255. Choosing Happiness: Embracing Resilience and Gratitude with Dr. Cyrina Bullard

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This is happiness solved with America's happiness. Coach Sandee Sgarlata.

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Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining me today. I'm so happy you're here. I'm Sandee Sgarlata. I was born in Virginia Beach and raised in the Baltimore Annapolis area and had very humble and tragic beginnings. And as a result, my life was a hot mess.

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Thankfully, 33 years ago, I got my act together. And since that time, I have dedicated my life to serving others and raising awareness that no matter what you've been through, you can choose happiness and live the life of your dreams. Happiness Solved is dedicated to giving you content that is empowering, motivational, inspirational, and, of course, a dose of happiness. It's my way to give back to the world and share other people's stories. This thing called life can be challenging, and my guests share their amazing stories, wisdom, and life lessons that demonstrate anyone can choose happiness.

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You see, happiness is a choice, and the choice is yours. Today's episode is amazing and I am so grateful for you. Thank you for listening and don't forget to leave a review and follow me on social media at coach. Sandee Sgarlata. Enjoy the show.

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Dr. Cyrina Bullard, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you? So excited to have this conversation. I'm great.

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Really excited to be here with you, Sandy. I love what you're oh, thank you. I love what you're when, you know, I see that you've got this sustainable happiness together, it was like because we were on a call on the speaker's. Theater and I'm like, who is this? Who is this talking about happiness?

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We need to connect. Yes, we do. I'm glad we did. We're speaking the same language. So you were a practicing pharmacist for 20 years until you faced multiple life changing events, including, like, near death experience, suffering from two brain injuries, and that obviously made you pivot.

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Talk about that for a minute. What happened and how did you get. To where you are today? What was it about those events that brought you to the point where you're. Like, something's got to change, I got to do something different?

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Yeah, well, it's been a journey for sure. So it was May 29 of 2010. I was in Vale, and it was a beautiful day. Decided to go on a bicycle ride. And many times I joke, I'm like, I wish I could say it's mountain biking off a cliff, but no, I was road biking on a path I'd ridden many, many times and somehow ended up doing some results clipped into my bike.

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And I was non responsive. The first responder had to give me CPR. I was then taken to Vale hospital and thankfully, I had on my helmet. If I didn't have on my helmet. I would not be here today.

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So I was taken to Vale hospital, then flight for life to Denver health. I was in a coma for 18 days and then the first memory I. Have was waking up in an ambulance on a gurney and thought, what the heck is going on? And thankfully, I saw my mom and that brought me comfort. And we were en route to Craig Hospital.

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And Craig Hospital is a world renowned hospital for traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. And I'm an overachiever. So I had like, okay.

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So I. Ended up being at Craig Hospital for two months. I was in the hospital for two. And a half months, so I was. In three different hospitals that summer.

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Not exactly what I had planned for the summer. And then when I was discharged, went through tons of rehab. And they had originally told my family. That I wouldn't be able to take care of myself for the rest of my life. So it was quite the battle.

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And I want to say, too, and obviously I've been in the medical world for many years, but I don't think we need to limit people so much. We are not a statistic. Yes, statistically this may be the truth. But I'm not a statistic. I'm a person.

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And I have an inner strength inside of me that's stronger than circumstances or situations that I'm going through. And plus, I had the love and support of my family and friends. It was amazing. So I went through tons of rehab. Ended up I was doing amazingly well.

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Went back to work as a pharmacist. Nine and a half months later, and everybody was like, amazed. It was like a miracle that this actually I was able to go back to work. Everyone's like, oh, did you have a baby? I'm like, no, I did not, because it was nine and a half months, I thought, oh, she must have had a baby.

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So I was back to work for five and a half years and then I had a second head injury and I thought, oh my goodness. And so this was a compounded injury. So I was dealing with daily migraines and some memory challenges. So it'd be one thing if I was doing something that wouldn't impact other people's lives, but being a pharmacist, I. Had to step back and be like.

