Manders Mindset
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a Breathwork Detox Facilitator, Transformative Mindset Coach, and Divorce Paralegal.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
103: The Side of Thanksgiving No One's Talking About
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This episode of Manders Mindset offers a fresh perspective on Thanksgiving reflections, focusing not just on gratitude but also on the importance of acknowledging what we’re not thankful for. By exploring challenges, frustrations, and moments of growth, this episode encourages listeners to find lessons in every experience. The discussion dives into the coexistence of grief and gratitude, showing how these dual emotions can lead to transformation and personal growth.
Listeners will also be guided through a journaling exercise to reflect on both the positive and challenging moments from Thanksgiving, uncovering the insights they hold. With stories of loss, family connections, and personal evolution, this episode inspires reflection and mindset shifts to prepare for the upcoming year.
Key Points:
[0:29] - Exploring the mindset shift of reflecting on what we’re not thankful for.
[7:23] - Balancing grief and gratitude during the first Thanksgiving without a loved one.
[12:42] - Guided journaling prompts to reflect on lessons from gratitude and challenges.
[17:43] - A personal example of learning from ungrateful moments to create change.
[21:35] - Finding unexpected joy in small moments and their transformative power.
[23:27] - Details about the HydroJug giveaway as a token of appreciation for the audience.
Links & Resources:
- Enter the HydroJug Giveaway: Follow on Instagram @TheBreathingGoddess and like & share the giveaway post.
- Journaling Prompts: Reflect on one thing to be thankful for, one thing not to be thankful for, and the lessons in both.
To Connect with Amanda:
- Follow Amanda on Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess
- Explore Amanda’s new podcast: Breathwork Magic (Available on all major platforms or you can listen on Apple!)
- Join Mindful Mindset Mondays: Pay-what-you-can virtual Breathwork sessions on Eventbrite: Register Here
- Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!
- Follow Manders Mindset on Instagram HERE!
Closing Note:
This episode explores the importance of embracing the duality of emotions, finding gratitude in the good, and lessons in the challenges. Listeners are encouraged to reflect, journal, and prepare for a transformative new year.
Don’t forget to enter the HydroJug giveaway and connect on Instagram for more insights and updates. Thank you for being part of the Manders Mindset community!
Welcome to the Manders Mindset Podcast. Here you'll find both monologue and interviews of entrepreneurs, coaches, healers and a variety of other people when your host, amanda Russo, will discuss her own mindset and perspective and her guest's mindset and perspective on the world around us. Manders and her guests will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life, will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life.
Speaker 2:Welcome to a unique episode of Mandu's Mindset. As always, I'm your host, amanda Russo. This week, as I reflected on Thanksgiving, I noticed something Whether on social media, on other podcasts, in conversations, everyone has been talking about what they're thankful for, what they're grateful for all of the blessings that they have in their life. And don't get me wrong, gratitude is so important. I have a very strong gratitude practice, but today I want to take a different approach. I want to talk about what we're not thankful for. I know that might sound a little strange, but hear me out, it's a mindset shift that doesn't get nearly enough attention when we take time to reflect on the things that we don't enjoy in our life, that challenged us, that were difficult or are currently difficult things in our lives. It gives us opportunities for growth. It gives us opportunities to progress and to advance within our lives, and that's what I want to explore with y'all today. Before we dive in, I just want to take a moment to say thank you guys so much from the bottom of my heart. We're over a hundred episodes and been doing this for over a year now, and I am just so thankful for all of you, whether this is the first episode you're ever listening to. You've heard all the episodes, you've sporadically listened. I appreciate you being here and I appreciate you spending this time with me, because time's the only thing we can't get back and there are so many podcasts that you could be listening to and you're choosing to tune in to Mander's Mindset and, honestly, I'd love to hear what you think of the show, the segments you love. Is there something I say that annoys you? But go to this. Leave me a review, leave a comment on YouTube. I'd really love to hear what y'all think.
