June 3, 2025 • 31 mins
Your morning routine can either help you create the body and life of your dreams or keep you right where you are.
The fact is, you already have a morning routine, but is it serving you?
What keeps many people from creating a more powerful morning routine is the belief that it has to take a long time, be complicated, and involve candles, long journaling sessions, and making your bed. Nope.
Let's dive in, my friend!
Courtney
I'd like to invite you to schedule a complimentary consultation with me HERE to discuss the changes you'd like to make to your body and life. These consultations are fun, powerful, and can be a catalyst for uncovering what needs to change to create a more beautiful body and life. ~ Courtney
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:06):
Foreign Welcome to Modern body, modern life. The
podcast for women who want tolose weight permanently feel in
control around food and learnhow to stop obsessing about
their body and food a modern wayof thinking about your weight,
your body and your life includesmindset. I'm body and life
coach, Courtney Gray, and eachweek I'm going to teach you the
(00:29):
mindset tools that are necessaryfor changing the way you eat
forever. We will uncover whyyou're eating when you said you
were going to stop, what to dowhen you're really craving
something, and how important itis to decide what you want to
believe is possible for you, Ibelieve we can get in the best
shape of our lives at any age, amodern body, a modern life, all
(00:53):
starts in your mind, and whenyou learn how to manage that,
losing weight permanentlybecomes so much easier.
Welcome to the podcast. Episode81 is your morning routine,
creating the body and life youwant. We're going to dive into
all of it. Strap in before Idive into it. If you are
(01:16):
listening to this podcast inreal time, that means you are
listening on June 3, you haveuntil 8pm Pacific time to join
me in my June coachingexperience called ready for
change. A bunch of women arealready in there. Signed up. I
would love to have you join us.
It is for women who are ready tochange their lives or are ready
to do that thing that they keeptelling themselves they want to
(01:39):
do, whether it's losing weight,getting stronger, being more
consistent, getting clarity onany area of your life. So I'm
really excited about this group.
We start if you're listening inreal time, we start tomorrow, so
you can come in hot and you havetill 8pm tonight to join us, 8pm
Pacific time. And there is alink in the show notes, a link
(02:01):
on Instagram, a link on mywebsite, and when you join, I
will send you an email with thedigital workbook, and it's gonna
get you excited for the program,and we will start tomorrow. So
let me dive into this podcast.
Is your morning routine creatingthe body and life you want. And
so first of all, let me just saya powerful morning routine can
change your life. I believe thatso so to my soul. But before I
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dive into what that means,oftentimes, I find there's a
little bit of resistance. Somepeople think about, when they
think about having a bettermorning routine, they get like
their fists up, like, PleaseGod, don't make me. And I think
it's because they think what apowerful morning routine is, is
waking up an hour earlier, ismaking their bed every morning,
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is maybe cleaning their kitchenbefore they go to work, is maybe
lighting a candle or journalingfor an hour, or doing yoga and
meditating, this this longprocess of this beautiful
morning routine, and it does nothave to be that extensive or
that intense, or that intense, Iguess is the way to say it. It
(03:09):
does not have to be all that. Infact, one of the things I'm
going to talk about later inthis podcast is you can actually
wake up at the same time andcreate a better morning routine,
just by focusing your mind, youcan literally create an amazing
routine that really amplifiesyour life just by being more
present when you're in theshower or when you're drinking
your coffee, when you're evendriving to work if you're
(03:31):
driving. So this does not haveto be an extra time commitment,
although I am going to talkabout possibly waking up 1020,
half hour earlier than you do,and I'm going to give you some
options of why you would, howyou could do that, and what you
would do and why you would wantto do it. So please do not, do
not. Do not be scared. Do not bescared that I am going to have
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you doing things that are thatare seeming too much for your
life, although at the samepoint, you know things don't
change, if things don't change,and I think if you're listening
to this podcast, you do want tochange, so I'm really glad
you're here. So let me talkabout what a powerful morning
routine can do for you. Itreally starts out your day with
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intention and focus. And if wethink about our lives and up
leveling our lives in any way,creating a body and life that
you love even more than what youhave now, which I feel like I'm
going to constantly be doinguntil the day I die, always
wanting to be happier, morejoyful, more intentional, a
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morning routine can really helpyou do that. When you create a
powerful morning routine. Youare setting the tone for your
day. The way I like to thinkabout it is, in the mornings I
put like a stake in the ground.
I say, okay, Courtney, this iswhat we're doing. And when I
say, this is what we're doing,it's not looking at my calendar
(04:56):
and thinking, I gotta do this, Igotta do this. I gotta do I'm
saying to myself.
This is how I want to feel. Thisis the direction I want my life
to go. And this is also what Iwant for me, especially as
women, we start automaticallythinking about all the things we
have to do for others, andsometimes that might even be for
your job, we start going into Igot to do this for this person.
(05:19):
I got to do this for my kids, Igot to do this for the all these
other people, wait a minute.
Have you taken a few minutes todo for you? So when you're
creating a powerful morningroutine, you're really like
redeciding What is important toyou. I re remind myself every
day what I want, how I want tofeel, how I want to think and
(05:39):
where I'm going before I thinkabout what I'm doing for each of
my boys, what I'm doing for myhusband, even before I think
about what I'm doing for myclients, I think, where am I
going? What is important to me,and how can I make sure, when I
look at my schedule, that I'mfitting me in? You've heard me
say this before, and I've saidone of my new clients who's
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starting in this June groupcoaching experience, told me the
other day she goes I heard youon a podcast say that we so
often as women, put ourselves onthe back burner, but we need to
remember that on most stoves,especially the stoves we use
here in the US, most stoves havefour burners. There are two in
the front. We don't have to beon the back burner, ladies,
there are two. We can have ourkids or our job and put
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ourselves on that front burneras well. So you're deciding how
you want to think and feel onpurpose, and you're really being
present in the moment when youcreate a powerful morning
routine. I've coached so manywomen who wake up and they just
start reacting to their lives.
They just wake up and it's like,go, go, go. And a lot of times
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it's from this energy of, I'mbehind, especially if you're a
snooze hitter, if you're like,one of those people that like
hit snooze or sleeps into thelast minute, you're starting
your day telling yourself astory that you're behind. That's
not the way we want to start ourdays. And so long ago, I did not
have a great morning routine.
This was before I was a coach.
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This is when my babies werelittle, and I would, literally,
I would wake up when they wokeup. I was just a stay home mom,
so I wasn't working outside thehome, and I would wake up when
my boys would call out to me.
And in some ways, it wasactually quite a lovely way to
wake up. I think back to thosetimes, and it was so beautiful
to have my alarm clock be one ofmy boys going, Mom, it was so
beautiful. However, the resultfrom that was I had no time to
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myself. I was very much reactingto my day. First thing. If I
could go back and I say thiswith no regret, but if I could
go back in time, what I wouldprobably do is I would let them,
and they were twins, so when onewould wake up, the other would
wake up, I would allow them towake myself up, and I would go
grab them, and I would bringthem into bed with me for 10
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minutes, and I would justcuddle, and I would tell them
how much I love them, and tellthem how special they're. I
would be more intentional, butwhat I would do is I'd grab
them, and then I would go makecoffee, and we would start our
day. And there was nothing wrongwith it. There was nothing wrong
with it, but my routine was verymuch reactive. And then I
remember one of my very goodfriends, Julie, shout out,
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Julie, it's been too long. Weneed to get together. My my
friend Julie, we were talkingone day, and I told her, I'm
like, Oh, I'm just kind ofstarting out in the day, and
then I don't have time to dothis. I don't have time to that.
