Unknown Speaker  0:00  
Hey everyone, you are listening to the self awareness Journey podcast. This little banter is about a car ride long and features your hosts, JJ Parker, and Melissa Albers. JJ owns a tech company. And Melissa has been a coach working with influencers for the last 18 years.

Unknown Speaker  0:18  
Well, hello, everybody. I'm super excited today because we have a very special guest. Yay. Cue the music.

Unknown Speaker  0:29  
We are very lucky enough today to have Alex morale here. And Alex is the founder of the Twin Cities wellness collective.

Unknown Speaker  0:38  
If you're interested in checking that out, we'll mention it again later. But the Twin City wellness collective, it has a large presence on LinkedIn. So it's probably the fastest way that you can find out more about that there. But Alex, welcome to the self awareness journey pod. We're happy to have you. Thank you. Yeah, I'm excited to be here. It's gonna be fun.

Unknown Speaker  1:01  
So when you and I got a chance to get to know each other just a little bit through a call a couple of weeks ago, you had such an interesting story. I liked that we were able to connect, talking about self awareness. So we were able to connect about some really interesting things that not a lot of business people get into discussions around, right, just the wellness piece as a whole, the human as a whole. And you had such an amazing personal story. I wondered if we could just start there.

Unknown Speaker  1:32  
Yeah. Well, I guess part of the reason I got interested in well being is when I was in college, I was a junior in college. And I was home for winter break. It was like the first day I was home from for winter break and December 13 of 2013.

Unknown Speaker  1:56  
And there I got a text from my brother that said there were gunshots in the school. And he was a senior in high school. And then my sister was a sophomore.

Unknown Speaker  2:12  
And so my mom and I were having lunch and we got this tax, and we drove over there. And like the whole inner our school in Denver is like, it's actually in Littleton Colorado, which is a suburb of Denver, but the it's at a major intersection. And the whole thing was surrounded by emergency vehicles and like hot like big Humvees and

Unknown Speaker  2:41  
all like the whole thing. It was like a whole flash flood of emergency lights. And they put us all like, over in the parking lot because all these parents started showing up and they put us in the there's a grocery store across the street, and they put us in the parking lot. And we just waited for to see if our brother, my brother and sister would come out. Oh my gosh, because essentially, the shooter was one of a student. And then he shot another student and then lit the library on fire and shot himself which so is this like horrible event? And something that's these events, like they seem almost common and where I'm from, ah, because of course Columbine is where I grew up is probably eight miles from our high school and it's happened other places nearby as well. Yeah, just like really sad thing. Yeah, those are like the two I feel like the Columbine and the little 10 stories were like, really the two hallmarks I always think about them as like the beginning of what's been happening since. Like, it's such a shocking, I mean, it is shocking, and terrible. But that I feel like was like the first couple of ones and no one knew how to react or respond. I mean, I don't think we still do, but that must have been really scary. Or your family.

Unknown Speaker  4:09  
How long? How long did you guys have to wait before your siblings came out? Yeah, it was probably

Unknown Speaker  4:17  
it was probably two or three hours at least. What I was horrible long. Wait, yeah. Cuz they brought them into the grocery store. And then they move them to a church that is behind the store. And then we had to go there and they had to get checked out

Unknown Speaker  4:41  
from this church. And so it was like a giant line of parents and it's not a small school. It's probably

Unknown Speaker  4:50  
2000 or 2500 people, students I mean, so it's it took a while to get everyone out of there, right

Unknown Speaker  5:01  
So, why this event for for you? Sounds like an inflection point, right? Where we realized, wow, there's something like what's happening here in our society that is causing these terrible events? Right?

Unknown Speaker  5:20  
It was. And the other thing is like our high school in our area is also, like, top one or two places, counties per capita for suicides.

Unknown Speaker  5:34  
Which doesn't make sense, either. So these two events, kind of, yeah, they were an inflection point for me like thinking about people that are well, that this doesn't happen.

