Insert sad kitty eyes here...
Welcome to the April 2024 SPIN Newsletter, it is with heavy heart that we tell you that this will be the last SPIN Newsletter produced.
Yeah, we know we just got restarted, but in life, things happen.
Yeah, we know we just got restarted, but in life, things happen.
This foolishness is brought to you by the writers Stephanie Veiga & Cathi's Contemplation by Cathi Lundgren
Aahhahahahah, APRIL FOOLS!
In fact, this new and improved formula includes even more chicanery, silliness, and lies than you can shake a stick at! A STICK AT!
But before we begin, there is a special note in case you missed it, our beloved founder of SPIN and creator of the 4 pillars: BRAIN, BODY, BEING, and BUSINESS, Shawna Suckow, has announced her retirement from the management of the SPIN organization. Shawna made the announcement on the SPIN Members only FB page. If you're a member see the video here
We are all grateful for Shawna’s vision and the brave actions she took to create a group where you can come as you are! The positive nature of this news is that Shawna is not going anywhere. She will be here in the trenches with the rest of us, keeping SPIN weird! SPIN will eventually emerge with a new leader or collective of leaders and they will take the reins of responsibility assuring that this group’s philosophy will remain the same. This is not an April Fool's, this is true.
But before we begin, there is a special note in case you missed it, our beloved founder of SPIN and creator of the 4 pillars: BRAIN, BODY, BEING, and BUSINESS, Shawna Suckow, has announced her retirement from the management of the SPIN organization. Shawna made the announcement on the SPIN Members only FB page. If you're a member see the video here
We are all grateful for Shawna’s vision and the brave actions she took to create a group where you can come as you are! The positive nature of this news is that Shawna is not going anywhere. She will be here in the trenches with the rest of us, keeping SPIN weird! SPIN will eventually emerge with a new leader or collective of leaders and they will take the reins of responsibility assuring that this group’s philosophy will remain the same. This is not an April Fool's, this is true.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program… In this issue of the SPIN Newsletter, you will find
- But first, want to play a game?
- The Lies We Tell Ourselves
- Dealing with Change like a Champ
- Cathi’s Contemplation Corner (we knew the crap would not stay in the corner)
- Trusting your Intuition
But first, want to play a game? No, not like the movie War Games or even Squid Games
Here are the rules of the game, should you choose to play. I have meshed song titles and/or popular lyrics throughout this Newsletter. There are 14 intentional ones, there may be more that I didn’t really intend. Warning! Finding all of them is not a task for a simple man! Challenge accepted? Take your guesses over to the SPIN FB page. Full list of answers revealed on April 15th, to cheer up your Tax Day! Who knows, you may be the champion! But probably not for the taxes, sorry.
I will fit into that 2-piece swimsuit this season.
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Dealing with Change like a Champ
Cut to scene March 14th, 2020. Covid lockdown measures bursts onto the scene like Kramer in every
Seinfeld episode, crazy hair, and all. From this date forward, the world changed. Insert bottle of tequila here, shot glass in hand, ready to imbibe each and every time someone said the word “pivot”. I still have PTSD from the word “pivot” and so do a lot of SPIN planner’s livers.
Sure, many of us were able to “pivot” (shot!) during Covid, but what does it really mean to embrace change? Managing change in life can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can navigate transitions more effectively. Here are some practical tips to help you manage change like a champ:
Prepare Yourself for Change
Anticipaaaa-tion - anticipate upcoming changes by playing the scenario forward in your mind. Like, literally all-the-way to the end. My end usually looks like me being homeless, living inside the 20-year accumulation of leaf-piles in the forest behind my house, like a cave dweller. I’m not kidding, this pile is like 20’ high. I will fight off a pack of racoons with a stick to squat inside my winnings. The end to your scenario may not be as dramatic, so think of your end state and answer the questions who, what, when, where and why about how you got to this particular scenario. Then you can plan from there and mentally prepare solutions for the issues.
Make lists!
We’re planners, of course we have lists that tell us where we can find out lists! I don’t know about you, but not having a good list makes me a basket case! Making a list eases the fears that you will forget something, and then you can use that brain power for focusing on other topics to help you adjust to the change.
Adjust Your Mindset:
Think of the change like a game, you know, like the one where you try to find all the song titles or lyrics in a Newsletter! By focusing on the positive or fun aspects of change, it provides an opportunity for growth. By reframing your mindset, you are creating new neuropathways in your brain to your truth.
Maintain Your Routines:
For the love of Pete don’t go crazy, and start changing everything! Sticking to your regular routines during a period of change provides a baseline during uncertain times. Staying with your daily routines as much as you can during the change period helps keep you grounded. Take care of yourself first, just like the sky-waitress* tells you to do in the instructions regarding airplane take-off procedures.
