Welcome to Episode 325 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! Im excited you’re here…..Im not just saying that I really am. Thank you for listening and thank you for making the world better simply by attempting to be the vest version of you…….
I was sitting outside this morning and a very cool thing happened. I love to be outside in the morning because we back up to trees and a farm even though we are right in the middle of town. I feel like I’m immersed in nature. Anyway, I’m sitting there getting sun on my face and journaling and I see this large movement in a tree. It’s slow though and then when I focus I see it’s a huge bard owl just hanging out. He is not one bit concerned about me which I love as much as I can I do my journaling and meditating outside so I get morning sun on my face it’s shown to improve your sleep. Im all about my sleep especially in this world where everything and everyone seems like we are in a hurry, I don’t know about you but when Im rushing it’s stressful. It does seem like we are in a hurry though doesn’t it?
Have you ever been in the car and someone is on your tail driving fast and they zoom around you in a hurry only to get to the stop light and there they are. Right beside you? Happens a lot. Or maybe you speed to work trying to take shortcuts or detours and it just takes longer?
Statistics show speeding if your on short trips like to work or school or grocery store isn’t very effective due to traffic lights and stops. We are talking like 10 seconds here. and when you consider the risks of accident and cost of a ticket the benefit of those 10 seconds disappears. I think it’s the same way for life.
I was rushing the other day to leave the house and I got in my car to see I had forgotten my phone in the house and my water bottle. So back up the drive I go into the house to find it. All my time saved rushing gone. And I was stressing myself on top of that. And we do this a lot. Whenever you rush something or take shortcuts it seems like it takes longer. How about when you’re speeding on a project and you make tons of mistakes so now you have to take the time to fix them? If you just slowed down and were intentional about what you’re doing, you would actually be ahead. Seems like the same goes for life.
I was busier than usual this week with design clients and visiting My sister Heather so a couple days I didn’t get in my morning routine of meditation and journaling. I just hit the ground running without doing it because my busy mind didn’t want me to slow down and take the time.
I’m actually glad it happened though because it taught me a valuable lesson. I get less done and distract myself so much more when I tell myself I’m too busy and I don’t do the things that take care of my mind. So, I allowed meditation and journaling to slack for a few days in a row.
Here’s what I found. I was less productive and had more moments of feeling a little down or just lethargic because I was being lazy with my mental space. I scrolled a little more on Instagram which is so interesting to me because if I start, it can be so addictive that I know it’s making me feel unproductive and not great but I can’t seem to stop. Kind of like if you’re not disciplined with chips or sugar. There have been times where I wasn’t even hungry but I just kept eating those cookies or chips because it tasted so good knowing I was going to feel bad later. That’s how I feel when I consume too much social media. That’s also why I try not to get on much anymore. It’s a time killer. My point is my brain said I was too busy to meditate and journal which I just went along with, but in return it was also very distracted and unfocused and a little overwhelmed and I realized it’s because I let my brain run me when I usually tell my brain how the day is going to go. when I meditate that’s me letting my brain know I’m in control. It starts the day with me being aware and in control of my thoughts. When I journal I always journal what I’m grateful for but also how I’m going to show up that day. So that starts my day looking for what’s good in my life and also being intentional about how I’m going to show up. When I didn’t do those things, I was just left to whatever my primitive brain wanted to do and it wants to be distracted and worry and think negative thoughts about pretty much everything, the Primitive brain is also looking for danger, not for what’s good. So when you live from that space, you’re looking out for how people are out to get you or in what ways you need to protect yourself from feeling pain of any sort which causes you to want to distract yourself by eating too much of the wrong things, drinking too much, scrolling, consuming. And these things slow us down in every way.
So we think we are too busy to take the time for self care but when we don’t do the things that make us better we are spending so much time making up for it. We live on autopilot. We spin our wheels because our primitive brain is in charge. We aren’t being intentional about our day. When we start the day being intentional we immediately get our intelligent brain awake and knowing it’s in charge and we allow the primitive brain to sit in the back for when we need it like when we have to think quickly to avoid hitting a stopped car or anytime we need to go into survival mode but we don’t want to live our day to day lives from that place. Starting our day with a mindful practice of some sort is so much more productive because we have a plan of how we’re going to show up and we have started the day being intentional which means we are working from the front of our brain.
Left on autopilot, which basically means just going through the motions of our day without any planning or thought or intentionality, we are at the mercy of whatever our primitive brain allows for. Which can be negative thoughts like worrying about silly things, making up things that other people are thinking which are never good thoughts coming from autopilot because the brain will automatically go negative if it’s not being guided. If you constantly have negative thoughts, you aren’t guiding your brain intentionally. You’re allowing it to just do what it does which is go negative. That’s just how we are hardwired. I wish we were hardwired to just be happy and healthy but that comes from being intentional. For most people it doesn’t happen naturally. For me I’m naturally good natured. But as I have gotten older I’ve noticed I really have to work on being intentional or my thoughts will have me doing things that make me feel lethargic and sluggish like eat too much, consume too much social media or avoid the gym which all slows me down. So taking the time to be mindful in the morning actually moves me forward in a positive way.
So when you slow down. You actually can speed up and it starts over every single day.
So. Are you starting your day from your primitive brain or from your intelligent brain? When one is working the other isn’t so much. So how would you know from which one you’re working? If the first thing you do when you wake up is scroll on your phone..that’s the primitive brain. If the first thing you do is start running through the myriad of things you have to accomplish today and how you don’t have enough time that’s the primitive brain, if the first thing you do is have negative thoughts about everyone and everything that’s the primitive brain. How do you shut that off and work from the intelligent brain? 3 things that take 5 minutes and we all have 5 minutes. Have a little journal. Wrote 3 things you’re grateful for and 3 ways of how you’re going to show up today. For me I like to be intentional present and curious. Things like that. Maybe instead of curious yours could be aware. Which helps you notice any negative thoughts you’re having so you can flip them around.
Imagine a day where you’re intentional so you don’t just pass the laundry sitting in the basket, you put it away. You aren’t scrolling on your phone when your with your partner or kids so that you are present and you’re aware of any negative thoughts so you quickly flip them to something that serves you. How much more would you get done and how much better would you feel? You would get ahead simply by slowing things down.
My challenge to you today is ask yourself that question. Am I starting my day from my primitive brain or my intelligent brain? It probably won’t be very hard to figure out. I know for me it’s not. Share this with 3 people that you love. I love you guys. I’ll talk to you in a few days.
