Imagine Yourself Choosing Your Best Life w/ Life Skills Strategist Sheila Sutherland

There are a million things in this world that we cannot control, but there are a few things that we can control. So... Let’s choose to keep our eyes open, alert, and focused on how to make the best of this life, instead of sleepwalking right through it.

Let’s choose to keep control of our tongue. Sometimes it’s better to keep our mouth shut rather than blurting out something we’ll regret later.

Let’s choose to keep our minds open to new opportunities rather than immediately turning down life changes that might lead to a better future.

Let’s choose to keep control over what we allow to enter our homes: unhealthy foods, unhealthy practices, negative thoughts, and negative energy need to be removed and replaced.

Let’s choose to keep our doors open to people who nurture us and consider closing the door on those who no longer respect us or our personal boundaries.

The list goes on and on. What do you need to choose that will enhance your life? You can enter a new year and new decade empowered! Now that's a great resolution.

We’ve invited Sheila Sutherland, Life Skills Strategist/Life Mastery Coach to give us encouragement and direction as we use the power of choice in our daily lives!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:

Life can throw a lot at you, but imagine if your life were different, better, not because of what's coming at you, but because of what's coming from you. Let's get there together. Join us and imagine yourself.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:14]:

Hello, everybody. It's Imagine yourself time. I'm Lanee.

Sandy Kovach [00:00:19]:

And this is Sandy. And the way you said that, it's kinda like a preschool teacher introducing something.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:24]:

That's right. It's like, good morning, class. We're here to learn today.

Sandy Kovach [00:00:29]:

What are we learning, miss Linnea?

Lanée Blaise [00:00:31]:

We are learning to live our best life by choosing our best choices And fully realizing that there are so many different areas where we actually do have the power of choice. I like it. Today's episode was developed after we did the podcast episode on empowering the next generation. And Sandy and I attended a summit, And we heard some stories about kids, especially young girls, who really had just never understood that they had the power to Choose anything.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:09]:

Wow. I remember that. That was pretty powerful.

Lanée Blaise [00:01:11]:

Yeah. We were sitting there looking at each other with our mouths open and our hearts breaking, And we decided to do something about it. We wanted to invite a life skills strategist to the show To try to help us understand how this balance works because we know that we cannot control everything in this world. There's lots of things we cannot control, but there are some things that we can control and that we can choose What and who we allow into our lives, and that is that power of choice. And that's why we have Sheila Sutherland joining us today Because she's a professional educator, speaker, best selling author, and she's a fellow podcast. And she's certified in social and emotional intelligence, And we want to just jump right in and welcome you, Sheila, to Imagine Yourself.

Sheila Sutherland [00:02:01]:

Hello, ladies and everyone. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with all of you.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:06]:

We are hoping to learn a lot. And 1 quote that stuck out to me is choices are the hinges of destiny. So let's just go right to the heart of this and the power of choice, and what it means to you, and what you tell your clients.

Sheila Sutherland [00:02:23]:

Oh my goodness. Yes. That quote is so true. I'm just gonna back up just a touch here too because I I think it's so amazing that you are actually Talking about young children and kind of making it sound like we're going into class here at the beginning because I'm a former high school teacher.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:41]:

Oh, wow.

Sheila Sutherland [00:02:43]:

And I just sit there and I think of what I know now, I wish I could be back in the classroom. Because I think even though I know I was a really great teacher while I was there, there's still some things now I would do differently with the knowledge that I have. And choice is one of them because I agree with you were saying when you heard that the young girls were saying that humanity in general does not believe anymore that they have choice, that life just happens to us. And to me, that's so disempowering To think that we don't or we can't actively play a part in creating our life.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:23]:

Mhmm.

Sheila Sutherland [00:03:24]:

And there was a part of me that sat back and went, no. That's not what I signed up for.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:29]:

And so did that lead you to become involved in this program. What it's called again?

Sheila Sutherland [00:03:36]:

It's called O Shift.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:37]:

O Shift. Yes. S h I f t. Yes. Tell us about that.

