Getting Naked: The Podcast - Calm in Chaos

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

There’s something in the air. Anxiety, worry, a quiet sense of unease. The news is relentless, AI feels daunting, and the world seems to be changing faster than we can process, leaving us overwhelmed and disconnected. Valerie talks with her friend, therapist and returning guest Melissa Brohner-Schneider about how to navigate it all and find calm in the chaos.

Thank you so much for being here for getting naked. Welcome. Getting naked the podcast. That's where you're at right now. I'm just super excited about this conversation because I think it really digs into what we're all feeling. And I think I can really confidently say we are all feeling a little hum of uncertainty in this world right now. The news is scary. There's a lot of chaos coming at us. But I was reminded during this wonderful conversation with Melissa, that we just had Artemis too, and there's always hope around the corner. So please tune in.

Just keep listening to getting naked at the podcast, and we're going to make you feel better. I have a really fun recipe for you today. You saw how easy that was. Look at all that flavor we packed into chicken breasts. I love the flavor of maple syrup, especially for these kind of muffins. I see all of your comments. I swear I do. You are wondering, where's my show?

This is so dang delicious. Smells divine. That's a jalapeno popper. Oh, my God. So good! Yes, I'm back and I am cooking for all of you. All right, Sophie, what are we reheating today? Welcome to Nal Vows cooking.

Guess what we're gonna make right now. We're alive. Hi, everybody. How are you? You have to go to Valerie's Place. That's where you can see our book group, this podcast. That's where you can go for all the cooking that you want to see. Oh, yes.

I've missed cooking for you. I'm glad I finally get to do it again. I'm dancing. That's how good it is. So head to Valerie's place.com and go ahead and sign up. You guys are the original members, and I can't thank you. know. It's happy time. So I've been traveling a lot. By the way, hi, welcome to Getting Naked the podcast.

And I've been meeting up with a lot of different people, really kind of building this beautiful community in person like I love to do and talking about the book and sharing insights, you guys sharing insights with me, terrific questions from the audience. And we've really gotten to kind of like know each other, I think. And what I have needed. noticed is that we really aren't as divided as some people would have us believe. It feels that way sometimes, and that's what I want to get into a little bit with this podcast, because there's a lot going on with anxiety and worry and depression. The news throws a lot at us, and it's purposefully throwing chaos at us so that we all feel a little hum of discomfort, I would say. So, um,

That's what I want to talk about today with a very dear friend of mine. But before we get into that, I just want to give you a quick reminder to stay tuned for the full reveal. That is a special segment for Valerie's Place members only. And if you want to be able to access the full reveal and get early access to the podcast, just head on over to Valerie's Place.com and you can sign up. All right. So my guest today is my brilliant friend. And returning guest, she's a marriage and family therapist.

Melissa Broner Schneider. Hi, welcome, Melissa. Thank you, Val. And I remember reading a description of, you know, because you have a website and a description for how people can get a hold of you. And among your many specialties is restoration and healing for those struggling to cope with life's challenges. Hello.

We are all struggling. So dealing with anxiety and depression brought on by the news, which I think is a whole new thing, because we all have our own little hunt. levels of anxiety and depression that we're all trying to regulate. But then the news and the chaos in the news starts to add a little bit more. The world situation, the rapid introduction of AI into the workplace, our lives, displacement, identity, what gives life meaning, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I think that's exactly where people are right now.

At least that's been my experience personally and with other people I've spoken to. And there's a kind of ambient anxiety that doesn't come from, you know, one personal crisis, but like this steady drip that we're constantly getting. Headlines aren't stopping. Oh, God, they aren't stopping. Just once, I would like there to be normal news out there. And we're all like, we all have this feeling that we're supposed to keep functioning like adults. We still have to go to work.

