Controlling Your Thoughts When You Can't Control Anything Else (w/Dr. Jennifer Goble)

The worrying, the what-ifs, the doomscrolling! Worst case scenario type thinking is pretty easy to slip into in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The uncertainty, the constant new information and just the weight of how it's affecting our lives can send the most positive among us into a tailspin of negative thinking. In turn, that negative thinking can send our stress level soaring and have a profound effect on our mental and even physical health. But we can’t help what we think about, right? Spoiler Alert: yes we can!

Last year we interviewed a psychologist and expert on the power of thoughts about how to harness them. We wanted to know if we could intentionally guide our thoughts to the most elevating, motivating, beneficial direction possible.

Dr. Jennifer Goble

Because of the marked increase in negative input, we decided to revisit this episode. It’s built around incorporating positive people, activities, and THOUGHTS into our mental arsenal. Dr. Jennifer Goble, retired mental health counselor and author of My Clients, My Teachers: The Noble Process of Psychotherapy teaches us to shift our thoughts to directions that will serve us best. She realized, after decades of counseling clients, that a mentally healthy life requires the ability to control our thoughts.

We cannot control the weather. We cannot control other people. We cannot control COVID-19. In fact, there are many circumstances that we absolutely cannot control. However, once we realize that we can control how we think about things, people, ourselves, and outside circumstances, then we can make real changes for the better and work to nix the worst-case scenario thinking. After learning to harness our thoughts, perhaps we can harness our feelings and our behavior, which can make some of those outside circumstances change for the better too!

In the words of The Little Engine That Could….I Think I Can!!

We encourage you to give us a few minutes as Dr. J helps us start thinking about WHAT we're thinking about and move our lives in a more positive direction!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:

Controlling your thoughts is nothing new. People have talked about it for years. But with all the negative inputs that COVID 19 is bringing via our television, social media, and just the world around us, Lanee and I thought it was important to revisit this with a very insightful interview with a psychotherapist we did last year. Spoiler alert. She says we can control our thoughts, thoughts, but how to do it, that's the key. I am Sandy, and I wanna welcome you to Imagine Yourself.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:32]:

We are imagining ourselves thinking and concentrating on the power of our thoughts. We wanna bring some new insight into that old quote, I think, therefore I am. Oh, that's deep. Our guest today is doctor Jennifer Gobel, who for more than 2 decades would have ordinarily introduced herself as a mental health counselor with her own private counseling practice. But now that she's retired she can be introduced as a writer who uses the mighty power of the pen. She's published my clients, My Teachers, the Noble Process of Psychotherapy. She's a blogger. She's a newspaper columnist who writes a weekly article, Mental Matters.

Lanée Blaise [00:01:16]:

Writing is her way of continuing that cycle of helping people to use their thoughts to lead them to the places and mental spaces that they wanna be instead of letting our thoughts just hold us down and hold us back. So we want to thank you for joining us, doctor Jennifer Gobel.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:01:33]:

Thank you so much. Thank you for the introduction. You send your homework.

Lanée Blaise [00:01:37]:

Oh, yes. We did. We have read your blogs. We've read your book. Everything. We are ready for you.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:43]:

A couple of the great insights I think you're gonna be able to give with the power of thoughts. 1, how it helps people in your practice that come to you with a specific issue, but also how the power of thoughts help in our day to day life. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:01:57]:

Exactly. I think people need to recognize and believe how powerful their thoughts are and how much control they do have over how they feel and what they do. We forget that. Sometimes we just feel victimized or, like, we're just gonna ebb and flow without any control, and that's really not true true.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:15]:

I've read your book, and I love it. It's a a nice layman's one because you don't have to be an industry professional to understand it. It really helps. You had a story about one of the clients named Donna. She actually got very upset with you because you kept telling her that she was in control and she had a 100% control of her thoughts. And it took a while for her to really buy into that.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:02:39]:

In fact, she never really did. She finally just quit coming because she would just get so upset that I didn't buy into her inability to do anything about her situation. That's the one where I got the letter about a year later for several years later, I think it was, that said, thank you.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:53]:

And it did help.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:54]:

It didn't sink in at the moment, but then later on Yeah. The light bulb must have gone off.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:02:58]:

Exactly. Before I go on, I wanna say that I love your podcast, and I love the name of your podcast because it's called Imagine Yourself. And Where Does Imagination Start?

