The Everyday Awesome Project

74: Living Simply and In Abundance

• Polly Mertens & Samantha Pruitt • Season 1 • Episode 74

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Less is more, for real. Think about it- do you ever feel like you're constantly chasing more? More stuff, more success, more of everything—yet somehow feeling less fulfilled? Less happy? You're not alone. The irony of modern life is that our pursuit of abundance often leaves us feeling empty. So let's talk about it this week with your Coaches Polly and Sam! 

In this episode, we dive deep into the counterintuitive concept that simplifying your life is actually the path to greater abundance. We challenge the notion that fulfillment comes from external validation, racking up wins or an accumulation of stuff, suggesting instead that true joy emerges when we strip away the unnecessary and create space for what actually matters.

Polly and Sam explore how society has conditioned us to believe that constant striving and acquisition will bring happiness, when research and experience show the opposite is true. Both of us share personal stories of times we've drastically simplified our lives and found unexpected freedom in having less. From going tiny or living out of a backpack to creating daily streamlined routines and mindfully curating our living spaces, we both offer practical strategies for reducing complexity without sacrificing richness.

One of our favorite exercises we suggest is simply taking inventory of what's already going right in your life! This gratitude practice shifts focus from what's missing to what's present, reminding us of our agency in creating joy. We also explore how minimizing decisions about everyday matters—what to wear, what to eat—creates mental bandwidth for deeper pursuits. Plus how critical it is our spaces are simple and organized so that our minds and bodies can breathe into our values rather than autopilot into the frenzy of everyday distractions. 

The beauty of simplification isn't about deprivation; it's about making room for abundance in its truest form: wisdom, relationships, experiences, and inner peace. Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by possessions, commitments, or mental clutter, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on how to become a "joy generator" by focusing on what truly matters. Because ultimately, it's not about how your life looks—it's about how it feels.

xoxo Coach Sam and Polly 

Follow Coach Polly @getbusythriving and Coach Sam @thesamanthapruitt

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Polly Mertens:

hey, superstars, welcome back polly here.

Samantha Pruitt:

What's up?

Polly Mertens:

beautiful human sam pruitt here yay we're back in studio again, oh lady you were out doing some lives, going in different directions, but here we, we have a wonderful topic for everybody. So hang on. This was your idea and I love it. So let's. You're going to be doing most of the time. I'm sure I'll have lots to say too, because I fully enjoy this topic. So we're calling it living simply with abundance. Living simply with abundance and that was one that I came up with. You're like that's not really abundance. I'm like, well, it's this and I don't know. So how would you describe like, what are we, what are we trying? A way of being, basically, that is simplified.

Samantha Pruitt:

Therefore, it brings you peace.

Samantha Pruitt:

So it's a way of thinking, a way of acting, a way of being in the world that allows you to feel at peace with yourself and out in the space with other humans, and I feel like as I move around in the world, people are not at peace, if anybody has noticed, and so the more we can help them generate that for themselves in their own life, the more productive they're going to be, the more they're going to feel well in their body, in their brain, and therefore be able to contribute out into the world in a positive manner. So that's a long way of saying what you said.

Polly Mertens:

Well, the other working title, the other working title, was finding fulfillment within right Because yeah, yeah, but take two would have been finding fulfillment within. Right, because, yeah, yeah, but take two would have been finding fulfillment within.

Samantha Pruitt:

So there you go one or the other.

Polly Mertens:

And it was like you know, there's so much of our lives lives in the world's societal conversations. That sounds like striving, striving, striving and accumulation. And even you felt like when I said, hey, let's add with abundance on there, because as we talked, you know we always have these little pregame chats that Samantha and I do before we get on and talk with you all about you know, what do we want to talk about is? I was like this sounds like an abundant life. And you're like, oh, no, it's not about you know, gaining more. And I was like, no, I think-.

Polly Mertens:

Stop gathering things put it down, you don't need more. And I was like but fulfillment to me is different than striving right. And abundance, you know, we let's say the abundance and money. Let's just put those two together, get like this bad reputation or bad Velcro to each other. Right, and I've recently learned five areas of abundance at least, and you could have more through some teachings that you know. So money can be one of your areas of abundance, gifts can be areas of abundance, trade and barter, synchronicities, imagination or inspiration, and we could go on right. And when you and I were talking and I love the little to-do list, so get your pens out, because we've got a little to-do list towards the end I was like this is like accumulating things other than things that you started to talk about, right, yes, and how that can be fulfilling from the heart but be fulfilled within.

