Tiffany is fresh off a two-week trip to Japan, a place that to her feels unique in the world.
On Episode 550: Life Lessons from Japan, she shares some of her insights on what she discovered about the daily life and culture of this fascinating country, and which aspects of it she has been inspired to incorporate into her own daily life.
And what about the Japanese tea? Is this English Breakfast-lover a convert to matcha?
You can listen right here, or find the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and elsewhere.
Related Episodes:
Episode 532: Same Same But Different: Katy Visits Bali
Episode 522: The Case Against Travel, Part 2
Episode 520: The Case Against Travel
Here are 5 key points from the episode:
- Tiffany visited Japan for the first time and was struck by the strong sense of social contract and civic duty, especially evident in the orderly behavior on public transportation.
- She observed a high level of autonomy in children, with young kids navigating the metro system alone, which is uncommon in Western countries.
- There was a noticeable culture of respect, manifested through bowing and polite interactions, that permeated all aspects of society.
- Language barriers were more prevalent than expected, even in the hospitality industry, leading to creative communication methods.
- Japanese culture places great emphasis on attention to detail, particularly in packaging and presentation, as well as in traditional practices like tea ceremonies.
Full Episode Transcript:
Katy
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Welcome to Rome. This is The Bittersweet Life with Katy Sewall and Tiffany Parks..Â
Katy
Hello. This is The Bittersweet Life. I’m Katy Sewall.
TiffanyÂ
I’m Tiffany Parks.
Katy
Tiffany in Rome, Katy in Seattle. But Tiffany, you recently have returned from a trip to Japan, and that’s right. And so today we’re just gonna sort of talk about your impressions. Now, I know you’d been to other parts of Asia before in your life, but never Japan. Is that right?
TiffanyÂ
That’s right. And I kind of expected this, so this wasn’t a huge shock. But I really feel, and it’s been confirmed now that I’ve been there, that Japan is. Is kind of a place unlike any other place in the world. From what I get from it. It’s totally unique. I don’t know if you felt like that being there.
Katy
I did feel like that being there, but I had the strange point of view of I had never been anywhere else. When I went to Japan, I had been to Mexico, but I had never flown internationally and visited another country. So Japan was my very first. And so I think possibly. Probably anything would have felt unique and unusual to me at that point. I was in my twenties, so to just be in such a foreign place, Washington, unique to me at that point. So. So, yeah. But you’ve been world traveling since you were but a child. So tell me what struck you. Maybe we can just talk through a few of the things that really struck you as profound, profoundly different from not just the US, but from Italy as well.
TiffanyÂ
Yes. Yeah. So many things. I made a couple of lists. There were just so many things. And it reminded me, in a much bigger way a little bit of our episode that we did last summer, which was Italy versus Austria. Now, two countries that are very close geographically, but can have some big differences culturally. So it just kind of struck me as, you know, another reason that we should all travel, which is just to, like, see how other people live and observe how they live, because there’s not one way to do anything. There are many ways. And it’s so interesting to learn how other people do things. Sometimes we can pick up some of these things ourselves and enrich our own lives, and sometimes we see things that we’re like, okay, that’s not for me. And you leave that behind. But it’s so interesting to see. So, I don’t know. I can’t tell you. Like, number one, the main thing that struck me, there were so many, but one of the things was definitely a sense of societal contract, you know, a social contract, if that makes sense, where it’s like, we are members of this society, this is what we do, we all agree to follow these rules. It’s something that you don’t see very much in Italy, and I don’t think you see it very much in the United States either. I think both Italy and the United States are countries where people are very individualistic and very much like, I’m going to do things my own way and I’m going to be a rebel, and I don’t care what other people think of me. And I’ve had the feeling in Japan that it was like, this is what is expected, and so you do it.
Katy
Was there an example that you saw where you really felt like that? You could see that the biggest example.