Unknown Speaker  5:48  
And I don't know if we can make everybody well, but I think that people that

Unknown Speaker  5:56  
are well have the capacity to empower others, because they they know themselves. Yeah. And then understand where they're at. Yeah. And then they have the ability to connect with other people in the community. And I think when people connect with one another in a real fashion, they start to feel less isolated, and then they're less likely to

Unknown Speaker  6:23  
kind of embark on these extremist actions or, or yeah, go down that road. Yeah. And that's sort of a hunch. I mean, there's a lot of psychology that goes into that, that I'm not an expert in. But yeah, we don't claim to be experts here either. You know, we do have a lot of hunches, and we follow it, we follow a lot of breadcrumbs. Just to keep the conversation open. You know, I think being a student of this is probably the most valuable possible way you could spend your time. Right. So Alex, like,

Unknown Speaker  6:58  
obviously, like you went through that terrible event, right? You became interested in wellness and mental wellness and helping others.

Unknown Speaker  7:11  
So why did you start the Twin Cities out wellness collective? Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker  7:19  
a lot of it stemmed from those events, in that I think that we needed to build a community where we can

Unknown Speaker  7:27  
I say, night well being create a movement of well being in our city, and

Unknown Speaker  7:34  
this is the community that I'm in. And I think that it's important to be rooted in a place. And that can kind of create communities that empower one another and lift each other up. So the Twin Cities wellness collective came from that place, a little bit. And then I also I read this book, while being the five essential elements, which is by Tom Rath, who's the, of course, the Gallup researcher that does a lot of work with Strength Finders, and the other author is Jim harder. And they both work for Gallup, and they do a study of 150 countries to see what makes a life well lived. And they boil it down to these five elements, which are social, occupational, physical, financial, and community. And so it's pretty well rounded. And they then ask, well, how well are people doing in these areas? And at the time of this study, 66% of people were doing well, in one of the five areas. Wow. And just and just to say, the areas again, you said social, occupational, physical, financial, and community. Correct. So yeah, 66% were only good in one of those categories, and not all the same category, obviously. Right.

Unknown Speaker  9:05  
And only 7% of people in the study, were doing well in all five of them. Wow. So obviously, like being well, in a, in a holistic manner is uncommon. And I don't think it should be that way. And I felt convicted when I read that. And I'm like, there's a lot of room for improvement. Yeah. And I think I've experienced this, by the way that like some of the things I was discussing before, like, that is what it's like to be unwell. Yeah. So how can we add to Being Well, and holistically and a lot I think a lot of times like people hear wellness and they're like, oh, that's like drinking green juice. And, and yeah, go into the gym and

Unknown Speaker  10:00  
And I'm like, that's just a little piece of it there. It's so much bigger than that. Like, we can't just think about one thing. And also to be well as a whole person, you need a lot of different perspectives. Because, like, even if you think about physical, like, you have to know like how to be like, exercise, and, but it also involves doctors and Right, right, like, there's so many different experts that fit into just that category. And there's so many people that can fit into

Unknown Speaker  10:39  
these, or just like occupational well being like, there's so many people that can help in that. And yeah, it's just it's such a diverse body of knowledge that's required to help people be holistically well. So we needed to bring together a community of individuals with sort of wisdom and expertise in multiple areas. Yeah, lift one another up. So that was kind of how this community was born.

Unknown Speaker  11:07  
And I just started inviting people to it. And we had events and, and podcasts and that sort of things, you now have 1000s Yes, there are now 1000s of people that are behind this movement, so to speak, I really like some of the stuff that you're saying, before we move past this, I want to just come back to a couple of the things that you mentioned, you were talking about, you know, all the different ways in which we can become well, you know, and you look at these different tenants, you know, the socially or physically, we can talk about going from a place of being unwell to Being Well, and JJ, and I talk a lot about this in the self awareness journey is how can we get out ahead of this stuff, so that we are proactively working on things? Not when we're broken or not, when we're overly sad or already invested in something that's challenging? You know, it's, I think that's a that's a really critical component is that proactivity versus the reactivity? And then really, I think, for that whole wellness, as you're talking about it, there has to be both right, there has to be both. Mm hmm. Right? Yeah, the first thing that,

Unknown Speaker  12:19  
like, when you're going through the list here, and I was reflecting, like, Am I like,

Unknown Speaker  12:27  
Oh, am I hitting all of these marks? Like the answer's no. First off, I'm in that 66%, probably. But

Unknown Speaker  12:36  
the, the thing that struck me was that

Unknown Speaker  12:41  
I feel like sometimes I focus on some of these areas and different like sort of seasons of my life like, like, at, at some points, I was probably very career, like more focused on career and my well being in my careers, sometimes I'm more well focused, or more focused, and my physical well being, but

Unknown Speaker  13:03  
I don't know that I've ever been in a state where I'm actually spending equal amounts of like energy on all five of these traits, or find all five of these elements, right?

