Episode 108- Lessons From My Swimming Pool
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[00:00:00] You are listening to episode 108 of the peaceful mind podcast.
Welcome to the peaceful mind podcast, a place for creating the peace of mind. You need to be the best mom you are created by God to be. If you wanna bring more balance, more joy and more peace to your motherhood, this is the place for you. I'm your host certified life coach at Catholic mom, Danielle Thienel. In the name of the father of the son and of the holy spirit.
Let's get started.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. I have a really fun little episode for you today. That is about my swimming pool. Here we are at the end of the summer, if you're listening to this podcast, right. When it comes out [00:01:00] and like, did you do any swimming this summer? It's been hot in a lot of places around the world.
And if swimming is your thing, I hope you got a chance to cool off. Now I love swimming. I love swimming in the ocean. I love swimming in a swimming pool and I love to swim for recreation. And I also love to swim for exercise, and I grew up with a pool. So it's kind of was part of my childhood and lots of fun memories there, lots of games and can visualize just kind of like the neighborhood kids and using it for family gatherings and parties and such.
So some really good like emotional. Attachment to having swimming pools. So when I bought my first home with my husband and we are on a pretty large double corner lot in the city, which is kind of rare to have this size of lot in the city. I remember that we, we had viewed the house and then, which was pretty small, just one bathroom, three [00:02:00] small bedrooms when we purchased it.
And. We went out into the yard. And that is when we both were like, looked at each other and said, this place would be perfect for a swimming pool. Now I wanna tell you that when we bought this house and it's the one that I am standing in right now, recording this podcast, we thought it was our first house.
Um, well it was our first house, but we thought it would be our, like, just kind of starter home. Well, to tell you this next month, It'll be 22 years since we've lived in this, this house. And it was only last summer, actually, not even the full summer that we put in a swimming pool. And so this past summer was the first time I was able to have a full summer with the pool and it's not over yet.
So where I live the climate's. Okay. And we'll, we'll be able to. Into [00:03:00] October. So we get a lot of life out of our pool during, during the year, but still just to think that when it it's been 22 years, since I originally said this yard would be perfect for a swimming pool. And that leads me to the first lesson that I want to share with you, that I have from.
This time from the time we moved into the house until we had the pool. And then what I'm kind of like learning from having the pool. Now there's three main lessons that I wanted to share with you and to show you that we can apply this to our life as well. Okay. So talking about how long it's been since I've held the vision to have a swimming pool in this yard, that is lesson number one that we want to hold on to our visions.
Right that you [00:04:00] can in your mind, picture something. And if you keep it there and hold onto it and focus, you can create it into life, your vision in your mind, the more detailed you can get about it. And it doesn't even matter how long, but you have to do the work to hold onto it. So. I had a vision and I declared it that day in the yard, but over the years, my husband and I, we talked about it.
We really kept this vision alive. Of course, we would talk about it and say, it would be nice. But then we would probably say things like, oh, the kids are so young and we don't wanna worry about the safety now. And then of course, when it got in later, when you're, you know, paying for. Curricular activities and school and things like that.
You're thinking, okay, well, now's not the time to put the money there. We're gonna put it in other things, but we still held an [00:05:00] attitude of, of patience while we waited. We still talked about it. We still envisioned it. And we even went as far as over the years to have. An architect draw up what it would look like.
And then I would cut out magazines. , we didn't really have Pinterest back then, but I would cut out magazine pictures and I kept a folder that literally was labeled pool. Right. And I would put it in there. What I liked as far as like decking and, you know, waterfall features and, and things like that.
And then later when there was the online aspect, I remember I had an actual digital folder that said something like pool and landscaping. And so when I found pictures online, I would do a screenshot or save it and I would put it into the folder. But like I said, over the years, we had an [00:06:00] architect draw up what the pool would look like.
And then it sort of evolved things came. Where now wasn't the right time. And you know, it, it kind of, my, my likes did change. And then we also got kind of contractor numbers to get an idea of how much it specifically would cost. So we would know about what to save and all of that. So our vision. Was held.
