August 28, 2025 • 45 mins
Last week I shared an episode with the wonderful Dr Monika Sharma all about cortisol.
We talked about what it is, why we need it, how to regulate it and the role it plays in relation to type 1 diabetes. Within that chat we got onto the subject of a morning routine and what we can do to build healthy habits that can set us up for the day without being overstimulated and sending cortisol off the charts.
I’m super thankful to Dr Monika for her expertise and knowledge, and during that conversation I briefly mentioned how I had recently started to build out a more consistent morning routine, having been a morning routine skeptic and believing it couldn’t possibly help me with my type 1 diabetes.
Of course it’s in no way a replacement for medication, professional guidance or treatment, but I do believe that finding a version of a morning routine that works for me has been a positive addition to my life.
So today I’m sharing my thoughts around a morning routine, and what I’m currently doing (and not doing) before diving into the never-ending to-dos and deadlines.
This is just my personal experience and in no way intended as advice, but I hope you find it interesting!
PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS MENTIONED
Tim Ferriss
Hal Elrod’s The Morning Miracle
Dr Rangan Chatterjee on Working Hard with Grace Beverley - Why the first 5 mintues of your day are the most important
Dr Jim Doty on The Mel Robbins Podcast - How to manifest anything you want and unlock the unlimited power of your mind
JOIN THE TYPE 1 ON 1 COMMUNITY:
Come and say hi @studiotype1on1 on Instagram.
Visit the Type 1 on 1 website.
Subscribe to the Type 1 on 1 newsletter.
DISCLAIMER
Nothing you hear on Type 1 on 1 should be taken as medical advice. Please consult your healthcare team before making any changes to your diabetes or health management.
SPONSOR MESSAGE
This episode of Type 1 on 1 is sponsored by Dexcom. Using Dexcom CGM has given me so much confidence to make informed diabetes treatment decisions in the moment.
You can choose to wear it on your arm or your abdomen, and all Dexcom CGMs have the share and follow feature even when connected to an insulin pump, so family and friends can see your glucose levels and get alerts, giving that extra bit of support when needed.
Head to Dexcom.com to request a free Dexcom ONE+ sample.
Always read the user manual for important product aspects and limitations. Talk to your doctor for diabetes management terms and conditions and terms of use.
We talked about what it is, why we need it, how to regulate it and the role it plays in relation to type 1 diabetes. Within that chat we got onto the subject of a morning routine and what we can do to build healthy habits that can set us up for the day without being overstimulated and sending cortisol off the charts.
I’m super thankful to Dr Monika for her expertise and knowledge, and during that conversation I briefly mentioned how I had recently started to build out a more consistent morning routine, having been a morning routine skeptic and believing it couldn’t possibly help me with my type 1 diabetes.
Of course it’s in no way a replacement for medication, professional guidance or treatment, but I do believe that finding a version of a morning routine that works for me has been a positive addition to my life.
So today I’m sharing my thoughts around a morning routine, and what I’m currently doing (and not doing) before diving into the never-ending to-dos and deadlines.
This is just my personal experience and in no way intended as advice, but I hope you find it interesting!
PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS MENTIONED
Tim Ferriss
Hal Elrod’s The Morning Miracle
Dr Rangan Chatterjee on Working Hard with Grace Beverley - Why the first 5 mintues of your day are the most important
Dr Jim Doty on The Mel Robbins Podcast - How to manifest anything you want and unlock the unlimited power of your mind
JOIN THE TYPE 1 ON 1 COMMUNITY:
Come and say hi @studiotype1on1 on Instagram.
Visit the Type 1 on 1 website.
Subscribe to the Type 1 on 1 newsletter.
DISCLAIMER
Nothing you hear on Type 1 on 1 should be taken as medical advice. Please consult your healthcare team before making any changes to your diabetes or health management.
SPONSOR MESSAGE
This episode of Type 1 on 1 is sponsored by Dexcom. Using Dexcom CGM has given me so much confidence to make informed diabetes treatment decisions in the moment.
You can choose to wear it on your arm or your abdomen, and all Dexcom CGMs have the share and follow feature even when connected to an insulin pump, so family and friends can see your glucose levels and get alerts, giving that extra bit of support when needed.
Head to Dexcom.com to request a free Dexcom ONE+ sample.
Always read the user manual for important product aspects and limitations. Talk to your doctor for diabetes management terms and conditions and terms of use.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of Type one on one is sponsored by Dexcom.
More on that later. Just to say, as with every
episode of Type one on one, nothing you hear within
this podcast episode is intended to be nor should be
taken as medical advice, and you should absolutely seek the
advice and guidance of a healthcare professional before making any
changes to your diabetes management. If you want to come
(00:21):
and say hi, you can do so at Studio type
one on one on Instagram and I'd love to see
you there. Hi, everyone, and welcome to Type one on one,
a podcast that delves into the obscure, complex and challenging
world of life with type one diabetes. I'm Jen Greeves,
and each week, with the help of some brilliant guests,
(00:44):
I'll be showing that there is no normal when it
comes to handlink this whopper of a chronic condition, because
we're all pretty much figuring out the messiness of day
to day life with diabetes as we go. And most
of all, even though it doesn't always feel like it,
we are absolutely not alone. Hi everyone, and welcome back
(01:04):
to another episode of Type one on one.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You've got a solo episode today.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
If you're new here, I normally interview a wonderful guest
about their life with type one or how they work
in the world of type one diabetes.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
But today it's just me.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
And I'm going to be talking about morning habits, and
specifically the morning habits that have actually helped me with
my health and sort of more holistically, I guess around
type one diabetes as a reformed morning routine skeptic and
someone who is generally trying to keep the calm at
all times because life of the chronic illness is stressful.
(01:40):
This episode was actually sparked by my conversation with last
week's guest, Dr Monica Sharma. That episode was a guide
to Cortusol, a quartusole deep dive, and in that episode
we dug into all things cortusol, what it is, how
it functions, how it works with other hormones in your boy,
why we need it, and what we can do to
(02:02):
help regulate it. And within that episode we were talking
a bit about starting the day off right and how
morning routines and habits can actually really help with that
quarter soile management and get your day off to a
start that isn't just falling out of bed and into
the laptop as I have been known to.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Do, because you know, this is all a work in progress.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I'm just trying to do what I can to make
living with type one diabetes as manageable as possible, and
chronic illness like it is a beast. So I am
someone who used to kind of just I roll this
whole morning routine thing in relation to the fact that
I cannot cure my type one diabetes and it is
(02:45):
a mammoth condition, and there's just so many factors, so
many variables that go into it. To me, the idea
of writing a few lines in a journal and sitting
for five minutes with my thoughts just felt quite ineffectual.
But what I have come to realize after jumping into
this experimenting, playing around with things, is that, like anything
(03:08):
really in life, I guess you have to find the
way it works for you, the way it resonates with you,
the way it's realistic and manageable for you, and the
way it connects with you as well. And I sort
of had this idea of a five am club with
a green juice.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
However, there are quite a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Of possibilities from that extreme to rolling out of bed
bleary eyed, not knowing where you are, what day it is,
running out of the door with a coffee in hand,
you know, chomping on your breakfast as you run for
the train. So I thought it might be helpful today
to go into a little bit about what old morning
routine actually is, what it can look like, and why
(03:46):
it might be helpful, and then get into the specifics
of the morning routine that I have now gathered, collated,
built and tried to kind of stick to you as
consistently as possible when my life allows, which is nearly
every day. As I said, nothing's perfect, but I've come
to a place where I've sort of felt the benefits,
(04:07):
which is incredible because yeah, I just didn't think that
would be a thing, but here we are. Obviously, this
is no cure for type one diarbetes. Unfortunately, that would
be lovely. But outside of the basics of testing my
glucose level using a CGM. Kindly, I have the wonderful
(04:27):
dex Colm as a Dexcom Warrior. Mine is gifted and
they're actually sponsoring today's episode. Outside of that, outside of
taking my insulin, my medication and doing the X plus
Y equal Z of type one diabetes basics it's the extras,
the holistic side of things, and this kind of whole
(04:48):
three sixty approach to health and wellness that has been
a massive, significant unlock in terms of not only my
health outcomes, like the actual outcomes I'm getting in terms
of time and ranging things, but just the perspective I
have and how equipped I feel to move through life
with this chronic condition. So this is kind of part
(05:09):
of that. That's why I started digging into this a bit.
I've adopted loads of habits and structures and systems over
the years that have taken me from quite an overwhelmed,
burnt out, very frustrated sort of not knowing place with
my type one diabetes and the health outcomes reflecting that,
to a place now that is, you know, pretty healthy
(05:30):
by my standards, feeling pretty good and just kind of
positive and hopeful and as I said, able to move
through life with type one diabetes without ignoring or dismissing
the realities and the challenges and the difficulties that come
with living with a chronic illness like type one. And
I started with just kind of one morning habit thing
(05:51):
that took just a couple of minutes and kind of
built out from there, and once I'd unlocked a few
of these morning habits, piece them together in a way
that kind of worked and also felt manageable to me,
I do have to say it's actually really transformed my mornings,
and also then the energy I have to move through
the day, and kind of the positive impact it's had
(06:13):
on the kind of day I have and the outlook
I have my perspective on that day, which I do
think has has created quite a shift.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And as I've.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Already mentioned more than once, type one diabetes is a
tricky condition to live with, so I'm kind of here
for anything that I can do to make that feel
a little bit less heavy. I don't know about you.
