WhozYourMama

How Small Habits Create Big Shifts in Your Energy

• Michelle Kreft

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Ever wish your brain came with a dimmer switch for the late-night buzz and a quick-start button for mornings? We delve into energy hygiene—simple, science-backed habits that clear mental clutter, safeguard your inner peace, and help you navigate your day with less friction and more intention. With Anabel Salimian of ROOTS, now pursuing her PhD in psychology, we unpack how boundaries, sleep cues, and micro-resets turn scattered effort into steady momentum you can actually feel.

We start by defining energy hygiene and why it matters more during high-stress seasons like exams, deadlines, and holidays. From calming soundscapes and chakra tones to white noise and gentler playlists, you’ll learn how to create a wind-down that your nervous system recognizes on cue. We contrast nighttime reflection with morning activation: gratitude and reframing to close loops at night, then focused goals and one key priority to spark the day. Anabel shares evidence-informed prompts, and we explore the emotional payoff of writing worries down so they stop running the show.

Daytime gets practical with the mindful minute—short resets that pull you out of spirals without blowing up your schedule. We pair that with five-minute walks, sunlight when possible, and clear device boundaries that reduce overstimulation. A favorite moment: the “Fab Five” high five that turned a reluctant ten-minute walk into a 30-minute joy ride, reminding us how small, positive social cues co-regulate stress and lift mood. The through-line is simple: treat habits as dials, not switches. When life gets loud, dial up grounding inputs and dial down stimulation; when energy returns, add morning sparks and protect an easy landing at night.

If you’re ready to trade burnout for a steadier baseline—better sleep, clearer focus, and a bit more delight—this one’s your roadmap. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review to tell us the one habit you’ll try this week. Let’s go, y’all—the time is now.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Who's Your Mama, a podcast focusing on tomorrow's future, which are our kids, educators, teachers, parents, all-encompassing with the goal of understanding that our brain is a muscle that we can exercise to control the speed in the direction that we want. Let's go, y'all. The time is now. Annabelle Solomon of All Star Roots, welcome back to Who's Your Mama? Thanks so much. It's so nice to be here, Michelle. It's nice to have you here. So let's just continue on where we left off. Um, we had our full episode. We've done lives over, we're about to say years now. We're about in years. We go way back. Um, and so this is the second episode of three for now. And and who knows, we 2026, we might kick it off monthly. Um, but this is the second of our three-part for to close out 2025. And we spent a lot of time talking about areas of how much effort we put into our outside health for various reasons, and then also our internal health. And one of the things I wanted to ask you, in both your personal and professional opinion, because for those that are just tuning in know, uh, or that are just tuning in now that don't know, and others that do, you have made a recent change this year to pursue your PhD in psychology. Again, congratulations, which required an out-of-state move for the first time. And so one of the things we discussed was how we were putting practice into play and what um uh routines versus rituals. And so something that popped up for me recently was around energy hygiene. And that was food for thought for me. And I started thinking about well, what does that mean to me? Is that something that you've heard about? And and if so, can you expand on that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's such an interesting concept, and I really like the wording of that. I've been hearing a lot recently about sleep hygiene and how that's kind of picking up in popular media in terms of how to set like a proper and healthy sleep schedule, what to do before bed, how to really get a good night's sleep. Um, so that term sleep hygiene has come around, and I really love the idea of energy hygiene in that sense as well, right? And kind of digging into how we can co-create and elaborate on this concept. Where for me, the first thing that comes to mind is, you know, how do we set healthy habits or practices that will elevate positive energy, right? So kind of similarly, like pulling from the word hygiene, right? We think of like brushing our teeth or like our hair or taking a shower, like physical, kind of cleanly hygiene. Um, but the same can be said to our energy as well, like our emotions, our thoughts, like spiritual senses, like how do we keep our energy clean as well? So I think that's such a cool concept and would love to kind of back some ideas up and forth.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And and I thought, well, you know, we're obviously we've discussed and I I laugh about it. It's like we're different generations. And um, you know, speaking of dental hygiene and shout out to Dr. Gould, who's been on Who's Your Mama three times and is a dentist and really does embrace an overall health and wellness, mind, body, soul hygiene from a dental perspective. And and so it got me to thinking, and I did just I did just see him as well. And I was like, gosh, my teeth have never felt better. But I was thinking about energy hygiene. I thought, am I just out of the loop? Well, but that's the whole point of what we're doing, is is sharing, and it is all intertwined. Your sleep. So if you think about well, I do because I tend to grind my teeth at night and so have a mouth guard, and even sometimes I I can feel the tension in my jaw, and so then I think, well, what is it I need to in terms of my energy? Does that mean that I'm not sleeping well at night? Sometimes it's intertwined, and and and so it's a sign for me when I think about where my where am I spending my energy and why? And you know, we're we're all juggling so much, and as we're coming, oh my goodness me, like we're coming so close to the holidays. And these are happy times for some people, stressful times, all of the above. Yeah. So if we talk about energy hygiene, what what are some of the first things that pop into your mind when you hear that?

