00:00:00:00 - 00:00:29:04
Speaker 1
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Tina’s Arena, the podcast where I share my personal stories about growth, entrepreneurship and self love. I've spent the majority of my life as a people pleaser, suffering from extremely low self-esteem, which cumulated into years of disordered eating and intense shame. Now, on the other side of that, I share with you the things that I found to be the most impactful learnings that I have learned along the way.

00:00:29:06 - 00:00:49:11
Speaker 1
So thank you for listening. Last week on the podcast, we talked about identity change as a way to shift habits quicker. And this week I want to talk about curiosity, embracing curiosity, and using curiosity as a way to help ourselves learn and grow.

00:00:49:11 - 00:00:58:17
Speaker 1
I love framing everything as an experiment. What would happen if I do this? Or how would I feel after I eat this?

00:00:58:17 - 00:01:25:21
Speaker 1
If you approach it from a curious point of view, then it changes the whole situation completely. If I am trying to eat less, instead of framing it in my head as simply I need to eat less, which feels so restrictive and suffocating. What if I framed it in my head as what would happen if I ate more vegetables?

00:01:25:23 - 00:01:43:15
Speaker 1
Which theoretically, if you filled up on vegetables, you would probably be eating less calories. So the end result is probably the same. But this the feel of that question is so different. I guess it's not even a question, but making it a question makes it feel so different,

00:01:43:15 - 00:01:47:17
Speaker 1
Example number one was I need to eat less.

00:01:47:19 - 00:01:53:02
Speaker 1
You know, example number two is what would happen if I ate more vegetables.

00:01:53:02 - 00:02:13:05
Speaker 1
Hmhm what would happen? Let's try it. That sounds doable. That sounds fun. That sounds like something I want to try, right? So I try to embrace curiosity in everything that I do now. Everything that I do is a lesson or something that I could potentially extract a lesson from.

00:02:13:10 - 00:02:19:09
Speaker 1
What would happen if? Why don't I just try it and then I'll find out and then I'll know.

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Speaker 1
if I reference back to episode number 13, where I was talking about Kourtney da Walter,

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Speaker 1
She didn't know if she was going to finish her first road marathon, what would happen if she ran it?

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Speaker 1
And she tried it and she just happened to become one of the best ultra runners in the world. So that's the whole idea with just what would happen if you just tried it and you gave it a shot.

00:02:43:17 - 00:02:50:00
Speaker 1
Back in December, I started my free Facebook group where we hold monthly habit challenges and I hold you accountable.

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Speaker 1
If you'd like to join that group, you can find the link on my website at Tina czarina.com.

00:02:54:15 - 00:03:25:17
Speaker 1
So back in December, for my first habit challenge, I chose to drink three liters of water a day. And what I found doing that for 30 days was that there was no real impact on the quality of life that I had. I did not feel like it was that great. I'm sure that I experienced some sort of health benefit, probably getting in so many steps from having to use the washroom all of the time.

00:03:25:19 - 00:03:38:11
Speaker 1
But in the end, it felt like that did not add anything to my life. I felt annoyed more than anything else that I was going to the washroom all of the time,

00:03:38:11 - 00:03:51:11
Speaker 1
And I'm only aware of the fact that the three liters of water didn't really impact my life too much, because in January I chose a new habit which was to walk 10,000 steps a day.

00:03:51:11 - 00:04:01:22
Speaker 1
The original plan was that I would keep drinking three liters of water and add on the 10,000 steps a day, but it just so happened that the three liters of water fell off for me.

00:04:01:22 - 00:04:14:20
Speaker 1
there is a big difference to me in the quality of my life between drinking three liters of water a day and taking 10,000 steps a day. Huge quality of difference for me.

00:04:14:20 - 00:04:41:17
Speaker 1
Which is helping me understand now that the exercise that I was doing at the gym every morning, although I was diligent in going to the gym every morning and lifting weights, I was still at a sedentary desk job for the rest of the day, and I was not getting enough activity still, because I was sedentary for the whole day.

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Speaker 1
After leaving the gym,

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Speaker 1
my life before focusing on steps. Was simply going to the gym in the morning,

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Speaker 1
getting all of my movement in within that first two hour time frame of the day, and then the rest of the day would be sitting at my desk, working, sitting and eating or sitting and relaxing after work.

00:05:00:01 - 00:05:01:14
Speaker 1
I was sedentary.

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Speaker 1
Now, after having the experience of spending all of January doing 10,000 steps a day and all of February so far doing 12,000 steps a day, my energy levels actually feel higher, even though I am way more active than I've ever been for this long extended of time.

00:05:22:00 - 00:05:37:01
Speaker 1
Which doesn't really make sense to think about the fact that I am expelling more energy every single day. Now, but I seem to have more energy as well.

00:05:37:03 - 00:06:06:01
Speaker 1
How does that make sense? I don't know, and it wouldn't have ever made sense to me, so I wouldn't have known or understood this until I did it, and I had to be curious enough to do it. I had to want something more than what I already had. I already knew that I wasn't feeling as good as I could be feeling.

00:06:06:01 - 00:06:19:19
Speaker 1
And it didn't make sense to me because I am a pretty healthy person. I'm only 35 and so I didn't know why. I just felt tired all of the time. There was always just this low lying brain fog all of the time.

00:06:19:19 - 00:06:30:10
Speaker 1
And usually every winter I seem to experience a lot of sadness, probably related to the seasons, but that just didn't really happen for me this year.

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Speaker 1
And I truly think that it is because of the steps that I'm doing every day, because not only am I being more physical and getting my body moving every day,

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Speaker 1
I'm going outside for these steps most of the time, even when the weather was -15°C outside, I dressed warmly.

