Six years ago, a moment of utter vulnerability amidst the chaos of caregiving led me to a breakthrough in self-care and managing stress. In this episode of the Caregiver Cup podcast, I invite you to journey with me as we explore the power of morning routines, not just as a list of tasks, but as a transformative practice for those of us dedicated to the care of our loved ones. Through my own experiences, I'll guide you in embracing those first critical moments of the day to establish habits that can ripple positive change throughout your life.
We'll unpack the concept of "habit stacking," where small wins in the morning can lead to impactful momentum, helping you navigate the daily challenges of caregiving with renewed energy and focus. I'll share the personal rituals that have seen me through seasons of busyness, normalcy, and extreme stress, providing insights into how carving out time for yourself can significantly uplift your well-being. By prioritizing self-care before the day's demands, we set the stage for a healthier, more balanced life as caregivers.
Finally, I'll walk you through the practical steps to build your morning routine, from gratitude journaling to 'Embracing the Suck,' and how to avoid common pitfalls like overcommitting or choosing stress-inducing activities. I encourage you to assess your day in "zones" and experiment with these small changes. Let's embark on this empowering change together, one morning at a time, as we aim to foster the strength needed to support both ourselves and those we care for.
Get my free resource: 17 SHIFTS TO TAKE CONTROL OF CAREGIVER STRESS that will take you to the best version of yourself.
Thank you for listening. If you know of another caregiver who could benefit from this podcast, please copy and share this episode.
Follow me by clicking on the links below:
Six years ago, a moment of utter vulnerability amidst the chaos of caregiving led me to a breakthrough in self-care and managing stress. In this episode of the Caregiver Cup podcast, I invite you to journey with me as we explore the power of morning routines, not just as a list of tasks, but as a transformative practice for those of us dedicated to the care of our loved ones. Through my own experiences, I'll guide you in embracing those first critical moments of the day to establish habits that can ripple positive change throughout your life.
We'll unpack the concept of "habit stacking," where small wins in the morning can lead to impactful momentum, helping you navigate the daily challenges of caregiving with renewed energy and focus. I'll share the personal rituals that have seen me through seasons of busyness, normalcy, and extreme stress, providing insights into how carving out time for yourself can significantly uplift your well-being. By prioritizing self-care before the day's demands, we set the stage for a healthier, more balanced life as caregivers.
Finally, I'll walk you through the practical steps to build your morning routine, from gratitude journaling to 'Embracing the Suck,' and how to avoid common pitfalls like overcommitting or choosing stress-inducing activities. I encourage you to assess your day in "zones" and experiment with these small changes. Let's embark on this empowering change together, one morning at a time, as we aim to foster the strength needed to support both ourselves and those we care for.
Get my free resource: 17 SHIFTS TO TAKE CONTROL OF CAREGIVER STRESS that will take you to the best version of yourself.
Thank you for listening. If you know of another caregiver who could benefit from this podcast, please copy and share this episode.
Follow me by clicking on the links below:
Well, hello, my friend. It's Kathy. Welcome to another episode of the Caregiver Cup podcast. I am happy that you're joining me again In this episode.
Speaker 1:Today, I'm going to go ahead and share an audio version of a recent free training I did last week called the Empowering Caregivers. It's my four essential practices that I use to reduce my stress, and I wanted to give you the day one training. It's all about reinventing your morning, but before we jump in and give you that, I want to give you some context behind it and the story of why I incorporated habits into my life to reduce stress. And so I want to take a step back and tell you how I got to appreciating these habits and how I saw that they were so, so necessary in my life. And no matter if my life is total chaos or if it's quieter from a caregiving perspective, I still use these habits each and every day.
Speaker 1:After many months into my caregiving journey, way back six years ago, I found myself stuck, not being able to get out of bed. I didn't want to function. As a matter of fact, if I tried to function, I was just not focused. I kept saying words like I hated my life. When is this ever going to be over and I couldn't figure out what to do anymore. And if you, you may have heard me talk about this story, but if you haven't, this was my, my tipping point and it was my turning point.
