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Want to Be Happier? Slow Down & Take Hygge Breaks

1/4/2022

22 Comments

 

Do you feel rushed as you go about your day?

Research suggests that 28% of Americans always feel rushed, and more than 60% say that they don't have enough free time. And according to research detailed in a post on Wamu.org, the people who report being happiest say that they almost never feel rushed.

So if you want to be happy, you'll likely need a slower pace and dedicated breaks that could be considered free time. And if you really want happiness, make those breaks hygge ones.
Our pace is determined not by the length of our to-do list but by whether we pause (and for how long) in between the items on those lists. -Keri Wyatt Kent, Rest: Living in Sabbath Simplicity
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What is Hygge?

"Hue-gah" - this Danish concept cannot be translated to one single word but encompasses a feeling of cozy contentment and well-being through enjoying the simple things in life. If you've ever enjoyed reading a book indoors on a rainy Sunday or a cup of hot cocoa
on a snow day, you've experienced hygge without even knowing it. - CountryLiving.com

Take Hygge Breaks


What does it mean to take a hygge break?

​Hygge breaks aren't just a temporary pause in your day, they are moments you create on purpose, to engender coziness or wellbeing.


It would mean sitting on the couch and leaning back, while reading a book for a few minutes. Curling up under a big blanket and having a cup of tea.

So that each big activity in your day was broken up by pleasure moments that give you a break. Hopefully, a refreshing one, so that you feel better and find it easier to resume whatever you were doing, or move on to the next thing.

How could you create more room in your daily schedule for hygge breaks?

See you tomorrow!

Love, Jeanine

P.S. Some of this post's content revives a post I wrote several years ago. For more info on hygge and slowing life down, check out these posts...

https://www.meetjeanine.me/blog/sabbath-simplicity-lifestyle 
https://www.meetjeanine.me/blog/how-to-create-sabbath-lifestyle 
https://www.meetjeanine.me/blog/daily-sabbath-lifestyle 
https://www.meetjeanine.me/blog/hygge-breaks 

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The Ultimate Blog Challenge, Winter Edition

1/1/2022

20 Comments

 

Happy New Year!!

And welcome back, UBCers. It's great to see you again.

In this post, I'll be sharing my mission for the year and for this month's blog posts. I'll also tell you my tale of woe and what I am going to do about it. 

It's going to be a wonderful year!

Stay with me, because I've also got an invitation and a gift for you, right here in the post...
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My Mission & I Choose to Accept it


This year, and this month, particularly, I intend to offer inspiration, information and encouragement that will empower you to let go of and heal the core wounds, core beliefs and the connected painful feelings that are holding you back.

When you can let go of and heal whatever is in your way, it will not only move you farther along the self-love journey, but also give you the ability to create a life you love - not someday in the future, but every day.
We are so disempowered ​
​when we haven't healed.

"This is a Story All about How My Life Got Flipped, Turned Upside Down"


My mission for my own life this year is to heal myself and empower my own transformation. Mind you, that has been my mission for decades now.

And a lot has healed!

But still, somehow, I have managed to hold myself back while simultaneously working really hard, and getting nowhere fast. 

Why and how? I've been on a quest to find the secret, the holy grail that would finally empower me to be successful and make the money I wanted and needed to make. And I hustled like a mofo trying to get after it, but nothing worked.

Well, here's what finally sunk in...

I realized that I am already empowered to create the life I want. But the reason I've been stuck is that right after asking for what I want and while being very busy trying to create it, I am basically, holding up a stop sign to the universe.

And here's the thing - I also didn't have any kind of trust that I could create the big life I dreamed of, so I worried it away from me.

I've been a Mack truck in neutral, succumbed to life, instead of being an empowered co-creator with it.

It got worse after my life went to hell several years ago! The result - poverty, financial and food insecurity, more depression, more anxiety and a sense of hopelessness that was a constant struggle for me.
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But Here's What Has Changed!


I finally got the message that busy work is a trap that doesn't lead anywhere good, and that contrary to popular opinion, the hustle is NOT my solution, or my ticket out of the life I have now and into the life that's waiting for me.

My empowered path is a path of healing. With healing as my top priority, and biggest time and energy commitment. And some of that healing is going to look a lot like rest and not doing much of anything.

What I can do for you is the easy part for me. I am rolling in, flush with and full of ways to heal and ways to help, and amazing stuff I can teach. But that is not what is most important, right now.

It's gotta be me! And I have to tell you, I'm excited about that. It's a daily flip of the switch, because "put your nose to the grindstone" is a core belief for me.

But finally, I really trust that that is not my purpose.

And I'm so happy to finally get it. I'm quite optimistic about this new year.
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The Dreamer's Journey Begins Again


Thank goodness, I have never given up on myself - for long! And I have come to love myself more and more. Been working on trust as a spiritual practice..

