Finding Your Footing: Nita Sweeney's Guide to Mental Wellness and Movement

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with Curveball. If you believe, you can achieve.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to the Live in the Dream with Curveball Podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today I am joined by mindfulness coach, certified meditation leader, Nita Sweeney. She is also an author and a serial memoirist who writes about thriving while dealing with a serious mental health issue. We're going to be talking to Nita about the groups that she founded, about her work with Natalie Goldberg, and about her mental health books, you know, books like Running with Mental Health. Um she's had books that have been recognized by top publications like The Wall Street Journal, and we're going to be talking to her about everything that she's up to and gonna be up to. So Nita, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Thank you. I'm always excited and grateful um that anybody wants to hear what I'm doing. So thanks so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Absolutely glad to have you. Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Yeah, so I probably think of myself first and foremost as an author. I'm five books in and they're all memoir-ish. But in the last few years, I focused more on coaching, um, basically because people start asking me questions and they want to, you know, know what I've learned. And uh I live in central Ohio, United States, with my husband and our yellow Labrador dog. I run long distances even when I'm not being chased, and I try to meditate pretty much every day. That's probably enough for now, and we we'll get into more later.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah, well, I know I was uh looking through your bio and it said that as a couch potato at age 49, you start running. So talk to the listeners about that.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Yeah, that was a surprise. I have had, I have um I'm bipolar two, and so my depressive episodes are what most people see when my mental illness is active. And I was in probably my third pretty major depressive episode uh when I was um 48, about to turn 49. And I saw a social media post from this friend of mine, high school friend, somebody I knew, not an athlete. Um, you know, we both rode horses in high school, things like that. But uh, which is an athlete, that is that's a sport. Okay, I'm not saying it isn't, but it's not like track and field or anything like that. And she had posted, call me crazy, but this running is getting to be fun. And um, yeah, I thought we should probably do a wellness check because those two words, run and fun, just did not belong in the same universe for me. But I watched her. Whoops, sorry about that. I watched her and um over time she continued and she was having fun and I was not. I had had a couple of really rough years. Um, my suicidal ideation had, you know, was back screaming at me, and running was one of the few things I hadn't tried. I had a therapist, I was meditating, I had meds, I had, you know, a lot of things. Um, so yeah, I took the dog down into the ravine where nobody could see me. I took a little kitchen timer and uh I started jogging for 60 seconds, and that's what the little plan she was doing um said to do. And there's more than that. It was wasn't just, you know, it's like 60 seconds of jogging and then a minute of or maybe two minutes of walking. So it's like an interval thing, but very gentle. And I swear, if it had said, I don't know, minute or two minutes, I might have said, oh no, no, I can't do that. But there was something about the combination of it being someone I knew and such a very doable interval of 60 seconds that made me think maybe I should just try this. And then from there, other things happened because you know, 60 seconds isn't going to get you to years and years of doing anything, but uh, but other things happened to support um that activity. And as a result, I've been able to reduce, greatly reduce the meds I've been on. Um, I've been able to achieve some crazy goals like getting books published, um, you know, becoming a coach, becoming a certified meditation teacher. And I just, I don't even think, I mean, it's just like running, really? How did that work? And I know that in previous times of my life, there had been other types of exercise, but I'd never had the support to stick with it. So, for example, my most recent book is about the year that my dad died, which was um it happened that he was diagnosed shortly after I was released from the uh mental hospital. And he and I played golf. And I know that that wasn't the only thing, but that physical activity of walking 18 holes with him um, you know, at least once a week, um, definitely contributed. And so that's one of my I always talk about three tools, and movement is one of the most powerful tools that I have in my little toolkit that you know keeps me on the planet. So yeah, yeah, it was my friend, just a social media post. So you never knew who knows who's watching. You never know who you're inspiring at any given time just by you know taking up some hobby. You just don't ever know.