Haydee [00:00:30]:
Hello there! Welcome to Voluptuous Questions. My name is Haydee, and I’m SO excited to have the opportunity to interview YOU! It’s SO wonderful to be talking to you again. I’ve missed you.! To start off, let me ask you. How have you been? Yes! Go ahead and feel free to open up because this is going to be one of the MOST vulnerable episodes we’ve EVER done.

Haydee [00:00:58]:
Life is so interesting, right? It’s like a roller coaster. It has its ups, downs and unexpected turns. That much, we could DEFINITELY agree on. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re halfway through this year and a moment of reflection would be perfect. So my question for you today is, how is implementing your word of the year going for you? Has it been easier to implement it than you thought, harder, or somewhere in between? Do you find it ironic that you chose the word that you did back in January or back when you heard this episode? It was the perfect word to learn the lessons that you’re learning. Right? Regardless of whether it’s been EASY for you to implement your word, hard or more or less, thankfully, you still have half a year to extract the lessons that this word is meant to teach you and to create experiences for that word to be at the forefront. Are you curious about how my word of the year is going for me? As you may recall, my word of the year is flow.

Haydee [00:02:14]:
I’m smiling just thinking about how ironic it’s been for me that I chose this word. I could tell you about every experience I’ve had in which I’ve experienced the opposite of flow. But I’ll limit my stories to some of my main ones that will help you in YOUR journey of doing your own analysis. The first thing I have to explain is the reason why it took me much longer than usual to put out this new episode. Back in March, shiz hit the fan and my reliable MacBook Pro had a solid state drive malfunction. And one day, I could no longer boot it up. I had already edited the audio for the next podcast episode there and was ready to publish it, but I lost it. Don’t worry, though.

Haydee [00:03:07]:
I have the unedited version, which I will edit in the future and publish. But for now, I think that the topics of the next few episodes are a better fit. So when my computer broke, I ordered a brand new custom made MacBook Pro from Apple. Guess what? It had a hardware issue. I returned the first one and ordered another brand new Apple MacBook Pro. Guess what? It had a software issue. I had to return that one too. So much for things flowing

Haydee [00:03:42]:
right? Since these computers were custom made, they took about 14 days each to get delivered to me. And I also had to wait days for them to receive the ones I returned so that I could get my refund and then order a new one. So after getting 2 bad apples, I bought a 3rd MacBook Pro with a different customized configuration, and it took me WEEKS to make sure it has everything that I need on it working. And I did have issues with my iCloud and Photos app on that one. Thankfully, an amazing AppleCare senior advisor has helped me avoid anything that could potentially trigger me having to return this computer again. And to top it off, in the last few months, I’ve had 2 major issues with my iPhone. I’ve had to wipe all 3 computers clean and my iPhone clean twice. I’ve always been a fan of Apple, so it has been quite shocking to experience so many issues.

Haydee [00:04:45]:
But hopefully, they’re all behind me. So here I am using this computer to record this episode for you. I truly appreciate you patiently waiting for this new episode along with your support and all of you who’ve joined my email list. On a more personal level, I have to be sincere and vulnerable with you and tell you that my word of the year has been like a life jacket that sometimes I’ve resisted wearing or forgotten that I can wear because I’ve hit some personal lows. For example, guess what? This year, being let down on my birthday hurt like hell. I’m still getting teary-eyed thinking about how much it hurt. It took me about 2 months to get over it. The reason why I’m mentioning this to you is because I never want to give you the impression that my life is perfect because I’m walking you through exhibit A of how it is not.

Haydee [00:05:48]:
What I do want you to learn from this though is that we can overcome hard things and that if your word of the year or things you thought you had overcome are still teaching you lessons, that’s PERFECTLY okay. When the boat of my life was tilting sideways, aside from remembering to put on my flow life jacket, there was 1onething that restored my balance, and it was keeping the promises to myself and loving myself the best way I could. In the episode I did about challenges I’ve overcome, I had told myself and had told YOU that for my birthday, I was going to plan some fun things around it. Well, guess what? Even though I was tempted to skip all that because of the many unexpected expenses. I decided to invest in myself. I took myself to the massage I wanted to, went to the beauty salon, and went to concerts. Looking good, relaxing, and music made me feel so much better. So if your word of the year is not currently supporting you in the way that you wish it was, ask yourself, what can you do in the next coming days, weeks and months to truly love yourself? Take a few moments to write down 3 ways in which you can love yourself on your to do list, calendar, or Voluptuous Questions PDF sheet, which you can get by going to www.voluptuousquestions.com.

Haydee [00:07:23]:
If the notion of self-love is difficult for you, you can also ask yourself, what promises have you made to yourself that you haven’t kept yet? What would bring you joy and help you regain or increase your balance? And while it’s easy to focus on the “oh my gosh” aspects of your life and be paralyzed in disbelief and in shock, something else that has helped me is to count my blessings and focus on the wonderful things I’ve been able to do. I encourage you to write a list of the cool things you’ve done. For example, this year, I’ve done this. Courses completed, 2. Massages, 1. Facials, 2. Pedicures, 1. Baths, 13.

Haydee [00:08:16]:
And to me, taking a bath is like a luxury. Done my nails, 3. And I usually don’t do my nails because the nail polish doesn’t last on me. Gone to the beauty salon, 1. Gone to an art exhibit, 2. Graduations attended, 2. Vacation, 1. Concerts, 3, and concerts bring me an immense amount of joy. Aside from this, I started the most intensive workout routine I’ve ever done and been the most consistent.

Haydee [00:08:53]:
I’ve improved my physical appearance, and I’ve also been eating in a very healthy way. If I’m being vulnerable, implementing the word flow has been a little harder for me than I thought it would be because I honestly thought that things were going to simply flow without me having to do much. I thought that if I kept my mentality positive and I surrendered, released, and trusted the universe to allow things to flow, that they would flow easily. But I’ve experienced THE most challenging start to a new year than probably any year of my life. However, I am thankful for everything that I’ve been able to overcome and I do have faith that the rest of the year will be better. My word flow has brought additional peace when things don’t go 100% well. I’m more peaceful, more centered and more willing to acknowledge that even the hard moments will pass, and they do. And they have passed.

Haydee [00:10:01]:
So take a moment to reflect on your first half of the year without any shame about what has gone wrong. And listen to me. I’m proud of you. You’re still here working on this thing called Life and it takes a lifetime to simply attempt to master something like this. I can’t WAIT to hear about what your answer to this question is, so please feel free to share it with me by leaving a comment on www.voluptuousquestions.com/podcast and choosing today’s episode. You can also send me a private message on www.voluptuousquestions.com/contact or leaving a comment on TikTok. My handle there is @VoluptuousQuestions. It’s been wonderful to reconnect with you again.

Haydee [00:11:00]:
I’m sending you a BIG squishy hug. Remember, you’re the star of this podcast and the star of your life. Keep shining brightly always.