August 20, 2024 • 30 mins
ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
Ever wondered how a simple change in your morning routine could transform your life? Join us for a heartfelt conversation with my mom, a registered nurse, who faced her skepticism about early mornings head-on. Listen as she shares her journey from being a natural late riser to discovering the profound impact of starting her day with intention. Her story is particularly poignant as she navigates the emotional challenges of her parents' declining health, finding a new sense of purpose and spiritual nourishment.
JUMP RIGHT TO IT:
0:00 Early Morning Habit Program Testimonial
10:45 Starting the Day With Gratitude
17:58 Morning Habit Program Flexibility and Balance
Kickstart your own revival by renewing your morning. Say 'thanks' to Keri for sharing her story by joining Early Morning Habit through her link. Let’s rise. https://ahnafulmer.com/early-morning-habit/?ref=Keri+Buckwalter
Revitalize your faith and fitness with a morning routine that does not sacrifice your sleep and does start each day with God's Word and a workout. Join the community today at www.earlymorninghabit.com
☀️ Grab my FREE TRAINING on 3 Powerful Secrets to Rise Renewed Every Morning.
☀️ Join the Early Morning Habit course and community today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, it is really fun to have on the podcast today
.
She is sharing her experiencein early morning habit.
My mom uh, it is such an honorto have my mom here today.
I just sneezed so we had toedit that out.
You can all thank me, your earsThank me, Um but what I am so
grateful for is that yourepresent this like collective
(00:23):
stage of life for so many womenand I'm really honored to have
you on here to share yourperspective about the early
morning habit program.
When you initially read aboutthe program, what drew you to it
?
Why initially did you sign upfor early morning habit?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So, if we're being totally candid, my first thought
was this is a program Ana'sdoing.
That is not for me, because ofthe whole quote, unquote, early
morning piece.
I am by nature a later in theday person.
Never have been a morningperson.
Not that I can't do it, I'vehad to for years.
(01:05):
I'm a registered nurse, 40 plusyears.
I've pretty much always workedday shift.
Once I'm up, I'm good.
It's the actual getting upmaking myself do the alarm.
I'm not a snooze person.
I give myself the max sleep andthe alarm goes once I'm out and
then I'm good.
Um, but I hate the alarm.
And so you know, when I sawearly morning habit, I think,
(01:29):
wow, it's, it's a great concept.
I kind of wish I was a morningperson.
But but at the same time, onceI talked to you about it a
little bit and realized it'sokay to give myself a little
latitude on that part.
It's more about how I'mstarting my day than when I'm
starting my day.
And you know I really wanted to, you know, participate and be
(01:53):
involved in what you were doingand, you know, be part of your
pilot.
So I thought okay well, you know, we'll give it a whirl and I'll
let myself be flexible where Ineed to be.
So there were parts of it.
You know.
As I understood what it was tobe about, that, I realized I
need this.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
That's kind of what I as you started it, you said
that once it got rolling, youwere like, oh, I do need this.
What were those elements thatyou thought, oh yeah, I do need
this.
What were those elements thatyou thought, oh yeah, I do need
this.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, just a better overall start to my day.
In general, I had pretty muchfallen into a long habit.
I had fallen away years agotruly from any kind of habit of
starting my day with the Lordand I, you know, I it's not that
I spiritually was strugglingper se it, it just wasn't a
(02:50):
habit.
Um, and you know, I kind ofrelied on my Sundays and you
know, um worship, music and thatkind of thing to connect with
the Lord, but not really a firstthing in the day time, to just,
you know, get in the word.
And um, I just it was lazinessto, if we're going to be honest,
(03:12):
um, I just had gotten away fromit um a long time ago and my
habit more really had becomemore go out and get the
newspaper, get my cup of tea.
I'm not a coffee drinker, lovethe smell of it but, uh, never
liked the taste of it for somereason.
So I, you know I, I get my good.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And somehow I'm her daughter.
I promise biologically all thekids.
Yeah, we're obsessed withcoffee and our parents both
drink tea.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Anyway, sorry, I think that's part of why I love
the smell of it is.
It usually means that there'skids at home.
But anyway, I it kind of becamea pretty set routine of making
my morning tea, and these are Ishould qualify these are days
that I'm not working If, if I'mworking a shift that starts at
7am, I am getting up with theminimum time needed to get
(03:59):
myself to work, make my tea andtake it with me, um, but I'm not
reading anything, I'm not doinganything else.
So, um, but um, yeah, butstarting with the newspaper, uh,
I, I do still like the, youknow, physical copy of the
newspaper.
May or may not do the crosswordthat day, um, but I, I grew up
(04:21):
in a home that was always veryin touch with the daily news and
you know, like it or not, thathas been part of just you know
who I am.
I think too is just a generalsort of world awareness of you
know, what's happening in theworld and the country and
whatever locally, and that'skind of how my day started.
(04:42):
But then it also it also kindof became the newspaper and my
to do list.
I can honestly say it didn'tstart with and still doesn't
really with getting right on myphone.
I'm not a social media person,so that that is not a struggle
(05:02):
particularly for me, butdefinitely, you know, maybe just
checking the email and anymajor news feeds, but it just
wasn't a particularly edifyingstart to the day as a general
rule.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
But a very, very common one.
I mean, I think that is a verysocially acceptable and common
routine.
I guess is where I'm going withthat.
Like it's a very understandable, practical and, frankly, still
probably healthy than a lot ofpeople's morning routines, like
there's nothing inherently wrongwith that routine.
But to your point, that I wouldlove to hear is how then did
(05:40):
early morning habit and theprogram change that early
morning habit and the programchanged that, and how did you
see that change, even just yourday, as you changed your morning
.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, the other.