And she was, Oh, I get up aboutan hour before my kids, and I'm
laughing, because I remembergoing, what? And she also, at
this point, was a stay home mom.
So I remember being like, Wait aminute. Wait a minute. Wait a
(08:39):
minute. You're telling me thatyou don't wait for them to wake
you. You get up before them.
Like, to me, it was, like,preposterous. Like, why would
anyone do this? And I said, Whyare you doing that? Tell me the
magic. Why are you doing this?
And she's like, I just want tobe able to take a minute. I want
to be able to have my coffee. Iwant to be able to I can't
remember what she said she did,but she took a minute to maybe
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it was read. I think this isactually way before Instagram,
so she was probably reading,maybe she was journaling, maybe
she was praying. I know she'sreligious, I don't know. So she
was taking a minute though forherself before her kids got up,
and then she would go and wakeher kids up. And I remember
being like, that's too much forme. I could I could not access
the desire to do that. Icouldn't access the value in
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that at the time, but it took mea year or two after that. And I
remember one time I woke up justI automatically woke up about an
hour before my kids normallywoke up. And I kind of did a
Julie morning. I went down and Istarted my coffee and all these
things. And I remember thinking,Oh, I get it. I get it. So I
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started waking up earlier,before they were up, and just
taking some time for me. Now, Iwasn't a coach, and I had never
read a book about morningroutines, and I didn't have as
much intention back then, butthat was a moment that really
taught me, oh, I need to reallyclaim my own.
Own time, claim my own focus inthe morning. So that was a
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catalyst for reallyunderstanding how powerful
morning routine can be. Here'sone thing I want you to realize
right now, you already have amorning routine. The question
is, is it creating the body andlife you want if you continue to
do the routine you've beendoing. Is it heading you in the
right direction? Is it hurtingyour future goals or helping
(10:30):
your future goals? I think ifyou have the time, stop the
podcast and really justcontemplate this question for a
moment, I'll say it again. Youalready have a morning routine.
What is it? Is it helping you orhurting you? Is it getting you
closer to where you want to be,body, life, or is it moving you
forward, or is it making youstay stuck where you're at? I
(10:54):
would stop the podcast, and Iwould ask yourself that, so then
you can really go into the restof this podcast, applying it to
you and having a little bit ofinsight. So the first thing is
identifying what your morningroutine is now, and take a
moment to identify that and sayto yourself, okay, okay, this is
what I would say, okay,Courtney, I wake up and maybe I
hit snooze two or three times,and then I get up. And when
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you're thinking about what yourroutine is now, don't just think
about what you actually do thinkabout where your mind is. For a
lot of people, they're notintentional, honestly, just
because they never learn to beintentional, we should have a we
should have a class in juniorhigh that teaches kids how to be
intentional, lets them know thattheir mindset is their choice.
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We don't know that, and youmight not know that either. I
didn't know that until I becamea coach. Became a coach. And so
where is your mind in themornings? Are you like, Oh my
God, I didn't sleep. Oh my god,I shouldn't have had that second
glass of wine. Oh my god, I haveso much to do today. That's
where a lot of people, a lot ofpeople are in the first thing in
the morning. That energy,whether it's exhaustion, whether
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it's overwhelm, whether it'sregret that you didn't get up
earlier, whether it's shame youshould be doing this all better.
You should have made more time.
You should have prepped yourselfso you'd have a better day. Is
that your morning routine? Soyour morning routine is not just
what you're actually doing, it'swhere your mind is in the
moment. Because our life isdictated by the thoughts we
think and the feelings thatthose thoughts bring on. I'm
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gonna say that, again, our lifereally is created dictated by
the thoughts we think and thefeelings that those thoughts
create in our body. And so ifyou're waking up and feeling
overwhelmed and already behind,oh my god. I've so most, so many
clients that say they wake up inthe morning and they're like,
already behind. That's ahorrible way to start your day.
(12:48):
And the second thing I want youto do is really own that you
have control over it. Did youknow that you have control over
all of this? And if you say, No,Courtney, I really don't. No,
no, how do you have control overall of it? And I want you to
choose your control on purpose.
I want you to say to yourself,Okay, how can I do better like I
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want you to say, Okay, if Idon't feel like I have a lot of
time in the morning, how can Ido the same things I'm doing?
Brush my teeth, make my coffee,take my shower, drive to work.
How can you do all of those samethings with a focus on thinking
things differently and actuallyfeeling differently? So a better
morning routine does not need tobe some catastrophically
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reorganization where you'retaking an hour and lighting a
candle and journaling for anhour. It doesn't have to be that
way. It can simply be youchoosing your focus. Let me talk
about how this can be if you'resitting here, like, Okay, I kind
of like this, but I feel like Ireally don't have time. First of
all, I would question that. Iwould question whether you can
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wake up 10 minutes earlier.
That's the biggest thing I wantto give you. The a gift I want
to give you is the realizationthat maybe I can wake up 10
minutes earlier. I remember along time ago, I wanted to get
in better shape. And I rememberat this time I was watching
alias, it's a show with JenniferGarner, like, years, years years
(14:15):
ago, 2020, 25 years ago. And Iremember thinking, oh, you know,
the only time I could reallywake up would be in the more the
the only time I could reallywork out would be in the
mornings, because I've been withthe kids all day and and I
wanted to actually go to a gym,not just work out at home. And I
remember thinking, I can't Ican't wake up earlier than than
six o'clock. I just can't do it.
And I remember watchingthe alias show, and Jennifer
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Garner's body was rocking. Shewas smoking hot. Google it. She
looked amazing. She looksamazing now, but in this show,
she looked absolutely amazing.
And I remember watching the showgoing, God, I wonder if I could
work out and I look like her.
And I remember watching aninterview with her where she
said she had to be on set by 530in the morning. So she woke up
every day at four o'clock to go.
(15:00):
To the gym, and I remembergoing, what like? I remember
thinking that that's notpossible. It's not possible. But
yet it was possible becauseJennifer Garner was doing it. It
was possible. Now, I'm nottrying to get anyone to wake up
that early, but there was a timein my life when I did. There was
a time in my life when I wouldwake up at four o'clock. Now, I
(15:21):
would get to bed at night ateight o'clock. I go to bed early
anyways, but I would wake up atfour o'clock to get to the gym
by 445 so I could get home anddo the work I needed to do, be
with my kids, get them off toschool, do all the things.