Speaker 1:I was driving into work and this was pre COVID, before I started working from at home in my corporate job, and it was a Monday morning. After an exhausting weekend where I was, I spent time up in my mom and dad's cabin up North taking care of my dad. I came home on Sunday taking care of my spouse, catching up with everything at home. I was exhausted on Monday morning and I realized that the stress and the pressure and the overwhelm just got the best of me and I couldn't get out of the car in my office's parking lot and walk into work. I was an emotional mess and a physical mess. So I called my boss that day and said I just need to take a day. So I then left the parking lot of my office and I drove to the park. It's in my town, across the bridge, where I would do.
Speaker 1:I did all of my running and my training in this park where you kind of start along the river and there's a big, a big running trail and so that was like my surreal place. And so I drove into the parking lot there and everybody was out about having you know they're doing their kids were playing at the playground and other runners were running on the trails or people were walking. It was a pretty kind of a pleasant busy place. But I couldn't even get out of the car. I cried I'd let it all out. I was banging on the steering wheel because I just needed to go ahead and look at my situation and face my situation on this beautiful sunny day. I am sobbing, my face is just total big red blob and it was just all coming out.
Speaker 1:After this long emotional cry and just letting it all out, I grabbed my bag on the floor in the passenger seat and pulled out a notepad and a pen and I finally got out of the car and it's probably was 15 to 30 minutes, I don't even know. Time stood still at that time and I walked down a little sidewalk and found a bench to sit on because it was a beautiful sunny day, with my notepad and pen and my very cold now coffee, but I also had a water in the car and some snacks. Anyway, I had to take a step back and figure out how I got to this point of just being this emotional mess and physical mess. So I fast forward. About an hour later, after sitting on this bench, I spent time really on that bench looking inward at my emotions, what I had on my plate and all the things I was doing and why I was spiraling to the total meltdown state that I was in. I think about it, it was the hardest day of my caregiving journey, but also the best day of my caregiving journey because I finally said stop. When you take a step back and you really look inward at yourself and be honest with yourself, you can then figure out a path to make things better. And a little sidebar if you can't do this and you try to do this, then go seek some help or talk to a friend. But you definitely want to be able to do this. And after this point, just as a sidebar, after this point, I did seek some therapy and the therapist said oh my gosh, this is such good information that we can go ahead and start with. But let me just share some of the things that I wrote in this notebook that I had One of the pages in this notebook my notebook that day was I defined my stress that now led me to burnout or led me to where I was sitting on that bench.
Speaker 1:I got granular about the things that I was doing physically, all of the things that I was doing, and I had to get really honest with myself and saying what was I being the control freak? Was I being the people pleaser? Yes, I get into all of my people pleasing tendencies. I got into all of my yes things that I was doing that if an outsider looked in that they would say, well, why are you taking on all of this, kathy? I also got to the effects it was having on my mind, my body, my soul, my relationships, my job, everything. I got into all of that and really kind of defined my stress and what it was doing to me and everything else around me. It was so eye-opening to see it on a page, to see it written down On the next page page.
Speaker 1:After I did all of this, I asked myself what my life could look like. I couldn't change my husband's diagnosis, my dad's diagnosis, my mom's situation, you know, life in general. I couldn't change a lot of the things, but I knew, looking at myself, I wanted different things. I needed to take care of myself and my parents and my spouse, but I also had to commit to prioritizing my well-being. Now, well-being is such a big word, but I have to prioritize what I'm doing to myself physically, how I'm taking care of myself, emotionally, socially, spiritually. What is all of those things?
Speaker 1:I had a list of things with simple words and I kept saying I want, I want, I want, and really trying to be honest with myself, because I couldn't continue to say I want to run away. I couldn't continue to say I don't want this life, because this is the cards I was dealt. But here's just a few things I wrote down. I want to help mom, without doing everything at any time, because I'm a people pleaser. Remember, I wanted to be the good little girl I wanted to be at first. I wanted to be the one that would get recognized for being the good little girl.