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Absolutely. Well, let's talk about uh what inspired you to start writing and and why it took you so long to publish your first book.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Well, I always wanted to be a writer, but um, this is actually a line from my most recent book. Uh it's the story is um when I was a little girl, and we did some kind of activity at school where we published, we've like bound a book, we wrote a book and bound it, but wrote a story and bound it. And I brought it home, and my dad, you know, I said something like, Oh, dad, I think I want to be a writer when I grew up. I was probably in, I don't know, fourth or fifth grade. And he said, Oh, honey, that's wonderful. Writing is a great skill that will serve you in whatever profession you choose. And what I heard was writing is not a real job. And, you know, in all fairness to him, he didn't know anybody that was making a living as a writer or even successful in any way as a writer. And so that was always kind of in the back of my head. And then I, you know, I went to undergrad, and um, because I didn't think writing was a real thing, I didn't go into like creative writing. I went into ended up ended up in journalism and that I wasn't suited for that at all. And then I ended up going to law school and I did pretty well with that for a while, but then the mental illness kicked in. And so I I did a lot of writing professionally, but it wasn't um it wasn't really under my own name. I was often writing for other attorneys, or if I was the lead attorney, there was, you know, there's usually the client. So it's not like your byline. Um and I had a few journalistic articles, but it really um it so it was sort of a reframing of who's allowed to be a writer, which now I think is ridiculous. But um, you know, my dad was who he was, and he had his own experience, and I was easily um influenced by him. And then the other problem was I didn't have the focus, um, the stamina, because writing a book is actually very much like running a marathon. You have to have, you have to be in there for a very long time. You know, with a marathon, there's the training, there's um, I don't know, just mostly the training, but but there's the nutrition, there's like all these components to it. And with a book, you just have to stay in there. And I I would get, I don't know, maybe halfway, three-quarters of the way through, and I just couldn't, I couldn't complete the projects. And I also didn't have an idea that felt cohesive enough until um really until I came up with until my experience of running and how much that changed me, and then how much I wanted to share with people what it's like to train when you have mental challenges and what that training did for me, and um, you know, what it looks like to uh kind of choose a goal that feels completely ridiculous for somebody who's 49 and 50 years old. So until I had that, um I wasn't in a place to actually finish the project. And then I got really, really lucky because you know, luck and timing is a thing with success, um, because the world was ready to hear about, to hear more about running and mental health. I'm not the first one that's written about that, but um, they were ready to hear depression hates a moving target from the running perspective. And I found a publisher who was ready to, you know, jump all in on that. And so it was sort of like the all three things. So I personally was in a place where I could do it, the topic was timely, and I found a publisher who was interested in supporting that. And when and that's what it has to happen. It's almost like lightning has to strike to get a traditional publisher. You have to have all these things kind of fall into line. And again, forever grateful for especially Brenda Knight of Books That Save Lives, because uh that's she made them. I always feel like she's my fairy godmother. She swooped down in a side out of the sky and waved her magic wand. And now I'm a published author.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Well, what is the number one mental health tale that you can share with the audience?