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I can't practice right now because I. Need to get this taken care of. Well, yeah. So I feel very fortunate though, because I would say three months after the. Second accident, I said, okay, what am I supposed to do?

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I was like, thank God, what the heck am I supposed to do? This idea, Catch Happiness, came to mind. I'm like I love it. So I got up and got Catchappiness.com for $38. And then I met my now business partner, colleague Liz Rutledge, and we started Sustainable Happiness together.

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So we're on great journey together. I love it. I ended up here. So the sequence of events, I love it. All right, let's just take a step back real quick because I'm just curious because I just have that curiosity, and I don't know if anybody else is either.

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So I apologize, listeners, if you want me to keep moving on, but I want to step back for a second. What on earth is it like waking up from a coma after 18 days? Is it like, what day is it? Are you kidding me? 18 days?

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You see it on TV, right, where they have somebody that has been in a coma?

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How is that experience like and has that shaped you every day moving forward? Well, I would say that when I woke up, I was so was my mother lives in Florida. I thought I was in Florida, but I was in Colorado, and I thought, where are we going? What is happening? I have no idea.

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And with that injury, I couldn't really walk, talk, or feed myself. I mean, I barely could talk. And my mother said to me, serena, it's like you were a child again. You were having to relearn everything. So it was me just process.

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I mean, coming out of that coma. I was just, like, very disoriented and kind of had no idea what was. Going on for probably about 24 hours. And then I was like, okay, I. Realized that I'm in this rehab hospital.

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Having to recover from this accident, but I didn't know. It was, like, this blank time in my life. But I do think that there were. Some spiritual things that happened to me. I feel like I became much more connected one, with this gift of life, and you never know when it's going.

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To end, so you want to try to optimize it. And that inspired me to help people catch more happiness and to be resilient. In life, because life throws us some curveballs. Well, yeah, and the thing is, you go through these things, and it's the resilience yes. That keeps you moving forward.

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But having had a near death experience and I want to get back to. That real quick, too, I would just. Have to imagine that life becomes just so much more precious than it could. Have ever been before. Yes, definitely.

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Because I think I have so much. More gratitude for my days, even though some days are not exactly the way I plan them to be. I'm like, but, hey, I woke up, and I'm much more intentional with my time because we sometimes go through life, and life just happens. But I'm one who wants to be proactive and wants to place things into my life that brings me happiness. One of the things I teach is, like, hey, spend some time and write down little things that bring you happiness, whether it's gardening or walking outside or a cup of coffee or a five minute dance party.

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Whatever it is, have this little list. And allow yourself to go to it when you're in a funk to help. You spiral up instead of spiraling down. Yeah, for sure. Now, with your near death experience, did you experience a similar situation that a lot of people claim to have to have had?

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I did not see any lights or anything like that. I will say. I mean, that was actually my third brush was death. Yeah. When I was eleven, I was struck by lightning.

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Oh, my gosh. My mother had to give me CPR when I was 25. I was in New Zealand in whitewater rafting and went off a 20 1ft waterfall. And I was the person who stayed in the waterfall. And yeah, that was a very scary experience.

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And then this bicycle accident. So it's been a journey. Yeah. So, Dr. Serena, you've got like nine lives.

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I'm like, I don't need any. I'm like, okay, I'm good with this. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that's really spectacular. So let's talk a little bit more about today.

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And obviously you're amazing. You wake up every day even before this. Dr. Serena knew that I had had a busy day. And we sat and we did a breathing exercise together before we hit record, which was absolutely beautiful.

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I'd never done that before with a guest and I really like it. I think that just sets it set a really nice tone for us. So that was really incredible. So please talk about I want to hear about your book and I want to hear about just some of the other programs that you're doing because you've got some really amazing things going on to share. Oh, thanks.

