Why Struggle? Podcast W Barbara J. Faison

Week 31 - More New Things! All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON I’m Barbara J. Faison, Your Meditation Ambassador, and if you are new here, welcome! In January I started a weekly newsletter which also serves as a blog post on my website, barbarafaison.com and the audio is my podcast called the Why Struggle podcast with Barbara J. Faison. So weekly you can read or listen.  My intention is to offer ideas, insights and inspirations to help you struggle less and enjoy life more. However you might be engaging with me, I am grateful for you listening and/or reading! It’s been many years since I “really” set goals. You know the real goals where you write down what you are planning to do by a specific date, along with an action plan. I decided back in the early 2000’s I would call my version of goals… Getting On A Life System. Get it -  G.O.A.L.S. - Getting On A Life System. So I ditched the official goal setting and planning and just started moving in the direction of my desires and worked on getting out of my

Week 30 - Knowing What's Missing All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON When I woke up on Sunday morning, I felt a little off, like something was missing. I’m doing my daily meditation, mindfulness, trying new things and other practices. Still, something didn’t feel right.  It’s been a busy month. Between having car issues and regular life, things have been very active. Last week, I talked about knowing what you believe and trusting your Personal Guidance System (PGS). I know I am a creature of habit, like many people, I have my routines down and there are regular places I go to shop and eat. Paying attention and listening to my PGS sometimes means turning down a new street to get home or trying a different grocery store. I did that last week, I went to Lidl and it was a lovely store that I will return to for shopping. It wasn't that... it was something that didn't register right away. As I got ready for the day I remembered, I hadn’t been to the water. I had been to the pool at the rec center to

Week 29 - What do You Believe? All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON CHECK OUT OVER 33 SHORT MEDITATIONS ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL What do you believe about yourself? Your abilities? Your family? Your beliefs are like seeds planted in soil – when nourished in the proper environment, seeds grow into beautiful foliage. As children, our belief system is based on the world we live in. Once we are grown, we must get clear about what works best for us as an adult. A few things I remember hearing as a child that impacted my belief system were: Children are seen and not heard Good girls don’t wear red lipstick and red fingernail polish Women don’t go to clubs by themselves I know what you’re thinking, are you serious? Yes, growing up in the 60s these were just some of the expressions being thrown about in that decade. Well, thank goodness change is happening regularly and I have a natural rebellious streak in me. I didn't think I took them to heart, although I'm sure they made an impression on me. 

CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Week 28  - Celebrating Being On the Road Again! You can read this and more on my blog - ⁠barbarafaison.com/blog⁠ Remember the song On the Road Again by Willie Nelson? If you don’t Google it. lol That’s how I felt on Saturday. A few of the lyrics are: I can't wait to get on the road again On the road again Goin' places that I've never been Seein' things that I may never see again And I can't wait to get on the road again. For a few weeks or longer, my car has been making some weird sounds, and well, I’ve been acting like I didn’t hear them. Lol. You know the minor inconveniences of life that require your attention, oftentimes we/or I may avoid them, because I just don’t wanna deal with it. I have lived long enough to know that that doesn’t usually work out so well. Avoidance btw is not a good strategy. I would get in the car, and ask for guidance and protection, and it was working out pretty good. Until this happened… Last Tuesday as I

Week 27 - New Things Again with Old Friends All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE I met Regenna London in 1995 when I was doing some freelance writing. Didn’t know that, did you? Ha ha… Gotta keep you guessing. At the time she was co-owner of The Source Bookstore in Decatur GA. I interviewed Regenna and her husband for a local Black magazine called The Atlanta Tribune. Writing, metaphysics and wanting to make a difference in the world were topics we both loved. We connected and started hanging out and a true friendship developed. Fast forward to 2023 and after almost 30 years of friendship we often laugh about our parallel lives. If I’m experiencing something like a job change, she has something very similar happening in that life pillar as well. It doesn’t matter what, relationships, finances, health, it either happens to me first or her first. We are both air signs, I’m an Aquarian, Regenna is a Gemini, so we often have very engaging conversations

