how do you start decluttering? How do you look at your space and make it an empowering one instead? It can feel overwhelming and impossible to tackle on our spaces. So give yourself time to get intentional about what a beautiful and functional space looks like for you. There's so much out there on vision boards and decorating your life like a room, so thinking of our space as a way to decorate our lives too is a great way to start. It all goes back to the exercise we did just a bit earlier in this talk. Identifying the things in your environment that give you positive feelings are a great way to hone in on what ways you can cultivate positive space for you too. 

Today's quote is from Marie Kondo, wonderful Japanese Author and TV show host where she helps others declutter their lives with some simple solutions while also honoring the items collected in our lives. Honor is an important step to letting go, and she is all about acknowledgment and grace. Here is what she says about this process:

"To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose. To throw away what you no longer need is neither wasteful nor shameful."

We are all about growing and changing, so something that may have served a significant purpose to you at one point in your life, may no longer serve that purpose anymore, and that's okay. We need to grow through our lives, and if we hold on too much of the past, with anything: feelings, thoughts, regrets, items, trinkets, heck even that ham sandwich from the restaurant a few days back-- not only does it no longer serve us in this moments, it stinks and is going to cause a mess. 

So if you are just tuning in today, we are talking about the power of space, the power of intentional things and environments, and what a empowered place looks like. I bet none of you imagine a powerful place that is full of dirty dishes, or clothes that need to be put away. Or your powerful place isn't a stack of papers, or unfinished projects lingering in the corner. It is so hard to feel empowered when we allow our environment to make us feel obligated to IT instead. When we live in untidy worlds, or chaos, we relinquish our power to our environment, rather than molding that environment to empower us instead. We give up so much just by letting the chaos drive our choices and our future too. Getting on top of our environments and cleanliness allwos us to walk in spaces where we are fully purposeful and ignited, not bogged down by procrastination, or things that can control us instead. WE are meant to walk in the wolrd with intention, and getting intentional about our environment , instead of passive, is a way to live more happier, more bold, and into the future as well. How our space looks, is how our mind looks, so often when we create pathways to decluttering and working out what's important or not in our environment, we also declutter our mind and prioritize the things that matter to us with intention as well. 

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for listening today and for tuning in to another episode of our Exploration Hour here on NoomVibe. If you liked what you heard today, feel free to give me a follow.

I hope you learn to let go, free your spaces of the past, and build a better future ahead tomorrow.

Thanks for reading Kate’s Space! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thank you for reading Kate’s Space. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Listen now | Explorations on letting go as parents, turning inwards to nurture the inner child and more, with special guests: Dr. Rao and Kristen Brown

Hello and good morning friends! Happy Monday. I'm Coach Kate coming to you with another episode of our Exploration hour. I host this space weekdays as well as the minute explorations, and I am so excited to grow in this space with you all. This space is all about what things we stumble upon that excite us, intrigue us, or that we can dive into and explore together. I usually find a quote, or a piece of literature, or even art or perspective, that makes me go, hmmm and makes me want to learn or explore more. So this space is all about that! If that sounds like something you would be interested in too, feel free to give me a follow so we can explore together. 

So today's exploration was inspired by my son. He is finishing up the fourth grade this week and it made me remember so much of my life when I was in fourth grade that was radically different than his. There is so much that is radically different about life in general for all of us even after the last few years. It made me think of this forward march of time, the loss of youth, and the ability to push forwards and create new world ahead too. When we are Children we are open to this great magical potential of life, where we get to create our worlds, and then we do. We think we lose this sense of youth, curiosity, and power overtime, but the truth is, we realize it then we simply pass it down to those who will need it next: our children. So today, we are going ot talk about youth: our own, our inner child, and then the future too!

Here is a poem on Children by Kahil Gibran -- a Lebanese-American author, poet, philosopher, and artist. He was well known for his bridging and blending of Lebanese life, culture, religion, and perspective with An American one. Often pulling inspiration from various religious texts, and both Arab and American authors and artists alike. From this blending, he shows a very unique perspective on Lebanese -American culture from the late 19th to early 20th century-- and this plays out in many of his art and writings too. He was on the cusp of change, and could see how the future looked so different ahead. This poem of his that I'm sharing with you all today, encapsulates just that: not only a bridging of culture, ideas, and religion, but a generational bridging as well. Here it is. 

