Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
Can Spiritual Health Shape Your Choices? | Marilyn Sobwick
We explore spiritual health as the often-missing pillar of wellness and show how simple daily practices build resilience, clarity, and peace. Marilyn shares close calls that reshaped her outlook and we connect gratitude, nature, and music to better choices and a richer life.
• the X metaphor where spirit meets the physical
• cross-cultural views on body, mind, and spirit
• role models of compassion, courage, and service
• nature, breath, and music as quick resets
• morning routines that compound resilience
• gratitude rituals at home and work
• adversity as a catalyst for spiritual awareness
• training the spirit like training the body
• time awareness and creating meaningful memories
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. Today we're diving into a topic we don't often talk about: spiritual health. We spend a lot of time on the body, we dig into the mind, but there's a third piece in that trinity that can quietly shape everything else spirit. Joining me in the podcast room today is Marilyn Sobwick, Palmetto Bluff member and author of Eternal Exchange. Her work explores the intersection of life's changes, personal growth, and our sense of purpose without tying it to any one tradition or belief system. Together, we're going to unpack what spiritual health really means and how it shows up in everyday life. This is a conversation about connection, hope, and finding peace in the middle of life's chaos. Marilyn, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, thank you, Jeff. Um, I'm can't wait to share some spirit with you today.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm so glad we could get together on this topic because it can be very universally impactful to everyone. And so let's kick things off with your book. For those who don't know you yet, what inspired you to write Eternal Exchange?
SPEAKER_00:Well, before we get into the book, I wanted to just say, gee, you always are in spirit around here, whether you know it or not. And in spin class is one example. And I I'm wondering if you could uh uh describe that that spirit with me again, like we're in spin class. That's it. Yeah, there it is. So it's contagious and we love it, and it makes such a difference when we are uh participating in all that you offer here.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, thank you, Marilyn.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so getting back to uh what inspired me on external exchange, eternal exchange, rather. Well, um, it really wasn't until COVID hit. Uh I had some experiences prior to COVID that were just uh pretty phenomenal. And um, I guess I needed some years to kind of think about it in advance, like what actually happened. But while in isolation, um, I felt this nudge. You know, I was kind of staring at my laptop thinking, all right, uh, you know, I guess it's time to jot this stuff down. And I had three close calls, and uh it took about 10 years before I finally decided to document it. So um I started to write during COVID.
SPEAKER_02:I think that was a time where everyone had a lot of opportunity to be with their thoughts, and I think everyone starts to share their story after those thoughts start to kind of overwhelm us where we know they can make a difference in someone else's life. And I, of course, read your book. And to clarify, eternal exchange, there's there's a big X in the title. And so even though we're pronouncing it in that regard, what's behind that design choice and how does that relate to your story?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that big X is kind of a play on words. You'll see it on license plates, you know, where people abbreviate things. So the X, you know, you you still pronounce it as X uh instead of spelling exchange EX. I just use the X. And um the meaning behind that, I I want to share with you maybe a better way to think about uh the reason. You know, there's more than one reason uh of including the X. And you you take both hands with your fingers together, and you can see where the top half of that X opens up to the heavens, and the bottom half touches ground, kind of our earthly existence. So the idea was X marks the spot, and it's where our physical and our spiritual meet.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and and further to describe it, um, have you ever been out to Mount Rushmore?
SPEAKER_02:I don't get out much, Marilyn. I'll tell you the truth. I'm here at Palmetto Bluff quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, well, okay, that's a trip that definitely you'll need to take your daughter out there and uh to see these monuments in granite, okay, etched in granite. And um, this was home to the Lakota Indians. So I went out there, I was there in childhood, but then I went again a few years ago, and I learned that the Lakota Indians, their sacred realm, was the connection with dancing religious movements to the heavens, with the heavens. And that visual maybe can create a better understanding like man and heavens, that connection of our spiritual okay.
SPEAKER_02:So man and and and us in the middle of that X and our energy flowing up, and then also that connection to the ground.
