We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle - 25. You’re NOT A MESS. The world is.

Episode Date: September 9, 2021

1. The viral note Glennon wrote to herself in her car this week—and how the world’s response confirmed that we’re all struggling right now. 2. How we tend to either Avoid the world’s pain or Be Consumed by it—and how to survive the overwhelm by embracing the Third Way. 3. What Glennon fears most as her oldest child leaves for college. 4. Why we can’t let the fact that we can’t fix everything keep us from doing something—and how Together Rising began.

Hi, everybody, it's Glennon. Welcome back to We Can Do Hard Things. I just want to start this episode by saying, good luck to you. Good luck to you. We are recording this episode two days before I drop my son off at college. So today is Doomsday Eve, Eve, okay? And I am in the midst of just some real deep feelings that I'm not really sure I can even isolate. Before I knew of Chase's existence, so I got sober the day I found out that I was pregnant

with Chase. Okay, it was on Mother's Day 19 years ago. And so before that day, I was not who I am today. Okay. I was an addict. I was a food addict and an alcohol addict. I had no sense of myself at all. I had no, I hurt people.

I lied to people. I stole. I just was just a really, really long. human being. I had no North Star. I had no self, really. And so the day that I found out I was pregnant with Chase, well, I just, I guess it's the first time I ever wanted something more than I wanted to just be numb. And so I decided that I wanted to become a mother, which meant that I was also going to have to become like a human being. Right. And so the way that, that I became a human being is that I just constantly asked myself consciously at first and then

subconsciously, okay, what would this kid's mom do? Every decision that had to be made in my work, in my life, was just like, okay, I would look at this little child. Because, you know, I think the universe just kind of looked at me and was like, oh, bless her heart. Like we are, we are going to have to give her the easiest child ever first because she she can't handle a normal person, right? She's just learning to become a normal person. So we're going to have to give her this child that is like this little Yoda of a person. Okay. This like, and I'm not lying, right?

You guys, like he's just. Oh, no. He's objectively just exceptional. He's just this gentle, wise beyond his years. beyond his years little human who has been so patient with me. And, you know, he's the child who he's very rarely pushed the boundaries of anything. But he, no, in his, I mean, for me, but once he was, I told him to stay inside this little fence. And he and his friend jumped the fence. And I got there and he wasn't at this little playground. And I was so scared. And I found him.

And I brought him back to the house. And I was just staring at him because he'd never done anything like this. And I said, what is happening? And he said, Mommy, I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, push boundaries sometimes. And you're just going to have to give me a consequence. He was like five. He was five. You're going to have to give me a consequence, Mommy. How the world works is I learn about boundaries through natural consequences.

He was parenting you. And ones that you. He's always been like that. He's always been parenting me. and I have become a person that I'm proud of, right? Like, I have become a person who trusts herself and who other people can trust and who the world even trusts on some level. And it's because every day, every day I have looked at this kid and been like,

what would this kid's mom do? Like, what would the woman who is worthy of being this child's mother say right now, do right now, decide right now, create right now. Every day I've just been trying to be worthy of being Chase's mom. And it hit me the other day what my friend has, you know, this is a time when a lot of people's kids are leaving and one of my friend's kids is leaving. And she said, you know, I'm just scared for him. I'm scared for him. I'm just laying in bed thinking, I just hope I've taught him enough, you know.

I hope he's learned enough from me to, you know, go out into this big world on his own. Oh, my God. And y'all, you know what I thought? Oh, my God. That's not what I've been thinking at all. I've been thinking, oh, my God, I hope he's taught me enough. I hope that he has trained me. enough so that now I can go out into this world and be good and brave and wise enough without

him. I hope that he's done enough to set me off into this world where he's not watching me every day. And so, and I can still be good and I can still be wise and I can still be brave and I can still be strong. But what I'm telling you is that the truth is that I have never been any of those things without him in my daily life. And so what I'm wondering is if maybe in some ways we're all just trying to be as good as the person who loves us the most believes we are. You know, like maybe we are all just each day creating this character. that we just hope one day we've practiced enough to just become reflexively. Lives into the dream of who we wish we could be one day.

