Create 3 Habits That Support You Daily

In this week's episode, we discover practical, life-changing habits to help you show up fully for yourself in body, mind, and spirit every day. Tune in as we dive into simple, powerful routines for grounding spiritually, moving your body, and nurturing your mind. Learn how to create balance and growth without overloading your nervous system, and start planting seeds for a sustainable, healthier you—before the new year even begins. Embrace the power of small, intentional changes for a life rooted in gratitude, self-care, and mindful connection.

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Transcript

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we're rubber bands. We want to stretch ourselves. We want to increase our capacity. We want to expand who we do not want to snap because then our brain is going to say, well, that wasn't safe. That didn't feel good. Right. Because if we start saying, well, I'm gonna work out and then we're overloaded. And then we feel even more stressed. Like the working out doesn't even feel good. You're not going to want to do it. Welcome to You First, a journey to self podcast, where we empower women to rediscover their true, authentic selves and regain personal power. If you are ready for a major shift, you've come to the right place. I am your host, Maria Fuentes, an expert in women's emotional mastery and self discovery. With a degree in psychology and nearly two decades of experience, I am passionate about addressing the challenges women face monthly. Self love, healthy relationships, and emotional awareness. I've had the privilege of coaching so many incredible women and witnessing their transformation through the methods we'll discuss on this podcast. This show is your weekly space to shift your perspective, find inspiration within and heal in ways that feel true to you. I'm so grateful you're here. Let's dive into this week's episode. Hello, my beautiful muses and welcome to this week's episode. This was going to be a short and sweet one. And I also really intentionally wanted to do this episode before the new year. Because you need to start planting seeds. Now the reason habits and creating new, healthy things don't work for most of us in the beginning of the year is because we do so much. We overdo our nervous system and then we don't actually stick to anything long term. And so I'm going to give you three habits that I, that support me every single day and what I do and how I show up for myself and I'll give you guys like specifically what I do, but I also want to give you guys some ideas and how it could help you and what you can do as well, because I truly don't believe that would help me. And it makes me feel great. It's going to be the same exact thing that's going to help you, but hopefully helps you start thinking of them. So you can start establishing some of these habits now. And like I said, it's not about starting a thousand things at once. And even though these are three different things. I would say, spread them out throughout the day, or maybe start with one, do one for a month and then add another one, do that one for a month and then add another one and just feel it out. Don't overdo it because. The moment that you don't do one, or you feel like maybe you miss something or you, you slacked on something or sabotage something. You're going to feel shameful. And when we feel ashamed of not doing something well, we're not going to want to do it again. Right. Our brains are constantly and consistently trying to keep us safe and keep us feeling happy. And so we can, if we start to prove ourselves to ourselves that we're not good at something, or we can't keep up a habit, then we're going to just say, well, F it, I'm just not going to do it. I'm just not good at that. Or I'm not going to do it right. And so keep it simple and like, I can't run this and run everything I'm saying through your own intuitive filter and see what works for you. I've learned, that I have to show up for myself physically, mentally, and spiritually every single day. And it sets a tone for me throughout the day does not matter if I woke up cranky. It does not matter if I woke up hormonal. Or super happy or super motivated. If I do these three things, I always just feel better throughout the day, sets the tone for my day and for my week and for my month and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And actually when I don't feel like doing any of these or even one of these and I do them, that's when I actually feel the best, because I just proved to myself, okay. I can do it. And I also will say that because we're cyclical creatures as women. These three things don't always look the same for me throughout the month. So I'm first going to start off with link. When I feel the most energized, I really, I have like great energy throughout the month, except for like three to four days before my period. And then like four days during my period when I'm just exhausted, I feel a lot low energy. A lot more low energy and I'm actually going to be in this area, in this realm. So I'm just using up all the energy that I have right now, before my period starts here in the next like seven days. So first for me in the morning. I had to show up for myself spiritually, like TJ and I have been doing a good job at praying together in the morning and reading the Bible. But the mornings that I wake up too late, or we don't have time to do it, or whatever happens. Throughout our day, I start off every morning, regardless, and before we even pray together. Giving God gratitude, like telling him that I'm so grateful for everything I have, how I feel, how healthy I am. I start off my day with gratitude and I do put this in the bulk of spirituality because helps me connect with something bigger than myself. And. It gets my head out of my own ass, right? Like sometimes we wake up and we start thinking of everything we have to do, or maybe the things that we lack or we're so disappointed in ourselves or whatever it is that we wake up thinking. And it's like, wait a