Awaken Hope - Keeping Things Simple

Are you tired of feeling hopeless?

Or do you feel as though you carry around

an invisible ball and chain?

If so, you are in the right place.

It's time now for a wicked hope with Candy Campbell.

Candy is a therapist and grief counselor

that works with women to help them process

and heal from emotional events

that can keep them feeling stuck.

Let's take this journey together.

And now here's your host, Candy Campbell.

Welcome back to a wicked hope.

I am so super grateful.

I have my fabulous co-host with me, Sandy Evenson.

And we are going to be talking about keeping things simple.

Yes, we are in a new year.

And it is already, I have found it is already,

sometimes takes on a life of its own.

I have found that the more I keep things simple,

and easy, the better off I flow and feel

when I allow things to become overly complicated

and you know, very, I give up.

And I'm like, I don't want to do this.

But my mantra, I guess you could say is keep it simple.

And as you have heard, the acronym KISS,

keep it simple silly.

We don't have to do things that are hard and complicated.

We can do things that are very easy.

It makes life easier no matter what you're doing,

no matter what you're going through.

If you can step back and you can go,

how can I simplify this?

Life can become so much.

Welcome, Sandy.

Thank you so much for being my partner.

And co-host, I am super grateful for you.

Oh, hello, hey everyone.

Hey, Candy.

Great to be here as always.

I love this theme today.

Well, you know, we're in a new year.

And why not keep things simple?

We don't have to start the new year complicated.

If we do, more than likely, we will burn out

before we get six months into the year.

And we're almost at two months, not quite, but almost.

So you know, we're two to three months.

By the time you get going into the year,

it can kind of, things can kind of snowball.

And we have to be aware of what we're

allowing to happen in our lives.

And in the visual I got in my head, you know,

for the most, the majority of you

you are experiencing winter in the summer having snow,

summer having slick icy roads.

And things are just feeling.

And if we can take a step back and go,

okay, how can I simplify my life?

How can I make things calm?

Relax.

I think we can have a much smoother year,

no matter what we are experiencing.

It doesn't have to be hard.

We make it hard.

We complicate things.

Really start speaking for me.

Oh, that is so true.

And I think it could be quite a struggle

because we feel like we have so much to do.

But one of the things I'm learning

because this message has been coming over and over again.

One thing at a time, go with the flow, focus.

The more you can do that,

the more you can find your way of doing that.

And sometimes it takes a little time

to figure that out what works best for you.

But I learned kind of the hard way

that when you slow down,

it doesn't mean that you have any more time in the day.

We always have the same amount of time.

But it's like time widens.

It gets wider.

You can literally have more done

and feel better about it each day.

It's just bizarre.

If you can just get that breath

and understand the pauses.

For me right now, when I think a lot of us are in this,

it can take decluttering.

Look around in your life, at your work, whatever it is,

to clear out what no longer serves.

I'm looking at my desk right now.

I can't tell you how many times I do this.

But clearing it off, making it more neat

so that I don't get distracted

by those other notes everywhere

or whatever's going on.

Clearing out everything, declutterize

and find a path to your clarity

about what it is you want to accomplish.

And the other thing too,

is what is it that you want this year?

What is the emotion you want to experience?

For me, it's like joy and fulfillment.

And if you can keep that at the forefront,

then your tasks will be easier

because you can just ask yourself

every time you're going to do something,

does this make me happy?

Will this bring me joy?

Will this help me feel fulfilled or at peace?

Yeah, you just got to, you really,

you really got to reassess things

and you had to step back and take time to figure out

what is it that I need?

What do I need to do to make things more easy for myself?

You were speaking of decluttering.

I started the New Year, I was pulling stuff out

and getting rid of clothes.

As I phrased it or I heard it phrased for me

is I am blessing somebody else with the things

I am choosing to get rid of.

Gifting, re-gifting someone else,

whether it's shirts or clothes or household items

that I haven't used and they've just been taking up space.

Rather than looking at it, go, oh,

I really should part ways with this,

but not wanting to because somewhere in the back of our mind

our mind goes, you may use that again.

You may wear that again.

However, if you haven't worn it in at least a year,

the likelihood is you probably won't.

And if you haven't used it,

it's sitting in a shell for it's collecting dust

or it's collecting, it's just taking up space.

Give it to somebody that may need it.

You never know who is in need of something

that you are parting ways with,

that you were being a blessing to someone else.

