I Need a Reset... (Habit Seeds and Magic Rocks)

Are you even human if you don't ever fail and need  to start anew?

Things happen and sometimes we fall and fail and that's perfectly okay, because as long as you're still alive, you always have another chance to try. (And you're worth it!)

My stepdad's unexpected passing just one week after his cancer diagnosis has made me want to take my health more seriously. I want to be around for my family for a long time. But it's typically not effective to go from doing nothing to running marathons. You need to plant some seeds first before you can bloom. And even the smallest seeds can reap the greatest rewards.

In this episode, I discuss:

• Doing the best you can in the season that you're in
• My own derailment and what I'm doing to get back on board
• 3 "habit seeds" you can easily incorporate into your busy life to get a jumpstart on your health
• How to stack habits to be even more time-efficient
• Nourishing your body and mind
• The importance of sleep
• Words of encouragement
• Bonus habit for mental health that you can do while brushing your teeth

I hope you'll press play and join me in this little "Spring health challenge" of sorts. I'll be posting about these 3 habits daily on my personal Instagram for accountability if you'd like to follow along.

And if you're interested in checking out the indoor garden thing I was talking about, I got a code for you! Use THATBLISSFULBALANCE for $100 off. (Or follow along on IG to see how mine's going!)

Thanks so much for being here!

Transcript

I need a reset. I don't know if you do, too, but if you're listening to this episode, I'm guessing you do. Or you just want to follow along for the journey. And either way, I'm here for it. Because having accountability is part of what makes successes happen. Hey there. Welcome to the Friend in Your Ear podcast. I'm your host, Luna Smith, and I will be that friend inside your ear.

Well, we explore all things self-improvement. I'll share tips, motivation and positivity to help you live your best life. From health and wellness to career and relationships. I've got you covered because that's what friends are for, right? So tune in every week for a friendly chat to brighten your day. And let's make every day a little better together, shall we, friend?

And now on with the show. How are you doing? Hear me? Trying to be more chipper even though I'm sick. Week three of being sick, you might be able to tell from the sound of my voice that I still am sick. It seems to be worse this time around. But anyway, I. I probably because of this and just, you know, everything else happening recently, I just could really use a reset.

And with it turning into spring where I am, it feels like the perfect timing to do so. To plant some small seeds of health so that I can bloom. Hopefully. It's kind of insane. We got like over a foot of snow just last week, just a week ago, and it's almost all completely melted now and feels like spring outside.

So just feels like perfect timing, I think, to try to plant some new habits. And these are really, really simple habits. So anyone can do these. Anyone can join me. These are things that I've done in the past, but a lot of stuff has fallen to the wayside recently due to the events that have occurred, which you may know from my last episode.

Yes. So planting seeds and planting seeds. I just got this system that's called I don't know if you're supposed to pronounce it like garden style, but it's garden with a Y and sort of an E. It's like an indoor garden. I think it's called like a hydroponic system. I'm awful with pronunciation, so. Oh, my goodness. And I hate hearing myself talk right now with my sick voice, so I hope that you can handle it.

But anyway, so this system is it's all indoors and it's supposed to be easy to clean. And I do not have a green thumb, but I like the idea of having food that I can just, like pick right inside my house. I feel like I'm more likely to use it, you know, because normally if you go and you buy like a big case.

So like spinach or kale, you like never get to use it all before it starts to go bad. So I liked this idea where you can just like pick it as you need it. And then it just stays fresher longer and there's no, like pesticides or anything like that to worry about. So I'm trying that out. We'll see how it goes.

You can join me on my stories to see if I am able to grow these things. So anyway, I'm planting these seeds, these little tiny habit seeds in hopes that they will take root and I will come into a healthier version of myself. Oh, a lot of cheesiness here. Sorry for all the cheesy analogies, but it just felt appropriate, I guess, with the springtime theme.

And anyway, these are so simple and I hope that you'll join me in these if you're already doing them. Amazing. Maybe you can amp it up if you want to. Or maybe you're doing you're already feeling healthy and not sick or stressed, but these are things that you weren't doing yet that you would like to implement. They're very easy and a lot of them are like habit stacks that we've talked about before in past episodes.

So you can kind of get a lot of like two for one deals towards your health. So number one, I've talked about this before, but I haven't been doing it recently because I don't drink them as much in the winter because I get cold so easily. But smoothies. So that is going to be number one habit that I am committing to as a daily smoothie, because it's a way to stack so much nutrition into one delightful drink that you can have either as a breakfast or lunch, depending on when you're drinking it, or often a lot of times I don't find them hunger curbing enough for me that I usually end up just having them

more as like a snack. But every once in a while I'll have one as a meal. But yeah, so smoothies. And if you are someone like me who doesn't have a lot of time or you're more likely to follow through with doing something, the easier it is, which I feel like a lot of us are as humans, we're more likely to follow through with something if it's easier to do is to have a pre-made smoothie.