I'm assuming that you feel the same, otherwise you probably
wouldn't have clicks play on this episode. So, as Doctor
Monica was talking about last week, the effects of cortisolt
(06:45):
on blood glucose level are interlinked and the benefits of
a morning routine. As it's been studied by scientists, psychologists,
you know, in the empirical world, real people, if you like,
and it's not some sort of of random wellness guru
telling you this. There has been quite a lot of
(07:05):
evidence to suggest that some form of morning routine is
actually beneficial on quartersole regulation and just stress levels in
general to set you up for the day. So that's
where the link is, and that's why I wanted to
dig into this this week. And obviously I have to
say here before we get into it that I am
certainly not a medical professional, far from it, and none
(07:27):
of what I'm saying should be taken as medical advice.
This has always is just based on my personal experience.
So take what connects and leaves the rest. Do your research,
do you digging. That's how I've come to kind of
adopt and form these habits and routines, and it's all
in the spirit of experimentation. But in general, I love
(07:47):
self development. I read a lot of books around it,
and I listen to a ton of podcasts about it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So this is the stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I like, and it will be personal to me as
well as my life circumstances. I'm aware that I live
a certain type of life which is quite unique. I'm
thirty eight, I have no children. For example, I'm also
a freelancer, so more often than not I dictate the
hours around my day.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But I also am a very busy person.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So I yeah, I guess that's why I wanted to
expand on this a bit, because I've managed to make
this all, or my version of this, quite concise in
my view, given how much I'm doing around it now,
and quite efficient, and I'm absolutely here for the efficiency.
If I can multitask, I will do it. But this
(08:33):
is all in the spirit of a bit more calm.
So yeah, I've gone, as I said, from quite a
skeptic of this stuff to being very on board with
a few simple morning things that mean I actually know
what day it is, and I'm not just straight away
absorbing everyone else's noise and all the connectedness of the
(08:53):
world and starting my day off in that really kind
of quite high stressed, backfoot feeling.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So please do bear with me here.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I do think now that there is quite a lot
of power in making small tweaks until something clicks and
then kind of forming that into a habit or just
becoming something that you do, and then building on from
there with the next habit. And as doctor Monica said
in last week's episode, one percent better every day, and
that is also very similar to the road I've been
on with type one diabetes. I have taken the hard
(09:25):
way around, shall we say, in terms of figuring out
how to do type one diabetes in a way that
I perceive to be a very healthy, balanced outlook and
one where I'm really happy with the outcomes I'm getting
my time in range. If I look at all the
factors and variables that come with living with type one
diabetes and the effects of the condition and all of
(09:48):
the stuff I have to do every day just to
keep myself alive with type one diabetes, it is incredibly
overwhelming and so to look at like tiny little things
I used to think would be barely touched the side.
But when I look back, having gone through nearly thirty
years of type one diabetes, now I can see that
the sum total of those small changes, most of which
(10:10):
I've kind of stumbled across along the way, because as
I said, I've.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Taken kind of the hard road.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Hopefully you have a great care team that you can
ask for help on this stuff. But you know, there's
also the diabetes community and just life experience. If I
look at all of that, that's some total of those
like tweaks and that information gathering one day at a
time and going along this road has been huge and
(10:36):
I've gone from, you know, quite a difficult and I
would say pretty negative place with my type one diabetes
many years ago to where I am today, where you know,
due to many many factors in and outside of type
one diabetes, I kind of feel the healthiest and most
alive and most vibrant I guess I've ever.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Felt, which is quite cool to say.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Actually, So to build on whatr Monica was saying, and
do go back and listen to the episode last week,
it's a quarters Ole guide for you.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I do think it's a really good episode.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Doctr Monica is absolutely fabulous and just has just got
such a lovely, calming, supportive tone as well as being
super knowledgeable in general as a general practitioner. But we
were talking about how stressful day to day life is
in the modern world, whether you live with a chronic
illness or not, and the impact that is having on
(11:30):
our hormones like quartersole and all sorts of other hormones
in the body, and potentially what is within our control
to try and help ourselves. And that's where morning routine
came in. So of course there is so much noise
online about morning routines, and yeah, I always pictured this
(11:51):
ridiculous kind of five am wake up, which I am
just not going to do ever unless I'm about to
catch a plane or something. Me, that's just not feasible.
And I think for most people, a five am club
kind of energy is not feasible. So I'm talking more
for me about how I can positively affect my stress
(12:12):
levels through simple habits and setting my day up right
to kind of have that momentum for the day.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And yeah, I'm down to clown. So where to begin.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I mean, you can look at all sorts of people.
As I said, there's so much out there now. You
can look at the work of Tim Ferris, who has
a very very famous podcast. I believe the modern morning
routine as we know it as it's kind of talked
about now, was popularized by hal L. Rod in his
(12:46):
book The Miracle Morning. So I will leave links to
those below so you can go digging if this is
something that interests you. But there's a podcast episode that
I also want to highlight. It was Dr Rangan Chatterjee
talking on Grace Beverly's podcast Working Hard, and I'll leave
the link again to that below, But I listened to
(13:06):
that well over a year ago now, and he was
talking in depth about morning routines, and I distinctly remember thinking, oh, yeah,
well that's all well and good, but that just doesn't
sound like it's going to help.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I went back to.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
That episode while I was researching this episode that you're
listening to now, and it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I honestly listened to it once, and I listened to.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Hundreds of episodes, podcast episodes from all sorts of different people,
like it was over a year ago, as I said,
and I cannot believe how much what I'm doing now
actually overlaps with what he was saying. Listening back to
it now only a year later, it's actually quite crazy.
(13:53):
So I think again, it just kind of speaks to
the spirit of experimentation.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Again.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You could say I've gone the hard way because he
kind of gave me the prescription right there. But I
guess listening to it all in a list in one
go maybe felt quite overwhelming, which is kind of what
I'm going to go and do today.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
But here we are. I do think it's a really
good episode.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And obviously he is also a medical professional, so if
you want someone that isn't just rambling about their own lifestyle,
then do go and check that one out. Another podcast episode.
One more podcast episode that I want to add that
I will link to you below. When it comes to
things like visualization, manifestation, affirmation, I do think naturally people
are a little bit like what is this all about?
(14:38):
So I want to link one below that's from a
Stanford neuroscientist and neurosurgeon before we get into my personal
habits and what I'm doing, named Dr Jim Dodie. And
I heard this interview on the Mel Robins podcast. Mel
Robins is obviously also very well known for her kind
of self development self help stuff, and he was talking
(14:59):
about the science behind manifestation and visualization, and I think
although I've always been interested in stuff like this and
curious about it, I think the seeds of what I'm
doing now were kind of planted there because he was
talking about it from the scientific angle, and something clicked
(15:19):
there that hadn't maybe before. So although it's not quite
the same as what we're talking about today, I do
feel like it's complimentary. So I'll leave that below if
you want to check it out. So that's some general background,
but to give you context for my personal experience, I
want to explain where I used to be at, And
I've kind of alluded to that I'm someone who is
(15:40):
or certainly used to be on from the moment I
wake up, and actually probably before that, my brain would
be wearing, like in my sleep and before I opened
my eyes, just thinking about the busyness. And I was
someone who said yes all the time to all the life.
I used to run around London. I worked in media.
It was high pressure. I had all these hobbies. I
was doing, beats, things on the side, relationships, friendships, just life.
(16:03):
I know that everyone is busy and everyone has a
lot going on, whether it's raising children, or you've got
a stressful job, or you're climbing a career leader, or
you're studying. But yeah, my sort of modus operandi was
pretty pretty switched on to switched on. I would say,
I do live kind of a slower pace now, but
(16:24):
my natural inclination is to be kind of juggling a
lot of things at once. And I guess I can
see looking at the life I live now versus that
kind of lifestyle I was living. I don't regret anything,
but running at that speed certainly wasn't sustainable, which maybe
is part of the reason I am sat here now
(16:45):
living a slightly different lifestyle. But I also think it's
just going through life, you know, as in my twenties
in London, having a great time. That's to say that
I do think probably my day to day level of
cortisol was probably more raised than it is now. And yeah,
there are everyone needs quartusole. As doctor Monica said, portosol
(17:06):
is not the enemy, but there are certainly optimum levels
and less optimum levels. And I would say that I run,
I would hazard a guess, again, not being a medical
professional in any way, shape or form, that I run
at a more optimal level for me in general on
the whole these days. Obviously it depends on what's going
(17:26):
on in my life and what stresses and challenges I'm facing,
Type one diabetes being the constant in there. But again
it comes back to kind of my overall umbrella picture
of health, my bird's eye view picture of my health.
And these days, I guess I just have created a
bit more space in my days. But with that, I've
sort of feel like I've got more life in my days.
(17:48):
I don't know, I don't think I'm living in any
less full up life. If that makes sense, But I've
got sort of more space and more systems and structure
in place that help me pro the day, not get
overwhelmed by the things I've got to do, not get
overwhelmed by the frustrations and challenges of Type one diabetes,
and just approach life with a bit more presence.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I guess I.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Still absolutely one hundred percent prioritize sleep. I bang on
about this all the time, but it's also why it's
taken me this long to adopt any kind of morning routine,
because I just would never sacrifice sleep. I think it's
so fundamental as a foundation to my health and everything
starts with sleep and then I kind of build up
(18:36):
from there in terms of being able to cope with anything.