I've learned that slow living and a simpler life are antidotes to the hamster wheel & the tyranny of the never-ending to-do list and that I have to make that the center of my life plan.

I've learned in a deeper way than ever before that healing the past and firing it as a predictor of the future is a thing I must do.

I've learned that in order to do that I'm going to have to rewire my brain and evict all of the feelings that have been hanging around rent-free.

And I've learned that as I do that, I will become more and more likely to attract the people I came here to help and get paid to do it.

​And that, of course, will change my life.
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Stick with Me, Kid! I'm Going Places


If, like me, you have been feeling stuck in neutral, and you know that some healing needs to happen for you this year, then join me. Each day, I will be sharing what I know about how you can heal what's blocking you and create the year you want.
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What to Do First


Before you fully embrace this new year (2022), spend some time letting go of 2021.

Make a list of what you regret about the year we are leaving behind, and then use the powerful, 10-minute guided meditation below to release it all. You can give yourself 10 minutes if it might change your life, right? 
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See you tomorrow!

Love, Jeanine
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20 Comments

The Ultimate Blog Challenge: July Edition

7/1/2019

18 Comments

 

Welcome back, UBC bloggers, to the Ultimate Blog Challenge, July edition! It's always so good to see you guys again. And I love getting to steep myself in the camaraderie we experience and the warm and friendly way we support each other's blogs.

Welcome to Meet Jeanine!

Some of you reading this post are old blog challenge friends, but for those of you who are new, welcome! I'm Jeanine.

I'm an author & lifestyle and faith blogger, writing here at Meet Jeanine about slow living, slow faith & slow morning routines.

Every few months, when possible, I join other bloggers for the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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The Ultimate Blog Challenge


The Ultimate Blog Challenge, led fearlessly by Paul Taubman, happens several times a year, in January, April, July and October. The challenge is to write a blog post every day of the month and post it in the Facebook group so the other bloggers can love on it.

I love getting to meet new bloggers and see old friends each time. I've been participating off and on for about 10 years now.

Join us! It really helps with traffic, which is one of the things I love most about it, in addition to the experience, itself.

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Morning Aromatherapy


This month's blog posts, here at Meet Jeanine, will be brought to you by the letters M and A, for Morning Aromatherapy. What is morning aromatherapy? I'm glad you asked.

Morning aromatherapy is the use of essential oils to transform your experience of mornings.

And I like the idea of making mornings cozy, so here, I'll be talking about cozy morning aromatherapy, which does the main job of making mornings easier, but also has a side hustle - it adds coziness and comfort to the mix.

I invite you back this month to learn more about it, especially if you struggle with mornings.

By the way, in the middle of the month, we'll be doing a 7-day morning yoga challenge, for beginners (like me) who aren't sure they could add a sequence to their morning routine, but are willing to try one pose a day. And each day, there will be a recommended essential oil blend to deepen & support your experience.

See you tomorrow!

Love, Jeanine

18 Comments

Slow Parenting Lifestyle Inspiration

6/27/2019

1 Comment

 
Slow parenting is basically about learning how to stop the rush and prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to family time. In other words, it’s about making an effort to slow down versus always hurrying kids along from one activity to the next. - Rachel Bowie, PureWow.com
Slow parenting cherishes quality over quantity, being in the moment, and making meaningful connections with your family.
- Jaci Conry, Boston Globe

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As moms, we all talk about how quickly life moves when our children are young. We don't want to miss a moment, because we know we won't get it back.

But sometimes, it's what some have called the glorification of busy that makes us miss quality time with our kids. In a rush to get things done, and give our children all the things, we over schedule both ourselves and them. And miss the moments we say we want to cherish.

The solution is slow parenting. It's about shifting our focus from what still needs to be done to how we can spend more quality time with our families and create meaningful moments with our children in the time we have.

As a concept, slow parenting has been a silent companion in our discussions of creating a slower lifestyle, being more present to and with your family, and creating morning and routines that give you time for what matters most. But I wanted to create this short and sweet post just to give it its own focus.

We'll return to it, in the days and weeks and months to come. But in a nutshell, slow parenting is the best motivation for slowing life down as a mom.

Slow parents give their children plenty of time and space to explore the world on their own terms. They keep the family schedule under control so that everyone has enough downtime to rest, reflect and just hang out together. Slow parenting means allowing our children to work out who they are rather than what we want them to be. -Carl Honore, NYTimes interview
Slow parenting is organic, it’s ever-evolving — the only essential is that families carve out time to connect. - Jaci Conry, Boston Globe

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine

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9 Essentials for Your Cozy Reading Room

6/26/2019

0 Comments

 
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What Every Cozy Book Nook Needs


Welcoming comfort. Your cozy reading room or nook needs to become a haven of comfort so that you find yourself wanting to stay a while.