We still have to feed our animals. We still have to clean the litter boxes. But, like, there's this hum of discomfort and anxiety. So what I'd like to talk to you about is knowing that I'm sure my life is pretty okay. I'm grateful. So why do I feel this way? And even though I know the why I may feel this way, what do we do about it? What are, like, do you hear anybody talking about what's going on in their lives

and how this is interrupting or disrupting or even kind of fitting right in with all of their anxiety? already. Like, how are we dealing with it? Well, so many good questions as usual. I'm so glad to be back, first of all. So thank you. Happy to have you. So many good questions. And I would say everyone I know, whether it's professionally or personally, they're asking the same questions, because we've never vibrated at this frequency before. And we've never had to sustain this kind of uncertainty and anxiety and fear and overwhelm without getting a break. And the people that pay attention to this kind of stuff, which I am one of those people,

is we are going through a wicked Areselium. Like I think every planet is in Ares right now. And Ares is a fire sign, I know, because I'm an Ares moon, and I have my own Ares Delium. Anyway, for those not into astrology, continue. Love it, love it. Right, but we're all searching for answers, right? Yes.

Of how to, why is it so hard right now? Is there something we can do, right? And as you say, we're bombarded, whether it's the news or social media or just. For me, I have this little extra little thing on my shoulder going, why are the bad guys winning? Because it feels like they're winning, but they're not. But it just feels like, oh, that's thunder. Oh, that was interesting. That's an interesting time to get some thunder.

Yes, it was. Thank you, God. Thank you, universe. Thank you. God's saying they're not winning. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay.

Well, I'm going to skip ahead. Okay. And then we'll get back. But I think we have to look for moments of hope. And when something like that happens, right, a little thunder, it's kind of like the universe saying, hold on a second, let's pay attention. And I'm thinking about the mission around the moon recently, Artemis II. How much did you cry? I was obsessed.

Cried, laughed, smiled, smiled. I just wanted more. More and more. And all four of them were just so. I mean, of course I love the woman. But all four of them were such intelligent, thought-provoking, beautiful souls, giving us hope. And the pictures of the moon were so glorious. I know.

I have the chills right now. Oh, right, right? Which is a little reminder of that feeling of awe. And we're looking, we've talked about this before. Yes. Right? What's the antidote to anxiety and depression can be that feeling of awe, which is there's something bigger than us that we can rely on.

There's something that makes us go, wow, something vast, something magical, something's mysterious, and that brings people together. Right. And so here we are looking up in the sky, and we're seeing the most magical photos of the moon and of Earth. We're also looking up at the sky. and seeing this crew, right, of four people who are... Incredibly intelligent and scientists and well-educated and not all of the...

I mean, they're just like, I'm... So they're trained, they're intelligent, they're also really trying to, I think, model for us that we can come back and work together. That we can believe in humanity. We are all on our own spaceship and we are the crew of Earth. Right. Right. And they talked about that. And we need to look for those moments of hope. They hug, they fist bump, they cry, they're grieving about Reed's wife.

And they named a crater after her on the moon. I mean, all sorts. We could go on and on about this mission. Yes. What this experience is doing for the rest of the world besides science. It's also when we listen to the news and we look at what's going on with politics and what's going on with war and what's going on humanity and global warming. We can just shut down.

Yeah. Right? And we go, our nervous system completely goes into survival mode that fight, flight, freeze. On freeze. Right. And we don't have moments of hope or openness. But these experiences like Artemis 2 expand our. our horizons. They literally expand our thinking and hope enters in.

There was, for those, I think it was 10 days, such immense love and connection that felt like it was happening with everyone around the world because of these four crew members and the amazing team of scientists at NASA that got them up there. That's right. I mean, this was such a huge event with multiple, multiple. multiple people thinking and working and planning together. Because this started, I think, in 2023 when they came up with the four crew members and this particular.

So it's to know that we can pull that amount of people together and then that amount of people that work together to get those four to wrap around the moon and get all those gorgeous shots. And then we get to be a part of it as well. And it gives us hope again. And there are systems out there that are working. There are people. Yes, you're right.

Diverse systems. Right? It's not just filled with hope and fun and beauty. It's terrifying. They risked their lives. We were all, you know, hoping and praying. Yeah, because I have a bone to pick with the media sometimes because right before they came home, right before they came home, they're talking about how this is the most dangerous part of the mission,

and this is where they could all die. And I'm like, stop it. So I, like, stopped looking at the news until I heard they land. safely. And I'm like, okay, thank God. Now we can go look and look at all the pictures of the landing safety. We're traumatized by bad news. Yes. We are, and that's the thing is we are living in a heightened state of fear. Praising for safety and danger, right? That's what our nervous system is made to do. Look around. We're always appraising for fear. Always. But we're not supposed to stay in that heightened alert place. We're supposed to appraise for safety and danger. If something's dangerous, we take care of it.