The other thing that wasinteresting about the timing for
me um, as you well know, um,the the early morning habit
pilot group happened to startright at probably one of the
craziest times of my life.
In some respects.
I am in my early 60s.
Both of our sets of parents arestill living.
(06:15):
My folks have increasingly beenstruggling with pretty
significant memory loss and itwas becoming apparent they were
still living independently in avery large house, three-story
house, in a retirement community.
So it was a matter of gettingthem to see the need to
transition to you know more ofan assisted living circumstance
(06:36):
in that community.
But at the time, for yearsthey've been living
independently and that needed tochange.
And we had started that processand were under the impression
that it was going to be monthsand months before there was a
two-room suite available forthem in the area where they
needed to transition to.
So we were kind of taking ourgood old time and suddenly we
(06:59):
get an email hey, there's a unitavailable.
We really think they shouldtake this, but you need to
commit because there's a waitlist.
They can't just put it off.
We had travel plans,significant travel out of the
country 10 days and then 16 daysat a time.
That had been planned over ayear ago.
And they're telling me theyneed to make this move in two
weeks.
(07:20):
And so I, to say the least, wasoverwhelmed.
I was just like I don't see howwe can make this happen.
First they're trying to getthem to understand that
something we've sort of beentalking about is now going to
happen in two weeks, anddownsizing them from over 4,500
square feet to two rooms.
It just I was like and I'mstill working, and you know, not
(07:49):
full time, but enough that.
I was like I don't see how Ican make this happen.
But make a long story short, wedid, and you know that's its
own story, but that was thetiming and you know I really
wanted.
I felt like I had committed todoing the pilot program.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I felt like I had committed to doing the pilot
program and I thought this iseither the worst possible time
for me to start this, or maybeit's exactly what I need to
somehow, um you know, somehowmake this happen, as well as
everything else.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Um, and and that really turned out to be the case
I, it was exactly what I neededat that time, because I it
wasn't that I was even waking upin the morning with my to-do
list.
My to-do list was buzzing in mybrain 24 seven at this point,
um, you know, trying to figureout all the logistics of this
move and helping them tocomprehend what's going on, and,
(08:38):
um, you know, so I would go tobed and wake up just thinking
about all these things and allthe mental lists, and so, to
start the day quieting, tryingto quiet that, I mean, it was
tough, um yeah probably one ofthe hardest parts still is for
me to sit and and get thosethings to quiet.
(08:59):
Um and enough to you know.
Look at what scripture I'mlooking at that day, and you
know, and how quickly I realized, man, I'm already my brain's
already gone to the to-do listagain um and to kind of rein
that back in again.
So, um it it was.
It was exactly what I needed,but it was a tough time to to
(09:21):
try to learn those kind of newhabits.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, yeah.
I love what you said, though,about the idea of reigning back
in the to-do list, because, Imean, you're not the only one.
This has come from severalpeople and it's one of the
reasons that we actually startthe program for those of you
listening and watching with thisconcept of breathing, so we
(09:48):
literally start, before we evenread stuff in the program, start
practicing breathing techniquesthat help you to be present.
And still, because we live inthis, especially as women, where
we almost never experience justtrue stillness of body and of
mind, it's really, really hard,especially when there's literal
(10:12):
and figurative noise surroundingus constantly.
So this is a really difficultthing for women especially to do
, and I would love to hear yourperspective on what was the
payoff.
You know, so you're startingyour day with quiet and you are
actively working on stillingthat in your mind.
(10:35):
What was the benefit that yousaw to doing that?
Because I know there's womenalready hearing this and being
like okay, that sounds fantastic.
However, as soon as I wake up,I see that to-do list, and it
feels less productive to startmy day not just jumping right to
the to-do list.
How did you see the payoff inyour life where it was worth,
(11:01):
and is worth starting your daythis way, despite this pressing
list of things that you need todo.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Right.
So for me, a couple of things Iknow I alluded to earlier.
I am not by nature a morningperson.
I also am somebody who doesn'tnecessarily need a ton of sleep.
I can get away.
Like I said, once I'm up andgoing, I'm good to go.
I'm not a napper, and you know.
(11:27):
So I, for this period of timeparticularly, I did start
setting an earlier alarm,probably because my to-do list
was so long.
Because my to-do list was solong, um, there was just was so
much going on and and I quicklyrealized that, yeah, I don't
love the alarm, it's still, it'sstill tough, and this, you know
, this was still winter and soyou know it was dark, um, and
(11:53):
the actual getting up was wasdifficult.
And yet I, I starteddiscovering how much more I was
actually getting done just bystarting my day earlier.
For me, again, because I don'tnecessarily need, you know, I
don't need eight or nine hours,I'm good on six or seven Um, but
I, you know, I didn'tnecessarily start going to bed a
(12:15):
whole lot earlier, but Idefinitely was getting up
earlier and I just I felt like Iwas accomplishing so much more
Um, but the other thing I thinkfor me um was.
It was easy, the whole emotionand maybe I'm jumping the gun
here that the no, go for it.
The tuning into the emotionalpart of it as well.
(12:38):
Um, and starting the day withgratitude was really important
for me during that time because,you know, it was easy, in the
overwhelmedness of all thedetails, to start to get really
negative, and my personality canlean that way.
To begin with.
I, can, you know, tend to leantoward the negativity rather
(13:02):
than seeing the positives, um,by nature, and so it was a time
where it just was really easy,um, to just think of all the
tough parts and the bad thingsand the you know be frustrated
by, you know, people's reactionsto things, or, um, or, or even
(13:22):
just, you know, to have phaseswhere, like, why is this all
falling on me?