Sheila Sutherland [00:03:41]:

Because a lot of times we say the other without the f.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:44]:

No. We don't because

Lanée Blaise [00:03:46]:

we're we're in imagine yourself world.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:48]:

We've never said that.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:54]:

So let's go from the bad words to the good ones. Go ahead.

Sheila Sutherland [00:03:58]:

The shifting. Shifting your mindset, shifting How you feel about things and what we can control. And I I usually tell people, really, the only thing in life that we have control of is our reaction. There's very little in life that we can have ultimate control over. There's too many variables, Too many things that are at play for us to control everything. And I think those of us, and, I mean, I will count myself in that, That are the type a personalities who like to have control. Yeah. Yep.

Sheila Sutherland [00:04:31]:

It can be a little tough.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:33]:

1 a. Yeah. I'm at you. To the penny. Yes.

Sheila Sutherland [00:04:38]:

You're not calling anyone out right now. Right. You know, it's

Lanée Blaise [00:04:41]:

I'll claim it, actually. Unless I just I

Sheila Sutherland [00:04:45]:

can't I'm gonna fly that flag.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:46]:

Yeah. Because, Sheila, I get so frustrated. Sometimes I do feel like, I'm a person of Faith. So I do love and trust God, but I know there's people have their destiny. People have their Faith. There's the universe. There's circumstances that just happen. There's natural disasters, And it makes life so uncontrollable.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:04]:

I need to maybe understand how to nurture the parts that I can choose And balance that with the parts that I can't choose so that I don't Yeah. Go crazy.

Sandy Kovach [00:05:15]:

So how do we get there?

Sheila Sutherland [00:05:16]:

The one of the easiest ways that I tell people is whenever we're in that situation, okay, so something happens. There's some experience. There's something going on, And you can feel it in your body somewhere where the reaction is coming. Everyone has it a little bit differently. I, a lot of times, will feel it Kind of in my stomach and feel it rising up through my chest, and I know something is getting ready to come out of my mouth that maybe I don't want. Uh-huh. Okay. It's It's like a

Lanée Blaise [00:05:46]:

pot coming to a boil. Yeah. Yeah.

Sheila Sutherland [00:05:48]:

So a big part of all of this is the self awareness to Start seeing and knowing what that feels in my body before it happens. Because a lot of times, We have an experience. We say something or we react in some way, then we stop and go, oh, I didn't really mean to say that, or that wasn't my inside voice, And now I have to

Sandy Kovach [00:06:11]:

Was that out loud? You know,

Sheila Sutherland [00:06:12]:

now I'm in damage control. Yeah. That can be damaging to any relationship. Like, we're talking all types of relationships, Friendships, work relationships, romantic, whatever. It's first building that self awareness of what does that feel like. We all have a certain trigger in us that we can feel it.

Sandy Kovach [00:06:31]:

So when you say triggers, are you talking, like, positive, negative, good, bad?

Sheila Sutherland [00:06:35]:

It can be anything. And it's interesting you said that too because I try really hard not to focus on emotions being bad or good. Okay. Emotions are just emotions. They're all there. They all have a reason. A lot of times I hear people say, I can't be angry. I can't be sad, you know, because Those are wrong emotions.

Sheila Sutherland [00:06:54]:

There's no wrong. There's no bad. It's there for a reason, and it's up to us to figure out what that reason is. And that could, again, come out in a way that maybe we don't want it to, or we might have to go, oh, that was a little too much. Extra. Yeah. Like, where am I looking at? Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:14]:

That would be me. K. So if Lanee is a type a, I'm the extra. Through. You can imagine.

Sheila Sutherland [00:07:18]:

Oh, there we go.