SPEAKER_00:I think so.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, interesting. You you know, we talk so much about body and mind when it comes to health, and I think this type of topic can be controversial a little bit because we all believe different things, and that's the beauty of life. Can you tell us why you think spirit needs to belong in the conversation a little bit more, regardless of what we believe?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. Um, it's in our history, it's in our DNA, so to speak. Um, we think of spirit, I think of spirit as our soul. And uh gee, going back to like the fourth century BC before Christ, or BCE for some people, before the common era, uh Plato, Greek philosopher, uh connected the dots of our soul being eternal. In other words, we have our soul here, but then our soul lives on when our body doesn't. And um you you think about uh the eternal concept, uh here it was put into our world um 375 years before Jesus was born. So I I just found that so interesting.
SPEAKER_02:And yeah, and to kind of spin off of that, Marilyn, we we hear this word a lot in personal growth, where individuals are after their legacy. And so even if we don't have an existing faith-based practice, I believe that there is this deep desire, this human desire for us to all leave a legacy. So I am almost making that connection with how you're describing our soul. Our soul lives on.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and even going back further in time, the Chinese 5,000 years ago always considered body, mind, and spirit as inseparable. They were all all piece, all one. And they used two words in their language. One was called shen, and then qi. We've heard of qi today.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But shen uh s-h-en um translates into spirit, mind, consciousness, uh, vitality. And it's sort of a subconscious way of thinking about it. And then qi we use as our energy that circulates our body, mind, and spirit. Um so they use the holistic or the big picture perspective, and they do it, I think, even in their way of healing. You know, when you're injured, they consider the whole body, the whole concept of that to to get better.
SPEAKER_02:That's powerful.
SPEAKER_00:Um and I think I wanted to share another example. Um, if you're outdoors, say you're in the smoky mountains or I somewhere outdoors, so I I want you to close your eyes. And when you take a deep breath, air moves from the outside of our body to inside our lungs, and then some filters back out. So our inner self and our outer world is more fluid than fixed. So it's like being one with nature.
SPEAKER_02:So that's one example of how fluid we should feel on a daily basis, almost. Is that is that a fair way of looking at it? Like we're imagining we're outdoors, we're taking that deep breath in, that deep breath out, but there's this fluid feeling to it.
SPEAKER_00:I would so agree with you. I think so many times when we are lost within ourselves, if we can be out with nature, it is a way to get ourselves centered again.
SPEAKER_02:Bring ourselves back.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. That's right. So uh another funny thought I had uh in this idea of the in the the power of spirit is uh, say, for instance, with with Plato, we consider our our body is is home to our spirit here. And further, it's thought of that our spirit is our master of the physical. So the first thing that popped into my head was thinking back of at Star Wars. Have you seen the Star Wars series?
SPEAKER_02:My brother was a huge Star Wars fan growing up, so we watched every movie.
SPEAKER_00:I'm telling you, I was What are the Ewoks?
SPEAKER_02:I love Ewoks.
SPEAKER_00:Yoda?
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So Luke Skywalker, you know, he is reaching out for his lightsaber, right? And so kind of the power of the spirit to make sure that that lightsaber reaches his hand in the time of need, you know, when when he was in battle.
SPEAKER_02:He's relying on spirit to get that lightsaber in his hand.
SPEAKER_00:It it like a force, like a spiritual force. And even Yoda lifting up his starship out of the muck.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and Yoda was super old. His ability to do that had to rely on something other than his strength.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know what? So he took a lifetime to to gain that particular, you know, uh power, that force. Power. And for the force be with you. You know, there's something to that, and and maybe later on uh that becomes a little bit more exciting to to know that that possibility could be out there. Um, so anyway, I know we're getting off track there, but instinctively we connect to something greater than ourselves.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I think it's been woven into our fabric, you know, through history, and it's crossed cultures.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think this is where the word purpose comes into play here. We all need something that is larger than ourselves that we're turning to, especially in moments of difficulty. I know you're gonna share a bit more on your story a bit later. And I think that's what I really gravitated to from your book is that these moments, these stake in the ground things that happen to us can sometimes push us into a more direction of focusing on spirit and uh versus just getting caught up in things that that I would consider are can be quite earthly. So if we're talking about spiritual health, I I want to go in that direction of describing this in a way that anyone can relate to, no matter their background or their beliefs. Could you give us a better description on what spiritual health is?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I'll give it a shot.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks, Marilyn.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so uh I guess I'll start out by asking you are you optimistic?