Yeah. And that's what he's been for me is just he's helped me create this self that I am, just trying to be good enough for him. That's so beautiful. It's so beautiful, honey. And I just, if you could just only see yourself through my eyes, that's all I will say. I see it every day. I see you every single day having gotten strong enough for this moment. And you are. I love you. Well, and it's just this amazing, I mean, through all

of these times, it's so wild this, you're looking at your kid walk away and you're like, first of all, helping him pack the other day. And I'm like, this is, this is not parenting. This is, like, we have to help our children break our hearts. Like, I'm helping you leave me. Like, the indignity. Here's what you should say to me when you break up with me. Exactly. It's like that.

Like, the unselfishness it takes. I just want to sabotage everything, you know. And so I have, what I'll tell you is, I do feel like I'm on the edge of that canyon, like that dark pit of despair. I mean, last night, Abby, you said to me, She's, Abby's tiptoeing around me a little bit and like, not even asking how are you quite often because there's just too much to that answer. So last night when I, when you did ask me, how are you?

And the truth was that I told you that I was thinking about how we're almost dead. Yeah. She says to me, she says, well, the truth of it is I feel like this is the step, the first step to the end. The next step is death. And I said, oh, okay. But we're 45 and 41. Exactly. It's just, it's not for a long time.

Hopefully that is not coming. Okay, but what I'm trying to say, it's the Harry Mitt Sally. And I'm going to be 40. In eight years. But it's out. I feel, y'all, because what I know that I go too far with things, I know that, you know, real me in or whatever. But what I'm on the edge of is watching your kid separate from you. This, him walking away, like now doing life on this level without me.

It's just like feels like dress rehearsal. It feels like practicing for when one day we're going to separate for real. Okay? Like I just. Yeah. I get that. Like that is what I'm touching. Like that's the hot stove that I'm touching here with the separation.

And what I've decided is that I can't feel these feelings. So your leader who's told you over and over to feel it all, I have scheduled three days where I'm going to feel my feelings. Okay. I've not gotten away from this family for so long. So Abby's taking me to a place for three days. Inside of those three feelings, I'm going to, three days I'm going to allow myself to feel the feelings. It's going to be loads of fun, folks. Right. In structure liberates, I'm just going to jump into the pit of despair during those three feelings. Because when you're a mom, you don't even get to feel your feelings. I have to walk Emma and Tish through this experience. I have to make Chase not worry that his mom's going to jump off a cliff. So I'm sitting in the car, I think last week. Actually, in a parking lot, I stay there during Emma's practice. As an act of maternal resistance, I refuse to walk.

I mean, I watch children play soccer. I mean, I watch them play. I refuse to watch children practice soccer. There's a new thing where now you don't even, it's not enough to go to the games. The parents sit and watch the children practice. I just, that is where I draw the line. So I will take her and drop her little self off and then I go sit in the car. So I'm sitting in the car thinking about Chase leaving. Thinking about it even, you guys, feels like touching like a hot stove. Like I just, I think. about thinking about it and then I shut down a little bit. I wrote myself a note in the car. I started having this big, big, you know, feelings. So I wrote myself a little note. As you know I do, sister. And the note said, I wrote it on my phone. It said, you're actually not a mess at all. You're just a feeling person in a messy world. You are exactly right to feel a lot right now. It does not mean you're weak. It means you're strong enough to be paying attention. Be gentle with you.

Listener, if you're asking yourself right now, does she actually write herself notes? The answer is yes. Abby knows, right, babe? So I wrote that note and then I was like, you know what? I should share this. Maybe it'll help someone else could it actually helped me a smidge. So I shared it. I put it somewhere on Instagram or something.

And I just, the responses, people are feeling a freaking lot right now. Okay? People are feeling so much. The comments that came back, the idea that actually we are not all a disaster. We are not all a mess. We just are paying attention to what is a very messy world. Right? And actually being upset by these things, having these feelings,

does not at all imply weakness. It implies the strength that is inherent with the decision to pay attention. Right? Have you ever hit a point at work where everything just feels heavy? Not just a bad week, but the kind of burnout where you're staring at your laptop thinking, I can't keep doing it like this. You're not alone. Strawberry.

Strawberry.me is career coaching that helps you get to the real root of your burnout, whether it's workload, boundary is a tough manager or feeling disconnected from the work you used to love. Our coaches help you untangle what's draining you, build boundaries that actually stick, redesign your day-to-day so it energizes you and create a plan so burnout doesn't sneak back. And with a new year starting, it's the perfect moment to rethink how you want to feel. You can get matched with a coach in just a few minutes and sessions are flexible, private, and built around the reality of your life. Go to strawberry.me slash we can do hard things and try a coaching session for 50% off.