Sheila Sutherland [00:07:21]:

But just touching on everybody at first thing this morning. Right? That's right.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:24]:

It seems to me, though, like, what you're saying is kind of to go ahead and allow yourself to feel the emotions, but to process them before you open your mouth. And to Yeah. And that's a a form of choosing also. You are choosing to have Inspiration, process it first, Think about how you want to react, and then you're choosing your reaction even though you didn't choose The way you help, and you didn't choose the emotion that hit you, and you didn't choose that punch in the gut, but at least you didn't have to Go all out and act on it.

Sheila Sutherland [00:08:01]:

Exactly.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:01]:

And then have these terrible possibly terrible consequences. Right?

Sheila Sutherland [00:08:05]:

Yes. Because I want to encourage everybody to feel the feels.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:09]:

All the feels. Yeah.

Sheila Sutherland [00:08:10]:

All of them. All the feels that there are because I think we're starting to become a little bit desensitized to some of our feelings because we're thinking that they're bad and or that we don't know how to manage them. But we are humans. That's a part of our human experience is to feel all those feelings. And I think when we Cut ourself off from part of it. We are missing out or we are dulling down a part of us, and I think that as a part of What's creating a lot of the stress, the anxiety, and the overwhelm that's happening, like, especially with our young teens and even younger than that now, They are experiencing anxiety to the levels that we've never seen before.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:54]:

Yeah.

Sheila Sutherland [00:08:55]:

You know, it wasn't that way when we were that age. I just think that that's one of the symptoms that we're dealing with right now is everything has to look perfect. Everyone has to look happy, and We have to put on this lovely little mask and facade and live behind it.

Sandy Kovach [00:09:10]:

And put that lovely little mask on social media.

Sheila Sutherland [00:09:12]:

Oh my gosh. Yes. I try to even when I'm on social media, like, I try to keep it a balance. Here's a wonderful great thing that's going on. Then, you know, when I'm Not feeling so great or something has happened that I'm where I'm just not in a good place. I have to balance this out, so I will actually go, hey. Look. I'm going through this thing right now.

Sheila Sutherland [00:09:31]:

It's gonna take time for me to process it. Yeah. I've got it to go through my own way, but this is just where I'm at.

Sandy Kovach [00:09:36]:

So you are out and being very real on social media, which is not the case for most

Sheila Sutherland [00:09:40]:

people. No. And I've had interesting responses from that because people aren't used to seeing that type of Openness and vulnerability. They're like, oh, you should you shouldn't be posting about that, airing your dirty laundry. And I'm like, well, you know what? If I'm asking other people to be very open and vulnerable with me, I have to do that as well. And I think constantly putting online that My life is perfect, and look at these amazing vacations, and my kids are always perfectly behaved. You know, I've seen and talked to the people who It creates so much stress for them because they can't live up to that.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:17]:

It seems like you're also modeling a good way of setting boundaries too, emotional boundaries That not only are you being transparent as far as sharing and being open, but you're also kind of insulating yourself And giving yourself that proper time to get yourself back on track. There's lots of people around here who are trying to be people pleasers And overaccommodating, and they feel like they're being selfish if they choose to put themselves first or put their own priorities first or put their own emotions and mental health and emotional health first. And maybe that's a dialogue that we have to change also among Young people and older people, that that is not selfish. That is choosing wisely to do things that will Better your life in a nice, healthy manner. Is that something that you work with people on sometimes too?

Sheila Sutherland [00:11:14]:

No. Most definitely. That type of Feeling does happen more often than women. It does happen in with men as well, but it is that the women who are still dealing with probably, you know, like, Hundreds of years of programming that we are the caregivers. We take care of everybody. We do you know, make sure everyone else is happy, and then we look at ourselves. And by that point in time, we're too tired and worn out, you know, to do anything for ourselves.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:41]:

Yeah. Everybody, I think, is operating from their own best interest. There's a quote that says, if you don't design your own life plan, chances are you fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you. Not much.