minute. None of those things really truly matter because I woke up healthy and I woke up. Being able to change the course of my day in my life today. So thank you, God. I start off with that. So for me spiritually, Setting the tone for my day, while I'm having coffee while my brain is waking up. And then when we get to pray together, that's extra special and we get to read the Bible together. That makes my heart so happy. Um, and again, The days of TJ and I can do I'll read this little book that I have this like a devotional book and it just has a great message. And again, it just gets my head out of my ass. Right? Like, and I think this is important for a lot of us to do because we, we think all these other things are so important and really none of the things that we consistently think of, or that hold space in her mind. Are that important? When you have a bird's eye view and you're actually like, wait a minute, I'm happy. I'm healthy. I'm whole, like, I'm whole, just the way I am, all these things that I'm going for every day and every week, it's just an, an amazing opportunity that I have, but that doesn't make me who I am. And so thank you God. For everything you give me. And again, I don't know what your religious beliefs are, so if it's not praying, just connecting to whatever higher source you believe in. Um, maybe it's, it is praying for you. Maybe it's meditating, but connecting to something bigger than you. I for a long time, didn't, didn't really believe in God. I stopped believing in God. And to be honest with you, and it's been a journey of the last like year and a half. And, and just getting back to him, like, I think I always did believe in God, but I had like this like sour taste in my mouth because I grew up Catholic and my mom growing up, like she was, she had a lot of mental health and she was just thought like, God will take care of it. God will take care of it, but it was always just me taking care of it. So I was always super frustrated when I would hear her say that. And so that put a bad taste in my mouth. And I realized that first of all, God has helped me throughout everything in my life. He's always been there and my mom was right. God. Was constantly helping us. And I just didn't see it in that way. So even if maybe you're questioning things about your spirituality and what you actually believe in. Leading into that as well, because I've, I've gone through it all. Like I went away from. Everything. Like I, my mom believed in crystals and getting her cards right. And all that. So like there was a while in my life, a few years where I didn't believe in any of that. Like none of it. And I slowly started coming back to things and energy work and going and doing Iowasca and connecting with something bigger than myself. And now I am at closer to God than I ever have been before. And I feel like I'm just scratching the surface. I really want to get closer to him. But I urge you to connect to something bigger than you because it really. Other than getting your head out of like the fog or the things that don't really matter. It helps you connect to love at our like unlimited unconditional level. And sometimes we as humans can't do that for ourselves. And so connecting to something bigger, you're. You feel held, you feel loved, you feel taken care of. And so spirituality for me connecting to that every single morning, it just makes such a big difference in my life. And so I would say. I mean, I, this is something that I do I could do regardless how much energy I have already just takes a moment to just be grateful and connect to something bigger than you. And then I always move my body and I shouldn't say always again. The week that I'm on my period before. And like during I there's two days where I don't do anything at all. And like just taking care of my body means maybe taking a bath or just laying on the couch, just to be honest and doing nothing. But the other days, I'm constantly either working out, walking or moving my body in some way. And then I love to compound it and I'll split it up here in a second, but then I love to compound it with the third thing, which is showing up for myself mentally. And. Like learning something new, like challenging my brain. We live in the generation where we can get on Instagram or social media, whatever your source of dopamine is. And we can go down the rabbit hole of just getting really distracted and it's not really feeding us. And we think that we are, we're like, oh, we're learning. And like, I follow all these great people and have great messages, but really what you're doing is overstimulating yourself. And. And you start really comparing yourself to these people you have so much information overload that you decide, you know what? I don't even know where to start. This is so frustrating. And then you start feeling guilty that you're not doing the things they used that you've read or that you saw. Right. And this is I'm giving this example as if, like, if you're only looking at things that are like positive and worth like a knowledgeable, right. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we go down the route, like the loophole of social media, and it's all just junk that we're looking at. But sometimes when we're overstimulating ourselves with so much knowledge, It could also be a bad thing. And so I tried to stay away from social media when it comes to like learning something and for my good mental health, because. That it's just too much. And everyone has a differentiating opinion. Somebody who's a coach on something and someone's an expert in something. And you start just feeling like split off in so many different areas and directions that you're like, I don't even know if I'm doing the right thing for myself anymore. And so I love to mentally challenge myself with podcasts for the most part. And I filtered who I listened to as well, because they have to be connected to me and who I am as a person. And. My core values and like, they have to see life kind of how I see life. And so if they don't, I don't listen to them. And so there's like three, four