Speaker 1:I had to figure out my swimming lane and my healthy boundaries and, trust me, I was shaking in my boots because if I had to think forward, this is going to require me to get really, really uncomfortable. But at this point I was just saying I want, I want, I want, I want to feel good about working my job and showing up as my best self, and I kept using my best self all the time, in every scenario. I want to have discussion with my spouse, dennis, on what help he needs, how I'm torn between dual caregiving and how I can help him, and I wanted to talk about that because I was beating myself up, for if I was with my parents, I was beating myself up for not taking care of him and vice versa, and I kept saying I want to build in time for me every day. I need me as a person, I need downtime, I need quiet time, and I gave up that, and, as an introvert, it was really hard. As a person that knows that downtime fuels me, and I wanted to do this, but I didn't want to feel guilty about it either. I didn't want to feel like, oh my gosh, now they're probably thinking Kathy gave up on me and and stop those words.
Speaker 1:This went on and on my I wants, my I wants, my, I wants went on and on for pages. But I think that it kept thinking, it kept helping me. Think about me, I want, I want, I need, I need, you know. So those are the things that I wrote down Now, a notepad full of thoughts and feelings I want, I don't want. My key takeaways are all great, but I have to take action to shift this, or else things, or else this day in the park and these things that I did would just be that it would just be a day in the park where I had all these wishes, and then it would be like me throwing this notepad in a garbage can.
Speaker 1:So first of all, I got back in my car and I went and went down to. This is what I did I went down to the local little ice cream shop and got myself an ice cream cone and filled up my water and then I went back into the park. I went back into the park and finished this. After that, I listed out the ways, the ways I could change and shift. And you know what? The sugar and the fun little snack gave me a little bit of energy, because I just was exhausted from crying and all of the thinking I was doing. But when I listed out the ways that I could shift and change, the word that came out of my mouth was wowza, was this crazy? Because there are things that are easy to write down on paper and maybe even easy to do, but in a caregiving situation and in my people pleasing mentality and my vulnerable state, they're going to be hard, but I have to keep writing. Imagine a taskless.
Speaker 1:I laughed at one point and said I need a project manager to help me project manage all of these things that I need to go ahead and start doing, or all of the things I could potentially shift and do differently Everything from asking for help to getting a good night's sleep, to going ahead and pursuing my passion. I wrote down everything and then I prioritized. I prioritized. So I was on a picnic table now at this time and so I ripped out those pages and started looking at which ones should I start implementing. And I looked right away for small wins. First because I had to get my momentum going and I remember hearing and talking to a lot of people to say when you are building habits, you have to start small and you have to start one at a time.
Speaker 1:Atomic habits is a really good book and they talk about getting your momentum going and picking one thing and then a couple weeks later adding another thing. It's called habit stacking and you just kind of build upon it and then you may have to take a step back and say this isn't going to work for me or this isn't a good time. I need to shift it to a different time. And so what I did one thing that I implemented was stretching and meditation, and five minutes in the morning. When I did that, no longer looking at my phone and seeing what everybody else was doing or getting all stressed out about the emails that I have or what I need to get done for that day I started getting up, turning on meditation, music and stretching and meditating for five minutes. Oh my gosh, it was like shifting your mind.
Speaker 1:I did that for two weeks and then I added another five minute activity and I added journaling to it, and Now I have a 10 minute routine in the morning. And you know what? It didn't even impact my day. It in a negative way from a time perspective actually energized me more, because usually the first five to 10 minutes in the morning I grab my phone, I look at my phone, I kind of get ready, but I'm distracted, whatever it would be, and so this was a good way to get momentum going, and so you just have to kind of start with a couple of easy wins and watch that work. Now, what I'm trying to get at is, you know, when you start moving into things. It took me months to go ahead and incorporate activities it this shift took me probably six months to go ahead and fully do what I wanted to do. But you know what those easy wins I started feeling little normalcy, or I could pinch myself again and saying, kathy, I feel a little bit of joy. Oh, my gosh, this is crazy for me.
