Me Time ✨

Happy Sunday, everyone. I hope you are having a beautiful day, whether you're listening to it live with me on Cadre or maybe listening Replay. Hello, H. Dayton. Hello, Jules. Happy Sunday. We're here. My name is Jean Mitchells. I'm excited to be here today on this beautiful Sunday. It's Minneapolis weather. It is not snowing. It's November. I feel conflicted that we're almost at Thanksgiving. Can you believe how much time has passed already? We are 11 months complete. Almost 11 full months. 10 and a half full months complete with 2024.

When I think back at the start of the year, I keep thinking about all the things that I wanted to accomplish in 2024. We do that, right? We set goals. We have intentions. This year, my intention for 2024 was grace, gratitude and giving back. Grace for myself and grace for others. For the experiences that we go through, the emotions that we go through. It was less than a year at that time that my mom had passed away. It had just been over a year that my dad had passed. Gratitude for so many things.

So many things. Even the tough days are days to be grateful for because we have an opportunity to stretch and grow in a new way. And no day is ever going to be perfect. So I just found gratitude for each day. And giving back. That one, I think is important for me to honor my mom and dad and just a big part of who I am and who I want to be. You know, I find that we don't always have to give back to people who have given to us. Sometimes we have the opportunity to pay that forward. And maybe that's a simple act of kindness.

Helping some people out with a new idea or new adventure. Maybe mentoring someone who has graduated from college and stepping into their first jobs. Could be running a race for a charity or actually donating to a charity, or donating your time to charity doing volunteer work. So that's kind of been my guiding lens for 2024. And to be honest, I might keep it for 2025 too. Sunday afternoons I come in here with a conversation around me time, and I have to. I have to laugh a little bit. I do sound bath meditations.

It's one of many things that I do in my days and I get great joy out of them. I did one this morning at a store at the Mall of America in Fiore. They brought me in to do a sound bath in their store before a shopping event. And it's their way to help create community, similar to Lululemon, who I do them with often as well. Jules attended. Hello, Steph Erwin. Happy Sunday. Thanks for joining. And this afternoon, 3:00, Minnesota time, I'll be headed over to the salt caves in Minneapolis to do two more sound baths.

But the reason I say that is I find a lot of joy in doing them. It helps people heal. It helps people relax, be present, find an opportunity to take a few breaths just for themselves and relax. And I was talking to a lady at the end of them one day, and she asked me how many of them I do in a week or a month. And that can vary, but I feel very fortunate for how many that I do get to do. And she said, when do you take time for yourself? Because I thanked her, I celebrated her. I was like, wow, you know, good for you for taking a time out, because this person hadn't done that for a long time.

And she said, when do you do that? When do you take a time out and receive healing? And I said, you know, that's a really good question. I'm a really good doer. And in all honesty, I probably sneak it in more than I know. I'll sneak it in on those afternoons when I have gotten off of conference calls and take a walk with my dog. And I don't take my headphones or I'll schedule it in when I. And I said, schedule it in, didn't I? I'll just kind of pop it into open spaces that I have. And it's funny, because today I had an open space, and I was like, you know, today I'm gonna take a nap, and I'm not a good napper.

I'm a good doer. And so I came home, I walked my dog, went to the coffee shop, got a treat from Major, and a little matcha for me. And I sat there and I just kind of watched everybody. And I really just like doing that because Sundays are buzzing and people are just happy. And so many people come up to pet the dog and experience his magic. And then I was like, I'm gonna walk home and I'm gonna sit down. I'm gonna take a nap. And then I walked home, I started doing some laundry. I made some lunch.

Everything that wasn't a nap. So I'm gonna ask you, how many of you are good nappers? Anyone out here? I love naps. And I never create space for me to take a nap. I don't know why. I'll lay down, I'll watch TV with one eye open, or I'll read a book with one eye open. Today's book of choice is Bits and Pieces with Whoopi Goldberg. I've just been excited by her and inspired by her for so many years. Yeah, Jules, me neither. And instead of taking a nap, I started to read until I was one eye open and I was like, you know, I need a nap.

So I closed my eyes, I set a timer and I took a 30 minute nap. And I could have slept for two hours, but all I had was 30 minutes. And that was perfect because inside that 30 minutes, my brain just got to shut off a little bit. And isn't that what it's really all about? We think nonstop. Our brains are designed to be alert, to help protect us if there is harm coming our way. To help us solve problems quickly and move throughout our days. But our brains need fuel. Some things that it needs water.

