Ep 21. Intentional Morning Routine

I am Kym Showers, and this is Reinvented After 40, episode number 21: Intentional Morning Routine.

Hey, friends. Welcome to Reinvented After 40, a podcast for all you women in the second half of life who are ready to take responsibility for your own wellbeing and create a life you love living.

I’m your host, Kym Showers, and after spending the first 40 years of my life people-pleasing and following all the rules, I was exhausted and ready for a change. I reinvented myself. I stopped outsourcing my happiness. And I’ve been brave enough to live a different kind of life.

I’ll be here each week to help you do the same thing. It’s gonna be fun. Let’s go.

Hi, guys, how are you today? Happy February. Although I’m recording this in January. But I like doing things this way because you know me, I love working ahead of time, my brain doesn’t though. My brain loves to try and talk me into putting everything off to the last minute and doing tomorrow what I absolutely want to do today. Most of the time my brain is not the boss of me, and I just follow through on my schedule and what I have planned for the day. But every once in a while maybe 15% of the time I let my brain talk me into procrastinating but not today.

So here we are and I’m so happy to be here. And today I’m talking about routines. And I’ve kind of been talking about routines on my Instagram because it’s just my favorite thing because they’re so important. And I have some good routines. My most important and most powerful routine is my morning routine. And routines are just a bunch of little, tiny habits that we do, that we just put together. And when you’re intentional about it this always gives you the exact life you want. And honestly, I have the exact life I want because of my intentional routines, they always give me what I want.

I’m very clear about it. I want to be healthy. I want to be happy. I want to be thriving and have close relationships and I want to have a successful business. I want a clean organized house. I want cute comfortable clothes. I want a strong body and I want a happy, healthy mind. I believe all of these things are always available to me. And I believe all of these things are always up to me. They’re my responsibility and because I believe that I have created that. And I keep creating it for myself. It really is an ongoing way of living for me.

And I’m teaching my clients how to do it and I’m teaching you how to do it every week with this podcast because we’re all the same. We all live a life of routines. Our life is one big routine. Some are intentional routines, and some are routines on default. We’ve got to pay attention because if we start becoming aware of our routines we can change the ones that aren’t serving us.

Your brain likes a routine. That’s the good news. It doesn’t want to start anything new, so it likes something that it’s practiced and familiar with. It likes to stay the same. It doesn’t want to learn anything new. It has set neural pathways that are safe, and comfortable, and automatic. So, your routine doesn’t take much energy. It doesn’t require you to really think about it very much. It isn’t really that hard. You probably are not even aware of your routine, you could do it in your sleep. Your brain really loves it this way because it’s motivated.

Your brain and my brain is motivated by seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, and conserving energy. So left on default, meaning you let your brain be the boss of you, you’re probably living your routines or have routines that you do every day on default. They’re not intentional. And they’re probably not giving you the results that you want. So that means you’re probably not loving your life. It feels ordinary and expected, and maybe even dull. You feel like something’s missing.

You know there is more but you’re too tired, or too scared, or too comfortable to do anything about it so you stay the same in your so, so life with your so, so relationships, and your so, so job, and your so, so reality. It’s all just fine. And you can if you want to, absolutely. But I don’t recommend it and I don’t want you to. Why would you want to live a life that you don’t absolutely love? So, I of course have a remedy for this.

I want you to create some new routines. I want you to love getting up in the morning ready to experience an amazing day. I want you to feel good and get your work done with a positive mindset driving it. I want you to take control of your day and have the exact experience that you want. The first thing to know about routines is that everyone has them, everyone has routines good and bad. A bad routine is sometimes described as a rut. I hear women all the time telling me they’re stuck in a rut. They’re bored.

A rut is simply a routine left on default. We do what we don’t want to do over, and over, and over and we keep doing it. Or even if we do what we want to do, we have an intentional routine and it’s worked for us for a long time but now we’re maybe a little bored with it and we’re tired of it, and we ant to spice it up a little bit. So, this is exactly why I added swimming and an espresso machine to my morning routine. I like spicing things up. And it’s just little things, it doesn’t even have to be big things. I make little things a big deal, little good things a big deal. I just create it and it’s so fun.

So, reinventing yourself can be as simple as setting up one new routine, truly. Truly, truly, specifically I think and most importantly a new morning routine. An intentional morning routine has the power to completely change your life for the better which I call reinventing yourself. It will be the reason you love your life. One small shift makes a huge difference. It’s as simple as that. It takes practice, it takes intention, it takes energy, it takes some ideas. And luckily for you I have a few ideas. I’m going to tell you all the small simple things that I do every single morning.

You don’t have to do anything I do, you can if you want to of course. But just me telling you my morning routine will get your creative brain juices flowing and you might even realize that you do in fact have a good morning routine, one that you love and gives you a beautiful day that you love. But maybe you haven’t even given yourself credit for it or even really noticed it. I want you to give yourself credit as a habit for all the tiny simple things that you do over, and over, and over that are important, and powerful, and keep you happy, healthy, and thriving because it matters.