All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON Week 26 - Music and Lasting Friendships On Friday night I met two friends, Bonnie and Jartu at Volare Bistro for dinner. The food was delicious. We laughed so much thinking about how much fun we had dancing salsa and traveling together. Yes, I met these lovely ladies while I was out dancing salsa. Bonnie reminded me we are at a club called The Duplex on a Friday night. She said I was at my table just dancing my heart out and she came over to say hello. And that started the beginning of a 20+ friendship, all because of salsa dancing. Back in the 90s we didn’t have a way to track things unless you wrote them down. There were no cell phones or no handheld devices that you could keep up with things like now… thanks to Facebook I have a few pictures to share of some of my salsa experiences. My discovery of Latin music was because of a dear friend, Ade, who lived in the same apartment complex with me. She invited me to go to a club. I was not a club girl. I tried it after

Week 25 - My M.A.P  All the links are at ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠⁠ ⁠CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE⁠ Dear God, what positive, creative, constructive, thought, word, attitude, or action is the next step to move us forward in life? This is the prayer my husband, TD, and I say before he goes to work at oh dark 30. About 5:15 AM most days. It is adapted from one by Catherine Ponder. We each also say a personal prayer where we include appreciation for each other. How do you start your day? I love starting my day with prayer and gratitude. I've heard that without a map, or direction, you could end up anywhere. My M.A.P. is Meditations. Affirmations. Prayers. These are some of my practices. You may have heard me say that meditation is not a goal, it is a practice. Practice means to perform an activity, repeatedly or regularly to improve, or maintain one's proficiency. Train your brain. Be kind to your mind. Pay attention to what you’re thinking about and how you feel. We a

Week 24 - More New Things? All the links are at ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠⁠ ⁠CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE⁠ I’m back reminding you to try and do new things. In week 14 I shared my Float Spa experience, you can check that out on my blog at barbarafaison.com. This weekend I did quite a few new things. On Friday night Kym, Artis, and I went to a story telling event called, In My Shoes, to see Terri Nicole share an excerpt from her one woman show in progress. Terri’s story was hilarious, sweet, and engaging. It was a fun night and we got to hear stories, music, and comedy at the event. Saturday night for dinner my hubby and I stopped by a NEW local restaurant, and guess what, they were playing salsa music! Yay for trying new restaurants in your neighborhood! It was a WIN WIN WIN, threefor. I got to do little seated salsa DANCING whilst enjoying time with TD and eating food that I didn’t have to cook. LOL.I really love sharing practical ways to bring mindfulness into our daily li

Week 23 - It's June, What's Next? All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Well, May is a wrap! Can you believe it? We are almost half way through 2023! So now that National Meditation Month and Mental Health Awareness Month are over, what’s next? How do you continue if you started doing the meditations from my YouTube playlist? Here are a five ways for you to practice on your own: Step outside and tune into your senses - sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch and sensations. Walk with no headphones and notice what is around you. Set your phone alarm to go off 2 times during the day and take 3 deep breaths. Try an APP - like Insight Timer APP or Aura - I have meditations on both. Check out my Artist page - Barbara J. Faison on Spotify, Amazon music and Apple Music, You can also keep doing the meditation from my YouTube National Meditation Playlist . The beauty of technology is that it lives on. Or is that really beaut

Week 22 - How's Your Journey Going? All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Over the decades I have heard many ways to describe meditation and one of my favorites is that meditation is mental hygiene. You brush your teeth daily (I hope) and groom and prepare yourself for the day. So if I brush my teeth, wash up, pick out the clothes I’m wearing and all the other things to start my day, why wouldn’t I prepare my mind? Hmmm. I mean, I will be using this beautiful mind ALL DAY LONG. Meditation is deliberately increasing your capacity to focus and concentrate. Where you place your ATTENTION and set your INTENTION is where your energy goes. Think about the last time you really focused on something, what was the outcome? Meditation is a PRACTICE - a procedure or way of doing something, like breathing, moving or visualizing. So I have practice times daily where I might focus on my breathing or just sit out in nature and observe my breath and