And I think being Type one, again I've said this before,
it's a bit of a cruel irony that we need
sleep more than most, But as people living with type
one diabetes, our sleep is often interrupted and our brains
are often more busy. And that's what my consultant told
me anyway, so I'm going to stick to it. So
(18:57):
I do find myself not being able to manage if
I am sleep deprived, but thanks to diabetes technology, which
I am using, and the hybrid closed loop system the
insulin pump that I am using, which I've talked about
in other videos on other podcast episodes, So do go
and check that out. I don't really now get alarms,
(19:18):
which has drastically improved the quality of my sleep, which
therefore has a gas increased my capacity to be able
to consider something like a morning routine because I do
generally on a day to day basis dependent on life again,
of course, feel more rested. And that's not to say
I get no alarms, and that's also not to be
showing off about my hybrid closed loop, but this is
(19:39):
the reality of where I'm at, which I think maybe
has given me the space and the inclination to want
to dig into this a little bit. And if you're
sat there thinking, Okay, I literally don't have a spare
minute and I'm.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Exhausted as it is, yeah, I get it. I hear you.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I think I started with like five minutes of one
thing and just built up from there. And also, if
your screen time is anything like mine, I can certainly
find thirty minutes of an Instagram scroll to quit to
put a morning routine in place. And I just really
had to say, Okay, if this is something I want
(20:13):
to do, I'm going to have to prioritize getting to
bed half an hour earlier so I do still get
that same amount of sleep. It all comes down to
like personal choice and what you want to prioritize without
you know, I don't want to undermine or pretend that
anyone's life is easy, because it's not, and most of
us are pretty stretched, and I think I'm, you know,
on the luckier side of things in terms of the
(20:34):
way I've now built out my life with the time
that I have, so I completely get it. What I
would say is, as I said, I started with like
five minutes of one habit, and once that became like
part of the thing, part of just my day to day,
I could then flesh out from there try and build
another habit on top of it to where I've got
to now, which is probably something like a thirty five
(20:55):
forty minute routine which I have taken away from where scrolling.
But as I said, I just think it's worth it
because it sets me up so well to then jump
into the workday and I've probably gained that time back
in productivity. If you want to look at it that way,
do you know what I mean? So, yeah, there's wise
and ways to look at this. If you're just like, no,
(21:16):
absolutely don't have time fair enough, I would go and
suggest listening to that episode with doctor Rangan Chatterjy because
he also addresses that in that episode. So with that,
and with the context of where I'm at, with the
kind of diabetes devices I'm using, and the quality of
sleep I'm now getting and how much I trust the
(21:38):
technology that I'm using, the first thing I tried to
change was actually to do with my type one diabetes.
I tried not to immediately jump to what is my
glucose level the second I woke up, And that is
the habit literally of a lifetime, because when I was
diagnosed when I was eight years old, we were on fingerpricks.
I say we as in my family, me and my
(21:59):
mom who trying to figure this all out, and for
years and years and years, you know, she would wake
me up with my glucose meter. But that was how
I started every single day with a glucose reading, and
then obviously with the progress and availability of cgms, that
then morphed into being waking up and immediately looking at
(22:20):
my phone, and we know.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
What happens when you open your phone.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, so I would then check all my notifications, start
opening my inbox, and yeah, the day would be on
from there, and I'm already wired.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I'm already thinking about that email ling me to reply to.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So the first thing I tried to do was not
immediately wake up and open my phone and trust that
I'm arranged, because I haven't had an alarm and I
am someone that does get dawn phenomenon, so I do
need to take a little bit of inculent most mornings
to account for that. So what I've done there is
a throw my phone further over the room so it's
(22:58):
not within immediate reach the second I wake up, and
also leave my phone on aeroplane mode so I can
check my blood gluecoase level without opening my phone to
get all my notifications. So going to sleep and putting
my phone on aeroplane mode has been a helpful first step.
That is something that doesn't take any time whatsoever, And
(23:18):
there's something in my brain that just helps me sleep. Then,
because I'm not thinking about potential notifications, I'm not reaching
half asleep in the middle of the night for the
phone that does kind of help my brain shut off.
It's a very simple thing, but yeah, that's kind of
where I began with that one. This episode of Type
(23:40):
one on one is sponsored by Dexcom. Using dex COMMCGM
has given me so much confidence to make informed diabetes
treatment decisions in the moment. You can choose to wear
it on your arm or your abdomen, which is so
great to give those sites a break. And all dex
Comm cgms have the share and follow feature even when
connected to an insulin pump, so family and friends can
(24:01):
see your glucose levels and get alerts, giving that extra
bit of support when needed. Head to dexcom dot com
to request a free Dexcom one plus sample. Always read
the user manual for important product aspects and limitations. Talk
to your doctor for diabetes management terms and conditions and
terms of use. So what is the first thing I
(24:23):
do when I wake up? Well, bear with me because
it is a meditation.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I know what you're probably thinking, straight into meditation, No,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
You might think it's a bit woo woo. You might
think what is meditation?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
And that's exactly the point I want to make because
I used to try different forms of meditation, like I
love a yoga class, like I'm not a complete stranger
to this kind of thing. But an app or a
guru or a guy telling me to quiet in my
mind I just found so so so unhelpful. I just
(24:59):
did not know how to do that. So I thought
meditation wasn't for me. And what I've actually discovered is
not all meditations are built the same. So what I've
found is just a handful that are much more grounded
in reality. I think you have to find the right
tone of voice. And I'm using a meditation that's honestly
like five to ten minutes max. It's not some long,
(25:19):
forty five minute thing. It's just a way to give
myself a second between waking up and really waking up.
So I do need the phone to press play on
this meditation, but it will be something that I've downloaded,
so it's not something I need to turn off airplane
mode for and then I'm bombarded with all the notifications.
(25:41):
I just have these set in a very accessible place,
in a particular playlist, where I can pick the one
that I feel most kind of leaning towards that day,
and I lay in bed and do that five to
ten minute meditation with my eyes closed in bed, so
I will have opened my eyes to get to that meditation,
but I will then lay back down and just have
(26:02):
this five minutes to listen to the meditation and just
breathe and just like give myself a minute before I
get going with the day. And actually, I do think
that kind of helps with that doorm phenomenon, that spike,
because I'm not instantly opening my eyes, instantly thinking about
my type one diabetes, instantly wondering what my glucosevel is,
and then instantly starting my day, and it just sets
(26:26):
me up for.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Like here we are, we're awake, we go.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
It is like a bit of a bridge between sleeping
and waking. And as I said, you kind of have
to find the types of meditations that work for you,
and that is on you to kind of go and
figure out and dig. But there's so much free stuff
out there now between Spotify and podcasts and YouTube, and
as I said, mine is like ten minutes max, and
(26:50):
I have like a couple that I will rotate depending
on how I'm feeling that morning or what I feel
like I want to tune into, or the kind of
messaging that I want to kind of connect with that's
all very very personal. So what I have found works
for me is a much more active meditation. It's almost
like visualization of how I'd like to be within the day,
(27:11):
or some kind of releasing of things that I'm thinking
about or carrying. If I need to focus and I
know I've got a big day ahead and I want
to be productive, it might be like what I'd like
to achieve in that day, But more often than not,
it's more around feelings like how I want to feel
as I move through the day, So they're not kind
of this like wishy washy chanting, which, again, if that
(27:33):
works for you, that's amazing. Mine's just a bit more grounded,
I think, in general on the whole about.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Me as a human in this world.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So it'll either be something future focused or it will
be like a releasing and a letting go of something.
It might be blocks around like things I think or feel,
because we go through life just thinking and feeling the
way that we think and we feel without often step
back to consider that we have kind of created those
(28:06):
thought loops, and we can break those thought loops with
more helpful thought patterns. If we are limiting ourselves or
not being kind to ourselves. And I think again, this
pertains two type one diabetes quite well, because it is
a tough condition.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
We are being measured and tested at all hours of
the day.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
So to do something that kind of steps back from
that and gives yourself a little bit of love in
the morning, I think is a really nice thing to do.
And again, like, if you're not someone that wants to
tune into that, it can be around productivity, it can
just be around contentment or being calm. I tried an
amazing app called Activations, which, as it says, is much
(28:46):
less like sitting and thinking about trying to clear your
mind when then, of course all you can think about
is the fact that you should be clearing your mind
and you're not clearing your mind, And oh my god,
I'm so bad at this.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I'm never doing it again. It's not helping me.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
The Activations is kind of future focused and grounded in
like yourself as a person on this planet. The problem
with that is I think I got a free trial,
but then it was something around like twenty five pounds
a month for the app, which I just feel is
like for me personally, like a little bit too much,
but there.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Are all sorts of other apps out there.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's unfortunate because that one is really really good I
found personally. But that's just to demonstrate that there are
very different ways of doing this. My peloton app has
a meditation section. I'm already paying for that because I
use it for my running, not an ad. I just
love it. So for example, there are different ways you
can access this kind of thing, just to give yourself
five minutes before you really enter the awake world. And
(29:42):
I have found that as a starting point was quite
a nice thing to do to start my day, whether
you take anything else from it or not. What's not
to love but laying down for an extra five minutes
and just having some nice calming voices.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Talk to you.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
The next habit I've now adopted without fail is to
drink a glass of water, so the meditation and the
affirmation whatever is done. I leave a glass of water
by my bred the night before, so that's habit number two.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Pretty self explanatory.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
But I actually used to like reach for the coffee
straight away as soon as I got up. I would
go and put the kettle on or whatever, and you know,
maybe not drink my water until I was sat at
the desk like some hours later, So for me, that
just pushes that coffee back, which I'll get onto in
a minute, but also make sure like I'm starting my
date trying to hydrate.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Which yeah, it's pretty pretty important. I think that's pretty
well known.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
The next one, and this took a minute to implement,
and again I do know that not everyone is going
to be able to access this in the same way,
but it is trying to get some movement in. My
phone is still on aeroplane mode, by the way, at
this point I am not tapping into any notification except
my glucose level, which I will now have checked. So
the movement thing, I think, at the very least, I
(30:55):
will try and get outside and get some air. Ten minutes,
I'll just splash my face, I'm a little bit of
wash and throw on some clothes that are acceptable for
public consumption, and literally, even if it's just a walk
around the block, I might go and pick up something
from the shop like some milk if I need it,
and if I feel like I need an extra meditation
or visualization, then I might play it. But I am
(31:18):
trying to get better with that morning ten minute walk
it's just ten minutes just around the block. I'm not
massively in nature. I live in a city, just to
take in a bit of the world and the sky
and get some vitamin D and not plug straight into
my headphones, and I found that to be very useful.