SPEAKER_02:I'm pretty optimistic. I would say you are. I try to be.
SPEAKER_00:Grounded?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, grounded, I'm working on.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And uh able to meet any challenge.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. Resilience, I would put that in my my wheelhouse.
SPEAKER_00:That's I I figured all those characteristics were you. So you qualify as a healthy spirit.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. All right. So there's some connection I have going on with my spirit.
SPEAKER_00:You've already started.
SPEAKER_02:Cool.
SPEAKER_00:So um I thought when you said, now, different backgrounds, okay, different backgrounds and beliefs. So I'm I'm gonna go across the world again here with figures that have been notable for healthy spirits. And uh the first one I'm gonna start out with is Gandhi of India. And his approach uh was non-violence, uh civil disobedience. Um and Mandela or Mandela, I guess I'm not pronouncing that right, of South Africa, his commitment to forgiveness. Uh now, both of these gents, I think were attorneys. So it's Gandhi and Mandela? Yeah, I think so. If I checked my have your historical history on it, exactly, but someone else could, you know, get back with me on that. Uh Mother Teresa, here again, she was a Catholic nun, but she served the poor, the sick, and the dying. Um, the Dalai Loban, a Tibetan monk. Uh, he cultivated compassion, tolerance, and contentment. Abraham Lincoln. Not only did he end slavery, but he was thought of as honest and compassionate. So here these people had some very touching commitments to a spiritual connection, you know, beyond themselves. I I I feel.
SPEAKER_02:Um in order to do the work and make the impact that they did.
SPEAKER_00:Well, to be exactly, and to be notice notable uh for those kinds of uh characteristics. Um so uh I thought that that was kind of a worldview of some varied backgrounds and beliefs.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I appreciate that you gave us the varying examples of these people in history because anyone listening today can relate to one of those individuals because we either learned about them in school or have some sort of connection personally to the impact that they made. So we have the idea now, and where I think it'll help listeners most is how does this show up in in actual real life? How does spiritual health impact us day to day? What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Well, I did think about that question a little bit here, and um, so I guess I'm gonna get back with you. How do you get ready each day?
SPEAKER_02:So we couldn't start today today until 7.15 because I have a very specific morning routine. And it, you know, begins with waking up, movement, and then into uh 15 minutes of devotional, some sort of either um Bible study that I have going on, or I have an app called Glorify. So I I do movement and spiritual health actually to start the day off. And that that's just what's worked for me over the last multiple years. But it's been a progression to create that kind of morning where I prioritize the things that are most important to me that are beyond just the physical, too.
SPEAKER_00:Woohoo! I love that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I honestly, uh technology has helped a lot. Uh and I and I think that's where we we have opportunities to always lean on that for different aspects of health that may not come as natural to us, um, physical, mental, and spiritual.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. I agree. Um, you know, I actually wrote down some of the things that I thought most people would get ready each day, and coffee was one of them. Coffee, a to-do list.
SPEAKER_02:I had coffee too, I assure you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and meditation. So that might be your, you know, spiritual part. Um, so now let's look at self-worth. Uh, we go to work each day, and some people, you know, is it about a paycheck? Is it about interaction with others? Achieving your agenda, and maybe it's all of them. Um, so how do we satisfy our self-worth? Um I think earlier I thought about your Iron Man competition with daily training. How do you prepare mentally? Um, and did you envision, you know, crossing that finish line first when you were when you were getting ready?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, a lot of athletes talk about visualization and even in goal setting and having a further picture of where you want to be in your life, it's a great strategy to imagine, you know, five years from now, what do you want your life to look like? In my case of Iron Man Triathlon, since you ask, I wouldn't say that I personally visualized crossing the finish line, but what I can say is the daily small steps usually is is what led me to that bigger outcome of being mentally prepared on that day and being able to finish strong. So some of the routines you already talked about essentially just applied to Iron Man competition.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. Well, um, I guess in summary on this spiritual health, um I think it's about making good and wise choices in our day-to-day activities.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and choices that compound, choices that have um like a stock market, you know, we we get that 10% return, you know, one year, two years, three years from now. So I think I think that's a great way to um wrap up spiritual health and and the daily actions that that we'd probably need to take in order to achieve something great at the end. So when life throws challenges our way, how does inner spirit help us keep going? Like I think a lot of people can can lose hope at times. So how can we stay positive and grounded when life throws us those curveballs?