Samantha Pruitt:

And that's how I think of the word fulfillment. Yeah, so abundance for me. I do think of collecting things. It's a lot of. It's how I was raised, and then the traditional Western society that we're in and all of that stuff and the onslaught. When I think of fulfillment, I do think of internal, intrinsic. You know, it's really about how I feel and think and operate in the world. It has nothing to do with external things and how much stuff and the bank account or an accumulation or otherwise. Those things actually feel quite draining to me and anytime in my life's journey I've done this a couple times, you've done this as well where we ultra simplified and just cut down to being bare bones. You know, however you want to look at that minimalism or whatever you want to call it these days, yeah, when we've done those in an extreme way, it's been so incredibly liberating.

Samantha Pruitt:

I don't live that way on the daily now, but I do my best, and so do you, to keep very simple ways of being in the world in terms of our operational standards, if you will, and sort of how we do live. There's just so much freedom in that and it's personal fulfillment.

Polly Mertens:

It's like minimal things, maximum joy. Yeah, like let's minimize the stuff and maximize the joy, right, like the return on investment of what you already got. And you know, as I think I've said it on a previous podcast, it was clear to me after years of doing gratitude journaling or prayer meditation in the morning it was like my gratitudes are things, they're people, they're moments, they're experiences, they're relationships. Right, they're something that enriched my life, not in a having of a thing, like I couldn't put my finger on the thing I was grateful for, but I could still have the experience of it. And that's where I think that feeling and sense of fulfillment is personal to us, right. And when we can detach from the things that society thinks to tell us and the advertising people want us to buy in order to feel good for a moment, it's like, well, what's lasting, right? Like you talked about peace, right, like that peace inside your heart, like it's priceless.

Samantha Pruitt:

Right, it's priceless and I honestly believe it's what everybody ultimately wants. Yeah, because in this one life journey and experience, we can all think of times where we had peace in our mind and body and when we didn't, didn't yeah, didn't or do not it feels like a disease state a mental, emotional or physical disease state versus the opposite of when that is there, every, just everything just feels right. You know, it takes no effort. It's so lovely.

Polly Mertens:

And give us a little background. Why are we talking about this? Because you continue to be my little budding Buddha. The budding Buddha continues to come out. So what sparked this for you? What was? What is it you've been thinking about? Listening to, reading whatever, like what? What's the inspiration for the? Simplifying? And getting back to this?

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, in reflection, I actually think in many times in my life this is what I've gravitated towards. Sometimes maybe initially not willingly Works into it the failure of a business or finances, or the breakup of a relationship or a forced move or whatever Like life you know, going chaotic and then being stripped away from me unwillingly and the causing of that sort of losing of everything. Not really, but you know what I'm saying. I'm exaggerating here. Yeah, those kind of four circumstances kind of were a pattern when I was younger and evolving into adulthood and even young adulthood, and then several times over the course of my lifetime these things have been a little bit of a reoccurring theme. So then as I got older, I learned to actually search out and be more appreciative of causing that myself, so consciously choosing to go minimalist or take a reprieve or try something completely different or strip away or whatever.

Samantha Pruitt:

Right now, in reflection, I'm studying Buddhism and really the path of the bodhisattva, which is the person who decides that they're going to be on the path, and I'll read a little excerpt from that later to kind of describe what that means to people or maybe to set things up. But at the core of the art of living, buddhism. The art of living is that you live very simply, and the reason that you live very simply you don't have to be a monk living in a monastery somewhere. The reason all people could live more simply and should live more simply is so they make space, time and energy bandwidth. They direct their attention, their focus, their energy, their resources towards the path of learning, of self-discovery.

Samantha Pruitt:

Some people call it enlightenment, some people call it mindfulness. It's called a lot of different things, but being on that path, cultivating wisdom, requires time, energy, bandwidth, and so if you have all this stuff and you're feeding the machine of having to make money, spend time, spend energy to serve in service of the stuff, it's a, it's a distraction. Honestly, it's a, it's a depleting cycle. It's a zero end game. Yeah, there's a zero end game.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, you can have more and you'll only feel like you have less. You know, the more you, the more you get, the less you feel complete. Or you know more, you got to get kind of thing and what, what it was starting, what I was starting to get as a distinction, as you were talking, is like, like the wisdom that comes through understanding yourself versus like I, the self, your whole self, your high self, your, your core of who you are, versus this identity that we create, you know, know this picture, this society's description of like the perfect woman, the perfect man, you know, perfect wife, whatever, and we're like chasing this identity in order to be accepted and loved and all this stuff. And then there's like this core essence of us waiting to be self-discovered, waiting to be unpacked, waiting to be known again, right, reminding us who we are, unpacked, waiting to be known again, right, reminding us who we are.