Kahlil Gibran

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.     And he said:     Your children are not your children.     They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.     They come through you but not from you,     And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

     You may give them your love but not your thoughts,     For they have their own thoughts.     You may house their bodies but not their souls,     For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.     You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.     For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.     You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.     The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.     Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;     For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

-From The Prophet (Knopf, 1923). This poem is in the public domain.

It's a lovely poem because it shows us that our role in life is both the arrow and the bow and that the trajectory ahead is infinite. When we are young, we lead the way with the infinite energy that is propelling us into the future. We are creating our realities, our lives, and our dreams all together at once. The thing that is also important is that we are building up our inner child during these phases, and why is that so important? Because our inner child remembers what it's like to be a child, explores things with love and purpose, and then connects us both to the other inner children others have fostered, and then also real life children too. When we shut down that inner child within us, we also shut down the ability to connect to the most foundational parts of ourselves, and also others too. When we remember that everyone either was a child, or is still currently a child, it connects us a a nurturing empathetic way. And that helps us to see that we are all just going through life for the first time together, and that we're all just trying to figure it out, no matter our age. 

Nurturing that inner child and helping ourselves grow in empathy, love, compassion, and understanding to ourselves is just as essential. Self-love is loving that inner child, finding the peace that connects you to that part of you that is just figuring life out for the first time. If you are struggling with this, it can look like several things: negative self-talk, questioning self worth, being overly critical with ourselves, sabotage, and more. So how do we fix it? By acknowledging that child within, that also needs our love. 

Here's an exercise we can all do together. And if you have other exercises you'd like to explore, the door it open today to share your thoughts. 

Here it goes:

Think of you, young you. Child you, print out a picture of you in your youth, or draw one of you as a child, and sit it by your bed, or your bathroom mirror, or another place where you feel that that negatively lives, and then see yourself as a child. That's still you. That person in the picture is only separated from you by time, by mere years. That's it. Now ask yourself, would you let someone speak to a child the way you speak to yourself? Really look at that picture of you, young you, baby you. Would you be that critical to someone is just learning how to bumble through life for the first time? Absolutely not. You are growing, you are learning, and you have space and room to grow and learn through life through love and understanding too. 

We are all just figuring it our for the first time. All of us. No matter what stage of life we're in, or where we were, or even where we are headed. This isn't our second rodeo, this will always be the first. And the sooner we realize we need to also take care of that inner child so that we can walk through this life with compassion for ourselves, we will then be able to draw back that bow, and launch compassion into the future to our children, and our children’s children too. Although the worlds ahead of us, aren't for us, we are the builders of that future, and it starts with all of us, right here, and by honoring the inner child within

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for listening today to another episode of my Exploration Hour. If you liked what you heard today, feel free to give me a follow. I have this space on weekday mornings and I love sharing it with all of you here. Feel free to dive into some of my other talks on the talk tab in my profile, and subscribe to my newsletter through the link in my bio for this talk delivered right into your inbox daily with some other cool bonuses too. 

Here's to the all the inner children out there, may we build a beautiful future, from the inside out. 

Thanks for reading Kate’s Space! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thank you for reading Kate’s Space. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Good morning good morning friends! Welcome back to another episode of our newly adopted longer show: The Exploration Hour with Coach Kate. I host this show daily along with the Minute Explorations to do deep dives into thoughts, literature, and ideas and I am so happy to share this space with you all and grow in it together with you too.

Today is finally Friday and Fridays are meant for a bit more fun, relaxation, and happiness as we are so close to that weekend ahead! I got inspired by the incredible Coach Podge this week  on his shows where he talked about the importance of Improv and even tied in the word improv with improvement and not only do I just adore Coach Podge's shows, his perspective, his interviews, but I also have personal experience with improv and really wanted to dive in and contribute to this conversation and to all the ways that improv can help improve your life too! So Coach Podge, I am hearing your talks, and adding my Yes, And to what you started here, and diving in today as well. Be sure to check out Coach Podge in the mornings here on NoomVibe, and if you also like the subject of improv too, his last few episodes on it, are gold. 