SPEAKER_00:You know what? That that's the key. Um, yeah, what keeps us going? And um so I again I thought about this and I thought, well, what about putting a song in your heart? Um this brings to mind when I was back in college and I was working in the summer and I was working at SeaWorld of Ohio.
SPEAKER_02:You worked at SeaWorld of Ohio. Well, they I didn't know they had a SeaWorld in Ohio.
SPEAKER_00:I know.
SPEAKER_02:Were you like one of the the whale uh presenters? Because those people are so cool. They like talk to whales and they guide them throughout the presentation.
SPEAKER_00:You know what? I I loved every bit of that. We even had skiers out there. It was a lake, and I remember the skiers' feet were like cement on the bottom because they'd barefoot ski. But anyway, so I'm getting out of my car in the morning in the parking lot, and over the PA system, the song that comes on the PA system is zippity-doo-dah, zippity-yeah. I mean, what a way to start a day. And I thought, boy, whoever that human resource person was behind getting that song on the PA system as we're coming to work, it puts everyone in a great mood.
SPEAKER_02:And uh so you're just saying a song could completely change how we feel internally.
SPEAKER_00:I think so. Yeah. Put a song in our heart.
SPEAKER_02:Come and agree more.
SPEAKER_00:And uh, you know, I think about the seven dwarfs also having the right idea about hi-ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go. Um, and and another song that's kind of fun during the day that you hear people like walking on sunshine, oh. So uh I think that those are just a way to kick start feeling better uh and and and you know, boosting your spirit. But then, you know, there's days when our chin hits the ground. And another song that I thought about was uh it's called High Hopes that Frank Sinatra recorded in 1959.
SPEAKER_02:And uh I know you weren't born yet, but the lyrics just barely missed 1959, barely.
SPEAKER_00:Um, the lyrics talk about the impossible task of an ant moving a rubber tree plant. And so even when sometimes things appear unachievable, to seek high hopes and keep trying. And uh listeners will remember, you know, the lyrics go, because he had high eye hopes, he had high hopes, and he had high apple pie in the sky, high hopes. But anyway, um, the the part about now getting back to grounded positive thinking that's reality. And it's more than just wishful thinking, but keep in mind creative and hopeful thoughts are a really good start.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. What we often forget is our thoughts are very powerful in how we show up. And your example of using an external tool, like a song, to bring you back in rhythm with your life makes a ton of sense to me. And I don't know if this was prior to us preparing for the podcast, but you said something in so many words that spirit shows up in our character and even how we see ourselves. So, this is where I feel like we're getting a little deeper with this conversation here. I'd like to hear from you. Was there a moment in your life when that part of you was was really tested?
SPEAKER_00:Well, if anyone has had a chance to to read the book that I wrote, it really was for family. It was more of a memoir. But um, I had three close calls. And um for sure, um I'm gonna just share one of them, kind of a Cliff Notes version version of the first story in that in that book. Um, and it was an action scene of of something that I went through, and it was called Flying Leap. Um so it starts out that I was um heading out on a weekend design conference, going to Marshall University. So I began my drive from Columbus, Ohio to West Virginia. Uh gray clouds filled the February sky with ice mounds like frozen statues lining both sides of the highway. So I was in deep thought, and I needed to change my lanes, and I pressed the gas pedal, and as I was pressing the gas pedal, I peered over my shoulder for oncoming traffic. So I accelerated from you know 65, 75, 80. All of a sudden I heard a loud ka boom. And shaken by the sound, I turned my head, and and all of a sudden there was a dead silence. Clutching the steering wheel, I stare at my speedometer as I skyrocket up, frozen in place, I'm trapped. And the first thought I go, oh no, is there a way out of this? I felt like I was in a straitjacket like Houdini and couldn't escape. The uh high speed left me physically shaken and mentally dumbfounded. My internal compass goes haywire. Clearly, my situation was way, way out of control. So I have God on speed dial. My sense of self is totally on fire. And I think, okay, is my time on earth up? Did I help others enough?