You know, the more, one of the things

that I have taken away this year

and really incorporated my own life is,

how can I be a blessing to others?

Now, that can come in many different forms.

And so for me, keeping things simple

is figuring out ways that I can be a blessing to others.

Maybe I, part ways, I have clothes in my closet,

I've never worn, you know,

someone gave it to me and it wasn't my style.

Rather than holding onto it,

just allowing it to take up space,

allow somebody to be gifted with that.

Allow somebody to, you know, find something

that goes, oh my gosh, this is brand new.

I think it's that still have,

there's still in packages.

And I'm like, okay, ah, you know,

I haven't worn this in however long

is time to find someone else to bless this with.

And that has helped me reframe my focus

of keeping things simple,

getting rid of parting ways,

finding new homes for things that someone else can benefit from.

Yeah, you know, one of the things I learned,

I've learned this from one of my dear friends

several years ago, actually.

And she was talking about that very thing

and looking at, she's like,

you know, looking at something that was a gift.

And trust me, she's also a hairstylist

and when you're in that type of work,

your clients will often bring you.

And so at Christmas time or, you know,

certain times of holidays, you can receive things.

And so you start to accumulate,

not only gives from family and other friends,

now you've got all these people

who come to you and bring you stuff.

Mm-hmm.

And she said, I finally realized that I have enjoyed

this chachki that's on my shelf.

Mm-hmm.

And it's time for someone else to enjoy it.

And I can have the memory of receiving it

and the warmth that it was given, et cetera.

And I finally saw that and I went,

oh, yes, I get it now.

Even when you're afraid that somebody

who gave you something might be coming over

and then might want to see it on your bookshelf,

it's okay, it doesn't have to be there anymore.

And it doesn't have to gather not only the dust

that you have to clean, but the distraction.

You can distract it by that.

And you look at it, you know, gosh,

I really should move that.

I really should make more space.

Well, this is our time to take a look at that

and say, nothing new can come in.

If everything's cluttering up, what's here?

I need more space to open up that simplicity

and not be so distracted by stuff.

And this can happen on your laptop and your phone,

all those apps that are there.

Take a look at all of that.

What's distracting you from doing what you really

would love to do?

Good sage advice.

Perfect way to lead to a break.

We'll be right back.

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Now, welcome back again, Sandy.

And I've been talking about keeping things simple,

simplifying how to simplify your life in this new year.

How can one simplify your life?

And now, each and every one of you

have to ask that question for yourself.

But I encourage you and I challenge you to say,

how can you keep things simple?

How can you make things easier for yourself versus harder?

You know, for many of you who have kids,

maybe your kids got lots of new toys or new things

this year.

Why don't you take some of the toys that your children

don't play with and be home them, find somebody

who can benefit from them and be blessed by them?

Or you got clothes or like me, someone got you clothes

or stuff that you're really, it's not your style,

you don't use, rather than just keeping it around,

putting it in a cupboard and a closet,

politely find some way to regift it.

And you know, you just keep things flowing.

This is your flow for me.

This is one of those things I really want to continue to have

because what goes in must come out and vice versa.

So we keep things flowing by decluttering,

by cleaning up our, by looking at things

that we have around us and going,

do I really need this?

Or is it just taking up space

because I don't want to get rid of it?

You know, I'm, I'm, yeah.

Our logic is on our brains trying to tell us,

oh, you don't want to do that?

That might create some problems.

Yes, that thing where if you've,

if we have been talking about clutter here with simplifying,

so a cluttered environment can cause a cluttered mind,

which then keeps you from being able to be

in the present moment.

And Candy, you and I talk about that all the time.

It's like, how do we day in that present moment

and stay focused because we're either going to go back

to the, to the past, whether it was this morning,

last year or 10 years ago.

We're, we're going to go there and kind of ruminate

about things that we think we should have could have done,

shouldn't have done, et cetera.

Looking at that stuff that you still have is there

in that past that you should, you know, take a look at.

And then the other is, you know,

worrying about the future.

And I trust me, everyone on earth today

worries about where we're going with our future.

If we can stay in the present moment

and bring in that peace and go with more simplicity,

not needing so much, then our peace,

our inner peace will shine out to other people.

It will help other people feel better, feel more calm.

I mean, part of our big purpose here with your show

is to give people that hope and to help them be

in a more peaceful state of mind.

I definitely want to have a look at that.