Lanée Blaise [00:03:10]:

Your thoughts Oh,

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:03:11]:

this is a total tie in. Right?

Lanée Blaise [00:03:13]:

But that is true. That's what that was our goal when we started it was to help people change the way their life was gonna turn out by changing the way that they think about their life. Questions and possibilities that they hadn't opened up for themselves initially.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:03:29]:

If we can't imagine it, which is our thought I'm not saying that doesn't ever happen if you don't imagine it. Obviously, things happen that we don't even think about, but it sure improves our odds if we start out in our thoughts with an imagination that we can become or that we can do or that we can feel. I'm a very cognitive behavioral therapist, and so that's the belief system is that everything starts in our thoughts, and then it goes to our feelings. And from our feelings, it goes to our behavior. You know, if you're sitting on the couch and you've got yoga class and you don't wanna go, your feet hitting the floor is not the first thing that happens.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:01]:

Mhmm.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:04:02]:

The first thing that happens is that you gotta have something in your head that says, this is valuable. I feel better when it's over. I'm gonna do it. I'm committed. Whatever goes on in your head is what really initiates your feet hitting the floor, and it all happens in nanoseconds. But it's important to remember where it starts because when we go to solve a problem or we go to analyze what's happening around us, we know where to start.

Sandy Kovach [00:04:24]:

So it's not like I just don't feel like going. It's my thoughts start those feelings.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:04:29]:

And if you can believe that and remember that, just think how helpful that is.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:33]:

Because like you said, it gets you motivated. It gets you started. It gets you going because you're not gonna get there if you don't mentally get there first.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:04:42]:

That's right. And it's the same, you know, with anything. You talked about the different parts of my book, the common things that people come to therapy for. In every one of those categories, the power of thought is really prevalent. If you're having trouble with parenting or your relationships are awry and they're not going where you want them to be, I always use this this little equation. It's called e plus r equals o. And, usually, the event is something that we can't do anything about. I mean, it's over.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:05:08]:

E. The event's done. Yeah. So it's constant. The e doesn't change. K. And the r is the response, and the o is the outcome. So the only thing you can really control is the r and the o because if you use your thoughts to control your reaction to the event, then your outcome is what really matters, whether you're happy or sad or it's your reaction to the event that keeps you moving in the direction that you want versus getting stuck.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:33]:

I like that and it kinda goes with something that I read. I read an article that you wrote this year and it profoundly stuck out to me. It did not mention the event plus response equals outcome, but it goes right with that because this is the thing, anybody who's listening who says I'm going through a lot right now, whether it be that I'm going through health issues or marital issues or parenting issues or anxiety. The part from your article, and I'm gonna quote it, you said, nobody is exempt from life's low blows. Events where we worry and stress are warranted. I mean, you're not trying to make us robots. You told us that No. Heavy emotion is necessary and reasonable, but it needs to be temporary.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:17]:

And you said that we need to give ourselves time to be mad, sad, and afraid, but not sign a 30 year mortgage. It really just it it makes sure that you're making sure that we can have our time to grieve and to deal with it, but we don't have to stay stuck there, which is something that my aunt always said. She said you don't wanna set up camp there.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:06:38]:

That's another great way to say it. Mhmm. Give yourself as much time as you need. But when it gets to a point, you just have to go up to your brain and say, you know, I'm kinda tired of living like this. Another thing that affects our ability to really trust what we think is taking care of ourselves. If we're not sleeping well, if we're not eating right, if we're not eating colorful food, if we're not hanging out with people that are positive, that make you feel good, those kinds of things also deplete your ability to really think in your strength. So there's times when you can really trust those thoughts and there's times when you have to just kind of go take a nap because you you you can you can know that you're not really yourself.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:16]:

That's what I tell my daughter sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes I say to my kids. I say, hey. I think you need to take a second, eat an apple, take a nap, take a shower, and get back on track. Exactly. And it's those basic human needs that are messing with your mind right then. You also mentioned something that really stuck out to me because we had another guest a while back, Craig Schroda, who taught us the power of who we hang around with.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:40]:

And he said that, you know, the 5 or 6 core people that you hang around with, that starts to determine the way that you act and the way that you think and the types of things that you do. And so their ways and thoughts begin to rub off on us. And I pulled up this quote by, Wilfred Peterson, and I want you to tell me what you think about it, doctor Jay. It says, walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. And that just makes me feel like if you hang around people like that, you tend to focus your thoughts higher and you tend to go in better places.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:08:22]:

It's very important to be selective and to take some initiative to invite the person that you wanna have lunch with and to take the initiative to make the phone calls of people that you really wanna visit with, that lift you up, that help you to have that mind control that gets you where you wanna be.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:38]:

Not that you can cut out every negative person in your life because sometimes they're like, you know, what

Lanée Blaise [00:08:42]:

are you gonna do?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:08:44]:

No. But if that's all you have in your life, these negative people, just imagine the impact that has on you.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:49]:

You start to think like them. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:08:51]:

Absolutely. Yeah. I often really am concerned about people in all of these war impacted countries because I know what it takes to have a good positive outlook, but it's just like, how did they do it under those kinds of circumstances?

Sandy Kovach [00:09:04]:

It seems almost unimaginable what they go through. And in your book, Doctor. Jay, you talk about patients who have some pretty serious things going on, not to that extent, but I think it was Carmen. And I should mention, you changed all the names of the people in your book to protect their identity. But she had so much going on, health issue after health issue, and yet she managed to keep a pretty decent attitude.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:09:31]:

You would come in. She was on every kind of medicine you could imagine. And it interfered from her thriving and really walking ride. And being able to even hardly stay awake during the day. And she's allergic to her house. Allergic to her house? Woah. Yeah. The dust and whatever's in our home, so she had to keep a really sterile environment, which she wasn't able to clean herself.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:09:51]:

She had to get some help in. But anyway, she just came in with this smile, and she was amazing. And she did all of that in her thoughts. She counted her blessings every morning. She didn't dwell on her illnesses. She didn't dwell on her financial situations because of her illnesses. She just was glad to wake up in the morning and glad to see her husband and glad that she had some friends, and that's what she thought about.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:12]:

Wow. So she was a success

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:10:15]:

story Absolutely.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:16]:

Depending on which angle you wanna look at. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:10:18]:

Yeah. In every way because of how she thought about her situation. Her situation was dire, but she made the best of it.

Sandy Kovach [00:10:26]:

So would you say that there are people who seem to have it all or, you know, have a very comfortable life or they have a family that loves them or x, y, and z. But yet, because of their thoughts, they are more miserable than a person who legitimately has these issues going

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:10:43]:

on. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm sure you can think of examples too. People you know personally that seem to have the world by the tail, but yet they're kinda negative and bring out the worst scenario when they talk about a situation.

Sandy Kovach [00:10:55]:

Yeah. I definitely think we know people like that. In fact, Lanee and I were talking in another podcast about somebody I knew a while back whose nickname was literally the cloud. So sure, it does happen. But for anybody, even though we know we can control our thoughts or people tell us we can control our thoughts, It seems so difficult and sometimes impossible, even though maybe we intellectually know it's not. So why don't you do?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:11:22]:

Well, I would just stop and think about it. You have a lot of control of how you think. So you have a lot of control of how you're feeling right now.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:30]:

Tell me this. What if people begin to infuse positive thoughts into their life, even if they're not their own thoughts, by positive affirmations, a positive podcast, a positive writing. I know that you personally, now that you are not currently in your practice, you have gone to writing. You use different compelling stories, and you also ask compelling questions I I know that you have a blog, Rural Women, Rural Stories, because you are a rural Colorado native. And I think that you like to concentrate on stories of people who have overcome things and highlight those. I think that the more we concentrate on that, even if it's not our own original thoughts, the better that we will do. Absolutely. Yeah.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:12:33]:

I love the podcast realm that we're in right now because I can listen to podcasts, and yours is so positive. I really enjoy your podcast. Well, thanks. What we surround ourselves with, whether it's just work or whether it's people or activities or whatever we choose to do, all of that contributes to the quality of our day. Think of a day 1 to 10. What can make your day a 6, 7? Anything above a 5 is a pretty good day.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:57]:

That's a good stuff. That's something

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:12:58]:

to make of that. You know? We can do a lot of things to surround ourselves with positive thoughts, positive people, positive activities that can help us live above a 5.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:07]:

And those positive activities are another one too because many times you feel like lots of people get in that rut, wake up, go to work, do this. We've talked about this a little bit too. That's how we were initially introduced to you. We were trying to prepare for our podcast on getting relaxation and how important it is to get recharged. And we saw your blog and it talked about doing those activities that will recharge you and that gets you back on track and get you out of that rut.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:13:37]:

That brings up something that's also really important. That is having a voice. Because what you enjoy and what uplifts you isn't necessarily what works for your best friend. So, you know, we have to have a voice to say no to something and to say yes to something so that we really are meeting our own needs instead of just doing what somebody else wants to do.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:57]:

I've heard those are the 2 most powerful words. No or yes, fulfilling or changing your destiny right there. And because we have you and because you will always have a respect for, as your book says, the noble process of psychotherapy, you have me thinking because there have to be people out there in the audience right now who are thinking that perhaps their voice is not being heard or their thoughts are not turning in a positive direction. And sometimes people do need to actually seek professional help and therapy. Absolutely. And who, you know, who better than someone who's had decades of expertise in that area. I wanna know first of all, of course, this book is just helpful because it does give real life examples and very moving and touching cases of actual people. It kinda shows you what it would be like to be a client if you need to consider that option for yourself.

Lanée Blaise [00:14:51]:

How do you know if you really need to go ahead and take that step and seek therapy?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:14:55]:

I think the strongest thing that gets people to finally make the phone call is that they're just so tired of being kinda stuck.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:15:03]:

They're tired of feeling that way. They've tried this. They've tried that. Nothing's working. And they just feel like they need an outside neutral educated professional person to help get over that hump. When that happens, they also really work hard because they're just sick and tired of being sick and tired. And so they really come in and they really listen and they really implement the things that are talked about. When you get somebody in that's been court ordered or somebody that's drug in by their spouse or whatever, it's not really helpful.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:15:31]:

But if they're ready, then it can be very, very helpful. Sometimes it's better than just trying to do it all on your own.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:37]:

Right. Because if somebody is hearing this and saying, I can't seem to control my thoughts. I need somebody to help direct me because I am not doing it on my own. A professional is gonna be able to help guide you. You walk people through these things. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:15:50]:

Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. And sometimes life really don't find you. You can lose a job and your finances get in trouble, and it just can go on and on. And you can have a death in the family.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:00]:

Yeah.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:16:00]:

And you need help. I would need help. Sometimes all of us are just human, and we just can't figure it out on our own.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:07]:

Because sometimes you have situational issues. Sometimes you have depression that is either, a result of something medically going on with you or, like I said, situationally and just emotionally and mentally, how do you convince a person who is right there on the edge that it will be okay to speak with a therapist, that anyone who's afraid to make that step, how do you reassure them?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:16:34]:

Usually when they're to that point, they don't have much much to lose. Give it a try. Nowhere to go out.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:38]:

But with your Yeah.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:16:39]:

See if you've got some mental health coverage. See if there's something at work that can give you some help with the finances. Oftentimes, it's finances that stop them. You know, out in my area of Colorado, I mean, there aren't a lot of resources out here, and so that's also a problem. I think that's one of the reasons I like to write because I think I can reach some people that really don't have the resources.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:58]:

Yeah. You are a wonderful resource for a lot of people. And, actually, Lanee and I, having found you as well, we can get sort of a different perspective on things. I think she and I have always lived in and around big cities, and you're out there. People are farmers. Rural women is your website, and we're all facing the same darn issues. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:17:22]:

Yes. I know. Isn't that the truth? You mentioned the rural life. One of the things about my rural women's story that it's so delightful to me. Not only do I get to sit down with these women that have lived out in this country, like you just said, where they don't have the resources around them. And it's just that it's totally different life. When they give me their story, it's positive. And what they remember, what's sitting in the front of their head that they remember from years ago are the most delightful things.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:17:47]:

Things that they haven't even told anybody else, but it's sitting there in their brain somewhere. But they're always positive, uplifting. They talk about what a great life they had. It was great living on the farm. I loved horses. It goes on and on. How positive they are in the thoughts that are still embedded in their memory.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:04]:

Maybe that should be our goal. That is very What?

Sandy Kovach [00:18:06]:

Living on a farm?

Lanée Blaise [00:18:08]:

Well, not necessarily living on

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:18:09]:

the farm part, but whatever wherever we

Lanée Blaise [00:18:12]:

live, wherever we grew up, being able to, like, my goal would be to be 80 or 90 something. And someone says, tell me a little about your life. And, like, a smile comes to my face. And I think about, you know, oh, I enjoy You take the life. Yeah. Growing up this way, and this was how it was living with my sisters and brother and with my kids. And, oh, my goodness. Even though we had to deal with the economic crash of 2,008, you

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:18:40]:

know? Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:40]:

You know, it was still it brought us together. I just I wish and I hope and I pray that that becomes the way my story sounds.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:50]:

The positive. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:52]:

The positive. And I never even thought about that until you just said that, that when you're interviewing these women, that's what you're getting. That is awesome.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:00]:

That's beautiful.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:19:01]:

It is awesome. It's just crazy what they have stored up there in their memory. And I try to write those stories using their voice, using their own words, and their sense structure. And they're just delightful.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:12]:

So rural women's stories dot com, is that the web address?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:19:16]:

No. You can get there. Yeah. You can get there. Rural women stories.com. It's a little complex, but you can just go jenniferglobal.com too. It's all over the same website.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:24]:

I would never have stumbled upon your website if I hadn't been doing research on the relaxation. We can learn so much from each other in different parts of the country.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:19:34]:

It is so true.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:35]:

And I do

Sandy Kovach [00:19:36]:

have a secret fantasy life where I live on a farm and in another lifetime.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:19:39]:

Oh, you do? Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:41]:

Well, now, does your husband know about all

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:19:44]:

the cattle?

Sandy Kovach [00:19:44]:

I think you don't. Not that I probably will ever do that, but I just wonder what it would be like to be around nature and just dependent on your work of your hands to pick the crops. I'm gonna say something that sounds really stupid in city like, so I'm gonna stop to provide

Lanée Blaise [00:20:01]:

for your food and provide for your family. That is very noble. Yeah.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:20:05]:

You just like I said, you just gotta put it in your head in those powerful thoughts and imagine yourself.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:10]:

That's right.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:20:11]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:11]:

Even if it's just for a vacation or an away time, like you said, to get that experience. I wanna make sure. So now when I looked on your website, jennifer goble.com, and that's goble, I see, of course, the rural women, rural stories, little tips or different stories about counseling and therapy and just questions to ask myself and what you've been up to. Also, as far as ways to get your book. I got my book off of Amazon dotcom, but I'm sure you can also get that on your website as well. Right? Right. And you invite people to share their own stories and to ask you questions. I just wanna make sure people know that they have you as a handy resource too.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:54]:

Yeah. They can write into you and everything. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:20:56]:

Absolutely. Yeah. And my newspaper articles are on there too. I write a newspaper column once a week.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:01]:

That's that mental matters. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:21:03]:

Yeah. It's posted on there too. It's just like your podcast, something that you can look at that's positive that can keep your thought going in the direction that you wanna end up. You're thinking about a road that you wanna walk on, a path that you wanna walk on. Pick a path that's positive. And so your blog and my website and a lot of things out there are just positive things to put in your thought so it can keep you going down that right road.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:26]:

I love it. I think that in your case, writing has just been instrumental in you helping others and very likely helping yourself. I know that you mentioned in your writing too that you went into the counseling profession thinking that it was all gonna be about you helping others, but you said that you Lanee so much from the people that you worked with. You said that they taught you life is about learning and truth is, is about changing.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:21:53]:

And counseling is about changing. So you were asking about what could I say to somebody to get them to think about going to counseling. When you're ready for change, it's a great place to have somebody just walk you through, help you get in your head, help you think of some logical things, help you realize what kind of power you do have, and then what kind of control you do have when you feel like your life is out of your own control.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:13]:

I agree. Every time here at Imagine Yourself, we have something called takeaway time where we try to incorporate kind of a go to for what we've learned for the day. And I really think that we talked about infusing your life with positive messages and podcasts and books and things like that. We've talked about doing activities that are suited to you. And we talked about going to seek therapy if that is something that you need to do. And of course, the power of thoughts. There's a takeaway that I'm actually kind of taking it out of the article again that you wrote this year. You mentioned an anonymous quote, and it says, worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles, it takes away today's peace.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:01]:

And I just feel that that combined with you said again, you kinda emphasized it with the exclamation point, allow your thoughts to shift. Doctor Goebel, we really wanna thank you verbally and mentally and thought wise and all those ways for giving us those

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:23:17]:

. Yeah. Well, I wanna give you my takeaway.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:21]:

Yeah. Please do. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:23]:

That's the best.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:23:24]:

My takeaway has been the power of the 3 of us, positive people having a conversation. It's been delightful. It's been uplifting. It's been empowering.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:34]:

Yes.

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:23:34]:

And so I think that's a takeaway for everybody too is to have conversations with people that you respect, people that are uplifting, people that have different ideas, different ways of looking at something, it's just really valuable.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:46]:

I agree. I think the next person, the next time they come across something, they might choose. It's almost like there's that Matrix movie a long time ago. You take the red pill or the blue pill. Are you gonna take the positive road or the negative road? You know?

Sandy Kovach [00:23:58]:

Oh, bonus points for a Matrix reference. Hey. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:01]:

I went way back there on that one. It's a classic that really shows you, do you wanna pick up the movie or the book or the conversation that is gonna be positive, or do you wanna just stick with the crazy scandalous ratchet

Sandy Kovach [00:24:15]:

stuff out there? Which way is Keanu Reeves going?

Lanée Blaise [00:24:18]:

Keanu's in the positive.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:19]:

No. I know, but I'm saying I'm going unfortunately, if he went the wrong way, I'd probably still follow him.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:27]:

But that's another issue. And there is gonna be a matrix 4, by the way.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:30]:

With him in it?

Sandy Kovach [00:24:32]:

Yes. You haven't heard?

Lanée Blaise [00:24:33]:

I have not heard this.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:35]:

Doctor Goble, did you hear about The Matrix 4?

Dr. Jennifer Gobel [00:24:37]:

No. I haven't. Okay. Well, take me.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:39]:

Take me, Sandy, because that's a movie I want to see. When we talk about the people we hang with, I'm on that level. I I like Keanu Reeves, and I like The Matrix, and I like that whole thought about, like, busting out of the mold and stuff like that. Yeah. That's even a third takeaway for the dance.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:54]:

Yeah. That's Sandy's takeaway. Keanu Reeves is my takeaway. I wish. But, yeah, just kidding.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:00]:

Overall, we just I really just want to make sure that at the end of this thing, everybody just remembers it is imperative to be mindful of your thoughts. So I end this by saying, imagine yourself thinking about what you're thinking.

Sandy Kovach [00:25:14]:

And we hope you're thinking that you enjoyed the podcast. Let's start practicing that positive thinking, and drop us a line and let us know how you're doing. You can go to our websites to to connect with our social media or email us directly from there. It's imagine yourself podcast.com, and we'll talk to you again next time when we have something new to imagine.

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