Week 21 - My Meditation Journey Part III - When the Body Speaks All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE Mother’s Day weekend I had plans that would keep me busy all Saturday which included my monthly crochet group and a brunch. I went to bed Friday night feeling a little bit icky. I waited to see how I felt the next morning before canceling my plans. Well, my body WAS NOT HAVING IT. When the body speaks, I have learned to LISTEN and OBEY. And, here’s the thing, my husband TD and I were going to see Maxwell in concert at a local area amphitheater on Mother’s Day, so I really wanted to be able to go.  Keep reading on  https://www.barbarafaison.com/blog/. Check out the full playlist for National Meditation Month - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk1elOHR4dpdCIDlZvaNke9jazpxoXhyX SUBSCRIBE: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/BarbaraFaison Learn about my community on Patreon  -⁠https://bit.ly/3hhiJJe⁠ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buy

Week 20 - It Starts with a BREATH All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠  CHECK OUT THE NATIONAL MEDITATION PLAYLIST ON YOUTUBE I would say we are back in the business of the "busyness” of life after the pandemic. Time is a premium for most of us and we all have the ability to make choices about where and how we spend our time. When I say that I use my voice to heal, educate and inspire as a voice talent, meditation guide and trainer, I usually get a few responses like: “People tell me I have a great voice.” “I’ve always wanted to be a voice actor.” “I could never meditate, I can’t stop my mind.” “I don’t have time to meditate.” “I want to learn to meditate, I just don’t know where to start.” Think about a snow globe. When you shake it up, eventually the snow settles to the bottom, that’s what meditation feels like. The thoughts in your mind begin to settle more and more with practice. I still have times thoughts are swirling around and around, and other times I feel very settled. It’s

WEEK 19- My Meditation Journey - Part 2 All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠  I hope you’ve had a chance to check out my playlist for National Meditation Month on my YouTube channel. I’ve really enjoyed creating and posting some simple daily practices that are less than 10 minutes and I will continue posting through the month of May. When I started practicing in the 90s, people thought I was a little strange. I would meditate for 10 - 20 minutes in the morning before I left to go to work. It really began to help me settle my thoughts and feel more focused and clear with my decision making. I was at an event and I heard someone say that meditation is mental hygiene. That really made sense to me. You woke up today, right? You brushed your teeth, I hope you did anyway. You groomed yourself. You likely took a shower/bath, washed your face and attended to your personal hygiene, or at least that is the story I’m telling myself about your morning. In other words, you prepared to show up in the

WEEK 18 - My Meditation Journey - Part 1 All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ Guess what y'all? It’s National Meditation Month… I get a little geeky about this because meditation has been such an important part of my life since the 90’s. I started meditating because I was struggling and tired of the struggle. Back then there was no YouTube or podcasts or any of the really cool technology that we have now. I bought Shakti Gawain’s CASSETTE TAPE called Creative Visualization which was a 30 minute program. I thought I was going to EXPLODE. Trying to sit and visualize for me was very stressful. You see, when someone walks me through a beautiful visualization practice, I don’t see a thing, just the black behind my eyelids. Lol Meditation is such a personal practice. Some people see images, others are really impacted by sounds and other people, like me, are more connected to feelings and sensations when they practice. Keep reading on https://www.barbarafaison.com/blog/ to find out more.  ⁠

All the links are at ⁠https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠⁠ Week 17 - The Power of Books I have had a love affair with words since I was a child. I suspect being the daughter of a teacher and a librarian, I got it in the womb. Communicating has been my go to my whole life: writing, speaking, the performing arts. I found out that world book day was yesterday, so happy belated world book day. I don’t think it is ever too late to share how powerful books can be in our lives. My father and mother both loved to read. I grew up reading, mostly fiction, and my father read a lot of nonfiction. I began writing poetry in high school in my English class because we had to. Thank you Mrs. DeLoach! I was introduced to Nikki Giovanni by my dad and I fell in love with poetry. I found my voice and I wrote poetry through high school and college. After college I started writing short stories and submitted to publications for a few years and I decided I wanted to write a novel about a young black woman in her twenties who was in

