5-MINUTE FRIDAY: Reminder — Your Joy Is Entirely Within Your Control

I've spoken about my one-new-thing-a-week experiment here before, but this week I'm reflecting on just how fortunate we are to take the reigns on our own joy. Plus: Answering a listener question on how to establish a nighttime routine — and what mine consists of.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Journey to the Heart book

Happy Medium Art Cafe

SOCIAL

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
What's going on? Everyone? Emily body here. You are listening
to five Minute Friday from Hurdle. Hello, Hi, what's up?
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Whenever you are listening
to this, I'm just happy that you are. I am
bringing in some insights this week for five Minute Friday
on my one New Thing a week journey for twenty

(00:40):
twenty five for those of you that aren't up to speed.
Every single week, I am doing one new thing, and
this is I can't really tell you where I got
the inspiration for it, but I can tell you that
a few years ago I attempted this and it didn't
gain the same momentum that it has for me right now.
And so the way that it works is that every

(01:02):
week on Sunday, if not before the Sunday, I choose
one new thing that I am going to do during
the week. And it doesn't have to be a class
or going to a restaurant, although those things totally count.
It could be something as simple as there's a track
near Yankee Stadium. I have run there before, but if
I had never run at the track by Yankee Stadium,

(01:23):
I could go up there do a track workout. And
that's my new thing for the week, and so far
I have done some really cool stuff. I rode the
DC Metro really exciting. On January third, I saw a
movie at the screening room at Ludlow House on the fifth.
On the eighth, I went to Happy Medium, which is
an art cafe in green Point. On the twelfth, I

(01:45):
made peta from scratch at home. On the sixteenth, I
went to Sodo Method. On the twenty third, I went
to a bungee fitness class on my Virgin Voyages cruise.
And on the twenty seventh, on Monday of this week,
I went to Red Hook Tavern. I also, yeah, yesterday
I actually tried making quote unquote protein bagels to the
first time. They're four ingredient bagels. It's a cup of flour,

(02:08):
eighth teaspoon of salt, a half a teaspoon of baking
powder and you mix that all together, and then you
add in a cup of cottage cheese or Greek yogurt.
And when I tell you, I was shocked at how
good these are. That's such an understatement. My face was
literally I have a video of it. I posted it
to Instagram in disbelief that's something this simple could taste

(02:32):
that good. But I digress. That's not the point of
this five minute Friday. The point of this five minute
Friday is I've had a really great realization of what
this experiment is doing for me, and it's reminding me
that at any given moment, I have the opportunity to
create my own joy. And that feels really empowering, because
it does feel right now like there are so many

(02:55):
things that are beyond my control. There are always so
many things that are beyond my control, but specific in
this moment for a myriad of reasons, whether we're talking
about the news, or work things, or my personal life,
whatever the case may be, there's just a lot going on.
There's a lot happening, and so to do these things

(03:15):
and to have something to look forward to and to
find that happiness on my own, to put that responsibility
back in my own hands, after perhaps at times offloading
that and hoping that someone else would take the reins.
That feels really good. It feels really good, and I'm
noticing that I am taking that lesson into smaller moments

(03:37):
throughout my day to day, so it's not like I'm
waiting for Tuesday night when I've chosen to go try
a new workout class to seek that joy. I am
in the moment asking myself what's best for Emily, and
what within this moment right now, if something feels off,
if I'm feeling a little frazzled, anxious, overwhelmed, et cetera,
what can I do that makes me better in this moment?

(04:02):
And so, for instance, let me provide you with an example.
I was in a sprint yesterday trying to get all
of my work done before heading to an event for
Athleta and MasterCard that I was hosting at Remedy placed
shout out to them, and so in the act of
everything was going crazy, I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed.
I went to the fridge. There was absolutely nothing for lunch,

(04:24):
and I decided, you know what, It will literally take
me five minutes to create make need these bigeles the
recipe that my friend sent me just three hours earlier.
I will then both be happy because I have lunch
and I am fed, and I will tried something new,
and what a cool opportunity that is. Of course, there

(04:44):
the instance of also trying something new double the fun,
but it could be even simpler than that. Let's make
it a little bit more digestible. Maybe in a moment
when you're feeling some kind of way, you take the
initiative to write good thing down that happened to you
in the last twenty four hours, to identify some small gratitude.

