My 21 Day Meditation Journey

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Ah, so you've come to hear about my 21 day meditation journey.

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Did I fail?

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Did I even make it, did they, 21?

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Did I have any epiphanies?

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Welcome to episode 1 24 of this shit works.

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A podcast dedicated to all things, networking, relationship

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building and business development.

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I'm your host, Julie Brown.

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Professional speaker.

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Author and networking coach.

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And today I am disgusting.

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My 21 day meditation journey.

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First.

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Yes, I did make it through all 21 days of the meditation journey.

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And a lot of things happened in my life.

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In those 21 days, including Halloween parties, flights to multiple keynotes and

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the heartbreaking loss of my dog voice.

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Prior to starting the 21 day practice.

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I had decided that I would do my meditation in the morning.

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I would do it after I worked out and got ready for work.

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But before I ate breakfast,

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Each meditation lasted just over 20 minutes with a few

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extra minutes of instruction.

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There were days I looked forward to the meditation and there were days

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when it seemed like just another event on my calendar that I had to do.

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These were the days I called it my fucking meditation as in, oh, I

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forgot to do my fucking meditation.

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Oh, I need to do my fucking meditation.

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There were days like that.

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Yup.

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And then there were days where I looked forward to it.

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I looked forward to sitting in silence.

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Yeah.

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Silence.

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This is what surprised me about this particular meditation technique.

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There was no sound, no music, no Tibetan singing bowls.

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No body scan during the meditation, just sitting in silence.

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Repeating a stillness sound in your head.

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On the first day we were given the stillness sound.

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We began by saying the sound out loud, a number of times, and then slowly

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saying it softer and softer until ultimately we were just saying the

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sound inside of our heads on repeat.

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This was the first day.

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And I was surprised by the lack of guidance, no body scans from head

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to toe, no imagining a warm light.

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No queues to unclench my jaw.

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Nothing.

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This is going to be difficult.

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I thought.

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You see.

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I like a little distraction in my meditation, someone to remind

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me how badly I'm doing it.

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Each meditation after that day began with a little lesson about, you

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know, Two to six minutes describing something we might experience in

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the meditation or when you should meditate or something, or the other.

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On the second day, we jumped right into the meditation and Tom reminded

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us to repeat the stillness sound in her head through the entire 20 minutes.

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of us sitting in outward silence with our eyes closed.

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It was at this point that I had realized I had forgotten the stillness sound.

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Yeah, I had repeated it for 20 minutes the day before, but fuck all.

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If I could remember it now.

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So I spent the entire 20 minutes trying to remember what the sound

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was playing with different sounds in my head going, oh, is that it?

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Oh no, that sounds wrong.

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Is this right?

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Is this it.

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Not a very relaxing meditation.

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If you know what I mean.

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So afterwards, I went back to the first lesson so I could hear the stillness sound

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again, and then I committed it to memory.

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It took until a day for, for me to go through the entire 20

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minutes without opening my eyes.

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But that didn't mean I was getting good at it.

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My mind was still wandering all over the place.

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And multiple times my dog, Matty stepped on me or smelled my face when I

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was meditating, which was distracting.

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And the fifth day was a good meditation.

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I didn't open my eyes and I felt relaxed when I finished.

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Ah, this is what it's supposed to feel like.

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I thought.

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On day nine, I had an epic fail.

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My leg fell asleep in the middle of the meditation.

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That's all I could think about.

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I opened my eyes a million times.

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The clock just seemed to be dragging on and on forever.

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I had a cold, so I was coughing and blowing my nose.

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It was not a good day.

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But the following day.

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Day 10 was great.

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We're for the first time.

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You know, the timer went off and I was actually like, wow,

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that went by really fast.

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I could have just kept sitting here in silence.

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I was really enjoying myself.

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A few days later, I tried to meditate at the airport while I waited for

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an early morning flight to St.

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Louis.

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I tried.

