Finding Mindfulness Together | Our Daily Habits for Staying Grounded

In Episode 23 of Our Life Is A Honeymoon, Tim and Amy share the daily mindfulness practices that help them stay calm, present, and connected—both individually and as a couple.

From morning yoga, meditation, gratitude, and intentional routines to relationship check-ins, silent commutes, and simple mindfulness practices throughout the day, Tim and Amy discuss the habits that have become the foundation of their relationship and everyday life.

They also explore why staying grounded isn't about being perfect—it's about recognizing when you've drifted and gently returning to the practices that help you become your best self. Whether you're looking to reduce stress, strengthen your relationship, or simply be more present each day, this episode offers practical ideas you can start using right away.

In this episode:
🧘 Daily mindfulness routines
🙏 Meditation and gratitude practices
📖 Tim's MYBAGS morning routine
📱 Using technology more intentionally
🚶 Micro-practices for staying grounded throughout the day
❤️ Mindfulness practices for couples
💬 Weekly relationship check-ins
✨ Progress over perfection

We'd love to hear what helps you stay grounded! Leave a comment below.

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#Mindfulness #Meditation #Relationships #Couples #Gratitude #SelfCare #PersonalGrowth #HealthyRelationships #Podcast #OurLifeIsAHoneymoon

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hey everybody! Hello. Wow, welcome back to Our Life is a Honeymoon. This is episode number 23. And today we are going to talk about finding mindfulness and how Tim and I each get grounded, both individually and together as a couple. So we're excited to share this with you today.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

That we know.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

And together, we want to share that story with you.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

As well as all of the practices we do to keep our relationship driving.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Because to us, it feels like our life is a honeymoon.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

We want that to be enjoyed for all of you. I'm Tim.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

I'm Amy, and this is our podcast. This podcast is brought to you in part by Considine Homes, proudly serving your real estate needs in South Florida with honesty and integrity and offering trusted referral partnerships in all 50 states and beyond.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

All right. Hey everybody, welcome back, episode number 23. Hi. The ways we get mindful throughout the day, individually and as a couple. And before we dive into the ways that we do it, I thought it would be good to define what grounded means to us and what we've decided on together that it means being less reactive, more present, and pausing before responding. Because I know for me when I'm kind of not grounded, it's just a lot of just reaction and and just spacing out and all those things that so this these um these ways that we're going to share are to show us how to be grounded.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

All right. So you want to go ahead?

unknown 1:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Individually first. Okay, perfect. Okay. So to me, getting grounded every day is not an option. It's a hundred percent mandatory. It's the only way life is so busy. And for me, it's the only way that um that I can navigate all the things that are happening throughout the day. So to begin, every day, it doesn't matter what's happening in life, it doesn't matter how early I have to be somewhere. I'm going to do yoga every day. That's the first thing. Well, I take care of the cats first, but that's wonderful. Um, and then I just put the mat on the kitchen floor and do yoga every single day. Um, if that's all I can fit in, I'm happy with that. But usually it's then followed by meditation. And meditation time is not just meditating quietly. Um, I do a gratitude journal every day. I write down 10 things that I'm grateful for. Um, I have a lot of readers, which are just little books with like small bite-sized passages on um different topics that are really supportive to think about as you start your day. Um, and that just helps me to really get centered before I start dealing with my clients. Now, often my clients are actually reaching out before I'm finished this process, and and that's okay, that's life. But I know I'm the best version of me once I've gotten through that and um I'm then ready to start my day. But those days get busy. So there's a lot of things that I do throughout the day to maintain being grounded. And I didn't always do these things. This is, I'd say more in the last year, I've really taken this up. And um, if I just start to feel maybe that um ick from too much screen, then um I'll get up, I'll go outside, and I'll just sit in the sun for one or two minutes, just feel the breeze, listen to the birds, and just kind of recalibrate and recenter. Um, sometimes if I get a little brain fog, if I just am getting a little stagnant, I'll put on a fun song and I'll dance. Um, I also try to keep my workspace intentional feeling. Um, so often if I'm, you know, having an office day and I'm not on the road, I'll light a candle near my computer. Um, I like to play either healing vibrations or 1920s jazz music lightly in the background, uh, maybe have a cup of tea or mushroom coffee, but it's just those little touches that really kind of feel like self-care throughout the day. And that just helps me come back to me so that I'm just not off. And like you said, being reactive to people, like it's giving me a minute to breathe and be really conscious of the way that I'm interacting with clients and also with myself. So those I would say would be the top, top ways that individually I um get grounded on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yes, thank you for sharing.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

