Potency Potion 2 - Vibes and Values

The next ingredient of our potency potion

is values-based prioritizing.

Investing more awareness, intention, and energy

into making sure that your process is guided by your values.

I truly believe this will help you to

actually do what you want to do in the way that feels best.

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Mentioned:

timewitchery.com/planner, where you can get support centering your values with your very own Time Witchery planner.

Make Magic:

To infuse more values and vibes based prioritizing into your day,

note two things at the very top of whatever to-do list you have:

how you wanna feel while you're doing it,

and why you are even doing it in the first place.

Transcript: Potency Potion 2 - Vibes and Values

Natalie Miller: Welcome to Mind Witchery. I’m your host, Natalie Miller, and I’m so glad you’re here. 

Hello, friend. We are brewing up a potency potion in a little miniseries in Mind Witchery. So, if you missed the first ingredient, it is in last week's episode. The first ingredient for the potency potion is fuel. I'm not going to go into it into it, but I just want to underscore and highlight the importance of fuel, and how it really is a do-not-pass-go, do-not-collect-$200 [laugh] kind of situation. Like, you must begin with plenty of fuel. 

I actually had an experience with a client this week that reminded me of the importance of fuel. She said, "Oh, you know, I had the afternoon to do whatever I wanted, and so I tried to sit down and really, like, think about what I want next year, what I want to create, what I want to go for." And she's like, "I just couldn't come up with anything." And I happened to know that this particular client was going through a lot, and dealing with a lot, and also in the middle of her own big projects, like a book launch. 

So, in these moments, I think what happens is, kind of like, you know when you get so hungry, like, you haven't eaten in a while? Maybe you were out doing errands, you lost track of time, you haven't eaten in a good long while, and you're so hungry, you cannot even—like, nothing sounds good. [laugh] It's like someone offers you some food, and you're like, "I don't even know what to eat because I'm that starving." 

I really think that's what happens when we try to be in a creative or dreaming or what's-next kind of space, when actually we are running on empty. It's like we just don't have access to desires and to dreams and to ideas as much as we do when our cups are much, much fuller. So, fuel prerequisite, it is the main ingredient. It's the broth of the potency brew. 

And I just want to say, like, this fuel, this sustenance, you know, that comes in the form of rest, of pleasure, of receiving—however that is for you—music, books, sex, baths, vacations, alone time, friends time—whatever that is, however it is that you receive—that's kind of the prerequisite, and it's the first and main ingredient of the potency potion. 

So, now, that I've underscored and highlighted that, let's move on to the next ingredient of potency potion, which is values-based prioritizing. So, the idea of potency, of course, is not only that we create and do things that are powerful, it is also that we create and do in a most energy-efficient, energy-infusing kind of way. 

For example, perhaps you need to write something. Let's just say, for these purposes, you need to write a persuasive email. In order for that email to be most potent, I believe, it is best done from a place of integration and alignment and inspiration on your own part, right?

I can sit in front of my screen, and kind of fret and fray over creating this email. You know that vibe, right, where you type something, and you erase it, and then you type a paragraph, and then you're like, "No, no, no, that's not good. That's not what I want." 

You sit in front of the blank screen. You keep escaping the blank screen to go anywhere, to go make an appointment, to go boot shopping, to go scrolling social media. Do you know this vibe? I have to say, I know this very well.

In this way, I'm spending so much kind of like diluted energy, scattered energy—it's not aligned, it's not integrated—trying to write this email. Much better and, I'll just say [laugh] like, so much more energy-efficient, so much more pleasurable and, ultimately, I truly believe, so much more potent, so much more effective is an email that I am ready to write, that I sit down to write, it flows off my fingertips.

And that's not to say there's not any cutting and pasting and erasing. Like, the fluidity doesn't need to be cinematic. But sitting down to write that email in a few minutes rather than trying to force myself to write it for hours, I really believe, yields a very different product, right? 

Now, we are conditioned to be incredibly product-focused, and I think this is a little bit of capitalism. This is a little bit of white supremacy. It's like you don't need to know how the sausage is made. You don't need to know how the White House is built. You don't need to know how the phones get their mineral chips. [laugh] You don't need to know the process. 

Really, though, we're just going to focus on the product when, in fact, for us as humans, process is so important, and so vital and vitalizing. So, what I'd love to suggest to you is that allowing a little more spaciousness around your products, around your to-dos, around the things that you are creating, and investing more energy, intention, awareness into your process—OK. I just had a moment of wishing I were Canadian, and I said process. But I'm not, so I say process, but doesn't process sound so good?

Anyway, so, investing more awareness, intention, energy into process, and making sure that your process is guided by your values, I truly believe, helps you to actually do what it is that you want to do in the way that feels best, in the way that is most energy-efficient, and in the way that, ultimately, in a full circle sort of sense, does yield the most potent product.