Speaker 2:I had a friend once who hated that I said aka the breathing goddess in the beginning of the show. So I stopped saying that. I had a listener tell me that if the podcast episodes with a guest are over an hour, they prefer a takeaway because their ADHD gets confused and misses stuff that was said. So anytime I have a guest episode over an hour, I record a takeaway. Now, you notice, even when I introduce myself, I don't say aka the breathing goddess, and you'll also notice I always introduce myself. I'm Amanda Russo. It'll be some podcast. You'll hear that people don't introduce themselves to a start, which to each their own, but I had an ex tell me that he thinks it's really good as an outsider, because if it's his first time tuning into my podcast and that's somebody who listens to a lot of podcasts for the first time he wants to know who the hell the host is. So that's something I continue to do.
Speaker 2:All that being said, I'd love to hear from you, love to know what you like, what you don't like anything. So let me know. Give me some feedback, leave a review on Apple Podcasts, leave a comment on YouTube. Send me a message on Instagram. The Breathing Goddess Mander's Mindset you can contact me on either. You can contact me on either.
Speaker 2:Now let's get in to today's topic. Together, we will reflect on both gratitude and lessons that start of the new year on a new foot. Now, some of what I'm saying about reflecting on what we're not thankful for might sound a bit strange or even feel uncomfortable, but hear me out. When we take time to reflect and review the moments in our lives that felt challenging or overwhelming, or when things didn't go how we planned them to, or things that we don't enjoy about life because that will always come up we can see them differently when we take time to reflect on them. This could be a simple thing, like maybe you told yourself for Thanksgiving dinner you would only have one piece of pumpkin pie, but you had three. And I said promise you broke to yourself. And it might seem simple, maybe your best friend's telling you don't beat yourself up about it, it's just two extra pieces of pie, but you know it's a promise that you broke to yourself. It's time to reflect on that, because to ask yourself, take a step back and review and reflect what can this teach me? How can this help me grow? Because sometimes the moments we're not grateful for hold the greatest potential for change. That's how we progress forward, that's how we change our lives, not when things are going well, when we're so frustrated that we fell back into that pattern that we did the thing we said we weren't going to do, and now we finally say enough is enough. Maybe it's that relationship you know is not good for you. That was me five years ago and I finally said, yeah, it's Thanksgiving Day, but enough is enough. But the reflection part is really key in reflecting on what can this situation teach me? What can it teach me about myself? What can it teach me about myself? What can it teach me about how I show up in relationship to other people. It allows you to figure out how to progress forward and for me this Thanksgiving was different.
Speaker 2:It was the first Thanksgiving without my cousin Kay and honestly it brought up a lot of grief. It definitely made me miss her even more. You know, as y'all know, I've talked on different episodes on here with guests that I am not super close with my family. I don't have a problem with them, I love them all. We're just don't hang out, we're not a family that is close-knit like that. But my cousin Kay and I were the type that a lot of the family members there were different family members that just bugged the two of us and she was that cousin that I could say whatever to. She was that cousin I'd be texting at the dinner table, as there's multiple of us sitting at this dinner table and I'm texting her underneath the table saying stuff about people. So for reference a little bit of our relationship, we weren't the type of cousins to hang out, spend time together outside of the family gatherings. But she understood really well some of my frustrations with the family.
Speaker 2:With one of my uncles in particular, I felt a lot of grief. I'm not even going to sugarcoat that. There were different moments when I was like I wanted to go to the other room because there was always this other room that her and the siblings were in and a part of me wanted to go to the other room to see her, just to honestly vent, bitch, get her to help me shift my mindset, if you want to say and I couldn't Like that wasn't an option, you know. So I felt the grief but at the same time I felt so much gratitude. Gratitude to see family members I haven't seen in a while. Gratitude for the connection. Gratitude for this devoted time to people in my life. You know I have no podcast to worry about. I have no breathwork sessions to worry about. There is nothing really in my mind that I'm thinking about. It's just we're here at my aunt's for Thanksgiving. I'm chilling. My mind's not thinking about what's to come. I've got days worth chilling. It's good.