And yeah, with clothes, there's like certain occasions

that you keep forever, like that one red sweater

where Christmas time or that thing that you wear

and the Fourth of July, but everything else

just really take a good look at that.

You can't be afraid to ask that question.

You have to be able to truthfully answer it from your heart.

And like Sandy said, yeah, there's no certain items

that we, we save, you know, Christmas,

if you do the ugly sweaters at Christmas,

or you have a favorite outfit that you wear,

come the holiday season, or the summertime,

you have shorts or an outfit you like

for those picnics or summer occasions.

That's perfectly okay.

We're not saying go through and purge everything out.

You don't have to be a minimalist,

but you can at least make things,

you can simplify how things look in your house,

you can simplify what's in your closet,

the things that are just around you.

Even if you're in business,

go through and figure out things by I was doing a seminar

and I was being told how to use, not told,

but shown how to use chat GPT to simplify my life

in my business and I was like, who knew?

I mean, I've always known about chat GPT,

but I didn't understand all of it.

And yes, I'm dating myself on, you know, technology

and I are, we're still learning each other.

However, you know, I know for a lot of you,

you use chat GPT or you use technology

and you understand it and that's perfectly okay.

But I was being shown a different way

to make my life simpler.

Who knew, you know, someone did, but it was eye opening.

And I was like, and we were being shown ways

to make life or business.

So it doesn't matter whether you're in business,

it doesn't matter whether you have kids or you're at home,

you're a stay-at-home mom or you just work, make things,

find ways to consolidate, you know,

and make things flow and your life for 2026

will be probably 10 times better.

Yeah, Richard's research has shown multitasking doesn't work.

We think we're getting lots done, but we really don't.

It messes us up.

So if we can prioritize and that might mean

that in the evening you jot down what you want to do the next day

and do some prioritizing about your task,

it come in a different ways of approaching it.

I know as a stylist in the salon,

I would always look at that the day before

and be set up and ready for anything.

Now sometimes that could cause some grief because you see,

oh dear, how am I going to handle that, right?

But it's a way to really look at that and that simplicity.

And if you want to, I don't know, in my life,

the biggest thing as I said earlier,

I keep being told one thing at a time,

I'm getting those messages loud and clear.

And so I'm narrowing down and still trying to focus

and that's really weird because I'm trying to do this,

I am doing this second book and I'm writing that

and that takes a lot of time and going down memory lane

for this memoir and trying to make it a self-help book,

et cetera, but at the same time over here,

I have my coaching business and building a YouTube channel.

That's what I've been focusing on now.

Building that to help people and teach people

the things that I do, help with stress

just like you do here.

It's still like how do I simplify that?

How do I make that happen?

And how do I do those sub-stech newsletters at the same time?

It gets a little crazy.

If I just take a breath and all of you guys,

you can do this, take a breath and see what is important to me now.

What's my priority?

What are my values?

What do I feel that I can share with the world?

How can I make other people's lives better

as you brought up earlier as well, Candid that?

What is it that I'm doing that will help others

rather than just being kind of caught up

with so many things to do to do to do?

Yeah, I think it really is about doing one thing at a time.

You know, I mean, we get all these,

and I am very big on this.

I get all these downloads and ideas and thoughts

and then I start wanting to implement them.

And then I find myself swirling, spinning around,

spinning up and getting overwhelmed

because I've taken on too much.

And it's like, okay, take a step back.

And how can you do a checklist?

If you like checklist, those are great.

Do a checklist prioritize what's more important?

What is it that you need to get out in the next few hours

or a few days, what can be shelf to do?

And prioritize it based on time.

If you've got a lot of projects,

do a little lot of time on each project.

We're not saying if something's due right away,

you do the things that are more pressing,

but you parse out a little at a time.

That way you don't get so overwhelmed with,

oh my gosh, I've got this, I've got that.

I've got to get all this done

because that is just, truly, it's your brain

just telling you, oh, you got to do this, this and this

and then what are you gonna do?

And I am completely complicit in that.

I am completely complicit in doing that.

And I just really desire for this new year

to be more relaxed.

Yeah.

You know, there's a lot of things that are changing

and a lot of good things that are here and are coming.

But if I get too overwhelmed with all of that,

I go into overload and then I start spinning out

and then I start squirreling.

You know, I have learned, you're like,

we're talking about the doing one thing at a time.

I have to, I literally have to do projects.

I have to write those lists down and prioritize

what needs to be done

because I will squirrele and start them all

and then not finish them because it's too much.

