Ep. 75 Recentering Throughout the Day [Jumpstart Your Year: Day 15]

Happy New Year!

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Our goal with the series is to create momentum and spark creativity so you can go into the new year with clarity and intention.

On Day 15, Kimberlyn reflects on the question:

What activities do you do throughout the day to recenter yourself?

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Transcript

Kimberlyn: To jumpstart your year, we are coming at you every day this month with many Bite Size episodes to get you reflecting on what's working and what's not in your parenting and productivity journey. Our goal with this series is to create momentum and spark creativity so you can go into the new year with clarity and intention.

Hey, I am Kimberlyn. And I'm coming to you with day 15 of our Jumpstart Your Year series. Today I'm going to be reflecting on the question, what activities can you do throughout the day to re center yourself? And I think this question is, is really interesting, actually. I don't necessarily think of this as something that I do kind of intentionally I think that I kind of innately find ways to recenter myself during the day.

Obviously, there are times where I will get kind of like way off course and have to bring myself back. But. For the most part I've gotten really good, especially in the past, like, a couple years of doing things throughout the day that just kind of bring me back to who I am and they bring me back to, you know, how I'm feeling, how I want to feel they are things that really It's almost these, I, I like to call them kind of like self care check ins.

I personally like to, you know, use these throughout the day, whether or not I'm feeling off, I actually think that the best way for me to do this is, is actually intentionally create space throughout the day to kind of come back. So so for example Some of the things that I do to kind of come back to myself meditation, especially if I have felt like my, my brain is going, you know, a mile a minute, I have a ton of thoughts, I'm having a hard time like sifting through those thoughts.

And a lot of times meditation will work really well for me. Like, When I'm feeling anxious, when I'm feeling I just, I feel like my, my mind has taken over my body and I have a hard time recognizing what I'm supposed to be doing next. And so meditation for me is a great recentering because it, you know, I come back, I come back to my breath, I come back to my body.

I allow, you know, my, my mind to gradually calm down and. I actually, I took a class Oh, probably like 6, 7 years ago in meditation and the thing that, that really stuck with me in terms of meditation and, and the purpose of meditation is they, they talk about your mind being like a lake. Right. And so if you, if there is a lot of wind, there's a lot of interference, that lake is going to have a lot of ripples on it.

And so it's got all these ripples and it's really hard to see the bottom of the lake. So with the ripples, right, it gets kind of muddy to, you know, it just kind of I mean, think of, think of a lake or an ocean or, you know, whatever, like, body of water you're used to being in is when there is movement, it's hard to see the bottom.

And what meditation does is try to recognize these ripples, but also let go of them, right? So, In our day to day, we generally have like thoughts and if you're like me, I will sometimes get a thought and be like, oh, that's a really great thought. I want to keep that thought. And so I'll like, I'll keep it here and then I'll be running through and then I'll get another thought.

And it's, it's like, I'm collecting all of these like thoughts and ideas in my brain and I really need to just like write them down, but I often don't. And so it's like, I'm collecting all of these things and then I'll I get to a point where I have so many voices in my head that I can't actually concentrate.

I can't see the bottom, right? I can't see clearly what's going on. That water is all muddied. And so meditation is about helping your mind kind of Like a lake, helping that water just calm down. And so it's about really going from the ripples to one of those lakes, when it's just, there's no wind, it's completely flat.

You can see straight to the bottom. It's super clear. And that. Metaphor really, really stuck with me in terms of meditation itself, but also that way of like recentering, right? Of all of these ideas. Going all over the place. How can I calm them down? How can I quiet them down so that I can really see right the core of things?

How can how can I really get to what I need to see versus all of this distraction, right? That's in the way. So meditation is one thing I do. Taking a walk is another. It's actually, walking is is a form of meditation. I know a lot of people don't Necessarily think of it that way, but the just the repetitive movement of your of your feet on pavement or, you know in the woods or wherever, wherever it is that you're walking is actually very, very calling.

It definitely helps to regulate the nervous system. I will go for a walk in particular if I'm feeling stuck and I feel like some type of movement is necessary. Sometimes I will do this. If I have an idea, or I need that, like, creative spark, like, we talked about the other day of you know, making time for for creativity, but I will use just the walking and to kind of.

Digest ideas or topics. Sometimes I will use just the walk and I'll put on my AirPods and listen to music or a podcast or something else. It all just really depends on what my goal is, right? If I'm looking to get inspired, or if I'm looking to calm the crazy, or if I am looking to just kind of You know, digest what's in my head already.

So a walk is another thing that I, I like to do to recenter myself. As you notice, like, all of these, like, recentering. For me in particular are alone time activities, right? For me, it's really important to kind of get away from, from the energy of other people in order to recenter. So meditation, walking, even just going outside, right?

For me, I really love, especially if I'm tired, if I feel like I've been like pushing, if I've been hustling and I just want to break. My body will just naturally gravitate to the outside, right? It will gravitate to the sunlight, it will gravitate to fresh air and I will usually just go, like, grab a book and go sit outside on my patio and lay down and something, you know, usually I'll, I'll have my, like, feet up for that, like, relaxation benefit or effect of, you know, feed up book in hand coffee and the other.

And yeah, that's 1 of 1 of my, the best ways for me to really recenter is just to like, calm down and go outside and reconnect. With that, you know, with the sunlight with the fresh air, it doesn't necessarily have to be in nature. Right? I think that you know, going out into nature is great, but it takes a little bit more out of me to, like, actually get out of my house and go into the woods

but, you know, it's usually I just need, like, something that's quick so I can recenter. And in that case, I will grab a book and go outside. Yeah. I think those were, like, the 3 biggest activities that I do in terms of recentering, right? So reading outside, going for a walk and meditation.

Workouts also, I think, I recently started this past week a new workout routine, and that's really it's been nice. It's been hard. But when I do get into that routine, it gets to be kind of more of a habit. It's also a great way for me to just kind of like disconnect from if I've been like working really hard to, you know, get out of my brain and back into my body.

The workout works really well for me as well. So I'd be interested to hear you guys like, what are you what are the activities that you do, right? What does it mean for you to actually recenter? You know, recentering can be for some people like not necessarily an alone activity. It could be, you know, reconnecting with your partner or reconnecting with their kids or playing.

I think those are also like, super valid activities to kind of recenter and come back. But yeah, I would love to hear from you guys. What do you do, you know, that you can always reach out to us on Instagram. Slide into our DMS. Let us know what you what you do to recenter. And if you'd like this episode, you might also enjoy the village, which is our community and co workspace.

We offer lots of opportunities for connection, accountability and intention setting. You can check out the link in the show notes to get on our email list, where you will hear about all of the upcoming meetups and be able to follow along with our daily prompts in this monthly series. Alright guys, see you next time.