A Guided Spring Reflection On Boundaries And Self-Respect

Spring has a way of exposing what we’ve been tolerating. After spring break, I’m running on low sleep and high honesty, so I put the ring light down and pick the real work up: a spring reset guided reflection to help you let go, set boundaries, and come back to yourself.

I walk through the questions that cut through the noise: What are you holding on to that you’ve outgrown? Where did you abandon yourself last season? What would choosing you look like right now? Along the way, I share how “Mama Elke” was born from years of listening to Uber and Lyft confessions and being the go-to person for friends and coworkers, and why that role can quietly turn us into fixers who give too many chances. We talk about healthy boundaries, clear communication, and how to tell the difference between someone’s intent and the impact you actually feel.

If you’ve been overexplaining to people who aren’t listening, staying too long hoping things will change, or confusing love with tolerance, you’re not alone. I share practical ways to protect your peace, including pausing a hard conversation, revisiting it later, doing inner shadow work, trying the gray rock method, and giving yourself permission to agree to disagree. 

My favorite reminder from this reset: if you feel stuck, you may be avoiding a decision and your peace may cost you people.

Listen, journal along, and then tell me one thing you’re releasing this spring or one boundary you’re finally ready to set. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review so this community can keep growing.

Transcript

Spring Break Return And Real Life

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Oh chicka wow wow. What's up, party people? Welcome to another episode of LGVate Your Life. I am your hostess with the most S. L is in the letter L and key as in the key to your heart. Well, I was hoping to be live in stereo and video this evening for this mindful Monday, April 13th, after spring break. Uh, unfortunately, I couldn't get my ring light in the appropriate position in time because y'all, I'm tired. Whenever we go on spring break and come back. Well, imagine going back. Like if you're not parents or if you don't have, you know, kids that you take care of or whatever, you know, when kids get out of their routine, they it can be a little bit tough, a little bit difficult for them to adapt back into the routine. Well, that's what today looks like. Initially, my mindful Monday was going well until dun dun dun, until I got to PE, fifth and sixth period. It was a show. Anyway, um, yeah, so I'm literally was setting up my podcast just now, dozing off reading my content notes. So hopefully it's not a snooze fest for all of you or me. So thank you for tuning in. If you are a loyal listener, thank you for returning to Elkievate Your Life. If you are new here, I am Mama Elkie, and we do this every Monday, mindful Mondays, or Wisdom Wellness Wednesdays. I can be found on all the platforms, but I'm really promoting my YouTube channel more recently. Um, basically because I'm trying to monetize on my podcast and grow exponentially. And so, yes, but you can find me on all the platforms Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, oh Pod, Chaser, Deezer, and countless others that I won't bore you with. So, let's get into it. Today I wanted to talk about a spring reset, a guided reflection episode. So if you hear the meditation music in the background, that's why. So just want to ask you, what are you holding on to that you've outgrown? Where did you abandon yourself this past season?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

And what would choosing you look like this spring?

How Mama Elkie Became The Host

Being Alone And Listening Inward

SPEAKER_00 3:24

So I'm gonna tie it back to something that I mentioned, which is I talk about a lot of times how I got here. And one of the examples is that I used to drive for Uber and Lyft, and people would just get in my car, and you know, just regular passengers driving them home from work or from a party or a wedding or a friend's house or whatever the case may be, driving them to their destination. And the next thing I know, they're telling me their life story. And so they would be like, I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. And I would say, Welcome to Uber or Lyft Confessions. How can I help? So that's that combined with my kids now 25 and 33. Their friends would spend time with us, and I was known as Mama Elkie. Even when I was a team lead at a previous job, it was sort of glorified collection. Everyone would call me Mama Elkie. That just became a thing. And so my kids' friends would come over. Oh, I need to talk to you about this situation with my boyfriend, my girlfriend, my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother, my cousin, whatever the case may be. So there you go. Mama Elkie evolved into Elkie Vate Your Life podcast. So, want to share with you on a past or maybe even a current situation. So, for this spring break, our spring break was last week, and I found myself in a bit of a conundrum because normally everyone at school wants to or has plans to go on vacation, right? I work for a middle school as a special education para or special educational education aid. And a lot of these people are going to Disney World, to Disneyland, to Italy, to all kinds of places all over. Well, for me, my husband had to work, and he just moved into a lateral position with his job, so there was no taking a vacation or taking a break. So I found myself by myself. While I did see friends here and there, uh walk in the park with my mom friend Amy and a lunch and thrift shopping date with my girl Rhonda. I didn't really go anywhere or do anything outside of went to the gym and laid out at my pool. And I found myself saying, There's a reason I'm alone this time, that I don't have plans to do things with friends, to go to the beach, or to go on a hike with friends or bike ride or whatever the case may be. And so what I told myself is this must be a time for me to self-reflect.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

And so I was just thinking about what I needed to self-reflect on.

