Faith, Gratitude and Thankfulness is PEACE!

BlogTalkRadio. Hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at BlogTalkRadio.com. Shedding the Bitch, or share your stories on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back. 818-572-2910.

Good day, good day, good day everyone. How are you on this Beautiful, and I will tell you right now I'm feeling extremely grateful and thankful for today, and I'll get into that in a minute. It is steaming, steaming hot here in Atlanta, Georgia. We're going to have a very, very rough holiday weekend, long weekend. It's supposed to be above 90 to 95 all week long, and I'm surrounded by puppies, so if they happen to act up, I'll I'll have anywhere between the 4 I have now up to 6 or 7 before the end of the weekend. Gosh, you can't, you know, nothing's better than puppy, puppy love. But you'll notice that if you are any chance you see that this is live, it is 12:30 Eastern time, not our usual noon, and that's just because I was rushing back from a doctor's office And I'll share that with you because this is going to be a kind of a brief and somewhat just letting go and relieving a lot of stuff. And I'll share that with you. But just keep in mind, you can always come every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. We are here on Chaining the Bitch Radio. You can always go back and look up any number of our radio shows that we've had over the last several years., and we talk about anything and everything that has to do with women, that has to do with life, business, career, whatever the case might be. A lot of you give me ideas, and then a lot of times, just like today, um, I wasn't sure if I was even going to be broadcasting today, but all of a sudden I got quickly inspired to kind of share with you just life.. And, and if you are experiencing life yourself in any way, shape, or form, you may be able to relate. So at any time, just go to sheddingthebitch.com, scroll down, and you'll find our radio tab there. You can always find us on iTunes, on Apple Podcasts, on any number of streaming services. They— I continue to find our shows popping up in other places, which is fabulous. You can always go to blogtalkradio.com/shittingthebitchradio and find them there. And then of course we do post them on Facebook and Twitter on our Shitting the Bitch page, which is where you could be tweeting with us, Facebooking with us, posting questions, stories, or challenges you might have, shoutouts to myself, to Deborah, to the team, whatever the case might be. But like I said, I had Quite an interesting morning, and I just realized how important community is and also just how grateful and thankful I am to life as a whole. So let me step back a little bit and share with you— I believe I did last week— I mentioned that I was going to be having a some tests done today in regards to a bad mammogram reading that I had a few weeks ago, right before I went on vacation. And I had even told my doctors before then, look, if anything comes up or shows up, uh, I don't want to know about it until I'm back from vacation. And over the past couple of years especially, I've just seen a lot of friends, uh, deal with a lot of different things, uh, whether it is cancer, whether whatever variety of cancer it might be, or, you know, just illness or even transplants. My in-law, one of my in-laws had a transplant. So, you know, I realized as you, you know, get older, and I talked last week about, you know, my feeling of mortality that set in, or immortality I should say, as well, and the shift from feeling immortal to being mortal. And, uh, it just kind of hit me this morning. So long story short, I go in for my follow-up mammogram, and I've never had one before. I've never had an issue with any of my medical tests. And of course, as you're, you know, any woman can relate, if you do get a callback like that, it's anxious. Even though you feel confident, and even though, you know, I'm sitting there in my faith and my prayer, and I'm feeling you know, okay, I'll say. I walk into a room, there had to be in the reception room like 25 women there, and so that was kind of quick. They call you back to undress and to wait again, and then you walk into another room that has like 8 women sitting there, and even one of the women joked about the fact that it, you know, there has to be an insurance scam going on for all these follow-up mammograms tests because, you know, the whole office was just absolutely overflowing with women patients. So you're sitting there and you're trying to have a very casual, lighthearted conversation, and yet at the same time you're getting more and more anxious. And it doesn't help that one of the women there, having watched 4 or 5 women go in before her, starts freaking out to the nurse about the fact that she had been there for over an hour. She still hasn't been called on while all these people coming in behind her have been called on, and this is a follow-up, and she's very anxious as it is, and they're not helping her. Well, I, you know, I hate to say that I kind of fell into her anxiety, but