Again, not saying you have to dothat. You don't, but it is
possible. So often we get caughtup in the i I'm not a morning
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person. I can't wake up anyearlier. That's not a fact. It's
not a fact. I've had manyclients tell me they're not a
morning person, and by the endof our coaching time together,
they're waking up a half hourearlier. They're doing a 10
Minute journaling session, andsometimes they're meditating,
sometimes they're stretching,and their lives are better for
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it. But let's talk for a momentabout how maybe you actually
don't have time. Maybe in someworld, you are like, Courtney, I
literally can't do it okay. Ormaybe you're like, I don't want
to do it, Courtney, don't makeme do it. Okay. Here's what you
can do to create a bettermorning routine while you are
waiting for your coffee, orwhile you are brushing your
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teeth, in the shower, driving,picking out your clothes. Can
you create habits around thoseactivities? I like to call it
stacking. It's where youactually take something you're
already doing and you add a newhabit onto it, like one of the
things I remember long agosuggesting to my sister when she
was working on she wanted, shewas a nurse, and she wanted to
create a new business. And I wastelling her, yeah, how can you
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make, like, $300,000as a nurse? And she's like, I
have no idea. And I'm like,Yeah, I don't know either. While
you're in the shower, anytimeyou shower, that's going to be
your time to think, Huh, how canI make $300,000
as a nurse? So you're stackingthe shower, which you already
do, is already a habit, withanother habit you want to
create, of thinkingintentionally while you're
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showering. I just suggested thisto one of my clients. She's
really busy in the morning, andso I said, while you're on the
way to work, because she has, Ithink, like, a half hour drive.
I said, Can you talk to yourselfout loud so you can talk to
yourself. You can talk to yourCreator. You can talk to your
future self. You can talk toyour inner child, whatever. You
can talk to someone who's passedaway that you want to connect
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with. And can you talk to themout loud? There is so much power
in saying something out loud.
And if you say, well, like, whatwould I say? Here's what it
sounds like. This is what I didall last year in 2024
you know, Courtney, you'rereally smart. How is that true?
It's so interesting. Even as Ijust said that I felt myself get
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emotional, because that was mywork that I did in 2024 I was
reprogramming my mind to believethat I was really smart. So I
feel the emotion come up,because I believe it's so much
more in my body than I did atone time. And so I would say,
Courtney, you're really smart.
How is that true? And I wouldstart saying, Gosh, you know, I
created a multiple six figurejewelry business out of my home.
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I have, like, parented threekids, and they're pretty damn
amazing. You know, we've madereally good finance choices with
our 401 Ks in our retirement.
You know, you've really gone allin on yourself this, and you're
actually really good at it,setting up your, you know, your
prepaid taxes, and understandingthe back end of your business. I
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would sit there and say out loudall the reasons I was really
smart.
Sometimes I would also say, I'mdoing a really good job. This is
really scary, but you know what,I'm doing a really good job at
this? And I would expand on howthat's true. So in the moment, I
was setting my day up forfeeling a certain way, and I
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would feel powerful. I wouldfeel joy, sometimes, sometimes I
would feel acceptance, sometimesI would feel love. And that was
a stacking that I just did Ialready was driving. So I would
do this a lot of times. When Iwas driving my kids to school,
of course, after I dropped themoff, I would do this when I was
alone in the car. I would say,How do I want to feel today? And
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every day was different. You'dthink we'd all say happy, but
some days I'd say I want to feeljoy, and some days I'd say I
want to feel adventurous, or Iwant us to feel confident, or I
want to feel powerful, and Iwould talk to myself out loud.
Another thing you can do is youcan stretch while your coffee is
brewing. That's something I'mdoing because we got a new
coffee maker, and it grinds likethe whole beans. And so it takes
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like 10 minutes. And so now,when my coffee is brewing, I
will stretch for 10 minutes. Ihave this back body stretch that
I do because sometimes I get alittle like plantar fasciitis,
and so I do this back bodystretch every single day that
really just makes my whole bodyfeel better. So here I'm being
intentional. While my coffee isbrewing, it's not taking me any
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more time. Maybe while you brushyour teeth, you're going to
think about what you're gratefulfor in.
Moment, you can brush yourteeth, and you can think about
each of your children and justwish them well on their day. You
can think about someone who haspassed away and like connect
with them and tell them you'rethinking about them. You can say
a prayer. So there's so manythings you can do that don't
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take more time, but if you wantto take more time, I want to
inspire you to wake up 10minutes earlier or 30 minutes
earlier and create your ownmorning routine. I think that
journaling can change your life.
And when people think ofjournaling again, they feel
sometimes like, Oh my God, Idon't know what to write. That's
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the main thing my clients tellme I don't know what to write,
or they think it has to be some45 minute practice, and it
doesn't. First of all, buyyourself a fun journal. Go to
Barnes and Noble, go to a craftsor like a Michael something. Buy
yourself a cute journal. And ifit feels if it feels less hmm,
let's think of the word, if itfeels less intimidating, buy
(21:01):
yourself a small one, like oneyou could fit in your purse.
Sometimes, when we buy a smallerjournal, what we're saying is we
don't have to write a lot. Itcould just be a little bit,
right? I have a small journalright by my bed. I journal right
before I go to bed every night,and it's very small because I
want myself to go, Hey, thisdoesn't have to be hard. It's
going to take two minutes.
(21:21):
Journal for five minutes. Andthere's so many ways to journal.
I'll probably eventually do apodcast on journaling. But if
you can journal just by saying,What am I grateful for right
now? What do I want to think onpurpose today, if you could just
do five minutes of that, it willhelp you focus on what you want
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to be focused on throughout yourday. And the reason this is
important is we know that whatwe focus what we give energy to,
is what we can grow in ourlives. And the problem is, if
you think about it, what so manypeople are giving energy to is
scrolling is to what they haveto do on their to do list is to
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how they're not feeling thatgreat, and they're focusing on
how things haven't gone right inthe past and what they're
dreading. There's just so muchfocus on things that are not
heading us in the direction ofcreating a more amazing body and
life for us. So imagine for amoment that tomorrow morning,
you're like, all right,Courtney, I'm going to do it.
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I'm going to do this, and youget your journal, and you sit
down, you wake up 10 minutesearly, and you're like, Okay,
I'm going to have my coffee andI'm going to write down three
things I'm grateful for. Thefirst little tip I'm going to
give you is, yes, we are allgrateful for our health, and
we're all grateful for our nicehouse and things like that. It
makes me think of like when Iwas growing up and we would
pray. It got very prayer gotvery rote, like my mom. We'd be
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sitting down to dinner. I justwanted to eat my food, but my
mom would say, Courtney, whydon't you say the prayer
tonight? And I'd be like, thankyou for all we have. Thank you
for this food. Thank you. It wasalmost like I was pulling a cord
in my neck. You don't want to dothat with the three things
you're grateful for. What I lovedoing is I love thinking in this
moment. What am I grateful for?
Yes, I'm grateful for my health.
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Yes, I'm grateful for mychildren, all that. But like,
what am I especially gratefulfor right now that is different
than maybe other days. Maybe I'mgrateful because it stopped
raining, maybe I'm gratefulbecause, because I'm really
sore, because I worked outreally hard yesterday, and I'm
just grateful that I did that.