Polly Mertens:

And oftentimes, from all the teaching I ever read, is like that sense of self, not this identity, like, oh, yeah, you can figure out what it means to be a great mom, yeah, you can figure out what it means to have a successful life, business or something like that. But the journey to knowing yourself. Sometimes it can come through the doing of life right, like you had some experiences where you it slowed you down and got you in touch with yourself and whatnot. But oftentimes it's not in chaos and busyness and whatever it's, in times with thyself and you especially out on the trails.

Samantha Pruitt:

Good God, I'm sure we could talk a lot about know thyself, go out in nature and you'll have a lot of interesting conversations with yourself or the trees or the animals or whatever. But it's a very different experience. Yeah, because in general, society puts upon us labels and expectations, but we very willingly, as the humans running around in this crazy society, take it on. We go oh, that's what you want me to be. I will be that. Oh, that's what you want me to be. I will be that. Oh, that's what you want me to be. I will be that. Oh, that's what I should be. That looks like the ideal thing. I will be that. It's ludicrous. Who makes these decisions?

Polly Mertens:

Well, we sometimes unknowingly do you know like I can remember, younger in my career, that line of be careful which ladder you put. Be careful which wall you put your ladder of success up against, because when you get to the top of it you may find that it's empty and meaningless or whatever right. And so choose carefully, choose, you know, wisely. And I think there's a lot to be said in that metaphor for all the things that we do, you know. You know, whatever you're choosing to pursue, that thing that you think is going to get you somewhere, is that really getting you somewhere, or are you getting closer to knowing thyself what you really care about? You know.

Samantha Pruitt:

So here's one of the main points stop searching outside of yourself. That's basically what we're saying to people Stop searching outside of yourself.

Polly Mertens:

And say more like double click on that, like what, what? How do people translate that? Like searching like somebody's, like I'm not searching for anything and what?

Samantha Pruitt:

do you mean by that? It's striving or searching, trying to conform right. It's like that external action and thought process and emotional investment in the becoming of something. You know, I always think of becoming as me, just fully evolving to my own highest potential, but it's not attached to how much money am I making? What's the job title? You know? What kind of car am I driving? Do I have a six pack? You know, it's like me becoming. Is me really becoming a full expression? You're an artist, so you like really understand.

Polly Mertens:

Well, and I think too, it's like the difference between in doing the thing or climbing the ladder in order to something like oh, once I have that, then I will be right. That's the trap that I think, anything that fits into that loop, that little fruit loop of oh, when I have this, when I get there, when I'm this, when he or she likes me, or whatever like whenever. That sounds like the conversation that you're having with yourself. That's looking outside of yourself, right, and so looking within, is you start from within and then express, would you say, exactly, you start from within and then express would you say Exactly yeah, and it's hard to look within if you're not doing the inside job.

Samantha Pruitt:

You know the slogan happiness is an inside job. It is right, but if you're not taking time, Doing that all outside stuff is very consuming.

Polly Mertens:

It's like you know, it's consuming. Yeah, cause we adopt a conversation or culture that tells us that that's what a fulfilling life is. Doesn't even tell us that's what fulfillment is, it just says you ought to be doing it right, like everybody else is doing it.

Samantha Pruitt:

Let's start with becoming aware of what we actually already have and what we're doing now. How about just let's start with the basic awareness of like? Oh, I live here and this is what I currently am operating with Like. This is what I have, so like with an appreciative idea.

Polly Mertens:

This is one of our to-do lists, right? This is one of our.

Samantha Pruitt:

No, this is just me going, oh, me going, if people are not sure where to begin. Yeah, yeah, I'm going. I got a whole other to-do list, but this is just like the basics of like, are you awake and paying attention? Cause it's really hard to do this work If you're not. If you're asleep because you're suffering so much. I'm not, it's not a judgment. It's like the suffering is so intense that you are full on, hunkered down in zombie mode, surviving with the amount of internal physical, emotional suffering. It's very difficult to break that cycle and open your eyes, right? But but is it hard?

Polly Mertens:

Is it hard and I was going to add to that like reaching for coping mechanisms. If you're reaching for a coping mechanism and that could be your phone, that could be alcohol, that could be, you know, pick your coping mechanism of choice.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, pick your poison of choice. If that is the practice, if that's how life occurs for you right now, is there's more coping mechanisms than fulfillment? Is there's more coping mechanisms than fulfillment? So this could be access to an alternative, because all of those you know in my years with habits and addiction and working with that, it was like you often find that habits because the mind loves to simplify and create habits or whatever right. So it's like okay, you're creating this habit of reaching for something. This is an opportunity to reach within. It sounds like right, so like turning your work on yourself instead of coping with it through escapism, you might say.