(05:05):
If you are feeling some kind of way, maybe it's
reaching out to a friend and checking in, doing an
emotional pulse check, or perhaps it's opening a book and
reading five pages, just five these acts, they don't need
to be anything big, but each of them an act
that can make you better in the moment. And so

(05:25):
my prompt for you, what's in your toolbox? What's something
that you know is at your disposal that you can
do to help you come back to calm when things
feel a little bit awry, when things feel beyond your control,
when you may not be in your best mood. What
is it in your environment that you are capable of
executing easily, That is you giving back to you, you

(05:48):
reclaiming your joy. And now a listener question. Hey, Emily
Brianna from Georgia here. I've been listening since I think
twenty eighteen, and I want to thank you for all
that you give to the hurdle community, and especially for
all of the good that Hurdle has brought to my life.
My question that tails off of the last five minute
Friday topic on routines. I see so much great content

(06:10):
on morning routines, and I feel like I finally have
one that works for me. Congrats on the flip side. However,
I find it so hard to be consistent with evening routines.
Sometimes it's so difficult to find the energy to move
through an evening routine after an extra long work day,
even though I know it will set me up for
success the next day. Specifically, how do you stay consistent
with an evening routine and what are some things you

(06:31):
include in yours? Thanks so much, Brianna. I love this
question because, if I'm being entirely transparent, I did not
have a in practice regular evening routine until January first
of this year. It has been a goal that I've
had for some time. So Brianna, you are not alone
in how you feel my evening routine. I'll tell you

(06:54):
what's in it, and then I'll give you a tip
on how you can make it. A constant is walking
into the bathroom. Usually at this point I'm watching some
sort of a television show, so I'll keep the show on.
I will walk to the bathroom. I will wash my face.
I will use whatever products are on tap for the day.
I always finish with a moisturizer and a facial oil

(07:17):
and an I cream, and then I will brush my
teeth and I will go back into the living room.
At this point, I will then go put my phone.
After I set an alarm for the next day using
my Casper Glow, which is my new obsession, I'll link
it in the show notes, I will put my phone
on the charging pad. And of note, this charging pad

(07:39):
is not something that I can reach from my bed.
So once my phone is in bed, I find that
I am more likely to get in the bed myself
within a reasonable amount of time. Right, I, like so many,
am someone who is always reaching for my phone. And
if I'm in a time period when I should be
getting into my bed, or I know that I want

(08:01):
to wind down and the phone is not near me,
I will be more likely to get into my bed
and call the night then when I get into my bedroom.
Just like I have a book that I read every
morning by Breonna Weiste, I also have a book that
I've reread every year for the past five years called
Journey to the Heart. I'll link it in the show notes,

(08:21):
and so I read the daily passage from Journey to
the Heart, and that's kind of it. That's my whole
nightly routine. I think when we try to implement too
many things as a part of that evening routine all
at once, it will come back to bite you and
then you won't be able to make it a constant.
So meet yourself with where you're at right now. If
you're someone that wants to establish a nightly routine, start

(08:44):
with one thing. Do one thing every night for two weeks.
Then after those two weeks habit stack, add one more
thing onto your nightly routine. And as you heard, mine
consists of about three things. Right. It's washing my face,
brushing my teeth, setting my alarm on the casper, and

(09:06):
then putting my phone to bed, reading a passage, and
all of that takes in total, maybe ten to twelve minutes.
So meet yourself with where you're at. Make it accessible
and something that doesn't feel too hard to achieve, and
you might just be surprised that you were keeping up
with an evening routine and no time I love your

(09:26):
listener questions, Please send me them. You can email me
whenever you want. Over at Hello at hurdle dot Us.
Again that email for your listener questions. Send one today.
Do it. You'll feel good about it at Hello at
hurdle dot us, Over on social at emiabody, and at
Hurdle Podcast. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time,

(10:00):
HEP