SPEAKER_02:These were the two questions that came up for you in this moment.
SPEAKER_00:And am I going to heaven? I thought, okay, this is it. I am I am out of here. I'm on my way. So um again, making this just short, the car tilts down to nosedive back into the ground. More questions come up. Will I break through the windshield? Will I become, you know, covered with I don't know, glass, glass shards covered in blood. Uh, or, you know, will I become a vegetable in a hospital room?
SPEAKER_02:So this is that moment where you're actually now getting very specific and understanding like the situation.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. At that time, the way up, I was like, what happened?
SPEAKER_02:There was a lot of disbelief, a lot of like you didn't know what was happening.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't know what was happening. In fact, I looked out the window and all I saw were gray skies. I thought, whoa, I'm somewhere else, you know. Um, and so yeah, I uh somehow um this evil canil stunt lands me in an open field, unscathed, and I call it somewhere between divine intervention and airbag deployment.
SPEAKER_02:We'll put, we'll put.
SPEAKER_00:So there's more, but you'd have to read the book to to hear that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I I think what I gathered most, this was the first third of the book, if I have it correctly, where there's this internal dialogue that we all go through in a moment like that. And I think you just sharing, going from this place of, okay, you know, is this the end, into okay, I'm okay, but this is what's happening now. These are shifts that happen in these big moments, but they also happen in the small moments, where we can go from this place of higher level to more reality. And okay, we're here on earth, this is what's happening. So I think you've you've also been through a lot more life-threatening situations than the one you just just just described. Because of that, how have these experiences shifted your spiritual perspective?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, I think you hit it on the head where everybody has these close calls and they go through these moments. And this is kind of where our internal characteristics come out. Okay. You know, it it brought to mind, okay, what am I really made of here? You know, in in that process. And it it really forces you to think about that. So I would say, uh, yes, those experiences did shift my spiritual perspective.
SPEAKER_02:Your spiritual self-awareness heightened.
SPEAKER_00:That's exactly right. So um, you know, I had three pretty, I don't know, different situations, close calls. And uh my spiritual self was on steroids at this point.
SPEAKER_02:You needed it most.
SPEAKER_00:I needed that. Obviously, I thought, oh. So these were the questions that went through my mind. You know, I'm asking God, I go, gee, uh, was it necessary for me to be trapped in a speeding car out of control? That was story number one. Story number two was, why should I be diagnosed with an incurable cancer? All right. And then story number three was uh, why did I get an 80% collapsed lung while scuba diving in the Philippines? You know, here I thought I was doing good volunteer work to help the world. Uh so those were my first three questions. And then uh, of course, you know, more questions coming up, but hopefully uh not those kind of questions, you know. Uh so my process, uh these were this was a process. I was in desperate times. Like, why was this happening? So, where do you go for answers? You know, we all ask, why did this happen to me? So, so so I go first of all, you know, inside myself, I connect to my higher power. Like, you know, I have to try and figure this out.
SPEAKER_02:And you're probably not always perfect at it either in those moments. Not none of us are.
SPEAKER_00:No, no. I think I think we do find out, we find out a little bit more about ourselves, and really how connected we are. Truly. And I think that's what gives us our history, our own personal history. So I was desperate for clarity. And I asked, you know, was I stepping out of line? What am I not seeing here on earth? And why am I being tested? You know, what is my purpose? So um I thought to myself, well, there's no time to waste here. You know, I had too many close calls that um uh just needed to be addressed. And um the the physical impact on myself was uh my body can't take this anymore. I had been through so much physical trauma as well. But um when I asked that, I I feel as time went by, I was given a timeout, uh a time to get greater meaning, and I was out of immediate danger uh to gain some inner peace.
SPEAKER_02:It's almost like it allowed you to step back and be more present with how you were living.