Um, you know, and, and feelinglike, and, and, even though
people who could help wereattempting to, there's only so
much others could do in some ofthese situations, and you know,
and, and you know the reality isas the one of two children for
(13:43):
them, and the oldest daughterand the local child was going to
fall on me, and that's just howit was, and remembering that
this is a phase of life, we justneed to get through it, but
there were so many little thingsto be grateful for that I could
have.
I might have've easily missed umin in the.
You know, in the overwhelm ofit all that that taking that
(14:06):
time in the morning you know tofocus and and write down and
journal some of those littlethings and big things, you know
that there was so much to to begrateful for Um and starting
with that focus you know reallyhelped during that time to kind
of stay grounded um and not, andnot just, and not to say that I
mean there there was kind of acomical moment one day, well
(14:29):
into this whole process, where II had an honest meltdown, and
you know me, I'm I'm not ameltdown kind of person, but I
needed it.
It was, it was, it was nothingto do with mom and dad, it was
actually a tax thing, Cause I doour taxes and something was
happening when suddenly we hadthis multi-thousand dollar tax
(14:50):
burden, I'm like where did thatcome from?
I don't understand what justhappened, but, and I, I did, I
just lost it and it was like allthose emotions kind of you know
, but but I, I, I think, withoutthe you know starting the days
with some of the gratitude pieceof it, it, those meltdowns
might've come sooner and moreoften um just cause you could
(15:13):
just so focus on all all thenegatives that were happening.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, yeah.
I love that perspective and,for those of you listening and
watching, what what she'salluding to is a core concept of
the entire program is that wewant to empower you to start
your day being not doing.
And, specifically, we take thattime and we intentionally apply
(15:39):
a practice called emotionallyintelligent gratitude and where
we're identifying the emotionsthat exist.
We're not ignoring thedifficult, just like the season
that you were in during thesix-week pilot group.
You don't ignore the realitythat exists, but instead it's
actually acknowledging it,claiming that this stinks, this
is hard, claiming that thisstinks, this is hard, but then
(16:05):
you are covering it and sort ofre-framing those uncomfortable
emotions and the challenge withgratitude.
And then we take it to the nextlevel and we talk about how we
can implement that through God'sword and prayer in that quiet
time.
So I love that perspective andI've told my mom this before.
But there's this phase of lifeas women and I've had fitness
(16:25):
nutrition clients in this phaseas well where it's possibly one
of the most taxing phases oflife.
I don't know, I'm not there yet, but you have parents that now
need you.
You're always a mom that neverstops, but then you've got
grandkids on top of it andyou're still working and you,
you're always a mom.
That never stops.
But then you've got grandkidson top of it and you're still
working and you're still doingall the things cooking, meal
(16:47):
planning.
For some of you, you love that.
I personally don't.
So it's a lot.
It's a lot.
And I'm curious what you wouldsay to the woman who's listening
and watching, who's in thatphase, but who hears the concept
of early morning habit.
Maybe she goes onto the websiteand she'd be considering it,
(17:10):
but she's concerned about thetime, maybe the price or the
loss, potential loss of sleep,because many women in this phase
of life are also very tired.
They wake up as tired as theywere when they went to bed.
What would you say to thatwoman?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Um, I mean, I heard I would definitely say, you know,
give it a whirl anyway, butallow yourself.
I had to be careful because youknow one of the things that I
think a lot of women probably inthis phase of life again,
because you have, you know youmay have parents still living
that may or may not need you ona daily or weekly basis or
(17:54):
whatever.
Or you know, um, you may havegrandkids or kids.
You know who you know need youin some way.
Um and it's.
I find it's a strugglesometimes to not feel like I'm
not doing a great job at any ofthem.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Like.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I, I'm spread too thin.
Um, you know I, I.
It's easy to just sort of startto feel like you're, you're
failing to some at some level onin every role.
You know I'm not as committedas I feel like I still should be
at work I.
You know my grandkids livethree miles away and yet I
hardly see them because I'm sooccupied with all these things.
(18:35):
You know, and you know, and Irealize that's.
You know they've got busyschedules too, but it's it's
easy to start to spiral into.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I'm.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I'm failing at everything and I'm I'm only
doing all these things sort ofin a half-hearted manner, not
not that I'm half-hearted aboutit, but just you know that I
can't seem to really, you know,commit myself fully to anyone,
and I had to be careful not to.
I started the program andstarted to quickly feel like,
(19:06):
okay, great, this is one morething that I'm not really doing
100%, because there were someaspects that I definitely, you
know, didn't pour myself into asmuch as I might've liked.
Um, and I, I think the bigthing that I'm I'm learning as I
get older in many aspects is tocut myself some slack.
Um, you know, I have highexpectations and I think, um,
(19:32):
you know, life has differentphases and just realizing that
some of these things aren'tgoing to last forever.
You know, again, our situationis somewhat unique to be in our,
you know, early to mid 60s andstill have four loving parents.
We have been so fortunate inthat, up to this point, those
parents have been fullyindependent and we, like those
(19:52):
parents.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let's throw that out there.
What's that I said?
And we like those parents.
Let's throw that out there.
What's that I said?
And we like those parents.
Let's throw that out there.
Not only are my fourgrandparents living, but I have
a fantastic relationship withall four of them, so we actually
like our grandparents.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But it does mean that we're still spending time with
them you know where some folksmight have that time to if their
grandkids say we're local youknow, to be seeing more of them,
where we're still kind oflooking at our folks saying we
don't know how long we're goingto have them or we don't know
how long we're going to havethem in.
You know this state of alertnessand capability, and so you know
(20:31):
we're still sort of investingtime and, just you know,
appreciating the time that wehave with them as well.