That's the fight, flight, freeze, faint. And then, And if something's not, our parasympathetic nervous system, the break, right? So the sympathetic nervous system, the thing that's like, I'm going to protect myself and others, is sympathetic nervous system. Parasympathetic is the break, right? One's the gas, one's the break. The break is supposed to come and help calm us down. And you think that's what Artemis II did for all of us.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it opened us up and it made us feel like everything's going to be okay, right? for now. But when we live in high alert with that sympathetic nervous system, with that gas pedal, right, then we're never coming back down to calm. We are just looking and searching and then we get stuck in that. I think that's what a lot of us have been, I mean, I could say 10 years, we've been going through it, but with breaks in there, but the last year and a half easily, we've all been like, oh, this is so hard.

It is. You know, and it's so hard watching people that you don't even know, like, the horrible things that are happening to people's lives that we have control over. But we feel so out of control because there's different people in power that are doing terrible things. Right, right. So looking for the hopefulness in all of that, taking in Artemis II, and now taking in what? What do we do for ourselves to, for me, I've like, in my little bubble, I do what I can, you know, give up service to people that I can when I can and try to get outside of myself and turn the new, frankly, turn the news off. And don't look at my phone right before I go to bed. Now I'll read an inspiring book or just a good book, you know, that I'm enjoying just so that I don't finish the night with, you know, Because honestly, everything that I have seen about what's going on with this administration has been against my will.

Because it's just on a feed somewhere. And I'm like, I can't. You know, I don't have the mental or emotional capacity to deal with the horrors that are taking place because of this administration. But I do know that I cannot stay quiet and that I still need to be a part of this citizenship that says, no, this is wrong, and we need better leadership. So I'm free to do that because I was talking with a friend the other day and I said, would we be one of those people in Nazi era, Germany or Poland or Amsterdam, would we be in that house with Anne Frank and protect her? You know, and if it's I don't know, then why is it I don't know? And if it's, you know, no, I wouldn't, well, then we have to do that now,

protect people as we can now. So it feels overwhelming. But it also feels like there's, there is hope. Because I don't think it'll always be this way, but how do we... I mean, I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what the answer is

because for me, I'm so black and white, like I want the bad guys to pay for the bad things that they're doing. And that might not necessarily happen. I don't think that's fair in life, but I want good things to start happening. More good... There are good things happening.

I just want more of them. I'm greedy. We have to build on that. We're greedy. We're ready. We need it. Yes. I have a really fun recipe for you today.

You saw how easy that was. Look at all that flavor we packed into chicken breasts. I love the flavor of maple syrup, especially for these kind of muffins. I see all of your comments. I swear I do. You are wondering, where's my show? This is so dang delicious. Smells divine.

That's a jalapeno pepper. Oh my god. It's so good! Yes, I'm back and I am cooking for all of you. All right, Sophie, what are we reheating today? Welcome to Nal Vows Cooking. Guess what we're gonna make right now? We're alive.

Hi, everybody. How are you? You have to go to Valerie's Place. That's where you can see our book group, this podcast. That's where you can go for all the cooking that you want to see. Oh, yes. I've missed cooking for you. I'm glad I finally get to do it again.

I'm dancing. That's how good it is. So head to Valerie's Place.com and go ahead and sign up. You guys are the original members, and I can't thank you enough. It's happy time. Yeah. We have to be patient, which is hard, but we have to do the work. Yeah.

And, you know, know that it doesn't always stay this hard, although it's been hard for a long time and getting harder. Yeah. And, you know, I have, I have a few thoughts about how we can do it on an individual basis besides, which, you know, we have to, it's, it's a, we have to take care of ourselves. and then we have to take care of our community and we have to take care of our world, right? And hopefully that spreads out, hopefully, by giving love in our circle, in our bubble. We can pop that bubble a little bit and let it spread.

And we have to look for that, right? Yes. And that's the thing. When you're in high alert and you're constantly looking around for safety and danger, right, I was thinking about the idea of looking and how tiring it can. can be to just keep looking to make sure you're safe.

