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In this life, there's always things
to do, places to go, goals to chase.
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Even when our days are full, it doesn't always
mean that we also feel satisfied. That we really
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enjoy the things we spend the most time on.
Recently, I feel like time is flying by faster
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and faster. Before I know it, a week has gone
by. Then a month. Then a year. Adopting the tools
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of intentional living is what helps me to pause,
reflect and realign along the way, whenever I feel
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like I need to. So let's talk about intentional
living. For me, this means living with awareness
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and making conscious choices about how I want
to live my life. So not just doing the things,
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but actually living. And being able to slow down
whenever I can. Enjoying the present moment.
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Living in alignment with my values and what I find
important. And I guess probably most importantly,
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living in a way that is authentic to me. And
creating a life for myself where I can truly
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be myself. Today I want to talk about how you can
start living with more intention in your life as
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well. I'm gonna share seven areas of life where
you can practice this to create more clarity,
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more intentionality, more purpose and more joy.
And this video will be perfect for beginners,
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but also just for those of you who want the
reminder. Or who are looking for some fresh
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inspiration about intentional living that
you might not have thought about before.
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Welcome back everyone. And if you're new here,
my name is Vera. And this channel is a place
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where you can get tips and inspiration for
living a simpler, happier and calmer life.
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So if you have not already, be sure to hit
subscribe to follow along with future videos.
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So let's talk about those seven areas of life
where you can practice living with more intention.
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You can choose one of them to start working on,
the area that speaks to you the most. You can
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also pick a few of them. So feel free to pick and
choose depending on what resonates with you. The
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first area of life that we can practice being more
intentional is physically. By which I mean our
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body, our health. But also our relationship with
our body and our health. And just the way that we
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feel in our own skin, about how we look. Maybe
even our beauty routines or just the time and
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energy that we spend on making ourselves look and
feel good. One way that we can practice being more
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intentional with our physical body is of course
the food that we eat. So really making choices,
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perhaps there are certain foods that often make
you feel good or certain foods that often make
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you feel not so great. And I know for me, I have
made several kind of rules or guidelines about
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things I want to eat. Because I know that if
I eat too much of this or too little of that,
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it's going to make me feel sluggish and bloated.
Or for example if I drink too much coffee, it's
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going to make me jittery, things like that. And
this is an area that I've become more intentional
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in. And of course other areas when it comes to our
physical body is our sleep, so how long you sleep,
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the quality of your sleep. Maybe things like your
posture when you're working or physical exercise.
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Or drinking enough water. Or how much time
and money you spend on things like hair
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makeup or other beauty routines. Are you doing
these things because they make you feel good?
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Or are there perhaps some steps that you could
simplify or leave out altogether? I'd also
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like to say here that intentional living can
also mean letting go of certain expectations
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that you might have of yourself. And making
decisions about some things that from now on,
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you would like to not place as much importance
on. For me, one thing I have discovered and
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let go of is that I no longer feel like I need
to have this perfect fit body. And I exercise
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because I enjoy it. Uh, well mostly anyway. And
because it helps me to feel good on a daily basis.
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And not to have that perfect body with the perfect
measurements or anything. I've actually let go of
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these expectations a long time ago. Because they
didn't feel true for me and I didn't want to have
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this burden on myself that I needed to have the
perfect body or that my body wasn't good enough
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the way it is. So being intentional is not
a path towards creating this perfect life.
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It can also be about letting go of some of these
things. And being okay with not having everything
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be perfectly in alignment and under control and
intentional. Are my actions always intentional?
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No, not always. There's no reason to be a
perfectionist when it comes to intentional living.
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The second area of life where you
can practice being more intentional
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is mentally and emotionally. So mentally, I mean
your thoughts and what goes on in your head. And
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then emotionally, I mean your feelings and what
goes on in your heart. And of course both of them
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are hugely important for how we feel on a
day-to-day basis. Are there certain things
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that you can do, certain actions or habits that
you can intentionally bring into your life,
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that help you to protect your mental and emotional
space? For example, limiting the amount of news
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you consume. That is a huge one, especially for
me these last couple of years. Or perhaps limiting
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the amount of time that you spend on your phone.
And giving yourself 30 minutes at the start of a
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day and at the end of the day to be without all
of these little messages and stimuli that enter
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our life through our devices. And aside from
protecting your mental and emotional energy,
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perhaps there are also certain habits or actions
that you could do that actually help you to
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nourish and feed those parts of yourself. Walking
in nature, cuddling with your dog, reading,
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journaling, spending time with friends. We
actually recently went on a hiking trip or like a
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long hike in nature a couple weeks ago. And it was
so very nice. It was a huge boost for my mental
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and emotional energy. And again here, perhaps
you have certain expectations in this area that
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you could examine and let go of. So for example,
we live in a time of continuous self-improvement.
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And we always feel like we need to be productive
and work on our goals and get better at things
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and be really successful. If you find this
idea of improving yourself weighing on you,
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then perhaps this is something that you
could examine and also let go of. Because
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these things don't really have any use if all they
do is bring you down and make you feel anxious.
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The third area of life where you can practice
being more intentional is how you spend your
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resources. And the biggest three are, I think,
time, money and energy. Of course, a great way to
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be more intentional with your money is budgeting
or perhaps tracking your spending for a while.
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Really getting a good sense of how much money
goes in and goes out every month. And where it
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goes. And perhaps also there are some places
where you would like to stop your money from
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going in the future. And for me personally,
I find that time and energy are even more
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important. My energy is still quite fragile.