*No sky-waitresses' feelings were hurt in the making of this newsletter article.
Seek Social Support and Help from Professionals:
You know, that’s what friends are for right? If you are struggling, talking with someone about it can help relieve some tension when you are under pressure. When connecting with friends, family and support groups let them know you need help with managing the change; you may be surprised how they will share in supporting you throughout.
Lastly, there is no shame in seeking help from therapists or counselors at any time, but especially during challenging changing times.
Seinfeld episode, crazy hair, and all. From this date forward, the world changed. Insert bottle of tequila here, shot glass in hand, ready to imbibe each and every time someone said the word “pivot”. I still have PTSD from the word “pivot” and so do a lot of SPIN planner’s livers.
Sure, many of us were able to “pivot” (shot!) during Covid, but what does it really mean to embrace change? Managing change in life can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can navigate transitions more effectively. Here are some practical tips to help you manage change like a champ:
Prepare Yourself for Change
Anticipaaaa-tion - anticipate upcoming changes by playing the scenario forward in your mind. Like, literally all-the-way to the end. My end usually looks like me being homeless, living inside the 20-year accumulation of leaf-piles in the forest behind my house, like a cave dweller. I’m not kidding, this pile is like 20’ high. I will fight off a pack of racoons with a stick to squat inside my winnings. The end to your scenario may not be as dramatic, so think of your end state and answer the questions who, what, when, where and why about how you got to this particular scenario. Then you can plan from there and mentally prepare solutions for the issues.
Make lists!
We’re planners, of course we have lists that tell us where we can find out lists! I don’t know about you, but not having a good list makes me a basket case! Making a list eases the fears that you will forget something, and then you can use that brain power for focusing on other topics to help you adjust to the change.
Adjust Your Mindset:
Think of the change like a game, you know, like the one where you try to find all the song titles or lyrics in a Newsletter! By focusing on the positive or fun aspects of change, it provides an opportunity for growth. By reframing your mindset, you are creating new neuropathways in your brain to your truth.
Maintain Your Routines:
For the love of Pete don’t go crazy, and start changing everything! Sticking to your regular routines during a period of change provides a baseline during uncertain times. Staying with your daily routines as much as you can during the change period helps keep you grounded. Take care of yourself first, just like the sky-waitress* tells you to do in the instructions regarding airplane take-off procedures.
*No sky-waitresses' feelings were hurt in the making of this newsletter article.
Seek Social Support and Help from Professionals:
You know, that’s what friends are for right? If you are struggling, talking with someone about it can help relieve some tension when you are under pressure. When connecting with friends, family and support groups let them know you need help with managing the change; you may be surprised how they will share in supporting you throughout.
Lastly, there is no shame in seeking help from therapists or counselors at any time, but especially during challenging changing times.
Occasionally my mind wanders (well, it always wanders) and I think about totally random people and envision what their lives must be like. I’ve been thinking about the Jardiance girl recently. Well, BOTH Jardiance girls.
There was a Jardiance girl that burst on the scene last year with the commercial jingle that invades all our waking thoughts. (Wait, you mean you don’t wake up singing and dancing to the Jardiance song?!?!?)
So, Jardiance Girl #1 (let’s call her that) showed up on our tv screens singing and dancing thru Universal Studios in Orlando about a medication that lowered her A1C. Apparently, the medication is a good thing—my husband is taking it and it’s lowered his A1C. Not to the point of singing and dancing, but honestly, if he started singing and dancing, I would swear he was taking hallucinogenic mushrooms (not that there’s
anything wrong with hallucinogenic mushrooms, but I digress).
I wonder about Jardiance Girl #1 if she ever envisioned that her life and training (she’s obviously a trained vocalist) would lead her to front a commercial while in her 40s that would be cause her to become a household pariah of sorts. When she was dreaming dreams of what her musical career would be like, did she envision that a large drug company would hire her and pay her an incredible amount of money to dance thru a pretend town singing about a drug? Did she think while working with her vocal coach that one day she would make the word “tell” a three-syllable word?!?! I mean, that alone is quite a feat. My bet is that all of this was a surprise to her.
I have a friend, Tony Hale, that you may have heard of. He’s an actor. I knew him when he was a summer camp counselor. Do you know what Tony’s first memorable role was? Some of you might think it was as Buster in Arrested Development. That’s where a lot of people think he started. But, no, Tony’s first memorable role was as the guy looking out a window eating a Taco Bell pizza when a chihuahua climbs the fire escape and says “yo quiero Taco Bell.” From there he went on to build a solid career as a comedic actor. That was what he planned as far back as his teen years.
What do you think Jardiance Girl #1 planned when she was in her teens? I’ll tell you what she didn’t plan—she didn’t plan to be completely usurped by another middle-aged woman who sings and dances through an office. Let’s call her Jardiance Girl #2. Have you seen the new red-headed Jardiance girl?? Her commercial is set in an extraordinarily weird office environment of a company that does who knows what. This
fictitious office almost makes the town from Jardiance Girl #1 look real!