00:06:49:04 - 00:07:08:02
Speaker 1
I put my boots on and I went outside for a walk, and it actually made me even happier to be outside in those miserable weather days. Because the snow I remember the snow is falling. It was wide outside the roads were slippery and I was the only one outside for a walk. And it was beautiful because it was completely white outside.

00:07:08:02 - 00:07:46:05
Speaker 1
The snow was all fresh and there was still snow falling and I was like, this is just such a nice day and I'm so proud of myself that I went outside and I did my walk. Anyways, although the weather was awful, but actually it was really beautiful, I just had to dress warmly enough for it and the discipline of going outside made me happy for myself that I was showing up for myself when I felt like most people may have made an excuse that the weather was poor, so they didn't want to go outside, I was proud of myself that I still went outside.

00:07:46:07 - 00:08:19:21
Speaker 1
So not only was it the physical aspect of moving my body, which we all know, exercise increases endorphins. The movement of the body moves like the energy and you just feel better. So I was moving and then I was proud of myself. And then the nature outside was beautiful and I was enjoying the scenery. They were just so many great things about that day, in that moment that I wouldn't have known if I didn't challenge myself to see what would happen

00:08:19:21 - 00:08:35:00
Speaker 1
this whole journey is really about curiosity, because what works for one person might not necessarily work for the next. So I love it when people share what works for them. But it's not gospel

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Speaker 1
Just because it worked for you doesn't mean it's going to work for me. But I'm not going to know unless I try.

00:08:42:03 - 00:09:00:20
Speaker 1
just because something works for me doesn't mean it's going to work for you. That's just how life is. We are all such unique individuals. We all have different upbringings. We all have different circum stances. We all have different resources.

00:09:00:20 - 00:09:06:07
Speaker 1
But again, you're not going to know until you try it for yourself.

00:09:06:07 - 00:09:25:15
Speaker 1
even if the ideas seem crazy, even if they seem radical. Something is going to work, and you don't know exactly what it is until you figure it out. And the only way to figure it out is to try it and be curious.

00:09:25:15 - 00:09:29:15
Speaker 1
you can even use curiosity as a way to learn from the past.

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Speaker 1
things that you've already done, or maybe things that have already happened to you. There are still lessons that you can extract from them.

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Speaker 1
ask yourself, what can I learn from this? Or how is this situation? Or how is this person asking me to grow?

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Speaker 1
what circumstances led to this decision?

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Speaker 1
Or what circumstances led to this happening?

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Speaker 1
And if I don't like it, then how can I prevent this from happening again in the future?

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Speaker 1
getting curious on the things that happen to us in our past is going to help you design the life that you want for your future.

00:10:06:05 - 00:10:15:18
Speaker 1
Because if you're not purposely designing your life, then things are just happening to you and you're just accepting the life that gets thrown at you.

00:10:15:18 - 00:10:28:02
Speaker 1
Which is not the way that I want to live my life. I don't know about you, but I want to do the things I want to do. So I am designing my life

00:10:28:02 - 00:10:38:00
Speaker 1
And I am choosing the challenges that I put myself through, like endurance racing and mountain climbing or whatever hiking.

00:10:38:02 - 00:11:07:01
Speaker 1
I am choosing to put myself into these hard situations so that when life throws hard situations at me, I'm already prepared because I know that I can do hard things because I've put myself into uncomfortable situations before. I've led uncomfortable conversations. I've climbed to the top of the mountain and cried. I've made myself uncomfortable in so many ways.

00:11:07:01 - 00:11:12:19
Speaker 1
I've done a stand up comedy routine. I've performed in front of a lot of people,

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Speaker 1
I've given a talk in front of people. I put myself in uncomfortable situations, and I've survived every single one of them.

00:11:20:22 - 00:11:23:20
Speaker 1
I am building confidence in myself

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Speaker 1
because I have all this evidence in my mind now of everything that I've done in the past.

00:11:28:12 - 00:11:39:10
Speaker 1
And I know that whatever comes at me in the future, I might not know what to do at the time. But I'm resourceful and I'm curious.

00:11:39:10 - 00:11:44:09
Speaker 1
I'm going to ask questions. I'm going to learn. I'm going to do my best, and I'm going to make it work.

00:11:44:09 - 00:12:16:08
Speaker 1
What's the worst that could happen? That's a question that I ask myself. I don't literally ask myself, what's the worst that can happen? But it's kind of a theme in my life. Like, yeah, sure, I'll do that. Why not?

00:12:16:08 - 00:12:35:10
Speaker 1
I hope I inspired you this week to embrace a little bit more curiosity into your life. Frame it as an experiment. Whatever it is that you're doing, just try it. See what happens. Experiments don't last forever. You can do it for a little bit and just see what happens. Maybe you'll turn out great. Maybe you'll love it.

00:12:35:10 - 00:12:54:22
Speaker 1
Maybe you'll hate it. Maybe you'll just try something else in two weeks when the experiments over. It's all good. It's all a learning experience. Thank you for listening. Please remember that it is free to support podcasts and the creators that you love. All that we ask is that you share, like, subscribe and maybe rate the shows.

00:12:54:22 - 00:13:00:06
Speaker 1
It will help with reach and it will help get this episode into the hands of the people that will need to hear it.

00:13:00:06 - 00:13:07:10
Speaker 1
And it is free for you to do. It will maybe take two seconds. Just hit the follow button, subscribe button like button.

00:13:07:10 - 00:13:12:18
Speaker 1
And as always, if you'd like more from me, you can find me at Tina's arena.com.

00:13:12:18 - 00:13:20:17
Speaker 1
If you'd like to join that Facebook group that I was talking about, the link is going to be at Tina's arena.com/facebook group.

00:13:20:17 - 00:13:25:05
Speaker 1
Hope you have a great week! I hope you get really curious and I'll see you next time.