But it does sometimes leave youfeeling spread thinner than you
want to be, and so you know,and like, with the schedule part
of it, you know, I realized Iat this stage I'm probably not
(20:51):
going to completely revamp mylife clock and and didn't
necessarily want to, um, thedays that I do work and still
I'm needing to show up at seveno'clock, I'll be honest, I don't
get up early enough to, youknow, do the full early morning
habit thing.
(21:11):
Um, there's other aspects of itthat for me, weren't a big, uh,
a big big transition.
I'm a regular exerciser, Ienjoy exercise, I'm very active,
so, um, you know, the exercisepiece wasn't difficult.
Um, I don't, I wasn't alwaysdoing it first thing in the
morning.
there's definite perks togetting that out of the way.
Um, first thing, but sometimesI'm, you know, looking to add,
(21:35):
or, you know, vary, because I,you know, I might be training
for a hike or a longer run orsomething, a race I want to do,
or whatever.
So, um, you know, just just tonot to be so legalistic about
these things that you feel likethen, when you're not doing it
exactly the way it's quoteunquote supposed to be done,
that, then you feel like, oh,I'm not quote unquote supposed
(21:59):
to be done that.
Then you feel like, oh, I'm not, it's one more thing that I'm
not quite doing to the fullextent.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Um, and just allowing yourself that, you know, that
bit of slack and, um, wiggleroom, I guess you could say that
that that's okay, you know,that's the fact that you're
doing it at all, and if you, youknow, come away with, you know,
some some piece of it, thatit's, uh, you know, a benefit to
(22:34):
your all or nothing mentalityand really embrace imperfect
progress and, like you said,allow that to uh sort of be the
the end goal, not to do it all,all perfectly, um, and what
you've alluded to really wellalso, ladies, uh, listening and
watching is that early morninghabit is a guide.
(22:57):
This is precisely how you needto start each day.
In this very rigid format, it'sa guide and everyone does
benefit from different things.
We do a whole section on sleep.
We saw incredible feedback onthe sensory sleep rehab that um,
second to the emotionallyintelligent gratitude practice.
(23:21):
Women find the sleep rehab thesecond most beneficial slash,
transformational aspect of theprogram.
So we are going to work onsleep if you are struggling with
it, and then, like my mommentioned, there's the fitness
element, but I hope people comeaway feeling like, like you just
said, mom, that there isflexibility.
(23:41):
It's a guide, um, and can betailored to your specific stage
of life, season of life, etcetera.
So I I I'm not sure if you feltthat way or not, but that would
be the goal for women.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, yeah, and I think this especially addressing
, you know, my age group, forwomen, um, the sleep thing is,
it's very real, like there'sthese stereotypes about oh
you're middle-aged women, wejust sleep well, well, we don't.
Um, it's a physical thing.
We lose, we, we stopped makingsome of those chemicals, natural
chemicals that do help us sleep.
So, you know, if you need tosupplement that with something,
(24:20):
that's okay.
Like you know, find what worksfor you.
But I think, there and againwith with this, with this
particular piece of it, there,there weren't big adjustments
for me to make because we, wealready kind of implement a
number of those things.
Really, dark room, um, you knowno, uh, no phones where they
(24:42):
can be heard during the night,kind of thing.
Um, unless it's, you know it's,it's close enough that if it
would ring, we just recentlyfinally got rid of our landline.
So you know, now it does needto be, if I needed to be called
an emergency in the middle ofthe night, that I could hear it
ring.
But I'm not going to hear thelittle pings of you know some
notice that came across orwhatever that's going to wake me
(25:05):
up.
And I'm, you know, we'redefinitely not on it.
We're not big TV watchers, sonot usually doing that right
before bed, or certainly youknow, on my phone scrolling
social media, but I do thinkthere's a lot of things that
people are probably sabotagingthemselves and not realizing it
where you know that whole sleepsection of the program I think
(25:28):
is probably really beneficialfor a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, One of my favorite questions to ask if you
could use one word to describehow you felt and your morning
felt before early morning habit.
To one word to describe how youfelt and your morning felt
after early morning habit, whatwould you say?
So, for example, for my ownlife, I would say from chaos to
(25:58):
calm.
So there's nothing like puttingsomebody on the spot.
Feel free to take a second.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yeah, one word is tough.
Again, some of it is specificto the actual timing for me of
when I got introduced to theprogram, but for me at that time
, certainly one big change wouldhave been starting my day
(26:29):
feeling overwhelmed oroverloaded to after and into the
program, feeling like my daywas starting more collected,
like not even necessarily incontrol, because things weren't
(26:49):
necessarily in control, but Ifelt more collected, like this
is okay.
Yeah, there there's the to-dolist is long, but there's a lot
to be grateful for and we'll getthrough this.
And God is good, you know, andand um, it's you just, you felt
(27:10):
you felt just a little more.
Um, yeah, I just collected isthe word that comes to mind.
Yeah, I love that, love that.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
So so say that again.
From what to what?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
what was the words I just used?
Overwhelmed, over overwhelmedand overloaded um to more, more
collected.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I love that, from overwhelmed to collected.
If you are listening andwatching and this story
resonates with you and women, wesee you.
This phase of life is hard, ishard.
I've talked to so many women inthis stage and I know I'll get
there eventually.
But you are seen and we wouldlove to help you rise with this
(27:58):
concept of being not doing andtruly see holistic change.
We take a high level approachand then we deep dive real fast.
So we would love to have youjoin us.
If my mom's story resonates withyou, I would love for you to
say thank you to her.
If you want to join earlymorning habit, we would love to
have you, but click on the linkthat is in the show notes and
(28:20):
that is specifically herreferral link.