So I want you to really connectwith what you're really grateful
in the moment. And sometimes itseems trivial, but there's
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something beautiful about beinggrateful, about something very
simple, like that, and makingsure it's not rote. It's not
just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'mgrateful for all health, but
really diving into the beautifullittle parts of your day that
you're excited about and thatyou're grateful for. So you
start there, and then you say toyourself, What do I want to
think on purpose today? And howdo I want to feel today? And
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every day it might be different,or every day it might be the
same, very, very simple, askingyourself a few little questions
that literally could take fiveminutes. Here's some other
options for you. Maybe you havebeen telling yourself for a long
time that you want to meditate,but you're like, I don't really
know how to start it soundsexhausting. Or maybe you've
(24:17):
tried and you're like my mindkeeps going elsewhere. First of
all, little side note withmeditation, your mind going
elsewhere is, is how to do it.
That's going to happen. That'sthe whole point to meditation,
is getting good at bringing yourmind back. So if you're like me,
when I started meditating yearsago, I would be like, Oh, I'm
not good at it, because I keepthinking about, like, defrosting
(24:38):
chicken, and I keep thinking,Oh, my God, I need to make sure
I put almond milk on my storelist. And then I'd be mad at
myself because I'm supposed tobe breathing and focusing on my
feet or whatever it is, and I'dbe mad at myself thinking I'm
not doing this right. Oh no, no,we're doing it right. That's
what meditation is. Meditationis the practice of bringing our
mind back and so.
(25:00):
You do a five minute meditation,and you are constantly pep like
ping ponging back from all theother things, and you're
bringing it back. You're doingit right. And you will find, by
continuing to practice thatmeditation, you'll get better
and better at bringing it back.
And this, you will see, helpsyour whole life. And so
meditation, if that's somethingyou want to do, I just want to
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shout out. I love Insight Timer.
It's an app you can get on yourphone. It's called Insight
Timer. It has 1000s ofmeditations. If you're starting
out, what can be really helpfulis doing a five minute
meditation. And you know whatelse you might find on there? Or
like, they have challenges, likethey'll have like, a 30 day
meditation challenge, or a sevenday meditation challenge, but I
(25:43):
would start with a shortmeditation, and I would start
with a guided meditation. A lotof the meditations on Insight
Timer are guided, and so thenyou what you're it's easier to
focus and not be thinking aboutdefrosting chicken and all the
other things. Oh, I need to getmy tires rotated all that,
because it's guided, meaningsomeone is walking you through,
(26:03):
focusing on your feet and thenfocusing on this or focusing on
your breathing. And so really,what you're focusing on is their
voice, and that can be easier,especially in the beginning.
Maybe you want to pray, or maybeyou want to talk to a loved one,
beautiful, amazing. I mean, alot of people think prayer and
(26:23):
meditation are very similar. Ido maybe you want to do breath
work. I'm loving breath work,right? Maybe you want to
stretch. Maybe you want toeither just stretch in whatever
way feels good. Maybe you wantto go onto YouTube and pull up a
10 Minute stretching routine.
Yes to all of that. Here's onething to do, though, after you
have done this for a few days ora week, really start to think,
(26:47):
is this helping my life? Sooften we'll start doing
something, and then we don't doit for a day, and then we're
like, oh my God, I didn't do it.
I knew I'd always give up and wejust, we just kind of drop it.
What I would love for you to dois go, am I glad that I on the
days that I do whatever mymorning routine is? Am I glad
(27:11):
that I did it? Do I feel likeit's helping me? If so, how so
it's so great to evaluate yourefforts. So important to
evaluate your efforts. And Ijust want to finish up with
something that I hear so oftenwith my clients these days, is,
is that they will say they don'thave time for this, or they
(27:33):
don't make time for that, andthey feel like time is the
problem, even if they'reretired, even a lot of my
retired clients, they say Ishould be this is what they'll
say. I do have all the time inthe world. I don't know why I'm
not doing what I said I wasgoing to do. And there is one
thing that I see so often withmy clients, and so often,
(27:54):
possibly for you, it's actuallytwo things. It's one or the
other. It's either scrolling orTV, scrolling or TV, a lot of
times, is getting in the way ofyou creating a powerful morning
routine. And so I really wantyou to ask yourself, when you
look at your day, is thescrolling helping you? Are you
(28:18):
going, Wow, I'm feeling reallyconnected and really inspired
and motivated from all thethings I'm scrolling. Is it
really helping me that I'mwatching Kelly and Regis or CBS
or whatever it is, you know whatthe Today show is that actually
helping me? And yes, you mightsay, I like to know what's going
on in the world. Okay? Is thereanother way you could know
what's going on in the world? Isthere another recap you could do
(28:41):
and create a better morningroutine for yourself. And that
doesn't necessarily mean youshouldn't be scrolling. It
doesn't mean you want to get ridof the TV, but maybe it means
for you, you want to carve out10 to 15 minutes, or five
minutes before you dive into thescrolling and the TV. And if you
could change your life? Would itbe worth it?
(29:04):
Do not negate the power of abeautiful morning routine.
Another thing that I will giveone final little tip that I just
that occurred to me here isanother thing you can do with
your morning routine is look forany obstacles that day that are
going to deter you from livingthe way you want to live so
(29:25):
often, we plan for all thethings. We plan for the dinner
we want to make, or we plan tomake sure we're home at a
certain time when our partner isgoing to be home. We we plan all
these different things, but wedon't plan for any potential
obstacles that are going to getin the way of doing what we need
to do to reach our goals. Sothat's sometimes something that
(29:46):
I will add to my plan in themorning. If I know I have a
really busy day, I'll say I'lleven write down like, hey, I
really need to be very awarethat I have to do this first so
I don't skip it later. Forexample, today, it's seven
o'clock in the morning rightnow.
I'm recording this podcast. It'spretty early for me to be
recording a podcast, but thismorning, when I looked at my
day, I thought, Oh, wow, okay,I'm not going to want to do this
(30:08):
podcast at three o'clock. I justdon't have as much energy. And I
love, I love recording mypodcast when I have high energy.
And I thought, the only timeit's either three o'clock or
it's seven. I'm choosing sevenbecause I know three o'clock is
going to be a bit of anobstacle. So that is a beautiful
awareness you can choose in yourmorning routine. So it could be
okay. Three things I'm gratefulfor. What do I want to think on
(30:31):
purpose? How do I want to feelon purpose? Are there any
obstacles to me doing what Iwant to do? Those are that's a
really powerful journalingsession for you to do in the
morning. For those of you thatare already enrolled in the
ready for change program, youare going to get in your
workbook a journaling prompt forevery single day. There's about
(30:52):
five questions for you to answerevery single day. It's about
five minutes, and it is going tobe just one of the many things
in this program that is going tohelp you make permanent changes
in your life. So get ready forthat. And if you are interested
in joining us, you have till 8pmtonight. If you're listening to
this in lifetime on June 3, 8pmtonight, Pacific time to join
(31:16):
us. It is going to be an amazingmonth of June. I hope you have a
great Tuesday, and I hope youstart creating a powerful
morning routine. If you areready to lose weight and keep it
off permanently and feelconfident and at peace around
food, I invite you to head toCourtney Gray coaching.com to
learn about how to work with me.
I work with women privately, oneon one, and I also offer small
(31:38):
group coaching, there is a linkto my website in the show notes
you.