Samantha Pruitt:

Simple example I was having a conversation with a friend just recently and they're like oh, I really I'm interested in being a vegetarian. So we were just kind of discussing well, I'm not a vegetarian, but you know, I know a few things about nutrition and all that stuff. I've experimented with it in the past. So, just having a conversation, I was like well, so how do you eat now? What's your daily nutrition? And they're just like I said. Well, just like, take me through a day. They don't even relate to it.

Samantha Pruitt:

They don't eat. Literally, they couldn't remember and we're not actually sure what they were eating and drinking, consuming on a daily basis, and I was like I'm confused.

Samantha Pruitt:

So let's just start with the basics of become aware of what you're doing now with the basics of become aware of what you're doing now and to be that numb and not know what did I eat yesterday or what am I eating today, like we need to start paying attention. So you do have to kind of first start with for some people. Let's just start with the basics of just becoming aware, without judgment, of what are we doing currently.

Polly Mertens:

Well and this is a beautiful segue to the coaching that I've heard you always talk about is you always benchmark with your clients? You know, first step is like we got a benchmark. You want to go to New York. Okay, well, where are we? Are we in Florida? Are we in Los Angeles? Where are we? Where are you? You know kind of thing. So that's kind of points to benchmarking for yourself. Okay, Well, how am I operating in life? Am I reaching for coping mechanisms instead of, you know, confronting myself, or confronting those uncomfortable things that I reached for, instead of taking them on or looking at them? You know?

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, yeah. And the goal is not to be judgmental or critical, it's actually to find out what am I doing, right? I mean, I'm doing a lot of shit, right? People? Okay, we all are. We're all doing a lot of things, right? Not?

Polly Mertens:

according to 80%, not according to the monkey mind. It's got all kinds of criticism, so what we find ourselves is an overly critical, you know, routine going on that keeps us distant from what you're talking about.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah.

Polly Mertens:

We all have it, we all have it.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, trapped basically focused on the 10 or 20% that we're not doing right, devoting time and energy, resources, practicing. So this is about self knowledge, right, it's about self development. I love the term cultivating wisdom, so for me it's not just about within myself and knowing myself better. I want to understand the world better, the natural world, but also the human world. I'm very into human connection and natural connection. I want to have a greater understanding for how humans work and how nature works. I'm curious. So there was the five other areas I said of abundance.

Polly Mertens:

you know money being one of them, gift, whatever. So I think you could just simply say what you just said areas, I said, of abundance, you know money being one of them, gift, whatever. So I think you could just simply say what you just said as another area of abundance wisdom you could accumulate, have an abundance of wisdom.

Samantha Pruitt:

That's what I want. I'm totally hooked on that Like I'm such, and I believe at the heart of most humans, just based on evolution, is we have a natural curiosity and we will stifle it repeatedly. Well, I can't study how to play the guitar because I'm so busy doing this job in whatever, whatever, because that takes all my time and energy and whatever. And I again somebody I was talking to this week I'm doing some career coaching type of stuff and basically what they were expressing to me is I don't have anything left after I go home from work. This job is just taking everything out of me. I have no physical energy left, emotional energy, creative energy. There's nothing left, so I couldn't possibly pursue anything else.

Samantha Pruitt:

They're leaving it all on the table at the job. They hate. What the hell? Why would we get you know? So it's like just thinking about that. Okay, if that's the case, first is that true? And then is that the case, and you know how can we redirect that? Again, if we want to make ourselves happier, healthier, it's going to require a peeling back of all these burdens, right, a simplification of our everyday life.

Polly Mertens:

We've made things too complex and a lot of that is made up stories about what we need to do, and I think some of it is not being real with ourself and how we're allowing our time to get away from us. You know, like you know, if we actually had to write out all, I forget how many hours we have in a week, but if you had to write out everything that you did through a week, people would find all kinds of time that they could be doing things that bring them joy or self-discovery, or things that we're talking about. So we have to stop lying to ourself in that area, cause we're probably lying to ourselves in other areas.

Samantha Pruitt:

So, yeah, or people genuinely have over obliged themselves to others. That's, that's.

Samantha Pruitt:

Or to the or to the hamster wheel or whatever the thing is. That's true, you know, I love I. This is one of my favorite.