It matters to know our cool, beautiful life giving teeny habits that add up to a life that we love living. Okay, so here you go, here is my intentional morning routine. And a sidenote, remember that I have my own bedroom and Jeff has his own bedroom. And this is one of the reasons why. He wakes up on the dot at six o’clock every morning and I wake up on the dot without an alarm at four o’clock every morning. It’s so crazy. So, it’s been very helpful and good for our marriage to have our own sleeping rooms. I mean for that reason alone that would be enough.

So, I do wake up without an alarm at four o’clock every morning. And I know you probably experience this phenomenon too, depending on your morning routine. But I think it’s pretty incredible how our body just knows. I keep my phone and two big cold jugs of water by my bed. So, first thing when I wake up is I drink my water then I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. Then I go back to my bedroom, and I lay on my big blue rubber ball, you know those big exercise balls? I just lay back on it to stretch my back out and to pray and meditate, open up my mind for the day. I love it.

Probably five minutes at the most I lay there on my ball. And then – and my room is still dark and it’s all very unrushed, very quiet, very still. And after I lay on my ball and stretch my back, and pray and meditate, I crawl back into my bed, and I put on an inspiring podcast on my phone. I have many that I listen to, so it just depends on what day it is.

And while the podcast is playing is when I put – I use this red blue like mask on my face, it’s supposed to be doing all these great things for it. And I’ve done it maybe for two or three years. My esthetician recommended it. My mask, I ordered from Amazon. It’s called the Dr. Dennis Gross LED light mask or something like that. I got it on Amazon for $400. I’ve been using it for maybe three years. So, I just choose to believe that it’s helping keeping my skin young. So, I do that every morning. And I listen to my inspiring podcasts and then I get up. So that takes maybe 15, 20 minutes.

I get up, I make my bed before I do anything else, I put my cozy beautiful white robe on. And then I go upstairs. I turn on my fireplace. I light my candle. I turn my light over the stove on and then turn my espresso machine on. I fill my water cups up with ice and fresh water and then I begin crafting my cappuccino, it’s such an enjoyable little new art that I’m getting kind of good at. And then I sit at my big table close to the fire and sip on my coffee and my water while I read my emails.

You guys, I love my emails. I so look forward to them. They’re motivating, and inspiring, and fun. I already have my schedule for the day on my calendar, on my notepad sitting next to my computer. I always do my schedule the day before. So, it’s just all set to go when I get up. So, I go over everything. I write a post, or I brainstorm ideas for a podcast. I usually watch a coaching video because I’m part of several coaching groups that offer lots of classes that keep me up-to-date, give me lots of ideas for my clients.

So, by five-thirty I go downstairs and put my workout clothes on, or now my swimsuit on, depending on the day, and drive to my gym. It’s dark and cold and I absolutely love it. I work out for about 45 minutes, I drive home, I take my shower and get dressed for the day. I pull out my juicer and make my yummy green juice. Three lemons from my tree, one bag of organic Tuscan kale and one bag of organic celery, both from Trader Joe’s. Most mornings I eat my raw nuts when I’m drinking my juice.

I take my vitamins, and supplements, and bio-identical hormones. I make all of my important decisions in the morning because my mind is bright, and clear, and rested, and at its best. I get all my work done in the morning. Every morning is already decided ahead of time. It’s unhurried, and intentional, and full of joy. There is a reason for everything that I do. My days are amazing because my mornings are brilliant and powered by good energy.

My life is sacred and so is yours. And you can 100% set yourself up for success every single day by creating an intentional morning routine that feels good to you, slow, unrushed, powerful, fun, do important stuff first. Get up earlier and do sacred little rituals on purpose. You won’t spend the rest of your day trying to get your workout in, or your meditation in, or your email replies in, or your green juice in, or your vitamins and supplements in. All the important things are done. And you are free to experience your day without feeling behind, or rushed, or hurried.

And of course, I set myself up the night before by going to bed early and getting eight hours of sleep. Most of my evenings start at five o’clock and they’re very peaceful and restful. I don’t do any work mostly past three or four o’clock. And I definitely don’t make any decisions. I’m just completely at rest and at peace every evening by five o’clock. I’m very self-disciplined and really my self-discipline is my superpower. It’s why I love my life. I like doing hard things. I like trying new things. And obviously I’m obsessed with intentional routines.

I’m convinced that teeny, tiny habits repeated over, and over, and over again is what creates a life, that’s it. It’s just a bunch of little decisions we make, and little actions we take, strung together that gives us the life we live. Life is so much more interesting, and fun, and purposeful when you fill your time with intentional routines. So, give it a go. There you go my friends, a little inspiration for you to first pay attention to what your morning routine is and then decide if it’s working for you or not. And if it’s not working for you, you now have some ideas to put into practice to change it.

Turn your mornings into your superpower and reinvent your life. It’s that simple, it truly is. So, there you go, thank you so much for showing up today and sharing these episodes with your people, I love you for that. Have the best day, have the best week and I will see you next Thursday.

Thanks for listening to Reinvented After 40. If you want more information or resources from the podcast, please visit KymShowersLifeCoach.com.