Foreign Welcome to Modern body, modern life. The
podcast for women who want tolose weight permanently feel in
control around food and learnhow to stop obsessing about
their body and food a modern wayof thinking about your weight,
your body and your life includesmindset. I'm body and life
coach, Courtney Gray, and eachweek I'm going to teach you the
(00:29):
mindset tools that are necessaryfor changing the way you eat
forever. We will uncover whyyou're eating when you said you
were going to stop, what to dowhen you're really craving
something, and how important itis to decide what you want to
believe is possible for you, Ibelieve we can get in the best
shape of our lives at any age, amodern body, a modern life, all
(00:53):
starts in your mind, and whenyou learn how to manage that,
losing weight permanentlybecomes so much easier.
Welcome to the podcast. Episode81 is your morning routine,
creating the body and life youwant. We're going to dive into
all of it. Strap in before Idive into it. If you are
(01:16):
listening to this podcast inreal time, that means you are
listening on June 3, you haveuntil 8pm Pacific time to join
me in my June coachingexperience called ready for
change. A bunch of women arealready in there. Signed up. I
would love to have you join us.
It is for women who are ready tochange their lives or are ready
to do that thing that they keeptelling themselves they want to
(01:39):
do, whether it's losing weight,getting stronger, being more
consistent, getting clarity onany area of your life. So I'm
really excited about this group.
We start if you're listening inreal time, we start tomorrow, so
you can come in hot and you havetill 8pm tonight to join us, 8pm
Pacific time. And there is alink in the show notes, a link
(02:01):
on Instagram, a link on mywebsite, and when you join, I
will send you an email with thedigital workbook, and it's gonna
get you excited for the program,and we will start tomorrow. So
let me dive into this podcast.
Is your morning routine creatingthe body and life you want. And
so first of all, let me just saya powerful morning routine can
change your life. I believe thatso so to my soul. But before I
(02:24):
dive into what that means,oftentimes, I find there's a
little bit of resistance. Somepeople think about, when they
think about having a bettermorning routine, they get like
their fists up, like, PleaseGod, don't make me. And I think
it's because they think what apowerful morning routine is, is
waking up an hour earlier, ismaking their bed every morning,
(02:47):
is maybe cleaning their kitchenbefore they go to work, is maybe
lighting a candle or journalingfor an hour, or doing yoga and
meditating, this this longprocess of this beautiful
morning routine, and it does nothave to be that extensive or
that intense, or that intense, Iguess is the way to say it. It
(03:09):
does not have to be all that. Infact, one of the things I'm
going to talk about later inthis podcast is you can actually
wake up at the same time andcreate a better morning routine,
just by focusing your mind, youcan literally create an amazing
routine that really amplifiesyour life just by being more
present when you're in theshower or when you're drinking
your coffee, when you're evendriving to work if you're
(03:31):
driving. So this does not haveto be an extra time commitment,
although I am going to talkabout possibly waking up 1020,
half hour earlier than you do,and I'm going to give you some
options of why you would, howyou could do that, and what you
would do and why you would wantto do it. So please do not, do
not. Do not be scared. Do not bescared that I am going to have
(03:53):
you doing things that are thatare seeming too much for your
life, although at the samepoint, you know things don't
change, if things don't change,and I think if you're listening
to this podcast, you do want tochange, so I'm really glad
you're here. So let me talkabout what a powerful morning
routine can do for you. Itreally starts out your day with
(04:13):
intention and focus. And if wethink about our lives and up
leveling our lives in any way,creating a body and life that
you love even more than what youhave now, which I feel like I'm
going to constantly be doinguntil the day I die, always
wanting to be happier, morejoyful, more intentional, a
(04:34):
morning routine can really helpyou do that. When you create a
powerful morning routine. Youare setting the tone for your
day. The way I like to thinkabout it is, in the mornings I
put like a stake in the ground.
I say, okay, Courtney, this iswhat we're doing. And when I
say, this is what we're doing,it's not looking at my calendar
(04:56):
and thinking, I gotta do this, Igotta do this. I gotta do I'm
saying to myself.
This is how I want to feel. Thisis the direction I want my life
to go. And this is also what Iwant for me, especially as
women, we start automaticallythinking about all the things we
have to do for others, andsometimes that might even be for
your job, we start going into Igot to do this for this person.
(05:19):
I got to do this for my kids, Igot to do this for the all these
other people, wait a minute.
Have you taken a few minutes todo for you? So when you're
creating a powerful morningroutine, you're really like
redeciding What is important toyou. I re remind myself every
day what I want, how I want tofeel, how I want to think and
(05:39):
where I'm going before I thinkabout what I'm doing for each of
my boys, what I'm doing for myhusband, even before I think
about what I'm doing for myclients, I think, where am I
going? What is important to me,and how can I make sure, when I
look at my schedule, that I'mfitting me in? You've heard me
say this before, and I've saidone of my new clients who's
(06:01):
starting in this June groupcoaching experience, told me the
other day she goes I heard youon a podcast say that we so
often as women, put ourselves onthe back burner, but we need to
remember that on most stoves,especially the stoves we use
here in the US, most stoves havefour burners. There are two in
the front. We don't have to beon the back burner, ladies,
there are two. We can have ourkids or our job and put
(06:24):
ourselves on that front burneras well. So you're deciding how
you want to think and feel onpurpose, and you're really being
present in the moment when youcreate a powerful morning
routine. I've coached so manywomen who wake up and they just
start reacting to their lives.
They just wake up and it's like,go, go, go. And a lot of times
(06:46):
it's from this energy of, I'mbehind, especially if you're a
snooze hitter, if you're like,one of those people that like
hit snooze or sleeps into thelast minute, you're starting
your day telling yourself astory that you're behind. That's
not the way we want to start ourdays. And so long ago, I did not
have a great morning routine.
This was before I was a coach.
(07:07):
This is when my babies werelittle, and I would, literally,
I would wake up when they wokeup. I was just a stay home mom,
so I wasn't working outside thehome, and I would wake up when
my boys would call out to me.
And in some ways, it wasactually quite a lovely way to
wake up. I think back to thosetimes, and it was so beautiful
to have my alarm clock be one ofmy boys going, Mom, it was so
beautiful. However, the resultfrom that was I had no time to
(07:32):
myself. I was very much reactingto my day. First thing. If I
could go back and I say thiswith no regret, but if I could
go back in time, what I wouldprobably do is I would let them,
and they were twins, so when onewould wake up, the other would
wake up, I would allow them towake myself up, and I would go
grab them, and I would bringthem into bed with me for 10
(07:55):
minutes, and I would justcuddle, and I would tell them
how much I love them, and tellthem how special they're. I
would be more intentional, butwhat I would do is I'd grab
them, and then I would go makecoffee, and we would start our
day. And there was nothing wrongwith it. There was nothing wrong
with it, but my routine was verymuch reactive. And then I
remember one of my very goodfriends, Julie, shout out,
(08:17):
Julie, it's been too long. Weneed to get together. My my
friend Julie, we were talkingone day, and I told her, I'm
like, Oh, I'm just kind ofstarting out in the day, and
then I don't have time to dothis. I don't have time to that.