And I'm like, oh, I get to do this,

but I have chosen and that is the optimal word.

I've chosen to make things a lot more simpler,

a lot more, how to simplify my life,

how to make my life more manageable.

Yeah, and the other thing I've learned about,

chat, GPT, GPT and the other AI things that we have,

a few write things down and you make it like that.

It's all over the page or whatever you write,

put things in long hand because that's how we work.

A lot of times that is the best way to get your inspiration.

I feel as with pen to paper,

there's a connection that is different than anything else,

but you can, you can take that,

take a picture of it or scan it

and give it to your chat GPT or your other AI and ask it

help me prioritize this, help me create something out of this.

This is something that I really want to do

and I don't know where to start or whatever it is,

whatever your thing is that you want.

It will spit that out for you

and it doesn't mean it's going to be correct.

It doesn't mean it's going to be perfect

that just will give you a starting point

and of course it always wants to do more and you think,

no, but I really would like X, Y, Z

and it will do that for you

and I can just help you narrow things down

and come up with what's my first step

and help you that way to simplify

rather than spending the next 24 hours

or the next week trying to do it yourself, you know?

So before we go on break,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna always dress something

and then we'll take a break

and we'll come back and continue addressing it.

The other thing that I encourage you to do with a share,

I had to do this myself,

is do an internal chat and ask yourself

and really stop and think about what it is

that you need to do internally.

Who do you need to?

Who do you need to let off the hook

for things that they said or did?

Maybe it occurred recently, maybe it occurred decades ago,

but you're still holding onto it.

We, since we are in a new year

in order for this new year to blossom

and fully be what we desire it to be.

We need, forgive not only ourselves,

but we need to let people go.

Let go, that's big.

And you've heard us talk about forgiveness

is not about them,

but we're gonna take a short break

and then we'll come back

and we're gonna dive into this more

because this is key.

If you want the best year

and to be your better version of you

and have more peace

and have things simple high,

you have to let go and forgive.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back.

Again, Sandi and I were talking about.

I was addressing the fact that,

who do you need to like go up?

Wedding or who do you need to forgive?

It's the internal inspection of you.

In order for us to really make the best of,

we really need to do that internal inventory and say,

okay, who am I holding anger towards?

Who am I holding a grudge towards?

Who am I still feeling the sting of pain

because they did something to me?

And maybe it was recently, maybe it was months ago

or years ago, it doesn't matter.

And every time their name pops up

or you think of this person, you cringe.

You kind of go, ew.

And I say this because this is something I had to do

recently with an individual in my life.

I really had to, because when I thought about this person,

it would just give me a pit in my stomach.

And I was like, okay, so there was something still there.

And I was, you know, I was praying.

I was asking, I'm like, what is it?

Why am I getting so triggered?

And what I heard is you still have some residual hurt there.

You still have some, some unforgiveness

that you need to let go.

And I had to go through and do my clearing and my healing,

release it with love, but also recognize that what I still,

you know, I wasn't holding love for this individual.

I was still holding.

And so every time this individual's name popped up

or I thought about this individual, I would cringe.

You really, really, really have to,

what is it that's holding on to?

And we want things simple.

We want things more peaceful.

And that is a big thing is we have to let go of the past.

We have to let go of people.

We have to let go of the pain that they have to people

that created pain if you stop and remind yourself.

If someone's hurting you or they're seeing something,

that is more about them.

They're hurting in some shape or form and some capacity.

And it is coming out in their words, in their actions.

But if you can remember to take that step and look at it from,

okay, not see it as that was mean or how dare they or what the heck,

you know, yeah, there's a, there's a really good, I shouldn't say,

there are several ways to do that and to really allow what's,

you have inside and those beliefs that you have,

you need to bring them out.

You don't want to keep them shoved in and say, okay,

I'm just going to let it go.

There is a way that works really well.

I, of course, everybody, if you've been listening to me at all,

I'm the tapping queen, so I use tapping a lot.

I'll go for a long walk and I'll just do some tapping and talking.

At the same time and it's, it's kind of around judgment.

And you think about that person or the situation that happened and,

you know, I've really blame, you know, it's like pointing your finger.

It's one of the levels of forgiveness.

And you just start that way.

I really blame you.

I feel this way because this happened and you did this and you did that or they did that.

I hate the way they are and you do that first.

