EPISODE SUMMARY
GUEST: Kim Davis
When the pandemic forced us all to quarantine, and everybody had to stay inside, as a widow, Kim found herself alone and fearful. She made a choice to take control and discovered the power of positive affirmation.
Listen to some practical, simple, and effective tips on using positive self-talk to our advantage every day.
To Contact Kim:
Kim Davis
Morning Affirmation Podcasts
To contact Ruth:
806-747-2735
ruth@blairclinic.com
https://www.facebook.com/rutelin
Transcript
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to What Pain in the Neck. I am Ruth Elder, your host, and today you are in for a treat. We have a really cool kind of fun, a little bit different show today. This is a show about resolutions for suffering. And a lot of times we get into the nitty gritty of what to do if you're suffering and you've suffered for a long time and you don't know what to do.
But today we're going to be a little bit lighter and talk about something that you can do to maybe not find yourself there. Or if you've been there and suffered and gotten some help, something easy that you can do to make sure you don't go back there. Or if you're having setbacks, a great strategy for just straight up pulling yourself out of it.
So on that note, I would like to introduce my good friend, Kim Davis. Kim, welcome.
Thank you, Ruth.
So, Kim, I know that you have a presentation for us. I do. So why don't you just get started?
I will do that.
I know that many of you may at times find yourself beginning a day much like this. “It is gonna be a terrible day. I can't believe how this outfit looks today. And look at that big ol zit on my chin. Oh my gosh. Kim, how could you be so stupid?”
Hey, hey, hey, don't talk to my friend that way. When I first met you, I saw Superwoman in charge of the chamber ambassadors speaking in public, always looking put together, on top of public speaking, involved in everything that was fun that was happening and helping tons and tons of people working for a nonprofit and helping everyone around you.
Not only that, when I came, you were going through one of the hardest times in your life. You had just lost your husband, yet you showed up for other people and kept on being positive. You are amazing.
Well, thank you, Ruth. I appreciate that. And I think the thing that I'd like to point out is a lot of times it's very easy for us to say those kinds of things to our friends and tell them how amazing they are and talk to them about all the great things they've done and remind them of what a superwoman they are.
And by the way none of what I said, I didn't make it up.
I know you didn’t.
This is how I think about you.
I know you're my friend and I know that you are saying what you really feel. And I appreciate that, Ruth. I think what I really see is sometimes the way we talk to ourself is not the way we should talk to ourself. We should talk to ourself like we're our own best friend.
So how do we do that?
You know, It's interesting because I have learned to listen to a lot of positive affirmation podcast for one thing, but it really got started during COVID. And you know, everything either really good or really bad happened during COVID, right?
Yes.
Mostly from what I've heard from people, it was a lot of bad things that happened during COVID. And I, for one, became very fearful. You know, they shut down the schools, they started canceling events, everybody was told to stay home.
Yeah, I don't know many people who weren't afraid. But you had the added challenge of being alone.
And so when I was at home, I was at home and it was me. And I didn't like the idea of having to be at home just myself. But at the same time, it was all just a little bit scary. And I think we all felt this way at the beginning. And I thought, “how do we handle this?” And I found myself, To use kind of a, maybe a dated term, I was a little freaked out.
And one day somebody posted on Facebook, specifically a verse related to that, that said, “God didn't give us a spirit of fear. He gave us a spirit of power and self control.” And I thought, “that's right. That's right.” Everything else is less important if we think about the fact that we are in control and we have that control.
Yeah, and then you took that and ran with it and you actually did some very practical things that I think we all can learn from and apply to our own lives.
After I determined that I was in control and I had the power to be in charge, so to speak, I told myself every morning it was my own little mantra. “It's going to be a great day. It's going to be a great year and I'm not getting COVID.”
And you literally said this out loud to yourself.
I did. I did. I said this out loud to myself.
Yeah. Did you look at yourself in the mirror?
I did not look at myself in the mirror, but I said it in the mornings every day. It's going to be a great day. It's going to be a great year and I'm not getting COVID. And you know, Ruth, I've told you, I did not get COVID. I have not yet had COVID.
