Me Time ✨

Hey, everybody. Happy Sunday. Happy Sunday. My name is Jean Nicholls. Popping in here on this sunny, sunny day. I'm excited to be here, and I'm 90% certain. I start my live streams with, I'm excited to be here. Hello. Speak, wonder. Hello, Lisa. Happy, happy, happy Sunday. As you dial on in and jump in with me, my first invitation to you is to just take a breath. Long, slow inhale. Long, slow exhale. Just breathe. You're here. You made it. So, Sundays, if you've never been with me before. Hi, Jules.

I like to call Sundays me time. And I like to call this series me time, because I had it happen again today. I'll explain what I mean by that, but I don't know about you guys, but I'm just going to be super real for a second. I think I'm real all the time, or at least I try to be. But I was at brunch today with some friends, so I teach spin classes on Sundays, and I had two friends I hadn't seen for a long time. They came to my class, and then afterwards, we went to brunch. Hello, Shannon. And for the record, I love brunch.

I could eat brunch for every meal. It doesn't even matter. You could just call it brunch. I just. There's something about it that just is delightful in my mind. I don't know what your favorite meal is, but I'm not gonna lie. I love brunch. I love going out for brunch, if I can. I love having a cheeseburger, but also being able to have French toast, if that's what you want to do. It's just something about it. But my friends were asking me, like, what did I have on the docket for the rest of today?

And I was like, oh, well, I have two sound baths this afternoon. Yeah, Shannon, right? Bacon. Oh, I had bacon this morning. It was great. And I told him. I was like, well, I have two sound baths this afternoon at the salt caves. And I have a lady that might come over to my little healing studio and buy some things. And he's like, well, you just never sit down. You never stop, do you? And I had a pause, and I was like, yeah, I don't really know what that is. My nickname, ever since I was a little kid designated by my brother, has been Dewar.

And, yeah, Jules, weekend brunch with the family is a must, right? So my nickname when I was a little kid was Doer. My brother would tease me. He was awful. He's great. I love him, but he would be like, doer, doer, doer. Genie is a doer. And he did it because he was always teasing me. But it turned out he was right. I learned by doing. It's kind of a thing. But when I say that Sundays are me time, I'm gonna come full circle on this. I am very selective about what I'll say yes to do on Sundays. So I chose intentionally to say yes to doing sound baths on Sundays once a month because.

Because I really love doing them. So it's as much for me as it is for people that attend. And when I'm inside the salt caves, they're kind of cozy and warm. And if you live in Minnesota, it is not cozy and warm right now, but it is something that I am choosing to do. And the person that wanted to come to my studio today. I don't normally meet with people on Sundays because I don't make a lot of appointments on Sundays because it's a day I just. I want to be able to relax. If I want to relax or read, if I want to read or if someone calls spontaneously, I want to be able to say yes.

Because I can't always say yes. We get busy, right? And. But everything I said that I chose today are things that I intentionally said yes to because they would be things that would bring me joy. So teaching a spin class, going to brunch, doing sound baths, meeting with this new client that wants to invest in herself. Like, those are all things that I'm choosing to say yes to. But it got me to thinking again. And I have a little brand. I think with my friend group that sometimes I am the forgotten one to invite to things.

And then I have fomo. And it's not because they don't want me to come or they don't want to invite me. They don't always invite me because I'm always so busy. I don't know if you guys can relate to that or not, but I am the person that oftentimes organizes a lot of the events or the happy hours or brunches, insert whatever it is. I love getting people together to gather. I love creating game nights and fun little events for people. But I do often, not often, but I do sometimes get a little sad because I see all my friends out doing all these things, and they didn't ask, right?

And the reason why I started doing me time. So this livestream holds me accountable, literally, to taking that pause so that on those random Sundays when my friends don't think I have anything to do or maybe they think I'm too busy, and they call and say, hey, do you want to go walk around the museum? I have one day that I can just say yes. If I feel good, I can say yes. Shannon, you can relate to being a doer. Yeah. We populate our days, and that is not right. It's not wrong. It's not anything.

It's what we're choosing. And I think it's important that sometimes we just check in with ourselves and we allow ourselves to hit the pause button. I find that when I am the most stressed, I am the most busy. Now I'm gonna not create a connection between the two. What that means for me is when I'm super stressed, I actually will take on more because I don't, in those moments, know how to sit down. It helps me to process. It helps me. If I move, I might work out more. I might see all these things around the house that all of a sudden need cleaning.

It's like I just can't sit still because there's so much weighing over my head. I don't know if you can relate to that or not, but in those moments when I can catch myself and take a breath, I'm like, oh. Oh. I'm really stressed right now. And the minute that I can recognize that I'm overdoing, because that's my default, the minute I can recognize that I'm overdoing, then I can recognize that I'm probably stretching myself thin. It's possible that I'm getting a little snappy, a little punchy. Not physically punching anyone, but like.

Like, short with my words and maybe a little bit more. Just not as kind all the time, you know? Not that we have to be kind all the time, but I'm shorter with my words or shorter with my responses. And when I get into that overdoing mode, it's important that we have something or someone that can say, I think you need a pause. Shannon says yes. It's hard to stop. I have to build and rest. And then when I do realize, I don't do it in the way I should. Yeah. And Betsy. Hi, Betsy. It's so. I'm honored that you're here listening in.

I've had a girl crush on you for years. Think you're amazing, Shannon. Yeah. Rest is so important and so literally. You guys hold me accountable with this slide steam to making sure that I also take time for me. Now I'm gonna ask you if you're willing to put in the chat when you think about taking Me time. What are some of the activities that you would want to do if you didn't have an agenda? You didn't have anybody asking you for help. You didn't have a responsibility to anybody but you. On this day, at this time of day, for the next hour, let's even make it smaller.

