S2. E39. Off the Cuff: Did you Check In?

Natalie: 00:00:00

Have you checked in?

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One, with yourself.

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Two, with those around you.

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Both are equally important.

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You know, loneliness is

an epidemic right now.

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And studies show that in the U.

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S., one out of two Americans

have experienced some form

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of loneliness in their life.

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That's a staggering 50

percent of the population.

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And that number is actually understated.

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So it's important to check in with people.

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Now you can't check in with everybody,

but if you just made a conscious

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effort that once a day or once a

week, you're going to check in with

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someone that's important to you.

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And keep in mind not the people that

you talk to all the time, you know,

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there's those people that you just

end up talking to throughout the week.

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For me, it's My husband, my sister,

my parents, you know, those are

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people I see every day or every week.

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But then there's other friends that

maybe, maybe I talk to them weekly, bi

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weekly, then you have some friends that

you talk to once a month, then you have

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some friends that you really only talk to

once a year or twice a year, you can still

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check in with them even if they're not a

part of your regular day to day routine.

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Because we all need to care

about each other and we all

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need that human connection.

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And I'm sure everybody knows how

good it feels when someone just

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messages you out the blue and says,

Hey, I was thinking about you.

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I hope you're okay.

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For me, I have a student

who checks in on me.

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I would say maybe three times a

year if I was to give it a guess.

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And this was a student I taught

in my very first year of teaching.

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So it's been a long time and

he still checks in on me.

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And I remember sending him a

message to my last message.

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I said, thank you so much

for even remembering me.

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Like, I don't know how I come to your

mind this many years after you've

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graduated and you still check on me.

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And I appreciate that so much.

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And I'm going to make a conscious

effort to try to check on him

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next time before he checks on me.

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But nonetheless, it's so

good that he checks on me.

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And so it's a reminder for you

to check in on other people.

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And even today, I decided to

check in on a friend who I

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hadn't heard from for a while.

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I remember saying, I sent a voice

note to say, Hey, you know, thinking

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of you, hope everything is good.

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And then they responded

back with an emoji, heart.

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And I said, huh, that friend

usually would say more.

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So then I decided to just,

just go a little bit deeper and

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said, how, how are you doing?

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And then, you know, that friend shared

that they had kind of been going

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through a lot over the last month.

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So sometimes taking that check

in to the next level can really

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be a little bit more impactful.

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Or maybe a lot more impactful,

just depending on the situation,

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but not for much more effort.

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And then, when you've checked

in with others, also take the

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time to check in with yourself.

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And for this one, I don't want you to just

ask yourself, like, how are you feeling?

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I really want you to, you

know, Spend some time on this.

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It could be in a journal, or it could

just be a self assessment, but something

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on paper, so that we can confront what's

in our head and see it in front of us.

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And really sit down and go through

different key areas of your life.

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I do have a wellness assessment

that is linked in the show notes

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so you can always download.

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But I want you to think of the key areas

of your life that impact your well being.

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Just ask yourself, how are you

doing in each of those areas?

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And it doesn't matter what

information comes back.

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You might be at a zero or one out of ten.

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That's okay.

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It's just information so that you

know where you might need to put

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some extra attention and effort to.

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Or maybe you're great in all

the areas and you don't need

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to put attention to anything.

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But you won't know until you pause

and do that intentional check in.

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So check in with yourself,

check in with others.

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And until next time, continue to

serve yourself, your loved ones, and

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your communities from a full cup.