Rachel’s Room🛋️Monthly Check In

Hello, Happy Wednesday Cadre crew. Hello to you. I'm gonna let folks trickle in per ush our little Wednesday crew. Hello to you. Why am I rhyming so much? I don't know. Hi everyone. It is Wednesday. It is the last Wednesday of February. And so I thought we should do a little monthly check in. Hi, Rach. She got fuzz in her mouth. Yeah, I don't know where February went, but here we are. And I usually like to do a little monthly check in with y'all. Typically I do it in the middle of the month, I think, but we haven't done one yet.

And February feels like it's half a month anyway, so we're gonna do it at the end of the month. So if you have been to my lives before, you know that I like doing these monthly check ins as a way to just sort of both reflect on how the month has been going so far, what we are hoping to have happen in the in the month to come, or maybe what to expect in the month to come so that we can prepare for whatever's to come. I find that check ins at midpoints and ending points are really supportive for our, well, being, really supportive for our stress levels, really supportive for our mental health, for our, you know, for our, our ability to not get burned out for our relationships.

Hi, Jules. Hi, Kelly. So it is, it's really important for me to do these check ins. I think that it's a great thing for y'all to do, so I like to do them with you because a holds me accountable. Also, maybe you'll, you find it helpful too. So if you haven't done a monthly check in before. Oh yes, Milo, I know you don't want to be excluded. Of course not. Also, I don't know if I showed you, I gave me. I got a haircut for Milo and I really wanted him to have a man bun. So the, the guy cut it all down and then kept this top part really long and he just looked ridiculous and he hated to have a ponytail in, so I had to give him a little self cut.

So now he looks cute again. But so for monthly check ins, what I like to do, I usually like to journal. So I find that writing things down is actually a really great way. As annoying as it can be sometimes, and as much resistance as I, I have to it oftentimes writing something down forces us to stop doing everything else that we're doing and single task and focus on simply checking in with ourselves. Because when we're writing something down, we can't be checking our phone at the same time. I don't know about you, but like if I'm gonna sit down and journal, like I'm gonna turn off my tv, I'm gonna turn off like whatever distractions might be going on.

So it's a way to kind of force us to actually focus on checking in rather than just like talking about it in our heads to ourselves. I didn't mean to roll my eyes and that was me like looking into my own brain. And so I think writing things down a like forces us to really focus on it. But also it becomes sort of like it becomes a track record that we can look back on. I love going back and finding old journals and going, oh my God, I was so, I was so worried about this thing that I forgot about or I remember, I remember when I was going through that and it was really hard and now I'm not going through that anymore, like, wow, I really overcame that.

So think it becomes a nice thing for us to reflect back on as well. Especially when it comes to like a frequency kind of check in or frequency kind of journaling where we do it at a certain, at a certain frequency we sort of get to see some progression in whatever direction. Right. Like sometimes it's like this, but we see movement and change. So for my monthly check ins, I like to write it down and I like to just ask myself questions. The questions aren't always the same, but they typically revolve around reflecting on the, the previous.

Like in this case it's the end of the month. So reflecting on the last whole month and asking myself things like what did I think was going to happen in February and did it happen? How did it go? How did it unfold? If it didn't happen, why didn't it happen? So kind of checking in on like maybe what my expectations were for the month and then what was the reality and, or, and then asking myself things like, you know, what did I want to do this month that I didn't get to and how do I feel about that?

Or what stood in my way and kind of doing some reflection around maybe why we didn't do the things that we wanted to do for ourselves and then asking ourselves like what do I want for the next month? Like maybe writing down some goals or writing down something you want to try or you know, something that you have that you know you have to do that you're feeling overwhelmed about and breaking it down high. Speak wonder. So giving yourself a chance to sort of think ahead for the month ahead and kind of map it out and, and kind of give yourself the chance to cope ahead for that and give yourself some tools that you can move into the next month with some level of awareness and some conscious, you know, sort of mindset around how the.

The rest of the month is going to go. Milo, literally the only thing that he could be looking at right now is the 711 sign. So I don't know why what he's so stoically gazing at face. Oh. Oh, that face always cheers me up. That chase always cheers me up. So if you plan on doing that, I would love to know what you end up checking in about for the month, what you write, what we write down, what you sort of discover. I know for me, February was a very, very stressful month. I felt really overloaded with work and I felt like I couldn't really do a lot of the things that I wanted to do for myself.

And. And I think having a check in helps me. Helps me look back and go, it's not that I did a bad job of doing things for myself. It's not that I was lazy. It's not that I didn't try. It's not that I didn't take care of myself. It's that I had a lot on my plate and I did the best I could. And those are still things that I want to do moving forward. And I have the chance to continue to try and do those things for myself in the next month. So it also kind of gives me a chance to look back and go, like, of course I couldn't sit down and journal and meditate for an hour every morning.

Like, of course I didn't go to the gym as frequently as I normally do. Like, of course I spent a little bit more money on food from restaurants or Uber Eats because they didn't have as much time to cook. Like, I had a lot to do. There was a lot on my plate. And it's not gonna be forever. Like, it was just this particular month. And it doesn't mean anything about me. I'm not a bad person. And so I think, like, also, like, during the last month, like, I would have those negative thoughts for myself every day, thinking I was doing something wrong or I wasn't doing enough.

And I think now that I can look back and reflect on the month, it's easier for me, Rach, wise, person, wise version of myself, to look back and have more compassion for myself and go, yeah, it was just a stressful month. And it was literally, it's one month out of one year out of my entire life. And I think being able to zoom out and get that perspective is also really helpful for us in our relationship with ourselves. And the more we can kind of build these check ins to create that self compassion, the more likely we are to move into the next month or season of our life from a place of gentleness and kindness, rather from, from a place of beratement or punishment.

I think oftentimes if we don't check in with ourselves and reflect in that way, our, our motive or motivation or whatever's driving us like ongoing is going to come from a place of I'm not doing enough, I have to punish myself or I need to do better. When in reality often times we're doing the best we can. And so if we give ourselves those check ins we get that moment of self compassion so that what drives us moving forward is coming from a place of kindness and self love. So I like to do these check ins.

I hope they're helpful for you. I'd love to know again what you end up, what you discover. Let me know in the comments. And next week it's March, so I will see you all in March, which is crazy. I love you all very much and I hope you have a lovely rest of your Wednesday and I will see you same time, same place next week.