079 – Poppin’ Rowan’s Cherry – 5 Bright Moments – Rowan & Rebecca
Shawn’s intro to the 5 Bright Moments game
Shawn: Hey, thanks for checking out one of the episodes of the five brightest moments that Rebecca and some of her friends have recorded. I’m excited for you to be able to listen to this because this is an exercise that helps to just bring up some really great feelings of what happened throughout the day to kind of anchor those feelings inside our physical body.
If you’re wondering why she’s doing this, and you’re wondering how you can do it, episode 38, Rebecca and I did a little explanation of what the benefits of this are, both on a scientific level and on a spiritual level.
So check that one out for sure. If you’re wondering how to do this or wondering why to do this, you’ll get some great ideas in here of things that she was thankful for. And maybe some things that you can start to notice throughout your day as well. So I’m excited for you to listen to this. Have a great time.
Begin 5 Bright Moments with Rowan – First timer!
Rebecca: Well, hello, Rowan. Welcome to pleasure central radio.
Rowan: It is a pleasure to be here.
Rebecca: I am really excited that tonight you get to play your first iteration of the five brightest moments game.
Rowan: We got to pop that cherry, I guess.
Rebecca: Yes that no, that’s what I’m talking about. Pleasure central radio. Good. So I think I’ve explained a little bit about how the game works. Do you want to give a quick overview about your understanding of it?
Rowan: Well, my understanding is that we are going back over our days and finding five highlights moments that give us pleasure to recount.
And we all share those out loud with each other with the goal of re-experiencing those moments and fostering more joy. How did I do?
Rebecca: I think you passed with flying colors.
Rowan: Excellent.
Rebecca: I don’t think I could have said a bit of myself. well, would you like to go for Do you like me to go first?
Rowan: How about you go first.
Rebecca: Okay. I will go first and I’ll keep track of my own 5 bright moments.
Today I published the 75th episode of my podcast. And that feels great. It was one of those situations where I didn’t even realize what a milestone I had hit until I don’t know, an hour or two later. And I was looking back at my day and going, Oh, right. I have actually finished some really important things today, including episode number 75, it’s published it’s out there.
And I think it’s one of my favorites of all of the episodes I’ve done.
Rowan: I feel the energy coming off of you as you talk about that.
Rebecca: It is so satisfying.
Yeah, that’s a really good moment. I can milk it even more. Let’s see.
Yeah, it’s just that really lovely sense of “I found my voice. I have a place in this world. It matters to people. It matters to me. It’s making a difference in my life. It’s a rhythm that my life is built around in the most rejuvenating and regenerating way. And it’s an excuse to do things that I really like, like talk about pleasure with my friends.
And make people blush.”
Rowan: I think that’s a shared passion of both of us.
Rebecca: I think it is.
Rowan: I think even putting all of the goodness that you’re putting out into the world of sign, just producing 75 episodes of something is a huge task in and of itself.
Rebecca: And you’re right. That is a lot when you look at it that way.
Rowan: Yeah, I definitely see the pride you have in that when you talk about it.
Rebecca: Yeah.
Well, there’s my moment. What about you?

Rowan: Hmm.
I think one moment that stood out to me today was when we here.
We’re having dinner. And you said to just take a seat and you would make dinner. And it felt… felt really good to just be I guess looked after in a way in that moment. After a busy day of. Homeschooling kids and cleaning up house and all of that stuff to just enter into a very calm evening of preparing food and talking about many different things, including five bright moments.
But that stood out because I think it felt very good to just that’d be appreciated for being here and not having to deliver anything in that moment. So I was really thankful for that.
Rebecca: Awesome. Well, that was the intention. So I’m glad you felt it.
Rowan: Mission accomplished.
Hmm.
Rebecca: My number two moment: I was outside. I wasn’t going very far, I don’t think that I was walking around the neighborhood and I stopped in one of my favorite places. And it’s one of my favorite places because it’s a block that happens to have a lot of trees, a lot of flowers, are really beautiful landscaping.
And it kind of feels like an escape in the middle of the city, like this hidden nook and cranny. And I got to that particular piece of the neighborhood. And it has been totally turned around for fall, almost all of the leaves or dropped off the trees. And the colors were looking particularly vibrant and bright and alive, then.