She does get a thank you giftfor anyone who signs up for the
program through her link.
And, mom, it was really ablessing having you not just in
the program, but I'm gratefulfor your willingness to share.
My mom is not one to get infront of a camera, so I fully
acknowledge this is a gift fromher to me.
But I am thankful for yousharing because a lot of women
(28:43):
need to hear this and I knowthey're resonating with you.
There are women all overhearing this that are like
that's me.
I'm sure I'm at right now, so we, from my heart, thank you for
being the program and thank youfor sharing.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
My pleasure.
Well, it is really fun to have on the podcast today
.
She is sharing her experiencein early morning habit.
My mom uh, it is such an honorto have my mom here today.
I just sneezed so we had toedit that out.
You can all thank me, your earsThank me, Um but what I am so
grateful for is that yourepresent this like collective
(00:23):
stage of life for so many womenand I'm really honored to have
you on here to share yourperspective about the early
morning habit program.
When you initially read aboutthe program, what drew you to it
?
Why initially did you sign upfor early morning habit?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So, if we're being totally candid, my first thought
was this is a program Ana'sdoing.
That is not for me, because ofthe whole quote, unquote, early
morning piece.
I am by nature a later in theday person.
Never have been a morningperson.
Not that I can't do it, I'vehad to for years.
(01:05):
I'm a registered nurse, 40 plusyears.
I've pretty much always workedday shift.
Once I'm up, I'm good.
It's the actual getting upmaking myself do the alarm.
I'm not a snooze person.
I give myself the max sleep andthe alarm goes once I'm out and
then I'm good.
Um, but I hate the alarm.
And so you know, when I sawearly morning habit, I think,
(01:29):
wow, it's, it's a great concept.
I kind of wish I was a morningperson.
But but at the same time, onceI talked to you about it a
little bit and realized it'sokay to give myself a little
latitude on that part.
It's more about how I'mstarting my day than when I'm
starting my day.
And you know I really wanted to, you know, participate and be
(01:53):
involved in what you were doingand, you know, be part of your
pilot.
So I thought okay well, you know, we'll give it a whirl and I'll
let myself be flexible where Ineed to be.
So there were parts of it.
You know.
As I understood what it was tobe about, that, I realized I
need this.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
That's kind of what I as you started it, you said
that once it got rolling, youwere like, oh, I do need this.
What were those elements thatyou thought, oh yeah, I do need
this.
What were those elements thatyou thought, oh yeah, I do need
this.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, just a better overall start to my day.
In general, I had pretty muchfallen into a long habit.
I had fallen away years agotruly from any kind of habit of
starting my day with the Lordand I, you know, I it's not that
I spiritually was strugglingper se it, it just wasn't a
(02:50):
habit.
Um, and you know, I kind ofrelied on my Sundays and you
know, um worship, music and thatkind of thing to connect with
the Lord, but not really a firstthing in the day time, to just,
you know, get in the word.
And um, I just it was lazinessto, if we're going to be honest,
(03:12):
um, I just had gotten away fromit um a long time ago and my
habit more really had becomemore go out and get the
newspaper, get my cup of tea.
I'm not a coffee drinker, lovethe smell of it but, uh, never
liked the taste of it for somereason.
So I, you know I, I get my good.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And somehow I'm her daughter.
I promise biologically all thekids.
Yeah, we're obsessed withcoffee and our parents both
drink tea.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Anyway, sorry, I think that's part of why I love
the smell of it is.
It usually means that there'skids at home.
But anyway, I it kind of becamea pretty set routine of making
my morning tea, and these are Ishould qualify these are days
that I'm not working If, if I'mworking a shift that starts at
7am, I am getting up with theminimum time needed to get
(03:59):
myself to work, make my tea andtake it with me, um, but I'm not
reading anything, I'm not doinganything else.
So, um, but um, yeah, butstarting with the newspaper, uh,
I, I do still like the, youknow, physical copy of the
newspaper.
May or may not do the crosswordthat day, um, but I, I grew up
(04:21):
in a home that was always veryin touch with the daily news and
you know, like it or not, thathas been part of just you know
who I am.
I think too is just a generalsort of world awareness of you
know, what's happening in theworld and the country and
whatever locally, and that'skind of how my day started.
(04:42):
But then it also it also kindof became the newspaper and my
to do list.
I can honestly say it didn'tstart with and still doesn't
really with getting right on myphone.
I'm not a social media person,so that that is not a struggle
(05:02):
particularly for me, butdefinitely, you know, maybe just
checking the email and anymajor news feeds, but it just
wasn't a particularly edifyingstart to the day as a general
rule.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
But a very, very common one.
I mean, I think that is a verysocially acceptable and common
routine.
I guess is where I'm going withthat.
Like it's a very understandable, practical and, frankly, still
probably healthy than a lot ofpeople's morning routines, like
there's nothing inherently wrongwith that routine.
But to your point, that I wouldlove to hear is how then did
(05:40):
early morning habit and theprogram change that early
morning habit and the programchanged that, and how did you
see that change, even just yourday, as you changed your morning
.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, the other.
The other thing that wasinteresting about the timing for
me um, as you well know, um,the the early morning habit
pilot group happened to startright at probably one of the
craziest times of my life.
In some respects.
I am in my early 60s.
Both of our sets of parents arestill living.
(06:15):
My folks have increasingly beenstruggling with pretty
significant memory loss and itwas becoming apparent they were
still living independently in avery large house, three-story
house, in a retirement community.
So it was a matter of gettingthem to see the need to
transition to you know more ofan assisted living circumstance
(06:36):
in that community.
