The Joy of the Morning – Where Did it Go?

Source: https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2019/in-praise-of-the-morning-newsletter/

When I was young, my favourite time of day was the morning. I would immediately spring out of bed as soon as I opened my eyes, full of energy and excitement. I loved waking up to the sun shining in my room and knowing that my parents were already awake and starting their coffee. I loved all breakfast foods – breakfast used to be something I needed to have as soon as I woke up. I got to start a new day and choose what I feel like wearing, how I want to do my hair and I would think of all the things I can play all day. The smell of the fresh air in the morning especially in the spring and summer brings back so many memories and can be considered a part of my “happy place”. I definitely didn’t need coffee as a child because I had all the energy I needed. Even when I was at sleepovers, I would always be the first one awake and would have to sit and wait for everyone else to wake up. Going on trips with my family I was definitely way too excited most of the time and would easily wake up early and keep everyone on track.

Now, as an adult, I’ve experienced far too many sleep deprived, stressed out, anxious mornings where I absolutely dread waking up and starting my day. I feel tired, ugly, unmotivated and would rather just lay in bed all day. I don’t want to think about what to wear, my hair sucks and I couldn’t be bothered to wear make up. I skip breakfast a lot of the time now, partially to shorten the amount of hours I am eating, but also to save money. Most of the time when I am on my way to my car to drive to work, I just walk directly in a straight line and I don’t notice anything around me. Not the smells, the flowers, nothing – just dreading about how I have to show up to work and do the same old thing. On the weekends all I want to do is sleep in and go to bed early. The only thing that seems to remain from childhood is the fact that I get excited to travel and will still happily wake up early – the only difference is now I have room to stress out about my flights and everything that could go wrong.

If it’s not obvious at this point, the morning seemed a lot happier as a child. So what happened? You could say as you get older, your energy levels change among other things that happen in adulthood. I think that it’s a result of all of the baggage that starts to weigh you down. Anything and everything that has contributed to fear, anger, embarrassment, guilt, shame, or any negative memory definitely makes it difficult to want to jump out of bed and take on the world.

Now that I’m laid off and in quarantine, I have had a lot of time to think about things. I refuse to accept that my life will look the way it does in adulthood so I’ve been brainstorming how to bring back my love for the morning. I have really started to break down my habits to see how I can improve upon them. This is what I would like to share with you.

1. Phones are for Alarms Only

Yes, it feels good to wake up and see all of your new notifications and to check all of your favourite apps. It’s extra good when you are nice and warm in your bed and know that you have 15 minutes before you absolutely NEED to get out of bed. However, this also runs the risk of all the negative things you might accidentally see on your phone whether it’s news, someone’s highlight reel, or even just the temperature outside. So perhaps if we just don’t look at our phones at all, other than to turn off our alarm, nothing bad can happen to our precious mornings.

2. Gratitude Actually Works

Now that we have gotten rid of any chance of getting negative thoughts in our heads, begin the morning with thinking about what you are grateful for. You can even say it out loud. If you have a partner/spouse you can take this time to tell them what you appreciate about them. Usually, we would both go on our phones and/or complain about how we hate working. It makes a world of difference to just wake up, look each other in the eyes and say why we love one another. But gratitude can be anything really. Maybe you’re happy to have functional hands, or that you have food in the fridge, or that you are alive and breathing! This can be a very humbling experience and leaves no room for negativity.

3. Routine is Everything

I’m sure most of you know that your body functions much better when you stick to a routine. Going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time helps regulate your circadian rhythm. Even doing this throughout the weekend is important. When I am working this is definitely something I find to be quite difficult. I honestly think it comes down to my routine at night which is also something that I’ve been working on – I might have to make a separate post about this. The more overwhelmed with work I get throughout the week, the more I want to stay up drowning myself in memes or TV shows until late at night when I should really be taking more drastic measures for relaxation – baths, yoga, dim lights etc. More on this later, but for this post, waking up at the same time every day will eventually lead to not even needing an alarm. When I am going solid on a routine and going to bed at an appropriate time, I find myself waking up a few minutes before my alarm every day. This is definitely more ideal than hearing the sound of an annoying wake up call.

4. The Perfect Morning

Instead of thinking about how the mornings used to go and how much they suck now, I’ve had time to realize that I can make my mornings go the way I want to and to figure out what my perfect morning would look like. This is as easy as writing out the problems and coming up with solutions.

Problem #1 – Feeling exhausted
Solution – Stick to a routine, make sure to get enough hours of sleep

Problem #2 – Feeling unmotivated
Solution – Insert gratitude here and everything else will follow. You don’t have to be motivated for something specific every day, as long as you keep moving forward.