Have you ever cooked a meal when you were in a bad mood? It could be something you make all the time, your favorite pasta sauce, but you make it, and you're feeling a little resentful, or you're feeling like you don't really want to do it, but you are believing you should. Like, that pasta sauce is not going to be as tasty. Do you know? Isn't that true? 

If I'm cooking a meal under any sort of duress, something's going to be not quite right. Something's going to be underdone or overdone, or I'll forget a piece. It's just not as good. 

But when I'm cooking in a fabulous mood, when I'm cooking with joy and delight, and my whole self is into it, like, I'm integrated and aligned in the cooking, the cooking turns out great. It could be like a clean-out-the-refrigerator meal, and because I'm feeling creative and resourceful and it's fun and I'm excited to do it, it will be just damn delicious. Yeah? 

So, potency potion involves getting less interested in the product, just kind of more ultimately trusting of the product. Hey, what I do today will be done. But what's most useful for me to pay attention to is how and why I'm doing it: values-based prioritizing, and values-based manifesting. Yeah? 

OK. So, what does that look like? For me, the first thing to do, and this is why in my planner, Time Witchery—and, you know, I'm just going to be talking a ton about it because it has just arrived like a newborn baby. I just want to coo over it, and caress it, and make you look at pictures of it. [laugh] 

So, in Time Witchery on the daily page at the very, very top, I have a space for vibes and values, right? And this really is asking you to pay attention to how you want to feel, like, what are the vibes you want today, and then values, like, why? Why are you here? What are you here for? 

So, I might go into a day that I'm hoping to do some writing. I might go in thinking I want to feel light and flowy and trusting. And why? Because I'm here for expressiveness. I'm here for generosity. I'm here for sharing ideas. 

It's like this zoom-out away from the to-do into, OK, but how am I going to do this? Like, with what energy do I want to do this? And then why? Why am I doing this? That's the values piece. 

So, contrast that zooming out to my why, to really, like, who I want to be. That's what I see is our values are telling us, "This is what I'm here for. This is who I want to be in the world." Contrast that to zooming all the way in from the very beginning. I just got two images in my head. One was a guided missile [laugh], and the other one was like a bird of prey, just like swoop in to the desired product, right? 

So, if I start the day, and I'm like, "OK. Today I need to write the introduction to my book, and I need to write two marketing emails. It's a writing day, so here's what I'm writing," when I zoom all the way in that way, I make it all about the product, and I forget about the person, the real human being—me [laugh]—who is going to be in process during the day. 

I don't attend to what the ultimate point is, right? It gets really reduced down to something to check off my list, rather than existing within a richer fabric of, ooh, this is why this is important. This is what I'm bringing to life. When I write the introduction to this book, here's what I'm hoping to embody. Here's what I'm hoping to manifest. 

These qualities, these values, this is why I am showing up, and what I'm showing up for. Now, the beauty of this, for me, is that then I can have a fulfilling, a successful, if you will [laugh], day, no matter what I produce. My own worthiness, goodness, success is divorced from what it is that I made. 

So, here's an example. Let's say it's a writing day. I want it to be a writing day. I was hoping it would be a writing day. And, so, I show up in the morning, and I say, "OK. Why am I here?"

I'm here because I want to be generous. I'm here because I want to be rich in ideas that I share. How do I want to feel today? I want to feel light. I want to feel flowing. I want to feel this sense of trust.

And, so, I get this very integrated heart, mind, body, soul intention for the day. And now I am intending that some writing flows out of that, but I'm not oriented exclusively toward the writing. I'm oriented toward those values and those feelings. 

So, if I sit down at the blank screen, and I do not feel light and flowing and trusting, I have full permission to stop, and to choose to do something that does bring me those vibes. If I sit down to the blank screen, and sharing ideas is not coming easily for me, it's not feeling accessible for me, I have full permission to stop, and to choose something else that does actually enabled me to do that. 

It may very well be—and it usually is for me—that if I'm in a place where my creativity is not flowing, I really need some kind of input, some kind of inspiration, something to play with and push off of. And that could be anything from, hmm, maybe I'll sit and read a little bit more of that book that has been really evocative for me, or maybe I'll go for a walk and I'll clear my head. I'll invite that light and flowing trust energy in, and who knows? Maybe something will happen on the walk, or I'll see something on the walk that, like, totally inspires me, and has me coming back to the page with more energy. 

Implicit in all of this, again, is that my process and my humanity as a doer, my human beingness more than my human doingness, is key to my ability to create. Like, I must attend to my how and my why in order to do what I want to do today. 

Now, this is so countercultural. This is so anti our conditioning. I just—I want to honor that. Again, we live in a world where the product is the most important, the only visible thing. 

And/but that is not sustainable. That is not evolutionary. That obsession with product above all else is at the root of just like every problem [laugh], I think. Where we mistreat fellow humans, where we mistreat our planet, where we are exploitative, where we are inhumane, we see in those places a lionizing of product in a way that is divorced from values and from good vibes. 