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I'm really excited. So my book is called D Cube creating Conscious Connections. And what's crazy, there's multiple crazy things about this book, but I'll first tell you the story behind it. I talk about my three near death experiences and what I went through in. My life and the lessons that I've learned from them.

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And then I delve into a lot of things because after my second brain injury, I was super intense on learning how to protect my brain and optimize my brain health. So I talk a lot about brain health in here. I talk about meditation. Nobody told me in pharmacy school that if you meditate, you increase what's called BDNF, your brain derived neurotropic factor, and that allows more synapses in your brain. I was like, oh my gosh, I never learned this.

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And so does an exercise does that the food you eat, I mean, there's so many different things that impact your brain health, so that's really important. And then I also talk about just statistics about epigenetics and what your environment is like and how that impacts your physiology. And I think we all need to. Be conscious of who we surround ourselves. With, the foods that we do and do not eat, the exercise we do or do not do.

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I mean, there's so many different components. To living a good life that we. Need to take inventory of. And that is basically the story behind my book. And I go into a lot of science in this book as well.

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And at the end of each chapter, I talk about lessons I learned from this chapter in my life. And so I kind of break it down with different things that I learned. But a few cool things about this was so the COVID of my book, I was trying to find somebody to do the COVID and I was not happy with any of the art. And I thought, so I'm on a flight from San Diego to Denver and I meet this guy. And at the time I was single.

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And we started talking. He asked me out. I was, huh? So he drove up from Aspen the next week and we know on a date, but there was just no chemistry. Nice guy, no chemistry.

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And I'm like, hey, if you want to stay in the guest room, just do. And we can go breakfast because it's a long drive, it's like 4 hours. So we go to breakfast the next morning and he's telling me about his son. And his son is an artist and. He shares with me his artwork.

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And I thought, oh my gosh, this is amazing artwork. Wow. His son did the COVID of my. Book and I thought, love it. So you just never know.

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So that's the story of my book and it can be found on Amazon. It's now on Audible too, so I'm happy that it's on the Audible. So it's D three creating conscious connections. And then as far as what Liz and I are doing now, we're really motivated and inspired to help people be. More mindful, to have a happier day.

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Life moment, you know, because it brings down to moments because like as we said earlier, we just never know what's going to happen in life. So we need to make sure that. We'Re enjoying these times. And then also with resilience. When I was practicing pharmacy, it was.

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Really disturbing to me how many children ages 1415 were on antianxiety medications. And I really wanted to make sure. That I did research to see because. What is this going to mean for their future? How are they going to deal with this as they grow older?

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So I ended up finding this company called Heart Math that's based in California. In Boulder Creek, California. And they have over 30 years of empirical data backing their tools and techniques. So the breathing exercise we did prior to this was a Heart Math exercise called Quick Coherence. And I really feel like this is an important tool to share with people.

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We talk about that in our courses as well. So we've got a lot of online courses and we created a course actually for young children ages three to eight because we want to create a strong foundation at a young age to have them be able to navigate their emotions, to understand their emotions that everyone has insecurities. I don't care how beautiful intelligent, wealthy, it doesn't matter. We all have them. And nobody gave me that memo when I was a kid.

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I was like, I wish I would have known that. That is so true. And I know I work with a lot of amateur athletes as their mindset coach, and I love working with kids. Because they're like sponges and you introduce. A concept and they haven't been so messed up by the world that they.

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Believe it, that they're like, oh yeah. I'm like, you can be anything you want. They're like, yeah, I know I can. Right. But when you're pushed down so often in your twenty s and your thirty s, and that's when the world really gets to people.

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But if you can get them when they're young and really educate them with these life skills yeah, I mean, that's our future. I think we have to. We're at a crossroads in the world where we have to start educating these children. Not just on math and science and how to read and write, but how to manage their emotions and those choices. That their mind, the thoughts, every thought that comes into your mind.