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I really tried, but the fucking girl next to me, kept picking up

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her water bottle and slamming it into the cup holder at her seat.

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Literally shaking the entire row of seats.

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That I happened to be in while she watched videos on her iPad without earphones.

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I don't know, maybe the meditation was helping me because normally in

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a situation like this, I would have had a choice, few words for that

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girl, but I didn't say anything.

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I just tried to repeat the stillness sound in my head, even though

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my mind was anything, but still.

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The next day, I tried to meditate in a hotel room.

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Epic fail.

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That's all I'm going to say.

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It was around this time in the program that Tom started teasing

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us, that we should be meditating.

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Twice a day.

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Twice a day.

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He mentioned that the day is made up of 70 to 20 minute segments, and

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we should be able to dedicate two of these segments to meditation every day.

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To which I answered.

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No fucking way, buddy.

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I'm having a hard time fitting these 20 minutes into my morning.

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As it is, forget trying to add another 20 minutes somewhere else in the day.

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During the next week, he tried to encourage me that two meditation

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sessions a day were doable and that there would be increased benefits.

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I didn't bite.

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The rest of the program was more of the same, some good days, some terrible days.

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With three days left in the program, our dog Royce passed away.

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The three meditations I did after that were sad.

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They're fucking brutal.

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I just cried.

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I just cried.

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I just sat there and all I could think about was him.

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I will not lie.

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I have not meditated one day since the program ended.

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I've thought about doing it.

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But I haven't.

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I do think it was helpful, but like I said, I thought 20 minutes was a

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long time to dedicate each morning.

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If the meditations were like 10 minutes I most likely would have stuck with it.

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Well, I go back.

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Yeah, I actually do think I will, but I need to find a better way to fit it

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into my daily schedule because it did add what felt like a significant delay

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in getting to the office each morning.

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I will say that I did like the lessons and how Tom describes meditation and

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what we might be feeling each week.

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A number of the lessons coincide with something that I was

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experiencing during the meditation.

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So I thought that was really dealt well done in a very good intro

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to the meditation as a whole.

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I also liked that he didn't tell me to clear my mind.

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I had the stillness sound to use whenever my mind wandered or

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thoughts came barging into my brain, which happened all of the time.

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And I was comforted by the fact that every day before we started the practice,

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he said that was going to happen.

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And it was completely normal.

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I think all the meditations I've tried before made me think that I was doing it

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wrong because I couldn't stop my mind.

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And I couldn't stop thought thoughts from coming into that space.

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So, yes, I liked it.

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Yes.

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Some days I called it.

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my fucking meditation and yes, I will probably go back to it and try to make

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it a more permanent part of my day.

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Just not today.

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Okay.

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Onto the drink of the week, which is called the sleeping Lotus.

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Here's what you're going to need.

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Um, a couple ounces of dry gin, one ounce of almond syrup.

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Three-fourths ounce of lemon juice, two dashes of orange,

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orange, bitters, and a mint spray.

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You're going to compliant all of that gradients ingredients

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in a cocktail shaker.

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At ice and shake until chilled.

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Um, like 10 seconds strain into a Collins glass that's filled with crushed ice.

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And then stir it to incorporate with the ice and then top that with a mint spray.

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They also say, you know what, to make it a little bit more like Zen like

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garnish it with an edible Oregon, but like, honestly, I'm sure it's fine.

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All right friends.

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That's all for this week.

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If you like what you heard today, please leave a review

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and subscribe to the podcast.

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Also, please remember to share the podcast to help it reach a larger audience.

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If you want more, Julie Brown, you can find my book.

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The shit works on Amazon or Barnes and noble or in the.

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Show notes below.

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You can find me on LinkedIn at Julie Brown BD.

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Just let me know where you found me when you reach out.

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And I am Julie Brown underscore BD on Instagram, or you can

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just pop on over to my website.

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Julie Brown, bd.com.

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Until next week.