Unknown Speaker  13:20  
That's really interesting to think about just sort of like the human nature, maybe it's just my nature of being kind of like, focused, it's easy to focus on a thing, right? Yeah. Like this summer, I'm going to get super fit, right? You just got to everything around physical well being right. And you forget about all the others things for a while. So his idea of trying to become like stay conscious of all of them all at the same time. Certainly would be a practice. Yeah. And, JJ, it's interesting that you bring that up, because there's a there's a popular book of it that a lot of people know The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, I think is the way you pronounce it.

Unknown Speaker  14:01  
But he cites in that book, some work by some Australian scientists, I can't remember their names, but they put people in these sort of experiments where one of them is like, Okay, you're going to, you're going to go to a group workout class in the morning. And,

Unknown Speaker  14:22  
and that's all they did. That's all they changed is they went to this group workout class in the morning. And it's interesting, because as they did this, they smoked less, they ate better, and they spent less money on things they didn't need. They had budgets.

Unknown Speaker  14:42  
So it's like they made this one decision that was just in physical well being, but it kind of spread into other areas of their life. So sometimes just having one habit

Unknown Speaker  14:56  
that is helping you to be better in

Unknown Speaker  15:00  
in one area, and you can argue that like just working out, actually has a lot of impacts on like how you show up at work, and how you show up for your family, and all these sorts of things. But it bleeds into other areas. And then they said, well, let's make a different group of people take a budgeting class. And the these people took a budgeting class. And it turns out, they smoked less, they drank less, they use their money better, and they worked out more. So again, we saw the same sort of thing happen twice, in different ways. So and I have this happen. All right, I asked this question at the end of all of my podcast episodes, which is what does while being mean to you, and if you could only do one thing for your well being? What would it be? And sometimes you can really only focus on changing one thing at a time. And you can't say like, I'm going to, like, show up at work better. And I'm going to work out and I'm going to change the way I eat and change all these things. It doesn't doesn't work. So yeah, pretty interesting. That's super interesting. And and again, just I want to, I want to make sure that we're talking about what is that? Because I want I want to ask, I want you to ask that question at the end of our pod today.

Unknown Speaker  16:18  
That are the the two prong question. But again, yes, so show No, I didn't, I didn't know that there's gonna be a quiz at the end. I know.

Unknown Speaker  16:27  
So social, occupational, physical, financial, and community. So those are the five again, and and, you know, the other thing I was just thinking as you were talking, it's people, when they start to make a focused effort on one thing for themselves, I have a very strong belief that whatever we're doing for ourselves, we're doing for everyone. And, and I believe that because the lens in which we look at things, impacts the way things are, everything looks a certain way, because we're creating our own realities. And we're doing that through our own lens, which is coming from our core belief systems and what we're valuing. And I really think that when we, when we just take some time, and I don't even think it takes a lot of time to decide that we would like to improve something in ourselves, we are improving it for everyone. Because we become that example we become that as a student, we become the teacher, and it can change it for everyone, not just ourselves. And I think that's a really amazing way we're so connected to each other and people like to know they don't like to that's not right. People often forget that one when something happens to one It happens to all

Unknown Speaker  17:46  
right. Yeah, that I was gonna I was gonna circle back to something you said earlier in your cleaner, original story, Alex, where you had you had, you had said that he talks about people feeling isolated, right, like isolation, as a

Unknown Speaker  18:08  
mental like as a as a condition that causes like, pain and suffering and, and people to do tragic events. Right?

Unknown Speaker  18:19  
Why does like interested about the list of career well, being social, financial, physical and community?