Yesterday, my talk here was all about getting vulnerable and opening up about your experiences, and today, since it's Friday, I wanted to open up about some of my own experiences around improv too. When I lived in LA a few years ago, I studied Improv extensively at the Upright Citizens Brigade-- which is a fantastic program usually actors and writers go through to help develop their skills, especially around long-form improv. Now in the program was not only just actors or writers, but also a sprinkling of other people in other positions, with workplace or family goals where improv was a key skill they were leaning into to develop their skills to help further their careers and improve their lives. And the reason why their employers, or their coaches, or their mentors were telling them to go to improv classes, is because it can open some really awesome, essential, key life skills that can help anyone to reframe their outlook and improve their life. Here’s why. 

As fun and sporadic as improv looks on the outside, improv, is actually grounded in some very basic, but key rules that the people doing the improv must follow to allow for progression and flow. What's interesting is that these are not just great key improv skills, these are amazing life skills you can use to also progress and flow through your life as well. So let's dive in to three basic improv skills taught in improv classes around the world, and see what ways we can use improv in the day to day of our very own lives to also live a long fun life. 

So to get us started, here is a great quote from actor, comedian, and improvisor, Scott Adsit who got his start in comedy through the famed Second City improv program in Chicago. Now Second City in Chicago launched os many actor and comedians careers, and it's because their program really set the stage for these skills for heightening comedy and rolling with the beauty and surprise that improv brings. I wanted to include this quote today because it's a great basic outline of what these improv rules are, and you can really see how they can also be hlepful and essential to life as well. Here it is:

The rules of improvisation apply beautifully to life. Never say no - you have to be interested to be interesting, and your job is to support your partners.

— Scott Adsit

This is essential, not only in improv, but LIFE. Let's dig in. The first thing that Scott says in this quote, is also the BIGGEST, most important rule in Improv, so much so, that you could forget everything else I say today or all other rules, but you can't and mustn’t ever forget this one, it is the golden rule one for Improv: Never say no. This is such an essential part of improv because the flow of improv needs to be collaborative, and when we say no, we close the door on progress and create dead ends-- the opposite of flow. Instead, the solution to any point of time that we could say no, is to say instead YES AND and then fill that moment with more information about the scene, where we want to go, or what's happening to ourselves internally or externally. Now this can apply in real life too. So many times we get to a place where we are saddled with a moment where it could be a No. And often using No as a soltuion is based in fear, because we want to control our lives and our outcomes. Where studying improv becomes super handy in the real life, is that it gets us used to discomfort and adding in more information by saying YES AND more often. When we are more open to facing our fears and knowing, trusting our lives and our choices, we create bigger, more fun, wonderful lives for ourselves. No shuts down the flow, closes the door, disrupts collaboration and connection, embracing the YES AND mindset, creates energy, fosters connection and moves us into vibrant new narratives instead. So the next time you want to say no, stop for a moment and think, what would saying yes and then Adding to that narrative look like instead? Yes, AND… can be the two most powerful words in your vocabulary  that you use in your life. 

If you are just tuning in to our show today, we are talking about the power of improve and how you can use the basic rules of improv to help improve your life. We just talked about the power of the number one rule in improv: not saying no, but saying Yes And instead, and now we are going to talk about the second thing that Scott mentioned in the quote I shared earlier: you got to be interested to be interesting-- and this mindset plays into several other improv rules, all based around adding information, and listening to your scene partners. To make an improv scene work, you have to listen, truly listen to the information your partners are dishing out on that stage. Since you are thrust into an unknown world that you are creating on the fly, listening to the information around you paints a picture of where you are, who you are, and what is happening in the scene around you, AND what you are going to do about it. The interesting thing here, and how this applies to our real lives,  is that we are all doing that every single day as we float on a rock through space and time in the limitless universe. We've got to be interested in others, the world around us, and invest our time and energy in them so that we know what the heck is going on and what to do about it. The truth is, we are all improving our way through life, and the sooner we get invested and interested in the people around us, the more interesting and invested our lives get as well. 

