116: Laughing At Yourself - Are you a tissue box or a tissue
Hello, my ah-mazing empty nest friend,
In this episode, I spill the beans on an embarrassing moment in my middle school years. I had not planned to dive into that story, but ideas and concepts sometimes appear, and I go with the flow.
Goodness gracious, there is so much power in laughing at yourself.
This episode topic originated from an Instagram Reel where I poked fun at "life coaches" (mostly myself) and our my abundant use of analogies.
And when I say extreme use - a few of you thought I was serious with my Reel - which made me laugh at myself more. Thank you for that.
Consider for a moment what life would be like if you laughed at yourself a bit more: not in a cruel way but a, "Well, I see the silliness in that, and I don't take myself too seriously," kind of way.
In the end, it may alleviate the pain a bit when another human laughs because you've already released the power the situation could have held on your life.
Cheers and Giggles!

Coach Christine,
Your Empty Nest Coach




"What if your protector could slide on a pair of sunglasses that had a funny filter. Would anything change for you?"
Take a listen or read the full transcript at the bottom of this post.
βββ More goodies below, too! Scroll down β, so you don't miss anything! βββ
This Episode is Brought To You By
π Send audio feedback to Coach Christine now: voicemail/text to 920-LIFEWIN (920-543-3946).
What You Will Learn in this Episode
- What Happened When I Recently Poked Fun at Myself
- An Embarrassing Story from My Middle School Years
- To Consider Giving Your Protector a Pair of Glasses That Have a Humor Filter
Episode Questions for You To Consider
- How serious do you take yourself?
- Does the tissue box analogy need to die?
First Time Here? Try This Order of Episodes
- The Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast Trailer
- Series 1: Empty Nest Prep - starts at episode #3
- Series 2: The CEO of Your Life - starts at episode #64
- Series 3 (this one): The CEO Toolbox - starts at episode #88
Episode Resources




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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Episode 116 of the Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast
00:00:00
Christine: Hi, itβs Coach Christine. This is my podcast, it is the Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast and this is episode number 116. I work with mothers of high school students and beyond, who are in the trenches with sad and possibly, overwhelming thoughts about what their life will look like when their baby heads to college and begins to leave the nest. My clientsβ big question is what will I do with my time? Is this you? Iβve been there, and I get it. Empowering you to write the next jaw-dropping, amazing chapter in your life is my passion. I am energized by leading you in the process of exploration and am thrilled when you unlock the power that lies within you. This podcast is my gift to you.
00:00:46
Hello, my future empty nest friend and Conscious Effective Olympian, or CEO, of your life! Are you feeling CEO-like, yet? I sure hope so. Show notes for this episode have links to anything I discuss in this episode that is linkable, and of course, youβll find all sorts of fun stuff, and ways to work with me on my website. Thatβs YourEmptyNestCoach.com. Of course, I think you are amazing, and Iβd love for you to subscribe to this podcast, or better yet join my flock. What is that? Iβm so glad you asked. Take a listen.
00:01:22
Thanks! Thank you! Itβs time to thank our sponsor. This episode is sponsored by my membership community, The GPS Support Flock; Your Flight to Success in the Empty Nest. If you are ready to find the GPS of your life, sign up to receive an immediate and free download of my PDF, "How to Find Yourself in the Empty Nest," our GPS Life Principles document. You will also have the opportunity to learn about our community. See the link in this episode's show notes or fly on over to my website, YourEmptyNestCoach.com. Click the GPS Support Flock button. See you soon!
00:02:06
If you aren't yet following me on Instagram, what are you doing with your life? Seriously, though, I've re-discovered that I have a tendency to be funny there, specifically in Reels, sometimes I do it on purpose and sometimes, not so much. But itβs okay. I will laugh at myself and you know I love to giggle. Iβve noticed about myself that the more in tune I am with the weight of my actions, or the happenings of my life, in relation to the longevity of my life, well, things simply donβt have the level of gravity that I used to once give them. I mean, a typo on a post? I used to lose sleep over it, now I let it go, and some Iβve let stay up on socials. What? The me of five years ago would have a freak out session over that.
00:02:57
Iβve found the more clear my mind is, the more I have trained my Protector and organized my thought deliveries, the more I am able to find humor in life. And, Iβve shared with you in a prior episode how powerful laughter can be for us as humans. There is a power in not taking yourself seriously. There is power in knowing that, yeah, you are fallible. Of course you are, you are human. And what if you laugh at yourself before the world does? Power. Power, my friend.