Unknown Speaker  18:28  
is like, I think that I wonder as, as the as the world seem, seems more connected than it has ever been. It also seems like people feel isolated more than they've ever been.

Unknown Speaker  18:46  
And, you know, maybe for only a few of us on the call. We remember a time before cell phones and internet and all that good stuff. Right talking about you, JJ.

Unknown Speaker  19:01  
You know.

Unknown Speaker  19:04  
Yeah, no, there was not internet when I was a kid. Okay.

Unknown Speaker  19:09  
Okay.

Unknown Speaker  19:11  
Appreciate a minute.

Unknown Speaker  19:15  
But I think that's really interesting, right? I think that

Unknown Speaker  19:20  
we probably all agree that feeling connected feeling part of the community, and most was bringing it even farther to say, hey, like, off our fundamental worldview, that we are all connected in maybe a way we can't, you know, see.

Unknown Speaker  19:39  
But there's this.

Unknown Speaker  19:43  
Like, almost this whole isolation, feeling happening all over the world. What do you what do you think about that? What are your thoughts on isolation? Yeah, that's a great question and in such a prevalent issue,

Unknown Speaker  20:01  
I think that, especially since we all been like locked down on COVID For the past year and a half, right, right being fit, you know, being even more

Unknown Speaker  20:12  
physically isolated than ever before.

Unknown Speaker  20:15  
Yeah, COVID made this like exponential. And it was a problem before this, you can even find like studies by Cigna

Unknown Speaker  20:26  
before the pandemic that shows that isolation is at like this all time high. And that this is a health insurance company that's studying isolation is something that's threatening to our health in some ways.

Unknown Speaker  20:42  
And part of the reason, and in the name, the Twin Cities wellness collective, collective is a group, like what Melissa was talking about, like, sort of, if we do something for ourselves, like, it affects us all, and it affects other people. And,

Unknown Speaker  21:05  
and so that collective name is is intentional in that we want to have this be something where people are participating together. And

Unknown Speaker  21:18  
so that that was part of the hope is that we could bring people together in in ways where they can authentically connect. And I think that's important in combating isolation, because we have all these sort of

Unknown Speaker  21:33  
surface level connections, where we talk to people through the internet, like we send them an email, or a text message, or a LinkedIn message, or whatever it is, it's or we like their posts. That's my my favorite like that, that that's the way to interact like not really.

Unknown Speaker  21:57  
Because so it gives us actually, I think, a great false sense of community. Mm hmm. Exactly. And how can we a question that I'm always asking myself is how can we build connections where people can like feel safe in showing up as themselves? Because they have to be able to authentically, authentically express who they are, to be able to feel well. Because if you're not doing that, if you're not, if you don't feel safe to be you, right, then you can never really connect and you'll, you'll always feel kind of out of whack. Exactly. which ties into self awareness hugely, because you have to know who you are.

Unknown Speaker  22:43  
And be able to tap into that to express that. Alex, you're one of our people. I feel like your long lost brother.

Unknown Speaker  22:53  
Welcome to the family, man, aren't you so happy?

Unknown Speaker  22:57  
I feel happy here.

Unknown Speaker  23:01  
So like I fit in,

Unknown Speaker  23:05  
authentically, you absolutely fit in.

Unknown Speaker  23:08  
So Alex, when you when you read that book, and you are impacted enough moving to the Twin Cities, starting a career, starting your life sort of over again, after college, and and you began to create this collective in this group? What did you feel you wanted to work on in yourself? First, did you have key things that you were focused on?

Unknown Speaker  23:35  
Yeah, that's a great question.

Unknown Speaker  23:38  
And I always felt like I was in an athlete and in college and in high school, and kind of my whole life. So I always felt like I was doing well in the physical realm.

Unknown Speaker  23:52  
And I, but I

Unknown Speaker  23:57  
wanted to, I think I always wanted to build more community and whether that was,

Unknown Speaker  24:05  
and I think because that goes beyond myself, I wanted to build something that had contribution to, to where I was in to this place.