SPEAKER_00:Truly. Um, I found myself praying more, kind of planting some seeds, um, and in time. Your faith grows. So I feel like my spiritual awareness was born.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I like that term spiritual awareness because no matter what your belief system is, we can all have a different type of spiritual awareness, regardless of what we're connecting to. And so I think that's a nice segue into okay, this is a deep philosophical conversation that Marilyn and Jeff are having today. For someone listening, listening who feels kind of disconnected spiritually or doesn't have that purpose, doesn't have spiritual awareness. What's a good first step?
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Again, um, everybody's on a journey. And uh we've all heard the term find your inner peace, right? Plug into that inner peace. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, we have yoga here in Palmetto Bluff. Here, your program. This is where your program kind of works into it. Uh, we can gain mindfulness, you know, through the yoga, meditation, all the conservancy programs, nature walks, bird watching. I think those opportunities are are just a wonderful way to uh, you know, get with the program here. Um, volunteer to help others, practice this gratitude, forgiveness, cultivate kindness and compassion. And these were the characteristics we found in those notable figures.
SPEAKER_02:They almost mimic those individuals, all of the uh adjectives that you're you're using here, the descriptions.
SPEAKER_00:That's where I was I was coming to on that. Yes. So in a lot of ways, maybe we can use the word training. We're all training for something, right?
SPEAKER_02:I can get on board with that. Yeah, I mean, my my life's work is training others, and I've always felt deeply in from an internal perspective that my vehicle and our team's vehicle just happens to be the physical, and that physical will hopefully translate over to improvements with how people treat one another, how they connect, how they see the world. And so I think that's at the heart of what I'm very proud that hopefully we got at today is helping people look at themselves regardless of the the specific actions. What do you need in your life to become a better version of yourself? And if that need, if there's a big gap between that need that you're feeling internally, what is the system that you can create in your life to cultivate that picture that you have for yourself? Because you've described these moments that made you think the time is now to not wait till a moment that pauses us and makes us step back in order to become the better version of ourself.
SPEAKER_00:Without a doubt. Without a doubt. And I think we've just upped the wellness experience here by what you just described.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. And just in general, I mean, the the beautiful opportunity that we as a team were given here at Palmetto Buff to evolve um to be more than fitness classes. I'm just, I'm just so grateful that you know, we have a community that and and a leadership team that is proactive and wants this our member experience to be focused on wellness. And so as we wrap up, uh I want to go a little further into the one word that you mentioned because I I think it's so powerful. A gratitude practice is something that has changed my life. So when I'm at the dinner table with my family, we go around the table. It's just the three of us, Mia, Lindsay, and I, and we always ask uh three questions. Two questions are what's one thing that you're grateful for? What is one positive experience from your day? And then we have this actual actual card deck where we'll pull out a random question from the day where it could be something like, What's your what if you could only choose one superpower, what superpower would that be? And so there's always a random question every day, but the gratitude question and the personal positive, it's actually something we do in our internal team, but I also do it with my family. So that's that's a little extra tidbit for folks who who maybe want to cultivate a gratitude practice from my perspective.
SPEAKER_00:That's so rich. Thanks, Mary. That really is rich.
SPEAKER_02:I love that. But let me flip it to you. How can how can building gratitude and inner peace not only strengthen our spirit, but improve our overall health? What's that look like?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I will uh talk about that, but I just want to let you know too. We are so grateful to have you here. And I think people have just want to embrace it. And uh I think through your podcast, through your program, it's it's really become more and more, and we're so thankful for it. So, so thank you for that. But yeah, I think um we as individuals need to make a deliberate decision uh to nurture ourselves, uh live with intention, uh, and claim our spiritual calm. Uh and simply start cultivating. You know, I think you use that cultivation process. So I want to say it's our spiritual garden. Let's cultivate our spiritual garden. I know that sounds a little fruity, but um, but no, we're all growing.
SPEAKER_02:And if we stop planting seeds, we stop growing. And so this hopefully is one of those conversations where someone out there today will plant a new seed in so that they can move in the direction that they want to live. If listeners could remember one thing about spiritual health from today's conversation, Marilyn, what what should it be?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm gonna go back here and start with as individuals, we need to accept who we are and our circumstances. That's a starting point. And then actively seek maybe contentment within ourselves.
