2025 - Week 13 - Creating Memories🥰

Why Struggle? Podcast w Barbara J. Faison

All links - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON

This is the podcast about creating memories.
If you're new to the podcast, welcome, and if you listen regularly, thank you.
On Saturday I went out salsa dancing with my salsa crew for the first time in 2025. Jartu and Bonnie are a part of my salsa crew that I met while dancing and we have traveled to various places including Puerto Rico together. When we go out we can have as many as 10 others that join us ...and that's our salsa crew.
At the party, Jamie, one of our regulars, asked how many decades we had been dancing together. Yes, I said decades. We've all gone back-and-forth about when we officially met so it can be either two decades or three decades, depending upon who you ask. Lol. We have celebrated birthdays, marriages and all the things that happen over decades of knowing each other.
We were celebrating Jartu's 50th birthday and we wanted to be sure she had a good time and to create a lasting memory for her birthday. The music was great and the dancing was awesome. We also saw people we hadn't seen in for a long time. Mission accomplished!
Lately, I've been thinking about memories and experiences I've had. Salsa dancing has been one of my go to memories. Back in the early 2000's our crew would be out dancing several times a week. When I told several people from New York I would be there for a writers conference they said I had to go to the Copacabana night club to dance. I also visited a friend, Darrell, who lived in Brooklyn and was a chef. He invited me to his restaurant and afterwards I took the train to go to the Copacabana.
Yes, I took the subway to the nightclub and went dancing by myself in NY. One thing I've learned about the Salsa community is that they embrace you wherever you are so I knew I would have a great time. I connected with some dancers when I got there and had a fantastic time.
It was about 1 AM when I started heading back to the hotel and I was exhausted. I got off at the wrong subway station and found myself walking in a circle. I eventually found a cab and got to the hotel which was very close to where I was. Lol. Now that was quite a memory. I laugh about it now, at the time I was exhausted and grateful to find a cab that would take me there.
Memories can be powerful. We can use our memories to help us shift how we feel. I am doing this more often these days.
Let's do a quick practice I call Go To Memory, to bring up a memory that you can go to when you need to shift your energy to something light or fun. Enjoy this excerpt from my audio program on the Insight Timer App, Five Mindful Ways to Struggle Less and Enjoy Life More.