Episode Details

‘It's the abundance of diversity. It's not about tolerating. It's about welcoming…’

Much as I adored Moana, I think I loved Moana 2 even more. And with the current threats to #DEI (Diversity Equality and Inclusivity) in America, it feels like an especially good time to remind everyone that immigration (yes, I’m biased as a daughter and granddaughter of immigrants and now immigrant myself) is A GOOD THING.

I hope you enjoy this week’s episode and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and the film. If you’d like to read some of the older Sofa Session posts where I take inspiration from other fictional, animated and historic characters as well as current affairs, you can READ MORE HERE

le grá (with love),

Evei

FULL TRANSCRIPT

It's the abundance of diversity. It's not about tolerating. It's about welcoming…

It's about appreciating. It's about supporting. So that is one of my favourite themes and self-care lessons from Moana 2.

Hi, I'm Eve Menezes Cunningham and welcome to the Feel Better Every Day Podcast.

I am so excited to be sharing new trauma-informed and ADHD-friendly ideas for you to help you take better care of your Self: that highest, wisest, truest, wildest, most joyful, brilliant and miraculous part of yourself, as well as the basic self-care, which we all know can be so challenging at times. I really appreciate you tuning in. If you want a deeper dive, you'll be getting bonus content each week.

If you sign up to the Sole to Soul circle, you can do that for free or from as little as €8 a month. And you can also find more ideas in the book, 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing

Welcome to episode 46 of the Feel Better Every Day podcast.

And while I've done many, many blog posts where I've either written open letters to fictional characters or shared self-care coaching lessons from various films and TV programmes, things that are going on in the news, this is the first podcast I'm doing along those lines.

And it's 10 self-care lessons from Moana 2. So it does include some spoilers, but hopefully in the Greek Chorus kind of way, or Brechtian approach, so it won't actually spoil it.

It's such a lovely film, I don't think anything could spoil it.

But what I'm sharing is so vague, it's not going to ruin any plot lines. But I hope it will encourage you to watch the film, enjoy the film and take inspiration from the film like I have.

#1 Know who you are

Moana repeats, ‘I am Moana.’ And even me, I'm not Moana, but even just saying that I kind of sat up straighter. And I'm 49 years old, but I will admit there have been a few challenging times since I saw Moana 2, where I've stood up straighter and said, ‘I am Evie.’

Try it, whatever your age, just ground, check that the feet are fully on the ground. If they don't reach, put something below them, like maybe a cushion, maybe a bolster, maybe a few cushions. Sit up straight, stand up straight.

‘I am… [whatever your name is].’ Notice how you feel in your body. Notice, yeah, you might feel silly, but also connect with who you are and know that who you are is worthy, is lovable, is good enough, is enough, is not too much.

#2 Recognise that there is always another way

So I also have a theory that Moana has ADHD, based on a theory that people with ADHD moved further from Africa as humans evolved, because the ADHD people in hunter-gatherer societies were needed in terms of scoping out newness, scoping out new ways of being. And Moana, of course, being an explorer, very much did that for her people. So lesson number two from Moana 2 is to recog