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely, yeah. And I think a lot about, you know, more popular terms and phrases, one being like protecting your inner peace, right? So that kind of aligns with this energy hygiene of how can we protect our peace in that sense and kind of focus on alleviating ways to prevent overstimulation or prevent burnout. Those are all kind of things that come to mind in terms of like what's the goal of practicing energy hygiene in a sense, right? To keep ourselves grounded, to practice that mindfulness that's all intertwined in a sense as well. I noticed that. Oh, so go ahead. No, yeah, I was just noticing that like we tend to think a lot of like what's on the outside, right? So what's visible, what's external when we think of like the word hygiene, right? But these new terms, energy hygiene, sleep hygiene, we're starting to think more about what's internal. So in terms of our energy, it could be like emotional boundaries or our thoughts, being conscious of our thoughts, for example, or stress, whether that's like energetic stress per se, and kind of doing some practices that we've talked about before, like journaling, maybe limiting screen time, maybe like cleansing rituals. I know there's a lot about um like sound baths and the power of meditation and that like energy cleansing. Um, so it's interesting to kind of have that all come together in this like energy hygiene format.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I completely agree with you. I I ironic timing is, you know, my daughter, as I discussed, she's a junior in high school and could not be a proud mama. That being said, um, is as self-motivated as she is, and I'm really proud of the daily, day by day, week by week, and month by month sort of planning. She does, she does do it with roots, and it's because it's all-encompassing for her. It's the journaling, the writing down things. It doesn't feel like a chore. And even though she uses her phone for a lot of things, part of the reason I I like that practice as well when you talk about like unwinding the mind, and she and I had this conversation this week because she has a very, very heavy school load and also works as well and has a social life, is at what point do we start shutting our mind down? And what I said to her over the weekend was much to her respective pushback, but understands that sometimes mama knows is and also tries to practice what mama preaches, is even sometimes music. Like I'm very much a believer that musical laughter are therapy for the soul, and it helps get me on track to um control the gear shift, so to speak, uh, as the conductor in my life. And and so we were talking about even sometimes listening to music, um, she's not a huge TV person, but even that stimulation on your phone and sometimes music, understanding the wind down period to where your mind is still not because if you're in the zone, as she and I call it, say with homework or trying to get projects done in life, yeah, how long does it take you to unwind? So that mindful, slow down, like you mentioned meditation, things like that. Do you have any advice for people that are thinking, okay, well, I was listening to say I'll just say classical music, and and I'm listening that up until you know, right before I go to bed. And or maybe heavy metal rock gets people going to just get the last bit that crunch time. Do you have any advice in terms of peaceful mindfulness, that energy hygiene, nighttime versus daytime in terms of getting in a zone?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that. I love that question. And something that also came to mind while you were sharing that wonderful story is thinking about how can people create like a daily energetic reset, so to speak, a routine that will align with individuals' lifestyles, but making that time, making that routine, that practice for like resetting our energy or cleansing our energy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the routine versus rituals, like we talked last time. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And when thinking about music and like other practices that can either elicit it maybe like more arousal or maybe do the opposite, right? And calm us down. I think for me, something that's really helpful in terms of like mindfulness and more energy spaced, kind of having those contrasts is podcasts when I want to feel like kind of uppie or more energized. I'll try to tune into like a good podcast, like a mindfulness-based podcast specifically sometimes when I want to set aside that time for the energy cleansing, but I also am like awake, I'm active, my mind is stimulating. This is how to kind of make it a positive um simulation in that sense. But then also for like a cool down, I like to actually listen to a lot of like chakra healing frequencies.

SPEAKER_00:

I do too. I do too. Yeah, yeah, I do. White noise. Ironically, who's your mama podcast? I'm not a huge podcast person, um, which is we'll just call it like what it is, because it'd be rude not to, but but I do listen to a chakra. It's I think it goes for two minutes and then it dings at the end. And I had a friend that sent it to me about a year ago, and I've been doing that, and then I I I don't talk a lot about religion, but I am a religious person, and and so I listen to that and I have my nightly meditation, and then I pray afterwards, and I can feel literally where the tension starts to be lowered in my shoulder. I can feel my shoulders drop, and I do it lying down um again as I'm going to bed because it and I I lie on my back and I'm normally a side sleeper, but it's because I can feel if my shoulders are dropping and I'm really connected to you know my heart, my mind, my soul in that way. Yeah. And the level of, and that's really something that I've been doing more religiously every night, I would say, for at least the last year. And I can tell when I skip that, it my sleep shifts.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so interesting too. And I think about for me, like it's similar in the sense of like journaling. So on nights where I do reflective journaling before bed while I'm sitting in bed, kind of the last thing I do before I try to close my eyes, I feel that release, right? Like I feel physical relief, I feel mental relief and clarity. And it does elicit positive emotions to then kind of elicit that soothing and that comfort. Um, and then on the flip side, if I journal in the morning, I try to do more like proactive, goal-setting, um, motivative journaling in the morning where I can like write some stuff down, get excited for the day, and then kick it into gear. Whereas it's more of like a reflective journaling at night of like, okay, here's how I felt throughout the day, kind of getting myself ready for bed.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I'm so glad you brought this up because I literally had this conversation with a girlfriend of mine in the last sort of month or so. And I'm not a huge, I mean, I write down goals and things like that, but before I go to bed, that's never been a practice where I have a ton of friends and family that it is, and it's not as we've discussed, it's there's no right or wrong. But she was talking about like what she writes at night, and we got into that conversation about what sort of things like are you are you writing things down that feeds that anxiety that could be some triggers that make that not intentionally, but makes you feel like, oh gosh, look at how much I didn't accomplish, and now tomorrow is gonna be a handful of a day or week or month and things like that. So I love that you brought up the journaling at night and mindfulness of what you're writing down at night versus in the morning. Can you expand a little bit more about that and how that has helped you? And maybe some tips for people to it can spark, because you know I'm a flip of the coin, you know, triggers versus sparking, what it ignites in you so people can again uh get a better sense if this is something more new of a mindset to them. What are some things, areas that you feel like help provide peacefulness when journaling at night versus um spark and ignite your mind in the morning?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And I'm honestly feeling sparked from this conversation as well to work on some of this moving forward and in different journal ideas. But for the nighttime reflection, I think a lot of some of the prompts that I pulled from my day-by-day planner. So thinking a lot of like, okay, what are three good things that happened to me, right? The three good things. The power of three. Yeah, very famous gratitude practice that's bound um in science and empirical evidence. And that's a great practice to kind of just start thinking about positive reflection, right? Okay, we're thinking about gratitude, three good things. Maybe we're thinking about one good social connection we had today. Okay, it could be anything, just kind of grounding more in that reflection and try to elicit positive emotions at night, I think is what is the best practice. And then if there are, like you mentioned, like stressors or you know, thoughts that are racing in the mind, it's also great to, you know, write those thoughts down and have that contemplative practice. But at the end of the day, it's important to try to reframe those thoughts as well, right? So if we're having stressors, we can write about them, we can put them on paper and then take a second to reflect and say, okay, you know, I'm having this emotional um, you know, intelligence here to understand how I'm feeling. How can I write about this and kind of soothe myself in that process of being like, okay, I'm understanding how I'm feeling. It's not the end of the world to try to tackle those issues right now. You know, it should not feel like a time constraint, but more just the release of being able to write those thoughts and those emotions down on paper is what is scientifically backed in the art of journaling, right? Is writing it down and moving those thoughts that are racing in your head and becoming stressful and overwhelming, putting those on paper, seeing them for what they are, and being like, aha, okay, here's what I'm struggling with right now, and just feeling that immediate release of seeing it somewhere that's not clogged in your mind. Um, so I think that's obviously comes with practice and it's easier said than done. But over time, that practice does develop, right? When you get in the habit of writing your emotions, your thoughts, your feelings out, and having that kind of like separation from what's the chaotic mess in my mind to what is just cleanly written on paper and allowing yourself that chance to kind of debrief at night, I think is really important.

SPEAKER_00:

I completely agree. And and on that um energy hygiene, what would you say are the top three things that you speak to people about in your teachings and and practice? And then also for you personally that you incorporate outside of of journaling and that sort of stuff in terms of outward activity.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. For me, one thing that I think I've mentioned before too is like I love to go on like little walks. I'm not a big athlete, so I don't have strong ties to any sports or athletic behaviors. Um, but walking is my choice of physical activity that also promotes mental clarity in that sense. And then also something I try to promote is the mindful minute, right? So if they're feeling moments of overwhelm, burnout, or fatigue, let's take a mindful minute, whether that's stepping outside in nature, again, going on a walk, um, trying to just, you know, move out of the current environment that may be causing the stressor if possible, and taking that mindful minute to like have that energy reset, right? Kind of take a step back and kind of separate yourself from the current emotions and the feelings that you may be having that are negative. How can we take that somewhere else per se, or that's physically or mentally through meditation, um, and just have that mindful minute to really focus on resetting and regrounding?

