116: Laughing At Yourself – Are you a tissue box or a tissue 😂

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FULL TRANSCRIPT: 

Episode 116 of the Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast

00:00:00

Christine: Hi, it’s 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 clients’ big question is what will I do with my time?  Is this you?  I’ve 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, you’ll find all sorts of fun stuff, and ways to work with me on my website.  That’s YourEmptyNestCoach.com.  Of course, I think you are amazing, and I’d love for you to subscribe to this podcast, or better yet join my flock. What is that?  I’m so glad you asked.  Take a listen.

00:01:22

Thanks!  Thank you!  It’s 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 it’s okay.  I will laugh at myself and you know I love to giggle.  I’ve 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 don’t 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 I’ve let stay up on socials.  What?  The me of five years ago would have a freak out session over that.

00:02:57

I’ve 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, I’ve 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, I’m 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.  You’re either the tissue box, or the tissue.

I’m back, and wouldn’t 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?  I’m not talking about standing up for your rights, that’s a given.  Please, my friend, do that.  Stand up for yourself.  I’m talking about the other things, the analogies you use constantly (like me); the odd food choices you may have; the obsessions you have that aren’t 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 one’s 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

I’m not even talking side-splitting funny, although that’s 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, you’re like, that’s kind of funny.  Did you find anything?  Go ahead and hit pause, if you need to.

00:05:16

All right.  You’re 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 “making fun of yourself,” I found that in the top three results, number two was titled: “How Making Fun of Yourself Can Make You Happy,” and number three was, “It’s Not Okay to Make Fun of Yourself.”  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.  I’m 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 I’m 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, “Your period is through your pants, maybe you should use a tampon.”   Were those her exact words?  Honestly, I have no idea, and it probably wasn’t as brutal as what I made it sound like.  All I remember is “period through pants” and I remember “tampon”.  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 “period pants girl.”

00:07:54

I remember getting to the nurse’s office, our school was pretty big, so the navigation wouldn’t have been quick.  I refused to leave the nurse’s office, and had the nurse call my mom.  My mother was not home.  One of my mother’s 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 wasn’t initially intended but I decided to keep it in), for years and years.  And this isn’t an uncommon experience, I mean, google period leak and you’ll 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 “period pants girl” 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 “period pants girl with a podcast.”  Oh my gosh, so funny.  Now that I’m on embarrassing stories, I’ll 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?  Wouldn’t that be fun? 

00:09:22

Anyway, my message is don’t take yourself so seriously.  I mean, let’s imagine for a moment that we could go back in time, not that I’d want to, but instead of me being mortified for weeks on end, I’m sure it lasted at least that long, what if I was like, yeah, that’s 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 “comfort” me, the adults in my life, I don’t think I laughed though.  I mean, “period pants girl with a podcast,” that is funny.  I could do a whole series about that.  “Period parachute pants girl” 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 “period pants girl.”  I hear you thinking, “But, 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.”  Back then, yeah, I was an awkward kid trying to figure out well, anything and everything.

00:10:50

But here’s today’s challenge: I challenge you to consider that you are a different awkward human trying to figure out anything and everything.  You’re 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, “Oh my gosh, chill out.  It doesn’t matter.”  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 doesn’t 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.  Let’s be real. You’re going to mess up in life.  I am going to mess up in life.  I’ll tell you that right now.  It’s 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, I’m wondering if I have one.  After all, I’m 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 isn’t 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 I’m not sure that’s 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, we’re back to the beginning.  Around we go.

00:14:00

Okay.  If you’ve listened to more than a handful of my episodes, you must not mind analogies either.  I’m thankful for you.  I’m thankful for that kind soul who pointed out my period stained parachute pants, I’m 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 “period pants girl with a podcast.”  See, life is funny. By the way, you really should join our flock.  We’re waiting for you!  Let’s 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? I’m so curious!

[Music]

[End]