SPEAKER_02 10:13

I would say the biggest thing um is to chunk it down. So let's say you decide I'm gonna try some kind of movement. I I keep hearing, I keep seeing these studies. I'm gonna try some kind of movement. Start small. You know, if you're stuck on the sofa like I was, um, start with 60 seconds, or just start by like jogging around the couch a couple times, uh something like that. Or um, you know, don't try to like bite the whole thing at once. And same thing with with writing a book. Start a start by writing little essays first or just journaling. Um, if you're gonna meditate, which is another one of my three tools that I really, really believe keeps me on the planet, start with five minutes, you know, set the microwave timer for five minutes. That's actually how I started. My husband, I was dating him, you know, very early, probably just a few months even into our dating. And he said, Hey, you want to sit? And I went, you want to what? And uh he meant meditate. And he set the microwave timer for five minutes, which felt like really it felt like an eternity. But uh um, but from that we built to the point that now I have a regular practice where I can sit, you know, for long periods of time, 20 minutes, half an hour, uh much, much longer, actually. But but those are kind of the hallmark times. So yeah, that's probably the biggest tip is just to choose a goal, whatever it is, so small that you can't fail. And then once you have the success of that, let that build, like build on that and um you know, get a win first before you try to do um anything bigger. Because especially if you're facing a mental health challenge, um, the overwhelm can be just so intense that the idea of going running seems absurd, which it did to me. I didn't go out right away. I had to watch her for a while and kind of build up my own um curiosity and courage. And so uh, so yeah, that's it's like don't don't you know re-traumatize yourself by overwhelming yourself. Um, and then the other I'm gonna give you two, even though you didn't ask her to. The other one is to just stay, just hang in there, because the thing we don't often think about or realize is that everything is constantly changing. And that's that's the Buddhist principle of impermanence, which I do, you know, study Buddhism. And that's the only truth is that everything is changing. So what feels like death right now will change. What feels impossible right now will change. I mean, yes, you may be in a situation where you have you can't pay your rent, you can't, you know, that I mean you're having trouble with food on the table. There's lots of people that are in that situation right now. And um, and I'm not saying that there's gonna be some magic and that's gonna change, but what I am saying is there can't be any magic, and you can't get any help if you're not here. And we need you, we need you here, and so uh, so yeah, those are probably my two big ones is chunk it down, try to find something so small that you can't fail, and and just hang in there, just stay, because we really need you.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Well, I know that you mentioned uh meditation, so uh to tell us about uh what have you found to be the number one benefit of meditation?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Oh, for me it's the calm, the calm and concentration. So if I um I tend to be a very anxious person, um, and that's the flip side of depression. There's you know kind of like two sides of the same coin. You have anxiety on one side, depression on the other. And when I get in just the bundle of nerves place that I often do, if I can bring my mind back to where my body is, so bring my brain back to where my body actually is, I can remind myself in this moment, I am just sitting here talking to this gentleman and his audience. That's all that's happening. There's nothing um actually threatening me right now. I'm just right here. You know, sometimes I'm sipping a glass of water, I feel my feet on the floor, I feel my butt in the chair, and that will um they now, I mean, they probably said it before, but it's the whole nervous system regulation thing is uh um has really come to attention. And that's what it does. It brings your um, it brings your mind back into where you're actually at, and that can uh in in most instances, many instances, I won't say all, um, can calm you down. And that's just been the biggest benefit. It's just that tool of being able to, wherever I am, no matter what I'm doing, to just bring my mind out of the past, out of the present, out of the future, and into the present moment, my heart rate goes down, my blood pressure goes down, um, my thoughts start to clear, you know, that fog, that haze, that swirl kind of lessens and things become more clear. And again, that's with practice. I mean, I've been practicing for a long time, but that for me, that's probably the biggest long-term benefits. There's tons of them. If you do any research, especially on mindfulness practice, there are oh, tons and tons of um, you know, physical, emotional, creativity uh benefits that have been researched over and over. But for me, that just chilling that uh nervous, frantic energy is probably it's just worth everything to me. That's why I keep that's why I continue to practice all these years later.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Okay, well, kind of tell us about uh you know, if somebody wanted to create a run-in plan, what kind of run-in plan would you advise them to start with?