her anxiety got me anxious, which got a couple of the women around us anxious as well.. And yet I still just sat there and tried to stay inward and try to stay kind of out of the drama that was going on around me and just recognize that, you know, I'll be okay, my faith will keep me grounded. I, you know, was definitely saying prayers to myself. And then I, you know, my friend texted me going, "Will you stop it? It's just a normal routine follow-up." And And to the person who's not sitting in that room, it is that simple. And I would probably tell another woman, oh, don't worry about it. Just, you know, go get the test. It'll be, you know, it's just a follow-up. They just want to be sure and you'll move on. So I, you know, I kind of was feeling silly. I'll be honest with you. So I did, I kind of, I calmed down. I calmed down. And the next thing you know, I'm called in. And I don't know this first, radiologist or whatever she, you know, her role is. I don't know, they just, they are very compassionate and they are very sympathetic and they are very kind and they are very soft-spoken. At the same time, she kind of just kept rolling her eyes through my tests and, you know, so that was getting me anxious enough. And after the test and at 57 with your, you know, losing the muscles in your boobs, these mammograms are getting obviously harder and harder and more painful and more painful. And so she's like, okay, so I have the test, or I have the films. I'll show them to the doctor and we'll call you with any test results. So you have to go back to the sitting room with other women who are anxious and nervous and unsure of what's going on and wait for another half hour or so to be then told you need more films. And now I'm getting very nervous. Now I'm getting very anxious. Now I'm even praying even harder. And I go and I get the second round, and this is just on like one boob. And so I get the second round of films and she says, okay, go back to the sitting room. And then I just was like, okay, now I really have to just really go inward and keep myself from just falling apart because all of a sudden my anxiety level skyrocketed. And I don't know about any of you if you also deal with this. It's one thing to have that white coat syndrome, they call it, that when you go to the doctor's office, your blood pressure elevates and all that kind of good stuff. Some people say it's, it's a myth. But, uh, you know, I'm sitting there getting more nervous and more nervous as I'm— and as I'm texting my friend who is a nurse, she's trying to kind of reassure me. She's trying to keep me calm. She's like, I've had multiple lipotomies and, um, they've come out fine, and it's just the process, and this is just what they need to do to be sure and certain. Yet sitting there, you know, minute after minute surrounded by other anxious women, it wasn't as easy as she wanted me to believe it was. And so then I kind of reflected back on something I read this morning. I had mentioned this on the program before, and I'm not one to kind of preach or push, you know, religion or any type of spirituality on anyone. Yet at the same time, I'll acknowledge the fact that I am very grounded in my faith. And I had found this devotional book called Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence. It's called— it's by Sarah Young, and it's daily, daily messages, uh, both by the author, who's a beautiful, beautiful spiritual writer, and then she has she has scripture written underneath her writing to kind of explain her own take on it. And so I, I came across this. This was actually this morning, and I happened to open it up, and I typically do it at night. I read it at night, but this morning I decided to open it up. And it basically— her messages regarding today is it's not so much adverse events that make you anxious as it is your thoughts about those events. Your mind engages in efforts to take control of a situation to bring about the results you desire. Your thoughts close in on the problem like ravenous wolves determined to make things go your way. You forget that I am in charge of your life. The only remedy is to switch your focus from the problem to my presence. Stop all your striving and watch to see what I will do. Now again, you can replace that, you know, that present statement, or, you know, if you don't, you know, believe in God or any, you know, third party, so to speak, do as you will. But I— it did kind of remind me that, you know, I can't control everything. You can't control everything. I can't worry about what's going to happen 5 minutes from now because I can't control it, uh, and worrying about it is just exhausting and emotionally draining. And I prove that point with the next round. So the nurse comes back in, I go back in, and she says to me, we need another set, we're still not, you know, able to rule something out that we're finding. There's 2 spots that we can't rule out. And so I'm taking a deep breath, I am biting my lip trying not to cry and, um, and break down. And the woman kind of noticed it, so she's trying to reassure me as much