Strawberry.combe because your career should feel good again. This show is brought to you by Alma. When I first tried to find a therapist, it felt like a scavenger hunt with no map, pages of names, long wait lists, voicemails that never got returned. I remember thinking if this is what it takes just to talk to someone, no wonder people give up. So when I found Alma, it felt like someone, finally turned the lights on. Alma, ALMA, is this beautifully simple way to find licensed, in-network therapists without all the runaround. You can browse without even making an account, and you can

filter for what actually matters. The therapist's approach, background, specialty, lived experience, whatever helps you feel understood. Nearly everyone who finds a therapist through Alma, 97% say they felt genuinely seen and heard. Better with people? Better with Alma. Visit hello alma.com slash weekend to schedule a free consultation today. That's hello a L-M-A dot com slash W-E-C-A-N. So one of the comments that came back, sister, what was it? Because I think I sent it to you. It was just like the world is on freaking fire. Yeah. The world is constantly on fire. How do we go on and keep breathing?

Yeah, exactly. That is the question. I think we have a voicemail, don't we? Yep. Hi, Flynn and then, sister. My name is Ella. I just wanted to start off by saying that I absolutely love your podcast. I also love on James.

Funny story, I actually read the book on an airplane in one sitting. And then once I got off the airplane a few days later, I got, we can do her being tattooed on my arm. So it's now with me forever. That is just how much I love your book and you too. But anyways, my hard thing, my question that I wanted to ask is that I am really, really sensitive. I'm also an environmental science nature. So I'm constantly burdened by just, you know, climate change, global warming, all kinds

of really horrible, awful things. And I constantly think about that. I mean, there's not a day in my life that doesn't go by. that I do not think about, you know, the end of the world in our future and plastic and turtles and, you know, all of those things. So I just wanted to ask if you had any advice on, like, how do I not think about these things or how, like, constantly, how do I not be burdened by them? And also, I don't know. I mean, you guys have that same experience. Anyways, I love you both.

I hope you have a fabulous afternoon. Bye. Ella, Ella, thank you for being burdened by what's happening to our planet. I mean, Ella made me think of Tish, actually. Remember, I've told you all this story and I put in an untamed and I'll tell a brief version of it. We have a, Ella described herself as sensitive. I have a kid that I, is sensitive.

And one day, her kindergarten. teacher called me and said, Glennon, we have an issue. And I said, of course we do. And she said, so I mentioned to the kids about climate change. And I talked to them about the polar bears losing their homes because of the melting glaciers. And the rest of the kids were sad. You know, they felt sad. But they were able to carry on. They were able to like soldier on to recess. But Tish is still sitting on the rug, the circle time rug. with her little face in shock and she keeps asking me question after question, you know, what about the polar bear's mothers? Why isn't anyone helping the polar bear? Oh, okay.

So what anyone who has a sensitive kid knows what the next few weeks of my life were like. Like all we did was talk about freaking polar bears day in and day out. I had to sponsor some polar bears online. I had to buy polar bear posters. I had to, in one of the lower moments of my parents, I had my friend Liz write me a fake email about how the polar bears were now fine and we didn't have to worry about the polar bears or anymore. They were okay. Tish did not believe that email because she's not an idiot. Polar bear saga continues.

One night I'm putting Tish to bed. I'm almost to that place, which is like I'm outside the door. I'm almost to the couch. I'm almost to the Netflix. And then I hear, mommy. And I say, what's wrong? Okay. She says it's the polar bears.

And I'm like, oh, hell no, no. And she says, mommy, it's just, it's that now it's the polar bears, but no one cares. So next it'll be us. And I was like, she is not crazy to be perseverating, to be burdened by the polar bears. We are crazy to not be perseverating, to not. not be burdened. What she is worrying about is the end of our planet. Right? She is not annoying. She is a prophet. She is looking at the end of the world wondering why we are all carrying on, which is what Ella is doing. Yeah. Right. Ella lives in a world that is so bad shit crazy

that is like, can the Ella's just be quiet? Like, could they stop annoying us while we destroy our planet. Right? So Ella, I mean, the first thing I would say to you is that you are not crazy. You are a goddamn Shita. You are paying attention. You are one of the ones like we say, like a canary in the coal mine, right? You're standing on the bow of the Titanic yelling iceberg, iceberg.

And the rest of the world is like, can you be quiet? We just want to keep dancing. Right. And also the icebergs are melting from global warming. Right. That's right. That's right. That's full circle there, babe.

