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You just joined the Create Harmony podcast.

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Welcome In this place.

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We spend time talking about everyday joys.

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We talk about abundant blessings that sometimes get overlooked.

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We set our rhythms with the rhythms of nature and we celebrate the changes that each season brings, and we like to use our imagination as a way of listening to God and tune our senses to the magical presence of the Holy Spirit.

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You can find your place here, and while you're doing that, you might also find some peace.

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Welcome back to episode 48 of the Create Harmony podcast.

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We're so thankful that you chose to listen in today, and today, once again, we're continuing through our Great Ball series.

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This is what we do here in the ball we focus on all things gratitude, and we call it Great Ball because it's happening in the ball.

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So if you've been following along, we started out by just sort of looking at the big picture of gratitude and talking about why that was important and how to weave it more deeply into our lives, and then we took a moment to focus in on our bodies and our health and what magical beings our bodies are and all the things that our bodies do for us during the day.

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Some of those things we're not even conscious of those systems are happening while we're doing other things, like recording a podcast or reading a book or driving a car.

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And then last week we looked at tools what we called tools and we expanded the definition of tools beyond the hammer, the saw, the drill, whatever, to include anything all the things in your lives that you are using to make your life easier and more productive.

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So we just really tried to look around ourselves and all those little things that we just take for granted, don't even notice, but that are helping us along, and we sort of named those as a tool and tried to pay attention to those and became Great Ball for them.

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So I've been issuing a challenge each week in order to weave these habits more deeply into your day and hopefully that's been a blessing to you.

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Hopefully that challenge is helping you to notice gratitude more at more points during the day and to remember it, to bring it top of mind throughout your daily routine and your schedule.

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So if that is working for you and you have come up with some new ways, some new processes or practices or maybe you already had some processes or practices that you were doing way before we started Great Fall that you want to share.

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You can email me at mycreateharmonygmailcom and share those ideas with me and I'll be happy to share them with everybody else and that'll just be more ideas that we have to work with and we can all be more Great Fall for each other.

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So today our topic we're going to start on the next iteration of our Great Fall series, and our topic is what I'm calling skills.

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So what that means is that it's what you are best at, it's where you shine, it's where you add value to the world.

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And, in addition to appreciating our own skills, we're gonna take a moment to appreciate the skills of those we see on a regular basis, the people that are in our inner circle, those people that we cross paths with and that we love dearly our families, our coworkers, maybe our neighbors, our friends.

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Just think about those people and we're gonna look at their skills, their blessings that they add to the world and celebrate each of our unique gifts, how we individually contribute to the well-being of the Earth.

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That's just basically gonna be our focus this time.

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Last week was a real tangible thing.

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I mean, we looked at what we use tangibly as sources of help, the things that we turn to each day our car, our phone, our light switch, all those tangible things that we use as a source of help.

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But this week we're gonna take things to a more intangible place and just think about the gifts and skills that we've been given by God to share with the world and really, really celebrate those and celebrate our uniqueness.

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So let's get started. As you know, each week we're doing a great fall exercise.

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We're shifting into a mindful posture.

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So we're gonna shift into that now, and here's how it goes.

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You begin to settle yourself and relax any tension you can feel yourself holding.

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Shake it out, wiggle your fingers and your toes, if that helps.

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Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, just make the necessary adjustments to ensure that you are comfortable and that you can open yourself to this exercise.

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If it's appropriate for you to close your eyes, you can do that.

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Now you can take a deep breath, let the air come into your body and then gently let it out of your body and get into your mindful posture.

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Now let's think about the things that you are very good at.

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What are the things that people count on you for?

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How do you add value in a group?

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Give thanks for each of those skills.

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You might think about different areas of your life to remind you of new ideas and the skills that you use with your family.

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What things do they praise you for at work?

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Do you bless the world?

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Could you see more ways to let those skills out and bless others more deeply?

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Could you make a picture in your mind of that happening?

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Appreciate that blessing happening to the world.

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You can use that same concept to think about those closest to you.

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Think of ways that they are unique and exceptional.

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Let me think of one special skill or gift for each loved one.

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How are they magnificently made?

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Now it's time to gently bring your awareness back to the podcast.

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Take a deep breath, let the air come into your body and then let it out.

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If you closed your eyes at the beginning, it's time for you to open them now.

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Come back to where we started together.

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God is good all the time.

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And all the time God is good.

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May it be so.

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You might not have had enough time during our exercise to finish going through every one of your loved ones and making a list of all the skills and the gifts that they have.

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You might have felt like this was a little bit unfinished and that there was still.

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Maybe you didn't even go through all of your own skills and gifts in the time we had together, so this might be an exercise that you could do at a later time.

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You could sit down, you could write it, write them down.

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You could make a list. Maybe first thing in the morning, when your mind is clear, you could make a whole long list of things that you're thankful for about yourself or about others, people you spend time with regularly.

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Maybe you even want to write a little note to your loved ones to tell them about the things you thought of, to thank them more deeply for the things that you thought of and celebrate them.

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So you can revisit this idea anytime you like.

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You can make a picture of your self-blessing others with your talents.

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That's a really powerful expression, and don't forget to use this type of visualization to make the world a better place.

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So we're almost all the way through our Great Fall series.

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We only have one more episode and then we'll transition into our Advent series, so we really want to thank you so much for joining us each week.

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We hope that you're finding these great fall resources to be a blessing.

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You need to stay tuned for more social media posts on Instagram.