All the links are at https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠ Week 16 - Nope. Dancing Goats. Power. What do these three things have to do with each other? Come with me to find out. Working is what We people do, right? Werk. Werk. Werk. Werk. Werk. In my best Rihanna voice. I’ve had some type of business since 1999 when I self-published my book, Why Struggle? life is too short to wear tight shoes. In 2017, I left my last “full-time” corporate job after a total of 33 years working and I continued on my journey of entrepreneurship with new products and services. .... Keep reading on my blog to find out more.  My Affirm Your Life audio course includes affirmations to help you feel grounded, confident and energized, you can listen to the first lesson on my website. ⁠ All the links - https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison ⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barbara-faison/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barbara-faison/support

Thank you for joining me on a mindful walk. Download my affirmations to Affirm Your Life pdf with over 100 affirmations.   Barbara LIVE Session will be on Wednesdays - 4.12 & 4.19 -- 8 - 9 pm EASTERN. ALL THE LINKS - https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison   My mission my voice to heal, educate and inspire as a professional voice actor and meditation guide Check out my Patreon Page - https://bit.ly/3hhiJJe Check out my YouTube channel for more break breaks, inspiration and longer meditations - https://www.youtube.com/c/BarbaraFaison Social Media -FOLLOW ME! https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison Want to supporting my work? ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BarbaraJFaison Love offerings accepted and appreciated Cash App - $barbarafaison Paypal, Zelle - barbarafaisonllc@gmail.com barbarafaisonllc@gmail.com to share your thoughts or to say hello. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barbara-faison/message Support this podcast:

Enjoy this bedtime tale to help you get to sleep... let me know if your thoughts. All THE LINKS - ⁠ https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠ Check out my Patreon Page - ⁠ https://bit.ly/3hhiJJe⁠   Check out my YouTube channel for more break breaks, inspiration and longer meditations - ⁠ https://www.youtube.com/c/BarbaraFaison⁠ Social Media -FOLLOW ME! ⁠ https://linktr.ee/barbarafaison⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barbara-faison/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barbara-faison/support

All the links are ⁠here Week 15 - A Delightful Day! As a young child I was confused about a lot of things regarding religion. it made no sense to me that there was only one way to get to what we called God. This weekend and about every 30 years there is a rare crossover of Easter, Passover and Ramadan. Guess What! Warning...THIS post is NOT GOING to BE about any of that. I am going to share how following my guidance to reach out to my friend Kym was the beginning of a delightful day. It started with this 8:50 a.m. text. Me: Are you going to Hillside today? We are trying to get there. Kym: No…gonna watch it on tv. Maybe I’ll come… either way you should stop by after. Kym lives right down the street from the church, Hillside International Truth Center, where we met over 15 years ago. You may have heard me talk about Kym before if you've been around me for awhile. Kym Kennedy is a radical forgiveness coach and spiritual teacher and awesome person. My hubby, TD, and I made it to church and really enjoyed the

UPCOMING LIVE SESSIONS Register - ⁠bit.ly/3PGeBhW⁠ BEING Present - Wherever You Are LIVE Breathing Sessions - ⁠REGISTER ⁠ LIVE Breathe with Barbara Meditation Sessions are held on the 2nd & 3rd Wednesday from 8 - 9 pm EASTERN. LIVE INSTRUCTOR LED sessions on UPCOMING SESSIONS FROM 8-9 pm EASTERN April SESSIONS ARE - 4.12 & 4.19 (Wednesdays)May SESSIONS ARE - 5.10 & 5.17 (Wednesdays)June SESSIONS ARE - 6.14 & 6.21 (Wednesdays) In these practice sessions you will practice BEING WITH YOUR BREATH & YOUR BODY. No experience is needed and the sessions are individual and DO NOT build on each other. You can join whenever your schedule allows. It really is practice. The more we get used to being with our breath, our thoughts and our body, the more we can start to calm our nervous system and train ourselves to be more present to what is happening...RIGHT NOW. These online sessions via ZOOM are designed to help you create times during your day to BE PRESENT - Wherever You Are. You will receive sp