Yeah. So I was trying to think of a concept for myself, trying to figure out how do I do this, and then how do I teach it to my adult children or to my clients or just talk about it in the community? And I was thinking about the idea of look. And I love the idea of looking up and down and in and out in different ways. And so I thought about it. that one is we have to slow down and we have to learn to take a deep breath and it's really hard my mom

taught me when I was little to do something called box breathing yeah right because your mom was smart box breathing is great box breathing is great because you're doing something with your mind you're picturing drawing a box and you're doing something with your body you're breathing so you count for you draw in your mind count to four one two three four breathe in yeah hold for four four four for four and then out for eight. So the exhale is longer. I thought it was four. There are different types of breathing, depending on what your goal is.

But for relaxation, not just not for going to sleep, but relaxation, that can really help. So trying to slow our nervous system down. That's a key. I really do believe that because I think a lot of us don't even realize how fast we're going. I know that is, that's true for me. Because I think if I keep going, and if I keep going fast, I won't be able to pay attention to all the shit. That's true. But slowing down doesn't necessarily make you only see the crappy shit that's happening.

It also can, you can notice the flower that you didn't notice the day before. You can notice the little hummingbird outside your window while you're doing the dishes. You can notice things when you slow down. And those are gifts. That's right. Well, so you and I are on the same page, right? So you slow down, you take a deep breath, you get calm, and then you look inwards, right? So it's like a compass.

First, you go in and you think, what am I thinking and what am I feeling? And really just try to, you know, identify, because we are spinning in our head. We are overwhelmed by thoughts and by feelings. So what am I thinking? What am I feeling? No judgment, just curiosity, right? And I love that. And for me, it's easier just to say, be curious.

Let's just be curious, Val. Just get curious. Curiosity did not kill the cat. Curiosity is what make cats so interesting. So I just, curiosity is one of my favorite, favorite things. Yeah. Right? And you get to learn.

Yeah. And then self-compassion with don't beat yourself up that you're feeling, you know, anxious or you're feeling guilty or you're feeling all sorts of things or you can't stop thinking about yourself when the world is suffering, right? I'm so selfish because I'm concerned. And look at what's happening. in all these different places, you're right. Right.

So if you can identify what you're thinking and feeling. In my field, there's the saying, name it to tame it. So if you can name that emotion, you can tame it, you can contain it, right? So that's the looking inward. And then we look out, right? And in looking outward, this is about finding connection. We know how lonely humanity is. We know how isolated we become since COVID.

And this politics are so divisive, right? Everything. There's just so much fear. But we need connection. We are wired for connection. I've said that a gazillion times. So look outside of yourself for connection. Do I feel alone?

Who can I connect with? Can it be a friend? Can it be a family member? Can it be, you know, Valerie's place, right? In a community. Right. And then make that gesture. for connection because we can get so overwhelmed in the anxiety. We're either revved up and, you know,

can't stop or we're shutting down. Right. And you have to understand that people can't read your mind. Like if like I've, I've spent many a time thinking such thoughts, like really terrific thoughts about some, but I'm like, oh, I wonder how they're doing and, you know, and then I'll just like move on. It's like, how do they know how much I love them, how much I'm thinking about them right now unless I reach out and tell them. So I've begun to do that, you know. I've like, I'll do it with my girlfriend sometimes, or I even did it with Wolfie after I left him the other day. I just put a little text just to tell him how proud I am of him and what I saw that night and how it warmed my heart.

And with my girlfriends, it can be as simple as a little meme that makes the four of us, you know, the five of us laugh. So I say four because it's their four and I'm the fifth. But anyway, you know, just little things like that, like or I'll just say, hey, girls, I just want, you know, I'm so happy you're in my life, like period. Right. Right, because you're slowing down to value the relationships and then communicate it because we can't read each other's mind. No. And if we try it, it could just feel all.

It's always going to be wrong because it's our little, you know, verbal hamster saying weird shit. And whatever, weird shit, whatever mood we're in. Right. If we're in a great mood, everybody, you know, then it feels good. If we're in a crappy mood, I might be thinking, well, Val's not calling me because I did something the last time. Right. Now I've lost her, right? It can be catastrophic in our minds.

