2. Cuddle with Joe

Transcript

Hello beautiful, there you are. I love your energy, the way you flow, the way you light up every room you walk into. I'm so glad you're making time for yourself right now.

It's so important to take a step back and exhale from the day. I want you to get comfortable. Lay down on your sofa or bed and stretch out.

Lay on your back and give your body a good stretch. Close your eyes, inhale and fill your lungs up and hold for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Inhale again and clear your mind from the day, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Now breathe normally.

Take this time to feel the tension in your body evaporate. Feel the weight just lift off and float away. Have you ever been to a place that makes you feel centered and whole, somewhere that brings warmth to your heart and a smile to your face?

I want you to imagine that place. Picture yourself there. See yourself there in your mind and take a good look around you.

Look at all the details. Feel yourself there again, soak it in. Imagine the smells, let the brilliance of the imagery in.

Allow a tingle to start at your toes and work its way up your legs to your torso, splitting at your neck and simultaneously going into your head and down your arms through your fingers. Feel this energy inside you and bathe in it. Allow the comfort of this place to really relax you.

Let's cuddle. I'm going to lay with you now and hold you. This is my favorite place to be, with you in my arms.

Now I'm going to tell you a story about a girl that grew up in a family that used to be wealthy. Very wealthy at the time. She was the youngest of five children.

Before she was born, her parents owned and managed a very popular restaurant and convenience store in town. They were very resourceful, and over time, managed to become the leading social gathering spot for all the people that lived there. They understood customer service and managed to beat out their competition, and knew how to give their clientele what they wanted at an affordable price but very high quality.

Things were going very well for them and their four children, two sons and two daughters. They were living their best life. They lived in a beautiful house, decorated with exquisite taste and fine art throughout.

They wore fashionable clothing and most of their outfits were tailor-made. They went to the theater in the evenings and enjoyed the finer things in life. They dined while others ate.

They had a vacation home by the sea, and they would visit and stay for weeks on end in the summertime. Life was truly magical for this family. Then the war came, and everything changed.

Their country was under attack. A lot of the men from town went and fought in the war, and many of them did not survive. There was much sadness for many of the families.

After six long years and many casualties, the war ended and the enemy won. The newly established government changed the laws, came to town, and stole everything from those that had anything of value. The restaurant and store were taken away from the family, and they were now scraping by like so many of the other survivors.

Right before everything was taken away, the youngest child, a daughter, was born. She grew up hearing family stories of luxury, wealth, and beautiful vacations, but for her, life was the opposite of those tales. Wearing rags for clothes, long days filled with working in the fields and on someone else's farm, and most meals were beans, spinach, and eggs.

She didn't mind, though. She found joy in the simple things like painting, working in the garden, and being outside with the birds and farm animals. Her mother, however, was very upset with this new life, from riches to rags, and she took it out on her youngest daughter.

She was frustrated, angry, and mean to her. Her mother expected her not to marry, stay at home the rest of her life, and take care of her aging parents. Yet, while her older siblings and parents were miserable with their new situation, she was living her best life.

One of the things she really looked forward to was receiving monthly letters and packages that would come from her aunt that lived in America. Her aunt had moved to America before the girl was born. She had made her way to California and set up a successful business with her brother.

Every month, she would send clothes, chocolates, and other gifts to the girl and her siblings. The letters were filled with stories and photos of her aunt's great adventures in America, how she lived in New York City for a time and then made her way to San Francisco. She was very resourceful and became independently wealthy at a time when these things were uncommon.

One of the gifts the girl received from her aunt was a camera that she loved immediately. She took pictures of everyone and everything. She loved to capture what she saw through the camera lens.

Her aunt was an inspiration to her and now she had dreams of moving to America. She wanted to travel across America and see all the places she had seen in the pictures. The little girl's family constantly told her to stop dreaming about America.

It was a waste of her time and energy to think of such things. She would never make it there, they said. But she kept on dreaming anyway.

With her camera by her side, she was living her best life. As time passed, things got better in her country, and the girl's family moved to the big city. They weren't as poor as before, but were definitely not rich either.

She was finishing high school and had a job as a bank teller. Her photography skills had improved greatly, and she had quite an eye for composition and really knew how to capture moments of everyday life. She met a college student who was a smart, confident, and handsome young man.

He was studying to be an engineer, and they were inseparable. They dated for three years, and in that time, discovered they both had dreams of moving to America. They fell in love and got married.

She continued working while he finished working on getting his engineering degree. Once he graduated, he had a hard time finding work. It seemed all the engineering positions in his specialty were filled at the time, so he went to London to see if he could find a job there.

He was there for three months staying with friends, while she supported him with her job at the bank. She kept taking pictures and was also working as a freelance photographer for a local magazine. Her friends and family teased her, saying she was paying for her husband to live loose and free in London, that he was probably having affairs with lots of women, and that she was paying for him to do these things.

But she didn't listen to them. She was living her best life. He moved back home without a job, and the two of them decided to make the move to America.

Their families were extremely skeptical of this decision. Things are great here, why would you leave us and our country? This is a huge mistake.

You will fail there and have to come back home, is what they were told. But the dreams were too big for her and her husband to ignore. She didn't know how or why she had to do this, but she knew it was her destiny.

They moved in the middle of winter, during the biggest snowstorm of the decade. Their plane barely took off, but they made it just before the airport shut down for a week. They landed in New York City and stayed with her uncle for two weeks to get situated.

Her husband found a job as an engineer. Her photography had made quite an impression with people they met, and through some connections, she landed a job as an assistant photographer at National Geographic magazine. Over time, the couple advanced at their respective companies, and they were able to buy a house outside of the city.

She was now a lead photographer and was sent on assignments to shoot all across America. She was the one now sending photos and stories of her amazing adventures. Her family back home was in disbelief.

How was this possible? How did their youngest daughter beat the odds? They each tried to take credit for her success, but she didn't pay attention to them.

She was living her best life. Over the years, the couple had two children, had ups and downs like everyone else, but she was always locked in on her dream. They would travel back home to see the extended family.