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Well, the one that I did is called Couch to 5K, but it is um it starts out really easy and then it kind of jumps in the about the fourth or fifth week, I forget if it's four or five, um, it it sort of ramps up and I in in Depression Aids Moving Target, um, I write about how I actually modified that plan. So, you know, buy my book, the plans in there. But um, but seriously, uh the thing people do is they just go out and they try to run for, you know, like a mile or something like that. Don't do that. Start with intervals where you're running a little bit, walking a little bit, running a little bit, and then very gradually increase those. And then after a couple weeks, take a step back. You have like a rest week, and then um then you kind of ramp up again, and then you take a step back. So it's um it's when it's during the rest weeks when your muscles actually build. It seems counterintuitive, but you're actually um kind of damaging your muscles a little bit when you're stressing them. You're not damaging them, you're stressing them. That's let me re make that clear. Um, and it's that stress that needs to be uh relaxed. And so you stress and then relax and then stress and rest, stress and rest. And you do that, and that's what builds it. But yeah, there's a there's just a ton of online training plans. And I actually I haven't done this yet, but it I it's on my list of to-do, is I want to actually write out what I actually did because I had to modify every training plan that I found. It's you're supposed to be able to run a 5K in nine weeks or something like that. I think it took me 27, you know, to get to 3.1 miles. So, so um I wanna, I wanna, I want to put that up on my website sometime. But um, if you get on my newsletter eventually, you you'll I'll get to it. But um, but yeah, there's I mean you can just, you know, uh we always call it the Google machine, but uh, but whatever search engine you bing or duck duck go, um, just put in their um 5k training plan and and then don't be afraid to modify it, but modify it down, modify it for less time, less distance, less, you know, slower pace. Because we just most of the people that I know are kind of everybody's got a go-getter attitude of some some type. Everybody's got it. You just have to, they just have to click cook it in. And this is not a place where you want that go-getter attitude to to really kick in. There's a few people, like a maybe a tenth of the population where that really works, but for most of us, that's actually harmful and dangerous. So uh, so any training plan you find, you know, start out with it and see how it goes. And if you have any trouble, just keep repeating the workout until it's easy and then step up. So don't be afraid to modify it. Or um the other thing you could do, there's a great group called um it's uh RRCA. And um, I am totally blanking on what the initials are. It's like uh Runners Club of America, it's might be roadrunning club of America. Um, and that's ridiculous because I'm certain RRCA coach, but I can't remember. I'm just having a day. Um, but yeah, but you could also find a um um a running group in your area or get in touch with an RRCA coach and they can give you a plan that suits where you are. Because that that's the other motto I have is start where you are, which is not, you know, I didn't create that either. Because um, you know, if you're not, if you're like me and you are a complete couch potato, you do not want to go out and try to run a mile on your first day. You'll just be, well, I guess some people can't, but I would have been, I probably would have injured myself. I would have been so miserable and never would have started again. But that 60 seconds, that's what just got me. It's like I can do that. And that's what you need. You need to find that thing that clicks where you say, I can do that. I'm just gonna try that. Let's try that.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Well, uh, speaking of your books, let's talk about your books, you know, kind of uh run a through, you know, brief description uh of your books.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Well, the first one, of course, is the one um that we talked about Depression Hates a Moving Target, How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. And that is um, I would say it's the closest to pure memoir until the fifth book, which I'll talk about in a minute. But that's it's like part um training plan, part uh running log, and then a lot of memoir about what was going on in my my body and mind as I was uh trying to figure out kind of how not to die, essentially was what was going on and uh and how I became a runner. That's the first one. The second one is a journal. It's kind of you know blank pages, but at the top of each page, there's a quote from an author, some of whom you've heard of, some of whom you probably haven't. And they're organized by topics. So there's kind of chapters, um, so that you can just flip to a chapter and use those pages. You can use the quotas and quotes as uh inspiration, but you know, it's a it's a blank book. It's a it's a journal, but it's guided, has these um these quotes for you. And then the third book, which I'm crazy proud of because it has more than 70 footnotes. It was a lot of work, is called Make Every Move a Meditation. And that one came from the fact that I had been meditating for a long time before I started running and very quickly realized that I could meditate while I was running. And I've always you know meditated. Meditated kind of while I was walking. And so I um laid out