I do see you do those. Uh the music I really enjoy when I come home and I hear old-timey jazz music.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Yeah, it it it feels like it almost feels like Christmas. It's nice.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, and sometimes we'll we with uh on our TV, we'll have we don't do it as much, but we need to have like those backgrounds.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

What about those? Phoenix. Yeah, yeah. We um on YouTube you can get these like really tranquil, tranquil, peaceful. Um, it's like background music with cozy scenes. We do them a lot, I think more in the winter when like you can have snow falling and shows inside. But um, so my son Phoenix, our Tim's stepson, he has taken that on. And in his bedroom a lot, I'll see um that he just has that kind of playing in the background. And I just I think oops, I hit my little microphone. I think that's so beautiful. Like, what a what a great thing as a kid to just have that that peace. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Yeah, so on my end.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Yeah, how about you, Tim? What do you do?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

And I do a lot of the same things, but in a like same, the same uh purpose, but just a different way of getting there. Uh I do a lot of grounding exercises throughout the day. And I uh I came up with an acronym a long time ago, and it's really funny because Amy knows about it. I sure do. It's it's called My Bags, M-Y-B-A-G-S. And so I make the joke I don't leave house, I don't leave the house without my bags. And so M stands for mindfulness or meditation, Y stands for yoga, uh, B for book. It's also a daily reader, reading something inspirational. Um, A is for affirmation or apps, like I have these affirmation apps that I I check every every morning. G for gratitude, and then S for shower. That's just that's just I mean, almost my bag would make more sense, but I added the shower on there, so my bags.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Well, I mean, it's good to remember with your acronym that you have to shower before you go to work.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

I do also do the dishes in the morning, but I that doesn't fit into the media.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

I know that's not like being grounded, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

So the routine, part of the routine. The the the meditation in the morning for me that that or having mindfulness, that is a like non-negotiable. That's something that I started in like 2015 and haven't that it's been a non-negotiable. I mean, I probably have missed, you know, a good chunk of time, but not it's always like like if I don't run out of time, I I you know it's I always I'm thinking about it. It's never like it's never fallen off the radar ever in these last 10 years, which is you know, it's I'm I'm happy about that because it's it's like I found it and I I've never let it go. Because I do hear some stories like, oh, I used to meditate. Yeah. And I'm like, how did you used to meditate? Like, I mean, for me, it it really is.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Oh, no, no, no, no. It's like you find magic. Why would you disperse the magic and leave it behind?

SPEAKER_00 7:48

I'm glad we're both aligned on that.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Oh yeah, me too. Me too.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

And then yoga, Amy really um, I think we both started doing yoga together and it became a morning ritual because I feel like when we first met, it wasn't like a big morning thing for you, remember? Always. No, I remember because we we started practicing together from afar. And we did those yoga challenges.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Yeah, you know, we didn't we didn't bring that up in our um long distance relationship uh episode. Yeah. We used to do like 20-day yoga challenges with different teachers from afar.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, yeah. That was fun.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Well, we've been together nine years. I don't really remember how things went before then, but but yeah, I just feel like it for both of us it started then.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

But either way, I know that it's for both of us it's a non-negotiable. Moving the body in some way in the morning is is mindfully for me.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

