Episode 13: Kindness, Weakness, & Unlearning (Bonus Episode)

In this mini bonus episode recorded live in my Facebook group, I discuss how kindness is free, Western society’s portrayal of weakness is false and dangerous, and why you have to unlearn all of that BS.

The podcast is on hiatus (hence this *bonus* episode), but I’d love for you to subscribe, rate, and review The Maker Muse Podcast wherever you catch these episodes. ¡Muchas gracias!

Scroll down for a full episode transcript.

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Transcript

Buen día y welcome to The Maker Muse Podcast, the place where child-free Spanglish speaking mujeres fuertes are inspired to find their confidence through creativity. I’m Paulette Erato, the Maker Muse. Summer is right around the corner mis amiges, so I hope you are staying hydrated. 

This is a bonus episode of The Maker Muse Podcast. This show is technically on hiatus as we put together season two in the background. So it isn’t a full episode, more like a snack to inject a little bit of the maker musings into your life during this downtime.

This episode was also recorded as a live video in my Facebook group the day after a horrific tragedy here in the US. So it’s a little bit more…mmm, shall we say raw than usual. I do these live events every Wednesday morning and this is a portion of that live recording, which I’ve edited down for, you know, a little bit of clarity and some time. If you want to join the Facebook group and watch the whole thing, I welcome you to do that and I’ll leave a link in the show notes.

On this day, I was riffing about kindness and how we wildly misunderstand and have to unlearn what we think of as weaknesses. So without any more preamble. Let’s jump in:

Hi, good morning. Welcome to the Weekly Wednesday where I talk about stuff I think you need to hear.

Um, I had a full talk planned for this, like for once I was like really prepared and then yesterday, So what I was going to talk about, I’m going to change because it costs nothing for us to be kind. And today, and every day, every day something horrific happens in this world. Every day. Whether or not we know about it or whether or not we care about it, doesn’t matter. Because every day someone is on a journey that is challenging them in some way. And some days it might be you. Some days it might be someone you don’t know. It costs us nothing to be kind. And just radiate kindness into this world because someday someone might need it.

What I was actually going to talk to you about was the power of compliments because I received a huge one yesterday. I like, it like blew my fucking mind, um, who it was coming from. And the message was going to be the same: that it costs nothing to be kind. And giving genuine compliments to people, lights up a part of their brain that is the same region as when someone receives a promotion or money. And you can do that without it costing you anything. 

A lot of people don’t know how to receive compliments and we can talk about that in a future one of these. And it’s all part of unlearning all of these, all of the bullshit in your head. I think like the overarching theme of all of my videos is that there’s a lot of bullshit in your head that you have to unlearn, right? There’s a lot of bullshit in your head that you have to unlearn. And if some people would unlearn it faster… maybe horrific things wouldn’t happen every day. 

So I just, I think at the end of this, want you to know that I hope that you have some kindness to give today. And if you are in need of receiving some kindness instead, let me know how I can help. Because it is not weak to reach out for help. It is a measure of strength to know your boundaries.

And in Western society a lot of times asking for help is seen as, is portrayed as being weak. Because Western society capitalizes and profits from people believing they are weak so that nothing changes. And I need you to recognize that knowing your own boundaries, recognizing your strengths and your weaknesses, your true strengths and weaknesses, knowing that when you reach a boundary, you’re going to need help crossing it, is actually what a fully developed adult looks like. They are not weak because they need help. 

Weakness are things that you can improve upon. Like you have a weak left leg because you favor your right leg. You can work on left leg exercises to make them stronger. And so that you are more balanced. You know, being too weak to carry the groceries from your car, you just do a little bit of strength training and you bring up your skills. You improve upon your skills of carrying your groceries. And so what if it takes you three trips? Fuck. I lift, oh, by the way, 225 pounds is what I lifted up off the ground yesterday. And, um, I still sometimes have to take multiple trips to the car. 

By the way I did that four times. That’s 900 pounds, three of which I did in a row. And then I went back to do two more, but I can only do one. So, oh, by the way, I failed. I failed to pick up those 225 pounds, five times. But I did it four times. Would you call me weak? Because I just lifted 900 pounds not to mention all of the reps and all of the weight I lifted before I even had 225 pounds on the barbell. 

That doesn’t make me weak. That makes me tired. So I’m using that as an example, to show you how what we might perceive as weak is bullshit. We have to unlearn a lot. So anyway, I’m going to leave it there , I love you all. I hope you stayed hydrated and that’s a burrito.

Thanks for listening to this special episode of The Maker Muse Podcast. I know it was a little raw, so I really appreciate you sticking through it. I’d really love to make this a regular thing for you and me, so please subscribe to the podcast so you can listen to all the regular things we put out just about weekly. And then tell all of your family and friends about it! And I’d really appreciate it if you can rate and review it wherever you’re listening to this right now.

¡Hasta la proxima!