TiffanyÂ
For me was the metro. I don’t know if you took the metro in Tokyo when you were there, but we took it every day, several times a day, because it’s such a huge city. And our hotel was in the center, but it was in the edge of the center, and it was very well connected to the trains. And so we just got around on trains all the time. And I was so fascinated by this sense that you walk on the left because they, of course, drive on the left. So you walk on the left always, with very few exceptions. But if you need to be on the right for whatever reason, because of how a corridor turns, they’ll tell you, walk right here, keep right here. And all of the indications are in Japanese and in English, and there’s usually a line down the center of a staircase, a line down the center of a hallway in the metro, and a tunnel. And you stick to your side. And if people are on the wrong side now, I didn’t see any, like, people getting angry at tourists. I’m sure tourists make mistakes all the time, so I didn’t see, like, an annoyance on the part of the locals, but I definitely saw that, like, this is how you do it, and you just walk on the left. And sometimes the space that you have to walk on is much smaller than the space that the other people have going towards you, probably based on, like, you know, how the traffic flow. Yeah, exactly. So I thought that was so interesting. And then when you get to the platform, first of all, there is a barricade along the platform with doors that open exactly where the doors of the metro train are going to open. So you cannot fall out onto the tracks and no one can push you and you cannot jump. You know, it’s like, so maximum efficiency and safety. So that’s one thing that, I mean, I’m sure that exists in other countries, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. And the craziest thing of all was there were these little spaces drawn right onto the platform where, like, you could make a very small line. So in front of every door, except slightly off to the sides, they have these little sort of boxes, rectangular boxes, where you line up. I didn’t even notice at first. Claudio pointed out to me, he’s like, look, you can’t just stand there and, you know, push your way to the front. I wasn’t pushing, but, you know, that’s the instinct when you’re in Rome, it’s like, get as close to the tracks as you can get. Get as close to where you think the doors are going to open and then wait. If you’re a polite person, wait for other people to get off. That’s the ideal. Some people do, some people don’t. And then, you know, you push your way on as quickly as you can get on and find a seat. But there it’s like, no, you stand in line, and when everybody is off the train, because, of course, these little lines are to the sides, then people get on in the order that they are standing, which is just so civilized and so fair. And the only thing I’ve ever seen similar to it is in Montreal. This didn’t happen on the metro, but at the bus stops in Montreal, people lined up to get on the bus and they made a single file line, which is the only place in the world I’ve ever seen that, except for now I’ve seen it again, because in Japan as well, at bus stops, people make a line, a single file line. It’s just so interesting. And I noticed that on a very, very busy morning, because most of the time we were on the metro, wasn’t too crowded, but on a very busy morning, there was such a long line of people, but it just, they lined up in such a polite way out of the way of other people walking. They were just kind of going up the stairs, skirting the edge of the wall, and I was just like, wow. Like, it’s sort of.
Katy
It’s the opposite of where you live normally.
TiffanyÂ
The opposite of where I live? Yes, of course. On the escalator, you know, it’s the same thing. There’s a line down the middle of the escalator steps. You walk on the left and you stand on the right, which is the opposite, I guess, of how some places do it in the west, Italy, it’s not that nobody does it in Italy. It’s like 80% of the people do it, but those 20% make it impossible for everyone else, so it doesn’t really work.
Katy
You know, where you do see that kind of lining up for the bus in the United States is tech workers. They do that because now a lot of the different tech companies in Seattle or when I was down in San Francisco, they move people around by these large buses rather than having everybody stuck in commuter traffic. And they line up in that civilized line. Like, whoever gets there first gets to get on and pick the best spot in the bus, you know, for the next two hour ride to wherever they’re going.
TiffanyÂ
And is that. Are they all working for the same company?
Katy
Yeah, I think so. Yep, I think so. It’s also people that you work with, people you know.
TiffanyÂ
Yeah, people who know you. Because I feel like. I feel like in the States and in Italy, I feel like there’s. I mean, it’s hard for me to speak for the states because I haven’t lived there in so long. But I think, like, in Italy, like, there is definitely a code of conduct, but it kind of applies to the people that you know.
Katy
Yeah.
TiffanyÂ
You know, there’s a certain, you know, there’s a certain. I think that Italians can be very polite in certain circumstances. They’re very polite to their elders. They’re very good at, like, introducing people and greetings and things like that, and. But it’s all based around people that you actually interact with and know.
Katy
Right.
TiffanyÂ
Whereas here, it’s like, these are all strangers in a huge city like Tokyo, you’re never going to see these people again, and yet everybody is following the rules and doing their art to make life flow smoothly.
Katy
Yeah, that’s great.
TiffanyÂ
Yeah. All right, so I really like that.
Katy
What else?
TiffanyÂ
Another thing I noticed on the metro, and then I tried to pick it up in other places, was an incredible amount of autonomy in children. The biggest example of this was we were on the metro and we saw a little girl. And she was younger than Aurelio. Now, she was a girl, so she’s probably smaller than him. Like I would have said, she’s first grade, maybe second grade. Because I’m looking at Aurelio and I’m looking at her, and I’m like, how much bigger is Aurelio than this little girl? So maybe second grade, definitely not third grade. And she was on the metro in her school uniform. You know those Japanese girls, they wear those cute little uniforms.
