E001. Storytime! The Rolling Meadows Artwork

Joyfully Ever After with Heidi Esther

You take care of the world. The kids. The fur babies. The house. The dinners. The dishes (always!) The schedule and friends AND...you yearn for More. More Joy. More Fulfillment. More Time. More Y.O.U. You're not alone + it's not selfish to want more of the good stuff. In fact, you were created for the dream in your heart and mission in your heart and soul. AKA The good stuff :) I've been there. Wondering "is this it?" Guess what? You have the answers. You need some different tools and a wise cheerleader ready with tacos, truth bombs, and a hug, to let you know you were meant for more Joy and Meaning. Join the community + get new tools, support, and love to get you on the path to your Joyfully Ever After, straight to your inbox once a month. Go to Https://HeidiEsther.com/tools to join the neighborhood. So, who's this lady? If Mister Rogers and Captain Marvel had a baby, it would be Heidi Esther. She is an emotional intelligence powerhouse, storyteller, and Joy Coach. She walks alongside moms and selfless warriors dedicated to their families and communities, to unravel the blocks of the heart so they create the Joyful and Meaningful lives of their dreams. She is a heart and soul explorer, storyteller, poet, and spoiler of all dogs, especially her chestnut-eyed Olive. She is committed to walking with fellow humans on their journeys towards their Joyfully Ever After. Especially when the spaghetti sauce hits the ceiling. Again. She resides in Central Illinois with her prankster wife, two eye-rolling teenagers, and two spoiled dogs. When she doesn’t have her head in the clouds or a motivational book, she can be found trying to teach her kids the virtues of meditation, making sourdough pancakes, or growing parsley for caterpillars. FOR more about Heidi Esther, go to Https://HeidiEsther.com/about-me. Or, you can email her your favorite cookie recipe at howdy@heidiesther.com. And if you’re into live videos with cute dogs, relatable stories, and tools to get you into more Joy, every day, go to https://YouTube.com/#HeidiEsther

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Joyfully Ever After with Heidi Esther

E001. Storytime! The Rolling Meadows

May 30, 2021 • Heidi Esther • Episode 1

0:00 | 8:57

It's a beautiful day in The Rolling Meadows. Beside the stream, Heidi Esther encounters King Kong and an odd-looking dog bird. Wait a second. Heidi Esther usually talks about true stories.

Is Heidi Esther dreaming?

Find out about the Rolling Meadows and... the Power of Meditation in today's episode!

Are you ready to Learn the 5 Steps of Self-Leadership that will help you peel back the layers and Lead you to Joy, on your own terms? Then go to http://heidiesther.com/steps today!

You can watch all of my episodes on YouTube @HeidiEsther
or Join my neighborhood online at http://Facebook.com/groups/MyJoyfullyEverAfter