Speaker 2:Also felt so much gratitude for the people around me, the family members that are here and my own life. You know a lot of people in my life tell me how I'm so young, because a lot of my friends are older than me and I'm 28, but I'm starting to realize and witness and mentally compartmentalize just how sacred and precious and valuable life is and how it could be gone in the blink of an eye, which I know we know, and I know you guys know I think this because I say we're here then we're not. And I know you guys know I think this because I say we're here then we're not. But just so, so much of life has has flashed almost before my eyes, I guess I could say you know, it hit me at one point this week when I was feeling some grief and I was missing my kids Also. I'm really grateful for this devoted time with my loved ones and this special time with my mom she's got some days off and that's when I realized Thanksgiving isn't just about celebrating the good. It's about sitting with everything the good, the bad, the joy, the pain, the gratitude, the growth, the grief, the pleasure and everything in between that when we give ourselves permission to feel all of these emotions, we open the door for something truly powerful Transformation. These deep reflections I've been having also gave me a huge sense of gratitude for this podcast.
Speaker 2:For all of you who listen to Mando's Mindset, who engage with me on social media, regardless of how long you've been here. It means the world. You're a part of what makes this journey so meaningful, so thank you. Thank you for taking the time and energy to listen to me, regardless of who you are, where you're listening to me, from what space you're listening to me from. I appreciate it because you could be doing anything in the world right now, but you're listening to me on a podcast Now.
Speaker 2:I want to invite you to reflect with me for just a few minutes. I want you to reflect with me Now. You don't need to write pages or spend hours doing. This Could be a three-minute practice. Yep, I said three minutes. This is just a quick check-in to help you reset and reflect. After Thanksgiving, I invite you to grab a pen and paper and journal these out with me and really reflect on these. You can also think about these in your head, but there's so much power in pen to paper. I have mine.
Speaker 2:First, I want you to think about one thing you are truly thankful for from Thanksgiving, and now I want you to be specific, very specific. Not my boyfriend, not a specific person. Maybe it's something that specific person does for you. I want it to be specific. The more specific you can be with this, the better. Maybe it's something small, maybe it's a moment that happened. Maybe you handled a conversation better than you normally would have. You set a boundary when your uncle wanted to say something to you and you told him you weren't having that conversation. Whatever, it may be One thing that you're really thankful for.
Speaker 2:Now I want you to think about one thing you're not thankful for. Maybe it could be the pie example, or maybe you've always been late to Thanksgiving lunch or dinner. You've always been late to the Thanksgiving meal and you told yourself this year you weren't going to be late and you were still late, and maybe that's something you're not thankful for. And maybe that's something you're not thankful for. Maybe, when you got to Thanksgiving, you snapped at your brother when he said something about your outfit, and you're not thankful for how you handled that. Again, the more specific the better.
Speaker 2:So what is that? One thing, the first thing that comes to your mind when I say what are you not thankful for from Thanksgiving? Finally, ask yourself this what can both of these teach me? Yes, I said both. The one thing that you are really grateful for can teach you something. The thing you are grateful for can teach you so much as well. It can teach you about yourself, your values, your mindset, your beliefs, what you value in yourself, what you value in other people a a bunch of things like that. The thing that you are not grateful for can teach you how to change, how to level up your life. It can teach you what you don't want to continue.
Speaker 2:Thanksgiving just passed. The new year will be here before we know it. This year is almost gone. What are you leaving in this year that you are not thankful for? Maybe it's a belief, maybe it's a habit that you're sick and tired, that you keep falling back into. Only you know what that thing is. How can I use this to help me grow or shift, to move forward and evolve? I'm going to repeat that how can I use this to help me grow or move forward and evolve? Sometimes, what we're not thankful for holds the biggest lessons. You can even tie this into what you're not thankful for from the past year and allow yourself to reflect and think. Or different moments, different times, situations have happened, you've acted in a certain way and you're not thankful for this. But what can it teach you? Let me give you an example to try to help you understand what I'm getting at, to progress and move forward.
Speaker 2:I had planned on recording a podcast episode with one of my friends and the way timing worked out I was away traveling on one of my many adventures and he had a different engagement later that day and I ended up arriving home later than planned. So things didn't work out according to plan and we weren't able to record the episode. And I was really upset and you know, I distanced myself because I got in my own head about how he didn't care to make time for me when I was making up this own story, when, in reality, if I reflected, reviewed and took that step back, if anybody was at fault for the situation, it was myself. Fault for the situation it was myself, because I got home later than I was supposed to and we weren't able to record when we had planned. So I took time and this allowed me to realize one, I didn't like how I reacted. Two, okay, now that I realized I didn't like how I reacted, I can change that behavior going forward and I have.