Speaker 1:What I'm trying to get at, though, too, is that my day one training that you're going to listen to, it's called reinventing your morning. It's a morning combo that took me, like I said, months to do at once. You know, if I fast forward six months, yeah, I was doing a lot of those things, but I had to take baby, baby steps and not beat myself up if something didn't work. In this training that you're going to be listening to today, I'll guide you through the power of carving out your morning for yourself. It's a ritual that became my lifeline really truly my lifeline during my caregiving journey, especially when I was balancing the dual or the double caregiving role.
Speaker 1:In this training you're going to listen to, you're going to, I'm going to share the significance of a morning reinvention. You're going to and I'm going to discover why, in reinventing your morning is essential for your overall well-being in your caregiving journey. It doesn't have to look the way that I'm talking through it, it has to be your personal approach. I'm going to talk about zoning your day, so not only where you're here about morning, but you're going to see what your day looks like in zones and where you can include time for yourself where things don't work out at all, and so if you try to incorporate something into that zone of your day, you're going to set yourself up for failure. And you're also going to hear my morning rejuvenation activities. And the big piece is you're going to gain insights into activities and ideas that can rejuvenate your morning and set a positive tone for your day.
Speaker 1:My morning routine may not look like your morning routine. You may have a different way of doing things or your schedule doesn't allow for you to do it right away in the morning. You may have to make breakfast or take care of your loved one and then get them settled, and then your morning routine is after that. I don't know. Okay, here's day one of the Empowering Caregivers for essential practices to reduce stress. It's called day one reinventing your morning. Enjoy, and we'll talk to you right after it's over. Well, hello, my friend. My name is Kathy Vandenhove and welcome to this four part series.
Speaker 1:Today I am thrilled to introduce my number one ritual that became my saving grace during my caregiving journey. It's that precious moment of the day that was all mine, especially when I was a double caregiver. You know the days filled with caregiving, appointments and errands and laundry and overall care. I could go on and on. I had those. And then there were also days where I tried to balance my corporate job while caring for my spouse and my mom. I had my day off, I had the advantage of working from at home, but my breaks were spent caring for them. Anytime I had a break, I was making lunch, I was caring for them, I was handling doctor calls and much more, and then my evenings were dedicated to even more of their care. As you can imagine, I found myself with no time for myself and burning out quickly. I felt sluggish, both physically and emotionally, and then I was battling that anger and, eventually, that resentment for not having time for myself. Before caregiving, I cherished my alone time and I still love my alone time and suddenly it was nonexistent. And if I did find a moment, I would fill it up with things for my to-do list, like chores, catching up with work and whatever I needed to do to try to get one step ahead.
Speaker 1:Well, today, in this video, I have four things that I want to cover with you. I want to talk about the immense importance of reinventing your morning, and really this is the only time that you have for yourself. I want to talk about how breaking it up into these zones I have five zones that I want to break it up into so you can map out some sort of manageable routine and then activities and ideas that are going to rejuvenate your morning and maybe spark some more ideas. And I also want to talk about equally important is what might be too much for you right now and the mistakes that I see caregivers make. So I want to dive into the concept because I've been there. I understand how important it is to reinvent your morning.
Speaker 1:Let's begin with considering how you start your day. I want you to think about what happens in your first 30 minutes or 60 minutes of your day. From my experience my own personal experience and working with my clients, I've seen two types of caregivers. The first one the alarm goes off and they go right into and I go right into go mode chores, negative thoughts, exhaustion. Maybe you don't even want to get out of your bed because you know everything that's going on. Maybe you have last night's dishes or this list of things that you need to do to figure out how to figure out an insurance claim, whatever it is, and you are jumping right into go mode and you don't even think about yourself and the opposite side of the spectrum. The second type of caregiver is the caregiver who takes time in the morning for themselves first, before diving into the day. I definitely was the first one, and I know most of caregivers are the first one.