Katy
Yeah.
TiffanyÂ
And she had a little backpack, and she had another bag with books in it. And she was on the metro by herself in Tokyo.
Katy
Yeah.
TiffanyÂ
And, you know, she looked very capable, and she looked like she knew exactly where to get off. And it happened to be the same stop we got off at. You know, we happen to be going the same way for part of the way. And we sort of followed her up the escalator, and we’re just like, she’s doing it. Clearly knows what she’s doing.
Katy
Now, I know some of you listening know what I have to bring up to Tiffany, but have you seen the television show from Japan called Old Enough? No, I think it’s called old enough. I watched a lot of this when I had Covid in Italy when I first. That first visit when I came back and caught Covid. And I was in the Lake district on Lake Como. And I’m miserable lying in bed feeling sorry for myself with COVID And I watched episode after episode of old enough. And basically what it is is these kids who are as young as, like, three, four, their parents send them as a learning experience on their very first errand. And they’ve kind of set it up where maybe people are looking out for them along the way, you know, but they just have to be like, okay, you know, take mom’s money, go down to the market, pick me up this particular thing, bring me the change. And they send them off on their very first errand in a. I guess it’s such a thing, perhaps in Japan, that they decided to even make a show about. That’s crazy how parents try to train their kids to be able to navigate the world without them.
TiffanyÂ
I mean, I think it’s wonderful. I really think it’s so helpful and so beneficial for children to feel self sufficient as a parent. I have a hard time with it. I mean, I’m just now, I really was nine now, a couple months ago, when he was still eight, I finally was like, okay, you can walk to Nonna’s by yourself. But I walked him halfway and I stood on the road and I watched him as he was going. And he’s very careful. He’s a look both ways kind of kid. You know, he’s a cross at the crosswalk type of kid. But, you know, it’s still scary when people barrel down the street so fast in this town.
Katy
Yeah, for sure.
TiffanyÂ
And it’s hard.
Katy
I mean, what was, I think of Claudio, and if you’re listening, hello. I think of Claudio as being this slightly more protective parent. Slightly. Okay. Extremely more protective parent. What was his impression of seeing this little girl on her own?
TiffanyÂ
He was shocked. But I mean, we both kind of just sort of concluded that it’s a society where that is more common and people probably look out. There are probably people who like us or looking out for this little girl and keeping their eye on her, even if they don’t know her. And maybe she lives really, maybe she only has to go two stops. I think she went two stops. And maybe Tokyo is really a safe city. The last thing about the metro that I found interesting, at one point, we were in a metro car. It was almost completely full, at least of seated people. And I looked around and every single person, I mean, everyone was looking at their phone, everyone, like, there wasn’t like one old lady, sort of like knitting, or one person reading. And that’s not to say I never saw people reading, because I kept. I started to look for it after that. And I did occasionally see people reading. But on this one particular train, every single person. And I noticed that. And then I started to notice more that it seems to me that at least the people of Tokyo are on their phones constantly. I mean, everybody’s kind of on their phone constantly, but even more so, like, walking through the metro station on their phone, like, five people in a row, like, walking down through the station on their phone. And every so often you’d see signs saying, please don’t walk, looking at your phone, it’s dangerous. So. And the only really, the only people who weren’t on their phones on the metro were people who were sleeping, which was another interesting thing. There were a lot of people, especially, like, in the evening rush hour time, sleeping on the metro. Just, like, heads slunk down just like this, like, sitting up straight, their head nodded forward. How do they know where to get off? Like, how do they know to wake up when it’s time to get off. It was a lot of people sleeping. I was very surprised at that. Yeah, yeah.
Katy
It’s interesting, and it’s funny that you point that out, because I don’t think I would have thought or noticed prior, but it does make me think that every time I’m traveling around Rome and I’m on public transportation, hardly anyone’s looking at their phone. And I don’t know if that’s because you shouldn’t have your phone out. Not like you shouldn’t morally, but, like, from a safety standpoint, you know, you don’t want somebody to grab it out of your hand or something.
TiffanyÂ
Possibly.
Katy
But, yeah, I was just thinking, like, gosh, every time I’m on the metro or on a tramdez, I don’t remember people looking at their phones, you know, or on the bus.