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Soul Sanity Podcast. I'm Heidi Esther, bringing you weekly shots of mindfulness with a funny bone. Now here's the show. Hello, my friend. How are you taking care of your beautiful soul this week? It's almost the brink of summer. Very exciting. I had plans for all I would accomplish this past week, and then boom, my daughter came back from her dad's house sad and angry. Anxiety struck me in the way of losing days of sleep, losing focus, and losing momentum. I even bumped into a doorway in my sleep deprived state. Then I found my way back to feeling better about things. But that, my dear friend, is a story for later. It's not quite ready to come out of the oven, if you know what I mean. I also have some great news to share with you today. I talked with my editor last week and Soul Sanity for crying out loud, my book is about ninety five percent done with the editing. So right now I'm pretty focused on like the front and the back of the book stuff, the acknowledgments and the introduction. But my next step is a question for you. Will you be a judge? In June, I'm going to post a cover art contest on my Facebook page. I'll have a few different designs for you to pick from, and I will need your input. So my dear friend, I want to let you know two things today. First, God or your higher power, the universe, doesn't give you any challenge in your life that you aren't meant for. Second, I want to let you know that I'm with you through the days you don't know how you're gonna get through and the long nights that offer no respite. With that, I'd like to tell you a story about something that helps me through the anxious times. With love, light and laughter till next week, I'm Heidi Esther. Are you ready to float downstream in the rolling meadows? I'm laying on a patchwork quilt beside a happy little stream where a family of ducks paddles by. Around me are the rolling meadows. Here the soft grasses are tall with sweet little flowers. The early summer sun is gentle and low, yawning and stretching her arms, blanketing a part of the sky in a mellow orange, which caresses and intertwines fingers with the light blue of the day, like lovers parting. All of a sudden there's this loud noise, like King Kong zipping up in a full snowsuit What the hell is that? I picture King Kong, and a miniature figurine of that exact same thing appears in my hand like magic. The next time I see a duck, it pauses. I put the figurine on its back. The duck nods and paddles away upstream. I lay back down and look at the sky. Zruch Again the noise. Zirch again louder. The noise sounds like it could be harmful. Need to investigate. I open my eyes, look at the ceiling, and roll on my side. Hm I huff. I throw back the blanket covering me. Then the booster under my knees to protect my back. I look to my right, both dogs staring at me, wondering what's going on. You're okay, I reassure them. I take off my headphones and get up to figure out the origin of the King Con zipper. In five minutes I have successfully removed three pieces of wicker that broke off my son's laundry bin and lodged in between the main drum of the dryer in the back. That could have been really expensive. Might as well start over. Back to the rolling meadows. I restart my meditation, close my eyes, and make my way back to the blanket beside the stream. Soon I hear a coo cooing. I look over. Right next to me is a little dove with a funny little head, exactly like my Italian greyhound, Elvis. Yes, Doggy Dove appears every time Stacy wakes up while I'm meditating with the dogs. Elvis whines 'cause he can't get to his mommy. Lucky for me, his real life wines make for a cute doggy dove next to my stream, so I can keep meditating. When Doggy Dove gets too loud, I pick him up, stroke him on the back, and place him on the back of a passing duck. Doggy dove keeps coming back, however, and getting bigger and louder. Pretty soon, Doggy Dove is the size of a cow. I open my eyes. Well, Elvis, your pandemic separation anxiety wins again. I say and I roll on my side, as if I lost again. I get up quickly from the floor, my head fuzzy from the quiet of the meadow. I open the gate and let him upstairs. I walk back to my spot and look at my dog, Olive. I glance at my paused meditation, and my heart lightens. Hey, I only had two minutes to go. That's not so bad. I think I earned a gold medal for effort today. She looks at me as if in agreement, then rolls on her back. As I pet her belly, I think Yep we both earned the gold today. Poem a kingly gift. Listen, listen, listen is what your seat demands as you sit next to the stream, waiting for the quiet, hoping for some peace. Patience patience patience is what your sit reveals as you work towards greater, a better holding your distractions, floating them away. A presence, a presence, a presence a kingly gift received as you live like the gentle stream, a bubbling drift of joy nourishing all life. Today's soul journer question Meditation Does the thought of stopping and listening to almost nothing make your skin crawl? Would you rather scour the grout in your bathroom? I hear ya. I use meditation for consequences for my teens, so they can pause and understand the root of things in their lives. But what good is it? Well, I've been meditating almost every day for four and a half years. The meditation, no matter the length, sets a calm baseline for my day kind of like a reset button. But I'm far, far from perfect. My mind goes helter skelter most days. But that's not the point. The point is to sit. The rewards for you, my dear friend, will reveal themselves in time. Mine have been plentiful mindfulness, patience, a calm heart, a non responsive tongue, and daily joy. The question for you If you don't already meditate, would you try it for two weeks? Some people love headspace. I use the call map. If you email me, I can email you a thirty day trial for free, no problemo. All you have to do is set aside ten minutes every day at a time when you can show up. And if you miss a day, no biggie. Show up the next day. Omit the shoulds over missing or wandering minds. Meditation is about the long game. Or if you already meditate, can you go to this story on heidiester.com and comment about what benefits you receive from it? I would love to know. Well that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. See you next week.