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You have a choice as to which. Way you're going to perceive it. Yeah. And to be very mindful of that. And the lessons from the Bright Butterfly is the name of our course.

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And what we did was we took the lifecycle of the butterfly and associated with the social emotional learning skills. So children relate to butterflies, they love butterflies. And so we did that so that can help them remember these tools. And do you know what a group. Of butterflies is called?

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No, I don't. Kaleidoscope. Isn't that neat? Really? Yeah, kaleidoscope.

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So all different colors, shapes. I just thought that was such a beautiful description of a butterfly. Now, just real quick, because I need. More useless information like that in my brain. But no, you know what I'm saying?

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Did kaleidoscope come from a kaleidoscope or did they call a group of butterflies a kaleidoscope? And then somebody invented a kaleidoscope and like, oh, that looks like a group of butterflies. I do not know that answer. And again, it's a useless information. We don't need to know.

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It doesn't matter. But that's how my brain works. I'm like, oh, well, yeah, never mind the chicken or the egg came first. The chicken or the egg. Another thing, I think this is fascinating.

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So when the caterpillar goes into the chrysalis phase and it turns into organic goo, do you know what those cells are called? No. Imaginal cell. What? Can you really?

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You go through your metamorphosis and I think this is such a great illustration of life because we all go through different metamorphosis. Oh, yes. I love sharing that with people because they're like, I didn't know that. I didn't either until I started studying this. I thought that was just fascinating.

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So what you're saying is that there's a lot to be learned from butterflies and their transition and the stages that they go through. Yeah. And I think that in life, we all go through different stages. We all have different challenges.

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From my teens to my twenty s. Thirty s. Forty s. And now in my fifty s, I am a different person at every stage of the game. I think I'm a different person now than I was a year ago.

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Because as long as you're learning and growing and evolving, you're showing up differently every day. Right? Yeah. And that's the thing, too. I think that we need to ensure.

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That we have those habits to learn, grow, and to become the best that we can be. And also prioritize our happiness, prioritize our health. Because I think that, as you say. Happiness is a choice. And being a pharmacist, I dealt a.

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Lot with people who are in antidepressants. Which broke my heart, but they were seeking help. I think it's important. Yes. It's awful when people are experiencing depression, and they did not choose to be depressed, but they can choose to get.

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Help to move them to a better space. And you and I actually talked about this before, and I want to share this with I talk about this in my book because the fall before my. Bicycle accident, I was experiencing depression. I was like, I'm a happy go lucky, silly person. I like to have fun.

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I've never felt depressed. I mean, yeah, I've had bad days, but it was like literally 30 consecutive days. I felt like crap. Like, what is going on? So I talked to my doctor and I said, can you just draw a.

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Vitamin D level just to make sure I'm okay? And he was like, okay. So he did. He's like, oh my gosh, I've never seen a level this low. So we started supplementing and that helped with my depression.

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I wasn't depressed anymore. Once the levels got up, I thought, this is crazy. People should know this. There's a correlation with that. Well, there's a correlation with vitamin D in a lot of things.

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Yeah, vitamin D is such a and. It'S not just about getting out in the sunlight either. Although that really helps. But most people do need a vitamin D supplement. Yeah.

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I do like to make sure that people realize, though, because vitamin D is what's called a fat soluble vitamin, meaning it's not like vitamin C. If you have too much, you pee it out. Vitamin D, if you get too much, you don't. And it can be so I tell people, I'm like, don't just supplement without knowing where you are. Just make sure that's exactly right.

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Make sure you see your physician or talk to somebody who knows what they're talking about. And if you're getting regular physical examinations, they're going to test those levels anyway on an annual basis, and we'll be able to give you guidance. Yeah, well, to be honest with you. They usually don't test vitamin D. Test?

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Yeah, they do. Like your calcium, your sodium, all those sort of things. Yeah, vitamin D. My doctor does. Okay.