Full circle. So number one, Ella, you're not crazy. You're correct. And you get to have joy too. You get to have, we have to find a way for people like Ella who are so many people listening to this podcast. A lot of our pod squad are big carers, right? And we're in a moment right now and maybe have been for a very long time.

where people are finding themselves thinking two things. Number one is I care so much that I just have to look away. And the second option is I care so much that I have to look all day. Right? This idea, sister, you and I talked about it. You gave it a different term. It was this all or nothing idea of being, of paying attention to the pain of the world, which was. Right.

Well, also, Ella is an environmental science major. So it's all the more important that she not, you know, wear herself down so completely in being devastated by this that she can't actually do the good and helpful work she's going to be able to do for environmental science. So the idea was this idea of rumination or repression that you can either just get so. dwelling in the thing that you just go kind of on loop where you can't step out of thinking about it, but you're actually not, that's not doing any work in the world, right? It's just, immobilizing you or you can repress it completely. Which are both self-indulgent in the end. They are. Right? They are. Because what I think we get confused about, and I do often, is I confuse myself when I tell myself, I can sit and read this shit or listen to this shit all day.

Because that is doing something. Right? That is what, responsible citizenship? But actually, I'm not doing anything. I'm just, like, watching the news all day or listening to the news all day is actually not doing anything. Right. Right.

Right. And both of those things lead to poor health, too, for your show. So you're actually being self-indulgent and you're rendering yourself unable to do anything effective for it. But I think if you go there, right, if you make yourself feel the feelings and imagine it like in Afghanistan right now where you're where you can, you can digest all this information, but then you can like try to get there in your head and really imagine like that's just dumb luck that I was born here and not there with my babies trying to get out of a horrible situation and having no options. You know, you can get there on a humanity level, which also isn't

doing anything, but I think there's this kind of like recognition of mutual humanity that happens that I think it might be the kind of heart change. Like it's not like that woman in Afghanistan who is the other me, right? The other part of that coin. That's not doing anything to help her. But I think if we're if we could all kind of get to that humanity place, I think it might lead to a world in which we didn't have as much of this shit all the time. That's right.

I do think that's doing something. That is different to me. When you do the recognition of your humanity connecting to their humanity, then you're undoing what starts wars to begin with, what leads people to those places because that is always based on othering. It is always having to say their humanity is different than yours. Therefore, you can tolerate this happening to them, whereas you couldn't tolerate it happening to you. So I think there's that part of it. And then I think there's this other part that that you said about we can't let the fact that we can't fix everything stop us from doing something that we can do. Right. And there's always something you can do. If you recognize that your humanity and you would want someone to step up for you, then you can step up in the ways that you can. I mean, that's how we together rising started. It was just a response to knowing that we could do a little bit to help a little bit. And, you know, $33 million later, individual donations of about $25 each.

We've spent $10 million at the border reuniting families who were separated. We just pledged and already have on the ground money in Haiti to help families there with boots on the ground, Haitian partners who have been embedded forever. We just invested $250,000 in Afghan women for women. And they are working 24-7 to get folks out as quickly as possible and to save lives. I think that there is this hopelessness that happens with us when we know that we alone can't fix it and that our little bit won't make a dent. And there is power in knowing that many, many people for whom that's true can get together and actually do something that does. And that's what we try to do. The doing something on a personal level,

that little thing is the crusher of apathy, like of hopelessness. If you're a business owner, who knows nothing about AI and feels really out of the loop, you're not alone. In today's data-driven world, you really need to understand your customers, and NetSuite can deliver those insights with zero fuss. No more waiting. With NetSuite, you can integrate AI into your operations today. NetSuite is the number one AI Cloud ERP, trusted by over 43,000 businesses. It brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into one single source of truth. And now with NetSuite, AI connector, you can use the AI of your choice and connect it to your actual business data.

So you can finally ask every question you've ever had, who are key customers, what's our cash on hand, what's trending in our inventory, and you can automate all those manual processes no one wants to do. Right now, get our free business guide, demystifying AI at netsuite. com slash hard things. The guide is free to you at net suite.com slash hard things. net suite.com slash hard things. This time of year, I am always looking for my sweaters. Luckily, Quince has all of the staple sweaters covered from soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like designer pieces without the markup to 100% silk tops and skirts

for easy dressing up to perfectly cut denim for everyday wear. I can't tell you how much I'm loving my quince cashmere sweater in this gorgeous oatmeal color. It's become the thing I grab almost every day. It's held up beautifully. It still feels soft. And it honestly looks way more expensive than it is. You know how frugal I am. And I've started picking up a few quince pieces for home too. They have travel bags and sheets. Their sheets are awesome. 10 out of 10. Refresh your wardrobe with quince. Don't wait. Go to quince.com slash hard things for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com. slash hard things to get free shipping and 365 day returns.