It's really good to write it out in a journal, but get it out as,

as the easiest way you can.

And as you do that, you will feel the energy shift.

I cannot tell you how many times I've done this.

I especially did it with my mother.

My deceased mother has been gone a very long time.

But one of my coaches was telling me, you know, I've been advised to work on anger.

And she said, now I don't think it really is that I think it's judgment.

Oh, so I started that whole thing about my mom.

Well, apparently I judge you, mom.

I started it that way because I didn't know where it was going.

And as soon as I voiced it on my own privately while tapping, it all came out.

And I could see it.

I went, oh, my God, I really did judge my mother.

I judged her for this, that and the other.

And it was just quite eye opening.

And in the end, it turned back towards me.

I was judging myself.

And this is what happens most often.

So if you can just get it out first and give yourself that forgiveness that you need,

it's the hardest thing to do.

And it can take more than one time of working on it.

But I guarantee you, if you do that and you sit down like candy and you start with that person,

you're talking about it and you can make it like a letter, dear son.

So I'm feeling this way.

And you write it like you're fighting fair.

It's not really saying you this, you that.

It's like I feel like this when you speak to me that way or you treat me that way, right?

When that is over, you have released so much energy and you could get moved within you

and you use that energy to move forward, to be productive, to do more,

to love others in a better way.

So now you're simplifying because you're not hanging on to that.

It's not stuck in your body somewhere that's going to come out in an injury or an illness.

It's going to release from your body.

And don't be afraid to define a boundary with somebody, especially people that are in your life.

Keeping things simple is going to help you with defining a boundary.

And a boundary is things that you are not willing to tolerate anymore.

It's not about making someone else's life more complicated or you're making your life more complicated.

It actually simplifies things because you're like, sorry, but no, I'm not going to tolerate that behavior from you anymore.

I'm not going to allow myself to be put into that position every time we interact.

Boundaries are for your protection as well as a definition and a defining of what you will and won't allow into your life.

And set boundaries with yourself, your inner dialogue, you know, no, I'm not going to treat myself that way anymore and speak kindly to myself about myself.

And set bound teacher, if you have kids, you know, and you're raising kids, teach them how to define boundaries, apply things that make their life simpler, apply things to your business,

whether you're entrepreneur or you work and, you know, a nine to five, which is fine, where, you know, define boundaries of what you're going to do and what you're not going to do.

Go with a plan to say this year, I am choosing to define boundaries.

I am choosing to release people that have no business taking up internal space within my life.

I am choosing to re-gift stuff that is in my space and clearing out papers or, you know, things that we collect because we think, oh, I could use that again to haven't touched it.

If you haven't touched it, that's a pretty good sign.

Don't leave it behind for others to have to clear out later.

I mean, just again, you don't have to be a minimalist, but you can make things simpler for you.

The other aspect that I want to address is, and this is stuff I, you know, I do myself truly taking an introspection on who you choose to surround yourself with.

And I say that because the people, you know, they say the five closest people you surround yourself with are going to influence you.

We, we make choices about who we have in our inner circle.

Some of us just, they're just a lot of people around us, but you make a choice on who you listen to, who you allow to feed information into your senses, your hearing, your, you know, your life.

If it's something, if it's someone that is giving you grounded solid information and they're benefiting you, then that's one thing.

But if it's someone who's, you know, their first words out of their mouth is some criticism of you, I, I can say, especially when it comes to family, put them to an outer level.

You can still have relationships with them, but you limit your exposure to them because people like that are going to truly influence what you do and how you think.

And our thoughts, they become things, what we think about continuously, I'm not saying the thought that pops into your head is going to become something instantaneously, but it's something you begin to think of and you put energy into, I promise you, it will become something and you're looking at that going, I didn't want that.

Oh, well, yeah, you kind of did and I say that with love because I've done this myself, you know, we subconsciously go into autopilot thinking some thought about something in our life and we put, we put energy into it and it shows up and we're like, oh my gosh, where did you come from? I didn't expect you while you kind of did because you were thinking about it more than just once.

Yeah, one of the things you can do, this comes from another coach mentor role model, I have that, you know, looking at your internal inventory, journal one, look at the idea of what do I want freedom from what do I want freedom to and look at that idea, I want freedom from the angst I get when that person's a near me.

I want freedom from and just fill in the blank and look at that idea of what and you'll start to see, okay, I can let that go and then the next part is freedom to what is it you're going to this year is moving fast, the idea of the fire horse is going to be taken off soon.