Okay the last thing Scott mentioned in the quote above was that our job as improvisors is to support our partners. And this is an essential part of collaboration and creating a funny, dynamic scene together. We have to know our partners, their strengths, their goals, their plans, and what they are capable of not only to heighten the scene, but showcase their abilities and to make the most out of the experience of the scene as a whole. That also is important in real life. Take a look around you. Your boss, your wife, your children, your friends. When you think about the people in your life and the roles they play, what ways can you support them: their goals, their plans, what they are capable of? You see, when we pay attention to those around us, and we get to know them, really know them, love them and support them, we can also help optimize their life by being an amazing scene partner, and our life and how it plays out but also how it gets better, more vibrant, and funnier too. It's our job in life to not go about things solo, but to collaborate with the world around us, and the people in it to create a magical life too. 

So let me open this up to you all here, and here are a few questions to help get us started: what ways has improv helped you in your day to day life? What ways have you turned No in…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Good morning friends! Happy mid-week to you all out there listening! I'm coach Kate coming to you with another episode of Minute Explorations for you. I host this space daily where we take a few minutes to dive into an idea, a quote or saying, or even some literature to connect and grow together. This space will be changing in the next few days, where we expand it past a few minutes, and invite more of you all to jump into the discussion as well, so be on the lookout as we host this space together moving forwards. 

Today I wanted to talk about how breaks are essential to our bodies AND our minds. We live in so much of a go go go world these days where rest, pause, relaxation, and even sleep are not only not prioritized, but often looked down upon as lazy attributes. The truth is, rest is essential to life and even what we put into life as well. It's about tapping into that balance that works for you, and so many of us have no idea what a restful balance looks like. I heard this quote on the internet a while back, and it pops up in so many different areas, all with different authors and attribution, so I wanted to share the general quote that goes around online with you all because I think it's powerful in its ability to assess our rest and go balance. Here it is:

if you don't schedule a break, your body will take one for you

What this means, is that if you don't find a time to prioritize you and take a break, your body will find it for you. why? Because rest is essential to our bodies and our minds. That means it's not a luxury, it is an essential need, and if our bodies don't get that need-- it will do whatever it takes to make sure that need is met. That can look like slowing down, starting to feel sick, getting injured more often, falling asleep at random times, or even being more moody and aloof because we don't have the energy to engage or care.

So how do you find that balance? How do you open the door to accepting rest as an essential part of your routines? The first part of this is just accepting it as a part of life, and to many of us-- that is a the hardest part. Because many times we can't quantify the output of sleep directly, or even assign numerical value to it, so it feels like a negligible variable. However, we can start cueing into ourselves to figure out what that balance can look like for us. That requires us to keep checking in with our bodies and asking ourselves how we feel, and that's tough to do, especially when you're used to looking at things with absolute variables, like a scale to assess the state of your body and weight. 

So next time you start to feel irritable, sluggish, tired, hungry take note. Also, the next time you feel rejuvenated, happy, energetic, and connected, also take note.

Your feelings are roadmaps to get you closer to what your body needs both in the moment, and over time.

By tuning into these emotions, these feelings, and being brave to ask yourself how you are, you tap into creating a balance with rest over time that helps you thrive and live the best life for you. 

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for tuning into today for our short Minute Explorations. This has been an episode on rest--so take some time today to disengage, and figure out what rest means to you, and how you can regain that balance in your life. If you like what you heard today, feel free to give me a follow. I'll be hosting more Minute Explorations and an exploration hour in the future with you all, so you wont want to miss all that's ahead. See you all again tomorrow

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello Hello and Good morning friends. Coach Kate here with another episode of Minute Explorations for you all! I host this space weekday mornings where we dive into a quick quote, an idea, or some literature to explore the questions and answers it can provide for the day ahead. If that sounds liek your kind of jam, give me a follow so you can follow along and we can explore these morning moments together. 

