Why Struggle? Podcast W Barbara J. Faison

I’m Barbara J. Faison, Your Meditation Ambassador, and if you are new here, welcome! In January I started a weekly newsletter which also serves as a blog post on my website, barbarafaison.com and the audio is my podcast called the Why Struggle podcast with Barbara J. Faison. So weekly you can read or listen.  My intention is to offer ideas, insights and inspirations to help you struggle less and enjoy life more. However you might be engaging with me, I am grateful for you listening and/or reading! I found out that September is Self-Care Month, yes, I know, there is a month or day for so many things. I'm going with this one since it's about self-care. lol. In honor of Self-Care Month, I'm offering 15% off the products on my website until the end of the month. Use code SELFCARE15 for the discount Autumn or fall is the time when in the northern hemisphere we are starting to slow down, in some places the temperatures are dropping-not so much in Atlanta. It's coming though. “Autumn is about to sh

Week 36 - Sharing Your T.A.G.S. You can read AND see pictures on my blog - barbarafaison.com/blog All the links are here - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON Greetings! I’m Barbara J. Faison, Your Meditation Ambassador, and if you are new here, welcome! In January I started a weekly newsletter which also serves as a blog post on my website, barbarafaison.com and the audio is my podcast called the Why Struggle podcast with Barbara J. Faison. So weekly you can read or listen.  My intention is to offer ideas, insights and inspirations to help you struggle less and enjoy life more. However you might be engaging with me, I am grateful for you listening and/or reading! Take a moment to imagine a deck on a house on the beach; the golden sunlight is shining, the vivid turquoise water is next to white sand. The white deck of the house is overflowing with vibrant fuchsia, purple and yellow flowers and palm trees. The sky looks like a mixture of pink and blue cotton candy swirled together. I think of our world as a cosmic jigsaw p

Week 35 - Take Three or Ten You can read AND see pictures on my blog - barbarafaison.com/blog All the links are here - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON My mission is to use my voice to heal, educate and inspire by sharing tools to help people live life better. I’ve mentioned before that I am an LL, a lifelong learner, and an LS, a lifelong sharer. My mother was an elementary school teacher, my father, a librarian and my paternal grandmother was also a teacher. As the saying goes, I got it honestly and the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. One of my dear cousins, Narla, is a teacher in Pensacola, FL. Growing up our families would visit each other during the year and we would write each other letters between visits. It makes me smile to think about how writing and sharing our interests kept us connected for decades. Narla still sends lovely cards for my birthday, wedding anniversary and just to say she is thinking about me and our family. There is nothing like receiving handwritten correspondence in the mail in 2023

Week 34 - A Stress Relief Breath Practice You can read AND see pictures my blog - barbarafaison.com/blog All the links are here - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON On Saturday I had the pleasure of presenting a De-Stress with your Breath Program for Teens at the Henry County Library, in Stockbridge Georgia. I get extra excited when I am able to share simple practices that anyone can do to reduce stress! Breathing is a part of what we do anyway, we only need to remember to access our breath intentionally as we move through the day. Did you know that breathing practices can help you calm down or have more energy? After over 25 years offering personal development training and programs I have learned that whoever needs to be there, will be there. It may be one person or hundreds of people. The just right audience will be at the place when the time is just right. Ivy and Danny were the just right people on Saturday at the program. Ivy asked me how I got into breathing stuff. :) I told her that working with the breath is ea

Week 33 - Finding JOY! You can read AND see pictures my blog - barbarafaison.com/blog All the links are here - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON What is joy? According to the dictionary, it’s a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. When was the last time you felt that feeling? I mean PURE JOY? On Friday night, my friend, Bonnie and I went out salsa dancing. On the way to the club, The Sanctuary, Bonnie and I tried to remember the last time we were “really” out dancing. We knew it was before “RONA” AKA, Covid 19, and we were pretty sure it was in 2019. Well thanks to Facebook I was able to take it back to Bonnie’s birthday in April 2019. Had it really been four years? Oh my! If you are new or want to know more about my salsa journey and these awesome friends, check out Week 26 - Music and Lasting Friendships. Over 11 years ago I discovered I had osteoarthritis in my right hip and right knee, so my dancing has been a bit limited for the past few years. Physical therapy last year helped a lot even though I have pain mo