And she was, Oh, I get up aboutan hour before my kids, and I'm
laughing, because I remembergoing, what? And she also, at
this point, was a stay home mom.
So I remember being like, Wait aminute. Wait a minute. Wait a
(08:39):
minute. You're telling me thatyou don't wait for them to wake
you. You get up before them.
Like, to me, it was, like,preposterous. Like, why would
anyone do this? And I said, Whyare you doing that? Tell me the
magic. Why are you doing this?
And she's like, I just want tobe able to take a minute. I want
to be able to have my coffee. Iwant to be able to I can't
remember what she said she did,but she took a minute to maybe
(08:59):
it was read. I think this isactually way before Instagram,
so she was probably reading,maybe she was journaling, maybe
she was praying. I know she'sreligious, I don't know. So she
was taking a minute though forherself before her kids got up,
and then she would go and wakeher kids up. And I remember
being like, that's too much forme. I could I could not access
the desire to do that. Icouldn't access the value in
(09:21):
that at the time, but it took mea year or two after that. And I
remember one time I woke up justI automatically woke up about an
hour before my kids normallywoke up. And I kind of did a
Julie morning. I went down and Istarted my coffee and all these
things. And I remember thinking,Oh, I get it. I get it. So I
(09:43):
started waking up earlier,before they were up, and just
taking some time for me. Now, Iwasn't a coach, and I had never
read a book about morningroutines, and I didn't have as
much intention back then, butthat was a moment that really
taught me, oh, I need to reallyclaim my own.
Own time, claim my own focus inthe morning. So that was a
(10:05):
catalyst for reallyunderstanding how powerful
morning routine can be. Here'sone thing I want you to realize
right now, you already have amorning routine. The question
is, is it creating the body andlife you want if you continue to
do the routine you've beendoing. Is it heading you in the
right direction? Is it hurtingyour future goals or helping
(10:30):
your future goals? I think ifyou have the time, stop the
podcast and really justcontemplate this question for a
moment, I'll say it again. Youalready have a morning routine.
What is it? Is it helping you orhurting you? Is it getting you
closer to where you want to be,body, life, or is it moving you
forward, or is it making youstay stuck where you're at? I
(10:54):
would stop the podcast, and Iwould ask yourself that, so then
you can really go into the restof this podcast, applying it to
you and having a little bit ofinsight. So the first thing is
identifying what your morningroutine is now, and take a
moment to identify that and sayto yourself, okay, okay, this is
what I would say, okay,Courtney, I wake up and maybe I
hit snooze two or three times,and then I get up. And when
(11:16):
you're thinking about what yourroutine is now, don't just think
about what you actually do thinkabout where your mind is. For a
lot of people, they're notintentional, honestly, just
because they never learn to beintentional, we should have a we
should have a class in juniorhigh that teaches kids how to be
intentional, lets them know thattheir mindset is their choice.
(11:39):
We don't know that, and youmight not know that either. I
didn't know that until I becamea coach. Became a coach. And so
where is your mind in themornings? Are you like, Oh my
God, I didn't sleep. Oh my god,I shouldn't have had that second
glass of wine. Oh my god, I haveso much to do today. That's
where a lot of people, a lot ofpeople are in the first thing in
the morning. That energy,whether it's exhaustion, whether
(12:01):
it's overwhelm, whether it'sregret that you didn't get up
earlier, whether it's shame youshould be doing this all better.
You should have made more time.
You should have prepped yourselfso you'd have a better day. Is
that your morning routine? Soyour morning routine is not just
what you're actually doing, it'swhere your mind is in the
moment. Because our life isdictated by the thoughts we
think and the feelings thatthose thoughts bring on. I'm
(12:25):
gonna say that, again, our lifereally is created dictated by
the thoughts we think and thefeelings that those thoughts
create in our body. And so ifyou're waking up and feeling
overwhelmed and already behind,oh my god. I've so most, so many
clients that say they wake up inthe morning and they're like,
already behind. That's ahorrible way to start your day.
(12:48):
And the second thing I want youto do is really own that you
have control over it. Did youknow that you have control over
all of this? And if you say, No,Courtney, I really don't. No,
no, how do you have control overall of it? And I want you to
choose your control on purpose.
I want you to say to yourself,Okay, how can I do better like I
(13:08):
want you to say, Okay, if Idon't feel like I have a lot of
time in the morning, how can Ido the same things I'm doing?
Brush my teeth, make my coffee,take my shower, drive to work.
How can you do all of those samethings with a focus on thinking
things differently and actuallyfeeling differently? So a better
morning routine does not need tobe some catastrophically
(13:31):
reorganization where you'retaking an hour and lighting a
candle and journaling for anhour. It doesn't have to be that
way. It can simply be youchoosing your focus. Let me talk
about how this can be if you'resitting here, like, Okay, I kind
of like this, but I feel like Ireally don't have time. First of
all, I would question that. Iwould question whether you can
(13:54):
wake up 10 minutes earlier.
That's the biggest thing I wantto give you. The a gift I want
to give you is the realizationthat maybe I can wake up 10
minutes earlier. I remember along time ago, I wanted to get
in better shape. And I rememberat this time I was watching
alias, it's a show with JenniferGarner, like, years, years years
(14:15):
ago, 2020, 25 years ago. And Iremember thinking, oh, you know,
the only time I could reallywake up would be in the more the
the only time I could reallywork out would be in the
mornings, because I've been withthe kids all day and and I
wanted to actually go to a gym,not just work out at home. And I
remember thinking, I can't Ican't wake up earlier than than
six o'clock. I just can't do it.
And I remember watchingthe alias show, and Jennifer
(14:36):
Garner's body was rocking. Shewas smoking hot. Google it. She
looked amazing. She looksamazing now, but in this show,
she looked absolutely amazing.
And I remember watching the showgoing, God, I wonder if I could
work out and I look like her.
And I remember watching aninterview with her where she
said she had to be on set by 530in the morning. So she woke up
every day at four o'clock to go.
(15:00):
To the gym, and I remembergoing, what like? I remember
thinking that that's notpossible. It's not possible. But
yet it was possible becauseJennifer Garner was doing it. It
was possible. Now, I'm nottrying to get anyone to wake up
that early, but there was a timein my life when I did. There was
a time in my life when I wouldwake up at four o'clock. Now, I
(15:21):
would get to bed at night ateight o'clock. I go to bed early
anyways, but I would wake up atfour o'clock to get to the gym
by 445 so I could get home anddo the work I needed to do, be
with my kids, get them off toschool, do all the things.