Sheila Sutherland [00:12:02]:

I love that. I've never heard that, but yes. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:04]:

That's by Jim Rohn. It kinda makes you think, and it may not even be maliciously. But Sandy and I say, okay. We're gonna get together and work on this podcast. And she says, well, these days are good for me, and I say these days are good for me, and you compromise versus me just trying to Go along and just do whatever Sandy says. I'm just scared. I go my goodness. She's gonna be mad at me.

Sandy Kovach [00:12:29]:

You cannot be scared of Sandy Clause.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:31]:

Can be I'm scared of Sandy Clause. She's not gonna give me anything in my stocking.

Sheila Sutherland [00:12:37]:

Especially this time of year,

Lanée Blaise [00:12:38]:

I mean.

Sheila Sutherland [00:12:39]:

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:12:40]:

So yeah. I mean and that's right on your website too. The whole thing about self care is not selfish. Right?

Sheila Sutherland [00:12:46]:

And that was something I had to learn the hard way. It was never something I was taught. I had never heard of self care, oh gosh, until I was probably already in my forties. Like, what truly it is. One thing I always just say to that, I would always go for retail therapy.

Sandy Kovach [00:13:00]:

No. I love that.

Sheila Sutherland [00:13:01]:

That was my way of making myself feel better.

Sandy Kovach [00:13:04]:

That's true. It could get you in trouble

Sheila Sutherland [00:13:06]:

My husband really was not impressed with that form of therapy.

Sandy Kovach [00:13:12]:

Well, he probably had his own. Right?

Sheila Sutherland [00:13:13]:

Well, he yeah. We all have our devices. Yes. Right. We all have ways of making ourselves feel better. But to me, that was a Band Aid version of trying to make myself feel better. Yeah. I would get that hit of, you know, adrenaline or whatever.

Sheila Sutherland [00:13:28]:

Now when I to find something that I wanted to buy, and I'd bring it home, but that wasn't lasting.

Sandy Kovach [00:13:34]:

Right.

Sheila Sutherland [00:13:35]:

So then I'd have to go out and buy some more, And then that didn't last. So you end up in this horrible circle of constantly trying to make yourself feel better by looking outwardly.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:47]:

Now what is the self care solution then? It seems like you're alluding to looking inward, but how Mhmm. Do we do proper self care?

Sheila Sutherland [00:13:56]:

Well, this is where you have to spend a little bit of time in reflection of going, what is it that fills me up? What is it that makes me feel that warm and fuzzy on the inside? Because a lot of people, I don't think we spend our time sitting and actually Being aware. Again, be having that self awareness of what that is. For me, it ended up being spending a lot of time in nature. Like, I just love to sit and be quiet and look at the water and listen to the birds and the wind moving to the trees. Like, I could feel my whole body just relax As all the cares of the world would just go away, ask that question of yourself. What is that for you? Maybe it's sitting down with a good book. Maybe it's Spending time with your best friend where you just sit there and you laugh your face off, almost peeing yourself, and you have such a good time with each other. Yes.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:48]:

TMI, but I

Lanée Blaise [00:14:49]:

I love it. Refreshing, though. It's refreshing. Yeah. Sandy and I are gonna do that this weekend.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:55]:

That's right. That's because frozen 2 is out. But,

Sheila Sutherland [00:14:59]:

Oh my god. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:00]:

Yeah. Gonna let it go

Sheila Sutherland [00:15:02]:

and let it go. What it is for you because it's not one thing. Some people would say, well, massages are the best thing ever, and that's the best form of self care. Maybe for you. Personally, I don't like massages. Mhmm. They actually cause me to be tense.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:17]:

Oh, gosh. Well, then that's the opposite.

Sheila Sutherland [00:15:19]:

Right? So it's it's trying to go, okay. What is it for you? Okay. Well, for you, that's great. For me, it's this, and realizing there's no one right answer. I started looking at this going, wow. This whole idea of self care is bigger than what I think a lot of people really look at it as, and I came up with What I call the 7 pillars of self care.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:41]:

Okay.