Right. So connection as you look out. And I want to add one more thing to that, is that I felt this weird thing when I reached out to my son and I reached out to my girlfriends just over the weekend. And then when I was done, I was crying as I wrote the text to my son. And then I was still teared up when I was writing to my girlfriends. And then I realized the vulnerability that it takes,

to tell somebody how much you love them, when love has been so challenging in many ways. I've had beautiful love and I've had scary love. But love is always a vulnerability that feels so scary. And I cannot believe, and I was shocked at myself like, you're crying because you're telling your son how much you love him? What's up with that, Valerie? And it's just because I felt vulnerable. you know and of course he accepted it and he wrote something beautiful back to me but like for the time it it took before he wrote it I was like oh he probably thinks it's stupid or you know it's like like I think

I've grown so much and I just become a little girl when it becomes you know to being vulnerable about love with the people that I love isn't that weird you know what I was just having this conversation the other day it doesn't matter how much work we've done we always come back to those little children that we were and if you can know it and see it and name it, right? That's just what it is. And vulnerability is scary. God. But it does, it does, you know, connect us as well.

Yes. I also think real love, deep love, whether it's for friends, children, family, you know, romantic, it's, it's so heartwarming, right? It feels so good. It does. It does. It does. It does feel good. Like, how fortunate.

Yeah. How fortunate to just love people and then be able to tell them. Yeah. You know? And again, that's what we need more in the world. We have to find that. We have to notice it. Because otherwise, we're just hearing about war and, you know, divisiveness and scary things.

Yeah. If I could do anything with this particular podcast, it's like reach out to somebody that you haven't, and you haven't told them you love them in a long time. Just reach out and just tell them. It's going to be scary, especially when you, you know, send it and then it, goes blank for a while and you can't have any expectations to hear anything back from it. And sometimes you won't. Right.

But you put it out in the world and that's okay. And it's okay to get scared about it. Right. I love that because it's for you. If you're only doing it for you and for them to feel good, not expecting anything back. I also think, well, how would I feel if I got something like that? Right. Why is it so scary?

Yeah. You know, unless it's someone you haven't talked to in a while. Right. But yeah, being the first to do anything is it feels. risky. Yeah. But we have to do more of that. Yes. More of that action. Yes. For sure. So as we're looking out, we look out. And then as we're looking out and connecting, the other thing that's really important to do is use the other senses besides looking in order to get calm and ground ourselves to right now so that we can

remember because anxiety is about the future. Right. Right. So we have to work really hard. hard to manage that and be like, okay, well, what's happening right now? And that's that slowing down. And we forget sometimes how to do that. And you just mention it. Like walk around and look in nature, right? Smell the rose. Nature is amazing for grounding yourself and for, you know, and with anxiety, again, this is something that you taught me is, is to be curious about it. Like, what is this feeling? Oh, that's a weird feeling. This is an uncomfortable feeling. Why is this uncomfortable? Where is it? is it in my belly? Is it in my heart? Is it here? Because this means I feel I can't speak about something. My hurt hurts because of love or whatever. My belly, that's anxiety, I think. I think you'll start to

understand when you get curious where it's coming from. And then even the small act of being curious eases my anxiety because it feels like it's being heard, which sounds silly because it sounds like it's a third person or another person, but it is yourself trying to give you information because yourself, you don't feel heard. And the first person who's going to listen to you is you. So by being curious, I think is a simple act of easing the anxiety to begin with, I think. You're always so good about figuring out where it is in your body. That also gets you. I wasn't always that way. Someone taught me that. You're a good, quick learner. But what? We need, that's the other thing is we do need teachers.

We need helpers, right? Mr. Rogers always said, look for the helpers. Yes. And that's what I'm hoping by having you hear, this is what I want this podcast to be. I want it to be the helper that people can go to to feel better for just the hour that they're listening to this. Well, we hold on to these podcasts. We hold on to these conversations, right? It really does help with that feeling of isolation.

Or a lot of people think I must be the only one feeling this way. And isn't it amazing that we feel that so often? And yet I wrote a whole book about this is how I feel and so many people feel the same way. Right. But it was so scary. It was so scary. I know. You know it was.

Yeah. Yeah, it was really scary. And then, boom. Yeah. I'm very, very happy with the reception. And the DMs that I get, the people that feel seen just because they read some words that sound familiar. Well, also, you're so accessible, right? You're not just this robot putting out a book.