So either get one that's like already made for you or one that's really easy to make. Like the frozen garden smoothies that I've talked about before, where all you do is pour it into a blender, add your liquid of choice and blend it up into all, and you can add additional stuff if you want to. But they are good to go as they are.

I usually like to add some kind of additional protein to it and depending on the smoothie, sometimes I add like extra spinach or blueberries or something like that because I love blueberries. It's but you know, you can just drink them just as they are. And there's already a lot of different fruits and vegetables involved. So it's a way to get nutrition in one easy to drink beverage.

So smoothies, a really easy thing to implement into your life. It doesn't take much time, especially if you get something that's pre-made like that. And if you do want to try Frozen Garden, I don't know if you've looked into them before. I do have a code for them. It's THATBLISSFULBALANCE and you can go to TheFrozenGarden.com/ThatBlissfulBalance and use that code to get a discount off your first order.

I'll put that on the show notes too, if you're interested. But there's lots of other companies out there that do it too, depending on your tastes. That's just the one that I prefer. And that brings me to number two, taking a ten minute walk. I know that 10 minutes probably doesn't seem very long. Maybe you're already doing a 30 minute walk or an hour walk or you're running every day.

But for someone who is starting from complete scratch or who is inconsistent like I am, a ten minute walk is something that is super small and easy to commit to. And a lot of times, once you take that first step, that's like that's the hardest part. So you take that first step and then you are good to go even longer.

So just commit to 10 minutes and maybe you'll end up wanting to amp it up to half an hour, you know, if you have the time to do it. But just committing to 10 minutes is just like such a a small thing that we can't really like say we don't have time to do, you know, like we should all have 10 minutes in our day to take a walk.

It can be inside, It can be outside. Just walk for 10 minutes. And this is another one that you can easily have it stuck. You can do this walk while drinking your smoothie. You can take this walk while listening to a podcast or an audiobook. That way, you're also nourishing your mind in addition to your body. And it doesn't have to be an educational podcast.

You can be listening to comedy and getting yourself to laugh, which is also great for your body and mind and soul. So but you also can just if you're doing it outside, just listen to the sounds of nature, which is also really nice. It's very grounding. So yeah, just easy thing to do. So number one, smoothies, number two, ten minute walk.

Number three, get in bed by 10 p.m.. Sleep. This is okay. I'm I'm not just preaching this to you. This is for me as well because I am super guilty of not getting enough sleep. But I do notice the biggest difference when I actually get a good night's sleep and it's really hard. Do you have small kids? Because you can't always guarantee it.

So you have to try to do the best you can and take advantage because maybe the night that you get in bed by 10 p.m. is the night that they like sleep through the night. And then now you have an amazing native son here. So if you can just try to get in bed by 10 p.m., you're giving yourself a better chance of getting a good night's rest.

It is hard, like I said, with small kids, especially if you, you know, or not even a small kids any kid gets by the time that they get to bed, you want like a little bit of time to yourself and you know, if you go to bed really early, then now you're not really getting a whole lot of that downtime.

But that's why I'm saying 10 p.m. because I think 10 p.m. is like a good cut off point. It's like late enough, but it's not too, too late. It can get a bit earlier. Amazing. But 10 p.m. I think is a good goal for most people and for myself because it gives me at least a couple of hours to chill before I get in bed and another like little habit stack for this that I've started doing that I've been doing for the past month is when I get in bed right before I turn the lights out.

I think about the best thing that happened that day and say thank you in my head. The great thing about this is as you're thinking about what the best thing was that happened that day, you're thinking about all of the great things that happened. So hopefully there's more than one great thing. But at least finding like the best thing that happened that day and going to bed with gratitude in mind sets you off to a great start the next day.

So I think it's a really good I know there's lot of people who like to start with gratitude in the morning. I'm finding it a lot easier for me to do it at nighttime before I go to bed because in the morning my brain's just not really like awake yet. And so I really like to think about the best thing that happened that day before I go to bed and to say thank you for that thing.

I got this idea from this book called The Magic by Rhonda Burns that I had started to do back in February, mid-February. And I fell off of it because of my step father going to the hospital and being diagnosed with cancer. And, you know, everything just became so overwhelming and kind of difficult in that time for me to be thankful.

But I still, even during that time, still did this practice, which it's called, actually actually called the magic rock. And you're supposed to find a rock or stone of some kind that you keep next to your bed so that you see it. And seeing it is the visual trigger to remind yourself to do the gratitude practice. And it's been the only one that I've kept up with because when I went to bed each night, I saw the rock and so I would say what I was thankful for, even though there was a lot of stuff that I was having a hard time being thankful for in that time, I still was able to find something

every day. And, you know, seeing that rock, seeing that trigger, I think is really helpful. So I would highly recommend doing that. It doesn't have to be a rock can be something else, but the idea of it was to hold the rock in your hand as well while you think of the things that you're thankful for that day and saying, Thank you, I haven't made my way through the rest of the book yet.