Unknown Speaker  24:20  
So that that's kind of what I was working on through the Twin Cities wellness collective, probably the most important piece for me at an over the last five or six years or however long I've done this was that community piece and bringing people together and creating something where we can interact with one another and

Unknown Speaker  24:47  
and I always say empower people, empower others. And so that's something that has been on the forefront of my mind for a long time. And I think when people

Unknown Speaker  25:00  
People are in real community where they feel supported and empowered, then they're less likely to.

Unknown Speaker  25:09  
Or they're just more likely to build others up to I think, yeah. It's less about prevention, which is what I almost said. But it's more like this cyclical positive effect. Yeah. Like, yeah, yep. If Melissa and Alex, and JJ, if we're all in a supportive community, and then each of us go and bring three more people into our supportive community. And then they do that it's sort of like the spiraling effect where we're able to lift one another up in a positive manner.

Unknown Speaker  25:46  
That's fantastic. That has enormous sort of

Unknown Speaker  25:53  
impacts your society does. And I think to that, the more that we have that collective, and it's an authentic connection within that, it allows people it's just like JJ, and I say self awareness is your emotional, spiritual, mental and physical bodies are in complete alignment. And when you're like that, you're in your centered space. And you can go and you can create, you can be you have easier relationships, it's easier for you to have money, it's easier for you to have all the things that you want.

Unknown Speaker  26:24  
Because you feel safe. And because you feel centered and stable. And a whole community of people like that is what we wish for as well in the self awareness journey. That's really what are our mission is to use a slightly different vernacular, but it is the same energy and it is the same hope and desire.

Unknown Speaker  26:44  
Yeah, that's awesome. Very cool. Yeah, I was just the thing that I like, about what you're building here. Alex is like, sometimes we, when people talk about, like mental wellness, obviously, there's, there's been like, a,

Unknown Speaker  27:01  
like, a, like a movement around, like meditation and mindfulness. Right. But that practice, I mean, even though I've practiced it, like, it's that's about like sitting quietly, it kind of like, understanding yourself, but the elements you're talking about are very practical, right? Yeah. You know, and some people when you say, Hey, yo, Akita mental wellness is his mindfulness. So go sit quietly, in a room by yourself for 30 minutes every single day. People are like, Oh, my God, that sounds terrifying.

Unknown Speaker  27:36  
But this community that you're building, I love it, because it's, it's like, everyone's got career. Everyone's got social stuff in financial and physical sciences. And it feels very approachable, unlike some other

Unknown Speaker  27:49  
wellness, things that feel a lot, like less approachable and that the the rooted in community stuff is really great. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  28:01  
Alex, is there anything that we didn't ask you about that we that you wish we would have?

Unknown Speaker  28:08  
I don't, I don't know. But I will. I will say this. Because I referenced earlier that I always ask people, What does well being mean to them?

Unknown Speaker  28:20  
And on my podcast, so I've asked that, I don't know, 100 100 some times.

Unknown Speaker  28:28  
And I think this ties into self awareness, because every single person's answer is different. Yeah. So even though like we talked about these models, of like, social, occupational, physical financial community, that's sort of like our foundation, but as a person to be, well, you also have to make it your own. So like, JJ, you were you were saying, like, some people like meditation, and I am not one of them.

Unknown Speaker  29:00  
I, that doesn't work for me. But if it works for someone else, and it helps them to feel grounded, and, and, and some way like, they should do that.

Unknown Speaker  29:13  
And

Unknown Speaker  29:16  
if they're, or if there's something that works for them, like they shouldn't move in that direction. But I think the foundation is like, how can you make your well being your own, and that makes you proactive in it, because once you own it, you can start taking action, like and I think it's sort of these things that we do on a routine basis. I always talk about habits on our show, like what are the sort of building blocks that we can use to

Unknown Speaker  29:46  
increase our well being?

Unknown Speaker  29:49  
So I think that's really interesting, though, that Yeah, everyone has their own unique definition. Yeah. And we need to figure that out on our own like no one else can

Unknown Speaker  30:00  
give you that. Yes. And you don't have to pick up someone else's just because they're having a good experience in their own. Exactly. Yeah, cuz I Yeah, so often like people are like, what are the best practices? Like? What? What? What? Like mostly like what what's your best practice and let me put that in my life but a lot of candy a lot of

Unknown Speaker  30:25  
like, if I had a lot of candy that might make me crazy.

