Me Time ✨

Hello, Cadre family. How are you doing on this Sunday? My name is Jean Nichols. I'm coming to you from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's amazing Sunday. Checking in on some me time. I'm gonna hold space for just a few moments while I people come on in. I'm going to share with you my little background for today seems indicative of me time and what I'd like to share. So it felt like the perfect spot to just take a seat. So on Sundays with me time, I mentioned before that I am doing a training for a couple marathons.

And today I'm not a good early morning workout person, but I had some things I wanted to do today. And so I got up early, and I was a little tired, not gonna lie. Hi, Jules. But I got out there, and the last few times I've gone out to run, I have bonked. That's not a technical term. Maybe it is. It's my turn. But partway through my long runs, I've ran out of energy, or I've been really in my head. And when I get in my head, I get really stressed in my chest, and it almost feels like I'm having an asthma attack, but I'm not.

It just feels like there's so much stress there. But this morning, I got up and I just gave myself permission to do whatever I could do today so that I could make it to one of the next things. And as I was out there, I got to thinking a little bit more about thinking less. Isn't that funny? It's kind of ironic. And I allowed myself to take some breaths and just hold space so that I could understand what were the thought spirals that I was having this morning. And when I would find one, I'd capture it, I'd name it, and then I'd say, okay, I'll get you later.

And then I would let it go. And I found after the first few miles of running. So I say that graciously, knowing that running isn't everybody's jam, and I'm strictly doing it to get to this marathon, and we have a schedule. But what I found was about a quarter of the way into my run, my thought spirals started to stop. They didn't disappear, but they were able to calm down a little bit. And then what I focused on is where in my body did I feel light? Where in my body did I feel joy? And I'm not gonna lie, running, you might not always feel light or joyful in your body, but I tried to find where I had that feeling, and I held space there.

Breathing. Breathing always helps. Now, I just finished an event, our lululemon in Minneapolis. There's one at the Mall of America. m. on the rooftop of a Four Seasons hotel, which is right in front of me, which is why I. What I'm looking at, I do a gracious little turn. You can see my city. Not just my city, but see up here. Right up here. That's where we were doing a workout this morning. And it was really beautiful. And it's so funny, because when I work out with other fitness instructors, there's a little bit of an intimidation factor, right?

Am I going to be able to do it? They have a different energy than I do. I also teach spin classes, so there's always, like, a little part of us that experiences an imposter syndrome. But what I loved about. What I love about doing these workouts is that I laugh. And so when I am sitting here, I decided to sit in front of this beautiful mural that is outside Minneapolis. If you've been here or you haven't been here before, there's tons of lakes, and there's tons of spaces, green spaces that you can go to where they put art throughout the city.

And it's really lovely. But I laugh because my body feels so awkward doing something new. Now, we could do something new and get really frustrated with our bodies, but when we think about moving our bodies, sometimes it's like dread, right? No, I'm just gonna stay on the couch today, not feeling it. But when we start to move our bodies and try something different, like, we feel awkward and silly, and we can choose to get in our head and compare ourselves to the person next to us, or we can choose to just be exactly where we are and feel it.

And today, I laughed because I'm a fitness instructor. Fun tip. All fitness instructors will tell you to do something on the left side of your body or the right side of your body, but we're facing you, so that means that we're mirroring. So if I say, ask you to do something on the left side of your body, it's actually my right. And whenever I take a fitness class from anybody, I always go the wrong direction every single time. And then I start to laugh, because I am now that awkward person that is not following along.

And see, I can't help but laughing about it. Jules, you posted in here that you need to give yourself permission to be in my feelings. Today, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. I love you for saying that, because not every day is going to feel good. But if we're giving yourself permission to take the time we need, mental health time, that we need, energetic time, that we need time to sit and eat a meal and not be on a phone or watching it, a tv, allowing ourselves to give ourselves permission.

Right? I love that you wrote it that way, but how crazy is it that we have to feel like we have to give ourselves permission to just be sad or feel goofy, right? And I love that we will use strong words with ourselves to say, you get to do that today. So my invitation today is whether or not you're having up feelings or down feelings, feel into your body and see where it's at. That sounds maybe silly, but I know that when I'm really stressed and emotional, I feel it like somebody stepping on my chest.