But at the time, for yearsthey've been living
independently and that needed tochange.
And we had started that processand were under the impression
that it was going to be monthsand months before there was a
two-room suite available forthem in the area where they
needed to transition to.
So we were kind of taking ourgood old time and suddenly we
(06:59):
get an email hey, there's a unitavailable.
We really think they shouldtake this, but you need to
commit because there's a waitlist.
They can't just put it off.
We had travel plans,significant travel out of the
country 10 days and then 16 daysat a time.
That had been planned over ayear ago.
And they're telling me theyneed to make this move in two
weeks.
(07:20):
And so I, to say the least, wasoverwhelmed.
I was just like I don't see howwe can make this happen.
First they're trying to getthem to understand that
something we've sort of beentalking about is now going to
happen in two weeks, anddownsizing them from over 4,500
square feet to two rooms.
It just I was like and I'mstill working, and you know, not
(07:49):
full time, but enough that.
I was like I don't see how Ican make this happen.
But make a long story short, wedid, and you know that's its
own story, but that was thetiming and you know I really
wanted.
I felt like I had committed todoing the pilot program.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I felt like I had committed to doing the pilot
program and I thought this iseither the worst possible time
for me to start this, or maybeit's exactly what I need to
somehow, um you know, somehowmake this happen, as well as
everything else.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Um, and and that really turned out to be the case
I, it was exactly what I neededat that time, because I it
wasn't that I was even waking upin the morning with my to-do
list.
My to-do list was buzzing in mybrain 24 seven at this point,
um, you know, trying to figureout all the logistics of this
move and helping them tocomprehend what's going on, and,
(08:38):
um, you know, so I would go tobed and wake up just thinking
about all these things and allthe mental lists, and so, to
start the day quieting, tryingto quiet that, I mean, it was
tough, um yeah probably one ofthe hardest parts still is for
me to sit and and get thosethings to quiet.
(08:59):
Um and enough to you know.
Look at what scripture I'mlooking at that day, and you
know, and how quickly I realized, man, I'm already my brain's
already gone to the to-do listagain um and to kind of rein
that back in again.
So, um it it was.
It was exactly what I needed,but it was a tough time to to
(09:21):
try to learn those kind of newhabits.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, yeah.
I love what you said, though,about the idea of reigning back
in the to-do list, because, Imean, you're not the only one.
This has come from severalpeople and it's one of the
reasons that we actually startthe program for those of you
listening and watching with thisconcept of breathing, so we
(09:48):
literally start, before we evenread stuff in the program, start
practicing breathing techniquesthat help you to be present.
And still, because we live inthis, especially as women, where
we almost never experience justtrue stillness of body and of
mind, it's really, really hard,especially when there's literal
(10:12):
and figurative noise surroundingus constantly.
So this is a really difficultthing for women especially to do
, and I would love to hear yourperspective on what was the
payoff.
You know, so you're startingyour day with quiet and you are
actively working on stillingthat in your mind.
(10:35):
What was the benefit that yousaw to doing that?
Because I know there's womenalready hearing this and being
like okay, that sounds fantastic.
However, as soon as I wake up,I see that to-do list, and it
feels less productive to startmy day not just jumping right to
the to-do list.
How did you see the payoff inyour life where it was worth,
(11:01):
and is worth starting your daythis way, despite this pressing
list of things that you need todo.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Right.
So for me, a couple of things Iknow I alluded to earlier.
I am not by nature a morningperson.
I also am somebody who doesn'tnecessarily need a ton of sleep.
I can get away.
Like I said, once I'm up andgoing, I'm good to go.
I'm not a napper, and you know.
(11:27):
So I, for this period of timeparticularly, I did start
setting an earlier alarm,probably because my to-do list
was so long.
Because my to-do list was solong, um, there was just was so
much going on and and I quicklyrealized that, yeah, I don't
love the alarm, it's still, it'sstill tough, and this, you know
, this was still winter and soyou know it was dark, um, and
(11:53):
the actual getting up was wasdifficult.
And yet I, I starteddiscovering how much more I was
actually getting done just bystarting my day earlier.
For me, again, because I don'tnecessarily need, you know, I
don't need eight or nine hours,I'm good on six or seven Um, but
I, you know, I didn'tnecessarily start going to bed a
(12:15):
whole lot earlier, but Idefinitely was getting up
earlier and I just I felt like Iwas accomplishing so much more
Um, but the other thing I thinkfor me um was.
It was easy, the whole emotionand maybe I'm jumping the gun
here that the no, go for it.
The tuning into the emotionalpart of it as well.
(12:38):
Um, and starting the day withgratitude was really important
for me during that time because,you know, it was easy, in the
overwhelmedness of all thedetails, to start to get really
negative, and my personality canlean that way.
To begin with.
I, can, you know, tend to leantoward the negativity rather
(13:02):
than seeing the positives, um,by nature, and so it was a time
where it just was really easy,um, to just think of all the
tough parts and the bad thingsand the you know be frustrated
by, you know, people's reactionsto things, or, um, or, or even
(13:22):
just, you know, to have phaseswhere, like, why is this all
falling on me?
Um, you know, and, and feelinglike, and, and, even though
people who could help wereattempting to, there's only so
much others could do in some ofthese situations, and you know,
and, and you know the reality isas the one of two children for
(13:43):
them, and the oldest daughterand the local child was going to
fall on me, and that's just howit was, and remembering that
this is a phase of life, we justneed to get through it, but
there were so many little thingsto be grateful for that I could
have.
I might have've easily missed umin in the.