00:03:28
So what is the tissue box all about? In one of my Instagram Reel videos I decided to poke fun at life coaches. Yes, Iβm a life coach. Yes, I use a lot of analogies and in the challenge I was in we were challenged to make fun of our industry (tastefully). I landed with, well, let me play the audio for you:
The things you think about are when you start small, ants can find you. Youβre either the tissue box, or the tissue.
Iβm back, and wouldnβt you know it, someone heard this and went looking for my episode about the tissue box. I had to explain that I was poking fun at myself but maybe it was a little too close to reality if that happened. In the end, I promised I would deliver this episode about it. Maybe this analogy should be a group project, after all?
00:04:20
But my real question is, do you take yourself seriously? Too seriously? Iβm not talking about standing up for your rights, thatβs a given. Please, my friend, do that. Stand up for yourself. Iβm talking about the other things, the analogies you use constantly (like me); the odd food choices you may have; the obsessions you have that arenβt hurting anyone, those things. Or maybe the fact that sure, you are in your late forties and love to dress up for halloween. No, that oneβs not actually me. Is it you? I challenge you to stop for a moment right now and think of something today that you did that was funny. Can you find something?
00:04:57
Iβm not even talking side-splitting funny, although thatβs good too, but maybe slightly amusing if someone else did it, or that you laughed out loud at yourself when it happened. Or that you thought was very serious, but looking at it through a different lens, youβre like, thatβs kind of funny. Did you find anything? Go ahead and hit pause, if you need to.
00:05:16
All right. Youβre back. I did some very scientific research for this episode. Yes, you know, Google. And in the rabbit hole of the google search, I did find a lovely TedX Cape May video featuring Brad Jenkins and it was about, you guessed it, laughing at yourself. Definitely worth a watch. A few articles also discussed the power of not taking yourself so seriously. When I did another highly scientific search on Google, using βmaking fun of yourself,β I found that in the top three results, number two was titled: βHow Making Fun of Yourself Can Make You Happy,β and number three was, βItβs Not Okay to Make Fun of Yourself.β Goodness gracious, and do we wonder why humans are completely confused all of the time?
00:06:05
It did make me wonder about the difference, though. What would make it good versus bad? This is my Coach Christine theory and I would love to know what you think about it. My theory is that it comes down to how well your Protector is trained and what type of energy you have in your life. Iβm going to share with you now one of the most embarrassing things I remember from my middle school years. At almost-50 years old, I can finally think of this day and see past the humiliation and into the humor.
True story, although I may be off on details, because Iβm the type of person that remembers feelings, big concepts more than specific details.
00:06:43
I remember that my schedule was very off that year, and I think it was because I took a lot of shop classes, but I had lunch at different times almost every day of the week. And this one time was not with my larger group of friends. I have no idea if I normally sat all by myself that day, or if I was waiting for those who normally sat with me. I got through the line, placed my food down, and I remember clearly that I had parachute pants on. Ahhh, remember those? Something felt off. The energy felt weird. I could hear more whispers than normal but I stayed in my own world and was about to eat my food.
00:07:21
Then, someone came up to me and said, βYour period is through your pants, maybe you should use a tampon.β Were those her exact words? Honestly, I have no idea, and it probably wasnβt as brutal as what I made it sound like. All I remember is βperiod through pantsβ and I remember βtamponβ. Everything then went into slow motion. I think she tried helping me, and asked if I had a sweater, but my guess is I left my food there and disappeared quickly. In my head every single person in the school saw it and I would be forever known as βperiod pants girl.β
00:07:54
I remember getting to the nurseβs office, our school was pretty big, so the navigation wouldnβt have been quick. I refused to leave the nurseβs office, and had the nurse call my mom. My mother was not home. One of my motherβs friends was. She picked me up and drove me home and I thought I would never enter the school building again, ever. Tears? Yes. This day haunted me periodically (pun wasnβt initially intended but I decided to keep it in), for years and years. And this isnβt an uncommon experience, I mean, google period leak and youβll get quite the stories. Perimenopause is like puberty all over again and in some ways, I kind of feel like this could happen again. So yeah, round and round we go.
00:08:40
Back to middle school. I swore that day I would be known as βperiod pants girlβ forever. Forever. Well, maybe I am known for that still, or will be now, now that I shared it here. But now, now I am βperiod pants girl with a podcast.β Oh my gosh, so funny. Now that Iβm on embarrassing stories, Iβll just open the flood gates. I actually think I also had a really late aged wet bed thing at a sleepover, too. Okay. Shall we relive all of my embarrassments from childhood and puberty, today? Wouldnβt that be fun?