And I've learned to identify some energy
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drainers in my life that always leave me
feeling, you know, tired and exhausted.
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Or activities that actually boost my energy and
lift me up. If you want to practice being more
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intentional with how you spend your time and
your energy, I recommend giving my seven day
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simplify your life challenge a try. It's a free
challenge, I will leave the link to day one of
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that challenge in the description box below. And
this can really help you to get a clearer picture
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of where you are now and where you'd like to be
in terms of how you spend your time and energy.
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And of course, another really interesting one
is your everyday environment. The places that
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you spend the most of your time in. Perhaps your
home or your office or your work. And how are
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these places affecting you? And are there perhaps
ways that you can make some changes to create an
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environment in which you feel comfortable
and grounded and where you can recharge?
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When it comes to your home environment, of course
minimalism and decluttering can play a really
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important role. I know they have for me. And if
you're interested, I actually have a ton of videos
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about these topics that you can check out. But it
can also be little things. Maybe you notice that
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looking at something from nature tends to make you
feel happy. And you could make it into a habit to
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always bring something green into your home. Like
a beautiful branch that you found or some flowers.
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Or maybe you find that you tend to get a headache
if you're in a space where there's not a lot
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of fresh air. And you could work on opening the
windows more and ventilating your place better. So
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just finding tiny ways to tune into what you
need from your space and incorporating that more.
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Next is a really important one I think, and that
is working on how you can be more intentional with
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your downtime. So this is time that you are not
working or being active in some other way. Time
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that you can rest and relax. So, some people have
more downtime, other people have less downtime.
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It really depends on a few different things.
But I think a lot of people would be quite
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shocked if they found out how much of their
precious downtime they spend just scrolling on
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their phone. This really was the biggest thing
for me, when I examined my downtime and found
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ways to be more intentional with it. Because our
phones are so addictive. And before you know it,
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just 30 minutes have gone by and all you did was
just scroll on your phone through some kind of
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feed or online shopping or whatever. And I just
really figured that this is not how I want to
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spend my precious down time. So what are you doing
in your free time? And how is that serving you?
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What would you like to do more of? What would you
like to do less of? And these are really great
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questions to ask yourself if you want to live with
more intention. Number six is another important
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part of life, and that is our relationships.
So the people that we spend the most time with.
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And the relationships that we invest
the most of our time and energy into.
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This one has two sides as well. And the first is
to ask yourself if you are spending enough time
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with the people that you love. And if your life
and lifestyle allow you to have these nourishing
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relationships and if you can be with your friends
and family enough. And on the other hand, perhaps
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there are some friendships or relationships in
your life of people that you would actually like
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to spend less time with. And there is a saying, I
don't remember who said this first, that I like.
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But it goes: You can't change the people around
you, but you can change the people around you.
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Which means that while we cannot control the
actions of others, we can make conscious choices
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about who we want to spend the most of our time
with. And if we have people in our life who
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more often detract from our happiness, instead of
adding to it, maybe we could let these people go.
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Or at least spend a lot less time with them. And
the last area that I want to talk about today,
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and I actually had a little bit of trouble finding
a good name for this, but it is the question of
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when is it enough? And how to deal with this
desire that we as people tend to have that
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we're always searching for more, more and more.
This can be with money of course. But it can also
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be with our things. So for example, when do we
have enough clothes? I feel like with shopping,
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there's always an excuse to buy a new outfit or a
new pair of shoes. And shopping is just something
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that we do. We just go to the stores or we shop
online, because that's just something that you
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do. And I used to do this myself as well. But
after a while, I just started thinking: Why do
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I keep adding things to my wardrobe? And why do I
keep adding things to my life? Is that because I
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truly feel that this thing will bring me something
that I don't yet already have, or is it just out
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of habit? So I found that with intentional living,
it can also help us to kind of see through these
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subconscious patterns and habits and actions. And
really ask ourselves if these things are adding
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value. Or if perhaps we already have enough, or
we're already doing enough, etc. A really valuable
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and kind of unexpected thing that I learned
through intentional living is getting better
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at setting boundaries. And I am by nature a huge
people pleaser. I find confrontation quite scary.
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And if someone asks me something, saying yes is
still always my first instinct. Even if I already
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have something scheduled for that day. My first
instinct is still to see if I can kind of switch
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some things around, and make space and time for
this thing somehow. And I don't even really think
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about it. But as we become more intentional in our
own life, I find that this can also help us to set
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boundaries better with others. And say no when we
need to. And this has been really helpful for me,
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because it helps to protect my time and energy. I
actually have a video on Patreon that is all about
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how to become better at setting boundaries,
and how to communicate them with others.
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Patreon is another platform where I post videos
about minimalism and simple living, but also
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all kinds of other topics. I share glimpses
into my life that I don't share anywhere else.
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And I like to work together with my patrons and
make videos based on topics that they suggest.
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You can join and cancel anytime and there's
already a lot of videos on there to catch up on,
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if you want. You can join at patreon. com
/ simplehappyzen. Of course I would love
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to know more about your thoughts and how
you practice intentional living. Are you
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completely new to it? Or do you already have
some experiences with it? Please share that in
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the comments. And don't forget please to give
this video a like and subscribe to the channel,
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because that really helps support this channel
and helps this video reach more people. If you
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want some slow living tips that anyone can do, I
recommend watching this video. And in this video
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right here, I actually share six of my new
personal intentional living habits that I've
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incorporated into my life recently. As always:
questions, comments, conversations down below.
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Have a wonderful day, thank you so much for
being here. And I'll see you soon. Bye bye