Today, this transformation Tuesday, we're going ot dive into another quote on change. Change is a very popular subject in this morning space here on the show, because it's such a hard thing for many of us to embrace. Change is clunky, change is uncomfortable, but it is the biggest thing you can do to lean into to also grow. It's also inevitable, so the more we get comfortable getting uncomfortable, the more we also grow for the better. Today's quote is from a wonderful writer that focuses on romantic relationships and how to be a better partner. Jim Burns has been writing about relationships for years, and he also acknowledges change as a component to relationships, with each other, and also with ourselves. Here is his quote on letting go of the past, and embracing change:

Remember, you can't change what has happened to you in the past, but you can take steps to ensure a better tomorrow. The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. Nothing changes until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing.

-Jim Burns

This quote is a great one to reflect on, because it accepts the idea that change is painful a lot of the time. We think of pain as an acute sensation, but it can also be a subdued resistance as well, or a grieving, or a reckoning of emotions. Sometimes change is about accepting what pain we want to choose or live with instead. Choosing the pain of change over the pain of staying the same is a choice, and the pain of the choice guides us. Sometimes we stay so long in a place or in a state of anti-change because we feel comfortable living in it. Sometimes we exchange years of our life refusing to change just because we're avoiding pain or the discomfort of change. 

So today, what would it take for you to embrace change ahead? What would taking back your power and leaning into change--even if it's painful or scary, look like for future you? 

Change is inevitable, pain doesn't have to be. Sometimes the scariest steps we can take, are the first. We don't need pain to change, but we need to start getting comfortable, with getting uncomfortable. 

I'm Coach Kate, thank you for listening in today! If you liked what you heard, feel free to give me a follow. If you would like more, my past minute explorations are available under the talk tab in my profile, and transcripts of every show are available as a newsletter sent directly into your e-mail inbox, so feel free to subscribe.

Thanks again for listening, now go embrace that change. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello everyone! Happy Monday! Coach Kate here for another edition of our morning Minute Explorations. I have been hosting this space for a while now, exploring these mornings with you all in usually 5 minutes or less, and something that has stood out to me lately is this wanting to keep the door open for explorations we can all share together in the mornings. I have been listening, and I have heard you all, and I want to expand this space more interactively moving forwards. This means starting Thursday of this week, we will leave the door open for longer episodes with guest inclusion every day, instead of just Fridays, and stay on a consistent schedule too! This will hopefully turn this monologuing space into a dialogue we can all share and contribute in together. The overall experience and format will basically be the same, we will just add in some of you all to the discussion now too, so be on the lookout later this week for this new interactive part of our daily tradition here. 

This past weekend I witnessed something I never thought I'd see where I am: The Northern Lights. Now I am a huge space and science enthusiast, so not only was I aware of the possibility of the Aurora Borealis being visible from where I am, but also my phone was getting notifications all day from numerous people hyped up on the solar storm. Now I took this all with a grain of salt, there have been numerous times in the past few years that the Aurora Borealis could come my way, and I got all prepared, and got nothing. So this time, I had a night already planned with my friends, and I told them that it was possible and we all just had plans to enjoy the night and see what happened. We just had the general direction and general time we thought it might start in our minds. So you would not believe our absolute shock and utter joy when we looked north around 10pm to find red lights dancing into the horizon, and then fill up the whole sky. We brought blankets out to the middle of the field and filled up our camera roles with the reds, the blues, the greens that danced overhead. 

In the subsequent hours then days that followed, my phone was filled with aurora pictures from friends, my social media was filled with Aurora photos from all over the world, and there was a fervor, an electric enthusiasm cascading through so many people from all over the world that had experienced this together somehow, all blown away by the sky and now connected through this singular solar event. It got me thinking about how the sky connects us, how we look up to the same night and have the same sunlight cascading on us. The sky has no borders, no preferences, no race or religions, but is there for all of us: reflecting down on us what we give it. So Today's quote is from Mae Jemison, the first African American Woman to travel to space. 

"When you look at the Earth from space, you realize that our planet is a beautiful, interconnected system. We are all in this together."

