Good Morning! Today, you're going to have a GREAT day!

I love my relationship. I know, I know, you’ve heard this a million times…but its true! Part of the reason I think its so great, though, is that we have such a yin and yang balance between the two of us. When one is a little weaker at one thing, the other is a little stronger. For instance, I tend to aire on the side of a little stressed out at times, while he is typically cool, calm and consistantly collected…

…Which is why he was the PERFECT person to be teaching last nights workshop: Master Your Stress, Spark Your Health.

Now I feel like I have heard the majority of the content of the workshop about a million times (which is a great thing! Keep pounding the info in, eventually it will be second nature!), but every time I hear it, it completely refreshes me; giving me just that little extra bit of information I need. So, I thought I would recap what I took away from it for those who were not there!

Master Your Mornings!!

The first thing Nick emphasized last night, to master you MORNING, is to GO TO BED ON TIME! I put this in all caps because he made sure to say “GO TO BED ON TIME!” about 10 times last night! haha. So, first, go to bed on time. We try really hard to get to bed at 9:30pm. For a while, I was definitely the culprit as to why we were NOT getting to bed at that time. I used to go to bed at 11-12pm, so it took everything I had to not call him an old man for wanting to be heading to bed by 9pm :-p While we still don’t always get to bed right at 9:30pm, we set a goal for that time, and due to that goal, we typically are definitely in bed by quarter of 10! Not too shabby!

So, once you start getting to bed on time, it gets easier to get up early! I used to wake up to the sound of a siren (if you were at the workshop last night, and had the pleasure of HEARING that terrible alarm, yes, I woke up to that every morning, and yes, I had it about 5 inches from my head. In my defense however, it was the only way I could wake up!), now I wake up to kisses and whispered “good mornings”, “You’re going to have a great day”, “You’re beautiful”. Can you SEE how that very difference could make a change in your day?! Now, if that is not available to you in the morning, Nick talked about some great alarm clocks that gradually wake you up to soothing sounds. I didn’t see anything wrong with this before, it was really all I knew. Not to call my dad out, but my dad used to find it humorous to come into my room in the morning and find the most obnoxiously loud chords he could on my piano and POUND them out to wake me up…quickly followed by a “GOOD MORNING!!!!!”. Typically when this happened, I woke up VERY grumpy, to say the least I love you dad :-p

So now, I wake up at 6am typically, sometimes 5:30. I wake up, peacefully, head into the kitchen to have breakfast with Nick before he goes to work, and then once he leaves at 6:30, I have an hour and a half before I need to be out the door. What do I DO with all that TIME?! I sip coffee, read, journal, sometimes watch “the office”, chat with my mom…whatever I WANT to do! Then once 7 hits, I have an hour to get ready, listen to the radio, and walk to the train This is getting much easier, and less stressful every single day!!! On Fridays, I head to Franson Chiropractic at 5:40am for morning rituals! There we meditate, journal, say daily affirmations, and, my favorite part, attitude of gratitude. This is when you would just say out loud all that you are thankful for in your life now, and what is to come (here is where you can get creative and start being thankful for the things you WANT to happen. Want a raise at work? “I’m so thankful for the raise I have received in my job” Just try it.. ). I LOVE the way my day starts when I am “on track” with this! Not to COMPLETELY expose my nerdiness to you all, but this morning on my walk to the train, I was so freakin’ happy that I couldn’t stop SMILING! I didn’t even care if people thought I was weird. I went to the 6am workout this morning with my friend Jen, walked home and got ready, ate an amazing breakfast that I made for Nick and I this morning  (eggs, chard and avocado), stopped and got a coffee at Atomic Cafe, and had spring in my step as Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” played in my ear There really was nothing better at that very moment!

Master Your Response

So, now that your morning has started off on the right foot, you’re ready to take on the world!!! Right?! Oh crap..is that my train?! What!?! It’s early!!! And its..pulling….away….

