Ep. 19 Life lessons from a 89 year old soul [society, self-care]

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Hello, and welcome to the Borealis experience. I'm

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your host Aurora, and I'm very happy to be spending some time

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with you today. I hope you're doing well. I hope Life is good,

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and if its a little rough. Rig t now. I hope I can give you ho

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e and peace and help you o reconnect to yourself. Today

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I want to talk about life lesso s that I've learned from an

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9 year old. Some of you know th t I live in Canada, on a litt

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e cottage in the Rocky Mountai s with my grandma. My mom is he

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e as well. But today I want o talk about the life lessons

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I learned from my 89 year o d French grandma. She doesn

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t speak English. And over 20 yea s ago, they decided to move to t

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e English part of Canada. So y u can imagine that it was pret

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y difficult at times for them. B t they made it friends. They, as

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I said, have this beautiful litt e cottage out here. And yeah, h

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d a really, really good li e together. My grandpa passed

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n 2016. And ever since my grand a is very busy in the gardens, s

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e plays the piano. She eats wel . She keeps herself busy eve

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y day. So the first lesson I' e learned is that if you have

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a dream, there is no obstacle . There is times where you wi

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l feel you're going through. Yea , uncertainty, there's times th

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t you will feel you a e encountering obstacles when y

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u pursuing your dreams. But if y u really want something so badl

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, nothing can really hold y u back. So self doubt and doubti

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g their dreams was never a part f my grandparents life. The seco

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d thing I've learned from her s that you have to live

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n moderation and de p appreciation. She is from Fran

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e and French people apprecia e good wine, and very good foo

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. But you have to enjoy the e things in moderation. You can

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t indulge. You can't let yourse f go. You have to enjoy your foo

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, appreciate your food and n t exaggerate of the good thing

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. The third thing she taught me s that you have to learn a litt

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e bit about everythin

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She has no day where she is depressed or bored or doesn't

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know what to do with herself. When she has nothing to do

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around the gardens, nothing to cook or bake as she loves to do.

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She learned something new. Funny thing is that she never really

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learned to speak English because that would have helped her

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enormously. I don't know if it is the French pride or whatever

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it is if she believes that she can learn English or that she

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sounds funny. But she knows how to sew. She knows how to knit.

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She knows how to cook and bake all different kinds of meals and

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pastries. She plays the piano and learns new songs on a weekly

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I would say and many more things when it comes to the garden. She

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never gets tired of learning new things and failing at the

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beginning, but then succeeding. Because the more you do a new

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task, the better you get, there is no way around when you put

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your focus in. When you have good intentions. When you're

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consistent, then you will get better and something new. So

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also when it comes to repairing things, like doing an oil change

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on a truck on a car, she's curious about how it works. I

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feel a lot of times we have resistance to learning things

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that we think was too dumb or is other people can do it. So the

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third thing would be curiosity. Be curious and excited to learn

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new things. Another thing that I've learned is keep in touch

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with your close friends, and the people you love in your life,

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never wonder if the other person is doing enough, investing

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enough. Always make sure that you are giving your all in your

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relationships. Don't forget your friends birthdays. Just message

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them randomly and ask them how they're doing, how they're

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feeling. What their mind is busy with. Be curious about your

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friends lives and how they handle situations. My grandma

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and grandpa's sailed around the world before they settled in

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Canada.

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And

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throughout the years, they always kept in touch with their

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friends. And back then you have to imagine there was no

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WhatsApp. There was no Facebook, of course, no emails, she had to

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send and written letters. And then go to the post office, pay

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a lot of money. And then send a letter that would take 10 days

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at times to reach their friends. But you would always make sure

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that they know what they are doing right now and share their

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adventures. and wonder how her friends back home are doing. And

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it's very important for your heart for your soul to keep in

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touch with at least one person. Next thing that I've learned

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from her as travel, travel as much as you can, with at least

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amount of baggage as you can really learn to be a minimalist.

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Learn from other cultures learn to see that we all want the

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same. We all need the same on this planet. Yet, we might use a

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different language, different body language, different tools

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to satisfy our needs to go about our days. She saw to poverty

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back in Bolivia. And it really touched her so deeply. And when

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she came back home and really changed the way she cooked and

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used water and appreciated what she had. The other day I've

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learned that traveling is not only good for the mind and

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opening your heart, but on a biological level. On a gut

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level. It is so important to strengthen your immune system

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because he can maybe imagine that if you've traveled to

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Africa or Australia or South America. You take in way

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different bacteria and ingest them and it's exciting for your

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immune system. To sometimes fight them off, but sometimes to

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integrate them and make your gut more biodiverse. So, traveling,

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being open to learn from new cultures, and especially to

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learn to live with very, very minimal resources is a very

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important lesson you can learn in life. And there's really

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never an excuse not to travel, you can

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go and travel in a camper van, you can go and work your little

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ass off and put money aside so that you can travel

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is really important to open up your mind to, to feel and see

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new cultures in order to learn, but in also, order to appreciate

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what you have at home. The last lesson that I've learned from my

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grandma is to be disciplined to wake up every morning at the

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same time, even though you don't have a job to go to. You make

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yourself busy. I know that every night she goes to bed, she knows

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exactly what she's gonna do the next day. And she really takes

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it serious, and does it with full attention

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and focus and love. And it really does matter what it is.

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But most of the time it is to serve others.

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And I feel that's a very, very important lesson to learn.

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Because sometimes we feel depressed, we feel lonely. And

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all it is is that we are too focused on ourselves and not

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enough on other people around us. And we are herd animals by

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nature. So if we start being there for others, serving

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others, we will be connected again to community and feel less

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lonely and feel as if we have a purpose. And this is so

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incredibly important. I hope these little lessons here helped

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you. And I know they will certainly help you on a dark day

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that you can go back and listen to this and know that Yeah,

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there's a couple of very specific things that you can do

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in order to feel better right away. I'm sure there's many more

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lessons that I forgot here now today, but those were the core

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lessons said, I've learned from my grandma so far living with

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her

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first seven years, I think so yeah, I speak French with her

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every day. I speak English with you guys. And with my friends

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back home and with my mom here I speak German.

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And my brain loves it. Tried to learn a little bit about

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everything. And you will feel rich, and you will feel you can

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connect with more people. Thank you so much for listening to the

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Borealis experience. Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review

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or a rating on Apple podcast.

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You don't even know how much it means in the podcast world.

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Thank you so much. Until next time, bye bye