I know you like to work out too, but I need it to be yoga stretching.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, I've switched it to only yoga in the morning for the most part. Um, and then doing a daily reader, reading a book of just a couple pages of something um inspirational. I have my affirmation apps that I probably should share in the link. And uh I know we both use similar apps. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Very good. Then for gratitude, uh, I don't really do it in the morning uh before I leave for work. I actually do it at work and I'll share about that. And then um showering. Of course, I do that at home. Um, but yeah, so on my way to work, I I was really, really strict with myself for two months where I didn't listen to anything. Like it was just only try this for two months, don't listen to anything on the way to work. Turn roll the windows down. It was really nice weather here in Florida before it got too hot. Um, where I would roll the windows down, just listen to the birds as I'm driving to work, listen to the traffic, listen, smell the traffic. Uh you know, sometimes I had to roll my windows up because it was I'm next to a truck. Oh really, really. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it it really shifted the way that I operate while driving to and from work because before it was just let me put something on. I know I've talked about this before, but now it's like I actually stop and pause, like, I'm going to put something on now. And it's a more conscious choice rather than. And then with gratitude, as soon as I get to work, I have this little sheet that I pull out for the day, and I have a little box in the corner that says, What um, why is today going to be a great day? And I fill out three things at the beginning of the day, and then I I draw a line in it, and then I fill out the other half. When at the end of the day, I started doing that recently. That is so nice. And so I'll it'll I'll write like freedom, you know, just freedom from just you know, just living a good life, and then love, and then health. And then I'll just those will be there on my like daily sheet that I can just see throughout the day, and then at the end of the day, I'll look at them again, and then maybe I'll write those same ones again to kind of really drill them in, or I'll fix three different ones. So that's something that nice is good to do throughout the day. Awesome. With phone usage, um the the working in an office, it's easy to just have your phone nearby for me and and just kind of be checking it randomly. And and you know, some people have their phones like just on a stand and they have like a show playing or something, and it's it's just they can work and multitask. For them, that doesn't work for me. And so I I really try to put my phone away. I have an app called um, I think it's called Forest, and it's a focus app that I use that I you know, I press start on it for three hours, and if I use the app or if I use my phone, like the trees die, it's like this. And I that's something I've been really um you know, really using a lot, and that helps me stay focused. And then I don't really check email, personal email until noon. That's keeps me really focused at like the first you know, good chunk of the day, just really get down to business. Um and I make sure to walk around the building a couple times throughout the day just to get the blood flowing because it's really easy just to just get sunk, sunk in. Like I can eat my lunch at my desk, I can work from my desk, I don't really have to really have to get up that much. Um and then this one's a little weird, but it's something that I really, really uh it's it's almost like a an energy boost. So I'll I I found it on a podcast a long time ago, and Brendan Burchard was talking about it that he does this every hour, and this is where I got it. And it's he does like a two-minute qi gong, kind of like you can't see it, but like he's just tapping different parts of his body and kind of moving his body in a way, and it's like a two-minute little cycle that I do. I'll do it in the bathroom a couple times a day. It's like a work, it's just a one-person bathroom, so there's not anybody coming in and seeing this. And even if they did, uh I'd say, you know, this isn't the worst thing to walk in on, walk in on. And so that's something that I've been doing probably for like three or four years regularly. Like sometimes it'll come and go where I don't do it for a while, and then um that's the work day, then I'll I'll get home from work and I try to do this thing where I don't use my phone for like just entertainment purposes for the first hour when I get home. Like if if there's like I'm texting a friend and we had a conversation, I'll keep that going. But um, you know, I really try to be intentional with my phone use. Um, you know, when I get home rather than just vegging out, and then I have my guitar always nearby and always playing music. That's something that I really enjoy doing. Um just to just to, you know, let some maybe some stress out and also get grounded. We have a hundred cats here at our house, and so or seven, which is a lot. We uh I really enjoy just petting the cats and just hanging out and um being mindful and present with that.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

That is the cutest thing ever.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

And then reading is a huge thing that I do. I have a Kindle. Yeah, you're a big reader. I have a Kindle that I um I recently found on Amazon they have all these deals, like non-stop deals, where it's like a book that's usually $16.99 is on sale for $1.99. Get it. And so I've started a m uh uh a collection of books that I've seen for a long time that I wanted to read, but I'm like, uh I'm not I don't want to spend ten, fifteen dollars to get this book. Now it's two dollars. I'm like, it's time. And so I really enjoy reading, and that's always been a big part of my like uh it's almost like a recharging, even though I'm mentally doing something. It still feels stressful and recharging. Sure. And so you that's those are the many different things that I do.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Well, those are great, wonderful things, and I love them. I'm gonna add, we didn't talk about this before for myself. I am coming into a season of allowance for myself to um take on more relaxing hobbies and things. So, for example, making puzzles, which is something I didn't give myself time for for a very long time. Um, that is a way I feel really, really grounded. And um, I actually started making an adult Lego recently, and um, you know, just a few minutes here and there, and it just feels so good to just turn off screens, to do something with your hands, and uh and I love it. Yeah. So I'm gonna add that one in. Um, so I wanted to kind of jump into what we do together as a couple to um keep us, I mean, it keeps us individually grounded, but also aligned in our mindfulness as a couple. Um, so maybe I'll start with weekdays. So weekdays, um, you know, life is busy, work is busy, we're we can be tired, but um we try to, and I would like to encourage us to do this more, go for short walks after work. Just even walking through our neighborhood. It's just nice to well, you like to walk slowly. I like to get the blood pumping, so sometimes we're different paces, but um, it's just nice to talk about our days and just get some fresh air and you know, just see the movement of nature.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