TiffanyÂ
I feel like they do, but maybe it’s like 50, 60%. This was like 100% of the conscious people.
Katy
Interesting. Of conscious people.
TiffanyÂ
One thing that I also really loved was the sense of. And you get it really, in every aspect of society. You seem to get it in every aspect of life. It was the concept of respect. Like, people seem so respectful of one another. And, I mean, I think this ties into the sense of the civic duty, the civic, you know, contract. And it’s not just a service industry thing. It’s not just like the people who are working in the service. Interesting. Industry. Industry. Are being respectful to the people they’re serving. It goes both ways, and you see it in non transactional relationships. Everybody kind of bows when they meet you, and when they thank you, they bow. And it’s not, you know, oh, you’re, you know, you’re superior to me, so I’m bowing down to you. It’s. It’s really not about that, because it’s. It goes both ways. And I felt like the bow, which I think is a gesture that’s really under. It’s, like, under-appreciated in the west. I feel like the bow is. It does so much. It is such an easy way, even like a nonverbal way, so you don’t have to speak the language to show someone respect. It was great to adopt it while we were there because it was a great, super easy way to show that we were like, whatever the situation was, that we were very thankful or that we were very appreciative of someone’s advice or someone’s help or whatever it is, I think it’s a great tool to use. I mean, I know some American politicians. And I don’t want to go off topic, but American politicians get in trouble for bowing to eastern leaders in the west, I think. We don’t get it. We don’t get what the bow is about. It’s not about bowing down to someone else. It’s about showing mutual respect. And, yeah, you just see it everywhere. Just everywhere. And so I loved that. And I also learned a couple phrases, as we all try to do when we’re traveling. I had a really hard time with the language. And, I mean, I didn’t even try to, like, visually, like, the lettering, so I’m not even talking about that. I’m talking about just the sound. I’m usually pretty good at picking up phrases in foreign languages, but it really took me a long time. Like, it was embarrassing how long it took me to get the main phrase that you need to know if you’re in Japan, which is, thank you. Arigato. Arigato. I can’t even say it.
Katy
Arigato gozaimasu.
TiffanyÂ
Arigato gozaima sta. Or arigato gozaimas. And so it took me, like, ages to get that. And Claudio kept, like, rolling his eyes because he says it in karate. You know, he and Claudio have been saying it, you know, for years, and I’m like, you’ve been saying this a long time. I’m just picking this up. But I noticed Claudio happened to know how to say, you’re welcome. And I noticed that whenever he said it, oh, my gosh, people cracked up. Like, they loved it. All he had to say was, you’re welcome. And I suppose it’s a pretty formal way of saying, you’re welcome. I’m not sure, but they just. Every single person, every time, would laugh, like, in a sort of delighted way. So I’m like, I’ve got to learn this. I’ve got to learn this. Finally, I mastered it, and it’s. Now, let me see if I can think of it. Doi tashi mashite. And I started pulling it out as soon as I had it. Anytime, any chance, I had to say, you’re welcome, I would say it, and they just broke out in a huge smile. So that was fun. That’s great.
Katy
I remember feeling a massive sense of accomplishment when the two words I knew were, well, I knew a few other ones, but the two I knew the best were thank you and excuse me. Sumima sene masen. Yeah. And so I remember being in this one situation where both thank you and excuse me were used back to back, and I understood both of it, you know, and I was just like, what an accomplishment. I understood that entire interaction, which was nothing but me allowing someone to pass, but, you know, it was still just, like, it felt like such a victory at the time.
TiffanyÂ
Oh, yeah, I was shocked, and I don’t want to sound like a stupid American by saying this, but I was kind of shocked at how little English was spoken, because I’ve been to India, and obviously it’s a British colony. Everyone in India speaks English. You know, even in places like Thailand and Malaysia, I found in the situations I was in, almost everybody spoke English. And even in Italy, where, you know, they’re famously not great at languages. People who were in hospitality, people who were working in hotels and restaurants these days, they all speak English. So I was shocked. Like, I wasn’t expecting, like, the average Japanese person on the street to speak English, but I assumed that people working in hotels and restaurants would speak, and they really didn’t, with the exception of, like, the basic words that you have to know, like sheets, towels, check in, check out. Beyond that, we were pulling out the Google translate constantly. I was kind of surprised by that, but I kind of loved it, on the other hand, because I felt like I’m, like, laughing at the memory. There were so many situations where I was, like, acting things out, and it was just kind of fun. I don’t know if the other person thought that it was fun, but I kind of felt like every time we managed to understand each other without having to resort to Google translate was also a victory. And so I just thought that was kind of delightful.
