Episode 32: A Little Whimsy, A Lot of Joy

Description: This week’s invitation is all about breaking free from the mundane and adding a little fun to your daily routine! Try doing one small thing differently every day. Let’s be rebels together and shake things up!

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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This is episode 32, and this week's invitation is I want you to do the rebel routine. The rebel routine. Here's what I mean by that. I want you to, this week, every single day this week, I want you to do one small thing differently in your daily routine to make it more fun. Let me say that again. Here's what I'm calling the rebel routine. Every single day this week, I want you to do one small thing differently in your daily routine just to make it more fun and shake things up a little bit. Okay?

Now, as always, the invitation is to do one thing every single day, but consider you can turn the dial up and do lots of things. Maybe this, like really speaks to your personality and you are like, heck yes, I'm going all in on this one. Or maybe you just do one tiny little thing this week. Check it off the list. You do you. Now, if your brain is like, oh my god I cannot think of a single thing to do for this. I brainstormed a bunch of ideas. So I'm gonna just share a bunch to kind of get the juices flowing for you and see if any of these appeal to you. 

Okay, so remember what we're doing is just doing something different. Here's what we're doing, we're tapping into novelty, a little bit of whimsy, which is always fun. Just shaking things up. It always feels good to kind of get out of a rut that we might be in, especially in the spring, it feels good. It's kind of fun. You can do this on your own. You can obviously do this. with your students. You can do this with your family. So here's some ideas. 

Okay, how about, okay, thinking about, in your classroom or at work. So change your seating spot.  If you usually sit at your desk for lunch, go sit somewhere else. Maybe you go sit outside. Maybe you go sit in the library. Maybe you find a spot by the window. Go sit somewhere else for lunch. How about this? Use a different entrance or exit, just to mix things up, right? If you always walk in the front door, can you use a different door today?

How about flipping your playlist? So, if you listen to podcasts on the way to work, what if you try music instead? Or, if you always listen to music on the way to work, what if you listen to a podcast or an audiobook? How about you switch up your mug? How about you make it your mission and your goal to choose the funkiest or most ridiculous cup that you drink your coffee or your tea or your whatever your morning beverage is. Water. To drink your water out of. 

How about standing while you work. So, if you normally sit down while you're grading or answering emails, can you do it standing up? It might be a little awkward, but can you find a way to, like, move to a different place so you can stand while you do that? 

How about switching up the order of how you do things? So, if you always get to school and check emails first thing. What if you do something else instead? Maybe you do something that feels really good instead and you take even like three minutes and you do a little bit of journaling or you set an intention for the day or you do a little bit of stretching. How does that sound? 

Here's a few more ideas. Okay. So think about this would be more kind of your life at home before work. So what if you try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand? It forces your brain to kind of wake up differently.  What if you reverse or mix up your shower routine, right? Thinking about washing your body, washing your hair. What if you mix it up?  What if you eat your meal differently, meaning in a different order? Or you use chopsticks instead of a fork, right? Or you eat only with your hands. It's going to depend on what you're eating, right? What if you wear a bold color or accessory? This would be a big one for me. As many of you know, I tend to just wear black, so it would be pretty crazy for me to wear a bold color. Now, I do tend to wear bright colored shoes, but wear a bold color or accessory, something that just feels a little bit out of the ordinary for you.  

What if you do your shopping at a different store? If you always go to the same grocery store, what if you go to a different grocery store? That can feel kind of fun. It has a different layout probably. It kind of feels like an adventure. 

Say yes to something random. If a friend invites you to go somewhere last minute or something comes up and your go-to response is no. What if you just say yes? I love that. What if you change your default answer? So if, when people ask you how you're doing, if you always say “I'm fine,” what if you mix it up and you say “I am energized” or “I am fantastic” or something. You just totally change up your default answer and see the reaction you get. 

Okay, here's a few other ideas for you. So, remember, here's what we're doing. We're doing kind of a, what are we calling this? The rebel routine is what we're doing here. Okay, so what if you thought about starting your day with a different first thought? So instead of that feeling of, Oh my God, I have so much to do. What if you said, I wonder what's going to surprise me today? 

Or what if you set an intention, very first thing, today is going to be a good day.  What if you read something unexpected? So a totally different genre than usual. So if you always read fiction, what if you read a little bit of poetry or you picked up a kid's book?  What if, instead of typing, your notes, you used a notebook today, or you tried doing voice notes instead of writing. 

What if you texted someone just randomly out of the blue to say, hey, I thought about you today.  What if you took a different route to work? Instead of taking the shortest route, what if you took the scenic, most beautiful, your favorite route?  What if at the end of the day you Committed to doing a one word reflection for the day. What if you decided you were going to pick a single word that describes your day and you wrote it down?  

There's just some ideas that you can try. I love these ideas because they kind of keep you present. They're playful, as I said, a little bit of whimsy to your day,  kind of fun. And so I want you to play around with those this week. There's a gazillion other ideas that you can come up with. You might do a little brainstorming, type it into chatGPT, see what it comes up with. Ask your students for ideas, ask your family for ideas. And try them out. See what feels good. Maybe you come up with an entirely different morning routine just based on trying one tiny little different thing this week and see what it feels like.

I hope this feels fun. I hope it feels like an invitation you want to try. I'm going to try this myself. Of course, I'd never ask you to do anything that I'm not doing as well. And let's see how it goes.  I  hope it makes for a fun week. Let's go for it. I'm cheering so hard for you guys. Thank you so much to Adrienne. Thank you Solution Tree and Marzano Resources. And thank you, my badass self care squad. Ah, let's be rebels this week. Let's mix it up. Let's shake ourselves up, especially those of us that really, really like a routine. This one might be, might be a challenge for us, but I think it's going to be really good for us.

Let's play with it.  Make it a great week, you guys. I love you.