That we you know, we don't really like as if you drive down the road, you know, you you just everything.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Yeah, you just get to notice more quiet details in the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

I met our neighbor that one time we went on our walk.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Oh, yeah, he invited us over. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Very, very true. Um, another thing that we like to do, we actually have a really nice backyard with a pool, and um we don't spend as much time there as we could, but sometimes after work we'll go and we'll sit on the loungers and you know the sun has passed, and it's just nice to just kind of sit back there and recline and talk about our days as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

It's been getting hotter.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

But the nighttime is nice. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um, and another thing that we do that we're excited about, we have joined a local meditation group that meets on Tuesdays. And if anybody wants more information, please reach out. And so we do that together, and it's about an hour long. So not only are we meditating together, we're meditating collectively with the community. And so that's been a real treat in our lives. Love that. Um, and then on the weekends, we've talked about this before in other podcasts, but we do our yoga together. We do up to 90 minutes of meditation and readers and gratitude journaling together. Um, we do a calendar check every Sunday to align our schedules, and that keeps us very grounded so there's no stressful surprises that come up with our schedules during the week. And then a practice that I think we talked about in episode number three, fans, where we discuss our feelings, our appreciation for each other, our needs, where we need support, and anything we're struggling with. And that is one of my favorite things we do together every week as a couple to stay grounded together. Um, even when we are traveling, we make sure that we are still incorporating everything. Um, we found these really awesome travel yoga mats from Guyum. They don't roll, they fold. And so they live in our suitcases. And so every, I don't think we've ever stayed in any hotel that we don't do yoga in the morning before we start our day. And we usually bring our our gratitude journals and maybe one or two, well, we didn't even mention Oracle decks, but we usually bring like a small amount of meditation supplies, and we'll do that on our um vacations as well. And um, even before we film our podcast, every every episode before we film, we actually hold hands for just a just a little brief time and do some deep breathing. And Tim uh usually says some kind words, and so we're we're not as frantic when we start. And um another thing that we do uh every day, all all day, every day, is uh speak kindly to each other. We are very, very loving in our words, and um, I just think that really helps both of our nervous systems. You know, if you are in a house where there's a lot of yelling or curt words or no words, um, but we we're always speaking words of love and kindness and support and lots of hugs and just we're cute. We have a very cute relationship and it feels very good, it feels very uh healthy and calming. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah, yeah. The uh the things it's after we say all the things we do, I feel like we do a lot of grounding stuff.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

We sure do. I mean, that's why we don't have time to do other stuff. We're just meditating all day. That's why the garage isn't getting cleaned out.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Excuse me, but um, but seriously, yeah, all these different things we do together and individually, uh, the reasons we're talking about this to zoom out as we'd like to do each episode is that I know for me that the world is crazier. I feel like crazier than ever. And and to be able to exist as a fully functioning human for the best of my capability, of her capability, our capability as a team. Uh we're no help to the world if we're just as crazy as the world is. And so the the ripple effect, I feel like, of you and me kind of grounding is showing up to other people and passing off that grounded energy as we meet with other people. And it it's it's uh it's like it's like I I've heard many people say, like, oh, what are you going to do? You're just one person. And I've heard that like it's crazy that people still think that. Like that like one person can't make a difference. Like that's how things start. And so um and so, yeah. And as we're talking, a lot of these things are like 30-second practices, one-minute practice, real quick, uh, micro practices that help us reset our our our like energy for that moment for the day. And just a few reminders I want to go over is that we don't do these things perfectly every day. We're not saying that we're always talking kindly to each other 90 or 100% of the time.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Speak for yourself. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Well, just for example, if not that it's not kind, but I'll be in the on the couch, Amy will be in the bathroom, Star will be in her bathroom, and they're just yelling across the house, and I'm their interpreter. Just even today it's happened. It's like star will be like, Mom, I need this, and then you'll you'll be like, What? And I'm not saying that that's not speaking kindly and gentle, but that's I'm just saying that it's there we're we're normal people.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Okay. You you found our dirty secrets. We yell across the house so we can hear each other.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