(31:39):
The other alternative is that I will exercise. I will
be going to exercise, so that's a slightly different setup.
But exercise is something that I do regularly. It's something
that's very important to me. It really sets me up
well for the day. I know that a lot of
people just won't have time or inclination to do that.
So at the very least, that tiny, tiny walk, I think,
(32:00):
just yeah, kind of helps get your body moving, wake
you up a bit. Again, it's just getting that air
in your lungs, even if it is in the middle
of a city, and getting that vitamin D in your face.
I'm not going to go into the science of that
because I'm not qualified to do so. If I cannot
do this for whatever reason, and that does happen to
me sometimes, if I've got an early meeting or just
(32:21):
a ton of stuff to do, at the very least
I will put some absolute bops on while I'm getting
ready to just hype me up and try and move
about a bit and just get that energy flowing through
my body. And I just mean my literal favorite guilty
pleasure tracks, but they'll be like high vibe, positive energy,
just to shake off the kind of bedness sleepiness of
(32:44):
the night and get into the day with something that's
good for me. Another non negotiable, but this has always
been the case, is I make my bed, and I
just I literally can't bear it if I don't make
my bed. I don't know if that counts, but it's
something that I do in any and all cases. What's
not to love about a kitchen disco? Why wouldn't you
bop around the kitchen to your favorite songs while you're
(33:04):
making your breakfast?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Okay, So the next habit she says is a breakfast.
Now you might be thinking, Jen, obviously, why would you
include that?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Because breakfast is breakfast.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
It's not really a morning routine, it's not really a
morning habit. But I actually used to push back my
breakfast and just go in with.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
A couple of coffees.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
And I'm a bit too active to do that now.
And what I've actually found in having a high protein
quality breakfast that isn't just white bread and jam, for example,
It actually has helped regulate my appetite over the course
of the rest of the day. And I do think
that is related to kind of hormones and stresses we're
(33:48):
putting on our body.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And I will not have my.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
First coffee of the day until after I've taken that
food in, and again that just has I've found setting
me up a little bit better in terms of kind
of entering the day with that nervous energy that I
do believe probably did spike my cortisol in a way
that wasn't optimal. So I don't know if that's helpful.
(34:14):
And again this is just my personal experience, but I've
kind of experimented a lot with intermittent fasting and things
over the years, and I believe as well, there's evidence
now that says women do need that first meal of
the day much more than men due to hormonal differences.
So as someone with other hormonal issues as well, I
(34:36):
have just kind of played around with that and I'm
finding that that is quite an important part of the
routine actually, so that's why I'm including that one there.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So then I sit down.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I'm at the desk now really taking you through this here,
and I will do something that you might call morning notes.
I don't know morning scribbles. And again there with me,
it is very short. It is not really and reams
of journaling. I actually do like my thoughts on the
day at night, and that's something I've done for years
and years and years. Morning notes. There's two aspects to this.
(35:10):
And I've sat down with my coffee. I haven't opened
the laptop. I am on my phone at this point,
so I'm sort of gearing up towards entering the laptop
and the working day, if you like. And the first
thing I do, I have this journal that's like a
weekly gender, I guess, and each page has got seven
little boxes, so the boxes are really small. And that's
(35:35):
what I mean about making these habits work for you.
There is only so much I can write. I first
of all, write three things that will make today amazing.
And that sounds really corny and really cliche, but again
it's working.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So whatever you do, you you can laugh at me
all you like.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
And when I say three things that will make today amazing,
they are the tiniest, tiniest things So this is kind
of about a appreciating the little things around you and
b reframing certain things. So if, for example, I've got
a massive workday ahead and I'm a little bit stressed
about it and nervous about getting everything done, I will
(36:15):
reframe that as today will be amazing because I have
an abundance of creative work that I get to do,
not oh my god, I've got all this stuff to do,
how am I going to do it? So it just
reframes it as a freelancer. Having a lot of work
is a beautiful thing, but it can be easy to
forget that when you're in the mix of the deadlines.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
So that might be one.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Another one that I use often is that the sun
is shining, because that really does make a difference on
my life, and as someone who lives in quite a
sunny country, I do really appreciate that because that certainly
isn't the case in the UK.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Sorry to all the UK listeners.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
But what I'm trying to illustrate here is like it
might be, oh, I'm I get to speak to my
sister in law today, and that's something that I really
don't take for granted, even though it's so simple because
I don't live near her, so those little things are
nothing to do with like making a million pounds or
anything stravagant. It's just appreciating and noticing the good things
(37:19):
I have in my life. And you can always find
something in your day, no matter what kind of day
you have or think you're going to have. And I
also think by writing those three things down, there are
always things that I'm ninety nine percent sure are going
to happen, if not already happened, and that kind of
then almost creates an amazing day because at the end
(37:43):
of the day, I can think, huh, yeah, those three
things did happen, Therefore it was an amazing day. I
don't know if I'm really getting my point across here,
but it's just kind of like reframing the perspective around
what type of day you're about to have, and there's
always stuff you can find. And even if I'm like
going into quite a tough day, I might then draw
(38:04):
on something from the day before that's left me feeling
really good, and I've woken up with that nice feeling
from that thing that happened the day before that I
didn't know was going to happen. Like I had a
really nice connection with someone, or you know, I've already
honored my body today and moved it if I've gone
out for a run out to the gym, for example.
These are really really simple things that I think often
(38:27):
when we're caught up in the to do list, we
don't really take the time to appreciate. So that's the
first bit of my morning notes, and again it's just
three tiny things that probably takes me a minute.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
And then the.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Second bit of the box is filled with more like
affirmation visualization stuff, And this is a technique I learned
in a coaching course I recently did. And again I
found this really helpful because it was very grounded in
me and like it wasn't something I've plucked from the sky.
And it's about kind of stepping into the version of
(39:00):
me that is the best version of me I can
feasibly imagine and breaking down some of those limiting beliefs
or blocks that you might have about how much you're
worth or who you get to be or what you deserve.
And it can be very real world based, but I
try and take it up a notch so that it's
a little bit of a stretch in terms of what
(39:22):
I perceive for myself, whether that be a work project
I want to come in or something i'm reaching for,
or a goal i'm working towards. I write down affirmations
that are meet at that place of having already achieved it,
and what I do there, what that helps me personally
with and again this might not work for you, is
kind of embody those feelings of that person already. And
(39:43):
I think this is kind of like the crux of manifestation.
If you like that, you adopt the feelings because you're
imagining what it's like to be that person, live that life,
feel those feelings, taste those tastes, and smell those smells
of a person walking the earth, I guess higher level,
and I think it just kind of gives me permission,
(40:04):
as someone who doesn't have a boss or someone kind
of cheering me on in that way on a day
to day basis, to kind of step into that because
I am someone who can hold myself back, be quite
self deprecating or play small. I guess if you like so,
maybe that will help you, maybe it won't, But that's
how I feel the rest of that box up and
(40:25):
that morning notes thing literally takes five minutes and it
is a lovely, delightful thing that I do, and I
really really really enjoy it, and I would highly recommend it.
I realized that last one might be a step too
far and I might have lost you there, but I
wanted to include it because, as I said, this is
just what I've been playing around with. And if you've
(40:46):
been following me for a while, you probably will have
seen on Instagram like the way I've kind of evolved.
And I do know and can acknowledge that I am
looking very vibrant and alive and more so than I
think ever in my life, and I want that for
other people because I'm living a life that I really
(41:08):
love despite the chronic chaos of Type one diabetes. And
it's not just because I've suddenly started writing affirmations down,
but I can acknowledge how content I feel, and I
know I'm so lucky. But I also know that I've
worked really hard to get to this point and this
place in my life. So I want to pass this
on because I think it's possible for all of us
(41:29):
to make these tweaks and for things to be better.
And I have been in that place where things did
not feel good or nice, and my head was not
a nice place to be, so I guess that's where
this comes from. So I hope you take this stuff
in the spirit that it's intended. And again, as I said,
this is all just what's been working for me, and
(41:52):
I might not do all of it forever. It's probably
going to change at some point, but yeah, just to
say that, yeah, I feel pretty good.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
The last thing I.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Want to say is just around the to do list,
around actual work stuff. So I have now gone into
work mode, open the laptop, and I will prioritize one
thing that I need to absolutely get done that day
to make the day a success. And the reason I
do that is because, like most people, the to do
list is never ending. It will just go on and
(42:24):
on and on, and a lot of the time, you know,
I have multiple clients, I have different priorities, I have
this podcast, I often don't know where to start.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So I absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Prioritize one thing and write that down as the thing
I will get done that day, and I try and
attack that first because it's often as well like the
biggest task, the metius task, the task that I'm trying
to put off, and then I will have a maximum
of three, so two more items on the to do
list that I will prioritize and I'll put them at
the top of my list and bold them, and they're
(42:54):
the ones I kind of work through for the day.