Katy
That is fun. Yeah.
TiffanyÂ
Yeah. And, I mean, I thought that was another fun, fun little aspect that, you know, you don’t. You don’t find yourself in those situations when you don’t travel out of your comfort zone. You know, in Europe, you’re going to find people who speak English. In many places in Asia, you’re going to find people who speak English. In Japan, not as much. And so I think that was really. It was something that I wasn’t expecting, and I thought that was fun. My favorite line that I got from one of our hotel, how would you call it? Staff members. I was asking how, like, if we could get to this certain spot. Walking. I just remember her response, which was so brilliant. I wrote it down. She wrote, she said, walking. Okay, taxi more. Okay.
Katy
I love that.
TiffanyÂ
Yeah, I love it, too. It’s like, it’s totally succinct. I totally get what you’re saying there. And then, of course, another part of the Japanese culture is the spa culture, which we didn’t get to experience that much of simply because we were there in the middle of summer, which I don’t feel like is really the time that you go to the hot baths. But we did go. One of the hotels we we went to had a spa in it. Lots of different places in the world are famous for their spas, and they all have kind of their own etiquette around the spa, which we also talk about in the Italy Austria episode. In Japan, it’s separated by sex, so there’s all women and all men and children are allowed, but obviously with the same sex, because it’s a very. A real part of, like, family life, going to the spa together. So it’s not an all adult thing, but you’re not allowed to wear clothes of any kind, including bathing suits. And so what I understood from this, the bathing suit has the possibility of being dirty, but the human body, if it’s clean, if you’ve, like, taken a shower, and you have to take a shower, like, a full shower before you go in, not just, like, a rinse down, you take a full with soap shower before you get in the spa. But I liked the idea that it’s not your body that’s dirty, it’s your clothes that are dirty, or it’s whatever maybe was on your body before that’s dirty. It’s not your body that’s dirty. It’s not the human body that’s dirty. Because I feel like in the west, we’re like, okay, I don’t want to, like, sit on a bench where maybe someone else who was naked was sitting because their body had contact with it, you know?
Katy
Yeah.
TiffanyÂ
And here it’s the towel that’s dirty. It’s the swimming suit that’s potentially dirty, not the body. So I thought that that was an interesting way of seeing it.
Katy
Mm hmm, mm hmm. And so did you do it? Did you go in naked with a bunch of women?
TiffanyÂ
Yeah. I mean, that was the only way I could do it.
Katy
Yeah, that’s true.
TiffanyÂ
Yeah. Yeah, it was nice.
Katy
Was it similar otherwise, like, kind of the typical spa things that you would expect from going to a spa?
TiffanyÂ
This was a hotel spa. It wasn’t a true thermal onsen, like a traditional Japanese bath. So I don’t know how those ones are. But I was, it was surprised that there’s, like, no hydraulics going on in the tubs. It’s just still water of different temperatures. Whereas in Italy, if you were in Italy, there would be, like, the hydro massage going on there would be lots of bubbles, of course. Last couple things. Last couple things I found. Maybe this is the last thing I’ll say. An incredible, incredible attention to detail. What we would say in Italian, the curae things, the care, the curation of the visual aspect of things. And particularly, I noticed this in the packaging, gift packaging and packaging. We went to a department store on our very last day in, you know, the town of Naha in Okinawa, which is not a rich city. It’s not a Tokyo, you know, it’s pretty working class city. But it had this really nice department store and the lowest level of the department store. If you were in the states, it would be all the perfumes and makeup. Instead, it was all food, but particularly, I think it was all sweets, but they were in glass cases, as if it was a perfume, makeup, almost like a jewelry store. And I took a bunch of pictures. I didn’t post them because I was just getting. It was getting to be too much, but I just was going insane walking around, looking at the way that these different suites were packaged, and there were many different brands, so they all had their sort of style, and it was all just like. I mean, I was, quite frankly, overwhelmed. I was. I just couldn’t believe it. I was like a kid in a candy store, literally, type thing. Literally, I was just like, oh, my God, look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this. We finally stopped at this one particular place. The woman working at this one particular stand, Washington. She was an older lady. She looked really sweet, and she was wrapping up a package for the person who was there before. And she was just doing it so deliberately and so slowly and so carefully, and, you know, with so much precision. I had this urge to communicate with her how lovely it was. And so I got out my Google translate, and I looked up how to say it, what I wanted to say, and I actually said it to her instead of having the, you know, having her read it. And I’m sure I said it. I’m sure I butchered it. I think I said something like, this shop is a work of art. And she was just. She was totally thrilled.
