Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alex, it's so lovely
to see you, so good to see you
as always.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's such an honor to
have you here.
I'm excited to hear about yourexperience and early morning
habit.
You had a unique one, which isreally very unique, and we will
dive into that.
But I'm excited just to hearyour perspective on how it
renewed your morning, how itimpacted your life in a very
unique way.
But first I would love to hearwhat was sort of the motivating
(00:28):
factor to even joining earlymorning habit.
What were you hoping to get outof it?
And then, consequently, how ordid early morning habit help get
you there?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Mm-hmm.
So the first time I heard youtalk about rising in the morning
and being not doing, I feltinstantly, I would say, both
excited about the potential ofdoing that and a little bit
convicted, if that's a good wayof saying it.
(01:02):
But I would on a normal basis.
You know, I have my business,my husband has a business.
We have four boys now and ourmornings are normally pretty
chaotic.
And if I got up early for anyreason, it was to get extra work
done before my kids got up.
(01:24):
And then, you know, we're offto the races with getting ready
for school and going to work andgetting things done, and then
after school activities withsports, and by the end of the
day I'm just passing out andrealizing like there is no um,
real time to um.
You know, and I kind of to methis actually is, it sounds
(01:47):
selfish, but there was no timefor me, there was none in that.
That's okay To an extent.
I love being a mom, I love whatI get to do, but there was this
yearning.
I think that what if I were justalone with God in the morning?
I didn't feel the pressure, andactually I felt the pressure
(02:07):
from the other side of what if Iwere just here to hear from God
and to be with him, and then Icould, you know, get my workout
in, get ready for the day, andthen the chaos starts.
How would that make an impacton my um, on my day in my life?
How would that make an impacton my um, on my day in my life?
And I think that the it startedout off as a question what
(02:29):
could it be like?
And that's what I think.
I was just more intrigued thananything, and it's something
that I haven't done, um before,just because my normal routine
is so go, go, go, go go, and youknow, the schedule and demands
of my to-do list kind of alwaysgave me a good excuse to never
(02:50):
dive into being alone andspending time with the Lord like
I knew I wanted to, and thatwas my main motivation to
getting into the early morninghabit.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, and I loved
your perspective, because we
have a mix of people that comeinto the program, and I would
actually say a fair number ofthem are the people that have
never had a morning routine,have always wanted one but are
not a morning person by nature.
That was my story.
So I always say if I can do it,anyone can do it.
But you did have a morningroutine.
(03:25):
You would say you are a morningperson by nature, and so I
would love to hear how, then,this concept of starting your
day being not doing did changeyour life, because you are
incredibly productive.
You're the woman that's alreadygetting up early.
What a lot of people would liketo do, and a lot of us think
(03:47):
that's like the end all be allto getting up early is getting
more done.
That's why I first startedgetting up early.
So I would love to hear fromyour perspective how this
concept of flipping around yourmorning routine so that you
start it being instead of doing,how did that impact?
your morning and, ultimately,your life.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Well, and when you do
the early morning habit, you
realize the first thing that youactually start with is sleep,
and so I can't say anythingabout the morning routine until
I've said that sleep was the keyto starting that.
And let me also give thecontext of when I started the
early morning habit.
I was significantly pregnant.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I don't even know how
to say that.
She's amazing.
She's amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Very, very pregnant
at the time.
But I and I obviously wasn'tsleeping well.
You know, if you've ever had achild before, you know that
those last that last you knowcouple of months, the sleeping
is horrendous, Like how do youenter that?
And I, you know, I tested theconcepts that you have about
sleep, you know, in the middleof probably the hardest time to
(04:58):
sleep in my life, which isduring pregnancy, and I stopped.
One of the biggest things thatI think helped was I stopped
eating for the day.
I think it was by seven o'clockon.
That was my kind of schedule,and it may have been even
earlier than that, but you knowI've had a newborn now, so that
(05:19):
was like 37.
I was done eating for the day.
And that first night after Istopped that I so before I was
like waking up, like in panic,feeling um, like I needed to
throw up in the middle of thenight and so, um, then that
night I slept all through thenight and woke up the next
(05:41):
morning and I was like, oh, myword.
And so you couldn't get me toeat past six, 30 for any reason,
because I was like, no cause,my sleep is protected.
