Hello! Welcome to the Ashleigh Deane show!
I hope everyone had a beautiful day yesterday celebrating Mother’s in all forms, and the inherent gifts women have to mother and nurture and I hope, as always, that this light hearted episode can brighten your week and bring a smile to your face.
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So, I’ve got a flashback – way back when, the now Live with Kelly and Ryan show was the Live with Regis and Kathy Lee show. I remember watching and thinking how cool it was that every morning Regis would share stories from his life. Interesting and exciting stories – light hearted stories people were looked forward to!
One Friday morning, I was home in Las Vegas visiting from college with my college roommate, we watched Regis talk about being in Vegas later that day and through the weekend for a special occasion. My roommate at and I ended up going down to the strip that night to the Bellagio. We saw a limo pull up to the entrance as we were walking to the fountains… and guess who got out of that limo? It was regis! He said he was going to be in Vegas! and there he was!
Now – flash forward – here I am – on my very own show, talking about my week. I feel very Regis! I’m know Definitely not as glam or glitzy pulling up in a limo or anything – but its still fun to share the happenings of my day to day with you! So, thank you for listening, thank you for watching, and thank you for being here!
This last week, I hosted a party for my friends from my pilates studio. I go to pilates, as I mentioned, every morning at 6am, and there are several other women that are 6am regulars also. We all know each other, and love and laugh together. But we don’t know each other outside of the studio, and we’ve been working out there for months and months! We start almost everyday together, we have an unspoken bond. So I decided that we need to strengthen that bond by getting to know these ladies a little better!
I had a lot of help in planning this party from my parents, Ray Ray’s catering… but I had a great time getting everything ready and preparing for the evening.
Our menu, which I chose… and I’m sure you can guess what I chose… pizza, of course! We also had a charcuterie and salad, and I made an olive oil lemon cake, with lemon curd, blueberry sauce, marscapone lemon cream, topped with fresh blueberries and blackberries – with a side of bluebell vanilla ice cream. I found this cake recipe on Pinterest, and as I was making the cake, the day of the party- I thought… oh boy this is going to be a Pinterest fail, what am I thinking. But it actually turned out ok! Everyone said they liked it, or maybe they were just being nice, but I didn’t see anyone run away like they did with Rachel green’s Thanksgiving triffle.. … I was supposed to slice the cake in half and put layers of the lemon curd, blueberry sauce and marscapone cream in between, but I knew myself and cutting a cake in half would probably just turn out to be a disaster. So – I listened to my personal legend… on that one!
But everything turned out wonderfully. My friends came, and we did get to know each other better. We also got to bond about our common interest – pilates and what brought us to pilates.
Overall – everyone seemed to have a great time and were so happy, I had a photographer come and snap some shots… No one liked the pictures of themselves because we were all smiling so big, and laughing, sometimes candid shots turn out better than others times… but the food pictures were amazing!
I also wear something called a Whoop. It’s a fitness tracker – that goes a step beyond. It tracks sleep, how much you workout during the day, and how recovered you are from the previous day. I average a day strain of 15, and the high is a 21, which no one achieves. There are lots of 20.9s and 20.7s, so a 15 is still pretty high. I usually do pilates and about 30 minutes of cardio, plus the other activities of life during a day. On the day of my party – my strain was 20.6. I didn’t do any cardio that day, either! I couldn’t believe it! Planning a party, is more of a workout, than I would everything. But, I loved it, and loved getting to know these fabulous ladies and we hope to make it a monthly get together!
Last week I talked about underdogs – and that We tend to take inspiration from those who perform against the odds and succeed. Kind of timely because in this year’s ‘run for the roses’…… the longest shot… Rich Strike… in the ‘Fastest 2 minutes in sports’…. won the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May. Rich Strike entered the race in the last 30 seconds before the deadline just a day earlier when another horse had to back out.
Also last week was the 1st Monday of May… where we get to see “fashion’s biggest night out,” at the Met Gala in NYC.
So many looks to love and admire, but I personally loved Blake Lively on the red carpet, mostly I loved seeing how happy she looked.
And in other sporting news… the WSL – world surf league’s – created a reality show called the ultimate surfer. One season filmed and debuted which gave the winning male and female a spot on the coveted world surf league tour. Well – we found out this week, there will not be a season 2. And I am devastated! I loved watching every week, and seeing the challenges at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch, with his man made wave.
Apparently – there’s not enough drama surrounding high level athletes who truly want to perform and compete at the highest level of their sport. Hmmm… As Koa Smith would say – Incrediiiii blehhhh…
After hearing from my siblings and I on our motivation, I thought it would be good timing to hear from my mom. So she’s on deck, not this episode, but sometime this month she will be here. I told my dad he is on deck for June – but he refused and said “I don’t want to disappoint you, but no I won’t be doing that.”
For my Random Ash Insight of the week, I want to talk about a tough time I had while serving a mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. If you’re not familiar with missions and the what happens day to day, I’ll give you a brief overview. A mission is a volunteer opportunity to serve others in a set geographical location, and teach those who are interested about your faith. I was struggling mentally because the mission wasn’t turning out as I had thought it would. I bet we can all relate to that feeling in some way or another… so I spoke with a mental health professional that gave me some advice I still use today. He told me to grab a quarter… and place it anywhere on a picture of the Savior. So I did. Then he told me to look at that quarter, focus in on that quarter and tell him my thoughts. I told him the details I saw in the quarter. Then he told me to expand my focus to the whole picture and then asked if I saw the quarter as clearly as I did before? I told him, no… now I see the Savior. It was a realization to me of perspective. What we focus on, we give life to. I was focusing on what I thought my mission was supposed to be, which took away from me being able to see all the positives by expanding my focus.
I think that lesson can be applied to many areas of life and one I’ve been able to apply it to recently is the scar from my 2nd back surgery. The scar from my first back surgery is on my lower back and I hardly look at my back, so it doesn’t bother me. However, my 2nd scar is on my stomach about 3 inches long and 3 inches below my belly button, I see it daily. I remember the biggest hurdle in my mind about having that surgery was the scar I’d have on my stomach. I loved wearing bikinis and laying out in the sun, it was my recharge and happy place! I didn’t feel self-conscious at all! But I knew if I had the surgery, that would change because I would have a scar. I remember watching the progress of my scar heal… it was truly magnificent. You can barely see it now, but I can still see it. And I focus on it and if I let my mind go there… it brings me down. But when I zoom out… I see the bigger picture. The scar is still there… but I’m able to see a working body that is no longer suffering in pain.
My mom shared with me something called – Kintsugi – which is a centuries-old Japanese art of repairing broken pottery and transforming it into a new work of art with gold. The name of the technique is derived from the words “Kin” (golden) and “tsugi” (joinery), which translate to mean “golden repair.” The scars and cracks of the broken ceramic become the focus and turn the object into something unique and exquisite.
Kintsugi pottery pertains to the Zen ideal of Wabi sabi, the concept of embracing imperfection. It means finding pleasure in aged and worn objects, and value their blemishes as beautiful.
By repairing broken ceramics it’s possible to give a new lease of life to pottery that becomes even more refined thanks to its “scars”. The Japanese art of kintsugi teaches that broken objects are not something to hide but to display with pride.
And that – is what I call – a random ASH insight. I hope you liked it, and I hope you can apply it to something in your life.
Homework – what is the best advice you’ve ever received? Please reach out to me on instagram, email, or however you want!
Thank you for listening to The Ashleigh Deane Show. I’m still a teacher, just got myself a brand new classroom!