Problem #3 – Feeling “ugly”
Solution – Take the time to wash your face or shower, brush your hair, wear something nice, anything that might make you feel better.

Problem #4 – Nothing to look forward to
Solution – What’s something that you would look forward to on a beautiful morning on the weekend? For me, it’s a nice cup of coffee or tea. For some reason, it’s a guarantee that I will have a better morning if I can to sit and enjoy the flavour of a nice warm beverage. Most mornings I am driving or at work while I’m drinking my coffee… both not ideal to truly enjoy it. I also love food… giving myself enough time to make a meal and find time to enjoy it makes a world of difference.

Problem #5 – Tunnel vision
Solution – Stop and smell the flowers. You don’t literally have to do this exact thing, but make a habit of noticing something around you. Stay in the present moment to get out of your head. For me, I need to remember to smell the fresh air and enjoy it the way I did as a child. It’s a quick reminder about all the good things that life has to offer.

I hope that you can find ways to appreciate every day, and enjoy each and every morning among the chaos that can be overwhelming in every day life. We all deserve to live a happy fulfilled life, so why not start to give your mind and body what you deserve. I truly think changing some habits and having a different mindset each morning will only provide positive benefits. If you have other ideas on how to make each and every morning the best one yet, please leave your ideas in the comments below.

How the KonMari Method Changed my Life

For those of you who haven’t heard of the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, I hope I can convince you to go and read it. Either that, or maybe binge watch a few videos on the steps to take. I’m not going to go into detail about what you are supposed to do and how to do. I just want to share how it was worth every minute to get rid of useless items and keep it that way.

It provided an organized system that I couldn’t think of myself

I’m particularly talking about clothes here. I have always folded my clothes the same and squished them into drawers and eventually every few months I would have to pull everything out and refold it all because it just became a huge mess. I had dozens of clothes I wore once, or never, but I couldn’t let myself get rid of them. There was a tremendous amount of guilt built up when I thought about the fact that I bought them with my own money, or they were a gift from someone else.

Only keeping the items that truly spark joy around was such a cool concept to me. Why would I want to keep looking at ugly or useless clothes and feel guilt every time I looked past them? I have so many clothes that I grew out of when I grew up and I’m sure I can only remember a couple of them that I actually liked and wore a lot. So why do I need to keep clothes around that I’ll never wear? This truly made sense to me, more so than other methods I’ve tried using such as “have you worn this in the past 6 months?” With that concept I would just think “no, but I might want to wear it 6 months from now.” This definitely didn’t work. Ever.

The new method of folding my clothes CHANGED MY LIFE. I can SEE everything in my drawer easily, and it all fits and is neat. However, it also probably fit better because I got rid of probably 35 articles of clothing. That’s besides the point… once you get used to folding your clothes a different way, it is easy and I have been using the same method for two years now. I still can’t believe how long I’ve been doing this for… usually new habits take forever to implement but this all just made so much sense to me and was what I’ve been looking for in order to keep a clean, organized living space.

Source: https://justagirlandherblog.com/filing-method-of-folding-clothes-konmari-method/

I’m no longer attached to items

Growing up, my parents were able to provide us with almost everything we wanted. We would get birthday presents, Christmas presents, and were able to go on trips and buy souvenirs. I have always liked having a clean, organized space, but most of the time I would become overwhelmed with everything that was there and I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of anything so I tidied as much as possible whilst having a ton of things around.

I would sometimes do some “spring cleaning” and donate clothes and items that didn’t mean much to me and that I didn’t use at all. This was usually very minor though. However, after I used this method to go through each category around the house and do it all in one day I was able to get rid of a TON of stuff. It’s true, once you start going with one category you just can’t stop! And it starts to feel GOOD! It’s a little weird to talk to your items before you get rid of them and thank them for what they provided you… but I can be a bit spiritual and appreciate doing it because it actually helped. I have found I can get an emotional attachment to things so talking to them as if they were human actually helped me out.

The result of becoming less attached to items is that I now think twice before I purchase something. I think to myself, do I actually need this? Where will I put it in my living space? Will it become clutter?We recently went to Mexico (before the pandemic was a thing of course) and all I bought was a hat. I only own two hats now, and I actually needed it in Mexico, and for when I play ball in the summer or am going to the beach here in Canada. I didn’t buy a sombrero, or poncho, or tequila, or a blanket, or anything that was being sold everywhere. No magnets, or cheap t-shirts or maracas. I feel so good about this decision because I not only saved money, but now I just have pictures to go back to instead of items that have no real place in my life.