Week 32 - Appreciating and Celebrating! You can read or listen on my blog - barbarafaison.com/blog Life is a journey. A trip. A deck of cards. Life defies a single definition because moment by moment, life changes. Life is different for each person every moment. Just as life changes, we change and grow based on our experiences.  Life simply is. Being alive is cause for celebration! Take a moment to think of a reason to celebrate. Treat yourself to something because you met a goal – celebrate! Perhaps you didn’t use your cell phone when you were having a meal. CELEBRATE! Every day find reasons to be grateful for life and celebrate! Sometimes it’s just as simple as not beating yourself up about something you did. Now that is cause for a major celebration. Think about the music you’ve listened to, the movies you’ve seen, the friends in your life and how they may have changed over the years. Treat yourself to something you enjoy. You deserve it. Affirm this: I celebrate life and I am grateful for all my life ex

Week 31 - More New Things! All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON I’m Barbara J. Faison, Your Meditation Ambassador, and if you are new here, welcome! In January I started a weekly newsletter which also serves as a blog post on my website, barbarafaison.com and the audio is my podcast called the Why Struggle podcast with Barbara J. Faison. So weekly you can read or listen.  My intention is to offer ideas, insights and inspirations to help you struggle less and enjoy life more. However you might be engaging with me, I am grateful for you listening and/or reading! It’s been many years since I “really” set goals. You know the real goals where you write down what you are planning to do by a specific date, along with an action plan. I decided back in the early 2000’s I would call my version of goals… Getting On A Life System. Get it -  G.O.A.L.S. - Getting On A Life System. So I ditched the official goal setting and planning and just started moving in the direction of my desires and worked on getting out of my

Week 30 - Knowing What's Missing All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON When I woke up on Sunday morning, I felt a little off, like something was missing. I’m doing my daily meditation, mindfulness, trying new things and other practices. Still, something didn’t feel right.  It’s been a busy month. Between having car issues and regular life, things have been very active. Last week, I talked about knowing what you believe and trusting your Personal Guidance System (PGS). I know I am a creature of habit, like many people, I have my routines down and there are regular places I go to shop and eat. Paying attention and listening to my PGS sometimes means turning down a new street to get home or trying a different grocery store. I did that last week, I went to Lidl and it was a lovely store that I will return to for shopping. It wasn't that... it was something that didn't register right away. As I got ready for the day I remembered, I hadn’t been to the water. I had been to the pool at the rec center to

Week 29 - What do You Believe? All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON CHECK OUT OVER 33 SHORT MEDITATIONS ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL What do you believe about yourself? Your abilities? Your family? Your beliefs are like seeds planted in soil – when nourished in the proper environment, seeds grow into beautiful foliage. As children, our belief system is based on the world we live in. Once we are grown, we must get clear about what works best for us as an adult. A few things I remember hearing as a child that impacted my belief system were: Children are seen and not heard Good girls don’t wear red lipstick and red fingernail polish Women don’t go to clubs by themselves I know what you’re thinking, are you serious? Yes, growing up in the 60s these were just some of the expressions being thrown about in that decade. Well, thank goodness change is happening regularly and I have a natural rebellious streak in me. I didn't think I took them to heart, although I'm sure they made an impression on me. 

CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Week 28  - Celebrating Being On the Road Again! You can read this and more on my blog - ⁠barbarafaison.com/blog⁠ Remember the song On the Road Again by Willie Nelson? If you don’t Google it. lol That’s how I felt on Saturday. A few of the lyrics are: I can't wait to get on the road again On the road again Goin' places that I've never been Seein' things that I may never see again And I can't wait to get on the road again. For a few weeks or longer, my car has been making some weird sounds, and well, I’ve been acting like I didn’t hear them. Lol. You know the minor inconveniences of life that require your attention, oftentimes we/or I may avoid them, because I just don’t wanna deal with it. I have lived long enough to know that that doesn’t usually work out so well. Avoidance btw is not a good strategy. I would get in the car, and ask for guidance and protection, and it was working out pretty good. Until this happened… Last Tuesday as I