You know, in the overwhelm ofit all that that taking that
(14:06):
time in the morning you know tofocus and and write down and
journal some of those littlethings and big things, you know
that there was so much to to begrateful for Um and starting
with that focus you know reallyhelped during that time to kind
of stay grounded um and not, andnot just, and not to say that I
mean there there was kind of acomical moment one day, well
(14:29):
into this whole process, where II had an honest meltdown, and
you know me, I'm I'm not ameltdown kind of person, but I
needed it.
It was, it was, it was nothingto do with mom and dad, it was
actually a tax thing, Cause I doour taxes and something was
happening when suddenly we hadthis multi-thousand dollar tax
(14:50):
burden, I'm like where did thatcome from?
I don't understand what justhappened, but, and I, I did, I
just lost it and it was like allthose emotions kind of you know
, but but I, I, I think, withoutthe you know starting the days
with some of the gratitude pieceof it, it, those meltdowns
might've come sooner and moreoften um just cause you could
(15:13):
just so focus on all all thenegatives that were happening.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, yeah.
I love that perspective and,for those of you listening and
watching, what what she'salluding to is a core concept of
the entire program is that wewant to empower you to start
your day being not doing.
And, specifically, we take thattime and we intentionally apply
(15:39):
a practice called emotionallyintelligent gratitude and where
we're identifying the emotionsthat exist.
We're not ignoring thedifficult, just like the season
that you were in during thesix-week pilot group.
You don't ignore the realitythat exists, but instead it's
actually acknowledging it,claiming that this stinks, this
is hard, claiming that thisstinks, this is hard, but then
(16:05):
you are covering it and sort ofre-framing those uncomfortable
emotions and the challenge withgratitude.
And then we take it to the nextlevel and we talk about how we
can implement that through God'sword and prayer in that quiet
time.
So I love that perspective andI've told my mom this before.
But there's this phase of lifeas women and I've had fitness
(16:25):
nutrition clients in this phaseas well where it's possibly one
of the most taxing phases oflife.
I don't know, I'm not there yet, but you have parents that now
need you.
You're always a mom that neverstops, but then you've got
grandkids on top of it andyou're still working and you,
you're always a mom.
That never stops.
But then you've got grandkidson top of it and you're still
working and you're still doingall the things cooking, meal
(16:47):
planning.
For some of you, you love that.
I personally don't.
So it's a lot.
It's a lot.
And I'm curious what you wouldsay to the woman who's listening
and watching, who's in thatphase, but who hears the concept
of early morning habit.
Maybe she goes onto the websiteand she'd be considering it,
(17:10):
but she's concerned about thetime, maybe the price or the
loss, potential loss of sleep,because many women in this phase
of life are also very tired.
They wake up as tired as theywere when they went to bed.
What would you say to thatwoman?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Um, I mean, I heard I would definitely say, you know,
give it a whirl anyway, butallow yourself.
I had to be careful because youknow one of the things that I
think a lot of women probably inthis phase of life again,
because you have, you know youmay have parents still living
that may or may not need you ona daily or weekly basis or
(17:54):
whatever.
Or you know, um, you may havegrandkids or kids.
You know who you know need youin some way.
Um and it's.
I find it's a strugglesometimes to not feel like I'm
not doing a great job at any ofthem.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Like.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I, I'm spread too thin.
Um, you know I, I.
It's easy to just sort of startto feel like you're, you're
failing to some at some level onin every role.
You know I'm not as committedas I feel like I still should be
at work I.
You know my grandkids livethree miles away and yet I
hardly see them because I'm sooccupied with all these things.
(18:35):
You know, and you know, and Irealize that's.
You know they've got busyschedules too, but it's it's
easy to start to spiral into.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I'm.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I'm failing at everything and I'm I'm only
doing all these things sort ofin a half-hearted manner, not
not that I'm half-hearted aboutit, but just you know that I
can't seem to really, you know,commit myself fully to anyone,
and I had to be careful not to.
I started the program andstarted to quickly feel like,
(19:06):
okay, great, this is one morething that I'm not really doing
100%, because there were someaspects that I definitely, you
know, didn't pour myself into asmuch as I might've liked.
Um, and I, I think the bigthing that I'm I'm learning as I
get older in many aspects is tocut myself some slack.
Um, you know, I have highexpectations and I think, um,
(19:32):
you know, life has differentphases and just realizing that
some of these things aren'tgoing to last forever.
You know, again, our situationis somewhat unique to be in our,
you know, early to mid 60s andstill have four loving parents.
We have been so fortunate inthat, up to this point, those
parents have been fullyindependent and we, like those
(19:52):
parents.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let's throw that out there.
What's that I said?
And we like those parents.
Let's throw that out there.
What's that I said?
And we like those parents.
Let's throw that out there.
Not only are my fourgrandparents living, but I have
a fantastic relationship withall four of them, so we actually
like our grandparents.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But it does mean that we're still spending time with
them you know where some folksmight have that time to if their
grandkids say we're local youknow, to be seeing more of them,
where we're still kind oflooking at our folks saying we
don't know how long we're goingto have them or we don't know
how long we're going to havethem in.
You know this state of alertnessand capability, and so you know
(20:31):
we're still sort of investingtime and, just you know,
appreciating the time that wehave with them as well.
But it does sometimes leave youfeeling spread thinner than you
want to be, and so you know,and like, with the schedule part
of it, you know, I realized Iat this stage I'm probably not
(20:51):
going to completely revamp mylife clock and and didn't
necessarily want to, um, thedays that I do work and still
I'm needing to show up at seveno'clock, I'll be honest, I don't
get up early enough to, youknow, do the full early morning
habit thing.
(21:11):
Um, there's other aspects of itthat for me, weren't a big, uh,
a big big transition.