And now here we are four years in and still…
And I don't necessarily still say it anymore. And that's bad on my part because it's still effective, even if we're not in the midst of this pandemic that provided such fear among everyone.
It’s still important that you tell yourself these positive things every day. I think about things like if you are going to bed late at night and you're going to have this coming up, Ruth, as you travel with some jet lag and it's easy to go to bed at night and think, “oh my goodness, I'm only getting three hours of sleep. I'm going to be so tired tomorrow.” What if you said, “you know, it does not matter how much I sleep tomorrow is going to be a brand new day. I'm gonna be refreshed and relaxed and ready to meet the day with everything I have.”
Yes. Yeah, that is actually really beautiful.
It can change your whole It can change your whole day if your attitude towards yourself and towards what you have going on starts out right.
Well, thank you for that.I'm going to need that because I am traveling in two days overseas and will have jet lag and lack of sleep. So that's very helpful. And you say you don't say it every day anymore. And yet the reason I invited you here is I heard your presentation that you gave to a large group of people a couple of days ago. And you did share a story of sometimes you barge into work and your boss just says, “yeah, I know, I know, I know it's going to be a great day.”
It's going to be a great year and I'm not getting COVID. He's laughed at me about that, but you know, he's had COVID. I have not.
Yeah. Okay. So, even though you don't say it every day anymore, you say it enough that people make fun of you for it,
That's correct. They do. They do. That's all right.
Yes. And then another funny story that you talked about was grocery shopping.
During COVID. I had to go to the grocery store all the time because they told us to stay home. And then when they said we could get out to the grocery stores, even with a mask, I'm going to the grocery store, but I'll tell you now I don't go to the grocery store. I order my groceries and have them delivered.
Yes, that's fun. So right now, maybe COVID isn't the thing that is bothering us, but this is a topic that you have mastered, I would say. So what are some strategies and some things that practically day to day we can do if we struggle with maybe pain or discouragement or depression or tiredness or maybe just straight up a difficult life situation?
And I think we all have those things. And I think that we all have days where we're not going to be at our best and we're not going to necessarily feel positive about everything that's going on. But, and while I don't start every day with “it's going to be a great day, it's going to be a great year and I'm not getting COVID,” I do listen to positive affirmations every morning.
Okay. So when you say listen to affirmations. Can you point us in a direction?
Yes, there are a couple of podcasts that I specifically like. There are many, many podcasts with positive affirmations.
So just tell us your favorites.
My two favorites are one called Think Positive and the second one is Morning Affirmations. And what I like about both of those is they're very short and sweet. They do encourage you to write your affirmations down and repeat them to yourselves later in the day.
Okay. sorry for interrupting you, but what is an affirmation? Can you give us some examples?
I would say that one of the best examples is to remind yourself every day that you are amazing. So maybe you aren't confident enough as you go through your day, or maybe you're not feeling great about the job you're doing in your workplace. I would encourage you to just say to yourself, “I am amazing. I can do anything I set my mind to. People love me.” And say those kind of things that encourage yourself. Just like Ruth said the things to me a few minutes ago. I will remember those things because that really made a positive impact on me. And I appreciate that.
And they were all true. And they were all specific things, right?
Right. And I will say that when you do positive affirmations, they're all true too because every single person has their own personality and their own amazing personality. And we just sometimes need to remind ourselves of that. As you mentioned, I live alone. And I don't always have someone there. My dogs don't talk to me. I do talk to myself and sometimes I answer, but I don't have someone with me 24/7 that can say, well, “I hope you have a good day. You're going to have a great day or you look nice today. You really are amazing.” And so I think it's important whether you live alone or live with ten people that you remind yourself every day that you are amazing.
Yeah, very very good. Now this is a podcast about health. So in your preparation for sharing this material, is there anything that you have learned about how this behavior affects your health?