Week 27 - New Things Again with Old Friends All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE I met Regenna London in 1995 when I was doing some freelance writing. Didn’t know that, did you? Ha ha… Gotta keep you guessing. At the time she was co-owner of The Source Bookstore in Decatur GA. I interviewed Regenna and her husband for a local Black magazine called The Atlanta Tribune. Writing, metaphysics and wanting to make a difference in the world were topics we both loved. We connected and started hanging out and a true friendship developed. Fast forward to 2023 and after almost 30 years of friendship we often laugh about our parallel lives. If I’m experiencing something like a job change, she has something very similar happening in that life pillar as well. It doesn’t matter what, relationships, finances, health, it either happens to me first or her first. We are both air signs, I’m an Aquarian, Regenna is a Gemini, so we often have very engaging conversations

All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON Week 26 - Music and Lasting Friendships On Friday night I met two friends, Bonnie and Jartu at Volare Bistro for dinner. The food was delicious. We laughed so much thinking about how much fun we had dancing salsa and traveling together. Yes, I met these lovely ladies while I was out dancing salsa. Bonnie reminded me we are at a club called The Duplex on a Friday night. She said I was at my table just dancing my heart out and she came over to say hello. And that started the beginning of a 20+ friendship, all because of salsa dancing. Back in the 90s we didn’t have a way to track things unless you wrote them down. There were no cell phones or no handheld devices that you could keep up with things like now… thanks to Facebook I have a few pictures to share of some of my salsa experiences. My discovery of Latin music was because of a dear friend, Ade, who lived in the same apartment complex with me. She invited me to go to a club. I was not a club girl. I tried it after

Week 25 - My M.A.P  All the links are at ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠⁠ ⁠CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE⁠ Dear God, what positive, creative, constructive, thought, word, attitude, or action is the next step to move us forward in life? This is the prayer my husband, TD, and I say before he goes to work at oh dark 30. About 5:15 AM most days. It is adapted from one by Catherine Ponder. We each also say a personal prayer where we include appreciation for each other. How do you start your day? I love starting my day with prayer and gratitude. I've heard that without a map, or direction, you could end up anywhere. My M.A.P. is Meditations. Affirmations. Prayers. These are some of my practices. You may have heard me say that meditation is not a goal, it is a practice. Practice means to perform an activity, repeatedly or regularly to improve, or maintain one's proficiency. Train your brain. Be kind to your mind. Pay attention to what you’re thinking about and how you feel. We a

Week 24 - More New Things? All the links are at ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠⁠ ⁠CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE⁠ I’m back reminding you to try and do new things. In week 14 I shared my Float Spa experience, you can check that out on my blog at barbarafaison.com. This weekend I did quite a few new things. On Friday night Kym, Artis, and I went to a story telling event called, In My Shoes, to see Terri Nicole share an excerpt from her one woman show in progress. Terri’s story was hilarious, sweet, and engaging. It was a fun night and we got to hear stories, music, and comedy at the event. Saturday night for dinner my hubby and I stopped by a NEW local restaurant, and guess what, they were playing salsa music! Yay for trying new restaurants in your neighborhood! It was a WIN WIN WIN, threefor. I got to do little seated salsa DANCING whilst enjoying time with TD and eating food that I didn’t have to cook. LOL.I really love sharing practical ways to bring mindfulness into our daily li

Week 23 - It's June, What's Next? All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Well, May is a wrap! Can you believe it? We are almost half way through 2023! So now that National Meditation Month and Mental Health Awareness Month are over, what’s next? How do you continue if you started doing the meditations from my YouTube playlist? Here are a five ways for you to practice on your own: Step outside and tune into your senses - sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch and sensations. Walk with no headphones and notice what is around you. Set your phone alarm to go off 2 times during the day and take 3 deep breaths. Try an APP - like Insight Timer APP or Aura - I have meditations on both. Check out my Artist page - Barbara J. Faison on Spotify, Amazon music and Apple Music, You can also keep doing the meditation from my YouTube National Meditation Playlist . The beauty of technology is that it lives on. Or is that really beaut