the formula for how to do that, and then expanded on each part of, I think there's eight steps or maybe nine steps, then expanded on each step, and then added some um extra chapters about um you know the Buddhist practice that I do, which is just mindfulness meditation. There's nothing woo-woo about it at all. Um, and then talked about, you know, making the practice your own, how to how to modify this so that it really suits you. And then um I talk about mental health in that a lot in every chapter. And then um, I also talk about teachers and the things that are good about teachers and the things that can be perilous about teachers of any kind and coaches too and therapists, you know, all those kind of potholes I've hit along the way and how to hopefully avoid some of those. And uh yeah, and then I just send people on their way and hope they find a movement form that works for them and are able to use the techniques I share so that they can meditate while they're doing that. And then the fourth book is a daily dose of now, and it's literally a daily reader, 365. It's actually 366 because you know, every once in a while there's a February 29th. And it's just a little, um, it's kind of like I'm trying to think, uh, there's there's religious texts that are like this where you have like a daily reader. Um, but mine's not religious, it's it's just mindfulness practice. So there's a little quote, and uh, it's everything from Snoopy to the Bible, everything in between. Popeye, I mean, there's just all kinds of things. And um little quote, and then I talk about the quote a little bit using examples from my life, because pretty much everything I write is is memoir-ish. And then at the bottom there's a little practice, it's a daily practice. Just do this in something as simple as, you know, as you go through your day, every time you walk through a doorway, notice which foot goes first. And um, the idea is that you're um it gives you a little spark to try to stay present throughout the day and gives you, you know, kind of a um uh a way to do that, to be be keep your mind where your body is. And then the most recent one, which I'm also very proud of because it took me a long, long time, is that book about um my father and I. It's called Memorial, the the year my dad and I stopped keeping score. And uh he was diagnosed with terminal cancer um a couple of months after I got out of the psych ward from I was it was the worst spout of suicidal ideation I've ever had. And I came really, really close to taking my life. And um, so I'd been a partner in a law firm. I was an attorney for almost a decade. And I was sitting at my house going, what the heck do I do now? And he said, Let's play golf. And so that's what we did. We played golf. Um, I think we played a total of 13 times during that summer. And then he and my mom and I traveled a little bit, and then he and mom lived with my husband and I until he died. And it's, you know, it's about family relationships, but it's also about mental illness, it's about addiction, it's about um overcoming um challenges, lots of family dynamic stuff, some dogs. There's dogs in every book, every book has dogs. And um, yeah, I'm really proud of it just because it took me so long to write. I started it in I think 2004 or so. Um, and I finally, it's like I had to figure out I had to, I had my skill set had to had to raise to the place where I could tell the story. So yeah, that's out now too. So yeah, so those are my five books. They're all the main thing is that they're memoir-ish and they all have a mental health element because that's my thing. It's I that's my biggest challenge in life, is uh is my mental illness and learning how to navigate life um with that. So yeah, thanks for asking.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Well, let's talk about your work as the assistant for Natalie Goldberg.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Oh, well, that was fun. Oh my gosh. Well, sometimes it wasn't, but mostly the time. Yeah, so I um way back in oh 1996, I'm really dating myself here. I um well, actually, I had read her first book. She's written, I think, 15 books at this point, but everybody always knows about your first book, uh, Writing Down the Bones. That was her, well, actually, that was not her first book. She wrote a book of poetry before that. Um, but uh Writing Down the Bones. And it um I actually read it while I was still practicing law, and I used her technique of writing practice, which is it's timed writing, but with kind of a meditative spin to it, um, because she's a Zen practitioner. And I use it to write legal briefs when I was practicing law. I would set it, I gather all the information, I'd gather, you know, the discovery, like the facts of the case, and then I would do the research on all the um cases that I needed to cite. And then I would set a timer and just go and let myself just let the the arguments unfold as my mind naturally wanted them to unfold. And then, you know, I'd pull pick up a case and put it in, and then pick up another case, put it in. And that um process, that's still how I write, it really, it really made um writing was never terribly difficult for me, but it made me much faster and it it boosted my self-confidence in my writing ability and my even my you know ability to argue cases um on paper, because that's that's my thing. I don't, I'm not as good arguing in person. And so um, so that was probably in, I don't know, 87. That was really before I left the practice, maybe 88. But then um after I uh left the law firm for a lot of reasons, which are actually in the fifth book, um, the