salty bake club

Tiny Anchors

• sara grace • Season 1 • Episode 17

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Here is where you get in touch. Work with me, share your experience or requests > this is how to reach me. Love, - Sara

Have you ever felt like your life is so magnificently full that there isn't a second left to spare? When days fly by like flowers in the wind and you're teetering on the edge of overwhelm?

This episode dives into the concept of "tiny anchors" – those small, sustainable habits that keep us grounded during life's most intense periods. Recording between sessions of leading a 200-hour yoga teacher training, I share how I've abandoned the pursuit of perfect, Instagram-worthy morning routines in favor of micro habits that actually stick.

Drawing wisdom from James Clear's "Atomic Habits," I explain how habit stacking transformed my approach to daily routines and share three specific micro habits that currently maintain my sanity: a morning hot beverage ritual that fills me with comfort, an evening tea practice with my treasured pottery mug that signals my brain to wind down, and a weekly "high-low-lesson learned" reflection that builds gratitude and presence.

These tiny anchors might seem insignificant individually, but collectively they create the foundation that allows me to navigate demanding seasons without losing my center. Rather than aspiring to unrealistic three-hour morning routines, these humble practices honor what's actually sustainable long-term.

What micro habits keep you grounded when life speeds up? Share your own tiny anchors and join our growing Salty Bay Club community where we're exploring how small, consistent choices create meaningful transformation.

Speaker 1:

Good morning and happy Thursday Bay Club. Today it is a cozy, gloomy, very snuggly morning. It is my one morning off, so I'm here with you recording this shorty for the Salty Bay Club. I'm your host, sarah Grace, and yes, this episode is going to be a little shorter than the other ones because I am in the middle of leading a 200-hour yoga teacher training. The intensive style. That means we're having 16 days where we're doing yoga from 7 to 30 to 7.30. It is so freaking beautiful. The transformation that the people go through is otherworldly and you might be able to tell these teacher trainings. They are my heart and soul. Nevertheless, I'm not going to fool you, they are really intense and also on my body. So today my guest teacher is leading the morning sadhana, which gives me time to have cake for breakfast with you guys, and I couldn't be happier to sit down with you today.

Speaker 1:

This episode is called Tiny Anchors for a Reason we all go through. Times like this time is, for me, times where life is so magnificently full and rich that there isn't a second, or at least it feels like there isn't a second left to spare. You might be feeling really good or you might be feeling really drained, but there's a lot of intensity in your life and days fly by like flowers in the wind. Now, especially in times like these, it is crucial to have things that anchor us, that keep our feet on the ground and that sustain our energy body. What if we don't have them? Well, we tilt. It is only natural that the body is able to maintain a high level of stress and intensity only for a short period of time, and I know our modern life sometimes champion us to be that intensively engaged in something Maybe it's just life itself for a longer period of time. So today I want to talk about what I've learned for especially these intensive times, what we need and how not to tilt. Sit down, get a breakfast cake, like I do, and let's get into it, starting with a little confession yes, this is a store-bought cake because ain't nobody got time for baking in a time like this, and time seems to be the main factor in intensive life phases.

Speaker 1:

I used to be somebody who aspired to have my time scheduled and figured out to the core. I always aspired to have this very beautiful long morning routine with green juices, lemon water, oil pulling meditation, asana practice and at best also already a walk with the dog that I always wanted. I still don't have that dog, but wait for it, the day is going to come. Truth is, most of us cannot afford a three-hour morning routine, with journaling, incense and all the things that we see on social media. But building daily habits is the core foundation to my overall well-being, whether that is in times where I feel spacious, or in times like these, or in times like I am in right now. It's safe to say that these aspirational long morning routines are quite unrealistic, even for me. I'm not able to hold up a routine that includes an hour of asana practice every day. Actually, I'm far from that.

Speaker 1:

I grew very, very safe and good in maintaining teeny, tiny habits that keep me grounded. These tiny anchors are the reason why I can live a life like I am living, and the pivotal point of where my routines and habits actually started to work was when I read Atomic Habits by James Clear. Now it is a world bestseller for good reason. Most of you very likely know it, and there's so much on habits out there on the World Wide Web, on social media, which is great, because we need that support. I needed that support. I know very well that this is not a revolutionary episode or thoughts that I'm presenting you today, but I do want to talk about it, how that looks in my life, and I want to encourage you to really humbly stay with tiny habits that work for a long time so that you can profit from the energy and the wealth that they're bringing to your life on a regular basis, long term, sustainably.

Speaker 1:

One of the biggest takeaways of that book for me was that you gotta make it easy and that there is this concept of habit stacking, meaning you stack a new habit on top of an existing one, something that you do every day, like brushing your teeth. If you implement something new, merged with something that you already do every freaking day of your life, it's going to be so much easier to maintain that new habit because it's rooted in a foundation that is already there. How that worked very, very well for me is I wanted to implement cold showers into my morning routine, and by the beginning of that I had an electric toothbrush, so it would give me a two minute time window. So every day I got into the shower, I turned on the ice cold water and I brushed my teeth for two minutes, while staying in the cold shower for those two minutes and it worked magically. I maintained that habit for about two years until something in my hormone cycle switched and it really didn't do me well anymore. I noticed how it brought some imbalances in my energy levels and I still do them in times when I'm profiting from them, but I don't do them every day anymore.