And I've obviously got an idea at this moment in time,
having done this for years, of what is achievable in
a day.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
And I just try and get those done.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
And then that's kind of like where I can relax
then and extra things that I get done, and it
might be a huge creative deck that I'm working on
for a client, or it might just be like finally
sending off that present to the post Office that I've
been meaning to send for weeks. Often their work based things,
because that's what needs to get done, really.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
But yeah, just to say that that's kind of helped.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Me prevent the overwhelm and that kind of stress mode
of oh my god, there's a million things to do
and I don't know which one to tackle first. So
I'll just add that in at the end and we'll
end it on a nice tangible, reality based note for
the people who think I've gone way up in the
clouds here. But yeah, so that's kind of the rundown
of my morning routine, my morning habits, the space I've created. Again,
(43:49):
I can't do all of it every day, but most
days it's pretty manageable, and I've just found it like
super beneficial in the way that that then sets the
tone for my day. And yeah, it's all just a
bit here, a bit there. Have a tweek, have a play,
have a dig, have a research, have a Google. I
mean you can ask chat GBT to create you a
morning routine within a certain timeframe around certain priorities or
(44:12):
focuses that you want to work on if you like,
and go from there and see what that throws up.
And that might be a nice starting point. But again,
none of this is advice. It's not medical advice, and
it's just what's working for me. But anything that I
can do to help me help myself tackle life with
type one diabetes, I'm willing to give it a go.
So I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If there's anything
(44:35):
that's particularly help you in your mornings, in your day,
in your life, I'll take it. So let me know.
Come and say hi. We've got Instagram at studio Type
one on one And if you're not signed up yet.
I do actually have a weekly newsletter. It's super concise,
super fun, very real talk comes out every Friday morning.
(44:55):
If you head to Type one on one dot com
forward slash newsletter, you will find it. And I'd love
it if you sign up so I can just send
myself into your inbox every Friday. It's a really lovely
little thing that I do. And yeah, I hope you've
enjoyed this episode. I never ever ever want to tell
you how to live your life. I'm just trying to
(45:15):
kind of spread the things that have helped me. So
I hope you've enjoyed this one and I will see
you very soon with another podcast. I hope you enjoyed
this episode of Type one on one. Please remember that
nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as
medical advice. I'm definitely not a healthcare professional. If you
like what you hear, hit subscribe and do leave a
(45:37):
little review on iTunes if.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
You have time.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
It really helps to spread the word about type one diabetes.
And thank you so much for listening.
This episode of Type one on one is sponsored by Dexcom.
More on that later. Just to say, as with every
episode of Type one on one, nothing you hear within
this podcast episode is intended to be nor should be
taken as medical advice, and you should absolutely seek the
advice and guidance of a healthcare professional before making any
changes to your diabetes management. If you want to come
(00:21):
and say hi, you can do so at Studio type
one on one on Instagram and I'd love to see
you there. Hi, everyone, and welcome to Type one on one,
a podcast that delves into the obscure, complex and challenging
world of life with type one diabetes. I'm Jen Greeves,
and each week, with the help of some brilliant guests,
(00:44):
I'll be showing that there is no normal when it
comes to handlink this whopper of a chronic condition, because
we're all pretty much figuring out the messiness of day
to day life with diabetes as we go. And most
of all, even though it doesn't always feel like it,
we are absolutely not alone. Hi everyone, and welcome back
(01:04):
to another episode of Type one on one.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You've got a solo episode today.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
If you're new here, I normally interview a wonderful guest
about their life with type one or how they work
in the world of type one diabetes.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
But today it's just me.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
And I'm going to be talking about morning habits, and
specifically the morning habits that have actually helped me with
my health and sort of more holistically, I guess around
type one diabetes as a reformed morning routine skeptic and
someone who is generally trying to keep the calm at
all times because life of the chronic illness is stressful.
(01:40):
This episode was actually sparked by my conversation with last
week's guest, Dr Monica Sharma. That episode was a guide
to Cortusol, a quartusole deep dive, and in that episode
we dug into all things cortusol, what it is, how
it functions, how it works with other hormones in your boy,
why we need it, and what we can do to
(02:02):
help regulate it. And within that episode we were talking
a bit about starting the day off right and how
morning routines and habits can actually really help with that
quarter soile management and get your day off to a
start that isn't just falling out of bed and into
the laptop as I have been known to.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Do, because you know, this is all a work in progress.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I'm just trying to do what I can to make
living with type one diabetes as manageable as possible, and
chronic illness like it is a beast. So I am
someone who used to kind of just I roll this
whole morning routine thing in relation to the fact that
I cannot cure my type one diabetes and it is
(02:45):
a mammoth condition, and there's just so many factors, so
many variables that go into it. To me, the idea
of writing a few lines in a journal and sitting
for five minutes with my thoughts just felt quite ineffectual.
But what I have come to realize after jumping into
this experimenting, playing around with things, is that, like anything
(03:08):
really in life, I guess you have to find the
way it works for you, the way it resonates with you,
the way it's realistic and manageable for you, and the
way it connects with you as well. And I sort
of had this idea of a five am club with
a green juice.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
However, there are quite a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Of possibilities from that extreme to rolling out of bed
bleary eyed, not knowing where you are, what day it is,
running out of the door with a coffee in hand,
you know, chomping on your breakfast as you run for
the train. So I thought it might be helpful today
to go into a little bit about what old morning
routine actually is, what it can look like, and why
(03:46):
it might be helpful, and then get into the specifics
of the morning routine that I have now gathered, collated,
built and tried to kind of stick to you as
consistently as possible when my life allows, which is nearly
every day. As I said, nothing's perfect, but I've come
to a place where I've sort of felt the benefits,
(04:07):
which is incredible because yeah, I just didn't think that
would be a thing, but here we are. Obviously, this
is no cure for type one diarbetes. Unfortunately, that would
be lovely. But outside of the basics of testing my
glucose level using a CGM. Kindly, I have the wonderful
(04:27):
dex Colm as a Dexcom Warrior. Mine is gifted and
they're actually sponsoring today's episode. Outside of that, outside of
taking my insulin, my medication and doing the X plus
Y equal Z of type one diabetes basics it's the extras,
the holistic side of things, and this kind of whole
(04:48):
three sixty approach to health and wellness that has been
a massive, significant unlock in terms of not only my
health outcomes, like the actual outcomes I'm getting in terms
of time and ranging things, but just the perspective I
have and how equipped I feel to move through life
with this chronic condition. So this is kind of part
(05:09):
of that. That's why I started digging into this a bit.
I've adopted loads of habits and structures and systems over
the years that have taken me from quite an overwhelmed,
burnt out, very frustrated sort of not knowing place with
my type one diabetes and the health outcomes reflecting that,
to a place now that is, you know, pretty healthy
(05:30):
by my standards, feeling pretty good and just kind of
positive and hopeful and as I said, able to move
through life with type one diabetes without ignoring or dismissing
the realities and the challenges and the difficulties that come
with living with a chronic illness like type one. And
I started with just kind of one morning habit thing
(05:51):
that took just a couple of minutes and kind of
built out from there, and once I'd unlocked a few
of these morning habits, piece them together in a way
that kind of worked and also felt manageable to me,
I do have to say it's actually really transformed my mornings,
and also then the energy I have to move through
the day, and kind of the positive impact it's had
(06:13):
on the kind of day I have and the outlook
I have my perspective on that day, which I do
think has has created quite a shift.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And as I've.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Already mentioned more than once, type one diabetes is a
tricky condition to live with, so I'm kind of here
for anything that I can do to make that feel
a little bit less heavy. I don't know about you.
I'm assuming that you feel the same, otherwise you probably
wouldn't have clicks play on this episode. So, as Doctor
Monica was talking about last week, the effects of cortisolt
(06:45):
on blood glucose level are interlinked and the benefits of
a morning routine. As it's been studied by scientists, psychologists,
you know, in the empirical world, real people, if you like,
and it's not some sort of of random wellness guru
telling you this. There has been quite a lot of
(07:05):
evidence to suggest that some form of morning routine is
actually beneficial on quartersole regulation and just stress levels in
general to set you up for the day. So that's
where the link is, and that's why I wanted to
dig into this this week. And obviously I have to
say here before we get into it that I am
certainly not a medical professional, far from it, and none
(07:27):
of what I'm saying should be taken as medical advice.
This has always is just based on my personal experience.
So take what connects and leaves the rest. Do your research,
do you digging. That's how I've come to kind of
adopt and form these habits and routines, and it's all
in the spirit of experimentation. But in general, I love
(07:47):
self development. I read a lot of books around it,
and I listen to a ton of podcasts about it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So this is the stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I like, and it will be personal to me as
well as my life circumstances. I'm aware that I live
a certain type of life which is quite unique. I'm
thirty eight, I have no children. For example, I'm also
a freelancer, so more often than not I dictate the
hours around my day.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But I also am a very busy person.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So I yeah, I guess that's why I wanted to
expand on this a bit, because I've managed to make
this all, or my version of this, quite concise in
my view, given how much I'm doing around it now,
and quite efficient, and I'm absolutely here for the efficiency.
If I can multitask, I will do it. But this
(08:33):
is all in the spirit of a bit more calm.
So yeah, I've gone, as I said, from quite a
skeptic of this stuff to being very on board with
a few simple morning things that mean I actually know
what day it is, and I'm not just straight away
absorbing everyone else's noise and all the connectedness of the
(08:53):
world and starting my day off in that really kind
of quite high stressed, backfoot feeling.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So please do bear with me here.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I do think now that there is quite a lot
of power in making small tweaks until something clicks and
then kind of forming that into a habit or just
becoming something that you do, and then building on from
there with the next habit. And as doctor Monica said
in last week's episode, one percent better every day, and
that is also very similar to the road I've been
on with type one diabetes. I have taken the hard
(09:25):
way around, shall we say, in terms of figuring out
how to do type one diabetes in a way that
I perceive to be a very healthy, balanced outlook and
one where I'm really happy with the outcomes I'm getting
my time in range. If I look at all the
factors and variables that come with living with type one
diabetes and the effects of the condition and all of
(09:48):
the stuff I have to do every day just to
keep myself alive with type one diabetes, it is incredibly
overwhelming and so to look at like tiny little things
I used to think would be barely touched the side.