Sheila Sutherland [00:15:42]:

Because there's so many different avenues to take care of yourself As a holistic, as a whole being, because we can't just look at one thing. And most people, when they're thinking of self care, they only look at the physical aspect. So going to the spa, having massages, going and getting your nails done, just making yourself feel better outwardly, exercising, Drinking water, having proper nutrition, those are all important, but that is only physical self care. Mhmm. There are 6 other levels According to me.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:14]:

Okay.

Sheila Sutherland [00:16:15]:

That there are. Physical, we've got. We're good at that. And then we have the mental self care. Do I need to take a day of a break off of social media? Oh. You know? Is is it that every day is

Sandy Kovach [00:16:27]:

not long for me? Lanee.

Sheila Sutherland [00:16:29]:

I'm looking at Sandy right now. Think

Lanée Blaise [00:16:31]:

of. Yep.

Sheila Sutherland [00:16:32]:

But I think we do. We need to have that social media detox every once in a while, And I'm actually reading a book right now. It's called 20 four six. It's talking about how we try to live our normal lives 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. Because on that 7th day, we have to have that true day of rest, and you can pick whatever day you want. I mean, historically, we've always thought of Sunday as the day of rest, It could be whatever day you choose, but they're talking that that is the one day per week. It's absolute zero screen time. No phones, no TV, no tablets, no video games, and you actually are forced to find other ways To do things with your life.

Sheila Sutherland [00:17:14]:

So you're spending time with family. You're going out with nature. Maybe you're actually reading a real book, not looking at it on our devices.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:22]:

Your brain gets to reset like a like it naturally was meant to be, I guess. And I like that detox terminology too.

Sheila Sutherland [00:17:30]:

Yeah. Oh, gosh. We yeah. We need that detox. Said we talked about how we have created this addiction to technology. It's not saying that technology is bad. We I love technology. I love all our little gadgets and things that we have now in our home, But there's a price to it, and we have to learn to manage it as well as we can learning to manage Our reactions and our emotions as well because it has a way of taking over.

Sheila Sutherland [00:17:58]:

I mean, good lord. Everybody was asking Alexa I had to do things all over the place, and we've got Siri telling us where to go.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:05]:

Oh, we're lost without our phones. Yeah.

Sheila Sutherland [00:18:08]:

Oh my gosh. Yes. But we are giving up our power. We start to lose ourselves. We start to lose our sense of being and our own empowerment because we're constantly giving our power away.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:20]:

Technology does have a way of sucking the bandwidth out of you. Just I mean, that's a term that Lanee and I use a lot. Yeah. And we only have so much bandwidth.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:28]:

That's true. And other people sometimes do lots of things. That's kinda like what we're saying with these choices. Where are we choosing to put our attention? Where are we choosing to, who are we choosing to give our power and attention to? And then like Sheila's saying, how do you bring it all back at the end of the day and become a whole person again?

Sandy Kovach [00:18:49]:

Yeah. And you have all of these 7 things on your website and and your books and everything. Is that part of the emotional intelligence that you're talking about?

Sheila Sutherland [00:18:57]:

When you're talking about the self awareness, the regaining your power, Those are 2 of what I would assume is one of the the biggest competencies of social and emotional intelligence.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:10]:

But as far as the 7 pillars

Sheila Sutherland [00:19:12]:

We've talked about physical. We talked about mental. Of course, we have the emotional. We have to look at emotionally, are you know, are we feeling healthy? We have the spiritual aspect, the the spirit spiritual self care. No matter what people believe in, like, everybody has their own belief system, what can you do each week to honor that side of you. So those are the 4 that I call the inner pillars.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:33]:

Okay.

Sheila Sutherland [00:19:34]:

And then we have 3 outer pillars, which are your social. So that is actually spending time nurturing your relationships in your life because we are social beings. We need to have that connection. We need to come out from behind our devices to actually share space and share energy with other human beings.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:54]:

Yes.

Sheila Sutherland [00:19:55]:

And I think that's something we're starting to lose because, oh, with technology, we can't always be connected. Yeah. Not yes, but no.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:02]:

Right.

