Caught in the Chaos? Take the Break You Forgot You Needed

 

by Julie Telgenhoff

Life feels loud right now. Not just busy, but extremely loud. It pulls you from one emotion to another so fast you forget there’s a middle. I’ve felt it too. One minute grounded, the next pulled into everything at once.

That’s where I come back to something simple that’s kept me steady more times than I can count; the idea of rhythm. The ebb and flow of life. If I’m in a low, it won’t stay there forever. The tide turns. It always does.

But in the middle of that swing, you have to make a choice...do you stay plugged into the noise, or do you step out of it for a minute?

And with taking a step out of it, you're not ignoring it. Instead, what’s happening is you're just not letting it take everything from you.

So here’s a handful of things that made me laugh, pause, or just feel a little lighter. Take what you want, leave the rest.

---

I came across this best black cat dad and his son, Stinky, and I swear, it’s not even just the cat. It’s the way he talks about him, like he’s part child, part best friend, part entire personality. You can feel the love in it, and somehow that makes it even funnier.

 

Here's another one that made my heart bleed. His son really missed him!

 

---

Then there’s this duck toy. I actually bought one for my son’s cats, and watching it play out in real life made this clip hit even harder. At first, Chester just stared at it like it made no sense. Paw half-raised, trying to figure out how treats magically appear. Next day? The thing was destroyed. Total commitment.

Source: Fuzzibud

In this video, Snow has already figured it out. She’s basically clocked in for her shift. Lever gets pushed, snacks come out, everyone else eats… and she sneaks in like she’s gaming the system. It’s now her full time job.

I tried to share the video here, but it was restricted. However, you can view the video on the Facebook link below: 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1324633739687737

---

Okay, this one, I sent to my daughter-in-law because their cat Cleo is an orange tabby, and I couldn’t not share it.

I know it’s AI. I know. But it’s Cleo in spirit, standing center stage, looping dance, full audience watching like she’s headlining a show. It’s ridiculous, and that’s exactly why it works.

---

This next one surprised me. It’s one of those clips you expect to be funny, and then it actually sounds good. Like, wait...this is a real song?

It’s weirdly impressive what can come out of something random. Cat torture turned into something you actually want to listen to. I watched it so many times, I love it.  

  

---

And then this one!

A guy playing guitar while alligators slowly move closer like they’re drawn to the sound. I don’t know if they love the music or if this man just has nerves of steel, but I couldn’t stop watching it.

There’s something calm about it... and slightly insane at the same time.

  

---

Sometimes it’s the simplest stuff that hits the hardest.

Like waking up between 2 and 4 a.m. and thinking it’s some deep spiritual moment, only to realize your cat just wants to be fed. 

No higher power. Just a very persistent one with fur.

---

Or the contrast of chaos versus complete indifference. People arguing, pointing, completely wrapped up in something, and then there’s the cat. Sitting there, unbothered. That alone says more than anything else.

---

And this one made me laugh more than it probably should have.

My son texted me asking me to judge a wiener decoration contest. I wish I was kidding. And honestly, they didn’t disappoint.

There was one that clearly understood the assignment: full football theme, details, commitment. That one took first place without question. Another kept it simple but had just enough personality to grab second.

The rest? Pure chaos. And that’s what made it great.

---

And finally, while visiting my son a couple weeks ago, he asked if I'd seen this viral video and since I hadn't, he shared it with me. It's completely innocent. Completely unplanned. And somehow way funnier because of it.

---

None of this is groundbreaking. None of it is meant to be.

It’s just a reminder.

You’re allowed to step out of the noise. You’re allowed to laugh at something dumb, pause on something weird, or just enjoy a moment that doesn’t demand anything from you.

The chaos will still be there when you go back.

If my work has helped you in any way, you can support my independent writing here:  https://buymeacoffee.com/asheepnomore

Every bit helps me keep researching, writing, and sharing outside the corporate-approved narrative. Thank you. 

When These Feelings Hit… Are They Even Mine?

 

by Julie Telgenhoff

There’s a moment you recognize it! The feeling isn’t yours.

Elke Neher released Stop Absorbing Other People’s Energies – Stop Taking On The Energy of Other People back in November 2017, and it became something I leaned on more than I expected. Not just a song, but a reset button. A way to come back to myself.

There were times I’d feel heavy for no clear reason. Anxiety, sadness, that low hum in the background would come upon me and instead of reacting, I started questioning it. Is this mine? Or am I picking up on something else... something circulating out there? In a world saturated with noise, fear cycles, and emotional overload, it’s easy to absorb what doesn’t belong to you and carry it like it does.

This track gave me space to separate. To sit with the feeling without claiming it. To let it pass instead of letting it root.

During the chaos of the COVID period, when fear seemed to move faster than truth, this became part of how I stayed grounded. Not by avoiding emotion, but by recognizing it, feeling it briefly, and then returning to center.

That’s where the real power is.

In Hermeticism, the principle of polarity teaches that everything exists on a spectrum. Not meant to trap us at extremes, but to remind us we can move. Balance isn’t passive, it’s a choice. A constant return to the middle ground which is key to living a successful life. 

That’s the practice. You're not denying what you feel, and you're not clinging to it either.

You're just coming back to your center. 

In Elke Neher’s introduction to the video, she describes it simply that this isn’t just music, it’s a clearing.