And so we need to watch that because a lot of things are going to be developing and changing really, really fast and so the more and more we need to simplify so we can go at the flow and make decisions with clarity about what we want to bring along with us and what we want to lead behind and where we want to hit our wagon.

Yeah, you've got to pay attention to that you really do and you ask you and encourage you is do you want your life to be different and that is a that's a personal question for everybody only you can answer that no one can answer that for you if you want your life to be different.

We have to choose to make different choices and if this year is going to fly as fly by as fast as Sandy has mentioned we want to get on that horse and any of you have ridden the horse no if you've never ridden the horse then understand when you get on a horse especially if you're trying to

low meaning you're you're wanting to gallop you're wanting the horse to go fast all you have to do especially with trained horses as you use your heels use your reins and give them a couple kicks and they'll take off and sometimes you have to be in control of that horse because it'll key or she will take off out the door and if you don't have control it you're in for a wild ride.

My point being is we make choices we have choices as to what we do who we become so my words of encouragement is take this time to really really really look at your life and say what can I do differently what can I choose to do that's going to simplify my life keep things simple clear out old energy is clear out old you know maybe

some people that are in your inner circle to those outer circles they're still in your life but you they're not influencing you quite as much and you've heard me talk about this when I was a kid my father

in one conversation with my dad my dad told me I was a half empty type of individual type of girl I didn't understand the glasses half empty is what he said

and I remember thinking I was having a conversation with my mom another time and I said well dad says I'm a half you know half empty individual and my mom was like oh your dad just doesn't want to see reality blah blah blah she was just going down this path of disparaging my father fast forward several decades and I realized what my dad was saying it wasn't it wasn't necessarily

him who saw things that my dad always saw tried to see the how things could flow and how things could be my mom was the glass was half empty and she was having the greater influence over me because she was the one that was I listen to and when I looked at that and I step back and looked at what the life that my mom you know the influence my mom had I went oh mg

he really did have the glass half empty influence over me and I didn't even realize it and when I woke up and I was like oh you know this is something I you know patterns kick in when problems show up I'll go back that way and I have to catch myself and go no that's not where where you need to go that's not who you need

to be listening to so when I did stuff like that I was like hmm okay we're gonna choose to do things differently and I had to I mean I put my mom on a in an outer level of my relationships

because my mom was super she got older her glass half empty got glasses her glass was completely empty and I was like okay and I didn't even know

it was refillable you know mm-hmm how crazy but yeah we have to we have to be very diligent about what we do we can't just we really can't just expect things to just happen on their own

yeah things will happen but you'll be have you'll have patterns show up they maybe you didn't want to have show up you know

it's that thing you can be the change you want to see in the world mm-hmm this we all look around we go gosh I wish that was more

simple I wish it could be easier it can be it's just you know to simplify what we've been talking about

look at your life look at decluttering prioritize identify your values and goals limit your

distractions set boundaries with technology and risk and over scheduling and dream line routines you know

focus on one thing rather than everything mm-hmm you know clarify your processes you can even make some rules

for yourself it's for others and choose the shortest path you know what's going to get me there

do I want to sit with this we started with the chat GPT thing do we want to sit with this and try

to work it out all on my own or can I get some help from that technology I've just told you to simplify

from you know take a look at all of that and I think especially do that inward glance do that

inventory but what's what's good what's going on for me that I can be grateful for want more into my

life and then let go of the rest you know just you could make it simple simple as possible yeah keep

things simple and the other thing I'm you know I want to address is oh so many things there are so

many things and yes my mind scrolling so I've got too many things going through my mind and again

I have to prioritize but one of the things that you can do to keep things simple in your life

and simple in your family's life spend time with each other again like Sandy was talking about

we are a society we've become a society who are distracted by technology everybody's got to

phone these days everybody's scrolling but take some time set aside time to really spend time

with your loved ones with your friends with your family one you're going to especially if you

have kids if you spend time with your kids you are going to notice changes in patterns behavior

if something is happening in their life you will be more adept at noticing it and I say this

because when my yes I was fortunate enough when my kids were growing up I was able to stay home with

and help out when they were in school and we had moved to Oklahoma yeah we were living in Oklahoma

this particular time we had moved this in this period time we moved five times and six years and

this particular move we were in Oklahoma and my oldest son was being bullied but he was coming home

and I saw a behavior change in him I didn't know what it was he wasn't saying anything but I could