But when I look back, having gone through nearly thirty
years of type one diabetes, now I can see that
the sum total of those small changes, most of which
(10:10):
I've kind of stumbled across along the way, because as
I said, I've.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Taken kind of the hard road.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Hopefully you have a great care team that you can
ask for help on this stuff. But you know, there's
also the diabetes community and just life experience. If I
look at all of that, that's some total of those
like tweaks and that information gathering one day at a
time and going along this road has been huge and
(10:36):
I've gone from, you know, quite a difficult and I
would say pretty negative place with my type one diabetes
many years ago to where I am today, where you know,
due to many many factors in and outside of type
one diabetes, I kind of feel the healthiest and most
alive and most vibrant I guess I've ever.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Felt, which is quite cool to say.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Actually, So to build on whatr Monica was saying, and
do go back and listen to the episode last week,
it's a quarters Ole guide for you.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I do think it's a really good episode.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Doctr Monica is absolutely fabulous and just has just got
such a lovely, calming, supportive tone as well as being
super knowledgeable in general as a general practitioner. But we
were talking about how stressful day to day life is
in the modern world, whether you live with a chronic
illness or not, and the impact that is having on
(11:30):
our hormones like quartersole and all sorts of other hormones
in the body, and potentially what is within our control
to try and help ourselves. And that's where morning routine
came in. So of course there is so much noise
online about morning routines, and yeah, I always pictured this
(11:51):
ridiculous kind of five am wake up, which I am
just not going to do ever unless I'm about to
catch a plane or something. Me, that's just not feasible.
And I think for most people, a five am club
kind of energy is not feasible. So I'm talking more
for me about how I can positively affect my stress
(12:12):
levels through simple habits and setting my day up right
to kind of have that momentum for the day.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And yeah, I'm down to clown. So where to begin.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I mean, you can look at all sorts of people.
As I said, there's so much out there now. You
can look at the work of Tim Ferris, who has
a very very famous podcast. I believe the modern morning
routine as we know it as it's kind of talked
about now, was popularized by hal L. Rod in his
(12:46):
book The Miracle Morning. So I will leave links to
those below so you can go digging if this is
something that interests you. But there's a podcast episode that
I also want to highlight. It was Dr Rangan Chatterjee
talking on Grace Beverly's podcast Working Hard, and I'll leave
the link again to that below, But I listened to
(13:06):
that well over a year ago now, and he was
talking in depth about morning routines, and I distinctly remember thinking, oh, yeah,
well that's all well and good, but that just doesn't
sound like it's going to help.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I went back to.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
That episode while I was researching this episode that you're
listening to now, and it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I honestly listened to it once, and I listened to.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Hundreds of episodes, podcast episodes from all sorts of different people,
like it was over a year ago, as I said,
and I cannot believe how much what I'm doing now
actually overlaps with what he was saying. Listening back to
it now only a year later, it's actually quite crazy.
(13:53):
So I think again, it just kind of speaks to
the spirit of experimentation.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Again.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You could say I've gone the hard way because he
kind of gave me the prescription right there. But I
guess listening to it all in a list in one
go maybe felt quite overwhelming, which is kind of what
I'm going to go and do today.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
But here we are. I do think it's a really
good episode.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And obviously he is also a medical professional, so if
you want someone that isn't just rambling about their own lifestyle,
then do go and check that one out. Another podcast episode.
One more podcast episode that I want to add that
I will link to you below. When it comes to
things like visualization, manifestation, affirmation, I do think naturally people
are a little bit like what is this all about?
(14:38):
So I want to link one below that's from a
Stanford neuroscientist and neurosurgeon before we get into my personal
habits and what I'm doing, named Dr Jim Dodie. And
I heard this interview on the Mel Robins podcast. Mel
Robins is obviously also very well known for her kind
of self development self help stuff, and he was talking
(14:59):
about the science behind manifestation and visualization, and I think
although I've always been interested in stuff like this and
curious about it, I think the seeds of what I'm
doing now were kind of planted there because he was
talking about it from the scientific angle, and something clicked
(15:19):
there that hadn't maybe before. So although it's not quite
the same as what we're talking about today, I do
feel like it's complimentary. So I'll leave that below if
you want to check it out. So that's some general background,
but to give you context for my personal experience, I
want to explain where I used to be at, And
I've kind of alluded to that I'm someone who is
(15:40):
or certainly used to be on from the moment I
wake up, and actually probably before that, my brain would
be wearing, like in my sleep and before I opened
my eyes, just thinking about the busyness. And I was
someone who said yes all the time to all the life.
I used to run around London. I worked in media.
It was high pressure. I had all these hobbies. I
was doing, beats, things on the side, relationships, friendships, just life.
(16:03):
I know that everyone is busy and everyone has a
lot going on, whether it's raising children, or you've got
a stressful job, or you're climbing a career leader, or
you're studying. But yeah, my sort of modus operandi was
pretty pretty switched on to switched on. I would say,
I do live kind of a slower pace now, but
(16:24):
my natural inclination is to be kind of juggling a
lot of things at once. And I guess I can
see looking at the life I live now versus that
kind of lifestyle I was living. I don't regret anything,
but running at that speed certainly wasn't sustainable, which maybe
is part of the reason I am sat here now
(16:45):
living a slightly different lifestyle. But I also think it's
just going through life, you know, as in my twenties
in London, having a great time. That's to say that
I do think probably my day to day level of
cortisol was probably more raised than it is now. And yeah,
there are everyone needs quartusole. As doctor Monica said, portosol
(17:06):
is not the enemy, but there are certainly optimum levels
and less optimum levels. And I would say that I run,
I would hazard a guess, again, not being a medical
professional in any way, shape or form, that I run
at a more optimal level for me in general on
the whole these days. Obviously it depends on what's going
(17:26):
on in my life and what stresses and challenges I'm facing,
Type one diabetes being the constant in there. But again
it comes back to kind of my overall umbrella picture
of health, my bird's eye view picture of my health.
And these days, I guess I just have created a
bit more space in my days. But with that, I've
sort of feel like I've got more life in my days.
(17:48):
I don't know, I don't think I'm living in any
less full up life. If that makes sense, But I've
got sort of more space and more systems and structure
in place that help me pro the day, not get
overwhelmed by the things I've got to do, not get
overwhelmed by the frustrations and challenges of Type one diabetes,
and just approach life with a bit more presence.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I guess I.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Still absolutely one hundred percent prioritize sleep. I bang on
about this all the time, but it's also why it's
taken me this long to adopt any kind of morning routine,
because I just would never sacrifice sleep. I think it's
so fundamental as a foundation to my health and everything
starts with sleep and then I kind of build up
(18:36):
from there in terms of being able to cope with anything.
And I think being Type one, again I've said this before,
it's a bit of a cruel irony that we need
sleep more than most, But as people living with type
one diabetes, our sleep is often interrupted and our brains
are often more busy. And that's what my consultant told
me anyway, so I'm going to stick to it. So
(18:57):
I do find myself not being able to manage if
I am sleep deprived, but thanks to diabetes technology, which
I am using, and the hybrid closed loop system the
insulin pump that I am using, which I've talked about
in other videos on other podcast episodes, So do go
and check that out. I don't really now get alarms,
(19:18):
which has drastically improved the quality of my sleep, which
therefore has a gas increased my capacity to be able
to consider something like a morning routine because I do
generally on a day to day basis dependent on life again,
of course, feel more rested. And that's not to say
I get no alarms, and that's also not to be
showing off about my hybrid closed loop, but this is
(19:39):
the reality of where I'm at, which I think maybe
has given me the space and the inclination to want
to dig into this a little bit. And if you're
sat there thinking, Okay, I literally don't have a spare
minute and I'm.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Exhausted as it is, yeah, I get it. I hear you.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I think I started with like five minutes of one
thing and just built up from there. And also, if
your screen time is anything like mine, I can certainly
find thirty minutes of an Instagram scroll to quit to
put a morning routine in place. And I just really
had to say, Okay, if this is something I want
(20:13):
to do, I'm going to have to prioritize getting to
bed half an hour earlier so I do still get
that same amount of sleep. It all comes down to
like personal choice and what you want to prioritize without
you know, I don't want to undermine or pretend that
anyone's life is easy, because it's not, and most of
us are pretty stretched, and I think I'm, you know,
on the luckier side of things in terms of the
(20:34):
way I've now built out my life with the time
that I have, so I completely get it. What I
would say is, as I said, I started with like
five minutes of one habit, and once that became like
part of the thing, part of just my day to day,
I could then flesh out from there try and build
another habit on top of it to where I've got
to now, which is probably something like a thirty five
(20:55):
forty minute routine which I have taken away from where scrolling.
But as I said, I just think it's worth it
because it sets me up so well to then jump
into the workday and I've probably gained that time back
in productivity. If you want to look at it that way,
do you know what I mean? So, yeah, there's wise
and ways to look at this. If you're just like, no,
(21:16):
absolutely don't have time fair enough, I would go and
suggest listening to that episode with doctor Rangan Chatterjy because
he also addresses that in that episode. So with that,
and with the context of where I'm at, with the
kind of diabetes devices I'm using, and the quality of
sleep I'm now getting and how much I trust the
(21:38):
technology that I'm using, the first thing I tried to
change was actually to do with my type one diabetes.