Speaker 2:This reflection is about seeing both sides of the coin the gratitude and the challenges and using them to empower you forward and shift you to a more growth mindset, you know, and I'm all about bettering myself every day in some way. My Instagram bio for the longest time was focused on bettering myself every day, in every way, and I am In some aspect. Every single day I am improving myself. It might be 0.5%, but 0.5%. Each day I'm improved. Even if it's only 0.5%, it's 1%, maybe some days it's 0.25%, but it's still a little improvement each day and it adds up. Anyways, anyways, that's how you cultivate the change, and it's been a week of reflection and gratitude and grief and multiple emotions for me.
Speaker 2:For those of you who follow me on instagram, you you may have seen my story. I posted a poll asking what y'all were feeling Thanksgiving week whether it was thankful, joyful, grief or overwhelmed and the majority was thankful. But then grief, joyful and overwhelmed were tied for second place. And if that does not explain or show that two different emotions can exist in one, and I had posted this story. And then the next slide was a photo of my cousin and my grandfather and you know it was a random photo I took and my grandfather has the biggest smile on his face. Neither one of them are looking at me. They didn't even know I was taking the photo and it's something so simple but it brings me so much joy. Now my grandfather we love him more than anything in the world but he's not big on smiling. A big thing I say a lot is Pa smile. Pa smile Anytime we're taking a photo and he's in the photo so, for reference, that's the person he is. He's a very happy man but he's not always smiling.
Speaker 2:And I posted this poll and asked y'all what you were feeling this week and then posted this photo to show that I'm feeling a lot of grief, with it being the first holiday without Kay, and I'm also feeling so much joy in a really weird way, for this photo it's now my wallpaper. I'm not even in the photo, but it's my wallpaper and it was something I really reflected on and I wanted to bring to y'all's attention about finding that thing. Even if it's something so small, even if it's a photo you took of people and they didn't know you were taking the photo and you're not in it, it brings me so much freaking joy and it might seem really weird, but grief is weird about the small things and about the things that have helped me improve my life and increase more positive things within my life like my hydro jug. I love this thing. I really do. Yes, I am an ambassador, but this is not even me trying to sell you guys on hydro jug. But back when I first started my fitness journey, the two different things I started with was increasing movement and increasing water. And it wasn't this exact jug that I got back then, but it was a hydro jug that I got back then and it helped me so much. Add in more water, much add in more water, and it's been a constant reminder to me to prioritize hydration and to have this with me.
Speaker 2:Anyways, this time of year thanksgiving and black friday there's all these sales and deals and I'm not trying to sell you anything. I am looking to give back If you follow me on Instagram. You've already seen this. If you don't follow me on Instagram, hopefully now you will, but I am giving away a 40 ounce Hydro Drug Traveler a solid black one. You can enter the giveaway on my Instagram. All you have to do is follow me at the breathing goddess on Instagram, like and share the post that I posted and you'll be entered to win. If you follow me and do this mindset on Instagram, that'll give you an extra entry.
Speaker 2:This is my little way of saying thank you. Thank you for being a part of this community, thank you for tuning into Amanda's mindset, thank you for being a part of my Instagram fam. I absolutely love getting to share my journey, other people's journey, with each and every one of you. So thank you so much. Good luck, and check out the Instagram post. Guys, here's the deal. The holidays can bring up many emotions, from grief to gratitude, to overwhelm, to frustration and everything in between. My biggest wish and hope for you, guys, is to be able to allow yourself to feel all of the emotions and embrace the duality and find lessons within the good and the challenges that you face. Happy Thanksgiving, thank you for being here, thank you for listening and thank you for reflecting with me today. Don't forget to enter the HydroJug giveaway on my Instagram at the Breathing Goddess. And, in case no one told you today or this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for you and your life has meaning. Don't forget that I'm proud of you, I'm rooting for you and you got this. Thanks, guys, until next time.