Again, not saying you have to dothat. You don't, but it is
possible. So often we get caughtup in the i I'm not a morning
(15:42):
person. I can't wake up anyearlier. That's not a fact. It's
not a fact. I've had manyclients tell me they're not a
morning person, and by the endof our coaching time together,
they're waking up a half hourearlier. They're doing a 10
Minute journaling session, andsometimes they're meditating,
sometimes they're stretching,and their lives are better for
(16:02):
it. But let's talk for a momentabout how maybe you actually
don't have time. Maybe in someworld, you are like, Courtney, I
literally can't do it okay. Ormaybe you're like, I don't want
to do it, Courtney, don't makeme do it. Okay. Here's what you
can do to create a bettermorning routine while you are
waiting for your coffee, orwhile you are brushing your
(16:22):
teeth, in the shower, driving,picking out your clothes. Can
you create habits around thoseactivities? I like to call it
stacking. It's where youactually take something you're
already doing and you add a newhabit onto it, like one of the
things I remember long agosuggesting to my sister when she
was working on she wanted, shewas a nurse, and she wanted to
create a new business. And I wastelling her, yeah, how can you
(16:46):
make, like, $300,000as a nurse? And she's like, I
have no idea. And I'm like,Yeah, I don't know either. While
you're in the shower, anytimeyou shower, that's going to be
your time to think, Huh, how canI make $300,000
as a nurse? So you're stackingthe shower, which you already
do, is already a habit, withanother habit you want to
create, of thinkingintentionally while you're
(17:07):
showering. I just suggested thisto one of my clients. She's
really busy in the morning, andso I said, while you're on the
way to work, because she has, Ithink, like, a half hour drive.
I said, Can you talk to yourselfout loud so you can talk to
yourself. You can talk to yourCreator. You can talk to your
future self. You can talk toyour inner child, whatever. You
can talk to someone who's passedaway that you want to connect
(17:27):
with. And can you talk to themout loud? There is so much power
in saying something out loud.
And if you say, well, like, whatwould I say? Here's what it
sounds like. This is what I didall last year in 2024
you know, Courtney, you'rereally smart. How is that true?
It's so interesting. Even as Ijust said that I felt myself get
(17:48):
emotional, because that was mywork that I did in 2024 I was
reprogramming my mind to believethat I was really smart. So I
feel the emotion come up,because I believe it's so much
more in my body than I did atone time. And so I would say,
Courtney, you're really smart.
How is that true? And I wouldstart saying, Gosh, you know, I
created a multiple six figurejewelry business out of my home.
(18:09):
I have, like, parented threekids, and they're pretty damn
amazing. You know, we've madereally good finance choices with
our 401 Ks in our retirement.
You know, you've really gone allin on yourself this, and you're
actually really good at it,setting up your, you know, your
prepaid taxes, and understandingthe back end of your business. I
(18:31):
would sit there and say out loudall the reasons I was really
smart.
Sometimes I would also say, I'mdoing a really good job. This is
really scary, but you know what,I'm doing a really good job at
this? And I would expand on howthat's true. So in the moment, I
was setting my day up forfeeling a certain way, and I
(18:52):
would feel powerful. I wouldfeel joy, sometimes, sometimes I
would feel acceptance, sometimesI would feel love. And that was
a stacking that I just did Ialready was driving. So I would
do this a lot of times. When Iwas driving my kids to school,
of course, after I dropped themoff, I would do this when I was
alone in the car. I would say,How do I want to feel today? And
(19:14):
every day was different. You'dthink we'd all say happy, but
some days I'd say I want to feeljoy, and some days I'd say I
want to feel adventurous, or Iwant us to feel confident, or I
want to feel powerful, and Iwould talk to myself out loud.
Another thing you can do is youcan stretch while your coffee is
brewing. That's something I'mdoing because we got a new
coffee maker, and it grinds likethe whole beans. And so it takes
(19:34):
like 10 minutes. And so now,when my coffee is brewing, I
will stretch for 10 minutes. Ihave this back body stretch that
I do because sometimes I get alittle like plantar fasciitis,
and so I do this back bodystretch every single day that
really just makes my whole bodyfeel better. So here I'm being
intentional. While my coffee isbrewing, it's not taking me any
(19:55):
more time. Maybe while you brushyour teeth, you're going to
think about what you're gratefulfor in.
Moment, you can brush yourteeth, and you can think about
each of your children and justwish them well on their day. You
can think about someone who haspassed away and like connect
with them and tell them you'rethinking about them. You can say
a prayer. So there's so manythings you can do that don't
(20:18):
take more time, but if you wantto take more time, I want to
inspire you to wake up 10minutes earlier or 30 minutes
earlier and create your ownmorning routine. I think that
journaling can change your life.
And when people think ofjournaling again, they feel
sometimes like, Oh my God, Idon't know what to write. That's
(20:38):
the main thing my clients tellme I don't know what to write,
or they think it has to be some45 minute practice, and it
doesn't. First of all, buyyourself a fun journal. Go to
Barnes and Noble, go to a craftsor like a Michael something. Buy
yourself a cute journal. And ifit feels if it feels less hmm,
let's think of the word, if itfeels less intimidating, buy
(21:01):
yourself a small one, like oneyou could fit in your purse.
Sometimes, when we buy a smallerjournal, what we're saying is we
don't have to write a lot. Itcould just be a little bit,
right? I have a small journalright by my bed. I journal right
before I go to bed every night,and it's very small because I
want myself to go, Hey, thisdoesn't have to be hard. It's
going to take two minutes.
(21:21):
Journal for five minutes. Andthere's so many ways to journal.
I'll probably eventually do apodcast on journaling. But if
you can journal just by saying,What am I grateful for right
now? What do I want to think onpurpose today, if you could just
do five minutes of that, it willhelp you focus on what you want
(21:42):
to be focused on throughout yourday. And the reason this is
important is we know that whatwe focus what we give energy to,
is what we can grow in ourlives. And the problem is, if
you think about it, what so manypeople are giving energy to is
scrolling is to what they haveto do on their to do list is to
(22:07):
how they're not feeling thatgreat, and they're focusing on
how things haven't gone right inthe past and what they're
dreading. There's just so muchfocus on things that are not
heading us in the direction ofcreating a more amazing body and
life for us. So imagine for amoment that tomorrow morning,
you're like, all right,Courtney, I'm going to do it.
(22:27):
I'm going to do this, and youget your journal, and you sit
down, you wake up 10 minutesearly, and you're like, Okay,
I'm going to have my coffee andI'm going to write down three
things I'm grateful for. Thefirst little tip I'm going to
give you is, yes, we are allgrateful for our health, and
we're all grateful for our nicehouse and things like that. It
makes me think of like when Iwas growing up and we would
pray. It got very prayer gotvery rote, like my mom. We'd be
(22:50):
sitting down to dinner. I justwanted to eat my food, but my
mom would say, Courtney, whydon't you say the prayer
tonight? And I'd be like, thankyou for all we have. Thank you
for this food. Thank you. It wasalmost like I was pulling a cord
in my neck. You don't want to dothat with the three things
you're grateful for. What I lovedoing is I love thinking in this
moment. What am I grateful for?
Yes, I'm grateful for my health.
(23:10):
Yes, I'm grateful for mychildren, all that. But like,
what am I especially gratefulfor right now that is different
than maybe other days. Maybe I'mgrateful because it stopped
raining, maybe I'm gratefulbecause, because I'm really
sore, because I worked outreally hard yesterday, and I'm
just grateful that I did that.