Quince.com slash hard things. I love the idea of doing something, deciding that you're always going to do something. That is a huge act of resistance to hopelessness. But that you're also going to be committed to this thing we're talking about, which is in a world that wants us to be numb, that wants us to other people. that you're going to resist that by finding ways to find humanity in these crises, in these situations all over the world. And the headlines don't do that for me. It's the stories. It's the well-reported places that give you the humanity of the situation. Well, it just reminds me. I don't know, you've got to tell the story about the man in the candle

outside the White House. Oh, God. I love that. that story so much. Okay. So during the, uh, during Vietnam, there was this, uh, man who, I can't remember his name right now, but we'll put it in the notes, who every single day would go to the White House and would stand outside of the White House holding a single candle. Day after day after day, okay? And finally, this news reporter, you know, people, caught wind of this weird thing happening. And so this news reporter came up to him with a camera and said, sir, do you really think that you standing here with this single candle is going to change anything? Do you really think that you and this candle is going to change them?

And he said, oh, I don't come here and hold this candle to change them. I come here and hold this candle to change them, I come here and hold this candle so they don't change me. And I love that story so much because I think the ultimate active resistance in a world that wants to divide us in a world that wants to other people, in a world that seems to be getting harder and harder, is to just refuse to become hard, right? To find all of the different ways that you are insisting on your own humanity and other people's humanity. And to remember that the reason we all feel overwhelmed is because we actually were not designed to be exposed, to be constantly deluge with this much information about so many

places in the world, right? That we were actually wired to be able to respond to a village. right, a smaller world. And so this complete overload of information feels like overload because it is overload. And so what we can do after we enter into the pain of the world is to remember to act locally, to care about the worlds also that we can touch to when we worry about the world's loneliness, to meet the loneliness in our communities, right? To constantly be involved with and connected to the worlds that are in our lives.

that are in our reach. Right? Because what social media does and what the world, the media, what media in general does is it makes us simultaneously feel like we have to be connected to everyone and in reality be connected to no one. Because we are not even out in the worlds that we can touch. I want to say one thing. I think that it is.

so true, everything you've said. And I would just say that also a woman, a woman in Afghanistan knowing that you recognize her humanity and a woman in Afghanistan knowing that you're reading 30 articles and your heart is broken doesn't help her for shit. Yeah. Right. So like if your humanity rails against something that you see, respond to that. That. You know, call of your humanity, do something. Because we live in a world that is overconnected, over exposed. And you know what that means? That means that there are places that you can find that are doing the work that your humanity demands to be done. So it isn't about you and your feelings. It's about what your humanity requires you to be part of. So recognize the humanity. And you. You know,

and then do something with your hands and your wallet if you can to that that woman in Afghanistan can feel. Yeah. I remember some saying to me like, pity is your pain in my heart. Hmm. Who the hell cares? Who the hell cares? Compassion is your pain in my heart and back out through my hands.

I just have to ask because this is, and I don't know, I'm sure a lot of people are going to have a lot of feelings about this. But I am not like you in this way, Glennon. I am not an empath. And so I sometimes find it more difficult to get to where you are. I do all the time in my brain. I'm like, yes, this makes sense. This is what we're going to do.

You mean in terms of like feelings, in terms of caring? Yeah, like sometimes, you know, when you say, sit at the foot of my bed and you have an easel and a coffee and you're like coffee revolution we're going to get these kids out of cages at the border i'm like okay this is i understand that it's terrible in my brain but i don't i don't experience it in my body and it i actually feel like a lot of your listeners might understand and feel the similar way that it actually feels like something's broken in me because i see it so happening so real and fervently inside of you that I'm like, well, why am I an ice queen?

Am I cold? Like when we go to art museums, you're walking around and you have tears in your eyes. And I'm like, I got nothing. Nice picture. I'm just like walking around with my hands behind my back, acting the part. Like this museum, it looks like she's having a grand old time. That's, I'm excited for you. And so I don't know. I just feel like there are probably some of us out there who don't feel as deeply, who will do the right thing. I always get there in my mind. I always do and I care. I do care. But I don't care the most amount like you can.