So, returning to that example I gave you of having a day where I want to produce some writing, right, there's nothing wrong with wanting to create products. So, here I am, I want to produce some writing, and when I sit down to write, it doesn't flow. So, I choose instead to go for my desired vibes and my desired values.

I'm here to tell you, through much practice, through much experimenting, that shit works, and that I do eventually—and, listen, maybe not on writing day. Maybe it is early the next morning. Maybe it is in a lunchtime burst of inspiration the next day, I will show up to the page with what I need, with the integrated inspired energy that I want to be able to do the thing. 

I know this because this is tried and true, what I have felt work, seen work for me again and again and again and again. I've seen it work for my clients again and again and again and again. I offer these creative retreats sometimes, and [laugh] people think, "Oh, we're just going to dive in on Monday and, like, hit the ground running, and get to work." And it's like, "Oh, no, we're not doing that at all."

And it's deeply uncomfortable for people. They're like, "Oh. But I promised myself I was going to get this thing done." I'm like, "Yeah, I know. But I'm telling you that the way to get it done in its most inspired, most integrated, most energy-efficient form is to attend to you first; not to privilege the to-do over your being, over why you're here and how you want to be here."

So, potency potion, ingredient number two, values- and vibes-based prioritizing, I am going to nurture how I want to feel. I'm going to step toward my values before I am trying to check things off my to-do list. My how and my why are more important than my what. 

And, just a last note here, like, vibes and values are not contained all within us, right? It's not like we exist in a vacuum or we exist in a completely controlled environment. Like, no, we're humans. We exist in social network with other people, and we exist energetically with all kinds of other beings. We exist energetically alongside the weather and our pets and our house plants and our sheets and our water in the shower, right? Like, all of those things, we coexist with. 

So, I love that when I attend to vibes and values, I get to honor that reality so much more fully that anything I am creating, I am actually co-creating. I'm doing it alongside all of these other elements that are influencing me. Right? How I feel on a cloudy day is so different than how I feel on a sunny day. And how I feel on a cloudy day in the summertime is so different than how I feel on a cloudy day in late winter.

How I feel in any day is subject to so many different variables. And, so, when I'm attending to how I want to feel and why I'm here, that's such a flexible objective compared to a box to check on my to-do list. That in and of itself reminds me of my own agency, my creative agency, my power to choose, which is essential to potency, remembering that you exist at choice. 

And then two, again, I know we co-create in a culture that is product-obsessed, and I know that it is a revolutionary act. It is countercultural. It is sometimes pretty fucking hard to say, "No, I'm not actually orienting toward a product, towards the what. I'm orienting toward a how and a why."

Maybe I'm leading a whole team that is orienting toward a how and a why. Maybe I'm orienting a whole classroom toward a how and a why. I am choosing to care about that integrated and humane and deeply potent values-based, [laugh] high vibes way. And I'm trusting that all the shit we need to do, like the shit we truly need to do, will happen when I am coming from this integrated and empowered place.

Even better, this integrated and empowered place, in fact, engenders the kind of innovation, the kind of experimentation, the kind of creativity that yields perhaps even better products than the ones I thought were the best ones to work on. Yeah? 

So, you can take this really far. But, to begin, what I recommend to infuse more of this values- and vibes-based prioritizing is that whatever to-do list you have for the day, at the very top of it, you note two things: how you want to feel while you're doing it, and why you are even doing it in the first place, like in the name of what. So, if you want a built in way to remember to do that, and support in doing that, then please check out Time Witchery, my planner. 

Like I said, it's vibes and values at the very top and, super helpfully, in the very back of Time Witchery, I have an entire trove of vibes and values because, you know, sometimes you come to the page, and it's like, "What's important to me?" You're like, "Ugh." So, there's a reference. You can flip back, and look at all these different values, and kind of see which one jumps out at you as most important, which one you want to bring to life today.

You can learn more about Time Witchery at timewitchery.com/planner. And I want you to know that that planner was created in exactly this mode I am describing to you. It was created from a place of want to rather than have to, a place of inspiration, a place of generosity, a place of joy. Even all the promotional materials, like, when you go to look at that page, you'll see that that page also was coming from that integrated and most potent place. 

All right, my love. Thank you so much for listening. Stay tuned please for one more ingredient in the potency potion. That is coming up super soon. Bye for now.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Mind Witchery. To catch all the magic I’m offering, please subscribe to the show, or if you want a little bit of weekly witchiness in your inbox, sign up for my Sunday Letter at mindwitchery.com. If today’s episode made you think of a friend or loved one, your sister, your neighbor, please tell them about it. We need more magic-makers in this troubled world. 

Like all good things, this podcast is co-created by stellar people. Our music is by fabulous DJ, artist, and producer, Shammy Dee. Our gorgeous art is by the sorcerers at New Moon Creative. Mind Witchery is produced in conjunction with Particulate Media, K.O. Myers, executive producer. And I am Natalie Miller. Till next time. 

End of recording