Unknown Speaker  30:29  
Well, there you go.

Unknown Speaker  30:32  
So it's just like to peds like, you just have to figure it out for yourself and, and run with it. So yeah, that's that's my parting thought. Yeah, I think some we we actually, I think last week did a podcast episode about

Unknown Speaker  30:51  
like your why discovering your purpose, which is a very difficult activity. This feels like, again, like one of those activities that for some people might come really easy, right? And some people will really have to think about think about it. What are the things that are important to them? And what are those activities and habits that

Unknown Speaker  31:13  
do enhance their well being? And I think to it isn't even just thinking about it, it is feeling your way into well being? It is the feeling? Can you connect with what you are feeling? If you look at these, and these five guideposts, right, it's like, when you when you look at them, how do you feel about that word as it relates to in your life? How do you feel about where you are financially? And can you separate the extreme expectation that you put on yourself for some out there goal, versus what actually is fine for you? Like, what makes you feel like you're in a good spot? Because I think,

Unknown Speaker  31:55  
to me, that's the whole key to being able to stay in this gentle swing, you know, back and forth into that wellness, rather than we put so much pressure on ourselves as humans to have everything perfect and do these things. Right. And if I can't do them perfect, I'm not going to do them at all. And, and I think that's where a lot of people get stuck. And I don't think it has to be like that at all. Right? I love that point.

Unknown Speaker  32:22  
It's so important for us to not get caught up in the, whether you call it conventional wisdom of the world or society's expectations on us. You need to know what feels right for you. Yeah. And lean into that and do it, unapologetically. Yeah. And and so yeah, I think there there is an element to a JJ saying that is truth. Like we do have to be able to discern, you know, we have to think about things discern kind of what we've been doing, how we've been thinking about it up until now. But I think that it's a combination of that thinking and feeling again. Oh, well, I'm just gonna go ahead and delete to the J J's mental wellness spreadsheet that I just made. So I guess, I guess that's not useful. I heard. I just don't let that be a spreadsheet. I just made a rubric real quick.

Unknown Speaker  33:20  
To calculate my my happiness.

Unknown Speaker  33:27  
That's awesome.

Unknown Speaker  33:29  
Well, Alex, this has been a super, super fun conversation. Is there one last question you want to ask us before we part ways? Sure. I think you know, it's coming.

Unknown Speaker  33:44  
It would be What does wellbeing mean to you? And if you could only do one thing to improve your well being, what would it be?

Unknown Speaker  33:55  
Who's going first? I'm not I'm not going. Okay. Well, okay. I was thinking, but, like, well being to me.

Unknown Speaker  34:07  
Actually, that's what it means. But I was gonna answer contrary to my spreadsheet statement about how it feels. Right? Yeah. When when I feel like I'm

Unknown Speaker  34:20  
the best. I'd say, like I feel centered. Right, it says, and it's just like, I can I just feel content.

Unknown Speaker  34:30  
I feel like safe and supported.

Unknown Speaker  34:35  
And I feel productive. Like, I feel like I'm like producing and and

Unknown Speaker  34:43  
adding to the world.

Unknown Speaker  34:46  
Darn it. I should have gone first.

Unknown Speaker  34:49  
All yours.

Unknown Speaker  34:52  
That's so good, though. JJ. Like all kidding aside, that's just um, you know, like, we always say put the cookies on the bottom shelf and I feel like that's

Unknown Speaker  35:00  
right there. It's just like,

Unknown Speaker  35:02  
it's very easy and approachable. And it's just checking in with with yourself to know when you're feeling well.

Unknown Speaker  35:13  
What's the one thing that I do? Was that the second question? Yeah, that's the second part.

Unknown Speaker  35:20  
That's a, that's, that's a good question. That's why I needed a spreadsheet.

Unknown Speaker  35:24  
Actually, you know what, one of the things that has been extremely helpful in my life to

Unknown Speaker  35:34  
work on my own well being is doing a podcast with my friend, Melissa, which kind of goes to what you're saying, Alex is, it's like, actually, the, the community and the sharing part and the podcast

Unknown Speaker  35:48  
in my life has actually, like, made great conversations with my wife and my friends and my mom, right? Um, and it's actually, so I'm not saying everyone should go get up, go go off and do a podcast. But for me personally, it it has been the the center point around a lot of

Unknown Speaker  36:09  
the work that I've been doing personally.