SPEAKER_00:

I I love that. So mindful minute. So do you mean that in the literal sense, like even going outside for 60 seconds? Or is it more of a I mean, obviously, anyone could do what feels right for them. I I do, I'm a firm believer, and once I'm outside amongst it, whatever it is, yeah. I sometimes I'm trying to have a negotiation, I call it with the board meeting of me, myself, and I and we're in negotiations, and I'm like, really, are you just gonna go outside for five or ten minutes, Michelle? When I really want to do it for 30 or 45. And sometimes it's it turns into 10, sometimes it turns into an hour, but getting out, so is can you just elaborate on what you mean by mindful minutes?

SPEAKER_01:

And yeah, of course. And I like to think of it that way because it doesn't seem so daunting, right? There's a lot of literature and research out there that talks about the importance of at least 30 minutes of exercise a day or like outdoor time a day. And that sounds wonderful and that sounds lovely, but a lot of people might not have 30 minutes of sunshine available when you're working a nine to five, for example, and all you have is a lunch break. Maybe you don't.

SPEAKER_00:

Now we're in daylight savings, so there's that exactly, exactly, right?

SPEAKER_01:

So I kind of like to start with the mindful minute where it could literally just be a minute where you have to just take a physical break from your laptop or whatever stressors are happening. Take a second outside, come back in, grab a sip of water, come back in. It could be as simple as that, and that does have such a powerful change on your mood and your current like status. But again, like you mentioned, like it could be totally interpretable, right? Like for me, I like to take maybe five minutes. Um, even when I'm having a busy day, let's try to aim for around five, whether that's more or less. You know what I mean? But some folks they prefer to do 30 minutes to an hour. That's great. Um, it kind of is flexible in that way, but I kind of believe strongly in like setting realistic goals. Um, so if we call it the mindful minute, right, you know, we'll call it the fab five.

SPEAKER_00:

And I have a story, so which we haven't even talked about, but it and we'll end on this. I yes, mindful minute and the fab five. Yeah. And as we're about to wrap up, I would love to end with this. So I don't know if you saw it. I I posted on Who's Your Mama? We posted a reel, I don't know, a few weeks ago. And it was one of those, again, me, myself, and I were sitting at at the executive uh board table, and and as the CEO, I was like, okay, I'm just gonna go out for I had agreed with the team. People are like, really? What's going on? But this is how I think of it, and that I was gonna go for 10 minutes. And I I decided that no one had time to self-shame because it's completely counterproductive. So that was the agreement. And I came up with all the excuses why not to, besides the internal accountability of I needed to do it to clear my head, and just getting out and going for a walk. And I was walking around my neighborhood and I came across these two older gentlemen who I didn't know, and I was listening to music and it was enough to get me going, but I still was like dead set, like, okay, maybe I'll do maybe 15 minutes, and I was like, okay, you know, I starred myself, but I was like, okay, this is good. I'm just I'm breathing air and decompressing. And I looked over and saw these two gentlemen that high-fived. So that's why I say the f the fab five mindful minute and the and the fab five. Yeah. And it literally made me, you know, when you literally laugh out loud, it literally made me smile like from ear to ear, so big that I recognized it. Like, you know, sometimes you smile or whatever, you don't know, and it kept on it, but it made me smile so big that it gave me cause to pause in my head. And I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go over and say hi and say, I want a high five. So I walked over to them and one was like behind the this this white picket fence, and the other was on the other side, and I love animals, and I didn't even realize they had dogs at the time because I was so taken with their interaction, yeah, that it inspired me. And so I went over and and they said, Oh, do you want to pet our dogs? And and I was then I realized they had these two dogs, and I said, I said I did, and I do, but I want a high five. I gave a high five with the left hand and the other one with the right, and I said, No, like to pet your dogs, and they were like, You can have a high five every time, and it made me so happy, and I kept, I think I ended up walking for I don't know, 30 or so minutes. Yeah, and I saw people along the way, and I'd like to think that I smile or give people a wave, but I know I outwardly said hello to people more than I had in a long time, and and I know that I smiled and and it's contagious, yeah, definitely love that story.

SPEAKER_01:

That is so sweet, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It really warms my heart thinking about it, and this is the point of what we're doing on Who's Your Mama with the Roots is this this type of sharing because it's free and it is contagious, and so um note to everyone listening, watching um mindful minutes and fab five. So, on that note, I look forward to next month with you. So, you know how we sign off here. So let's do it. Let's go, y'all. The time is now Canabelle.

SPEAKER_01:

I look forward to it. Thanks so much, Michelle. Likewise.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for tuning into Who's Your Mama, and I look forward to collaborating from a community standpoint for the next episodes.

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Michelle Kreft

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