people's podcasts that I listened to. And so I combine that with working out. So I'll do both at the same time. Cause. It just makes me feel good. And it also just helps me be more efficient in my day because during my workout. Or doing it's usually drink cardio time that I just, I all listened to a good podcast. It just helps. And I also don't do this every single day, because again, Information overload. It's gonna give me like too much information, so I do like two to three a week. And so I kinda just chew on the information that I heard. And I see where sits in my life and how I can relate it to my life and how I can implement it in my life. And I also, I also stimulate my mental juices with other things that I'm working on because work really just does challenge me in and my business challenges me mentally as well. but just going back to like the podcast, it it's usually on topics that I feel like I'm maybe struggling with, or I'm challenged with. That just gives me a different perspective and I'm like, oh, that feels good. And then you get even more endorphin. So like, because you're working out and then you're compounding something that's positive and this is why it's important to like, Whatever you putting your mind needs to be positive because our minds will default to negative. We don't need any more help for that, with that. So if you're listening to the news and you're like, oh, I'm mentally stimulating myself with the news. The news is mostly negative unless you have a good news source, that's positive. So make sure that you're choosing positive things to consume. And then if you can, and if it sounds good to you do it while you're working out and double up the endorphins. And I love working out. Like now I do like weight training and I'm actually following this like app called ladder. L a D D E R. I swear by it. Like, I dunno if you're like me, I was doing all the same kind of workouts. I wasn't seeing a lot of results and I've been on this now, I think for seven weeks and I feel tighter. I feel so much better. And even though I still haven't lost, like. More than a couple pounds. I feel so good. And that's, what's important to me right now. And what it does, it just gives you like a week program, um, at a time. So every day, You get to see where your workout is and the girl that I'm doing, her stuff like she's so good. She's I forgot her name. I'll have to put it in the show notes for you guys, but. She's all about like growing her booty and staying slim and like, you know, keeping your arms tone. So again, finding somebody that's like, okay, well, I like her way of training. I like the way that she's doing things and her giving me a plan just takes away so much other things that I feel like I would have to think about if I didn't have a plan to follow. And so simplifying your life too. That's not part of the three habits, but simplifying your life where like, you're like, okay, I can do this brain dead. Now I can just do this, like on autopilot because I'm just watching. The videos of the workouts. And I can just do it without having to think of like, what's my workout today, or what's my workout going to be like this week. And so I do that when I'm feeling great. And when I'm about to get my period and during my period, I just walk. Um, or do nothing. Like I take care of my body in other ways, but taking care of your body, you're telling yourself, like I respect my vessel. I respect myself and I'm willing to show up for myself every single day. And it also helps balance out life because. Today's Monday, I'm recording this as this Monday, yesterday. I had like three glasses of wine on Sunday was a rainy day. It was just like, I bought a nice bottle of wine and I was like, I just want like three glasses of wine. And TJ night drink some. And I woke up today feeling a little slower, but I still showed up and I worked out right now. Now I won't drink all week during the week. But help us balance out your life. If you were to have ate a little bad, one of the days on the weekends or whatever, like if you're moving your body, it helps balance out things. I am not a big believer of any more. I used to think this. I'm not a big believer of cut everything off and it's, if it's bad for you, you just can't do it at all. No, I think everything in moderation. And as I said, three glasses of wine, I did that throughout, like the whole day. So like, I don't know between 12 and like six. So I like sipped on it. I enjoyed it. Like it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to go get drunk. And I'm going to. I think anything in excess is just not good for us, but if you learn to balance things and if you're mostly doing things that are healthy and are good for you, your body just feels good. Right? So showing up for your body can just mean so many different things. Maybe it means to you doing yoga. Maybe it means. You're getting a massage. If you have money for that, like whatever it means to you stick by that and just add more to it. And so those are the things I do. And like I said, I gave you kind of some idea and then mentally, so like podcasts work for me. If podcasts don't work for you guys. Listening to an audio book, reading a book, maybe you're like, I love paper books as well. So like sometimes I'll do that. Or if you want something more challenging, like find something that you're super passionate about learning more of and start researching it. Find something that challenges you and gets you out of social media and gets you out of the dopamine hit that doesn't feel good right. At the end of the day, if you're on social media a lot, Like really tuned into how you feel for me. I feel so brain dead, like brain foggy after being in scrolling on social media. So I actually. This isn't, I guess I'm just adding on more things that I do, but again, filter out what feels good to you and what doesn't. I actually have now where I, I think my Instagram set up to like after 40 minutes in a day. Um, I can get back on it and sure. I can sometimes I'm like, give me five more minutes. I'm just, I'm doing something I'm in