The time to tidy up is now!

Like I said at the beginning, I highly encourage anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by clutter to go and learn about the KonMari Method. I truly think this is a well thought out strategy to keep your living space clutter-free. Turn on some music, start early in the morning on a Sunday (like she suggests), bring everything into your living room and change your life!

Be a Creator, Not a Consumer

Every day, we consume information in all sorts of forms. We wake up, look at our phones to check messages, emails, social media and everything in between. We hear what other people have to say, we have decisions that need to be made and not to mention, our jobs take up 8 hours of our day! For some people these 8 hours are spent doing boring, mundane tasks given to them by their manager or supervisor. Consuming can be beneficial for learning or for fun, but over-consumption doesn’t leave room for our own thoughts and ideas.

What happens after work?

I’m speaking from personal experience here – what do I do after work on most days? I come home feeling tired, lazy and just want to numb out any thoughts. I either cook dinner or order in, but immediately want to watch a show on Netflix while I’m eating, after I’m eating and can’t think of anything else to do except browse my phone, play video games or watch MORE Netflix!!! It’s like my brain cells have been completely used up by work and I no longer want to think. If you don’t have room to think, how can you create?

We spend most of our days at work, and especially for younger people who are trying to grind in order to make a resume look pretty. Can you imagine what we could think of or come up with if we had nothing but time? Well I’m finding a lot of free time during quarantine and I am happier than ever – I don’t feel stressed, anxious or depressed. I feel positive, inspired and optimistic. This seems strange during a pandemic, but I didn’t realize how much of my energy was going into the daily work I was doing that was for someone else. There’s truly something special about creating something by yourself that is very liberating.

Why is it important to create?

When something feels like a task it usually no longer feels enjoyable. I could type out an essay about how to be a creator and not a consumer at a desk job as a project, however, I would probably have to follow guidelines, it might not have been my idea and I would have the time pressures of getting it done. Right now as I sip on coffee and am in my super comfy housecoat, I am loving typing this out because I’m excited to share my idea with the world to help inspire others.

Everyone on this planet has their own experiences, their own brain and there are infinite possibilities with what can be created. Imagine if you sat down to paint a flower instead of look at memes on your phone for hours. Why would this be beneficial? Well first of all, you would be learning a skill. You would be mindful in what you are doing. And you would end up with something that YOU created! Before sitting down to paint that flower, you didn’t know what would end up being on that page. But now it’s there. ISN’T THAT AMAZING?! Would you feel the same after looking at hundreds of memes on your phone? I don’t think so.

Implement creativity every day

I think a huge factor that could help save our brain power has a lot to do with using our phones, as most of us cannot change what we need to do at work. I’ve researched many ways on how to treat our “phone addiction” because I find it fascinating how much I use my phone without realizing. It’s also quite worrisome as to how much I say to myself “only one YouTube video before bed,” or “I’ll only browse through Reddit for a few minutes this morning,” or, “I don’t need to see all this stuff on social media” only to find that I’ve spent hours doing all of these things.

One thing that I’ve found to be useful is to delete apps that aren’t useful to you for your own personal growth. Especially if you want to work towards something and are procrastinating, getting rid of all distractions is essential. In addition to deleting useless apps, try not to use your phone for an hour after you wake up, and to put your phone away an hour before bed. I’ve heard of people who have baskets in their house for everyone to put their phones in so they can interact with each other and connect on a human level. So far, I’ve found that I have enough self-control to just leave my phone and block out times throughout the day to check anything new that has come in. I have found that my conversations with my boyfriend are wholesome and it’s much nicer knowing we are both listening to each other rather than kind of paying attention while still being on our phones.

So how can you implement creativity every day? Perhaps write a list of things you enjoy doing and why you enjoy doing them. Or anything that you’ve wanted to do for a long time but haven’t gotten around to doing. I’m sure all of us can think of at least one thing that requires creativity, but we haven’t been able to do it because our brains are already full of other things. Once your main distractions are gone, really dive deep on what interests you and just do it! Just start. There is nothing to lose when you are creating something and leaving a mark in this world, but there is valuable, unique talent wasted when you are consumed by everything around you.

Source: https://society6.com/product/wild-rose-watercolor-art-pink-flower-painting-nature-art-flowers_print

COVID-19: What a Time to be Alive

Although many of us are facing the consequences of what this pandemic has created, I am feeling rather optimistic about the whole thing. I’ve been laid off from my job and for the first time in a while, I am motivated to work towards my passions. Usually, after working all day I would dwell on work and just think about how I have to work the next day. All day long I am consuming information with little to no room for creativity in other aspects of my life. Now that all I have is time, and an excuse to stay home, I feel more positive than ever to take up hobbies that can hopefully lead to new opportunities.