We kept it alive. We persevered in, in not letting like the dream kind of fizzle. We fan the flames every now and then we revisited, we talked about it and I want you to think right now how this might apply to your life. Right? What. Do you want to have a vision for, or you used to have a vision for, but you've kind of let it go.
Or what is it that you want to [00:07:00] create? And. You're going to now commit to be, to put some time and effort into building that, that vision into reality. We've got to hold onto it, but you know, first we have to create it. So I want you to just think about something that is kind of fuzzy right now. And that you can actively make it more clear.
And then you can maybe tell someone about your vision, right? And then as you wait for it, can you maintain an attitude of possibility and positivity that will just fan those flames? because it's having this vision and this is what I can see and what I've learned from this, having this swimming pool, when I am out there in the pool, I will say, wow.
I remember when it wasn't here. I remember when we stood and said, It [00:08:00] would look amazing right here, or we'd love to have this feature and now it exists. And though it was 22 years, that's okay. It doesn't matter how long it takes and we can have fun on the way to it becoming a reality by, you know, feeling as if it is happening, gets you excited and there's enthusiasm, but it is up to you to hold the.
Okay. Lesson number two from my swimming pool is take time to just float. That's right. I love to get into the swimming pool and do my laps, and we have like a basketball hoop and, and just kind of, you know, do my swimming and all of that. But. Love to just get afloat and get on it sometimes and float around the pool.
And in [00:09:00] life, everyone, we need to recognize when it is a time to go, go, go, and do, do, do, and get things done, all of that. But how much of that time that you're spending right now? Could you categorize it as relaxing? And content and just kind of free. And like I said, float, floating, just letting the currency of life take you and not in a, in a passive way that is deemed lazy or anything like that.
The way that, you know, if it is floating, if it's restful and not lazy is what is your mind doing at that time? When I make it a, a priority, if I'm not. Swimming for exercise or laps. And I wanna just take the [00:10:00] time to float. I purposely guide my mind into a place of relaxation where it will want to go to, oh, you could be using your time better if you were doing this and you know how the brain is mean.
And it kind of beats you up for actually taking some time for yourself to rest. I'm so aware. That this happens and onto myself that I make it a point to float. And when I do this, my brain needs to relax too. And I tell myself how this is. Good for me and how I, I need it and it fuels me up. And I just take that time for also for gratitude and to think about what is going right in my life and, and why it's everything's so going so well.
And I concentrate and deliberately find even moments, just recognizing the silence or, or when. [00:11:00] Silence to me, sometimes you hear, um, the birds or maybe, uh, and somebody, a neighbor has a lawnmower going, and there's even the, the hum of the pool equipment that I sometimes just wanna allow my focus on and, and stop my streaming of thinking.
Right. As much as I can. So where. In your life. Can you just take some moments to just float, to take time to float? And if it's not literally on the pool, I just want you to take the lesson about how you can incorporate. This floating idea of floating into your life. What are you doing to add silence?
Adding kind of calm time of gratitude, slowing your mind, doing nothing without beating yourself up for doing nothing. This lesson from my pool [00:12:00] is something like right now, as I'm speaking about it, I'm like, you know what, today I am gonna get in the pool and I'm gonna do laps, but I'm gonna have ample time to just float and.
Soak in all the things that I'm telling you to do. I'm like right now, I'm like so excited to have that be an aspect of my day as well. Okay. And lesson number three, the final one today from my pool that I wanted to share with you is so sometimes you just have to dive in. Okay. We know that the pool can be really cold and we can creep our way down the stairs, where we've got the water, you know, just going over to like our shins and our knees.
And then we know we go a little bit farther and it's like, ah, you know, and it, it touches our stomachs. And we, we think we like slowly want to get acclimated with the water. And everything, but here in life, what [00:13:00] I know. Is that we get ideas. We have goals. We have things that we wanna accomplish, and sometimes we just need to start.
We just need to dive in, like all in, throw your heart over the bar and just get going, getting yourself into what I call here on the podcast. The concept of massive. . And so instead of dipping your toe in, instead of thinking that we just need to like, you know, take step by step and acclimate ourselves, just like a pool, we just want to just dive in, just jump off the side and yeah, at first it could be like a shock for your body.