It was windy in that kind of brisk fall “the weather is trying to wake you up and remind you that something is changing” kind of feeling. And I was just very pleasant. I stood there. I leaned against the tree for 15, 20 minutes, just observing and enjoying and breathing in the air, being outside.
Watching the rabbits run around in the bushes.
It was very nice, very calming.
Rowan: Yeah, I think we’ve talked before about how that change of seasons can be forward, so nice to pause and experience that cycle of the natural world. That’s where you go from warm, playful outdoor days to … I don’t know for me, winter or the onset of winter feels introspective and wild.
And also warm and cozy at the same time.
Rebecca: Yeah. Yeah. I can get with that. Yeah.
Introspective and wild.
Rowan: Perhaps a paradox.
Rebecca: That’s true. A juicy one. Hmm.
Rowan: This might be a strange one, but I’m someone who bringing order to things brings a lot of pleasure to me. I Find a lot of fulfillment in taking something that is a mess or disorganized and bringing order to it. so this may sound very strange as a bright moment, but after a busy weekend, our house had a lot of stuff everywhere. And so I spent, I spent some time bringing order back to a lot of it. And at the end of that once the kitchen counter was cleaned and clear and all of that stuff that, that moment of pause at the end to just enjoy an orderly space. It was a bright little moment for me.
Rebecca: Yeah. Oh, that reminds me of a similar moment that I have. So I spent pretty much the whole day yesterday, Sunday, cleaning my house really inspired with all this energy. And doing a lot of these small little things, like removing nails from holes that didn’t have pictures on them anymore and moving pictures where I really want them to be now and, you know, doing my laundry and vacuuming up all the hairs behind the toilet and all of these little small miscellaneous things that add up to a really big shift. I reorganized and cleaned everything in my bathroom. So it’s all shiny and spic and span now. And when I walk in there, it feels like a temple just for me to spend this much time as I want in so that I can get ready for my day.
And that feeling is really nice. And so the moment was today when I woke up and I was walking around my house, realizing, “look what I did yesterday!” so much it’s changed. The vibration in the house has changed the way I am thinking about some problems changed because I’m moving things around. And yeah, it was very satisfying and almost oh, a little bit of that, like disappointment, like, well, there’s nothing else to really fix now. it was a very positive experience. Oh, look, this is exactly how I want it now. Isn’t that great!?
Rowan: Yeah, there’s something very, very satisfying about that peaceful moment. Whenever things in order.
I think it gives us a lot of freedom to either pause and just be, if that what we need to do or to move on to the next thing of that’s, that’s what it feels good. Yeah. See the room to just be all over him to begin something else.
Rebecca: Yeah.
Rowan: Another one for me, it was doing lunch with my children. After school, we sat and we watched a Treehouse masters together. And it’s fun to like kids are getting old enough that we have some shared interests. Now, building Legos, but also we’ve all been pretty fascinated with treehouses lately and we’re actually building one.
And so it’s fun to get to that life stage with them where we can sit down and watch a Treehouse masters and talk about the tree house that we watched get built.
That was really fun. That’s fun. Because I enjoy it myself. I’m really into building interesting things and tree house is definitely fit into that category. It’s also just fun to see children growing up, especially when it’s your own children too. Yeah.
Rebecca: I’m watching them figure out life and figuring out what they care about and figure out what’s worth putting their time and energy into.
Rowan: Yeah. And to see… I think being a parent, I’ve had a lot of anxiety, maybe. Maybe not always anxiety, but you, you wonder about how your kids are turning out. And to just observe them be good humans in the world and enjoy good things and enjoy creating. There’s something reassuring and hope giving about that I think.
Rebecca: Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, I know they’re pretty moment this morning. I had a resonance repatterning session with Heather who I’ve had on the podcast before. And it was a really good session. It was one of those sessions were. I find that often when I arrive at a session without a really big problem in my head, that I tend to have the biggest breakthroughs and the most movement. And that particular session, and this was one of those I, I showed up and I’m like, okay.