So I think the first thing forme.
The first thing, the firstmajor change for me to allow me
to get to the place where Icould wake up with some amount
of calm was being able to firstprioritize the sleep portion.
(06:05):
So then I'm sleeping well atnight, really pregnant and able
to wake up the morning.
It felt refreshed and thatallowed me to go into my morning
routine at a different pace andso I wasn't feeling the frantic
.
You know what happens when youwake up and you know like I
(06:27):
didn't sleep enough last night,and so then I'm going to like
I'm waking up now and it's goingto make the rest of the day
really hard because I'm going tohave to paddle through all of
that you like.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
start your day as
tired as you were when you went
to bed.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Exactly, that's
exactly the right way.
And then there is also the addedanxiety that you know you
didn't sleep well.
So then all throughout the day,you realize the reason that
you're not doing well or beingas productive as you want it's
all spent on this wholenighttime thing.
So anyway, so that for me thesleep was kind of the first big
shift to happen.
The sleep was kind of the firstbig shift to happen.
(07:03):
And so when I started sleepingwell, then when I woke up to
calm instead of a panic of Ididn't sleep enough, then I was
able to lean into what was thereas far as the quiet of the
morning and sitting down and notfeeling and not allowing myself
(07:24):
to go to my to-do list or to goto my phone or just check my
email briefly, just to see whatthe day was going to be like.
It was all just focused on youknow, I'm going to, I'm here,
I'm, I'm with you.
Lord, this is not about anythingelse.
This is just about you and meright now, and I can allow other
things to happen the rest ofthe day.
(07:45):
And I think that, um, I thinkthat the fear of I'm not going
to get up and do the things thatI need to do is that everything
else isn't going to happenthrough the day like it should
and actually the oppositehappens.
You know, whenever you and forme this was true when I, when I
prioritize that first you know30 minutes of my day to spend
(08:09):
time with the Lord and getmyself ready for the day, all of
those things that I wasn't um,I didn't feel the panic the rest
of the day.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I don't, you know.
I'm sure there's somescientific things that you could
say about that, but for me itwas just.
I noticed when I woke up withcalm, then the rest of the day
could remain calm.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, and it's an
interesting concept that we talk
about in the program and someof it you're alluding to.
But for those of you listeningand watching, you know, one of
the things we practice in thisquiet time is something called
emotionally intelligentgratitude cultural, but it's the
(08:56):
idea that in this quiet you areactually addressing the biggest
stressors on your mind.
You're acknowledging how itmakes you feel and then I'm
simplifying it drastically, butthen you're covering those
realities, those uncomfortableemotions, with gratitude and how
that makes you feel.
And when you then cover thatwith God's word and prayer, I
mean it literally istransformational because it
(09:17):
takes what feels like panic andit covers it with peace because
you realize, oh no, theseemotions are within my control
and in fact I can actually flipthe script on them and then
cover that with the sovereigntyof God's word and who we are
because of him.
It does, it really changes yourday and it kind of creates this
(09:40):
sort of unshakable foundation,regardless of your circumstances
, which you also experienced.
I didn't even try to transitionthat way, but that was a good
transition.
But you also experienced thatin, you know, a poignant, and I
was always past or to my duedate.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And so I really
anticipated that with our fourth
son as well, because onceyou've experienced it one way,
you think this is how it's allgoing to happen.
Well, with our fourth son, Duke, I went into labor on my own,
which was actually a prayer thatI had.
I wanted to go into labor on myown because I felt that before,
and so I was like I'd like to beable to do that.
(10:39):
Well, at 37 weeks I did.
I went into labor on my own theday after the Superbowl and, um
, I didn't even think it wastrue labor.
I thought that I was havingBraxton Hicks, and so I was
telling my husband I'm fine,we're going to make it through.
(11:00):
About three o'clock in theafternoon he's like I don't
think that you're fine, I thinkthat we should go into the
hospital.
So we did, and um long you knowportion of that story short when
we finally did deliver Duke, hewas born with a true knot in
his umbilical cord, which I hadnever actually heard of before,
but it's.
It is actually a knot in theumbilical cord which I had never
actually heard of before, butit is actually a knot in the
umbilical cord.
And it was also wrapped aroundhis neck twice, and so when he
(11:22):
was born he was not breathing,and so there were.