as she can. And we go through the next pressing of my boob to the point— and she said, you definitely need to bite your lip because this is going to be painful. So it was extremely painful. And she said, okay, you know the routine. Let's wait. So we wait, and the next thing you know, she comes in, she's like, well, there's no more films, but we do need an ultrasound. And again, it's just to rule everything out. So now I'm really just kind of wanting to even get on my knees and pray hard. And I stopped texting my friend because she wasn't going to help me at this point. And yet I still try to stay grounded on that that verse I read this morning about, you know, I can't control the situation. I can't make it turn out to be what— the way I want it to be. It's going to be what it's going to be. So I'm taking deep breaths and I'm trying not to worry. So next thing you know, I'm laying back on a, on a bed getting this ultrasound, uh, looking away from the nurse and looking away from whatever it is that she's doing. And just breathing and praying and just kind of trying to stay calm, cool, and collected. So she goes, she says, okay, let me take these to the doctor and have her look at them, and we'll be right back to you. Oh, and I'm like, oh my God, this is torture, absolute torture. And I don't, you know, maybe you, you ladies can relate to it, um, but at the same time I'm saying, okay, I can't worry about something that I can't control. Yet how hard is that? How almost impossible does that even sound? And how ridiculous does it sound for me? Because especially something to the effect of your body, yourself, your health, your life, let alone someone else's. And you should see how I react to my pups, you know, having an issue, let alone me having an issue. So the next thing you know, she walks in, the nurse walks in, And I didn't kind of notice that it was the nurse, not a doctor. But the nurse walks in and she just kind of throws her hands up in the air. She's like, everything's okay, like, like as if, you know, it was a walk in the park and I scratched my knee. She was just like, everything's okay, you're good, you can go. And I'm like looking at her like, you have to effin' be kidding me. And she kind of noticed that I was about to break down, which I did. I just broke down in tears, more of just the relief, or I should say the release, of all that anxiety that I put on myself for the, you know, the last, uh, hour, hour and a half, and just let it go. And she was like, oh my gosh, I, you know, I'm so sorry, I didn't, you know, mean to make— and I'm like, you didn't do anything, this was all me, this is all in my head, this is all my junk. It has nothing to do with you. I— but I hopped up and I said, but I am going to have to hug you. And she's like, oh, okay. She's like, that's fine, I understand. It's, you know— and I just kind of allowed myself to, to cry and break down and go and get dressed and kind of walk to my car just breathing and just literally looking up to God and thanking him and and definitely feeling very grateful and very relieved. And I, you know, running home to, you know, take part in this. I didn't want to totally stand all, you know, the community up, whether you're listening to it live or the 99.9% of you who listen to it downloaded at a later time. Just know, ah, I'm keeping this short and brief today. I wasn't even expecting it to go on this long. And just feeling very thankful, very grateful, very blessed in my faith. And if you ever kind of need a hand, you know, to hold, or you need some calming words, or even some, you know, phrases and authorship and scripture, and I can be in any way, shape, or form that calming element for you, then don't hesitate, don't hesitate, don't hesitate to reach out because I certainly— I did not tell anyone that I was going today. I did mention it to all of you, but I wasn't thinking you were picking up the phone and calling my siblings. But I didn't mention it to my brothers and sisters. Didn't need to get them all worked up and worried about something that they probably too would find ridiculous and be like, Bernadette, it's going to be just fine. And even a friend offered to come and sit with me at the— in the waiting room, and I'm like, no, that's even— you know, I'm not necessarily weirder, but that's even more anxious. That would get me even more kind of in my head. But I'm just grateful, thankful, and appreciative of my friends, of you, and just the opportunity for me to be able to use this vehicle to just, ah, release and vent and let go, and also to thank. So now I'm gonna leave it there for the week, and I will look forward to having you right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time for another episode of Shedding the Bitch Radio. Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart. Have a great, blessed week. Take care.

Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. Join Bernadette every Tuesday at noon Eastern as she helps you shift your bitches to riches. And the dialogue is always going on at sheddingthebitch.com. See you next week.