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Episode 13: Marvelous Mornings

Updated: Jan 19, 2021

Description: Take time for you each morning this week to do some self-care. Dr. Boogren swears by creating this sacred routine for you, your body, and your mental health. Let us know how this week's challenge inspires you!


Resources:


Here's some morning routine thoughts Dr. Boogren loves.


1. How to Build a Strong Morning Routine: The Essential Guide


How to Build a Strong Morning Routine_ T
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Download • 10.98MB

2. The Ultimate Morning Routine to Make You Happy And Productive All Day


The Ultimate Morning Routine to Make You
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Download • 2.65MB

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The Self-Care for Educators team cares about the content-accessibility for all educators. If you have trouble accessing the audio for the podcast, the transcription has been provided below.


Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode 13 of Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren, and this week, we're going to play around with establishing a morning routine that makes us feel good. There is a lot of talk these days stays around morning routines. There's entire books dedicated to this topic. I know there's some of you that probably already have amazing routines established. Some of you are thinking, "nope, not a morning person, not going to happen." And, we've got everything in between, but just ... hear me out on this. So, I am going to link a few resources in the Show Notes, but one of the resources comes from ... There's a great article on LifeHack.org from Tracy Kennedy talking about morning routines, and she shares ... these benefits of having a morning routine.


And, I think that these are just powerful to consider to maybe open the door for you to think about what your morning looks like. So, number one, first benefit is that it increases our productivity. Number two, we reduce our stress levels. Oh so important right before we walk into our workday. Number three, having a morning routine grounds us. Yes. Number four, we start the day on the right foot. Oh gosh. How important is that? And number five, this one ... this one's my favorite actually is when you have a really solid morning routine ... yes ... you control the day rather than the day controlling you. Oh, I love that. Okay. So dig into a morning routine.


There's really, there's no right or wrong way to do this, and there's a ton of factors. I know. So some of you have 1,000 kids at home that you're trying to deal with some ... I mean, there's a gazillion, a gazillion reasons that everyone's morning is going to look different, but here's my suggestion: I want you to just think about your morning routine and think how your day gets started. Do you feel good in the morning, or do you feel rushed? Do you already feel behind before your day even really good started?


And, then ask yourself how you want to feel? How do you want to start the workday? Okay. What do you want to take into school with you in terms of your attitude and your outlook on the day, and how can you kind of back into that by establishing a morning routine, even if it's just getting up five minutes earlier and allowing yourself a little bit of time by yourself to sit down and enjoy your cup of coffee or your cup of tea, whatever your morning routine is? Or, maybe you want more time than that. Maybe you want to try working out in the morning and see if going for a walk or getting your workout in at the start of your day feels different than at the end of the day. Do you feel more alert? Do you feel more energized? Maybe you want to just make some time and to do some quiet reading or praying or writing in your journal, right? Or just sitting on your couch, petting your pets, your dog, or your cat, or whatever that is. I just want you to kind of play around with that this week. And, I know for some of us, we get up really early anyway, and the thought of setting that alarm earlier feels brutal. But that's why I mentioned just five minutes.


What if you just set your alarm for five minutes earlier and allow yourself to do one thing that feels really grounding for yourself in the morning? What would feel like a gift? What would feel really ... juicy and really, truly an act of self-care? And, see if you can play around with that this year, week, year ... You might have to also then back up and think about your evening routine. How can you make sure that you get yourself to bed, so that you get enough sleep so that you don't mind maybe allowing yourself a little bit of time in the morning? This is something that I've played with over the years quite a bit actually. I now have this crazy early bedtime because my morning is ... oh gosh, it's become sacred to me.


I've really become a morning person, because I allow myself a whole bunch of time to do some things for myself before I start my workday now. Every day is a little bit different in my schedule, but typically, I mean ... let me just describe what an ideal morning would be. So, an ideal morning would be: alarm goes off and I'm able to just get out of bed without hitting snooze. That's been a big thing for me. I'm really trying to resist the snooze button. So, I get up, and I go for a long walk. That is my absolute favorite way to start the day, and it's not ... I don't even really think of it as exercise. Of course it is, but for me, it's just how I love to ease myself into a new day. I grab my cup of coffee, grab the dog. Sometimes we walk as a family. Sometimes I walk on my own. It's just, you know ... what an incredible way to start my day, rather than a meeting ... jumping on the computer and checking email and hearing about the disasters out in the world. I love to just go for a walk and on my walk is where I really kind of think through what my day is going to look like. We're planning for the day and really kind of set some intentions for myself, which is so important to me. Another aspect of my morning that has become sacred is time to write in my journal. I know, I've mentioned before. We had a whole podcast way back in episode eight we talked about journaling. So, journaling has become something really sacred to me. And, what I do in my journal is a few different things, but I always, without a doubt, write down five unique things that I am grateful for. I always, without a doubt, ask myself the question who needs me today? so I can set some intentions around that. And then I write down my 10 visions, my 10 goals. I write them in present tense. I got that whole practice from Rachel Hollis. Many of you are familiar with her. She has ... her own journal that she publishes to really lead you through those kind of sacred morning routines. So, I get a lot of that from her. I identify what my number one goal is for the day. I do oftentimes ... I do my meal planning for the day in the morning, and this is all just quiet time. Just on my own ... really before, typically, before I've even showered, I'm still sipping my coffee, which feels so good. And man ... those pieces right there just drinking coffee, going for a walk, writing in my journal. Those have become so sacred that even when we are on vacation, I get up early to make time to do that.


Like, it's beyond just a habit. It's something that has become so important to me. I'm also an introvert, and so having that kind of sacred time for myself that's quiet before I move into the day. Especially if it's something where I'm conducting a workshop or I'm around a lot of people or I have a lot of meetings ... I'm going to be engaging with a lot of people. It's going to take a lot of energy that even more important for me to find that grounding space during that ... morning time. So, that's what I want you to play with this week. As I said, there's no right or wrong way to do this.


I'm going to post some resources and I would love if we could get a dialogue started around everyone. Kind of, what is your morning routine look like? What are those pieces that are sacred to you? How do you make that work? Especially those of you that have lots of kids at home and all these responsibilities, like how do you find time for yourself? What does your evening look like to make sure that you have some time for yourself in the morning? Have you always had this morning routine? Or is this ... a new thing that you've kind of tried in the last few years? What do you do specifically? I would love to know ... what does this look like for you?


Do you do something physically? Do you do something spiritually? Do you do something for your mental state? For your emotions? Do you write a permission slip? Do you set goals for yourself? Do you plan some things out? Do you read in the morning? Do you express gratitude? You know, what does that look like for you?


Oh man ... I would love if you would share. Awesome. You guys, I can't wait to hear all about your morning routines. In fact, I'm excited because I have a feeling I'm going to grab some ideas from you. That's going to help me create an even more sacred morning routine in my own life, which I love.


Oh, as always, thank you so much to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for allowing me to do this amazing job. And, as always a huge shout out ... huge shout out to you, my bad-ass self care squad. I am so grateful for every single one of you.

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