Well, as I said, I've never had COVID. As I was repeating that mantra through the first couple of years, daily, through the first couple of years of COVID. I feel like that being positive and reminding yourself to be positive and reminding yourself of what a great person you are and all the things you can accomplish. If you start out that way every day, then the rest of the day is going to be great because you're going to already have that confidence because your best friend, yourself, just told you you're going to have a great day. You are an amazing person. You can do anything you set your mind to.
Yeah. And something that I have noticed over and over as a theme in this podcast is a lot of people, when they make the decision to seek hope, people that are maybe in desperate situations have life altering health issues and maybe they've been to lots and lots and lots of doctors That's the majority of the interviews that I've done on this podcast. It starts with realizing that there is hope in seeking hope so maybe if you've maybe in a It's too dark place to say, “oh, it's going to be a good day because you can't even remember what a good day is. It might be as simple as I am going to find a solution because I am worth it.”
That's a good point. That's a very good point. And I think that's a great thing to remind ourselves of every single day is that we are worth it. We are worth it.
Yes. And then one of the things that I have learned about studying bodies and studying health most of my life is health is health and mental and physical pain. There's not a sharp line between the two. So they go together.
That's a very good point.
Physical health affects the mental health and then mental health affects the physical pain and then if you can take control of what you can take control of, it can get the ball rolling. So maybe, let's say you're suffering from - we have, see a lot of people here with vertigo and you don't know where to turn.
Although if you are suffering with vertigo, call me and I will let you know what to do about it, where to go.
But let's say you don't know what to do. Then at least you can say, “I am worth it. I am going to do the best I can. I'm going to seek help. I'm going to have the best day I possibly can.”
I think that's a great way to put it. Because I think you can, I've referred to it in the past, is I think you can think yourself sick. And I'm not saying that people have issues that are not real.
Yes.
But I think you can make it worse with your thinking as well as make it better with your thinking.
I think we saw a lady this weekend that was a real positive example of someone who was thinking positively about their illness. She had MS and she's up on stage doing her thing. And that was pretty amazing to me.
Why don't you share that story?
She was a contestant in the speech contest for Toastmasters International for our district on Friday evening. And while she did not win. It took a lot of courage for her to get on stage and do that because she requires the use of a walker. And she did such an excellent job. She didn't try to act like that was a problem for her. I think that she has tried to make the best of what's going on. There's nothing she can do about the illness that she has, but she can think positively about how she reacts to it. And when you keep your mind straight about those kinds of things, sometimes that makes the what's going on in your body seem a little less intimidating, maybe.
Yes.
And I felt like she really had done that.
Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Is there something else that you want to share about this that I haven't asked?
I don't think so.
Okay, so it's a great topic. I want to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit about yourself. And I know that you are an incredible public speaker, very motivational, and you're the real deal. And you're making yourself available to people. So if you can address all of those.
Well, again, I'm Kim Davis. I have lived in Lubbock all of my adult life. I came to school at Tech way back when and have never left. Married and raised a family. As Ruth mentioned earlier, I lost my husband a few years ago and it was a trying time, but there's a plan in everything. I know at this point he's no longer suffering and so that's a positive thing.
But I have been involved in a lot of organizations in Lubbock. I currently work for Texas Girls and Boys Ranch Foundation doing direct planned giving. And I enjoy a lot of hobbies, working in my yard, When the wind's not blowing a hundred miles an hour and playing tennis, same. And this has become a new hobby of mine.
Tennis?
Well, tennis is not new. I've done that for about five years,
I didn't know that.
Yeah. And then this presenting information on positive affirmations and how you talk to yourself is kind of a new passion of mine. And I would love the opportunity to share it with more people. And if anyone's interested, I would love to talk more about it.
How do people get ahold of you?
My email address, that's probably the best, kldavis6560@gmail.com.
I meet a lot of people and I've helped a lot of people that are new to Lubbock get plugged into the community. I always say the person to talk to is Kim Davis because she knows everybody.
If I don't, I know people who know other people.
I would love to end this. interview with you saying your daily affirmation that you were saying during COVID to yourself.
It's going to be a great day. It's going to be a great year and I'm not getting COVID.