Speaker 1:

Now, habits that I do daily at the moment that keep me sane seriously are something that James Clear calls micro habits, and I'm gonna tell you three. There's plenty of them more that grow on throughout my day. These three allows me to stay rooted in a positive mind space and an energetic body. Number one is that I'm having a hot beverage Sometimes that's a coffee, sometimes that's one of these fake coffees or a chai tea with milk each morning in bed with my partner, and that sometimes is very early, and I appreciate him so much for getting up with me at six o'clock in the morning just because I have to leave and he could sleep like three hours longer. But that little moment grounds me in so much comfort that I feel wrapped by a blanket of love for the entire day and I go out of the house with a smile on my face because I've already had a very wholehearted loving experience this morning. Now I know that not everybody has a partner and you don't need anybody for that. I literally did that years before I knew him.

Speaker 1:

I'm a big fan of the idea of romanticizing your life and really brewing yourself a cup of coffee or chai tea, a cappuccino in the morning, where you sprinkle some cinnamon on the milk foam and then snuggling back into bed for those 10 minutes longer, comfortably sipping on your hot beverage. That is something that gives me so much joy, especially when the morning hours are early and it's kind of hard to face reality out there. So I highly recommend that habit. I love it.

Speaker 1:

Second one is this cup. Seriously, this mug is my whole life at the moment. I just got it from a pottery market and the texture of the ceramic, the way it is formed, how it feels in my hand, the size of it. So I adore this cup so much that every evening when I drink a pot of tea out of this huge cup, I am so comforted, I feel so grounded and at home and I tend to hold it to my heart space and let my chest be filled by the warmth of the tea. And that is a teeny, tiny change in my daily life. I have something that I treasure. Yes, get yourself a mug that you highly adore, and every evening when I drink out of it, I feel okay, whatever the day has brought, whatever I have lived through out there in the world, however many energies grabbed my body and pulled me in so many different directions, how many messages I still have left unread, the warmth of that cup and that conscious wind down ritual of having the tea out of my special mug is linked in my brain with the knowing that now it is time to wind down and close up the day. So, whether you drink tea or not, do something that allows your body and your mind to get aware of that day is over.

Speaker 1:

Having a good sleeping routine, having really foundational sleeping habits that signal your body, mind and soul that to unwind from the hustle, from the running, from the availability, transition into that time of rest is such a basic need that we all have and especially in intense life phases, we need rituals that help us transition. Now my last habit is something that rounds up not only the day but the week and that allows me to practice gratitude and growth in a very active way, because we all read beautiful or very cheesy quotes about gratitude on Instagram and how important it is, but the truth is it is a practice. It is something that you actively have to engage in, otherwise it's not going to fill you to the tips of your toes. Engage in, otherwise it's not going to fill you to the tips of your toes. It is something that you have to maintain in your feeling space actively, and a feeling is a body sensation. Yeah, it's not just a thought. So practicing gratitude is not only thinking about what you're grateful for, but immersing yourself in it so deeply that your body begins to experience it, even though the event might already be in the past.

Speaker 1:

Now, that third habit and ritual I have learned from my friend Maria, and it is called high-low lesson learned, and I tend to do this at the end of every week, whether that is with another person, with my partner, with my sister, with a dear friend. Or I do this written down in my journal, or I do it simply sitting in the train, letting those reflective thoughts wash through my brain and enter my body. Now what you do is that you simply walk along the past week that you have just lived through. You engage in all the feelings again and all the things that happened to you. You want to watch what happened like a movie backwards, and then you pick the highest moment of the week and you relive it. What was the moment of ecstatic joy? Maybe you simply witnessed something that is quite minor, but it really touched your heart. So actively, engage and relive that moment. That was your high this past week.

Speaker 1:

Do the same thing and pick your low moment, the lowest moment of the week. Share some appreciation even for the low moment, for it has brought you something. Certainly. Usually, it is the low moments that allow us to grow so much more than the light-filled ones. Don't shy away from it because it is already past, but, in your mind, relive it, learn from it once again and if you can find something to be grateful for, even in the despair, even in the lowest of lows.

Speaker 1:

Thirdly, lesson learned. Now, what is the lesson that you learned this week? Is there something that changed you, that elevated your thoughts, your state of mind, something that transformed anything in your life at all? What is the lesson that life has given you this week? This batch of three is very helpful. You can do it quickly, you can do it very immersively, and if you do that by the end of every day or every week, like I do, you don't only gain a reflection on your life and it might help you to be more present with what is happening in your life, but you also train that gratitude muscle. You train that habit of having a thankful outlook on life, and I think that is so important, especially in a time like this, in a culture like this, where consumerism is stretching out its fingers into our tissue and consuming our thoughts.

Speaker 1:

And now it's your turn. Tell me about what habits you do in times when life is very fast and very demanding. I love this tiny community that we're creating, bay Club, and I love to learn from you Seriously the answers and response that I'm getting. They bring me so much joy and I am really grateful for this little community. So often in my high-low lesson learned I have relived moments where some of you reached out to me and told me stories about yourself or told me how something that I said touched you, how the episode has changed the narrative and you discussed it with your life partner. It kind of shifted something in your relationship dynamic. Like there are so many things that I'm just I cannot even wrap my head around how precious that is. And, again, I don't want to hear a 10 step morning routine that takes two hours, because I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 1:

Tell me the micro habits that are restoring your well-being right now, or the ones that you want to implement. Text them to me in a comment below or on Instagram direct messages as a statement, as a written down confirmation for yourself to maintain these habits from now on. I'm really super thankful to be hanging out with you on my free morning with my perfect mug and a store-bought chocolate cake. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. I hope that your habits guide you a long way and I'm gonna see you next week. I'm your host, sarah Grace. Thank you for being here. I love you.