Speaker 1:Reinventing your mornings holds incredible advantages. It's your special time, potentially the only time that you have for yourself, and research shows that just 15 minutes to 30 minutes a day to yourself can reprogram your brain, can lower your stress, can release happy hormones and give you this burst of energy that you need to sustain for your caregiving day. Why the morning, though? And so I want to give you a pictorial of five zones that, if we looked at a day, we break them apart into five zones. Zone number one is your morning. You can use this time to fuel you.
Speaker 1:This is the time that you get when you start getting up in the morning and you take care of yourself. It's the time where, before anybody or anything starts, it's your own time. You think about it when you're getting ready in the morning. That's your time. You're maybe showering, you're washing your face, you're brushing your teeth. That's your dedicated time. That's zone number one, and we're going to come back to talking about zone number two. Zone number one. Zone number two is when it's no longer your time. Somebody else has your time.
Speaker 1:Work, like you go to work. You're working for an employer, you're working for your own business or caregiving. You're taking care of your loved one. You have things to do. This goes through your day through lunch and through maybe the early to mid-afternoon, so that's the part of your day. We call this the nine to three day. This is your zone two and obviously those times can be changed.
Speaker 1:Zone number three is that mid-afternoon through dinner time. This is usually when you and I feel exhausted and mentally drained. We're wrapping up the day from maybe a job or a work perspective. We're finishing up caregiving responsibilities. We're trying to go ahead and figure things out. We're finishing up appointments or therapy sessions and you're thinking about what's dinner or supper time and what needs to happen for the end of the night. And then zone number four is that dinner time in that early evening.
Speaker 1:Now, in the ideal world, it would be family time, it would be going out with friends time, it would be having dinner, it would be sitting down watching your favorite show or a movie. For you, as a caregiver, it's probably making dinner for your loved one and getting them ready for their nighttime routine. Maybe it's bathing or getting them dressed and uncovering the bed, giving their meds, whatever it would be. And then zone number five, it's you crashing into bed. It's your nighttime routine. You're setting your alarm for the day, you're getting things ready for the next day and you're doing whatever your bedtime routine is. Because I know from my perspective it was. I've noticed that my hand was racing here because I'm raising my hand up in doubt. It was the time that I would go ahead and have to shower, because on most days I couldn't get my shower in in the morning.
Speaker 1:So your morning, or zone number one, is the only guarantee for yourself. And when you start small and thinking about what you can do in this route, in this zone number one, you can start building a habit and you can start working on yourself. So what can you do with this time? Let me share my morning rituals with you. I'm going to share my morning rituals with you during the busy season of caregiving or the demanding season of caregiving. Then I'm going to share one with with a good caregiving season where things are kind of normal, and then I'm going to share one which is was really extreme and really stressful with you. So in my busy season and I had the fortune of caring for my dad and my husband at one time, and then my husband and my mom at one time, so I had dual caregivings going on twice, and so I call this my busy season I would set my alarm and give myself time to wake up. During my busy season, I considered zone number one.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I did when I woke up is I did not look at my phone, because if I looked at my phone, I was giving my attention away. And think about it. When you get into your phone, you get sucked in and it's like 15 to 20 minutes later. So I put my phone down and I had it put away. Now I had my phone on do not disturb, but I had my emergency numbers that would break through and ring if I needed, if somebody needed me, or a text that would be there. I had called those my emergency contacts.
Speaker 1:Then what I did after I got up is I did stretching and meditations. I only had 15 minutes so I did five minutes of stretching and meditation. There are so many remarkable things that you can do. If you learn to stretch and you learn to meditate and just take that few minutes to go ahead and do that, blood flows. You get time just to kind of ground yourself. And then after that I made my bed. It sounds really silly, but I made my bed because at least I accomplished one thing today. I had a sanctuary. It was nice and put together. I made it and it was there. Now, if you, if your loved ones in bed maybe you won't be able to do that Find something else that you can clean up and just kind of make your own. Maybe it's your counter in your bathroom. That's nice and cleaned up and tidied up. It just made me feel like I could accomplish something.