Jardiance Girl #2 seems a little more confident in her use of Jardiance as referenced by her tapping her brain as she sings the opening line “I have Type 2 diabetes and I manage it well.” She then skates through a dance number in the office of that odd company (that must pay well because all the people are smiling), solving a variety of dilemmas for the other employees. Now that I think about it—the company must
overpay people. They have a guy working there trying to make copies on a copy machine that is unplugged. Don’t worry—Jardiance Girl #2 to the rescue. She dances by and plugs the machine in to save the day. All the while, the meeting planner in me thinks “could you please tape down that wire before someone trips!”
Why was Jardiance Girl #1 discarded for Jardiance Girl #2? Where do they both go from here? Is Broadway in their plans? Do they star in all the regional, community theater musicals? Will they forever be known as Jardiance Girl #1 and Jardiance Girl #2? Did their 13-yr-old selves see this? What do they do each morning when they wake up? What do they do when they’re in a room with people and their commercial comes on? So many questions, so little time to contemplate these issues that flood my mind.
There was a Jardiance girl that burst on the scene last year with the commercial jingle that invades all our waking thoughts. (Wait, you mean you don’t wake up singing and dancing to the Jardiance song?!?!?)
So, Jardiance Girl #1 (let’s call her that) showed up on our tv screens singing and dancing thru Universal Studios in Orlando about a medication that lowered her A1C. Apparently, the medication is a good thing—my husband is taking it and it’s lowered his A1C. Not to the point of singing and dancing, but honestly, if he started singing and dancing, I would swear he was taking hallucinogenic mushrooms (not that there’s
anything wrong with hallucinogenic mushrooms, but I digress).
I wonder about Jardiance Girl #1 if she ever envisioned that her life and training (she’s obviously a trained vocalist) would lead her to front a commercial while in her 40s that would be cause her to become a household pariah of sorts. When she was dreaming dreams of what her musical career would be like, did she envision that a large drug company would hire her and pay her an incredible amount of money to dance thru a pretend town singing about a drug? Did she think while working with her vocal coach that one day she would make the word “tell” a three-syllable word?!?! I mean, that alone is quite a feat. My bet is that all of this was a surprise to her.
I have a friend, Tony Hale, that you may have heard of. He’s an actor. I knew him when he was a summer camp counselor. Do you know what Tony’s first memorable role was? Some of you might think it was as Buster in Arrested Development. That’s where a lot of people think he started. But, no, Tony’s first memorable role was as the guy looking out a window eating a Taco Bell pizza when a chihuahua climbs the fire escape and says “yo quiero Taco Bell.” From there he went on to build a solid career as a comedic actor. That was what he planned as far back as his teen years.
What do you think Jardiance Girl #1 planned when she was in her teens? I’ll tell you what she didn’t plan—she didn’t plan to be completely usurped by another middle-aged woman who sings and dances through an office. Let’s call her Jardiance Girl #2. Have you seen the new red-headed Jardiance girl?? Her commercial is set in an extraordinarily weird office environment of a company that does who knows what. This
fictitious office almost makes the town from Jardiance Girl #1 look real!
Jardiance Girl #2 seems a little more confident in her use of Jardiance as referenced by her tapping her brain as she sings the opening line “I have Type 2 diabetes and I manage it well.” She then skates through a dance number in the office of that odd company (that must pay well because all the people are smiling), solving a variety of dilemmas for the other employees. Now that I think about it—the company must
overpay people. They have a guy working there trying to make copies on a copy machine that is unplugged. Don’t worry—Jardiance Girl #2 to the rescue. She dances by and plugs the machine in to save the day. All the while, the meeting planner in me thinks “could you please tape down that wire before someone trips!”
Why was Jardiance Girl #1 discarded for Jardiance Girl #2? Where do they both go from here? Is Broadway in their plans? Do they star in all the regional, community theater musicals? Will they forever be known as Jardiance Girl #1 and Jardiance Girl #2? Did their 13-yr-old selves see this? What do they do each morning when they wake up? What do they do when they’re in a room with people and their commercial comes on? So many questions, so little time to contemplate these issues that flood my mind.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye! - Seeketh Thow Sponsorships Recommendations
Dear SPINers – we are seeking recommendations for year-round Sponsors. If you are first to submit a new Sponsor and they sign up with SPIN, there is a $100 referral bonus that goes right into your pocket. Winner-winner chicken dinner. Send contact details to [email protected]
Are you curious about becoming a SPIN member?
These buttons have been sanitized for your convenience, so feel free to click them again and again.