Katy
That’s so cool.
TiffanyÂ
I don’t know, I just had a sense of the appreciation of the little things and also being very happy when other people appreciate those little things that you’re doing. I don’t know if that makes sense.
Katy
That’s lovely. Yeah, I remember that, too, about the packaging and the care. Occasionally, you would just buy something as a little afterthought, and somebody would spend twice as much time folding it into, like, an origami type paper situation before you left.
TiffanyÂ
Yes. And if you think about the Japanese traditional arts, it makes total sense. You know, the origami, the kimono, the flower arrangement, all. So there’s so much attention to detail and so much care in the process. And Claudio, who has studied, you know, Zen, says this is a Zen thing. Every action is deliberate, and every action is in service of itself. You make a bow to make a bow, you know, that’s the point of the bow, is the bow. I don’t know if I’m explaining it right, but yeah.
Katy
Oh, I love that. Well, before I let this go, since you talked about it long before leaving, your plan to not take any of your own western tea with you, how did you do in the tea department? Because I know you were saying before, long ago in that show when we talked about you preparing for this trip, that you really didn’t love asian tea flavors, generally speaking.
TiffanyÂ
Well, I mean, I love Indian tea, which is also asian.
Katy
Oh, that’s true.
TiffanyÂ
Yes. I’m not a fan of the Japanese and Chinese. I am not a convert, but I am definitely more appreciative of it. I did bring a couple of tea bags for the airplane, which is what I said I might do, because the airplane, they have bad tea. But when I was in a situation in which the Japanese tea was the only tea available, I drank that, let’s say that I didn’t follow it 100%. Some of the hotels we stayed at, at the breakfast, they had the Indian tea, and I will be honest, I did have it for breakfast when it was available, but I didn’t bring my own from the room. I drank what was available. So you did not make sense.
Katy
Yes. You did not come home with a small section of your suitcase dedicated to your new love of Japanese tea.
TiffanyÂ
No, I still don’t like green tea. I had green tea just one time, I think, and I’ll keep trying it, but it’s just too grassy for me. I just can’t quite do it. But the other, I don’t know any way to describe the other type of Japanese tea because I don’t know the name for it. But let’s just say Japanese tea that is not green. It’s not going to probably ever replace my love for a good cup of english breakfast with milk in it. But I’m starting to like it more. And I definitely love the idea of the tea ceremony, and I mean that again. It just goes along with so many of these Japanese parts of Japanese culture. Which is, you know, doing things slowly, doing them with intention, appreciating every moment, appreciating every sip. You don’t need to be reading a book or doing two other things while you’re drinking your tea. You can just be drinking your tea and appreciating the moment.
Katy
Wow, that’s nice. Do you think you’re going to be able to maintain any of these new Zen thoughts around your home?
TiffanyÂ
I’d like to. I’d like to. Well, I won’t give anything away from a recent bonus episode, secret bonus episode that we did.
Katy
Yeah.
TiffanyÂ
But I will say that I am definitely not watching any videos anymore. And so just that alone, I mean, and I mean of any kind.
Katy
Okay.
TiffanyÂ
Of any kind. And just that alone is, I was gonna say forcing me, but that’s a. That’s not a nice word. Is allowing me to start getting used to not having all of that stimulation in my head. I think that’s, like, the first step for me personally to be able to slow down and live more in the moment. I have to get to the point first where I can be okay without having constant stimulation and constant entertainment in my mind.
Katy
Yeah, that makes sense. But, yes, we will be doing a follow up on that. So if you want to know what Tiffany has eliminated from her life, that’s over@patreon.com. The Bittersweet Life podcast. All right, well, welcome back. We surely missed you in The Bittersweet Life offices, and we’ll see what sticks with you in the weeks to come. That’ll be fun, and we’ll leave it there. And until next time, this is The Bittersweet Life. I’m Katy Sewall.
TiffanyÂ
I’m Tiffany Parks.
Katy
Join us again. Bye. You could sponsor this show and reach educated, curious, and compassionate listeners all over the world. Our listeners are a remarkable, diverse, and engaged group of people that I am so continually impressed by. Visit thebittersweetlife.net and click support to get the conversation started.