Boundaries, Needs, And Self-Awareness

Your Spring Release Reflection Challenge

Mindful Punchlines And Closing Requests

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Well, I can tell you that it starts with me setting healthy boundaries for myself, me communicating my needs more clearly, eloquently, directly. Uh where did I abandon myself this past season? I think that I give a lot of people grace and have been the fixer in the past, and so I would give people multiple chances, maybe even let them take advantage of my kindness or my time, and so what I'm choosing to look like this spring is showing up for myself in a better way. It's not to say that the people that I was spending time with that I care about that they necessarily crossed a boundary, but because of my own doubt or lack of self-awareness, I feel that I could handle situations differently. And that's what I found myself doing. I found myself reflecting on, oh, this person said this, and I did not like how that felt, or this felt dismissive, or I didn't feel like a priority in this situation, or just working on what I always talk about, which is becoming the best version of myself, but also looking at the other person's intent. Did they mean to deliver it that way? Did I just receive it that way? What was the message here? Maybe I overshared, you know, maybe I, you know, was dumping all my problems on people and expecting them to be my counselor instead of my friend. Um and just making sure that the relationships were a give and take. So those are some of the things that I did on my spring break that just something that I reflected on. I realized, hey, I'm supposed to take this time to build my social media accounts so that I can grow my podcast and grow my listeners. And I have to be a good communicator and a good listener if I'm going to continue to have a podcast platform, but also I need to be open and receptive to other feedback. Sometimes it might be constructive criticism, sometimes it might just be criticism and do well on balancing what is serving me and what is not, and taking the good from the messages and disposing of maybe the parts I didn't like in the messages. And it could have been the delivery, it could have been, you know, the timing. It could there's so many facets to this, right? But it really helped me during this time of spending time by myself to look at myself, love myself, realize I'm a good person, I'm a good friend, and while I give people grace, there's always room for improvement on my part, and just to be self-aware of protecting my peace and making sure that I am reciprocating energy to the people that give good energy, right? So I would love to find out from you, my loyal listeners. I would like to give you a reflection challenge. I would like to invite you to, when you listen to the podcast, after you like it or dislike it, upon commenting in your feedback, send me one thing you're releasing this spring. Or what boundary are you finally ready to set? And when I have all of this information, then what I can do is I can read your responses on air on the following podcast, either the following Mindful Monday or Wisdom Wellness Wednesday. And I can give a shout-out to my listeners who participate in this and possibly turn it into a weekly segment. Who knows? But I think it's important for us to do a before and after. I can tell you who I was last spring versus now. I don't think I was as intuitive, as strong, as consistent as I am today. And a boundary that I struggled with then versus how I handle it now, I might step away from that conversation and say, this doesn't feel good to me, we need to revisit this as a later time, or you know, um, doing my inner shadow work or the gray rock method, just finding myself in a space where if the conversation feels uncomfortable with whomever that might be, it's okay for you to communicate your feelings, and it's okay if you're not on the same page, it's okay to disagree. Hopefully, if the relationship is important to both parties, then you can come to an understanding, you can revisit and discuss healthy ways to communicate going forward. But it's important to be open to both sides of the conversation, and you don't always have to agree. You can say, we can just agree to disagree on this topic. So that is what I did on this spring break. It was a lot of walking, going to the gym, walking my dog, going to the gym, laying out at the sun. I definitely do know that my old self, I would be over-explaining to people who weren't listening. Or maybe I stayed too long in the situation hoping for improvement or change. Or maybe I confused love with tolerance. So that is where I am growing and learning is where I am emotionally. What am I avoiding? What needs to change, and what am I choosing moving forward? So I would like to encourage my listeners out there to pause and journal along. If you feel stuck this spring, hear this. You're not stuck, you're avoiding a decision. Or maybe your piece will cost you people. Pay it anyway. Or growth feels like loss before it feels like freedom. Just a few mindful motivational Monday punchlines for you to think about. Anyway, I will look forward to hearing your response and how you feel about this episode about letting go, boundaries, and self-respect, choosing yourself, rebuilding, moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

All pertaining to a spring reset guided reflection. So I will look forward to hearing your responses, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Travis, Dory, Creative Cara, Lisa Roberts Curvello, Mike Kaufman, Barry Minor, Roger Haven. The list goes on and on. Kyle Few, Jeff Potter. I will look forward to hearing your response. I hope that you liked this episode. I hope that it resonated with you. As always, oh, Debbie, by the way, want to throw her in there. And Rhonda, of course. If any of this resonated with you, or you would like to like the episode, remember that it helps the algorithm to click the like button, which is the thumbs up button. Remember to share if you know someone that could benefit from this podcast. Also, remember to share your feedback as I asked, as far as what are some things that you would like to release this spring? Or what boundary are you ready to set? Or what did you learn from this recent spring break moment? Who were you last spring versus now? I'll look forward to your responses, and I'll look forward to sharing them in the next episode. Until then, thank you to all my loyal listeners and subscribers, Creative Cara, Kyle Phew, Lisa, Roberts Corvello, Mike Kaufman, Jeff Para. Thank you all for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Oh, Angie Gurma. Until next time, remember to like, share, comment. And until then, ciao for now.