You are interacting with your community, and I think that's really different. Is it really? I guess it's because I'm so used to doing it because I'm so curious about other people's experiences, and I want to learn from them. And I also want to be a bit of a teacher. I can't imagine doing it any other way, but that's just me. Well, and that's what this is. This is you getting to be you, right?

and inviting people in and learning how to do it differently. So the senses, right, besides looking, we have to use our other senses, right? Smelling a flower. For me, it's smelling my cat's neck. Smelling my pug's head. Yes. There's something about it. You're like everything is going to be okay.

Yeah, everything's going to be okay. Oh, smelling your dog's paws. Dog's paws smell so good. I actually have not tried that. Oh, my God. I'm a little afraid. I'm a little afraid. Well, depending on what they've stepped in.

Exactly. But they've woken up from, you know, a nice long sleep and after us, you know, they're just, yeah, something about a dog's paw. They're yummy. They're yummy. Nothing like a pet. And my cat's neck, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

We could go on and on about our pets. Or the smell of good food or the smell, I mean, for me, it's, I collect perfume. I'm a, and I just love, certain scents can make me just feel better. Right. Right. Lavender reminds me of a spa, right? It just takes me to a relaxed place. Yep.

Food, right, tasting the food. Makes me think of the love of my family. Right. It does. It can take you back to your childhood and, you know, some kind of Italian deliciousness. Yeah. Right. So I would encourage someone to figure out the smells that they love, you know, and I don't know, get a candle in that smell.

Because I mean, my whole house is filled with candles. And when I want to smell a certain smell because I'm feeling a certain way, I'll light that candle. Right. And that's the thing. When we are either too anxious and we're spinning out or we're so exhausted and depleted that we are collapsing and we just don't have the energy to do anything, it's hard to even get up and look for a candle. Oh, yeah. It's hard to even get outside. Which I've done too.

Right. And we have to give ourselves time to just collapse. But we can't stay there, right? So you look. Because then you're wallowing and you're not going to get anything done and you're not going to feel better. and the whole point of living is to learn and to love. And the way you learn how to love yourself is if you need to take a little bit of wallowing and feel bad for yourself, absolutely do it. And then go, you know what, I'm better than this and get your ass up.

And I think you can get your ass up. I think people have no idea how strong they actually are because so many crap, so much shit gets like thrown at us and we get knocked on our ass so often. Like, what's the point of getting up? The point of getting up is because you have an entire life to live. And you have more people to love. And you have people that love you already. So getting up and remembering that. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Looking in, looking out, then taking in other senses, smell, listening, tasting even. And like looking down to see how grounded you are. So looking up first. Oh, looking up. Looking up first because when you look up, your perspective changes. Yeah.

Right? And when you look up, you can think about symbolically, what do you believe in that's bigger than you? Ah. Right. So is it nature? Is it a higher power? Is it God? Is it the universe?

It's different for everyone. But when you look up and it changes your perspective, you can feel a sense of security. Like, I'm going to be okay. Yeah. We're going to be okay, right? trying to trust that. Then you look down at your feet. Okay. And that is where you have to be reminded, wait a minute, I need to ground myself, but my feet also symbolize action. Oh. Right. And that's what you were talking about is get out of bed, right? Yeah. Movement is nature's medicine, right? So exercise,

even if it's just walking, even if it's jumping jacks, yoga. If it's walking, you know, out your front door to pick up the paper and walking back. That's right. You know, just get a lot of movement. Yes. Right. And it's just a reminder that we are empowered. We can go into action and agency. And that, again, can counterbalance the feeling of everything being out of control. Because I think that we forget that we actually do have agency. We do. Yeah. A lot because it feels like so much it's out of our control. When you listen to the news, we don't feel like we do. So we have to practice in our world. Where do we have action? Where do we have agency? And then it actually becomes doable. Yeah.

Because we do have, there are actions we can take. And I like all of those. It's a small practice in a bigger world. Yeah. But if we know little things we can do, right, and the... It's super helpful. There's so much going on. Yeah, I mean, like, then you layer in things like AI and all the changes in the workplace.

I have lost my job, you know, and you just keep scrapping away until you do another one. This feeling that the future is uncertain and even unstable, yes. How does that kind of uncertainty, like, affect all of us psychologically? I mean, there are so many layers to it because it's immediate, you know, am I going to be able to have a job? Am I going to be able to feed my family? Am I invisible? Do I have value?

Am I relevant? Has all this hard work gone out the window? All questions I've asked myself. Right? It's so scary. And then it's an existential crisis. of what is this world going to look like, right? So it can be scary on different levels.