Like, oh my gosh, it's freezing. You've covered everything. And now in, in less time that it takes you to kind of creep in the pool. You. You now are starting to feel warm and acclimated, and [00:14:00] then you kind of get going, right. You're in there. So you start your swimming, start your laps and in life too, I find that this is so helpful.
If you have decided that you want something just. Go after it, just start somewhere, just dive right into this, this project. And along the way, when you dive in, then you figure out what the next step is once you're there. And so I hope that that, that kind, you know, of course your brain is gonna tell you, like all the reasons why you should take your time to do something and.
It's coming from this place of fear and uncertainty. And sometimes we wanna, we wanna get a little bit information before we go into something, but what I've seen with my clients and what we work on in my coaching program, whether you work with me just one on one, or you're in the group, it comes up the [00:15:00] same.
It's this idea that you wanna know how things are gonna. Just like in the pool, you kind of wanna dip a toe in there to know what temperature it is before you, before you start. And you want to already feel good before you dive in to know that it'll be all right. And so in life with whatever your goals or projects are, you, you want this reassurance, that things it's gonna be smooth or it won't be hard.
And that is what I see holds my clients back. Taking steps and making progress in their life because that's not how things work. We just sometimes need to just decide, say we're a yes. And we need to just dive in. The example I wanna show you is like, when we think we want to clean out our, our, a part of our home and I'll just pick the garage for an example, and everyone is like, anticipates how long it's gonna [00:16:00] take and how hard it's gonna be and how heavy it'll be, because we have to go through things that we haven't gone through.
And we don't know what's in these boxes, so we're uncertain and. And then we're like, I don't know where to start. Should I start over here with the sports equipment? Or should I go through the memorabilia? And it just slows you down and often you listen to your brain and it was like, yeah, it's too much.
I'm too overwhelmed. I'm not gonna do anything. But what I want you to know that the best thing is for you to just. Dive in, literally open that garage door, walk in, grab one item, grab a box, open it up, pick it up, make decisions and go after it. And as you go along, you'll meet op you'll meet some obstacles and you'll be like, oh, well, this isn't actually my stuff.
I need to actually call my mom and to see if she wants this anymore. But. When you meet those obstacles and you meet these decisions that you have to make you'll know then what it is that you need to [00:17:00] do next to move forward. And it kind of reveals itself on the way. So I want you to, and I wanna invite you that, whatever, right now you've been procrastinating on, worried about you're kind of now onto yourself after listening to this, that you have some fear of uncertainty.
or even if you literally, I hit it on the nail and you wanna organize a certain area of your life. Go ahead and just take this advice from the lessons I've learned with my swimming pool, which is to just dive in, just get started on it. Okay. Everyone, I'm gonna wrap this up and just wanna go over one more time.
These are the lessons from my swimming pool. I want you to hold onto your vision. I want you to take time to float, and I want you to just dive in and if you happen to be curious on what my swimming pool [00:18:00] actually looks like, I included the picture on the weekly email that I send out regarding this podcast.
So if you are not on my email list, first of all, why not? Because I give tons of value. Or you can simply click the episode website link that is in the show notes of this podcast. And it'll take you to a picture of my actual pool. All right, everyone. I hope you have had an amazing summer. And if you want to create an amazing fall and back to school time, know that I have options for you to work with me one on one and a group option that I think right now, if you're hearing this right, when it comes out is about to start.
With both of these options. This is where we dive deeper into all of the material that you hear on the podcast and we apply it to your life. Okay, everyone, thank you so much for being here. It means more than you ever know that you choose to [00:19:00] spend your precious time here with me and. I invite you to also share the podcast with any friends or family that you think would benefit from this amazing life transforming work.
Okay. I love you all. See you next week. Bye. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of the peaceful mind podcast. Are you ready to take everything I teach you here and put it to work for your own. To really learn how to have peace of mind, no matter what is happening around you. If so, I'd love to have you as a client, as your coach.
This is where you'll get personal and focus time on your own mind using life coaching tools, concepts, and proven life, transforming wisdom all through a faith-filled lens to learn more about how we can work together. Come on over to daniellethienel.com there you'll see how to sign up for a free coaching consult and learn how to get started until next time please be with you always.[00:20:00]