Samantha Pruitt:

You is like having people unpack their day whether it's nutrition, and that's a lot of part of the thing but like, how are they spending their time and what are they up to? It's fascinating, by the way, because I'm always like, okay, well, we're going to sleep. We got some things that are like not working mentally or physically for you. So let's kind of look at the whole human. What people get up to is fascinating and again, no judgment. But it's like, well, if you're going to bed at midnight every night of the week, right, but you know, you got to get up early because you got to work or whatever, of course you're going to walk around half the time on five or six hours of sleep, feeling like shit, because you're a human, guess what? You need more than five hours of sleep. But these are things that we've just sort of convinced ourself, right. So anyway, I'm off on a tangent. Let's get back to simplifying.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, living simply living simply yeah, so how, as an example within your own life, have you created rituals or routines that are a simplified way of being, so you can feel more fulfilled, find more joy throughout the day, throughout the week?

Polly Mertens:

Well, one of the things that just popped when you said that and maybe this isn't the best example, but it's popped, so I'm going to share it and that is you know, there's a lot of information out there about how many decisions we make in a day and how decision fatigue is a thing. Right. And like top, top CEOs, like they're paid for their decision making abilities right. And if they're making $2 decisions or $50 decisions and they're not making, you know, billion dollar decisions, like whatever, so like the amount of decisions, so like they sometimes recommend you know, dressing the same way every day, so you're not making a decision on that shit, right? So for me, one of the things is my exercise routine right, like I don't leave it to chance, I don't think about it. Like, and I pay more for a gym that I go to, that they pick the class, or you know, like like I go to the class and they put all the research into how this is going to formulate a better body and whatever.

Polly Mertens:

You know, I'm being playful about that, but like I know that the results I want, they can offer it to me and I don't have to think about that, right? So the simplification is I pay for X and I get a great Y Y, y Y Y return. Right, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

And, and and.

Polly Mertens:

I get a great Y, y, y, y, y return Right and and and I don't, I don't go. Wow, every week I don't go. I wonder if I'll go to the gym in the morning on this day and then in the evening on that day, and I was like, and what will I do when I get to the gym?

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, and then think what will I do when I get there, besides walk around in circles and play with the machines and maybe some people love that totally.

Polly Mertens:

But you asked for an example where that is a simplification in my life and it's like it's non-negotiable, it's, you know, at least Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then in between that, yeah, I do, you know, like today I play, I mix it up with a hike, you know. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, so today, so I was a hike and I choose a different mountain or something like that that I'll hike on, but keep it simple, Like I don't think about, well, should I leave a little earlier and go to this one way, way, way. I was just like oh, this one's here, you know, or you know, and, and some of that's food too, you know.

Samantha Pruitt:

You totally do that with food. I was just going to say, and your nutrition profile routine is the same. You're like I don't need to be thinking. I buy the healthy food at the beginning of the week. I have it all queued up. This is what I eat. There's not a lot of fussing around you know, I've learned from you.

Polly Mertens:

Know, and you've probably done it too. I've been on more fasts than you, I think, but fasting shows you how much time we put into food acquisition, production, consumption, cleaning, and I was like that's a lot of time. I got back when I wasn't doing that and I was like how can I live a little more like that? How can I get those three to four hours back a week? And so that's one of them, and there's others, I'm sure, but that's just as an example.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, how about you? Totally how? I mean, a big part of my day and week are very routine and habit driven right. Like I get up, right at or right before the sun, you know, comes up like there's just certain routines that have to be part of who I am in the world now after all this time, um, and how I regiment my workouts and whatever. So again, I don't have to think about it. But to be clear, these are conscious choices I have made because they make me feel good. I do the direct correlation of me doing certain things on the daily, on the weekly, are joy inputs into how I feel physically, how I feel mentally and emotionally. That's why I'm doing it. I'm not doing it because they make me feel bad or there's some suffering. Well, okay, crossfit, occasionally there's quite a bit of suffering in there. But, like, ultimately that's a very joyful experience for me and I get a ton of benefit from it. So I'm setting myself up and these routines are joyful for you to like.

Polly Mertens:

Eating healthy is a joyful choice and act, exercising our body on the daily is a joyful act you know and I'll tie one also into this that I just started to think about, as you were sharing, and that is clothing and what we wear, right, it can be part of our self-expression, it can be partly to fit in, or bonding, or belonging, or whatever you want to call it. I had an experience where I was going to do so. When you do psychedelics, you become more heightened and aware of a what touches your body, the things that you see, all this stuff, right. So when you do plant medicine, things have a bigger impact on you, right, Because your mind is more expanded and open, right. And so, as I was like, well, what am I going to wear today? While I do this, I was really present to if something had a symbol on it or if it had some words on it, I was like, and how did the fabric feel on my body, you know? And so where I'm going with that is like the clothes in your closet, Right, you know.