And I think we have to be able to talk about it so that people know they're not alone. So what, how, like, even with the uncertainty of AI and, God, it just so needs to be regulated, I can't even begin to complain about that enough. Because AI is helpful, but you need regulations on it. to be used in a certain way. So I think, again, that goes back into action.

Okay, where can I, what kind of research can I do? Who can I follow? What podcasts can I listen to where I like their direction? And I want to, you know, see what they're doing so that it could go out into the bigger world changing regulations, joining a board, joining an organization, online forums. Yeah. So that you... There are things to do.

There are other people that think the same way. Oh, my goodness. And want to take action as well. And all we got to do is use that handy little computer and look for them. Yeah, because computers can be... I mean, obviously, they're amazing. They got, you know, along with the brain, the human brain, got them to the moon and back. So computers are good.

AI can be good. All of this stuff is good. It's just for me, it seems to be that when it gets into the hands of greedy people, that it turns bad. And there's a lot of greedy people out there and don't care about humanity and just care about making more money. What you're going to do with all that money after you die, I don't know. You know, I mean, and then we're all left, you know, with non-regulated AI. So I don't know. I'm on a soapbox.

We also have to stay out of catastrophic thinking. Which is really hard. You've known me far too long to know that is exactly where I go. Yes. Yeah. And it's easy to go there because there's too many greedy people running the world right now. Right. So then we have to go, okay, that's catastrophic thinking.

What's not so black or white? Where's the gray area? All right. Right. Where is humanity still humanity and it's not AI? Where are, you know, people still valued? Where can I turn where I can trust that AI is not going to take over the world? Yeah.

Right. It's going to take over different parts of different pieces. We don't know. And that's the thing is we don't know. Right. So we live in more uncertainty. Yeah. And it's the uncertainty, I think, that is so stressful for so many of us.

Yeah. So what do we do with uncertainty? How, again, we, to take. an actionable thing for our own sanity when we feel like we just don't know what's going to happen. Uncertainty sucks. But all of life is uncertain. All we know is today. Yeah.

Right. So ground ourselves in today, ground ourselves in the moment and gratitude for what we do have. A lot of gratitude, I think also collaborating. I, you know, when you can work with other people, you're reminded, because we can get so much in our head about, am I going to be okay, right? What's going to happen to my world? But when we work, when we expand and we work collaboratively and in a collective, then it feels less, we're dealing with uncertainty, but we have more hope. Yes, yes. Like, oh, as a group, we can actually move some mountains.

Yes. Can't do it by ourselves. That's just... You can try, but you're not going to get very far. I mean, we could do little. We can make little movements, but working collaboratively is so helpful. And that's where community comes in and being a part of your community and, you know, being helpful just in your own neighborhood even, you know. Okay. I am going to pause for a second. and thank everyone for listening to Getting Naked the podcast. Now, I have more questions for Melissa,

and I have audience questions as well. But, like, how do we deal with all this? But you did give us some really good pointers, so thank you for that. I think that's going to be really helpful. I know it's helpful for me, so for a lot of us. If you want the full reveal, head over to Valerie'splace.com and go ahead and sign up. It's just $2 a month, and you'll get to hear the full reveal

and get early access to every episode of the entire podcast. So thanks for listening again. And for those of you sticking around with me and Melissa Broner-Schneider, let's just keep going. I have a really fun recipe for you today. You saw how easy that was. Look at all that flavor we packed into chicken breasts. I love the flavor of maple syrup, especially for these kind of muffins. I see all of your comments.

I swear I do. You are wondering, where's my show? This is so dang delicious. Smells divine. That's a jalapeno popper. Oh my God. It's so good. Yes, I'm back.

and I am cooking for all of you. All right, Sophie, what are we reheating today? Welcome to Now Vow's Cooking. Guess what we're going to make right now. We're alive. Hi, everybody. How are you? You have to go to Valerie's Place.

That's where you can see our book group, this podcast. That's where you can go for all the cooking that you want to see. Oh, yes. I've missed cooking for you. I'm glad I finally get to do it again. I'm dancing. That's how good it is. So head to Valerie'splace.com and go ahead and sign up.

You guys are the original members, and I can't thank you enough. It's happy time. No.