You don't care with your body. Yeah. You care with your head. That's right. And thank God for that, my love. Can I just take, I want to respond to that to people who, because we, empaths, whatever that is, right? We feel really precious about ourselves a lot. I do. I want to tell a quick story, babe, that I just thought of when you were talking. Okay. A couple years ago, you and I were at one of our kids' sports events. Oh, Lord. During this sports event, you and I were two of the only adults there. I don't know how this happened. There was just a ton of high schoolers and you and me. And then I had the girls with me too. It was one of Chase's events and then the girls were with us. Oh, cross-country. Right. Yes. Yeah. Here we go. Okay. So at the end of the event, one of the children passes out and lays down on the ground. Okay. Long, horrifying story short,

which ends fine to all of my warriors, it ends fine. This child ends up. But it was like not breathing. Cardiac arrest is the proper term. Yeah. Okay, but I just want you to everybody to know that the kid's okay, because I'm actually starting to get upset too. So the kid ends up fine, right? He lives. Yep. But in this moment, the child is laying down on the ground with high schoolers all around him. He's their friend. His heart has stopped. Okay. People are doing, are starting to circle around him. Abby runs over and starts to direct CPR. Okay. She turns towards me. Okay. Hold on. I just want to be clear. There was a couple of parents, one who is a doctor who was on top and performing CPR. So I wasn't directing high school kids to do CPR. No, no, no, no, I'm sorry. You were helping direct two other adults. Okay, right. Who is doing CPR on this child. Do CPR. Okay.

All the other children are in need of guidance in this moment, okay? Because there are several adults who are helping with the person who is on the ground. I am the only other adult, okay? So Abby turns towards me to direct me to go help the other children deal with their emotional moment. I was trying to get you to take the other children away from said situation so that they're small children. Right. So Abby turns to me, I look at her and I promptly pass the F out onto the ground, okay?

Like a tree has fallen over. So my two children who are already in trauma because they're watching this child who's now their mother has passed out cold on the ground. Okay. So not only my two children are double traumatized, but all of the other. high school children have now lost their only hope for any sort of adult supervision or guidance. Not to mention the poor doctor who's like, Jesus. No, now he's got this one dropping like fly.

I'm like coordinating the ambulance. I look over and Glennon is now on the ground. And of course, like what's going on over here makes me think that's what's going on over there. So I see Glennon go down and I think she's, I think, cardiac arrest, right? And that is what my children also think. I'm not a doctor, you know? And so they're all white. They're about to go down. It was like, it was like the standby me moment where everybody just starts throwing up.

That's what I was just thinking, babe. Okay. In other words, just not super helpful. Not super helpful. What I'm getting at here is that I'm going to tell you why I went down. I remember the moment before. I was watching a parent watch their child. the parent thinking that the child was dying.

Okay? I was consoling the parents. This moment, this moment for a deeply feeling person, I was a circuit breaker that was just like, nope, nope. Must save self, okay? Like whatever. My body was just not having it.

My point, babe, is empaths are good for some things. We are good for pointing out problems. We are good for sensing things in the universe that needs to be healed. We are not often the people who are going to do the healing. We, you know, you know who you don't want to be an empath? You're a surgeon. Perhaps. Right?

Like, you know who you don't want to be an empath? Maybe like a hostage negotiator. Maybe, like, there are lots of actually deeply helping things that empaths should be nowhere near. Okay? Like you were much more helpful in that situation than I are deeply feeling family empaths was. I feel like we empaths need to be very careful about how precious we are about ourselves and our role in the world because we sure as hell don't want a lot more of us running around passing out left and right. Maybe some of sisters' advice from the other day's podcast would really help in that moment that like this emotion will not. take control over me that if you become the observer, maybe you would just at least stay conscious.

Maybe. I mean, staying conscious would be the first goal. But I just think, babe, what I'm trying to say to you is you and your way of being, you and your way of being are not broken. You are so deeply, deeply helpful to the world. You just do it in a different way. And there's different roles. I mean, if we, If we were both, if we were both me, we would just sit around in our weighted blankets all day and do nothing, right? That's why we're like a team. A team needs certain strengths. Evolution requires it. Yes.