Polly Mertens:

And so, like the simplification, a lot of when I would do the flipping houses and we'd go into hoarding houses, Right, People had stuff that they'd never even taken out of a box, clothes that had tags on them, and they were, you know and I find that there's this unfortunately you get into this like acquisition of more. You know, you go to the I don't mean this in a bad way, but like you go to the Walmarts and, yeah, I can, I have greater buying power, so I just buy something but then don't utilize it right. And so when you talk about living simply with abundance, it doesn't have to be about more of the thing, right? So when I look at the clothes that I wear, I'd rather buy something that's maybe more per dollar for that shirt or that thing, but the quality will last. I feel good with it on my body and my skin. I align with it. You know what I mean. So that, like, that's just one other example of the living simply in abundance with that thing.

Samantha Pruitt:

And again it doubles down on the uncomplication of it all, right? So if you have your 10 favorite tops in your five favorite pants or shorts or whatever, that's what you got, and every time you put one of those things on, you feel amazing, right? Who cares? If, so-and-so, who you're having coffee with or my gym partners have already seen this outfit, right? What in the hell is that? Why do I care about that?

Polly Mertens:

This is my expression. Look at me, I'm in my favorite thing and you all like seeing me in my favorite thing because I feel good in it.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, ultimately, again, it brings us joy because there's simplicity and ease that comes with it. There's no strife, but also higher performance. If you feel good in the thing, either it's the clothing or the consumption of the food or the hydration, or whatever. If you feel good in the thing, either it's the clothing or the consumption of the food or the hydration, or whatever. If you feel good embodying the thing, you're going to perform at a higher level. If I rolled into CrossFit in an outfit that didn't feel good on my body, I'm going to feel awkward, constrained, hot, sweaty, weird, or in shoes that are not the right fit for me. Or, you know, consuming certain food products throughout the day and then having to show up and be fully present with clients, but my body or brain aren't feeling really good because I haven't really consumed the right things for me. These are all going to be problems ultimately, you know.

Polly Mertens:

Totally.

Samantha Pruitt:

So I think I think too.

Polly Mertens:

I just want to go back to what you said about simplifying can often be like removing things to you know like it's not about accumulating. Sometimes it's about we are. We're pretty natural, like I feel, like there's this, you know, world of horrors of vacuum, the universe of horrors of vacuum. So things come to you. You know, like I look around my like I had this closet and I was working on doing a reorg of my room and this and I went oh God, how did all this stuff get up on the top shelf of this closet?

Polly Mertens:

I haven't lived up here in a while, you know, and it's, and I was like you know, so I don't think there's. There's too much that we have to go out and work on getting more stuff, and sometimes the space of removing things that aren't serving us or reorganizing or putting it in a neat space or having utilizing the things that you actually own can feel so much more abundant and fulfilling.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, one of the things I have on the list here is to take inventory about what you do have and create spaces in your home, in your car, in your office, whatever that feel good. So many of us go into these spaces and we just go well, this is just how it is. I live with messy people, or I work with messy people, or this environment is just this way and I have no influence over that. Not true Again, these stories we tell ourselves and it's so funny because you were just doing this this last week and then yesterday I literally we didn't talk to each other about this, but I just redid the whole layout in my living room and then on my patio and like, cause I'm like, oh, I feel like there's a restriction in the energy here.

Samantha Pruitt:

This space isn't really feeling that good anymore. I need to change it up and so shifting the energy in a room I didn't buy any new furniture, If anything. I eliminated things. I move stuff around for better flow or airflow or sunlight or whatever, Like it's that kind of stuff. I wanted to put the joy back into the space. That's what.

Polly Mertens:

I did, and it can be as small as a drawer.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah.

Polly Mertens:

Or the console in your car. It doesn't have to be you know like doing that. Yeah, it's amazing, so I just want to. So we started to give you homework. So this is what number one you know to do. List number one right Like right. So benchmarking you're looking at what you have and you know what can you shift in the energy. Maybe there's something, an area or a room or a section or a drawer, an area of the closet that you can spruce up eliminate and bring things in that bring you joy.

Samantha Pruitt:

So put into your line of sight and even touch, feel into your presence what makes you happy.