Week 22 - How's Your Journey Going? All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Over the decades I have heard many ways to describe meditation and one of my favorites is that meditation is mental hygiene. You brush your teeth daily (I hope) and groom and prepare yourself for the day. So if I brush my teeth, wash up, pick out the clothes I’m wearing and all the other things to start my day, why wouldn’t I prepare my mind? Hmmm. I mean, I will be using this beautiful mind ALL DAY LONG. Meditation is deliberately increasing your capacity to focus and concentrate. Where you place your ATTENTION and set your INTENTION is where your energy goes. Think about the last time you really focused on something, what was the outcome? Meditation is a PRACTICE - a procedure or way of doing something, like breathing, moving or visualizing. So I have practice times daily where I might focus on my breathing or just sit out in nature and observe my breath and

Week 21 - My Meditation Journey Part III - When the Body Speaks All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Mother’s Day weekend I had plans that would keep me busy all Saturday which included my monthly crochet group and a brunch. I went to bed Friday night feeling a little bit icky. I waited to see how I felt the next morning before canceling my plans. Well, my body WAS NOT HAVING IT. When the body speaks, I have learned to LISTEN and OBEY. And, here’s the thing, my husband TD and I were going to see Maxwell in concert at a local area amphitheater on Mother’s Day, so I really wanted to be able to go.  Keep reading on  https://www.barbarafaison.com/blog/. Check out the full playlist for National Meditation Month - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk1elOHR4dpdCIDlZvaNke9jazpxoXhyX SUBSCRIBE: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/BarbaraFaison Learn about my community on Patreon  -⁠https://bit.ly/3hhiJJe⁠ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buy

Week 20 - It Starts with a BREATH All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠  CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE I would say we are back in the business of the "busyness” of life after the pandemic. Time is a premium for most of us and we all have the ability to make choices about where and how we spend our time. When I say that I use my voice to heal, educate and inspire as a voice talent, meditation guide and trainer, I usually get a few responses like: “People tell me I have a great voice.” “I’ve always wanted to be a voice actor.” “I could never meditate, I can’t stop my mind.” “I don’t have time to meditate.” “I want to learn to meditate, I just don’t know where to start.” Think about a snow globe. When you shake it up, eventually the snow settles to the bottom, that’s what meditation feels like. The thoughts in your mind begin to settle more and more with practice. I still have times thoughts are swirling around and around, and other times I feel very settled. It’s

WEEK 19- My Meditation Journey - Part 2 All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠  I hope you’ve had a chance to check out my playlist for National Meditation Month on my YouTube channel. I’ve really enjoyed creating and posting some simple daily practices that are less than 10 minutes and I will continue posting through the month of May. When I started practicing in the 90s, people thought I was a little strange. I would meditate for 10 - 20 minutes in the morning before I left to go to work. It really began to help me settle my thoughts and feel more focused and clear with my decision making. I was at an event and I heard someone say that meditation is mental hygiene. That really made sense to me. You woke up today, right? You brushed your teeth, I hope you did anyway. You groomed yourself. You likely took a shower/bath, washed your face and attended to your personal hygiene, or at least that is the story I’m telling myself about your morning. In other words, you prepared to show up in the

WEEK 18 - My Meditation Journey - Part 1 All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ Guess what y'all? It’s National Meditation Month… I get a little geeky about this because meditation has been such an important part of my life since the 90’s. I started meditating because I was struggling and tired of the struggle. Back then there was no YouTube or podcasts or any of the really cool technology that we have now. I bought Shakti Gawain’s CASSETTE TAPE called Creative Visualization which was a 30 minute program. I thought I was going to EXPLODE. Trying to sit and visualize for me was very stressful. You see, when someone walks me through a beautiful visualization practice, I don’t see a thing, just the black behind my eyelids. Lol Meditation is such a personal practice. Some people see images, others are really impacted by sounds and other people, like me, are more connected to feelings and sensations when they practice. Keep reading on https://www.barbarafaison.com/blog/ to find out more.  ⁠