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Well, not I mean, in general. In general. Okay. Yeah. No, but that is important.

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And I think that a lot of people too often just start taking supplements. Without knowing really what you need. And it is best before you do. Any of that to make sure your. Body'S going to respond to for sure.

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For sure. Serena, is there anything else that you'd like to talk to the audience about before we finish up today? I would really just like to say that I want to encourage everyone to be proactive in their lives, to try to allow themselves to make that list. Of things that bring you happiness and make sure you're having fun. And plus, there's a game.

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Can I share my game with you real quick, please? Absolutely. This is in our kids game, too, our kids class, lessons from the Bright Butterfly. So we tell families because we think. That people forget to have fun.

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We get so busy, we're running from one thing to the next. People forget to have fun. So we encourage families, or even friends. To write down at least three different. Things on individual pieces of paper that are group activities that bring them happiness, whether it's karaoke or playing pictionary or cooking together, whatever it might be, bike rides or whatever it might be.

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So do that. Put all those things into a jar. And once a week, I encourage people to pull it out. The week before I'm sorry, the night. Before, the time that you're going to spend together.

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Because if you need ingredients or equipment, you'll have that. But do this activity together. Put away your phones, your gaming devices, shut off the TV, be present for that 1 hour. And I tell the kids I'm like you could tell your parents to be silly and goofy and just have fun, because it's just about having fun for an hour or two, whatever time you put aside, because I think we forget that. And I really want people to incorporate things like that into their lives, to have more fun and enjoy this life.

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Oh, no kidding. You just made me think when you were saying that my son's in college and he came to visit us and we ended up going and playing pickleball. And I have never had so much fun with my son because we're both very athletic and just for the two of us, because Pickleball is kind of like and if anybody's an avid Pickleball fan, I don't mean to offend you, but I'm a tennis player, so Pickleball to me is just really fun. Although it's definitely challenging and there's some really great things to me, Pickleball is. Kind of like ping pong, but a.

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Step up from Ping pong. No offense to anybody out there. I just love tennis and I'm obsessed with playing tennis. But Pickleball is the most fun because. Who doesn't love to play ping pong, right?

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Yeah. But pickleball you're outside in the air, it's a little bit more challenging. The rules are a little cray cray, I think, but it's so much fun. So much fun. That's awesome.

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And those are memories that you're creating with your son. Make you smile, like, oh, what a great day. You've got your face right now. Oh, my gosh, I know. He's coming in a couple of weeks and we're like, we got to play Pickleball, so we're going to play again.

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So that's awesome. Well, and that's the thing, too. You need to find a commonality with your friends and your family of things. That you love to do together and. Do them together, because if you don't plan it, it's not going to happen.

00:24:48
Time goes so fast. You said it right there. If you don't plan it, it doesn't. And that's that's so key, for sure. So where can people find you?

00:24:58
Dr. Serena and I know that everything's going to be in the show notes, but just go ahead and give a shout out for where people can find you as well. Okay. If you go to sustainablehappinesstogether.com and I'd also like to offer we've got a catch and spread happiness course, and there'll be a link to that on the show notes. And if you put in happiness Solved all in cap letters, capitalized letters, you'll get 30% off the course catch and.

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Spread happiness course, and the code is happiness solved, and then also on social. Media@Sustainablehappinesstogether.Com, on Instagram and Facebook, and that's where we are. Awesome. Thank you so much and what a generous gift. And thank you so much for offering that to my audience.

00:25:47
I really appreciate it. We'll make sure all of that is in the show notes so everybody can find you and take advantage of your course. And thank you so much. I really appreciate this time with you. Thank you.

00:25:59
I really enjoy this time together. Thank you. All right, and thank you, everyone for listening today.

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I certainly hope that you enjoyed today's interview. Thank you so much for joining me. And as always, I hope that you and your family are healthy and safe. And that your lives are filled with peace, joy, and happiness. Take care, everyone.