the middle of something, but for the most part, I limit it to 40 minutes a day and I think, but that's fair. Anything more than that. I don't want to spend more than like an hour a day on social media. It just seems heavy and exhausting. Like, what am I doing? Right. Most of the time I'm looking for inspiration or whatever, but your brain, if you're constantly looking at other people, it doesn't even have a moment to catch up your brain. Doesn't even have a moment to come up with its own ideas or really understand how it's feeling or do anything where you're. If you're constantly giving your brain too much to do, it's going to stay there and it's not going to give you what it actually needs or what it wants. And your own ideas and your own creativity. So. I would say, like showing up for yourself, mind, body, and soul by soul. I mean, spiritually. Every morning or every day or throughout the day, whatever works for you has worked wonders. It really has worked wonders for me. And I hope that that works for you. And I hope I gave you guys some ideas and I, again, start small. So let's say that right now, you're not showing up for yourself in any of these three ways. That's fine. Maybe start with gratitude in the morning. That's something simple you could do. And it takes like two minutes. And then maybe you start moving your body. If you're not big into working out. After you listened to this episode, you, you can't say, well, I'm going to start working out five, six days a week, your body and your like mental nervous system. Everything's going to just snap. Right. I always tell the girls that I mentor, like we're rubber bands. We want to stretch ourselves. We want to increase our capacity. We want to expand who we do not want to snap because then our brain is going to say, well, that wasn't safe. That didn't feel good. Right. Because if we start saying, well, I'm gonna work out and then we're overloaded. And then we feel even more stressed. Like the working out doesn't even feel good. You're not going to want to do it. So start small. I started with some walking workout twice a week. Um, if you, you're not really mentally challenging yourself, maybe limit your social media, like see where your time's going. And then start with a book or start with an article. Start with an article. Don't even start with a bookstore with an article on something that you really truly enjoy. And you want to research or start with a podcast or with one person, listen. If you're listening to me, I'm super grateful. Obviously you're here. Um, listen to somebody else as well. And just add more to your day. The feels good. And the fuels you like feels good and fuels you. Right? Sometimes we do things that feel good, but doesn't really make us like it doesn't fuel us. Keep things in your life that feel. And you're going to feel so good and start creating these little habits, like little by little and do them consistently. Um, maybe you do that a couple of times a week, and then you started doing them four times a week, and then you started doing them daily. And then next thing you know, You won't want to not do it every single day. And next thing you know, it's January and February now you've already added so many good, healthy habits to your life that you can add on more. And you can add on more and you can add on more. Right. But it starts small. Like when I started doing this. I remember, like, I wasn't huge into working out and I was doing a lot of cardio at the time and I was like, okay, I will I'll start. Like, I'll keep doing cardio. And then I, I started adding YouTube videos instead of podcasts. I was in big into podcasts. This was like seven years ago or six years ago. And I started just listening to YouTube videos, like motivational YouTube videos. And I felt so pumped and I was doing cardio and I was like, this feels great. Um, but I didn't have any of the spirituality back then, you know? And so I started just doing those two things. I just did cardio. Didn't even want to think, oh, like an actual workout regimen or like strength training or anything like that. I would just do cardio and I started listening to you two videos. And that felt good. And then I added a little bit, a little added more and I added more and then I started working out and then I tried classes, you know, that's something else you could do to move your body is like if traditional working out doesn't feel good to you try different classes that make it fun and make you want to show up. And I hope you guys enjoyed this. January 20, 25 is around the corner. And that's where we all want to just really thrive is like at the beginning of the year where like, this is going to be the best year, but we're still in a great year. Like 20, 24 can end really well. You can feel really proud of yourself at the end of it. Like, don't go into the mentality of like, well, screw it. It's the holidays are coming up. I'm just gonna, I'll start next year. Start now. Like, why wouldn't you give yourself the opportunity to start now? We're not even promised tomorrow. Let alone. Alone. Two months from now. So to start now and start doing things that feel really good to you now. And I so appreciate you guys tuning in and I cannot wait to talk to you guys next week. As we come to the close of this episode, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude and admiration for you. Taking the time to show up for yourself is an act of self love. And if this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might benefit. And also, if you love this episode, please rate and review us. When you do, screenshot your review and email it to us for a special gift. Our Rediscover Yourself Worksheet. This worksheet includes exercises to help you uncover your authentic self, and assess the areas of your life that are misaligned with the true you. Email it to info at maria fuentes dot net. Also stay connected with us on social media for updates and more inspiration. You can find all this information in the show notes. Again, thank you for being here and I cannot wait to continue this journey together.