I think that despite the fear that is currently instilled in everyone, we have the opportunity to take a step back and realize everything we have been longing to do. I have been connecting with friends and family much more than normal, and all I have room for is to exercise my creativity! I have learned several new recipes, I’ve been forced into making things homemade and it has actually been quite fun. I am now working on my blog which has been neglected for almost a year, and today I started my first podcast!! Yay!!

Everyone should take advantage of this time we have to ourselves, with no obligations or responsibility (other than staying home) and find what truly brings joy. Please stay safe, we are all in this together!

My Spirit Animal

I want to introduce to you my spirit animal, Diana. She is my cousin/best friend who I have grown up with my whole life. Most of the time, our conversations aren’t necessarily words coming out of our mouths, but just laughing and saying stuff that doesn’t make sense but we are both somehow on the same page. We also could be doing absolutely nothing and it would be a good time. I think that everyone needs this type of human in their life. If you do, make sure that you appreciate every moment. Diana is a highly energetic, lovable, caring person and her good vibes flow through anyone who is in the same room as her. Not to mention, she has the best laugh in the whole world. I could be down in the dumps and just think of her laughing and all of a sudden I am also laughing, all alone, about nothing. She is a free spirit, and is wonderful at reminding me to stop planning every second of my life. Unfortunately growing up we were only able to see each other about once a year at our family cabin. We used to write letters to each other, and now we talk on the phone for 3 hours at a time whenever we get the chance. After we had both finished school and started our lives in the real world, we NEEDED to plan a trip together, and this is how the Tofino trip came to be. This trip taught me how important it is to spend quality time with the people who love you most, and that it’s worth putting your busy life on hold to have a little unplanned adventure.

Kelowna, BC

I moved to Kelowna in 2016 to explore new horizons. I had been to the Okanagan Valley when I was growing up and I knew this was the place I wanted to be. Prior to my move, I was living in Vancouver attending university, but realized it was too big of a city for me. I like to describe Kelowna as the perfect place for a small town girl to live a life full of opportunity. Now that I have settled into the area, I finally have found some ways to immerse myself into this town.

UrbanRec

UrbanRec is where to go to get your fix of sports as an adult living in the real world. It’s a great way to stay active, meet new people, play your favourite sports and get you out of the house! I have always played sports and found it slowed down quite a bit once I was out of the organized sports era. I definitely miss travelling to different tournaments with my friends in high school, and having practices a few times a week. I will definitely explain more in my post about staying physically active as an adult, but for the purpose of this post, I highly recommend joining a team through UrbanRec.

YMCA

I have had two experiences with YMCA that I can honestly say have played a huge role in changing my life for the better. I had the opportunity of enrolling in the YouthWorks Employment Program, which helped me switch my career path. It was a four week program that included personality assessments, resume and cover letter preparation, networking, certifications, guest speakers and more – all while getting paid to attend! The other program I went to was YMind, where you attend once a week for 7 weeks. You follow the book, The Happiness Trap, which I will discuss in my health post, to learn about mindfulness. Not only did I learn tools that would benefit me for my own anxiety, but it was incredibly helpful talking to other people going through the same thing. It’s funny how much you can find out there when you’re actually looking for it.

Kelowna Adventure Club/Hiking Addiction/November Project

These were a recent find for me. These are Facebook pages created for people who want to go on adventures and stay active in the area. I have gone to board game nights and camping trips, and I have always had great experiences. There are constant posts with fun people looking for fun things to do together! The November Project is more specified to working out early on Wednesday mornings. I honestly have yet to attend, but it sounds like a good time and there is always lots of people that show up…. at 6:30am… ready to take on a high intensity workout.

About my blog

I decided to start my blog because I feel like I need to pass on my life lessons to as many people as possible – and what better way than to create a blog! I tend to have lots of big dreams and ideas and I’m learning how to put them into action. I would also like to share my hilarious life experiences, more so for me to look back on when I need to lift my spirits. In this day and age, people have become way too serious about life, myself included, so I’m trying to join the conversation of inspiring others to find adventure in every day life. There is no way a person can be happy all day every day, but I do believe it is possible to embrace every aspect of life and to be happy about that. That in itself will help with the pain and suffering that we can all experience. I am a huge believer in prioritizing your own health, desires and ambitions over anything else because you are the only person who can live your life, and you should have fun doing it!