I tried not to immediately jump to what is my
glucose level the second I woke up, And that is
the habit literally of a lifetime, because when I was
diagnosed when I was eight years old, we were on fingerpricks.
I say we as in my family, me and my
(21:59):
mom who trying to figure this all out, and for
years and years and years, you know, she would wake
me up with my glucose meter. But that was how
I started every single day with a glucose reading, and
then obviously with the progress and availability of cgms, that
then morphed into being waking up and immediately looking at
(22:20):
my phone, and we know.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
What happens when you open your phone.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, so I would then check all my notifications, start
opening my inbox, and yeah, the day would be on
from there, and I'm already wired.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I'm already thinking about that email ling me to reply to.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So the first thing I tried to do was not
immediately wake up and open my phone and trust that
I'm arranged, because I haven't had an alarm and I
am someone that does get dawn phenomenon, so I do
need to take a little bit of inculent most mornings
to account for that. So what I've done there is
a throw my phone further over the room so it's
(22:58):
not within immediate reach the second I wake up, and
also leave my phone on aeroplane mode so I can
check my blood gluecoase level without opening my phone to
get all my notifications. So going to sleep and putting
my phone on aeroplane mode has been a helpful first step.
That is something that doesn't take any time whatsoever, And
(23:18):
there's something in my brain that just helps me sleep. Then,
because I'm not thinking about potential notifications, I'm not reaching
half asleep in the middle of the night for the
phone that does kind of help my brain shut off.
It's a very simple thing, but yeah, that's kind of
where I began with that one. This episode of Type
(23:40):
one on one is sponsored by Dexcom. Using dex COMMCGM
has given me so much confidence to make informed diabetes
treatment decisions in the moment. You can choose to wear
it on your arm or your abdomen, which is so
great to give those sites a break. And all dex
Comm cgms have the share and follow feature even when
connected to an insulin pump, so family and friends can
(24:01):
see your glucose levels and get alerts, giving that extra
bit of support when needed. Head to dexcom dot com
to request a free Dexcom one plus sample. Always read
the user manual for important product aspects and limitations. Talk
to your doctor for diabetes management terms and conditions and
terms of use. So what is the first thing I
(24:23):
do when I wake up? Well, bear with me because
it is a meditation.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I know what you're probably thinking, straight into meditation, No,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
You might think it's a bit woo woo. You might
think what is meditation?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
And that's exactly the point I want to make because
I used to try different forms of meditation, like I
love a yoga class, like I'm not a complete stranger
to this kind of thing. But an app or a
guru or a guy telling me to quiet in my
mind I just found so so so unhelpful. I just
(24:59):
did not know how to do that. So I thought
meditation wasn't for me. And what I've actually discovered is
not all meditations are built the same. So what I've
found is just a handful that are much more grounded
in reality. I think you have to find the right
tone of voice. And I'm using a meditation that's honestly
like five to ten minutes max. It's not some long,
(25:19):
forty five minute thing. It's just a way to give
myself a second between waking up and really waking up.
So I do need the phone to press play on
this meditation, but it will be something that I've downloaded,
so it's not something I need to turn off airplane
mode for and then I'm bombarded with all the notifications.
(25:41):
I just have these set in a very accessible place,
in a particular playlist, where I can pick the one
that I feel most kind of leaning towards that day,
and I lay in bed and do that five to
ten minute meditation with my eyes closed in bed, so
I will have opened my eyes to get to that meditation,
but I will then lay back down and just have
(26:02):
this five minutes to listen to the meditation and just
breathe and just like give myself a minute before I
get going with the day. And actually, I do think
that kind of helps with that doorm phenomenon, that spike,
because I'm not instantly opening my eyes, instantly thinking about
my type one diabetes, instantly wondering what my glucosevel is,
and then instantly starting my day, and it just sets
(26:26):
me up for.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Like here we are, we're awake, we go.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
It is like a bit of a bridge between sleeping
and waking. And as I said, you kind of have
to find the types of meditations that work for you,
and that is on you to kind of go and
figure out and dig. But there's so much free stuff
out there now between Spotify and podcasts and YouTube, and
as I said, mine is like ten minutes max, and
(26:50):
I have like a couple that I will rotate depending
on how I'm feeling that morning or what I feel
like I want to tune into, or the kind of
messaging that I want to kind of connect with that's
all very very personal. So what I have found works
for me is a much more active meditation. It's almost
like visualization of how I'd like to be within the day,
(27:11):
or some kind of releasing of things that I'm thinking
about or carrying. If I need to focus and I
know I've got a big day ahead and I want
to be productive, it might be like what I'd like
to achieve in that day, But more often than not,
it's more around feelings like how I want to feel
as I move through the day, So they're not kind
of this like wishy washy chanting, which, again, if that
(27:33):
works for you, that's amazing. Mine's just a bit more grounded,
I think, in general on the whole about.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Me as a human in this world.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So it'll either be something future focused or it will
be like a releasing and a letting go of something.
It might be blocks around like things I think or feel,
because we go through life just thinking and feeling the
way that we think and we feel without often step
back to consider that we have kind of created those
(28:06):
thought loops, and we can break those thought loops with
more helpful thought patterns. If we are limiting ourselves or
not being kind to ourselves. And I think again, this
pertains two type one diabetes quite well, because it is
a tough condition.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
We are being measured and tested at all hours of
the day.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
So to do something that kind of steps back from
that and gives yourself a little bit of love in
the morning, I think is a really nice thing to do.
And again, like, if you're not someone that wants to
tune into that, it can be around productivity, it can
just be around contentment or being calm. I tried an
amazing app called Activations, which, as it says, is much
(28:46):
less like sitting and thinking about trying to clear your
mind when then, of course all you can think about
is the fact that you should be clearing your mind
and you're not clearing your mind, And oh my god,
I'm so bad at this.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I'm never doing it again. It's not helping me.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
The Activations is kind of future focused and grounded in
like yourself as a person on this planet. The problem
with that is I think I got a free trial,
but then it was something around like twenty five pounds
a month for the app, which I just feel is
like for me personally, like a little bit too much,
but there.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Are all sorts of other apps out there.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's unfortunate because that one is really really good I
found personally. But that's just to demonstrate that there are
very different ways of doing this. My peloton app has
a meditation section. I'm already paying for that because I
use it for my running, not an ad. I just
love it. So for example, there are different ways you
can access this kind of thing, just to give yourself
five minutes before you really enter the awake world. And
(29:42):
I have found that as a starting point was quite
a nice thing to do to start my day, whether
you take anything else from it or not. What's not
to love but laying down for an extra five minutes
and just having some nice calming voices.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Talk to you.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
The next habit I've now adopted without fail is to
drink a glass of water, so the meditation and the
affirmation whatever is done. I leave a glass of water
by my bred the night before, so that's habit number two.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Pretty self explanatory.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
But I actually used to like reach for the coffee
straight away as soon as I got up. I would
go and put the kettle on or whatever, and you know,
maybe not drink my water until I was sat at
the desk like some hours later, So for me, that
just pushes that coffee back, which I'll get onto in
a minute, but also make sure like I'm starting my
date trying to hydrate.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Which yeah, it's pretty pretty important. I think that's pretty
well known.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
The next one, and this took a minute to implement,
and again I do know that not everyone is going
to be able to access this in the same way,
but it is trying to get some movement in. My
phone is still on aeroplane mode, by the way, at
this point I am not tapping into any notification except
my glucose level, which I will now have checked. So
the movement thing, I think, at the very least, I
(30:55):
will try and get outside and get some air. Ten minutes,
I'll just splash my face, I'm a little bit of
wash and throw on some clothes that are acceptable for
public consumption, and literally, even if it's just a walk
around the block, I might go and pick up something
from the shop like some milk if I need it,
and if I feel like I need an extra meditation
or visualization, then I might play it. But I am
(31:18):
trying to get better with that morning ten minute walk
it's just ten minutes just around the block. I'm not
massively in nature. I live in a city, just to
take in a bit of the world and the sky
and get some vitamin D and not plug straight into
my headphones, and I found that to be very useful.
(31:39):
The other alternative is that I will exercise. I will
be going to exercise, so that's a slightly different setup.
But exercise is something that I do regularly. It's something
that's very important to me. It really sets me up
well for the day. I know that a lot of
people just won't have time or inclination to do that.
So at the very least, that tiny, tiny walk, I think,
(32:00):
just yeah, kind of helps get your body moving, wake
you up a bit. Again, it's just getting that air
in your lungs, even if it is in the middle
of a city, and getting that vitamin D in your face.
I'm not going to go into the science of that
because I'm not qualified to do so. If I cannot
do this for whatever reason, and that does happen to
me sometimes, if I've got an early meeting or just
(32:21):
a ton of stuff to do, at the very least
I will put some absolute bops on while I'm getting
ready to just hype me up and try and move
about a bit and just get that energy flowing through
my body. And I just mean my literal favorite guilty
pleasure tracks, but they'll be like high vibe, positive energy,
just to shake off the kind of bedness sleepiness of
(32:44):
the night and get into the day with something that's
good for me. Another non negotiable, but this has always
been the case, is I make my bed, and I
just I literally can't bear it if I don't make
my bed. I don't know if that counts, but it's
something that I do in any and all cases. What's
not to love about a kitchen disco? Why wouldn't you
bop around the kitchen to your favorite songs while you're
(33:04):
making your breakfast?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Okay, So the next habit she says is a breakfast.
Now you might be thinking, Jen, obviously, why would you
include that?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Because breakfast is breakfast.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
It's not really a morning routine, it's not really a
morning habit. But I actually used to push back my
breakfast and just go in with.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
A couple of coffees.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
And I'm a bit too active to do that now.