Unknown Speaker  36:13  
That's really, that's really good and very powerful. Because because you know why I think it's powerful is because you know what it is? A lot of people I think, if you were to ask them, what's the one thing they don't really know?

Unknown Speaker  36:27  
What does it mean to me? Well, I don't know, what did you just say it was again, and then jump into our brains and try to create this

Unknown Speaker  36:34  
mission statement. And I would say, for me, what wellbeing means is that I am able to connect I have my relationship is with me, first, me and my higher power. And for me, that's God, but that I am connecting with me first. And if I'm good with me, then I'm able to be in partnership with everyone else in a much more kind way, and supportive way. And

Unknown Speaker  37:04  
to help like to continue to help the planet in any way that I can. That's what well being means to me. And what is the one thing that I do? That's hard for me to say one thing, because it's so forefront in my mind, but again, it's my profession as well, right? I'm in coaching. I love being in partnership with people. So I would say the one thing is, I really want to continue to be good with me, so that when I'm a partner for other people, I'm adding to their lives. I'm not taking something from their lives. So that's probably the one thing it's just that constant focus of relationship with Me relationship with others.

Unknown Speaker  37:42  
What does it mean to you, Alex? And then we'll quit. We'll we'll say Good day. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  37:48  
Yeah, I feel like my definition is always evolving, which is another thing that's important as well being is not in point. But a spectrum. It's a journey,

Unknown Speaker  38:02  
that we're all on together. Yeah. And I think well, being, to me,

Unknown Speaker  38:08  
means living authentically, and unapologetically. But also,

Unknown Speaker  38:15  
knowing like, I think there's a caveat to that, like, you have to think about other people.

Unknown Speaker  38:22  
In when, when you're, or at least I do, because I want to think about how I am in a place how I can build others up to. So a lot of wellbeing to me is feeling like I'm making a contribution and to our which both of your answers have included as well is, but I want to think about how can I make a contribution that positively impacts others and impacts the city that we're in and the community that we're in and even beyond that.

Unknown Speaker  39:00  
And so that's something that I think is really paramount to me feeling well.

Unknown Speaker  39:08  
But to be able to do that you have to have

Unknown Speaker  39:12  
you have to take care of yourself too. And make sure that you're you're understanding yourself and how you show up so that you can actually do things that bring a positive contribution. And if I could do one thing for my well being

Unknown Speaker  39:33  
it would be

Unknown Speaker  39:37  
I think it would be building community. And that is going out into the world and having conversations like this, that are aren't afraid to be real and delve into

Unknown Speaker  39:53  
things that make us human and even things that are hard and acknowledging that

Unknown Speaker  40:00  
I'm not trying to hide it, because I'm trying to craft some sort of image that I think people will appreciate, or, or that our society is more prone to accept. So I think that's really the one thing that I would do. Awesome. That's awesome. So Alex, if people want to learn more about the wellness collective, get involved, where? Where did they find you? Yeah, so they can find everything on our website, which is www.tc, wellness collective.com. And then we also have LinkedIn and Facebook groups by the same name, the Twin Cities wellness collective. So if you want to participate on on social media in our groups, that is a way to connect as well. And they can listen to your podcast of the same name. Yes, which is also on the website. Yeah. And you can find it on any platform that you listen to podcasts on. So yeah, I cannot thank you enough for your time today. I have really enjoyed our conversation.

Unknown Speaker  41:18  
Yes, thank you so much for having me. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed being here. Thanks, Alex. We hope that you've enjoyed today's episode. Our mission is to help people become happier and more effective by gaining insight into their own thoughts and feelings. We'd love your support. First, share this podcast with anyone you think might enjoy it. Second, leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast safe. This helps others discover the podcast so we can reach more people. And third, sign up for our newsletter at the self awareness journey.com. This will help us communicate better with you and build our community. Thank you so much for joining us in the self awareness journey. We'll see you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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