Okay, well there are two ways you could handle this. You could a) freak out, cry, start swearing, get yourself REALLY worked up…OR! You could take a deep breath, count to ten, and go to your happy place. Don’t have a happy place? Think about a time that you were super, suuuuuuuuuuuuuper happy..and start practicing going to that place often, so that when you need it stat, it’s easy to pull up. As Nick said last night, “You don’t start practicing game day..”. Another thing that will help, is thinking “will I remember this tomorrow, next week, next month?”…etc. Chances are you won’t. So, chances are, you shouldn’t let it affect your physiology (or my NEW favorite way for Nick to say that to me is, “Check your Phys”. I had heard “Don’t let it affect your physiology” so often that I needed a new take on it ). As Nick reminded us all last night, our body creates the same chemicals, and physiological response, when we are sprinting for a train, or when someone cuts you off in traffic, or you catch your child writing on that gorgeous new Pottery Barn (white) couch you just bought, with her favorite new Crayola marker, in red…that your body would make if you were being chased by a ridiculously hungry Bengal Tiger! This physiological response is great when running away from you death! Your blood pressure goes up (pumps nutrients out to your whole body, faster!), your immune system shuts down (because you have bigger things to be worrying about at the time than fighting off a common cold, and your immune function is a HIGH energy expense, so it’s one of the first to go), reproductive system shuts down (you’re not thinking of making babies at that moment), digestion shuts down (high, high, high energy expense, don’t need it right then), blood clots quicker (perfect if you are bitten…you want that to seal up STAT!) …etc etc etc. Do you SEE how brilliant your body is!? The problem, however, is that we, as a nation, are in this state of stress, CHRONICALLY! This is what is causing heart disease, cancers, diabetes, etc.

Deep breath….1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. How do you feel? Still not that great? Will you remember this next week? Yeah? How about this..next year? MAYBE you’ll even think this very moment is really cute and funny when your child is 25 years old…there ya go…feel better now right? It’s just not worth it to do that to your body over something that is not life threatening/altering.

Master Your Thoughts

This is one of the ones I still struggle with the most, but at the same time, have had the most development in. I’m not going to go SUPER into this, but basically, we have controls over our thoughts. We have the choice to think positive or negative thoughts. Instead of standing there, watching the train pull away, and thinking “Seriously, do I EVER get a break???”, you COULD think “Alright, there is nothing I can do at this point…I’ll have to take the next train. Until then, I have 15 extra minutes to stop and get a coffee!” Find SOMETHING about the situation to be thankful for. Life is awesome, and it’s NOT out to get you. I’m also not going to get TOO hokey on you, but “the universe” or God, or whoever/whatever it is that you believe in, DOES want to help! If you’re constantly saying “PLEASE don’t let me get fired today!! Please!!!” The Universe hears “fired” and does everything it can to help you out in some way. Try remembering that every thought and word you put out there is like placing an order. So this is where that “Thank you so much for the raise I’m about to receive at work” comes in beautifully This is something that I HAVE been a lot more conscious of. Instead of thinking, I’m not going to be late today!!! (which is still sending the ‘late’ out there) I think, “I’m going to get to work EARLY today!!” Woot, give it a shot!

Trying to RETRAIN your negatively driven thoughts? Remember, and I LOVE this analogy that Nick made up:

Thoughts are like carving a path through a heavy forest. The first time you want to go through, you need to hack your way through, working your bum off with every step. It’s NOT easy! The second time, still not easy! You may even have a hard time finding your path! However, the more often you visit that path, and walk through it, the easier and clearer it gets!!! That old path (the negative thought) does not disappear though guys…at least not right away. You can’t just pretend that old thought is not there. Instead, you work your butt off on the new path, and eventually, with time, that old path grows over Thank GOODNESS Now you can, leisurely, stroll down your new path and enjoy every step!

A friend of mine that I brought with me to the talk last night texted me this morning:

“I tried all the things Nick was talking about in the morning, and it really made a difference.”

Try it out tomorrow morning Let me know how it feels

For more on this subject, check out Nick’s Blog!

Have an AMAZING day guys XOXO!

Jen