I'm a regular exerciser, Ienjoy exercise, I'm very active,
so, um, you know, the exercisepiece wasn't difficult.
Um, I don't, I wasn't alwaysdoing it first thing in the
morning.
there's definite perks togetting that out of the way.
Um, first thing, but sometimesI'm, you know, looking to add,
(21:35):
or, you know, vary, because I,you know, I might be training
for a hike or a longer run orsomething, a race I want to do,
or whatever.
So, um, you know, just just tonot to be so legalistic about
these things that you feel likethen, when you're not doing it
exactly the way it's quoteunquote supposed to be done,
that, then you feel like, oh,I'm not quote unquote supposed
(21:59):
to be done that.
Then you feel like, oh, I'm not, it's one more thing that I'm
not quite doing to the fullextent.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Um, and just allowing yourself that, you know, that
bit of slack and, um, wiggleroom, I guess you could say that
that that's okay, you know,that's the fact that you're
doing it at all, and if you, youknow, come away with, you know,
some some piece of it, thatit's, uh, you know, a benefit to
(22:34):
your all or nothing mentalityand really embrace imperfect
progress and, like you said,allow that to uh sort of be the
the end goal, not to do it all,all perfectly, um, and what
you've alluded to really wellalso, ladies, uh, listening and
watching is that early morninghabit is a guide.
(22:57):
This is precisely how you needto start each day.
In this very rigid format, it'sa guide and everyone does
benefit from different things.
We do a whole section on sleep.
We saw incredible feedback onthe sensory sleep rehab that um,
second to the emotionallyintelligent gratitude practice.
(23:21):
Women find the sleep rehab thesecond most beneficial slash,
transformational aspect of theprogram.
So we are going to work onsleep if you are struggling with
it, and then, like my mommentioned, there's the fitness
element, but I hope people comeaway feeling like, like you just
said, mom, that there isflexibility.
(23:41):
It's a guide, um, and can betailored to your specific stage
of life, season of life, etcetera.
So I I I'm not sure if you feltthat way or not, but that would
be the goal for women.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, yeah, and I think this especially addressing
, you know, my age group, forwomen, um, the sleep thing is,
it's very real, like there'sthese stereotypes about oh
you're middle-aged women, wejust sleep well, well, we don't.
Um, it's a physical thing.
We lose, we, we stopped makingsome of those chemicals, natural
chemicals that do help us sleep.
So, you know, if you need tosupplement that with something,
(24:20):
that's okay.
Like you know, find what worksfor you.
But I think, there and againwith with this, with this
particular piece of it, there,there weren't big adjustments
for me to make because we, wealready kind of implement a
number of those things.
Really, dark room, um, you knowno, uh, no phones where they
(24:42):
can be heard during the night,kind of thing.
Um, unless it's, you know it's,it's close enough that if it
would ring, we just recentlyfinally got rid of our landline.
So you know, now it does needto be, if I needed to be called
an emergency in the middle ofthe night, that I could hear it
ring.
But I'm not going to hear thelittle pings of you know some
notice that came across orwhatever that's going to wake me
(25:05):
up.
And I'm, you know, we'redefinitely not on it.
We're not big TV watchers, sonot usually doing that right
before bed, or certainly youknow, on my phone scrolling
social media, but I do thinkthere's a lot of things that
people are probably sabotagingthemselves and not realizing it
where you know that whole sleepsection of the program I think
(25:28):
is probably really beneficialfor a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, One of my favorite questions to ask if you
could use one word to describehow you felt and your morning
felt before early morning habit.
To one word to describe how youfelt and your morning felt
after early morning habit, whatwould you say?
So, for example, for my ownlife, I would say from chaos to
(25:58):
calm.
So there's nothing like puttingsomebody on the spot.
Feel free to take a second.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yeah, one word is tough.
Again, some of it is specificto the actual timing for me of
when I got introduced to theprogram, but for me at that time
, certainly one big change wouldhave been starting my day
(26:29):
feeling overwhelmed oroverloaded to after and into the
program, feeling like my daywas starting more collected,
like not even necessarily incontrol, because things weren't
(26:49):
necessarily in control, but Ifelt more collected, like this
is okay.
Yeah, there there's the to-dolist is long, but there's a lot
to be grateful for and we'll getthrough this.
And God is good, you know, andand um, it's you just, you felt
(27:10):
you felt just a little more.
Um, yeah, I just collected isthe word that comes to mind.
Yeah, I love that, love that.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
So so say that again.
From what to what?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
what was the words I just used?
Overwhelmed, over overwhelmedand overloaded um to more, more
collected.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I love that, from overwhelmed to collected.
If you are listening andwatching and this story
resonates with you and women, wesee you.
This phase of life is hard, ishard.
I've talked to so many women inthis stage and I know I'll get
there eventually.
But you are seen and we wouldlove to help you rise with this
(27:58):
concept of being not doing andtruly see holistic change.
We take a high level approachand then we deep dive real fast.
So we would love to have youjoin us.
If my mom's story resonates withyou, I would love for you to
say thank you to her.
If you want to join earlymorning habit, we would love to
have you, but click on the linkthat is in the show notes and
(28:20):
that is specifically herreferral link.
She does get a thank you giftfor anyone who signs up for the
program through her link.
And, mom, it was really ablessing having you not just in
the program, but I'm gratefulfor your willingness to share.
My mom is not one to get infront of a camera, so I fully
acknowledge this is a gift fromher to me.
But I am thankful for yousharing because a lot of women
(28:43):
need to hear this and I knowthey're resonating with you.
There are women all overhearing this that are like
that's me.
I'm sure I'm at right now, so we, from my heart, thank you for
being the program and thank youfor sharing.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
My pleasure.
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