Sheila Sutherland [00:20:02]:

You know, we need to actually be in the same room and They're into each other's eyes and be able to touch other humans.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:09]:

So that was the social. What else?

Sheila Sutherland [00:20:12]:

The other 2, 1 is environmental. So what can I do for the environment that I live in? You know? Do you have clutter in your house? Do you have areas something going on in your, Wherever you live that every time you look at it, you're like, oh, man. I gotta take care of that. And I'm so impacts you mentally and emotionally.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:32]:

Yeah.

Sheila Sutherland [00:20:32]:

So it's taking care of your environment, taking care of your car, making sure your doctor's appointments are up to date, and something that keeps your environment Healthy. Because they say your home is an outer reflection of your inner home.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:46]:

Wow. I like that.

Sheila Sutherland [00:20:47]:

When I started thinking that way, I'd be like, oh. There's something about this. Mhmm. I'm like, oh, where do I need to do some cleaning?

Sandy Kovach [00:20:56]:

Because we don't really think of it that way.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:58]:

No. But I will now.

Sandy Kovach [00:21:00]:

Thank you. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:01]:

Yeah. In a good way, though. In a good way. Yeah. Because then I can do something. I can choose to do something about it.

Sheila Sutherland [00:21:07]:

We're all

Sandy Kovach [00:21:08]:

it's all about choice. So okay. So we've got the environmental, and you have 1 more?

Sheila Sutherland [00:21:11]:

Yeah. And the last 1 is your career or your business.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:15]:

Yes.

Sheila Sutherland [00:21:15]:

Because they need a little bit of self care as well. Especially if you're self employed, it's kind of like, what can I do to care and nurture my business today? If you are a a career or you're an employee, it's what can I do to nurture my role today? You may be in a role at work That is not exactly your dream job. Fair enough. But it's up to you again to make the choice of how can I do this job the best of my ability each day? It may not be your dream. Like, all my life, I thought I was gonna be sitting behind a desk pushing paper. No. But You're impacting your world, some people, in some way that day. What can you do to shift your mindset around that to put Your energy into your role, that's a more positive one.

Sheila Sutherland [00:22:02]:

Because let's face it. We're in our jobs probably more hours of the day than we are at home.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:07]:

Right.

Sheila Sutherland [00:22:08]:

So we want those hours of the day to not feel like they're soul sucking.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:13]:

No. And I

Lanée Blaise [00:22:13]:

think a

Sandy Kovach [00:22:14]:

lot of people do think Jobs that way if, like you say, they're not, like, doing at the moment what they wanna do, but they can choose to look at it in a different way.

Sheila Sutherland [00:22:22]:

Yeah. Just by choosing to look at a different way, choosing to go, okay. Why am I here? How am I impacting the world by doing this job? Because you are impacting in some way, and it doesn't matter if it's big or it's small. You have an impact. And when you look at that and you kinda go, oh, this is how I'm helping Somebody somewhere today. Like, you may never know who that person is, but if you know that you are in some way, It changes the energy of which you come into it with. It is. And when you are doing something joyfully or with the positive energy behind it, The time goes by so fast.

Sheila Sutherland [00:22:59]:

It's not as stressful. You'll actually enjoy your day. And then when you come home, you're not dragging your butt and then your family is getting whatever is left of you.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:10]:

Yeah. It also this what you're saying kinda makes me think about another aspect of your website because human beings tend to need to feel that their life has purpose. And if I have this correctly, the best way to reach out to you and look at what Sheila Sutherland has to offer is to go to your website reignite True Purpose .com?

Sheila Sutherland [00:23:33]:

Yes. What I always tell people too is when we're, you know, listening to this, if there's anything that sparked a question, Email me, and let's just have a chat about it. Right? It's no pressure. It's no commitment kind of thing. Let's just have a talk And just see, is there something on there that just sparks an interest?