Speaker 1:Then I washed my face and I brushed my teeth, because those are the things I do, and then I followed Mel Robbins high five habit. It means that I high fived myself in the mirror. I said some things that were were, were powerful and motivational to me, like Kathy, I love you, you're going to have a good day. You got this girl. Whatever you wanted to say, I am safe, whatever it is. And so that was 10 minutes of my day. And then, once I did that, I went down, filled up my bottle of water and had a cup of coffee. That's all the time I had to myself, but I had 15 minutes and I allowed myself 15 minutes. It felt so good when I'm trying to get out, as even in the hardest season, it can be simple.
Speaker 1:The second scenario is during a good season, I did the same kind of routine where I woke up, didn't look at my phone, did my stretching, did my meditation, made my bed, washed my face, brushed my teeth, high five myself in the mirror, and then I went for a walk outside and took my dogs for a walk. There is so much power in sunshine in the face and fresh air. It regenerates you, it boosts your dopamine in your body, which is the happy hormone. It helps your circadian rhythm. Even if the sun wasn't shining, I was still out getting UV light. Even if it was raining, I could still smell the rain, and even if it was snowing, I put on my parka and I'd go for a walk, depending on how much time I had. It was a five minute walk, it was a 15 minute walk, whatever the day would hold, but that was my time, and so I did that during the hardest times or during caregiving during a good season, not the hard time.
Speaker 1:Now let me talk about the hardest season that I've been in as a caregiver. My husband had to have a stem cell transplant for his lymphoma it's actually a bone marrow transplant and we had to be away for six weeks and he had to stay isolated. He did it all outpatient, which means I had to go ahead, bring him to appointments and do caregiving overnight as well with him for six weeks, and we stayed at a facility across the street from the hospital and the clinic that he was going to. My stress levels were extremely high and my mindset it wasn't good. It was in the gutter, it was negative, it was sad, I was lonely, I leaned into the energy and allowed my mornings to be the mornings, all about finding energy and not allowing my body to be stressed out. And so I leaned into that and I reinvented my morning routine. So my mornings were intentional that's the word that I gave myself.
Speaker 1:I journaled gratitude, and so I did five things that I was grateful for every day to train my brain to look for positivity and gratitude. I also journaled wins. I journaled three to five wins from the day before. So what things happened. That was a win. If Dennis had a good day. That was a win If I went ahead and asked questions or I accomplished something at work, or I had a phone call that I didn't wanna make and I made whatever it would be. I journaled the wins.
Speaker 1:And then there was a page for me to release anything and I called it Embrace the Suck. Yes, I called it Embrace the Suck and I wrote down all of the things that were sucky and hard and I was mad about. I was so lonely, I missed my family, my friends, my dog, and things were not sunshine and rainbows every day because Dennis was sick. And then I also grabbed inspirational book and I read 10 pages of inspiration. Every day I read Michelle Obama's book, I read some fun fiction books I read. Some days I just read quotes, or I read Oprah quotes, whatever it would be. I read 10 pages of inspiration to keep my brain going.
Speaker 1:And then I went outside and I called my walk outside and intentional focus walk and I went for a walk around the block and around the facility. Depending on the weather, some days it was shorter, some days it was longer. But I had to have an intention for my walk and I walked and I picked something each day that I needed to focus in on and look for during my walk, because when you get intentional and look for something, your brain releases and doesn't think about the troubling thoughts. So I'd look for hearts one day. I'd look for birds. One day I'd look for colored doors. One day I'd look for words on license plates. Each day I focused on those things instead of letting my mind get into those negative thoughts.
Speaker 1:There are so many things you can find that look like hearts during the day when you go outside for a walk. And I didn't put earbuds in, I allowed myself to just listen to nature. Hearts on leaves you could find heart shaped leaves. You could find heart shaped clouds. You could find hearts on sides of buildings or cars, or people wearing different shirts, whatever it would be signs. You can go ahead and imagine there was even a snow bank where I said the snow bank looks like a heart. So you would go ahead and force yourself to look for those things and I would actually then come back and tell Dennis hey, today my attention was looking for birds. I found blackbirds and sparrows and robins, whatever it would be, and I would come back and tell him what I found and so that helped me. So those are the three habit examples that I have, and I'm hoping this sparks some ideas for you.