Polly Mertens:

And those may be in boxes. Like I went and I found all you have your medals in our videos here and I was like I got to get my medals out. You know, I was in this box that I just had put away for years and I'm like let's get that thing. You know, so you may already have lots of things that bring you joy, and just you know what do you call it Flea market, flea market shop or whatever you know. Go to a rummage sale in your own backyard or in your own garage, right?

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly, exactly. Bring that stuff out. If it brings you joy, put it somewhere you can see it on the daily. Nice, okay, so that's one of the items. Consider all the conditions and experiences that brought you to this moment. That will make you feel a sense of awareness and gratitude for what you do have. So that kind of process is about Is this a thinking or is this a writing? I would love it if people would write this down.

Polly Mertens:

I think it's more impactful if we do.

Samantha Pruitt:

But keep going, giving thought to what do I have experiences, circumstances, I have my health. I felt incredibly empowered this last weekend to go trampsing through the mountains as a pacer with a friend of mine who was doing 125 mile race. I was like I get to be here on these two legs. I have these legs, I have this back that can hold this pack back. I have these feet. Here I am trampsing through the wilderness all night long and most people would be like, oh my God, that's so scary and it's hard and all these things. Sure, it was those things sometimes, but really not. I felt an incredible sense of gratitude and joy for the fact that I have the physical health and fortitude and stamina and fitness to do that.

Samantha Pruitt:

But they can take inventory of whatever. Maybe it's their site. You know we have a blind friend who is an athlete that we're working with. Like you know, she can't see when she rides her bike. She needs to sit behind somebody captaining her on this bike as she rides a hundred miles. She doesn't get the gift that we have. So there are so many things that keep it fricking real, like take an inventory of what you have and be in gratitude and awareness and having can be people too.

Polly Mertens:

So, like, like the relationships that we've nurtured, and if you aren't, then maybe this is, you know, it's just kind of cast a light on. You know, are you investing time in those relationships? Are you, you know, capitalizing on the people in your life to give and receive from them? You know, because we I find it just gets so much fulfillment from those relationships, so it does you know. Yeah, take a look around 360, home, health, body, right, and also, in that glance outside of yourself, include the people that are around you as well.

Samantha Pruitt:

And those relationships make a list of how people have brought you to this point.

Polly Mertens:

Sometimes it's teachers or mentors, or you know over the course of your lifetime, People you don't even know, you've never met yeah or in the current state.

Samantha Pruitt:

You know who's in your space now supporting your growth journey, right, and then your forward self. Like we don't even know yet. I don't even know who I'm going to meet tomorrow. I meet the most interesting people. I can't wait to see who the hell I'm going to meet tomorrow and I want to have full awareness of tomorrow. I'm going to meet someone interesting. I mean, it's just how it is. I swear they're out there, they're just waiting to talk to me and off we go, right. So like having an awareness and an openness for appreciating those relationships, nurturing them and taking inventory on the regular of how much joy that brings you.

Polly Mertens:

And I think that's one thing that I just wanted to emphasize before we left. This point is this isn't a one-time.

Samantha Pruitt:

Maybe call it a benchmarking.

Polly Mertens:

It's like, oh, I'm going to benchmark these and whatnot. Maybe call it a benchmarking. It's like, oh, I'm going to benchmark these and whatnot. But then being in the habit of I mean lots of people, oprah's big on. She said that one of the turning points in her life was when she started a gratitude journal every day, and so, yeah, there's lots of science behind it. Not just, yeah, I mean, oh, that sounds like a nice idea, but shit works, so yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, people walk around thinking about all the things that are not good enough, that are wrong. Right, how about we make a list of the opposite, what's not wrong, oh, what's not wrong. What a concept. Because we're so the onslaught of media and content to tell us every single thing in the world that is going wrong outside of ourselves or with us. It's totally insane. First of all, it's contrived stories that we've all decided are some form of reality. Reality does not live inside this. No, we create our own reality. So how about if we create our own reality by making a list of what's not wrong? Yeah, yeah, you know. Oh, I still have hair on my head. Yay, that's pretty great for a post-menopausal female. Look at me. And I actually said that to someone the other day, cause we were like, oh, our hair was thinning, whatever. And I'm like, well, we still have hair. And we just laughed because we're like, oh, yeah, keep it real. You know, we still have shelter, food, friends, like, so many things are going right. Yeah, so many things are going right.

Polly Mertens:

And you can play it like a game, you know, like once a day, like what's great in my life today, you know, or?

Samantha Pruitt:

what's going right today?