The music is designed to help you stop taking on what isn’t yours, it works on both the mind and body to release what’s been unconsciously carried. There’s an embedded energy transmission layered into the sound, along with subtle affirmations meant to gently reprogram and support whatever shifts need to happen.

All you really have to do is sit with it, let it move through you, and allow your system to reset... while staying hydrated so your body can process the release.

A quiet note. When this song first came out, I’d catch myself humming along without even thinking. There’s something about the simplicity of the sound that invites it. I didn’t understand why at the time, only that it felt grounding, like my body was finding its own way back to center. Later, I learned there’s a real reason for that. I’ll get into the deeper benefits of humming in the next article.

If my work has helped you in any way, you can support my independent writing here:  https://buymeacoffee.com/asheepnomore

Every bit helps me keep researching, writing, and sharing outside the corporate-approved narrative. Thanks. 

The Fourth Turning Is Here: Why the World Suddenly Feels Orchestrated

 

Most people have never heard of The Fourth Turning, but once you understand its core idea, it’s hard to unsee it.

Published in 1997 by William Strauss and Neil Howe, the book lays out a simple but unsettling theory: history moves in cycles, not straight lines. Roughly every 80–100 years—about the length of a long human life—society passes through four distinct phases, or “turnings.”

• A High, where institutions are strong and society feels unified.
• An Awakening, where people push back against that structure in search of meaning.
• An Unraveling, where institutions weaken and individualism peaks.

And finally, a Fourth Turning—a crisis era where everything unstable breaks, forcing a reset.

The authors pointed to the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression/World War II as prior Fourth Turnings. Each one tore the system down to its foundation—and rebuilt it.

When the book came out in the late 90s, the idea felt theoretical. The economy was booming. The future looked open-ended. The “crisis phase” was framed as something coming, not something present.

Fast forward to 2023, and Neil Howe returns with The Fourth Turning Is Here, making a blunt claim: the crisis isn’t coming anymore. We’re in it.

He traces the start back to the 2008 financial crash—not as a one-off event, but as the fracture point where the system began losing stability. From there, the pattern accelerates: political division, institutional distrust, economic strain, global tension. Not random chaos, but the build-up phase every Fourth Turning has historically gone through.

Where the sequel goes further—and where it starts to hit harder—is in describing what happens next.

According to Howe, crisis eras force a shift in priorities. The extreme individualism of the previous decades begins to collapse under its own weight. In its place comes coordination. Structure. A public willingness to accept tighter systems in exchange for stability.

That doesn’t happen because people are forced into it. It happens because, during prolonged instability, people start asking for it.

This is where the theory starts to overlap with the real-world direction being discussed by groups like the World Economic Forum and frameworks such as Agenda 2030.

Different language. Same direction.

• Centralized coordination of economies.
• Greater eliance on digital infrastructure.
• Standardized systems that manage everything from finance to identity to movement.

Howe calls it “national mobilization.” The WEF calls it “building back better.” Strip the branding away, and both describe a world that becomes more managed, more structured, and less open-ended than the one people grew up in.

The timeline matters too. Howe places the peak of this crisis period somewhere between now and the early 2030s—roughly the same window where global policy frameworks keep pointing. That overlap is part of what’s making the theory feel less academic and more immediate.

But the part that gives the book its weight is how it ends.

Howe doesn’t describe permanent collapse. He describes resolution.

Every Fourth Turning in history, according to the model, ends the same way: the old system breaks, something new replaces it, and a new “High” begins. Order returns. Stability returns. Society feels aligned again.

The tradeoff is what changes.

The post-crisis world is more unified—but also more regulated. More stable—but also more structured. The same systems that prevent chaos also limit deviation. In other words, the peace that follows a Fourth Turning isn’t free ...it’s built. Like the Agenda 2030 15 minute "smart" cities program. 

That’s the real takeaway from the sequel.

It’s not predicting whether change is coming. It’s describing what kind of change tends to emerge when systems are pushed to their breaking point—and what people are willing to accept on the other side of that pressure.

If the first book was a theory about cycles, the second reads like a timestamp.

Not a warning ....a blueprint of what's happening now. 

The Sound I Return To When My Energy Needs Reset

 

by Julie Telgenhoff

There’s a certain kind of music you don’t just hear, you remember where it met you.

About ten years ago, I stumbled across a track titled “Clear and Release Subconscious Beliefs, Patterns and Blocks” by Elke Neher, and it wasn’t something I analyzed or questioned. I just played it. And something in me softened.

No lyrics. No story. Just tone, frequency, and space.

It felt like the mental clutter, the looping thoughts, the old emotional residue you don’t even realize you’re carrying, started to loosen their grip. Like a quiet exhale you didn’t know you were holding onto.

What struck me then, and still does now, is how powerful simplicity can be. No affirmations forced down your throat or over explaining. Just sound doing what sound has always done as it interacts with the body in ways we don’t fully understand, but clearly feel.

We spend so much time trying to “figure ourselves out,” digging through layers with words, logic, and analysis. But sometimes, the shift doesn’t come from thinking harder. It comes from letting go, even if just for a few minutes.

This track became one of those tools for me. Something I returned to when I needed to clear the noise out of my head without fighting it.

If you’ve ever felt weighed down by thoughts that don’t even feel like yours anymore, or patterns that keep repeating without explanation, this kind of sound isn’t about fixing you. It’s about giving your system space to reset.

And sometimes, that’s all we need.