00:09:22
Anyway, my message is donβt take yourself so seriously. I mean, letβs imagine for a moment that we could go back in time, not that Iβd want to, but instead of me being mortified for weeks on end, Iβm sure it lasted at least that long, what if I was like, yeah, thatβs me, I owned it, and then I created something that would help other girls in situations like that? What if I actually could have risen above the embarrassment enough to realize that the young lady who told me about it was my hero that day? In the moment I saw her as someone who took pleasure in telling me that I was a hot mess. But in reality, no one else said anything. She did. She was amazing.
00:10:04
Had I not taken myself so seriously, I could have thanked her properly. I also probably could have laughed. I remember people trying to βcomfortβ me, the adults in my life, I donβt think I laughed though. I mean, βperiod pants girl with a podcast,β that is funny. I could do a whole series about that. βPeriod parachute pants girlβ is funny, too. Sure, it was embarrassing. I probably missed more than a few great moments being stuck in my obscured thought-deliveries about being βperiod pants girl.β I hear you thinking, βBut, Christine, you were a teenager. That is what teenagers do. They think their whole world is so serious, and one thing like that will ruin it forever.β Back then, yeah, I was an awkward kid trying to figure out well, anything and everything.
00:10:50
But hereβs todayβs challenge: I challenge you to consider that you are a different awkward human trying to figure out anything and everything. Youβre in a different stage of life. I bet there are things in your life right now, that you take just as seriously that you of 20 years from now, future you, would be like, βOh my gosh, chill out. It doesnβt matter.β Think about it. And when you can tune into that, now, life gets funny. It gets funny now, instead of 20 years from now. Look at the truth about you, about your life, look at it in perspective of your entire life and stop taking yourself so darn serious, friend.
00:11:32
Laughter is a reset. Imagine being able to have more of it in your life by simply observing the humor in yourself. Put those happenings of your life in perspective. The truth, after all, can be funny. What if your Protector could slide on a pair of sunglasses that had a funny filter? You know, like Instagram or SnapChat, just swipe. That would be even cooler. Would anything in your life change for you? It doesnβt mean that you laugh at everything. Remember, a well trained protector allows you to be truly conscious in your life, to be off of auto-pilot and to respond in a way that you are proud of, and that brings peace to your life and to the lives of others, to bring positive energy. Letβs be real. Youβre going to mess up in life. I am going to mess up in life. Iβll tell you that right now. Itβs what humanity is all about.
00:12:22
What if we start looking for those moments not only to learn from but also to entertain ourselves? What is my point? Hmm... and with my humor filter on, Iβm wondering if I have one. After all, Iβm not sure if you are a tissue box or the tissue. Maybe the tissue box is you stuffed all inside taking yourself way too seriously. It isnβt until you find the humor in your life that you are able to begin to serve others (maybe then you become a tissue that can help). Although, then you get thrown in the trash, so Iβm not sure thatβs a great analogy on any level. But, hey, if you have an idea for it, please share it with us!
00:13:03
Let me leave you with this, you and I have been on this planet for more than a few years. There is a high probability that all of us have been embarrassed, done dreadful things, been awful to others, been inconsiderate, been unempathetic, been dismissive, and well, the list goes on. I would hope that you are now quite leveled-up from the you of your younger years, heck even the you of last year or last month. Hopefully, not only we are doing our best to become better humans but we also are able to view experiences, past, present and future, in a new light. Maybe we can start sending thought deliveries back to our Protector and ask them to put on the funny filter, or put on different types of glasses. Maybe we need clip-on glasses for different lens types. Ooo, more analogies, and now, weβre back to the beginning. Around we go.
00:14:00
Okay. If youβve listened to more than a handful of my episodes, you must not mind analogies either. Iβm thankful for you. Iβm thankful for that kind soul who pointed out my period stained parachute pants, Iβm thankful for the moments in my life that entertain me, like today when I went to put the eggs in a cabinet and not the fridge, and for me,today also, typing the words βperiod pants girl with a podcast.β See, life is funny. By the way, you really should join our flock. Weβre waiting for you! Letβs find the funny in our lives together, friend.
[Music]
00:14:33
The questions I have for you in this episode are, one, how serious do you take yourself? And two, should we just let this tissue box analogy go now? Have a beautiful day friend. You are amazing!
[Bloopers]
00:15:25
Still listening?
What are you listening to next? Iβm so curious!
[Music]
[End]