I've gone back and talked tothe nurses since and they told
me there were six minutesbetween when he was delivered
and the moment when theyintubated him and he was able to
breathe on his own.
So obviously the scariest sixminutes of my life, um, I often
(11:46):
go back there at my head andjust thank God that it happened
the way that it did and in theway that, um, he was able to
breathe after those six minutesand they were able to take him
into their care and do anamazing job helping him recover.
And you know, obviously Ibelieve in prayer and believe
that God helped him recover veryquickly.
(12:07):
But so he was in the, he went,was whisked off right away to
the NICU.
What I haven't said so far is Ialso tested positive for COVID
and so and you have a newbornevery mom is groaning, like
every mom who has been in thatposition is just like oh, girl,
oh it was, it was awful and Imean you
(12:30):
know you have one, a child, inthe NICU and then they tell you
because you are positive withCOVID, then you are in an
isolation room.
He is isolated from you.
You cannot see him because itis a danger to the other
children in the NICU, which Ihonor all of those children.
(12:50):
So I didn't want them to getsick either.
But it did mean that for thenext four days I was in an
isolation room in the hospitalwithout my son, which is just
not something I ever really wantto go back to ever again.
It was awful and we're twomonths out now he's doing really
(13:12):
well.
But in that moment there were alot of questions on his
recovery and there were a lot ofquestions on um.
You know there was.
There was just a lot on, youknow, the bonding that's
supposed to happen.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
The very beginning
and and people can't come in and
see you and be with you andcomfort you, you know you're
truly alone, which most of usdon't really experience, right
right so.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
So they did allow my
husband to come and get milk
that I had pumped for our son.
So that was the time that Iwould see him.
He would come, get the milk,take it to Duke, and then I
would.
They would FaceTime me to letme know that he was drinking the
milk that I had just pumped forhim.
And that was the extent of mymy stay, so there's a lot of
(14:01):
time that I'm all by myself.
The nurses aren't coming in asfrequently, to be honest,
because they have to garb upevery time they're coming in.
So they're like just tell useverything that you need and
we'll just come in the one timeto check on you and bring you
everything you need.
So there was a lot of alonetime is what I mean by going
into those details.
(14:22):
And I think I had well, at thatpoint I had a choice I could
sit and I could probably watch amovie, or I could be on social
media and scroll, and I think,because of everything I'd been
learning from the early morninghabit, I decided that none of
that was right for me, but thatI needed to commit that time to
(14:44):
prayer and think this is my timeto be with the Lord.
And so I brought up my app andprayed worship music and
listened oh it makes me cry.
And prayed worship music andlistened oh it makes me cry.
And read the Bible and justthought this is my time with him
and he can be my comfort.
And, to be honest, when I talkabout it now, I think I don't
(15:07):
know how I did that.
Like at the moment, I don'tknow how, looking back, I was
able to have the peace that Ihad and the confidence that
everything was going to be okay,and even being separated from
my son and not knowing how hewas doing and developing all
those things.
I don't, physically, in my ownstrength, know how I did that,
(15:33):
because I don't think that I did.
I believe that God carried methrough those four days and when
I first signed up for the earlymorning habit, you were even
telling me I don't know whyyou're doing this Because, like
I tell people not to do this,like whenever they're, like in
moments, yeah, I literally tellpeople there's certain seasons
that maybe you don't want tosign up.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And she was in the
one and she was like girl, I'm
doing it.
Yeah, I was like I need to doit.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
I just felt so
adamant that I needed it and
that.
but I didn't know why I neededit until I was in that room, and
then I realized that I had beenconditioning myself already to
be able to be in that room andbe isolated, um, and I knew what
to do with the isolation.
And there's, um, you know, whenyou have so many children in
(16:21):
your house and you have so manythings going on in your life all
the time, it's, it's easy tofind a lot of comfort in the
noise, and for me it was thefirst time that I had ever had
to be silent for that long.
And so although if I could havegone back and changed the
(16:46):
situation, I probably would haveto be able to see Duke, but I
wouldn't trade the time that Ihad with the Lord for anything,
because that I feel like thosewere the moments that I am
holding onto, and I've held ontofor the last two months, as
we've watched him develop sowell and we're so grateful.
But, um, I think that there's alot of um fear that can come in
(17:10):
from a traumatic situation, andI haven't faced that a
traumatic situation.