All of these things have happened since the last time we talked in, a lot of them were pretty dramatic. And. I’m actually feeling pretty optimistic about all of this and I’m doing okay. And she’s like, okay, great. So w muscle tested what to work on. And it ended up being something that… I could tell that there was something that was affecting all of these big projects and things that have been going on in my life all year long.
And it happened to be something that I think is directly related to all of those. So we’ll see how it pans out in a couple of days, but I can say that after the session. And even during the session, I was…. I was getting a lot of the sense of relief and ease and lightness that I feel like I haven’t felt in a little while. And it was nice to reconnect with that. To feel that and to. Feel it in my body to know that. I was responsible for that feeling.
Rowan: That’s interesting. I’ve had the same experience. And counseling or therapy or mentoring. Where I can be nice to go in with a thing that you’re trying to deal with. That can be a really fruitful use of that time.
I’m realizing, as I say this, as almost ties into the clean house discussion we were having, like, sometimes it’s nice to go in with a dirty bathroom because you know, you need to clean the bathroom. Therapy session. Yes. Sometimes it’s nice to go in with a clean house and be like, I don’t know. Let’s poke around in here and see what’s in my house that I didn’t realize was here.
Rebecca: Yeah.
Rowan: I’ve had that same experience myself, especially with kind of mentoring I’ve been doing for the last little bit. It can be really fun to go into a session and not know what you’re going to work on.
Rebecca: Yeah, let me just see what shows up.
Yeah. Yeah. Especially when you’re working with someone that’s highly intuitive. I love that. Yeah.
Nice.
Rowan: Another bright spot for me was actually this morning when my alarm went off. And. I didn’t feel like getting out of bed. Not supposed to get out of bed. I don’t have decided not to. Right. Which is a very, I’m usually very responsible person. Who’s like, I don’t want to get out of bed, but things got to get done.
So I’m on it.
And today I was like, yeah, that’s just not happening right now. And I reset my alarm for 20 minutes and just nodded back off. Nice. I’m also someone who usually has a fairly hard time falling asleep, swiping out to nod back off and get some sleep. Again, in that 20 minutes felt like a real indulgence.
Rebecca: Mm. Luxury.
Rowan: Yeah. So that was a pleasant moment. And I think points to some changes of listening for myself a little bit more and where there is room. I mean, sometimes you have to deal with things, but sometimes there is room to be like, You know what? I can be a little bit less responsible here. The world is not going to end if I’m 20 minutes later to my day that I was planning to be.
Rebecca: Yeah.
Yeah. That’s a good thing to remember, right. Yeah.
It’s funny. There’s a Mark Twain quote that I absolutely love. He says “I’ve had thousands of problems in my life. Most of which never actually happened.”
Rowan: Yeah.
Rebecca: And then my last name is actually two last moments. So I had the privilege of getting to share with two of my partners today about a romantic escape that I had this weekend. And it was really nice because it kind of happened in this gap in between being able to see people. And it was, it was a really lovely way of filling in some things. And it also it was nice to see the reactions and just to share and kind of had that first experience with those people and enjoy it. So.
Thanks for being one of those people.
Rowan: You’re very welcome. that’s interesting that almost highlights the power of bright moments, right? Because one of your bright moments was thinking back on a bright moment for previous days. So that experience was powerful enough that it, I became a bright moment of its own for you today.
Rebecca: Compounding interest. Yeah.
Rowan: The good kind.
Rebecca: Yes. In your favor.
Exactly. This is called my joy bank. That’s where I keep my vibrate moments for a good cause. I can put money in and it can take Joey. I can put joy in and I can take joy out and it never gets smaller.
Rowan: That sounds like a good kind of bank,
Rebecca: right? It’s my favorite.
Rowan: Well at the moment, it’s kind of spread a little. It’s not one exact moment, but with my nesting partner and I, she is starting a podcast. And I’ve been helping out with that. I in kind of a behind the scenes capacity, which is what I love to do. I’d love to help people make their things a reality.
And I’ve got to geek out on some technology, which I’ve enjoyed.
