Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Open Mind. Welcome to a brand new week.
Here is your mantra, I Embrace growth and change. I'm
your host, Jema Stagg, and I'm here to guide you
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towards a more centered and fulfilling life. Each week, I'll
share personal stories and insights that are focused on a
specific mantra, plus journal prompts and a weekly challenge for
all of us to help put it into action. Think
of martra as your mental reset button, a way to
stay centered as you juggle work, school, family, and whatever
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else life throws at you. Each mantra is a simple,
powerful phrase you can repeat to focus your thoughts and
bring a bit of calm into your day. It's a
small tool with a big impact, clearing your mind, lifting
your mood, and rooting you in the present. If you've
listened to my other show, The Psychology of Your Twenties,
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you'll know that I'm all about those little nuggets of
insight that make a big impact. So, whether you're looking
for some extra inspiration or you're trying to ground yourself
amidst the chaos, you have come to the right place
at Open Mind. We value your support. Share your thoughts
on social media and remember to rate, review, and follow
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mantra to help others discover the show. For more exclusive content,
monthly bonus episodes, early access, and at free listening, join
our open Mind plus community on Apple Podcasts. This week,
I'll catch you up on what's been going on in
my life, and then we'll dive into today's mantra. I
embrace growth and change. Whether you're facing a big shift
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or you're just looking to level up your day to day,
this mantra is all about helping you grow. Stick around,
and we'll be right back after this short pause. Welcome back.
(02:12):
We're going to get into this week's mantra in just
a minute, but before we do, I want to fill
you in on what's been going on with me lately
and how this mantra has been showing up in my life.
I have been contemplating some pretty major live shifts as
of late, the kind that I think really makes you
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pause and wonder what's next and not necessarily know what
the right answer is. The biggest question on my mind
is whether it's time to pack up and move, maybe
not just to a new city, but possibly a whole
new country. I feel like we all reach a point
like this acrossroads where we feel comfortable, settled, even with
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where we are, We're very keen to put down roots.
But there's this pull towards something that's bigger, something more exciting,
and yes, as well as something that might feel kind
of scary for me that Paul has been Europe. I
know it might sound a little bit strange. Australia is beautiful.
It's the lucky country. I love it here. It's so
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serene and calm, but sometimes it feels like there's not
enough happening. And as I continue to grow as a person,
I'm feeling ready for a big change, ready to meet
new people, ready to dive into new cultures, maybe like
experience life from a fresh perspective. It's that classic push
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and Paul. Part of me is rooted here, and another
part feels drawn to something that might challenge me in
ways that my life currently doesn't. I can feel myself
moving towards a new life chapter and my old life
isn't feeling as fulfilling as it once did, but I'm
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kind of stuck in this waiting room. I'll talk about
this a little bit more later on in this episode,
and I'm definitely going to keep you up to date
on how these feelings progress in the coming months. But
I wanted to give you a little insight as to
why I chose this martra today. So look, this week's
guiding phrase is definitely not for the feint of heart.
Anyone who has ever encountered change, even the smallest kind,
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knows that often everything in us cries out for things
to stay the same. It is a very human instinct
to be safe in what is comfortable, But this mantra
forces us to confront a truth that our lives are
always evolving, whether we're ready for them to do so
or not. Growth doesn't feel as intimidating as change in
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my mind. We're constantly moving through new experiences, some good,
some bad, others just neutral, but each one helps shape
who we are and who we're becoming. That is growth. Change,
on the other hand, feel more unsettling in comparison to
growth because it doesn't carry the same component of positive
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natural progress that we usually associate with growth periods, especially
in our twenties and our thirties, the idea of change
can be really overwhelming because we've spent so much time
trying to get things to a stable point. But here's
the thing growth and change. They aren't just inevitable, they're
also essential. They're often what pushes us towards becoming our bestselves.
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They move us closer to the lives that we are
meant to live, that we deserve to live. At its core,
this phrase encourages us to go with life's flow, to
choose to lean into change rather than resisting it, knowing
that something ultimately quite positive, if not just different, can
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come from that experience. Embracing growth also means stepping beyond
the comfort zone, trying new things and learning along the way.
There is nothing more human in my mind than making mistakes,
especially when those mistakes expand our understanding of who we are.
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This phrase is really here to remind us that uncomfortable
moments aren't obstacles. They're opportunities. And that's the key word here, opportunities.
In my experience and from what I'm seeing right now,
it honestly feels like everything around us is really evolving
at lightning speed. Every day we are presented with new trends,
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new ideas, new technologies. There's always some new big idea
to wrap our minds around, and it can present as
something that's going to challenge us that constant evolution is
going to perhaps make our lives feel unstable. An example
of this that I was thinking about the other day
was the invention and spread of AI technology and how
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many of us feel uncomfortable with it. There's fear of
what that's going to do to our jobs, our way
of interacting with one another, and our way of interacting
with the world. That is an example of change that
feels rapidly quite uncomfortable, and it's definitely a big picture example.
But when you think about it on a more micro
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scale in terms of your own life, something may be
changing in your family, with your relationships, in your career,
even your living situation. Maybe whether it's a breakup or
you're moving in with someone, there's a new friendship or
a broken one. Life keeps presenting opportunities to grow that
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are hidden in these moments, even when they are challenging.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that embracing
growth and change is key. We need to stay flexible
and resilient. And my favorite word here is resilience, because
when we are resilient, we understand that no matter what
is coming into our life that feels unexpected. We can
kind of see it in two ways. We can see
it as something that is going to threaten us all
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we can see it as an opportunity instead of holding
on to what is familiar just because it feels safe.
I think about this especially in terms of relationships. Maybe
it's with an ax, a friend, a former colleague, someone
that you're just not as close to anymore, who maybe
doesn't make you feel great about yourself. You can hold
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on to that good but not great relationship because it's
always been convenient, because it's been something that you've known
for a really long time, and because your brain has
made you feel safe and secure and comfortable in that
emotional environment. But you could also move beyond that relationship.
You could realize that you deserve great and that there
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is going to be some pain, some temporary discomfort. But
these new experiences and the opportunities that you get from
making space for someone new is worth so much more.
And I think this my set, changes the way that
we deal with life. Being able to pivot, be resilient,
be flexible when things shift. It doesn't just make you
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stronger mentally, emotionally, socially, it also makes you happier as well.
So let's talk about what all this means for us,
and let's start with the emotional discomfort of change. One
way that we can really adopt this mantra is by
thinking about our best, most ideal self, the person we
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want to be in the long term, someone who perhaps
has their dream life, has moved to a place of abundance,
who is more authentic, who is more confident. Really imagine
that person for a moment. Imagine that person that you're
going to be in five years, in ten years. What
are they doing, What does their day look like, what
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are they wearing? What are the obstacles that they now
facing that they can handle even better because of what
you're going through now. Is that person going to be
realized without change? Probably not. Is that person going to
come into existence without growth, No, definitely not, because if
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that person was already to exist, you wouldn't be thinking
about these things because it would already be in place.
When adopting this week's marchra, I embrace growth and change.
I want you to really think about how it's going
to take you from where you are now into your
future self. Just remember this, This is all about seeing
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change for what it is. It is not an enemy.
It is actually something that helps us become the best
version of ourselves. Coming up, let's get personal. I'm going
to get real about how this marchra plays out in
my life, the ups, the downs, how I've navigated through it.
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Stay tuned after this brief pause.