SPEAKER_02:With who we are.
SPEAKER_00:With who we are. Um and it can't be acquired from money or achievements or relationships. And that's another conversation. But um I think if we could try to pursue some internal awareness and um one one final song in our heart, um to to maybe help that, um, there's a gentleman by the name of Horatio Spafford um that wrote a song, It Is Well with My Soul. And he has a story all his own, if you look him up on the internet, Horatio Spafford, which is a very moving uh circumstance that he was in that allowed him to write this. And uh yeah, to me, that's uh oh something that we just need to not need to, but you know, I think my I desire to be fully content at peace with myself would be the the terminology.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, I think you were right. It's a whole other conversation when we talk about acquiring money, achievements, uh, or relationships. It oftentimes in life we're always looking for that next thing. And in reality, everything is well with my soul when we are tending to it as as if we would have garden to use your example earlier. I I'd love for you to just plug where can people find your book?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's on Amazon, believe it or not, and it's spelled eternal with the big letter X in the middle, and then the word change. So uh several of your neighbors here have the book, so you don't have to go out and get it, but uh just borrow it from their neighbor. You know, once you've read it, you've read it and you're done with it. But um yeah, that's all there is to that.
SPEAKER_02:All right. What does wellness mean to you?
SPEAKER_00:All right, I was thinking about that and I wanted to keep it very simple. Um we want to love fully, love one another fully, uh live simply, laugh often, and find our peace within.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks, Marilyn. I really enjoyed our time together today.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Jeff. Yeah. I hope that uh this resonates uh with the community and maybe brings out more uh discussion.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, I appreciate you taking the time, and um, I can definitely say that when you're in a class, I I feed off your positive energy as well. You know, I'm not teaching cycling as much these days, but I can say that if everyone listening today connects more to their spirit and what that is for them, it's just gonna radiate positivity wherever they go. And and so I think we we all day in and day out can connect deeper to the impact we want to make. So with that, um just want to thank you for diving into spiritual health, which can be a little sticky of a topic sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, well, thank you for getting up uh so early this morning and moving your routine around so that we could make this happen. But uh glad to be here. Love your program here at Pim Out of Bluff and as everyone else does. And I just hope that uh it continues to grow.
SPEAKER_02:Appreciate it, Marilyn. Yeah, I'm so blessed with the the team we have and the members we have. Well, that's a wrap, listeners. Feel free to hang out with me for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum for the rest of your week. Lately, not a day goes by where I don't wake up with deep gratitude. Gratitude for another breath, another chance to experience life. I can't say I've always lived that way, but after reading Marilyn's book and more recently, Die With Zero by Bill Perkins, I've tried to approach each day with more thankfulness, joy, and excitement. As someone who strives to stay spiritually connected, I've learned that one of the most powerful practices is to heighten our awareness of time. When we truly realize our time is limited, something shifts. It motivates us to make the absolute most of every moment we have. Let's pause on that thought right here. When we realize our time is limited, it clearly motivates us to make the most of the time we have. The scary part is that we can't just open an app and check how much time we have left. And while that's probably for the best, it's still unsettling because if the clock were to stop tomorrow, it would raise a lot of questions for all of us about how we're living today. And so from the book Die With Zero, two bold truths stood out. Your life is the sum of your experiences, and you retire on your memories. The challenge is that time only moves in one direction, and as it passes, it quietly sweeps away opportunities that will never come again. You see, the experiences available to us in our 30s or 40s aren't the same as those in our 50s or 60s. Every season changes, especially if we neglect our health. So my message this week is a simple one heighten your awareness of time, prioritize meaningful experiences, and start seeing the business of life as the creation of memories, the ones that will one day define the story of your life. I want to thank you for taking the time to join in on the conversation this week. We're looking forward to another year of Behind the Bluff. This is episode 92, so it's wild. Time has flown by to the point that the podcast has almost been going for a full two years. We thank you so much for supporting the podcast, and remember to actively participate in life on your terms.