I feel it so strong there. Or sometimes when I'm ahead not saying the things I need to say, I literally feel like someone's choking me and nobody is. It's just literally my own self feeling stuck, and I feel it there. So if you breathe in and you're having that day, where are you feeling heavy and then allow yourself permission to breathe there and just hold space for it, maybe it's something from a year ago that you're still holding on to, and you just say, okay, I feel you. I'm here with you. Maybe it's something that just happened and you just want to let it go.

I was supposed to go for a walk with a girlfriend of mine yesterday, and we totally missed each other. And her text didn't send. It just sat there in her text box, and. And I held space and was like, you know what? I think there's something she needs to do. And it turned out we showed up at the same event this morning, and she said to me, I'm sorry I got your text message. It never sent. Mine never sent to you, so I missed you. And she goes, and I literally, yesterday afternoon, just cried for no reason.

And this morning on my way here, I cried for no reason. And when I saw her and she told me that, I was like, do you just want to hug? And she's like, yeah. And we just hugged after this workout, and she just cried. And she's like, I don't know why I'm crying. I just feel everything right now. And I said, cool, let's do that together. And so we did. So we feel it in our bodies. We know what we need. So today, I am finding opportunities to just discover joy. And it hasn't been a great week. It's been a long week.

This morning, I felt like I finally had a first run that felt good. But I haven't had any runs in the last seven weeks that have felt good. This is the one. This is the first one that felt good. And it gave me hope that I'm gonna do okay. And then I held space for someone who was having a day. And we just hugged, and she cried, and she didn't even know why. She just cried. And that's okay, too. So we get to be these perfectly imperfect human beings. We get to walk into a room with people we don't know, trying something new and feel awkward and laugh about our awkwardness, or not.

Or feel just really awkward and get through it and reassess it later. There's no right or wrong. And at some point, we can just find some joy and we can find laughter, but we're not always ready for that. So when you are, take that opportunity. Find the art that helps you remember what it was like when you were young and you laughed. Because little kids do a great job of laughing. And when they cry, they cry big. Right. They cry big, but they get it all out. So whatever you need to give yourself mission for today, do that.

Whether it's laughing at yourself, whether it's feeling uncertainty, whether it's sitting on the couch and having a day watching movies, eating junk food, whatever that is for you, do that, Jules. I agree. Hugs are amazing when you feel like that. I am definitely a person who loves touch. I'm a hugger. I teach a lot of spin classes. After classes, I hug, and I'm really sweaty, so I'm sure it's gross. But we do it anyway. So whatever you need today, I simply invite you to recognize it, to lean into it, and maybe.

Maybe share it with somebody. Because when you can put that out there, we're vulnerable, we're authentic. Doesn't mean we're weighing on someone. We're just sharing. You know what? Today is my day to feel the feels and roll with it. We don't always have to know why it's happening. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. On this Sunday, with a little bit of me time, I'm going to hang out with my jovial little family back here for a few minutes as I just breathe and stretch and just reflect on how cool this morning's already been.

And even if I wasn't feeling great right now, taking a few minutes to reflect on how my day started can always be a good thing because you can choose what happens next. You can choose to feel the feels. You can choose to watch the Olympics. You can choose to anything. But remember that you get to choose. So whatever you need today, you ask. And if you want to ask me, send me a comment. Send me a note. Respond on here. Tell me about the times where you find joy. Tell me about that time you felt so uncomfortable, you were silly and you laughed.

There's this instagram reel. I'm gonna put the link for it into the comments today. There's this lady. And this is my last funny thing for today. I've watched these several times in the last week because they make me laugh and shared it with my team because we can bond. And it's this lady who has decided she is going to do mom Olympics. And it's as if she's competing in the Olympics in her home and her husband videotapes and he cheers her on. And I think her son was on one of the videos and said, you got the gold, mom.

And it was. It's hysterical. But she's putting it out there. So. So maybe today you just find one silly thing that you can do and just do it for you. Why not? And if you're not feeling it today, good. Recognize that. Take that time and just do something completely comforting for you. Jules, I love you. Can't wait to see you again. To everybody else that's on the Cadre world, kisses to all of you. I hope you have the best Sunday and I will see you soon.