What would you do? What's the one thing that just brings you joy, that fuels your soul, fuels your body? Ah, Jules, thank you. Me time has taught you how to slow down. Yeah. Rest versus park my brain in a neutral by scrolling or other distractions. Betsy, that's remarkable. I love that. How many times when we are so tired, myself included, do we, instead of just closing our eyes and just taking the pause or taking a breath, do we go back to that dopamine rush? And that's what it is, right? We're getting some sort of a dopamine rush that in our brain, the chemistry in our brain when we go onto our phones and we look at all the things that are out there.

Maybe it's a puppy video. I'm a sucker for a golden retriever. Maybe it's seeing what everybody else is doing. Maybe it's having fomo, whatever it is, right? Those distractions. Maybe it's looking at who watched our stories today, like, like. And seeing what happened there. It's a dopamine rush. It's a dopamine rush if we see somebody that liked a post of ours. So we spend that time and that's a great call out. Betsy. Like we spend that time scrolling or my. It's a bad habit. But maybe not. Bad habit is I'll take bubble baths because I love warm, but it also helps me water, helps me find calm.

But here's like my bad habit. I will feel like if I'm on overdrive that I need to use that time to still be productive. So I'll grab my duolingo on my phone and I'll practice Spanish in the bathtub. Or I will do the New York Times games and do the wordle or the many, many puzzles out there because my brain is so still in overdrive that I can't even appreciate my bubble bath. And I still am on my phone doing the thing. I won't go on social media during that time. I have a hard roll there, but I will still use it to play games to keep my brain active.

Because for some reason on those days when I'm in overdrive, even the bubble bath isn't enough to just calm me down. Shannon, reading a book in the sun. Book in the sun, sand and beach, Betsy reads, takes a bath, walks and notices the lights, pets, the cat, watches comedy, all of these things, right? So when I think about it, and I'm going to invite us and I'm really going to challenge us this year in 2025, whatever you have for goals, maybe you did a goal for the year. I always do themes, so my theme last year didn't feel complete, so I'm bringing it into this year.

My theme for the year is grace, give back and gratitude. Grace for myself when I'm having those days when I'm in overdrive or if I snap at somebody accidentally because I'm having a day. Grace for my grieving process, which it always will ebb and flow. Gratitude for the sunshine. It might be cold in Minnesota, but I'll tell you what, that sun is beautiful, sky is beautiful. It allows me to go inside for activities, maybe a museum, a movie, a book, right? So it allows me the opportunity. So gratitude for these things every single day.

And giving back. What can I do to give back to my community? What can I do to give back to my family and friends? So those are. That's my theme for the year. So whatever it is for you, I'm really going to challenge us in me time to hold ourselves and hold each other accountable to the books, to the baths, to the walks. So in the chat as we finish up today, shared with you, my theme talked about being a doer and being super busy. And I've talked to you guys about choice. So choosing actively what we might do on.

Maybe it's Sunday for your me day, maybe it's Tuesday because you work on Saturdays and Sundays. Having a chunk of time that you designate, that is your open space. But you can choose whatever. You can choose to say yes to your friends, you can choose to say yes to yourself. So those are my challenges for us right now. That's my challenge in 2025. And if you've been with me before, you know that I'm a Reiki master and I am into energy work, but there's a lot of meaning behind numbers and animals you could see, and I'm happy to have that conversation anytime.

But the year 2025, if you add up the numbers, it equals a nine. Now, a lot of times people will tell me they see patterns in numbers, like a 1, 1, 1 or 4, 4, 4. Like, if you Google the meaning of numbers, there's a lot of, like, context and go into it, but the number nine. So 2025 is a nine. And in the series of zero to 10, right? We're in a year that we flip over. We'll go back to zero. The numbers start back at the beginning, but the number nine has a really significant meaning. And 2025 is the year that we look back at our past and we reflect and we honor where we were.

It's a year to see how far we've come and it's a year to decide where we want to go next. And it's a year of lifting up. So if we think about 2025, think about me time as a year for us to lift up. Who do we surround ourselves with that can help us lift up? What activities that we can do to help us naturally feel taller, grateful, graceful, happy, joyful, relaxed. So thinking about how we might surround ourselves with an energy that will help us lift up and the energies that don't lift us up, the energies that drain us and deplete us, how might we kindly say thanks but no thanks and we can let that go.

Maybe it's an old relationship that has evolved, but you've evolved in a place or a way that the relationship doesn't work anymore. Or maybe it's leveling up and seeking a new adventure. Maybe it's finding a new vacation. Maybe it's finding a new spot in your home that you can put a new plant and that can be a spot for you to be creative or relaxed. What might that be for you in 2025? So me time. I'm going to challenge us a little. I'll always continue to share with you my journey and my stories.

Also share with you that I didn't do my marathon training today. It's really cold and I'm trying to manage that cold. So I'll do my training tomorrow. But I'm giving myself the grace to not be so rigid, to do something that doesn't feel good in my body and know that I will still get it done. I'll just do it differently. So happy 2025 team. I invite you to type in the chat. What's one thing today you're just going to go do for you besides jumping on Cadre? One thing. So Shannon, thank you for joining.

Betsy, Jules, Speak, Wonder, Lisa, everyone who's dialing in on replay. Happy Sunday. Find this place to smile. Find a place to relax and take just a few small moments for yourself to check in, breathe and have some gratitude for what is going on and around you right now today. We'll see you soon. Monday as I'm here. Professional development leading with authenticity. Got some cool new tools coming your way, and we'll see you then.