Polly Mertens:

What's going right today? Yeah, something like that right, because if you're doing anything that involves social media or the media or out in the world besides your own little nucleus, it's probably what's not going right. And so what is going right? Right? And guess what? When you do that, you remember your own self-efficacy. You have control. You can impact that world. Like if something ain't going right, like the cars needs to get new tires or whatever right, like I can probably do something about that?

Samantha Pruitt:

Okay, well, let me do something about that. Well, that's what I would ask of people. Okay, please make this about you. So this is a self-empowerment conversation and exercise, right? So it's not about what other people are doing right for me or right by me. You know what I mean. It's like I have generated this experience. Last time I chatted, it's I'm the human walking around in the body doing the thing at this moment in time and space. However, you relate to all of humanity and this experience, but nonetheless, so you do have some agency and some intellectual and emotional you know concept that yeah, hey, you know what?

Samantha Pruitt:

Today, what's going right for me is I made some really good choices for exercise and nutrition, or I got to sleep and got a lot of extra sleep, or I talked to a friend and I felt like I was really connected, or whatever. Like what are you up to people, what are you all up to?

Polly Mertens:

This is why we started this damn podcast, it was like every day awesome is all around us, right. Like, yeah, it's not every minute, we know that, but like you can find it. It's like being on the hunt for it, like being on the hunt for the everyday awesome, right, it's something the person said, or a little snippet, or the flowers out in the garden or whatever. Like, find the awesome, like it's there for you, it's there for you, it's it's waiting for you to to tap into it and to appreciate it, right yeah, love it all.

Samantha Pruitt:

right, what else is on our homework list to do's? That's about it, but I do think kind of closing it out with this concept, just reiterating it simplify your life or uncomplicated, however. However you want to think about it Like, just spend a little time today or this week uncomplicating your life, strip it back a little bit Okay, that could be. Stripped back your schedule, mm-hmm. Eliminate some things that are either not bringing you joy or actually are creating no impact. They're just a waste of time, energy, resources and or your space. So if you just one or both, of those things get looked at.

Samantha Pruitt:

So awareness, a little bit of inventory taking and then stripped down in a more simplified fashion. What you will find is more joy is allowed to come in because you have created space for it and I think also to add to that is like and go into depth and be honest with yourself.

Polly Mertens:

Right, because sometimes we can get, we can blind ourselves. You know, like the doingness of life and the obligations that we've committed to, or the things we think we need to do or need to buy, you know they can bring you a little happiness for a moment or something. But like really getting honest with yourself, what really, you know, the next conversation we should probably have is like none of this really matters. You know, like that, like all this shit is external, like like the joy journey is within and that's where we start and then we go out. But I love the idea of like simplify, because it's really not found out. There is the, you know is the secret answer behind all of this is like none of that is where your joy truly comes from. But all this stuff can be a distraction, keeping you from where to actually live.

Polly Mertens:

That's a distraction yeah yeah and it's and we're lying to ourselves, thinking that that's going to make us feel better or happier or anything like that. Right, for a little while maybe, but more, like we talked about the simplifying is in order to have abundance. Oftentimes we we eliminate to create greater abundance, greater abundance of fulfillment, greater abundance of joy, greater abundance of love and connection, things that really matter to us, right yeah, yeah, if you need to do something radical, grab a backpack and go out into the wild.

Samantha Pruitt:

Okay, you can only put in the backpack what you need, and luckily I get to do this, you get to do this, and then I get to meet people all the time that are doing these things. What fits in the backpack is what you get to bring, so it needs to be comfortable, serve a function, sustain life and bring you joy. That's it. What if your whole life you operated that way, comfortable, sustain your existence. So your basic necessities right. What brings you joy? These are just the necessities.

Samantha Pruitt:

What if you just operated from that vantage point to fit in your backpack off you go.

Polly Mertens:

All right, my dear, my dear. Okay, any last minute. What's our, what's our one thing? What do we want to leave them with? Like our one thing, what do you think? What is that thing?

Samantha Pruitt:

For me, it's really peel back and simplify so you can make room for some joy. I think people are. There's a joy shortage in most people's lives that I meet on the daily and talk to and that's not going to work for me. I need to see more joy in people's lives.

Polly Mertens:

Getting after joy.

Samantha Pruitt:

Be a joy generator.

Polly Mertens:

Joy junkie, all right, sweet, all right, you guys. Well, my dear, what can we remind them of that we always remind them of as we wrap up, please.

Samantha Pruitt:

How your life looks. How it looks. Is it important?

Polly Mertens:

no, no, it's not important, it's how it feels how it feels, and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.

People on this episode

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Polly Mertens

Co-host
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Samantha Pruitt

Co-host