um I think a friend of mine had gone to one of her workshops in Taos, New Mexico. And so I went, and it was after my father had died, and um, you know, I was really still just searching what I'm gonna do. And I I wouldn't say I struck up a friendship with her immediately, but we kind of um made a connection, you know. I just um um it's a big it was a big class, there were like 60 people in the class, but um every once in a while we would just um like our eyes would meet and she'd nod, something like that. So we've just had kind of a connection. And then I got a little crazy because sometimes I do, and um, I mean that not in a bad way, but um I was probably hypomanic. And again, I had um left my job, I didn't know what I wanted to do, my dad had died, uh, my mom now was living in Arizona where they had lived. And Ed, my husband, was um at a place where he had to, it was like a fork in the road professionally. He had to decide whether to continue with a um a company he had or whether to find a different job. He just that was a place where he needed to make a decision. And so the decision we made was to sell most of our possessions and move to Taos, New Mexico so I could take these workshops um and uh he, you know, job out there eventually and uh and be close to my mom also. And so I had taken maybe two of her workshops, and um and I will never forget, I I didn't tell her I was moving out there, I just thought I would just run into her, and I did. We were at our realtor's office uh waiting to hear back. We made an offer and we were waiting to hear back to see if they accepted our offer. And next door was a print shop, and Nat pulled up and sat in her car for a minute, and then she got out and she said, Nita, what are what are you doing here? And I said, Oh, Nat, we're moving here. And she went, What? Um, because Taas, New Mexico is very, very remote. It's up in the mountains in northern New Mexico, and it is about as different from Columbus, Ohio, which is where I live now again. Um, you know, I I grew up in rural Ohio, but I lived most of my life in Columbus or in the cities. And um, I think she knew that it was going to be a shock. And I just was in a place where I was sort of, you know, la la, everything's gonna be fine, rose-colored glasses, whatever. And it was, it was, there was a lot of things that were good about it, but Taus is not a good place for me to live. And I had, I did have another mental health crisis, and we ended up moving home. But in the process of that, I did become Nat's assistant. I did um get to work with her in um when she was she travels a lot, and so I get to work, got to work with her when she was in town, and then I was able to assist when she did her um groups. And what I did primarily was I would explain what she calls the rules of writing practice, which are just like the fundamentals of um timed writing, this type of timed writing that she um coined the term. You know, it's sort of a it's sort of like a universal thing. There's lots of people that sort of access this in different ways. And so uh I would do that and then um and then I held space. So I would sit in the back of the class and sort of watch. Um, I have a very high empathy skill, and so I can see when someone is struggling, and I would watch and find the people who were struggling, and I would catch them after, you know, like on any of the breaks or after class ended and say, Hey, how's it going? I wouldn't tell them, hey, I know something's wrong. I would just say, Hey, how's it going? Um, because that's that's kind of why I'm good at coaching, is I kind of can read people really well. And so um um, and then I would just sit with them and I would say, Well, do you want to do some writing practice or do you want to talk about it? And and sometimes she would point out people and she'd say, Go find that person and talk to them. And yeah, because because the retreats often um, like I said, there were 60 people and they were very intense. They were long days. You're doing a lot of writing, sitting, and walking, and there's not um people go really deep really fast. And uh there's not, you know, some therapist you can talk to or like that. There sometimes people were crying while they were writing. It was, it gets really intense. And so I was there um to just sort of hold space for people and um and kind of keep the um, I don't know, just keep things sort of calm and um help people stay in there because people wanted to leave and I would talk to them, they're free to leave if they wanted to, but I would just talk to them about um other options besides leaving and and yeah, and I did that uh for I think it was like nine and a half years. And then eventually I I decided to go to MFA school and I there just wasn't enough time to do both um is a master in fine arts. I I couldn't do a master's program and um assist her. Um I have you know enough mental health challenges that I can't I can't do uh like full-time anything. And so um it was already gonna be, I was already gonna require some accommodations to get through master's programs. So yeah, so I stepped back from that. And she and I are still friends. I talked to her on the phone a couple days ago. I'm gonna see her in a couple of weeks here, and um, it's been amazing because she's um she's she is a phenomenal teacher. She really is. That's her, that is her gift, is she is such a good teacher. She's still teaching through uh Shambhala, I believe. They have courses and um uh very powerful stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

What tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listers need to be aware of?