How many of us can say that we actually drink eight, eight ounces glasses of water in a day? I think that's the recommended number. And if you're an active person, moving a lot or working out a lot, getting in, probably a couple extra beyond that is going to be super important. There was a really great TV commercial. If you've ever heard of the British Air Awards, they come to Minneapolis often. But what it is is it's an ad agency celebration in the UK United Kingdom for their advertisements. And they have gold, silver, medal, bronze and then like a grand prize winner of commercials.

And every year a group of friends, we all get together and we go to this British Air Awards and we watch these videos and then we talk about them and go to dinner afterwards. And it's really a delightful event. But one year they had a fish jumping through what looked like a hamster cage and it was swimming really fast. Fast. And at the end of it it said hydrate more. And it was a water commercial. And I died because it was so funny watching this fish swim through this obstacle course. First, I want to know how they got it to do it.

Different day. But second, I thought it was so clever because I now have that imprinted three years later still in my brain to hydrate more. So brain function needs hydration. Brain function also needs rest. We plug through, we plow through our days doing I'm a doer. My brother nicknamed me a doer when I was very young. He did it as a joke and just to tease me because it pushed a hot button and I would get all heated up from it. But he wasn't wrong. And to this day we still laugh about it. My preferred way to learn is do and then learn.

So I start by doing. But our brains need rest. Our bodies recover with rest. You had surgery, you were sick. How many times have we worked through a sickness like legitimately worked when we were sick? Our bodies need rest. Our brain needs rest, it needs hydration. Our bodies need fuel. Fuel doesn't come just from our foods. Fuel comes from hydration, it comes from rest. It comes from meditation, relaxing our brain. So I'm going to give you all a few minutes back today and I'm going to simply invite you to just find a way to rest.

Maybe it's taking a 15 minute nap, maybe it's taking a 30 minute nap. Maybe it's not reading, it's not watching TV, it's not listening to music or a podcast and you go for a little walk. I know I said rest, I'm not talking speed walking here, but there's different ways to rest. We can rest our brain. Maybe we just sit on the couch and we don't move or do anything for 15 minutes. Maybe it's just five. So my invitation to you on this beautiful Sunday of me time is to take what you need to refuel. What is that for you in the chat while you're still here, what is one thing that you can commit to today or maybe this week that would refuel you?

Maybe it's your spirit, maybe it's your heart, maybe it's your mind or your body. What is one thing, Steph, Irwin, Jules that you can do today or this next week to refuel and rejuvenate yourself? So I'm going to tell you what it is for me. I am committed to taking at least one nap this week and I am committed to signing up for a sound bath. I love them, I love giving them, I love receiving them. So I don't receive them very often because I do them so much. So I am committed to signing up for a sound bath in the next week or so.

Jules mentions in here that she thinks they're a phenomenal experience. She recommends trying one. Yeah. If you have one in your area, look on Eventbrite or meetup, Facebook even see if there's one happening. So type in the chat. What's one thing that you'll commit to yourself that will refuel your soul, reenergize you, help you rediscover your purpose. Jules, thank you. Having coffee with a friend, that's a great idea. I actually have a girlfriend that we're way overdue. So because you inspired me, I'm going to send her a text message right after I'm done with this and I'm going to set that up for this next week or in the next two weeks.

So today my invitation simply is to pause to refuel your spirits. Take a nap. H. Dayton, thank you for saying that. Taking a nature walk. Love those. Did that yesterday. We went out to a local park and didn't take the phones and just walked and reconnected with the earth and couldn't hear the city. Beautiful. So with that Today team, I hope you have the best rest of your day. Taking a walk, scheduling that coffee with a friend, buying that book, finding that pause, hydrating all of those things to help your brain and to help your heart and to help your body reset, find, calm, be present.

So if you have a 2024 mantra, mine was gratitude, grace and give back, maybe go back and look at it again. Reflect on how far you've come and identify an opportunity or two that you still have. Yet this year have the best Sunday. We'll see you soon. Oh, I'm here on Mondays at 10:30am Sorry, 11:30am Central Time talking about profess development. So I hope to see you again. Thanks for joining today.