I think I had only gotten up today to like seven or so when things got really hard and I will return to it eventually. But for now I'm at least still doing this magic rock gratitude practice. So I just wanted to share that because it's something that I found possible to do even in those difficult times. So if you're going through something difficult, maybe it can help you too.

It's a way to remind yourself that there's still something to be thankful for every day. But the goal here in getting to bed by 10 p.m. is to try to get 7 hours of sleep even when I'm in bed by 10 p.m., I still fall short like I'm still always sick. Something hours of sleep because of like multiple wake ups throughout the night or or what have you.

Yeah, because I'm kind of a light sleeper, so it's hard to get the full 7 hours of sleep. But at least by getting in bed by 10 p.m., I give myself that chance. Ideally, I should probably be getting into bed a little earlier than that, but then I lose some of that time to spend with my husband between between putting Teddy to bed and going to bed ourselves.

So it's kind of a tradeoff. But I think 10 p.m. is reasonable. I should probably go to bed a little earlier, but I think that works. But yes, we're supposed to be getting, you know, 7 to 9 hours of sleep. They say it's really difficult to do with all of the go, go, go and workaholic ism of our lives and, you know, raising families.

And so much stuff going on at all times that sleep kind of gets put to the wayside a lot. And I think that it's incredibly important, you know, it's how our bodies heal and it should probably be prioritized a lot more than it is. So I think that if you were to make just like one change in your life right now, like plant one of these seeds, sleep would probably be the one that you should do and it should be like good sleep.

Like, don't get in bed and then be scrolling on your phone like in bed at 10 p.m., phone off, turning the lights out like that kind of deal. That's actually probably my problem. Actually, it was like the last few nights I'm like in bed by 10 p.m.. But then I stay up reading for a little bit. So I should probably modify this goal to, to say like lights out by 10 p.m..

Anyway. So anyway, these are three really easy to implement tasks, but I feel like anyone can incorporate into their day. They don't take that much time, so I'm going to take time. It just means being aware of time and getting in bed. But you know, there are things that I think we can all do and commit to because they, you know, it's hard to say that you can't do these things like they're not going to take that much time out of your day, but they can have such a positive impact on your life, you know, like getting a surge of nutrients, moving your body while while listening to something that makes you laugh or feel

good and going to bed, giving your body that time to rest so that you can get a full, nourishing night of sleep and thinking about what happened that day that you are so grateful for right before you close your eyes. That way you're going to bed with gratitude in your heart and hopefully waking up the next day feeling even better.

I think things are so easy to do, especially if you like habits. Check some of them. Like if you make your smoothie, then go for the ten minute walk. Then you know that's not taking all that much time and you're combining those two nourishing activities together. So you don't need as many triggers, but you can also, you know, make your smoothie for your breakfast or something like that and then go in your ten minute walk at lunch.

And then, you know, right when you go to bed is when you think about what you're grateful for and, oh, key set a timer or an alarm that goes off on your watch or your phone to tell you to get in bed and give it a heads up or something like that. So it's like it, you know, reminds you to go get ready for bed because I feel like we lose track of time very easily.

So that's how I kind of keep myself conscious of what time it is to have an alarm on my watch that reminds me to go get ready for bed and a bonus thing you can do that I've been also been doing that has helped a lot these last couple of weeks is to listen to a meditation while I'm getting ready for bed.

Some people again like to listen to them. In the morning. I find myself more likely to listen to it at night when I'm getting ready for bed. It is kind of like a wind down for my brain, I guess. They say to do the best that you can in the season that you're in. And sometimes we are just in survival mode and other things just kind of fall to the wayside.

And that's life. We're human and there's no shame in that. You can always start anew. I mean, that's kind of the significance of the seasons, right? There were like reminders to us that there are seasons we are ever changing. And the beauty is that if you are still alive, you can always try again. So if you fall off of your like health schedule, of your exercise, schedule of your eating habits or whatever it is, there's always a fresh start.

As long as you're alive, there's always a fresh start. So don't give up on yourself. I know to most people this list probably looks like the simplest thing ever, but if you're currently doing nothing for yourself, then it's a great first step. And I am making this list for myself, not just for this podcast, but because I need to take that step for myself.

I need a refresh because life happened and I'm a human. We're all human, and that's perfectly okay. So don't get hard on yourself if you want to join me in this little challenge, this little reset for spring. I would love it if you did. I apologize again for my sick voice. Hopefully it's not too grating for you as it is for me.

And thank you so much for being here. It really means a lot. Thanks for letting me be the friend in your ear and I hope that you will join me next week. I hope that you'll hit the follow button if you haven't already. And let me know how things are going. Okay. See you next time and get in bed by 10 p.m..