But you can't hear each other. Anyway, and some weeks that we're really, I feel like when life gets really busy that we're on top of these things, and I feel like we'll do our check-in and be like, you know what, I I've really been struggling with my meditation, and so that's like we're not perfect, we're not we're not robots, and um the goal isn't perfection, but but noticing that maybe we've drifted a little bit and then come back to our practice. Um, and so yeah, that's that's a lot to say on all that.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Yeah, yeah. So I want to ask everybody out there, um, what do you do to keep yourself grounded? Do you have any other practices? Probably for a lot. people which we don't do is go to the gym. I think that that really helps people a lot or people like to go running. Yeah, that's not that's not what we do, but that seems nice for you. Um or the beach. Sometimes we go to the beach. We do not go to the beach enough to qualify ourselves as beachgoers. Disney we well we go to Disney. Yeah. I mean how it's wonderful. I know that doesn't make sense to a lot of people, but we take it very slow at Disney. So it's very recalibrating. Anywho, this wasn't about us at this point. What do you do um to keep yourself grounded? And are any of the things that we talked about, do they appeal to you? Do you feel like you might be interested in starting some of these practices in your own life? We would love to hear about it.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yes please.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Yes please yes please yes please. Okay I think that pretty much wraps up our podcast. We like to do a quick little game at the end of our podcast so you guys can get to know us a little better. And today we are going to play the couples game for those of us that can for those of you that can see this is it. I'm holding it up but it's called the couple's game that's actually fun and it is available on Amazon and it is actually fun. The way you play it is actually with little dry erase boards but we're not going to do that right now. I am just gonna draw three cards at random and this is a little scary because I don't know what they're gonna say and we're just going I'm gonna read it and then one two three we're both going to say the answer. It's usually a which one of you is this kind of thing. So are you ready honey? Yes oh it's not a me or you listen if we could pick one store to go on a shopping spree at where would we pick ready one two three Disney Emporian they were both Disney we both said Disney things. Yes character warehouse is um kind of like a clear not clear it's a sale it's items extra items from Disney and we enjoy going we're going there this weekend it's in Orlando we enjoy it very much so yes I would enjoy that I I I actually thought of Costco first and I didn't think of the warehouse.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Oh sugar boo is a great store that we are new to sugar boo is fabulous um but the emporium is on Main Street in Magic Kingdom and I figured a shopping's free why not well at full price who cares who cares if it's a discount and then now I'm thinking uh the world of Disney well the world of Disney is the biggest Disney store uh in the US or ever yeah well we need to talk about this and make maybe some modifications but those were good good answers the next one sure why not which one of us is more responsible all right three two one me oh I wasn't sure because you are really responsible but yeah I maybe because I have kids and and um like a business that I I have to you're more responsible but just barely yeah no you're very responsible we make a wonderful responsible team you're very nice to be in partnership with okay oh boy okay I don't know about this what is our favorite awful song that we would never admit we like in front of our friends I can't even think of one do you have one um uh let's take a different one yeah I uh uh I was gonna say vanilla ice but I don't like vanilla ice you don't you know all the words that was around when I was a kid like that's a worst no offense Rob Van Winkle or whatever your name is okay oh god these are terrible okay what we just have to come up with something okay what should be our theme song that plays when we enter the room oh I already got it right we had this similar question once oh boy I said an answer and you're like oh that's what should be our theme song um um three two one nothing kiss that is now that's it's a uh a Disney song from the ride uh Mickey's Runaway Railway yeah it's a theme song yeah it is okay good good answer the that game ended a little rough but um it was a lot of fun anyway thanks for playing yeah thank you for playing thank you guys for listening okay well that brings us to the end of today's episode thank you for taking this journey with us for the 23rd time if you're following along on each episode yeah baby you can continue to listen to us uh anywhere you find your podcast which are usually Spotify and Apple are the two most popular ones but also on YouTube you can watch us uh yeah right now YouTube you can see our faces yeah perfect okay you can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook at our life is a honeymoon official and again if anything from today's episode resonated with you if you have any questions that you want us to even read on the air we are happy to do so you can email us at our life is a honeymoonofficial at gmail.com and we would love for you to subscribe like comment all of the above uh through YouTube review us on Apple Podcasts on Spotify all that stuff really matters we will read your review if you write it good or bad we like it all just write what actually don't write the bad stuff we need only good stuff somebody wrote a bad one and I still don't like him just kidding that uh yeah somebody did write something not so nice I forgot about that yeah but it's it's uh thank you for sharing good feedback yeah all right and uh if you would like to support the podcast you can do so at buymeacoffee.com slash our life is a honeymoon we have had a couple donations thank you at the beginning very much Kristen and Mike Doyle thank you so much BFFs yeah and um thank you again for for being here yeah we appreciate it we're gonna see you in two weeks yeah all right woo all right