So I want you to really connectwith what you're really grateful
in the moment. And sometimes itseems trivial, but there's
(23:34):
something beautiful about beinggrateful, about something very
simple, like that, and makingsure it's not rote. It's not
just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'mgrateful for all health, but
really diving into the beautifullittle parts of your day that
you're excited about and thatyou're grateful for. So you
start there, and then you say toyourself, What do I want to
think on purpose today? And howdo I want to feel today? And
(23:56):
every day it might be different,or every day it might be the
same, very, very simple, askingyourself a few little questions
that literally could take fiveminutes. Here's some other
options for you. Maybe you havebeen telling yourself for a long
time that you want to meditate,but you're like, I don't really
know how to start it soundsexhausting. Or maybe you've
(24:17):
tried and you're like my mindkeeps going elsewhere. First of
all, little side note withmeditation, your mind going
elsewhere is, is how to do it.
That's going to happen. That'sthe whole point to meditation,
is getting good at bringing yourmind back. So if you're like me,
when I started meditating yearsago, I would be like, Oh, I'm
not good at it, because I keepthinking about, like, defrosting
(24:38):
chicken, and I keep thinking,Oh, my God, I need to make sure
I put almond milk on my storelist. And then I'd be mad at
myself because I'm supposed tobe breathing and focusing on my
feet or whatever it is, and I'dbe mad at myself thinking I'm
not doing this right. Oh no, no,we're doing it right. That's
what meditation is. Meditationis the practice of bringing our
mind back and so.
(25:00):
You do a five minute meditation,and you are constantly pep like
ping ponging back from all theother things, and you're
bringing it back. You're doingit right. And you will find, by
continuing to practice thatmeditation, you'll get better
and better at bringing it back.
And this, you will see, helpsyour whole life. And so
meditation, if that's somethingyou want to do, I just want to
(25:20):
shout out. I love Insight Timer.
It's an app you can get on yourphone. It's called Insight
Timer. It has 1000s ofmeditations. If you're starting
out, what can be really helpfulis doing a five minute
meditation. And you know whatelse you might find on there? Or
like, they have challenges, likethey'll have like, a 30 day
meditation challenge, or a sevenday meditation challenge, but I
(25:43):
would start with a shortmeditation, and I would start
with a guided meditation. A lotof the meditations on Insight
Timer are guided, and so thenyou what you're it's easier to
focus and not be thinking aboutdefrosting chicken and all the
other things. Oh, I need to getmy tires rotated all that,
because it's guided, meaningsomeone is walking you through,
(26:03):
focusing on your feet and thenfocusing on this or focusing on
your breathing. And so really,what you're focusing on is their
voice, and that can be easier,especially in the beginning.
Maybe you want to pray, or maybeyou want to talk to a loved one,
beautiful, amazing. I mean, alot of people think prayer and
(26:23):
meditation are very similar. Ido maybe you want to do breath
work. I'm loving breath work,right? Maybe you want to
stretch. Maybe you want toeither just stretch in whatever
way feels good. Maybe you wantto go onto YouTube and pull up a
10 Minute stretching routine.
Yes to all of that. Here's onething to do, though, after you
have done this for a few days ora week, really start to think,
(26:47):
is this helping my life? Sooften we'll start doing
something, and then we don't doit for a day, and then we're
like, oh my God, I didn't do it.
I knew I'd always give up and wejust, we just kind of drop it.
What I would love for you to dois go, am I glad that I on the
days that I do whatever mymorning routine is? Am I glad
(27:11):
that I did it? Do I feel likeit's helping me? If so, how so
it's so great to evaluate yourefforts. So important to
evaluate your efforts. And Ijust want to finish up with
something that I hear so oftenwith my clients these days, is,
is that they will say they don'thave time for this, or they
(27:33):
don't make time for that, andthey feel like time is the
problem, even if they'reretired, even a lot of my
retired clients, they say Ishould be this is what they'll
say. I do have all the time inthe world. I don't know why I'm
not doing what I said I wasgoing to do. And there is one
thing that I see so often withmy clients, and so often,
(27:54):
possibly for you, it's actuallytwo things. It's one or the
other. It's either scrolling orTV, scrolling or TV, a lot of
times, is getting in the way ofyou creating a powerful morning
routine. And so I really wantyou to ask yourself, when you
look at your day, is thescrolling helping you? Are you
(28:18):
going, Wow, I'm feeling reallyconnected and really inspired
and motivated from all thethings I'm scrolling. Is it
really helping me that I'mwatching Kelly and Regis or CBS
or whatever it is, you know whatthe Today show is that actually
helping me? And yes, you mightsay, I like to know what's going
on in the world. Okay? Is thereanother way you could know
what's going on in the world? Isthere another recap you could do
(28:41):
and create a better morningroutine for yourself. And that
doesn't necessarily mean youshouldn't be scrolling. It
doesn't mean you want to get ridof the TV, but maybe it means
for you, you want to carve out10 to 15 minutes, or five
minutes before you dive into thescrolling and the TV. And if you
could change your life? Would itbe worth it?
(29:04):
Do not negate the power of abeautiful morning routine.
Another thing that I will giveone final little tip that I just
that occurred to me here isanother thing you can do with
your morning routine is look forany obstacles that day that are
going to deter you from livingthe way you want to live so
(29:25):
often, we plan for all thethings. We plan for the dinner
we want to make, or we plan tomake sure we're home at a
certain time when our partner isgoing to be home. We we plan all
these different things, but wedon't plan for any potential
obstacles that are going to getin the way of doing what we need
to do to reach our goals. Sothat's sometimes something that
(29:46):
I will add to my plan in themorning. If I know I have a
really busy day, I'll say I'lleven write down like, hey, I
really need to be very awarethat I have to do this first so
I don't skip it later. Forexample, today, it's seven
o'clock in the morning rightnow.
I'm recording this podcast. It'spretty early for me to be
recording a podcast, but thismorning, when I looked at my
day, I thought, Oh, wow, okay,I'm not going to want to do this
(30:08):
podcast at three o'clock. I justdon't have as much energy. And I
love, I love recording mypodcast when I have high energy.
And I thought, the only timeit's either three o'clock or
it's seven. I'm choosing sevenbecause I know three o'clock is
going to be a bit of anobstacle. So that is a beautiful
awareness you can choose in yourmorning routine. So it could be
okay. Three things I'm gratefulfor. What do I want to think on
(30:31):
purpose? How do I want to feelon purpose? Are there any
obstacles to me doing what Iwant to do? Those are that's a
really powerful journalingsession for you to do in the
morning. For those of you thatare already enrolled in the
ready for change program, youare going to get in your
workbook a journaling prompt forevery single day. There's about
(30:52):
five questions for you to answerevery single day. It's about
five minutes, and it is going tobe just one of the many things
in this program that is going tohelp you make permanent changes
in your life. So get ready forthat. And if you are interested
in joining us, you have till 8pmtonight. If you're listening to
this in lifetime on June 3, 8pmtonight, Pacific time to join
(31:16):
us. It is going to be an amazingmonth of June. I hope you have a
great Tuesday, and I hope youstart creating a powerful
morning routine. If you areready to lose weight and keep it
off permanently and feelconfident and at peace around
food, I invite you to head toCourtney Gray coaching.com to
learn about how to work with me.
I work with women privately, oneon one, and I also offer small
(31:38):
group coaching, there is a linkto my website in the show notes
you.
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