PLANNERS:
Here's the thing...it's free, it's only available on Facebook, but you have to be a planner with 10+ years' experience to qualify. |
SUPPLIERS:
Suppliers can join only if they are one of our amazing SPIN Sponsors Please contact us at [email protected] to learn more about our Sponsorship plans. |
Trusting Your Intuition
The phone calls are coming from inside the BRAIN

I’m going to let you in on a little secret, come closer. Oh geez, not that close, back up. You know that little voice in the back of your mind that ever so gently keeps poking your brain with a stick? That is your intuition! It plays a very important role in life, so pay attention!
Some people feel like intuition is some sort of unreliable mystical beast that lives inside their minds. It’s hungry like the wolf and will multiply if you feed it after midnight. Turns out, this is not the case. In fact, intuition has a deep neurological basis and purpose. A good intuition keeps us grounded, helps us make choices, and keeps us out of trouble (for the most part).
Usually intuition starts with a “gut feel” and as it turns out, research has shown a strong connection between the gut and the brain, and this connection goes beyond just digestion. In fact, the gut is sometimes referred to as the “second brain” due to this connection. That’s it intuition, get in my belly!
Telling the difference between thoughts and intuition should be practiced. When you have an intuitive thought, stop for a moment and ask, “is this thought coming from fear”? Fear can cloud intuition and through regular practice of listening to your intuition, you will be able to differentiate between genuine gut-feelings and fear-based reactions over time. Trusting your intuition and your gut likewise.
Give it a try! Practice trusting your intuition through smaller day to day decisions. Trust your instinct on thoughts like picking out the clothes you want to wear that day and to where you want to have lunch. Keep a journal of your decisions and whether your intuition was correct in those decision factors. Gradually you will build confidence in your inner compass.
SNAP out of your own thoughts, overthinking clouds intuitive judgement. In a seminar I recently attended there was a puzzle game we had to solve with the help of others. They clapped 1 time when we got something right and were silent when we did something that would not solve the puzzle. The speaker repeated the words “The Universe wants you to succeed, there is no thought, only action.” Those who got caught up in their thoughts while solving the puzzle took much longer than those who only acted. There is no thinking, only action and the Universe wants you to succeed, so trust it.
Before I started to really trust my intuition, I turned away from it all like a blind man. Not wanting to believe there was a little truthful voice inside of me who wanted the best for me. What helped me over these doubts was turning to my values. When in doubt, I ask if the decision I am about to make falls in line with my values and inner truths. If so, then it is the right decision.
Conclusion, trusting your intuition is not about ignoring logic or analysis; it’s about integrating both rational thinking and intuitive wisdom. Embrace your inner compass—it knows more than you realize.
Some people feel like intuition is some sort of unreliable mystical beast that lives inside their minds. It’s hungry like the wolf and will multiply if you feed it after midnight. Turns out, this is not the case. In fact, intuition has a deep neurological basis and purpose. A good intuition keeps us grounded, helps us make choices, and keeps us out of trouble (for the most part).
Usually intuition starts with a “gut feel” and as it turns out, research has shown a strong connection between the gut and the brain, and this connection goes beyond just digestion. In fact, the gut is sometimes referred to as the “second brain” due to this connection. That’s it intuition, get in my belly!
Telling the difference between thoughts and intuition should be practiced. When you have an intuitive thought, stop for a moment and ask, “is this thought coming from fear”? Fear can cloud intuition and through regular practice of listening to your intuition, you will be able to differentiate between genuine gut-feelings and fear-based reactions over time. Trusting your intuition and your gut likewise.
Give it a try! Practice trusting your intuition through smaller day to day decisions. Trust your instinct on thoughts like picking out the clothes you want to wear that day and to where you want to have lunch. Keep a journal of your decisions and whether your intuition was correct in those decision factors. Gradually you will build confidence in your inner compass.
SNAP out of your own thoughts, overthinking clouds intuitive judgement. In a seminar I recently attended there was a puzzle game we had to solve with the help of others. They clapped 1 time when we got something right and were silent when we did something that would not solve the puzzle. The speaker repeated the words “The Universe wants you to succeed, there is no thought, only action.” Those who got caught up in their thoughts while solving the puzzle took much longer than those who only acted. There is no thinking, only action and the Universe wants you to succeed, so trust it.
Before I started to really trust my intuition, I turned away from it all like a blind man. Not wanting to believe there was a little truthful voice inside of me who wanted the best for me. What helped me over these doubts was turning to my values. When in doubt, I ask if the decision I am about to make falls in line with my values and inner truths. If so, then it is the right decision.
Conclusion, trusting your intuition is not about ignoring logic or analysis; it’s about integrating both rational thinking and intuitive wisdom. Embrace your inner compass—it knows more than you realize.
Random pics downloaded but not used in the main portion of the Newsletter put here for your enjoyment