see something was different with my son and so you know I was like something's not right so I

asked him and he finally messed up with what was happening and I was like okay no this isn't

this is not acceptable you know I he did defend himself and he stood up for himself but I also

went to the to the school and I said this is concerning to me you know as a mother as a parent

uh oh what can be done because this this individual is singling out my son and you know he's in

all his closet so hello this isn't gonna fly but my point being is if you spend time with your

family and your loved ones with special kids if behaviors show up or something's changing or

something's not right you will notice and you can circumvent things from being calming a greater

problem whether it is bullying or school maybe they're having struggles with the you know their

classwork and they're falling behind it could be any number of things if you take the time to

step back and then time with your with your loved ones your life can become a lot more

simpler and that is the best thing I can recommend to you just keep things simple spend time with

your family life is far too short and that is something I really realized after you know my mom

and dad died and my kids became adults and I became a grandmother grandmother over three times

is life is too short and it is precious and you need to spend time with the people around you

because when you know if someone would have told me that 18 years would go by fast when I when

my kids were little I told them they were out of their mind and then my kids left for college and

they came home the first year and that was it and then they moved out on their own and now they

have families of their own and kids of their own and I'm like holy crap excuse my holy macro where

did the time go you know where did all this time go and every year seems to go slightly faster and

before you know it we're we're going where did that year go by how did that year go by so fast

and I'm not you know I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy the minute I'm in the present moment

because that's all I have that's all any of us have we what's done is done we can learn from it we

can see what do we need to understand so we don't repeat those mistakes and the future is fully

yet to be determined but what you do now is going to give you your future so keep things simple

give yourself the best future you can give yourself give yourself the best quality time with your

family and friends and it doesn't have when I say family and friends these these two and your

family does not have to be your family that you were born into it can be family can be anybody

you create to be family family and here in Hawaii you know they as you've heard and you've heard

the term ohana ohana is family family is who you choose to have as family not necessarily the

people you the family you were born into for me you know my my parents are both gone I have my

kids and my and my husband but my kids are living their own life so I have to make time to visit

with them and make time to then time with them because before you know it I mean I'm watching

my grandkids grow up and it's like wow you know my two oldest were they're going to be two years

old this year and I'm like holy mackerel you know where did the time go time flies so my point is

make things simple keep your life simple by implementing the various strategies or

one strategy at a time you don't have to do all of them you pick and choose what works for you

but find a strategy that helps you and really assess what do I need to do to keep my life simple

2026 I can make it and you will you will be rewarded by peace and serenity and simplicity

all right sandy any last minute thoughts before we conclude our conversation

I love what you just said thank just uh if you can give yourself something like you know

know agenda be with people without an agenda just being there to listen and to be with them

know agenda for how you have to have to do things and let yourself go with the flow and yeah you

have to have certain things that need to be done but you know what I mean is just doing that idea

of keeping things simple do that internal check and ask what do I need to do now to make life simple

for me and for the others around me you will be rewarded and you will look back whenever you

you have to look you look back and you will say that was the best decision I could have done for myself

keeping things simplified and easy is what will bring you greater peace greater small in the midst of

everything that is happening around you the world can spin around you but you do not have to spin

up like the top so ladies and gentlemen I am so super grateful for you I'm grateful for that you

choosing to listen I'm grateful that you are making this the best shout if this resonates with you

then save it download it listen to it and implement choose to implement one or all of the tools

a strategies that we've spoken about and you don't have to do with all at once you can do

them a little at a time but choose to do what is going to simplify your life make your life and

remember if someone's popping into your mind while you're listening to this there's a reason

they're popping into your mind they need to hear it I truly truly believe that 2026 will be

an amazing year no matter what happens life is going to happen for us but it doesn't have to take

us down every day is a gift and that is how I choose to look at things even when life has

happening and I feel like what the heck I don't have the bandwidth for this I choose to see

that there is a greater silver lining for me in each and everything that comes my way and comes

towards me just like there's a greater silver lining for each and every one of you through whatever

is presenting in your life we thank you and we wish you the very best in 2026 and we will talk

with you soon with many more guests and many more episodes take care bye thanks for listening to

Awaken Hope with Candy Campbell if you find yourself struggling just know there is help please

take the first step in contact candy to learn more go to candycamble.net if you like our show please

tell your friends and family to listen join us again next time for Awaken Hope with Candy Campbell