Speaker 1:Now what I wanna jump into next is the two biggest mistakes I see caregivers make when they implement a morning routine or a ritual. The first mistake is they go all in and then they can't stick with it. What I want you to do is take small steps, do one thing for a couple of weeks and then do another. Now, if you're a high achiever, I would say no more than two Coaching clients. I've already had to slow it down because you don't want to go ahead and set yourself up for failure. Or the other mistake is they go to two of an intense workout during a very stressful situation. Research shows that adding intense workouts to an already stressed out body and mind just adds more chronic stress to you and it can go ahead and tax your body. So things that you could do instead of really doing a hit workout, maybe lower impact things like weight training or meditation or yoga or gardening or whatever it would be. Pay attention to that, because I did that I went to two intensive workouts and it was just not helping. I just became more and more and more stressed. My body would not level down, and there's so much research regarding that.
Speaker 1:So now here's my suggested homework for you today. Before we end today, I have three more things that I want to cover with you. My suggested homework with you for today is to assess your day into zones. Look at it high level. What do you do in zone one, zone two, zone three? This is what I do with my clients. We map it out and we go ahead and look at that and we look at ways to go ahead and improve those zones. I want you to focus in on zone one, though, because zone one, I want you to try one thing Experiment, tweak it, make it your own and go ahead and try it and see if it works.
Speaker 1:You're going to eventually find things that work for you. When you create systems and routines, you're giving your body and mind a boost and then you're lowering your stress levels. I also want you to grant yourself grace. There's going to be days where it's not going to work. There's going to be days where you're going to have to tweak it and try something else.
Speaker 1:During crazy seasons I couldn't go ahead and do my suggested one or two that I went through. I had to redevelop in an intentional morning routine that was very low key and work on just my mind during that time. Friends, the journey to reducing stress and finding empowerment begins with reinventing your morning routine. I really truly believe it. It is my number one practice that has helped me as a caregiver and it's the first step towards really a healthier, more balanced you in your caregiving. I want you to continue to join me in embracing this change and nurturing yourself, because you deserve it. You can go ahead and comment in the video or send me an email at Kathy, at KathyLVancom, or a direct message and tell me how you're doing. This is what I work on with most of my clients.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're interested in learning the entire picture and the end of practice number four, I'm going to be sharing the Empowerful Caregiver School and talking about how you can go ahead and comment in the video or send me an email at Kathy, at KathyLVancom, or a direct message and tell me how you're doing. And then, before, I'm going to be sharing the Empowerful Caregiver School and talking about how you can go ahead and really transform yourself and reduce that stress and burnout completely. And I have this course that you can follow. But if you wanted to take a peek at it right now, you can, because we get into chronic stress, we get into seasons of caregiving, we get into the zones 10 times more. We get into practices and habits that can go ahead and help you. But you can check that out. I have the link here so you can go ahead and check it out. But otherwise, stay tuned to tomorrow's lesson where we're going to talk about another insight and another practice, and let's walk this path together for the next four days and develop habits that can help you in your caregiver life. Bye for now and we'll talk to you tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Well, my friend, I hope you enjoyed this day. One training called reinventing your morning. What did you think? My hope is that it gets you thinking about steps you can take to reduce your stress. Just a reminder small steps equal small wins. Small wins get you momentum. If you start doing too much, you know what happens You're going to end up quitting and even more, you're going to add more stress to your life, and we know you don't need that and you can't afford that. If you enjoyed today's episode and want the entire four-part training remember it's free Go to KathyElvanncom. You're going to see my picture on the top, scroll down right underneath it and there's a registration that will get you into the training, which starts again on January 23rd and runs through the 26th. Enjoy your week and I'll be back next week for another new episode. Thank you for now. Music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music.