Lanée Blaise [00:23:53]:

That's why I like your website, though. You ask Very personal questions. You ask, like, are you thriving or just surviving? What about making yourself a priority? Helping to get reignited and get your purpose together. That's the kind of stuff I really encourage people to take a look at. And you mentioned your email. What is the Best way to email you.

Sheila Sutherland [00:24:15]:

Sheila, so s h e I l a, at reignite your purpose.com.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:21]:

And what about your book, Sheila? I mean, you didn't you say that you just had another bestseller?

Sheila Sutherland [00:24:27]:

They're collaborative books, so it's not just me myself as the only author. There's a group of us that collaborate. Mhmm. And so this was the 3rd project that I collaborated on. The book just came out this week. We hit number 1 bestseller in about 9 different categories. We were all very excited. Even though this is the 3rd time I've done it, it's still a thrill To see that one of your stories is now out there in the world and possibly impacting somebody in some way.

Sheila Sutherland [00:24:57]:

Yes. Amazon is the best place to get it.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:00]:

Okay.

Sheila Sutherland [00:25:00]:

This one is called 365 soulful messages. There's, has the, like, the date on there, so you could turn to May 25th. What's the message for today? I like books like that. So if you're not a huge reader, You just wanna have a little hit of inspiration each day. You just turn to whatever the date is, read that story, and it it's just a way of brightening up your day in, like, 5 minutes Oh, nice. Kind of thing.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:26]:

Perfect.

Sheila Sutherland [00:25:27]:

This one that we just put out, this is the last one. This series has now come to an end. And we've done 5. There's 5 in total. 3 is only 1 that I was a part of, but it was kinda nice to be a part of the final book of the series. Great gifts For the holiday season. Anybody who likes, like you say, just a little pick me up Yes. For each day.

Sheila Sutherland [00:25:46]:

They're very easy little stories to read.

Sandy Kovach [00:25:48]:

And that is a positive choice that we can make for our day is to read something inspirational as opposed to

Sheila Sutherland [00:25:55]:

That takes care of both Your mental and emotional self care right there.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:59]:

Yeah. Yeah. Choosing wisely. Maybe you don't have to see what the Kardashians are doing. Maybe you

Sheila Sutherland [00:26:04]:

can see

Lanée Blaise [00:26:04]:

what the 365 days grace to do. That's right.

Sheila Sutherland [00:26:08]:

That's right. Exactly. You know? And I think if there's anything I leave anybody with today, stuff is gonna happen. Life happens. These are the things that we can't control. It may be that you're stuck in traffic. It may be that you spilled your coffee on yourself. Could be just as you're heading out your door, your baby decides to throw up on your shoulder.

Sheila Sutherland [00:26:27]:

Yes. You know, there's things that happen. It is your choice how you react. Take a second. Take a deep breath. Maybe take 12 if you need them, and just go, what reaction is going to give me the most positive outcome. That is beautiful. That second to just decide and make that choice, And then do it.

Sheila Sutherland [00:26:52]:

Now you may decide that this is not the time for a positive outcome. You may decide that, you You know what? No. I'm going to be angry right now, and I'm gonna feel that anger for a while. That's your choice. But also know that with every choice you make, There is an outcome. There's a repercussion to it. So if you know that, no, I'm gonna be angry right now, know that that's gonna impact the people that are around you. It's only gonna be you if you keep yourself in a bubble.

Sheila Sutherland [00:27:20]:

Mhmm. And and, honestly, there are times when I'm having that day of, you know what? I'm not feeling so good today. I think this is a day is not a day for me to be around other people.

Lanée Blaise [00:27:31]:

Smart choice.

Sheila Sutherland [00:27:31]:

And I make the choice That I stay home. I stay off of social media. I, you know, I just kinda like it's too people y right now. I need a break.