And what I've actually found in having a high protein
quality breakfast that isn't just white bread and jam, for example,
It actually has helped regulate my appetite over the course
of the rest of the day. And I do think
that is related to kind of hormones and stresses we're
(33:48):
putting on our body.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And I will not have my.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
First coffee of the day until after I've taken that
food in, and again that just has I've found setting
me up a little bit better in terms of kind
of entering the day with that nervous energy that I
do believe probably did spike my cortisol in a way
that wasn't optimal. So I don't know if that's helpful.
(34:14):
And again this is just my personal experience, but I've
kind of experimented a lot with intermittent fasting and things
over the years, and I believe as well, there's evidence
now that says women do need that first meal of
the day much more than men due to hormonal differences.
So as someone with other hormonal issues as well, I
(34:36):
have just kind of played around with that and I'm
finding that that is quite an important part of the
routine actually, so that's why I'm including that one there.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So then I sit down.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I'm at the desk now really taking you through this here,
and I will do something that you might call morning notes.
I don't know morning scribbles. And again there with me,
it is very short. It is not really and reams
of journaling. I actually do like my thoughts on the
day at night, and that's something I've done for years
and years and years. Morning notes. There's two aspects to this.
(35:10):
And I've sat down with my coffee. I haven't opened
the laptop. I am on my phone at this point,
so I'm sort of gearing up towards entering the laptop
and the working day, if you like. And the first
thing I do, I have this journal that's like a
weekly gender, I guess, and each page has got seven
little boxes, so the boxes are really small. And that's
(35:35):
what I mean about making these habits work for you.
There is only so much I can write. I first
of all, write three things that will make today amazing.
And that sounds really corny and really cliche, but again
it's working.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So whatever you do, you you can laugh at me
all you like.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
And when I say three things that will make today amazing,
they are the tiniest, tiniest things So this is kind
of about a appreciating the little things around you and
b reframing certain things. So if, for example, I've got
a massive workday ahead and I'm a little bit stressed
about it and nervous about getting everything done, I will
(36:15):
reframe that as today will be amazing because I have
an abundance of creative work that I get to do,
not oh my god, I've got all this stuff to do,
how am I going to do it? So it just
reframes it as a freelancer. Having a lot of work
is a beautiful thing, but it can be easy to
forget that when you're in the mix of the deadlines.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
So that might be one.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Another one that I use often is that the sun
is shining, because that really does make a difference on
my life, and as someone who lives in quite a
sunny country, I do really appreciate that because that certainly
isn't the case in the UK.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Sorry to all the UK listeners.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
But what I'm trying to illustrate here is like it
might be, oh, I'm I get to speak to my
sister in law today, and that's something that I really
don't take for granted, even though it's so simple because
I don't live near her, so those little things are
nothing to do with like making a million pounds or
anything stravagant. It's just appreciating and noticing the good things
(37:19):
I have in my life. And you can always find
something in your day, no matter what kind of day
you have or think you're going to have. And I
also think by writing those three things down, there are
always things that I'm ninety nine percent sure are going
to happen, if not already happened, and that kind of
then almost creates an amazing day because at the end
(37:43):
of the day, I can think, huh, yeah, those three
things did happen, Therefore it was an amazing day. I
don't know if I'm really getting my point across here,
but it's just kind of like reframing the perspective around
what type of day you're about to have, and there's
always stuff you can find. And even if I'm like
going into quite a tough day, I might then draw
(38:04):
on something from the day before that's left me feeling
really good, and I've woken up with that nice feeling
from that thing that happened the day before that I
didn't know was going to happen. Like I had a
really nice connection with someone, or you know, I've already
honored my body today and moved it if I've gone
out for a run out to the gym, for example.
These are really really simple things that I think often
(38:27):
when we're caught up in the to do list, we
don't really take the time to appreciate. So that's the
first bit of my morning notes, and again it's just
three tiny things that probably takes me a minute.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
And then the.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Second bit of the box is filled with more like
affirmation visualization stuff, And this is a technique I learned
in a coaching course I recently did. And again I
found this really helpful because it was very grounded in
me and like it wasn't something I've plucked from the sky.
And it's about kind of stepping into the version of
(39:00):
me that is the best version of me I can
feasibly imagine and breaking down some of those limiting beliefs
or blocks that you might have about how much you're
worth or who you get to be or what you deserve.
And it can be very real world based, but I
try and take it up a notch so that it's
a little bit of a stretch in terms of what
(39:22):
I perceive for myself, whether that be a work project
I want to come in or something i'm reaching for,
or a goal i'm working towards. I write down affirmations
that are meet at that place of having already achieved it,
and what I do there, what that helps me personally
with and again this might not work for you, is
kind of embody those feelings of that person already. And
(39:43):
I think this is kind of like the crux of manifestation.
If you like that, you adopt the feelings because you're
imagining what it's like to be that person, live that life,
feel those feelings, taste those tastes, and smell those smells
of a person walking the earth, I guess higher level,
and I think it just kind of gives me permission,
(40:04):
as someone who doesn't have a boss or someone kind
of cheering me on in that way on a day
to day basis, to kind of step into that because
I am someone who can hold myself back, be quite
self deprecating or play small. I guess if you like so,
maybe that will help you, maybe it won't, But that's
how I feel the rest of that box up and
(40:25):
that morning notes thing literally takes five minutes and it
is a lovely, delightful thing that I do, and I
really really really enjoy it, and I would highly recommend it.
I realized that last one might be a step too
far and I might have lost you there, but I
wanted to include it because, as I said, this is
just what I've been playing around with. And if you've
(40:46):
been following me for a while, you probably will have
seen on Instagram like the way I've kind of evolved.
And I do know and can acknowledge that I am
looking very vibrant and alive and more so than I
think ever in my life, and I want that for
other people because I'm living a life that I really
(41:08):
love despite the chronic chaos of Type one diabetes. And
it's not just because I've suddenly started writing affirmations down,
but I can acknowledge how content I feel, and I
know I'm so lucky. But I also know that I've
worked really hard to get to this point and this
place in my life. So I want to pass this
on because I think it's possible for all of us
(41:29):
to make these tweaks and for things to be better.
And I have been in that place where things did
not feel good or nice, and my head was not
a nice place to be, so I guess that's where
this comes from. So I hope you take this stuff
in the spirit that it's intended. And again, as I said,
this is all just what's been working for me, and
(41:52):
I might not do all of it forever. It's probably
going to change at some point, but yeah, just to
say that, yeah, I feel pretty good.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
The last thing I.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Want to say is just around the to do list,
around actual work stuff. So I have now gone into
work mode, open the laptop, and I will prioritize one
thing that I need to absolutely get done that day
to make the day a success. And the reason I
do that is because, like most people, the to do
list is never ending. It will just go on and
(42:24):
on and on, and a lot of the time, you know,
I have multiple clients, I have different priorities, I have
this podcast, I often don't know where to start.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So I absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Prioritize one thing and write that down as the thing
I will get done that day, and I try and
attack that first because it's often as well like the
biggest task, the metius task, the task that I'm trying
to put off, and then I will have a maximum
of three, so two more items on the to do
list that I will prioritize and I'll put them at
the top of my list and bold them, and they're
(42:54):
the ones I kind of work through for the day.
And I've obviously got an idea at this moment in time,
having done this for years, of what is achievable in
a day.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
And I just try and get those done.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
And then that's kind of like where I can relax
then and extra things that I get done, and it
might be a huge creative deck that I'm working on
for a client, or it might just be like finally
sending off that present to the post Office that I've
been meaning to send for weeks. Often their work based things,
because that's what needs to get done, really.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
But yeah, just to say that that's kind of helped.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Me prevent the overwhelm and that kind of stress mode
of oh my god, there's a million things to do
and I don't know which one to tackle first. So
I'll just add that in at the end and we'll
end it on a nice tangible, reality based note for
the people who think I've gone way up in the
clouds here. But yeah, so that's kind of the rundown
of my morning routine, my morning habits, the space I've created. Again,
(43:49):
I can't do all of it every day, but most
days it's pretty manageable, and I've just found it like
super beneficial in the way that that then sets the
tone for my day. And yeah, it's all just a
bit here, a bit there. Have a tweek, have a play,
have a dig, have a research, have a Google. I
mean you can ask chat GBT to create you a
morning routine within a certain timeframe around certain priorities or
(44:12):
focuses that you want to work on if you like,
and go from there and see what that throws up.
And that might be a nice starting point. But again,
none of this is advice. It's not medical advice, and
it's just what's working for me. But anything that I
can do to help me help myself tackle life with
type one diabetes, I'm willing to give it a go.
So I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If there's anything
(44:35):
that's particularly help you in your mornings, in your day,
in your life, I'll take it. So let me know.
Come and say hi. We've got Instagram at studio Type
one on one And if you're not signed up yet.
I do actually have a weekly newsletter. It's super concise,
super fun, very real talk comes out every Friday morning.
(44:55):
If you head to Type one on one dot com
forward slash newsletter, you will find it. And I'd love
it if you sign up so I can just send
myself into your inbox every Friday. It's a really lovely
little thing that I do. And yeah, I hope you've
enjoyed this episode. I never ever ever want to tell
you how to live your life. I'm just trying to
(45:15):
kind of spread the things that have helped me. So
I hope you've enjoyed this one and I will see
you very soon with another podcast. I hope you enjoyed
this episode of Type one on one. Please remember that
nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as
medical advice. I'm definitely not a healthcare professional. If you
like what you hear, hit subscribe and do leave a
(45:37):
little review on iTunes if.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
You have time.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
It really helps to spread the word about type one diabetes.
And thank you so much for listening.
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