I help us feel you help us do. You are not broken. I might be. You are seriously, seriously helpful. You're not broken either. It's a new year. of trying to reinvent myself, I've been asking a simpler question. What would actually support me right now? And honestly, a big part of that answer is my home. I want my space to feel calmer, more

functional, and a little more like a place that can reflect my goals and energy for this year, which is why I've been turning to Wayfair. It's truly a one-stop shop for everything your home needs this season. What surprised me most was how easy it was to find exactly what I want. I wanted in my style and within my budget. Whether you're organizing kids' rooms, upgrading your work from home setup, tackling clutter, or just trying to make weeknight dinners easy. Wayfair really does have everything. Your home doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to support the life you're living right now. Get organized, refreshed, and back on track this new year for way less. Head to wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W.A.

Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair. Every style, every home. For your child, as the school year continues, patterns start to emerge. You can see what's clicking and where a little extra reinforcement could help. That's where I-X-L steps in, giving kids targeted practice so they can strengthen those areas early and keep moving forward with confidence. I-X-X-L is an award-winning online learning platform that supports math, language arts, science,

and social studies from pre-K through 12. grade. What I love is how seamlessly it fits alongside what's already happening in the classroom. Your child can practice the same skills they're learning at school, which makes it easier to keep up, feel prepared, and really understand the material. I-Excel is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the U.S. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get I-Exel now. And we can do hard things listeners can get an exclusive 20% off I-Exel membership when they sign up today at www. XL.com slash we can. Visit Ixel.com slash we can to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Let's go on to the next question. Okay, here's a write-in. Hi, Glennon. My name is Casey. My kids are six

and nine, and I am a fierce mama bear who wants to dive in and protect my children in any way in all circumstances where they can potentially be emotionally harmed. I understand on some cognitive level that that's not my job. But what am I supposed to do when I see negative situations happening at school or on the field or with their friends? And all of my instincts want desperately to intervene and fix and protect. What do I do when my babies are facing pain? Casey, first pass out. Casey, stay conscious. First, first of all. stay conscious.

I think Casey said I can't handle when my kids could possibly experience emotional pain. It's like potentially be emotionally harmed. Potentially, maybe not. Life might be tough on your sister.

All of life. That's right. Life is just one situation after another in which we will likely be potentially emotionally harmed. Right. Right. I mean, listen, I think that this is a major challenge for the particular parenting generation that is raising children right about now because there are parenting generations in the past who have not been so completely obsessed

with the idea that our job is to protect our children from all pain. Right? That's actually kind of a modern way of being that this is what's created us as like helicopter parents. salon mower parents, right? This idea that we're not, it's not our fault. Like we were given this idea that our job as parents was to just mow down anything in our children's way that could make them feel sad or make them feel lonely or make them feel left out or angry or anything.

And that's why we are all neurotic, right? Because that we have been given an impossible job. Protect your humans from being human, right? give life and protect from life, right? Like it's, we have been given an utterly impossible situation. And I'll never forget early on being at this convention and this sweet woman. She stood up and she raised her hand and she said, Glennon, I'm going through divorce. And my little boy is so sad. And every day I look at him and I think, oh my God, it was my one job to protect you. from this sort of pain and I couldn't do it. And so every day I feel like such a failure. And, you know, all the other people in the audience are just like nodding and crying. And it was just this moment where, and I think, you know, coming from a sobriety background where my job as a human being was to learn, just to learn deeply that pain is okay, that pain is actually

more than okay. It's like what teaches us in many ways. It's like how we become fully human, right? That in a way pain can be trusted. Like when you figure that out, then you realize that that's also what you have to pass on to your kids. And I just remember looking at her and saying, okay, just give me three words that you would use to describe the kind of person you're trying to raise. And she said something like, I want him to be brave and I want him to be wise and I want him to be And so then the question becomes, okay, what is it in a life that creates wisdom and kindness and bravery? And we all know that the answer to that is the struggle. Right?