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Well, I'm going to start teaching some classes, um, probably in memoir writing, not probably, definitely in memoir writing, and then also um probably an online course that people can take, like self-guided course. Uh, people can take at their own pace about movement meditation. Because I have I've had such good results with that. And when I get people who are interested in that, um, they have really good results too. The calm, the clarity, the stamina. It really helps, especially like long distance runners. Oh my gosh, it helps them so much if they can meditate during a long run. And um, so I want to do kind of some self-guided things so people um have access to me, but they don't, it doesn't have to be really, really intense all the time. So, yeah, so watch for that. But my newsletter is the best place if people get on my newsletter, which is you can do that from my website, um, that will have all the upcoming things. I have lots of plans. There are some other books I am actually currently working on, but I'm not at a place where I can talk about it yet because we don't know if which direction I'm going with things. So um, we're just sort of holding that. But yeah, there's gonna be more books. That's what I do. I can't, I keep trying to quit. I keep trying to quit. I can't quit. Yeah, I'm a writer. That's what I do.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Well, go out that website so people can keep up with everything that you're up to.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Yeah, it's nita sweeney.com. So it's N, it's just my name, N-I-T-A-S-W-E-E-N-E-Y.com. And um, yeah, it has my books on it, and then there's a tab called services, and then a tab called events, and um, it might be about Nita and then a drop-down with events. But uh, but yeah, I'm gonna be at some book fairs coming up here in Central Ohio. Come see us if you're anywhere near Central Ohio. Come to the book fairs. Um, there's gonna be one in Hawking Hills, one down in Athens at Ohio University. Um, yeah, I'm doing I'm doing stuff. It's fun to be out in the world. I'm grateful, very grateful to be able to do this because there was, oh my gosh, there was a time when this just wouldn't, none of this could have happened. They're just, you know, I was basically glued to the sofa.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

What close is that with some final thoughts? Maybe if there was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on any final thoughts you have for the listeners?

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Well, I would say I'm I'm not for everyone. And so if what I didn't what I said didn't resonate with you, keep listening to this podcast because he's gonna have somebody else on that's gonna say the thing you need to hear. But if what I said did resonate with you, please get in touch with me. Please, I have a contact for on my web form on my website, sign up for my newsletter. Um, I do have a couple of Facebook groups, but sadly, Facebook has made it almost impossible to manage those. It's so sad. I had a kind of a writing practice group, and then I have it's still they're still there. Another one called My Moodle. My mood and movement is that's a publishing, but it's that is a Facebook group. They're there, but it's I mean, it's just no one sees anything I post. I still I just stopped having any engagement. So um I actually probably need to take those out of my bio, just but I need to figure out how to reconfigure them. So that's why my newsletter is the best place. Um, that's just my website is like the hub. Uh, go there first. And um, and yeah, if something that I said um resonated, pick up one of the books. They're also available at the library, or you can ask your, you know, if you have a favorite indie bookstore, they can order any of my books. Um, you can contact me. I can uh, you know, you can buy a signed copy, I can give you a signed copy, whatever, whatever you want. But um, but remember that we're all so different. We are all wired so differently, we have different experiences. And so what I say is going to work for like one ninth of the population. And um, and keep looking because the other eight ninths, you know, the other people are out there doing this, they're doing it from a different perspective. And um, and that goes back to that kind of stay thing. Um, just you know, we have a recovery saying of don't don't leave before the miracle happens. And so uh keep looking because there is somebody who has a message that will resonate with you.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

All right. Well, close to that with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on, or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

No, thanks. I think I've said everything I need to say. That um that last thing about uh about just make sure that uh you find the thing that vibes for you. And also don't overlook uh things that you thought you would never do. I mean, I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be a runner. Um, but uh but yeah, here I am.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, to keep up with everything that Nita's up to, nitasweenie.com. So check out our books and her website and and everything that she's up to and gonna be up to. Also to keep up with everything that I'm up to as far as the living the dream with curveball show, visit www.curveball337.com. Check it out, share the website and the show to everybody that you know. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Anita, thank you for all that you do, and thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Yeah, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.curveball337.com. Until next time, keep living the dream.