And so there are a few moments where her and I were just chatting over text about plans for that. And it was just fun to like see somebody dream coming together, to see the energy that, that builds and then her and I have a mutual friend who was also starting his own podcast as well, and had some messages with him, geeking out on different tech and programs and solutions. So that was fine. I mean, I’m a complete novice in this space. This has been learning from scratch for me. So that’s been really fun.
And then we also sitting together this evening and got to geek out a little bit on some things and it’s just been fun to have this shared interest with so many people I seem to have ended up orbiting around. It’s really fun to see these connections and to get to enjoy the shared interests and sharing tips and tricks and realizing how we’re doing things differently.
So, I don’t think that’s like a, an exact moment in the day that stands out private. And maybe it’s like a bright thread that kind of live through the day a bit.
Rebecca: We’ll take that. Yeah. It will take that
Rowan: extended moment.
Rebecca: Yes.
Wow. That’s so lovely. And that kind of brings up a bonus moment for me. I really enjoyed having dinner with your nesting partner in her podcast partner and you and nerding out about podcasting and podcast conferences and hosting providers and all of that stuff, that was really, really fun. And it’s a fabulous podcast. I really enjoyed the first episode. So.
Rowan: Coming soon.
Rebecca: Yay. Well, thank you for being on pleasure central radio.
Rowan: Thanks for the invitation to join you.
Rebecca: Yeah. Have you back again sometime soon.
Rowan: I would love that.

Closing BumperRebecca: Hey, pleasure seeker. Well, that’s it for today’s conversation here at plateau central radio, we love and using conscious communication science geekery and copious amounts of true pleasure to improve our partnerships, our money and our love lives. And we hope you do too. If you loved what you heard here, we love a review.
You can listen to other episodes of the podcast and read thought provoking essays or poems written by me, radiant Rebecca, by checking out the blog on pleasure central podcast.com. Sign up to hear about new episodes immediately@pleasurecentralpodcast.com.
Instructions for playing the 5 Bright Moments game…
If you want to take this home with you and do this for yourself, whether it’s by yourself or with somebody else count on your fingers each moment. And each time you put a finger down, think of what made that moment so special to you. What made it so bright? What really lifted you up in that experience and talk about it.
Think about it, write about it. It doesn’t really matter. As long as you’re thinking, looking for what made it so good, you will find it. And writing is a really fun way of focusing your attention. So if you have the time to write, I’ll often write on a post-it note, Hey, this brightest moment, this is what happened and here were the components of it.
And then, and then I’ll put that post-it note in my joy bank , and then I’ll move on and do four more of those. And, and for me, that’s just a really lovely the way of doing it. But if I’m doing it with a partner, I’ll often switch off. So I’ll do one, they’ll do one, all the one they’ll do one. But sometimes it works better, especially if one of them is in a kind of crappier mood to have the person that’s feeling better just go ahead and do their five brightest moments and see if the other person is able to catch up.
If you’ve got a lot of jealousy towards that person that may not work so well. But usually if it’s someone that I love or someone that loves me, it’s much easier for them to hear it and be like, Oh, right.
Yeah. Okay. That’s good. That’s good. And to be sucked along with the momentum.
And if you’re
Shawn: describing, as you said, The feeling in your body, you know, where you felt in your body. I think that’s really great. I think that’s really a good way to that takes it beyond the I’m thankful for us that I was doing into that’s how it felt like that was awesome.
Rebecca: Yes. And having that moment to actually feel it in your body. We usually cut out the big, big spaces in the episodes when we post them. But if you were there, when we recorded them, usually there’s like … … ….a big breath, a sigh. Couple of seconds, maybe 15 or 30 seconds, even where we’re just kind of settling in and being like, Oh, what was the next one? What was the next one? We’re just feeling, feeling in our physical body. And then, Oh, poof, here comes. There’s the next one? Cool. So are you ready? You’re going to try your own five brightest moments every day.
All right. I look forward to seeing what your reticular activator brings for you.
You bet. And we’re excited to listen to the rest of those episodes. Wahoo! Well, thank you, Shawn. Rebecca, you are truly radiant. Thanks for this explanation. And yeah, everybody go enjoy those five brightest moments episodes and have sweet dreams.