It's not never overcoming anything. It's overcoming and overcoming and overcoming. So the irony of our parenting generation is that we are constantly trying to protect, to steal from our children the one thing that will allow them to become the adults that we dream they'll be, right? Which is this idea of, this idea that like our job is not to run in front of our children putting out every single fire over and over again, like frantically putting out fires behind them and around them at soccer practice and at school and in friends groups and that our job is just to notice the fires ahead with them, right? And to just like walk them towards them over and over again and let

them walk through the fire and sit in the fire. Because what we all know, everyone listening to this podcast knows, is that the more fires you walk through, what you learn is that you're fireproof. You don't have to ever avoid those fires because you will survive and survive and survive. And so for me, I feel like my goal is to just, I want them to be able to do that when I'm gone. It's easier said than done, right? You see your kid being left out or you see your kid being made fun of or you see this, you know, this vulnerability that your kid has out in the world and you just know the looks that everything pierces like a knife, right? And, and, but I think it's interesting in researching for the episode we just did on Tuesday, this idea that the people who

place the highest value on happiness are the least, are less happy than those who kind of view emotions neutrally because they're constantly striving and wondering why they're not happy. And I'm wondering if we're doing, if every time our kids are anything but happy, we are in a tizzy about it. And we are trying to intervene and say like, oh, God, did that not make you happy? Did that not make you happy? Like that is teaching them that something is wrong with them if they're not happy. Something is wrong in their life if they're not happy.

And so are we setting them up to live really unhappy lives by constantly cueing to them that it is bad when they're unhappy? It is something to be fixed when it is unhappy. You bring it to me and we're going to make this unhappy transform into happy. You know, I just wonder if it's more just like that neutral mindset of like, did that happen? Wow. Yeah. That happened to me too. Moving right along.

Yeah. You know, anything you want to talk about that? And it makes me. There's nothing to fix. There's nothing to fix. There's nothing to fix it. Let it come. It's visiting.

It'll go. Yeah, that's good. Well, and it just makes me, I'll take the sports perspective because I think that a lot of parents feel this way when they put their kids in sports. And, you know, Glenn, it goes back to you, not wanting to watch practice. Like, actually, that's like a, that's like a philosophy. It's a good parenting technique, in fact. It's important for parents to let the kids go out and to practice without them watching so that the kids starts to learn to not look over their shoulder for their parents' affirmation, for their parents' attention, that they can actually start to build and develop their own self-individual identity away, right, from that parent.

And so I think when we're talking about sports or putting your kids in situations where other people, adults, might have a little bit of power or control over how this child is getting acclimated into that life, whether it's school or a team, I think we've lost trust, right, in other adults to be able to do that for us instead of us, right? So what I would say is to do the best research you can on the teachers that your kids are going to have or on the coaches that you're going to put your kid in front of. Make sure that those people and then let your kids tell you the story of their life. All right. Let's get to our Pod Squader of the week. Who is it? I love these people so much. I love these people. I am just calling. I'm not even all the way through today's episode. and I just needed to communicate that Amanda Sister Doyle is a goddamn cheat-up, badass. Holy fuck.

She just, first she, like, said the prison part about what she did in her weekends and, like, my jaw dropped. Then she took a leave of absence to go to Rwanda. Like, what the actual fuck? You, I just, I love everything about this. That's all. Continue your good work. Bye. literally listened to the podcast and I was like freaking out. I got home and I was like,

Glennon, I didn't know some of this stuff about sister. Are you kidding me? Like she went to where during, during law school on the weekends? Like, I want to know more. She doesn't even know. You don't even know about the time she went to Hawaii by herself to learn how to surf for summer or when she told our parents, I want to go to Ireland. But like, I'm just going to go by myself and I'm just going to walk around. Oh my gosh. To stay and live. That will be a different podcast.

This is like finding out your best friends with somebody that you don't even, like that you are so, so excited to keep learning about. What the heck? I know. I mean, I just want to say to Amy, who was that woman who called in. Amy, okay. I don't know why Amy made me so happy. But it just because Amy was listening to the podcast and she stopped it to call in to say

the thing. And that just makes me feel so warm and cozy because that means we are having a freaking in real time conversation with Amy. She was like, I need to tell them something real quick. Hold on. And she called us to tell us something. I love it. And then basically her comment was like, sister, what the actual fuck, which is what I've been saying my whole life. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, Amy, to that. Amy, we love you. We love all of you. I think the takeaways from this week are go ahead and feel your feelings. Let your people feel their feelings. And don't let the fact that you can't fix everything keep you from doing what you can do. All right. Amen. We love you. We're going to keep showing up and do what we can do forever. So you can just join us and we'll do it together.

All right? Because we can do hard things. We'll see you next week. Bye. We Can Do Hard Things is produced in partnership with Cadence, 13 studios. Be sure to rate, review, and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Odyssey, or wherever you get your podcasts. Especially be sure to rate and review the podcast if you really liked it. If you didn't, don't worry about it. It's fine.