Sandy Kovach [00:27:39]:

I see so much venom on social media. And I wonder sometimes. Yeah. And sometimes from people that I know or family members or friends. And I know they're not, like, negative people, but Something happened to them, and they decided, you know what? I'm just gonna go on Twitter and tell everybody. And spew it

Lanée Blaise [00:27:55]:

out. Yeah. That's what Sheila wants to encourage us to reconsider, maybe not doing. Yeah.

Sheila Sutherland [00:28:01]:

Not necessarily. Say you make the choice. You may choose to do that, and there's nothing wrong, I would say, in doing that. But know that if that's the choice you're gonna make, you may get reactions from other people about it. So don't be angry If somebody now comes to you and is now having a reaction to your reaction.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:21]:

That's true. There could be backlash.

Sheila Sutherland [00:28:24]:

But choose it and then own it.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:26]:

And even if you have to backtrack, say, you know what? I made a mistake.

Sheila Sutherland [00:28:29]:

Right. And exactly. And then own that. It's like, you know what? I made this choice. It didn't exactly work out the way I had planned for it to do. Okay. What did I learn? Maybe I can make a better choice next time.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:40]:

That's the absolute nugget right there. We do get 2nd chances in this world. You can Oh my god. Choose wisely the next time. You can learn from your mistakes and make sure that you do your best In all this choosing, to choose things and people and activities that are going to help push you along in a in the direction that you wanna go Instead of diminishing or distracting you away from your goals and your purpose, we always have a little time at the end of the show called takeaway time. I think that really encompasses the takeaway time. It's almost like you're doing a little 2 step. Are you 2 stepping to the left or to the right In your world, are you trying to get closer and closer to the things you want? Are you gonna sabotage that by making one Off handed comment that you could have chosen to keep to yourself for a while and chosen not to react in that way.

Lanée Blaise [00:29:37]:

When it comes to living a life of purpose and goals, there's one other quote that I really, really appreciate. It's by Ed Mylett, and we follow him on Instagram and listen to some of his discussions, and he has this big quote that he pushes a lot. And he says you are one decision, one thought, one idea, one choice away from a totally different life, and we really hope that everyone gets that after all the things that Sheila has shared with us in the 7 pillars.

Sheila Sutherland [00:30:11]:

That quote is absolutely perfect. It's kinda like mic drop. Boom. Boom. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:30:17]:

So on that note, I guess I just wanna make sure that you understand that Sandy and I truly appreciate your words of wisdom. We appreciate you taking the time to help us to get a handle on these choices that we can make in this life and how to handle things that we can't choose in this life.

Sandy Kovach [00:30:35]:

And we're gonna put all of your information on our website.

Sheila Sutherland [00:30:38]:

Oh, perfect. Yeah. Thank you. Like, when I have the opportunity, like, say, when I received those emails of We would like you to be on our show. It means a lot to me that somebody saw something in something that I've written somewhere that they're like, I find value in that. So thank you for allowing me that opportunity because that fills me up. So my day is gonna be a whole lot brighter because I got to spend a few minutes with you.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:04]:

You filled us up too. it's mutual.

Sandy Kovach [00:31:07]:

Yeah. This was great. And, Sheila, up there in Canada, we are here in Detroit. So, you know, you're in the other side of Canada, though. We're, like, really close to Windsor, so we feel The Canadian camaraderie, though, nevertheless.

Sheila Sutherland [00:31:21]:

Yes. There we go. Yes. Well, yeah, I'm I'm a West Coaster, so, yeah, I'm still waking up.

Sandy Kovach [00:31:26]:

Oh, right. Right. We appreciate you, because we're recording this in the morning and early in the morning for Sheila. So thanks for thanks for

Lanée Blaise [00:31:33]:

that. Good energy.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:37]:

overall, we just like To give a gentle reminder to everyone out there to just imagine yourself choosing the best ways to live your best life.

Sandy Kovach [00:31:47]:

Thanks for listening. Now we'd like to hear from you. Got an idea for the show? Wanna share your story or just Say hello. Make sure you connect with us. You can do that at imagine yourself podcast.com, And we'll talk to you again next time when we have something new to imagine.

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