- Mae Jemison, Space Shuttle astronaut

This says so much about how the sky reflects down on us, sees us, and is is part of our human experience. I saw so many people connect this past weekend over a shared event in the sky, so I wanted to share a perspective of what the sky sees in us as well. We cannot think of the sky and not think of humanity as a whole either. The shared experience of looking at Earth from Space is so impactful to those astronauts that experience it, that it has a whole term of how it changes their entire perspective on Humanity: this is called The Overview Effect. Now one of these exploration mornings we will share together we will deep dive into this concept of the Overview Effect and how it impacts our life, but today, today's exploration is about connectedness. You see, we didn't have to change who we are to experience the northern lights, we didn't have to be perfect, we didn't have to have our finances in order, or wear the perfect outfit. The sky didn't car about our hair or what we had for lunch, and neither do those we connected with over the event. It was about the shared experience, and how we belonged to it and each other through it-- as we are.

The sky connects us because we belong under it, we aren't trying to fit in, we belong just because we exist. 

I'm Coach Kate. Thanks for listening to another Minute Exploration with me. If you liked what you heard, give me a follow-- I host this space weekday mornings and will expand it to be more interactive with you as as we grow in this space together. I wish you all a wonderful, and connected start to your week. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello Hello and Happy Friday listeners! It's the Friday Version of our daily Minute Exploration show to share with you all today! Typically these Friday shows are a bit later in the day, are a bit longer, and sometimes when we're lucky we get to hear from you all your perspectives and maybe some explorations and findings you have to hsare as well . So Today's TGIF is on the very much impassioned subject of Anger. Have you ever struggled with feelings of Anger and tried to figure out how to channel it or what it was telling you? Anger is such a powerful emotion and it can also be a motivating emotion if we know what to do with it and how to take care of ourselves when it arrives. So today we're going ot dive right into anger and explore this thought together. I'm Coach Kate and this is another episode of minute explorations where we dive in to thoughts, ideas, quotes, inspirations and more together. If that sounds like a place that you want to be a part of, go ahead and give me a follow so we can explore these explorations together. 

Anger is a powerful emotion, but it's also unique in the sense that as powerful as it is, it's also blinding too. When we are angry, often our reason or rationale is blind because we are searching to right a wrong, gain validation, and can lean as far as retribution or revenge in order to regain balance again. It's scary because the intensity of this emotion often can turn us into beings that are so different to who we really are. Today's quote is from the esteemed Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian Activist who was famous for not leaning into the white heat of anger, but implementing passive and peaceful resistance initiatives instead. Here's his quote on the power of channeling anger as energy: 

"I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world."— Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi the Man by Eknath Easwaran

Anger is not just an emotion, typically anger is an injustice. It is the desire to right a wrong, to feel seen, to be validated in our existence, and that is why it is such a powerful emotion. When we sit with anger, and let it tell us a story about why it's there-- if often is telling us that there was an injustice to our very spirit and self. The need to feel seen, acknowledged, and human is one of the most powerful needs there is. In fact, t is essential to life. When we are angry, we are fighting for our right to live as a complete being. When we sit with anger, we know it is upheld by a list of the most vulnerable of emotions out there: shame, disgrace, sadness, despair, hurt, and these emotions are fighting to be seen. 

So how can we channel that anger into that positive energy that Ghandi mentions? By first validating our experience. This is the most powerful step to acknowledging your experience, and it starts from within and it comes from the same place that anger is coming from. Telling yourself YES this was wrong, and validating yourself is powerful. You no longer need to seek the validation from others for an injustice if you first acknowledge that injustice from within. You give all your power back to you when you let yourself fully embrace the wrong you feel. When you realize you don't need an outside person to validate your wrong, you open yourself up for progress instead of revenge or hate. You open the door for paving new pathways ahead where more people are seen and heard because you decided that the injustice can be seen from within. 

So now I'd like to hear from you all! What are some ways you overcome or channel your anger? What things can you share about your experience as using anger for progress, education, and even gratitude? We are all in this world together, and we all experience anger, maybe there is something you do out there that can help another, so feel free to jump up here and share!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com