The year is coming to a rapid end, and I’m so looking forward to the start of a new year…
I’ve been gone for a while, taking a break to enjoy Baby Annabel and prepare all kinds of new content for you. Soon, you’ll have brand new meditations, interviews with my favorite people, and tons of tips and recipes to enjoy and use to keep you and your loved ones healthy.
As I think about beginning a new year, I also think about the small changes I can make to protect my happiness. There’s no room for stress or overwhelm in my busy life. I would rather enjoy the busyness, because I know it’s possible to find peace even in the midst of chaos.
The easiest way that I keep my calm while raising five kids and running my own business is to establish routines for myself. The most sacred time of my day is when I first wake up, so I practice easy morning rituals to set the tone for my entire day – every day.
I do the same four things every single morning, and none of them take more than just a few minutes.
1. As soon as I wake up, before I even open my eyes, I begin my daily gratitude practice. All this entails is saying “thank you” three times. Sometimes I say it silently to myself or whisper it out loud. (Click here for my 21-Day Mantra Challenge for daily mantras that will change your outlook at your whole life!)
2. Next, I take a short walk around my house while everyone else is still asleep (lately, Baby Annabel has been taking the trip with me), and I continue to practice gratitude by acknowledging how blessed I am with my healthy family, my home, my beautiful things, and just the abundance of life in general. This practice ends with a short morning meditation that allows me to check in with myself and prepare myself for the day ahead. (Click here for my full playlist of You Have 4 Minutes for Meditation.)
3. The last thing I do before I start my work day is have a healthy breakfast. I rarely have much time in the morning to sit down and eat (I’m always anxious to start work), so I usually grab something super quick and easy. On days when I have a few minutes, I’ll make myself a green smoothie. (Download my favorite recipes to enjoy and share with your friends.)
But the truth is, on most days, I like to just grab something quickly and run to my desk to check my email and check in with all of you! On these days, my absolute favorite breakfast that satisfies my sweet tooth as well as my hunger is a small cup of super rich yogurt. It happens to be my three-year-old Summer’s favorite, too.
Lately, I’ve been loving a brand called siggi’s. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s an Icelandic-style non-fat yogurt that has a whopping 14 grams of protein to keep you full and give you energy. I also love that it’s made from the milk of grass-fed cows raised without growth hormones like rBGH and has no high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. (For fun and easy recipes using siggi’s, click here.)
4. Finally, it’s time for work. I save all my emails, instagramming, and social media check-ins for after my morning rituals. I don’t take my phone to bed and I don’t have a TV in my room. This keeps me calm and grounded, ready to take on whatever the day has in store for me. I make sure to never multitask and only do one thing at a time. Multitasking is actually a myth. What we’re really doing is task-switching, and it makes us less efficient, effective, and productive.
When you start your day off right, you become truly invincible. Miss a step, and it can result in missteps all day long. I hope that you’ll give my four easy steps a try… Let me know how it went for you!
siggi’s rather delicious yogurts with simple ingredients and not a lot of sugar.
Try delicious flavors like vanilla, pumpkin & spice, and mixed berries & açai, power up your breakfast with their recipes and print a coupon.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of siggi’s Dairy. The opinions and text are all mine.