And I haven't faced that and Ibelieve that it's because I know
that in those moments ofisolation, that God was
protecting me and caring for mebetter than anyone else could
(17:31):
have done in that situation.
But I don't know if I would havedone that you know, as a knee
jerk reaction if I hadn't beenpreparing myself before.
But I had already clicked offmy phone from so many
distractions because I wanted totake early morning habits
seriously.
(17:51):
I wanted to make sure that whenI woke up in the morning that
the first thing I could get wasthe Bible.
You know that there weren'toptions for me to go to social
media or anything else that Icould just focus on on the Lord.
So I had already preparedmyself and I didn't even know it
.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
It's so beautiful I
literally have goosebumps.
You mentioned something that Ithink is really powerful that,
as women, we often find comfortin the noise.
That, as women, we often findcomfort in the noise.
And it's ironic because youknow the noise, whether it be
actual or subliminal.
(18:31):
Noise is something that wedon't even realize.
Half the time is surrounding us.
You know the social messaging,the, you know the noise of our
children, but there's justconstant noise, and you know you
made such a great point in thatwhat we don't even realize is
the freedom and the joy and thepeace to be found in the silence
(18:56):
.
And I think this is where one ofmy favorite things about
hearing feedback from women fromearly morning habit is how,
when you have structure in thatsilence, it revitalizes your
life.
The problem is we don't knowwhat to do with the silence, and
so we just end up feelingfearful, shameful, guilty,
(19:20):
anxious, because there's notintention.
We just don't know what to do,and so I love your example of
learning from that structure andthen using it as a tool to
equip you in a really difficultsituation and to be able to come
out of it saying I was able tobe still and be at peace.
I mean that that's worth aboutjust any dollar to have that.
(19:47):
It's really, really meaningful.
What would you say if you couldgive one word to generally how
you felt, whether it was yourmorning or you before early
morning habit as compared topost early morning habit or now?
If you could say from this tothis, what words would you use?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I would say frantic
was before, because I always
felt like I was waking up behind.
You know, I was never um.
I never woke up and thought, oh, I have all this time.
No, I have to get the boys upand get them dressed and do all
the morning things that were myroutine, um and um.
(20:33):
And you know, now we're at theplace where we're sleeping
better because of her two monthsum into a newborn and he's
sleeping better.
So, as I start start tore-implement early morning habit
, I think that the word that Iwould use is let me think about
(20:54):
that for a second.
It's a good question and thereare a lot of words that are
coming to my mind.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Right, now, nothing
like getting put on the spot.
Welcome to the podcast, right.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Um, I think I went
from frantic to the only word
that's coming to my mind rightnow.
So I'm going to go with.
It is prepared.
Hmm, um, I think that you know,at the beginning of the year, I
told my husband I want to feellike I'm ahead.
(21:27):
I don't want to feel like.
I'm on things anymore and youknow the to-do lists are still
there and all of those kinds ofthings, but I feel better
(21:48):
equipped to tackle them rightnow.
I'm not starting the morningbehind, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Which is so beautiful
because ultimately, what you're
saying is and this is the keywith early morning habit is it's
not like your day has changed,necessarily.
It's not like your to-do listhas changed, but really what's
changed is your perspective.
It's the way that you'restarting your day and it shines
a completely different light andjust by changing your
perspective, makes you feelprepared for anything Like bring
(22:22):
it on, Even though there's nocertainty for the day.
Your perspective has changed.
So that's such a beautiful.
I love that.
I love that For those of youlistening and watching, we would
love to have you join us.
When you sign up and join thecommunity, you meet amazing
members, stars like Alex Schauer, who have had such an
incredible and impactfulexperience and sharing.
(22:44):
It is such an honor for me tohear.
It always makes me choke upwhen I hear these amazing,
amazing stories.
If you click on the link in theshow notes, it is going to be
Alex's referral link.
She gets a small thank youcommission for anyone that signs
up through her link.
If her story is resonating withyou and you sign up, please use
her link.
You can go toearlymorninghabitcom and we
(23:05):
would love to rise with you.
Alex.
Such an honor to have you.
You're a blessing to me.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
So glad to be here
and so thankful that you took
the time to do Early MorningHabit.
It's meant more than I can say.