As sat at home moms, we so rarely large pockets of time to ourselves. So the scene needs to be set already, waiting for you to step right in, pick up where you left off and get right back to reading time.

Slowing life down, or creating a slower lifestyle in the larger sense, happens in moments. And you can empower them by making your home a place that invites you and your family to stop and rest. To pause for a moment.

Silent support for the slow living lifestyle you want to create.

Each member of your family deserves that feeling of welcome, and a cozy space - in addition to the bedroom - that feels like a haven made just for him or her. The cozy reading room can be one of those spaces, and can be furnished in such a way that it serves the whole family, if all of you love to read.

Be sure to personalize it in ways that reflect each family member.

But start with the basics to create a foundation of coziness everyone can enjoy. These basics are an essential way to get started and then, anything else you add will be icing on the cake.

Here are the 9 essentials...

(1) The ultimate in comfy seating: a chair and a half or a sink-deep comfy sofa.

(2) Great lighting: a floor lamp right next to the reading spot, and additional lighting in an overhead lamp, or table lamp somewhere else in the room.

(3) Big windows and a lovely view: for letting in light, but also maintaining a connection to nature during those moments when you lift your gaze from whatever you're reading. No view? Add art.

(4) A bookcase with plenty of room for your  collection of reading material. But I suggest creating some spaces on the bookcase so that it's not just a wall of books, so your room feels more spacious.

(5) And end table next to your chair or sofa, with enough room for your latest stack of books to rest right next to you.

(6) Space for a cuppa, on your end table, for reading with your favorite beverage within easy reach.

(7) A comfy throw to snuggle under for warmth, nearby whenever you need it.

(8) A fluffy, fat, comfy pillow to lean against while you're reading.

(9) Your favorite candle to add warmth, scent and just the right mood.

The Cozy Reading Room Checklist

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See you next time!

Love, Jeanine

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20 Slow Living Routine Ideas for Stay at Home Moms

6/24/2019

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As a stay at home mom, finding time for yourself can be a challenge. In fact, whole days can easily go by in a blink, unplanned, if we let them.

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Slow living, as a philosophy, encourages you to live according to your values and set intentions for the way you will choose to spend your time. To reject busyness as a virtue and to slow life down to spend more time with those you love, doing what you love.

But what does that look like, practically speaking?

Here are 20 slow living routine ideas for stay at home moms & slow lifestyle families.


Choose a few that appeal to you, that you and your family can try. Use them to create more time for yourself, and more time to spend with those who matter most to you.

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10-Minute Ideas for a Slow Morning Routine


(1) Linger over a cup of your favorite tea each morning.

(2) Add ten minutes of meditation to your morning routine.

(3) Do a yoga or stretching sequence each morning.

(4) Take ten minutes each morning to write in your self-care journal.


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5 Slow Living Routine Ideas for Evenings


(5) Spend time connecting with your kids after school, instead of chauffering them each day to one activity after another.

(6) Let go of one commitment that doesn't serve you & replace it with a daily or weekly activity that matches your values, like spending time with friends or family.

(7) At least once a week, eat dinner as a family without any electronic guests.

(8) Create time to read each night as part of your wind-down routine.

(9) Make a cup of lavender or chamomile tea each night to help yourself relax and unwind.



(10) Before getting up in the morning, identify your top 3 priorities.

(11) Take five minutes between one activity and the next each day to breathe deeply and slowly.

(12) Create a wind-down time each evening that helps you let go of daily stress & become sleepy enough for bedtime.

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9 Weekend Ideas for a Slow Living Routine


(13) Bake cookies with your kids each Saturday afternoon for a slow living Saturday.

(14) Eat a slow cooker meal once a weekend with your family.

(15) Take the kids to see their grandparents each Friday night & have a weekly date night with your spouse.

(16) Each week, get together with your friends for a weekly game night.

(17) Have a weekly weekend movie night with your family.

(18) During your Self Care Sundays, set intentions for the following week.

(19) Create a brief letting go ritual & do that at the end of each day and at the end of each week.

(20) Create a capsule wardrobe, so each Sunday, it will be easy to plan next week's outfits.

(21) Bonus idea: set intentions for the week each Sunday and write them in your journal.

Which ones appeal to you most? Tell me in a comment below.

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Get more ideas about how to create a slower
lifestyle for yourself & your family by
downloading my free Slow Living eBook.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


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SAHMs: Here's the Ultimate Guide for Creating Your Perfect Morning Routine

6/15/2019

4 Comments

 

Are mornings difficult for you? Are you a night owl (and tired mama) whose kids wake up bright-eyed long before you’re ready to admit it's morning again?


I've put together the ultimate guide to creating your perfect morning routine and you can read it right here. It's a morning routine guide for moms who want happier mornings not just for themselves, but also, for their families.

Ready? Let's get started…


Lifelong Night Owl Tales of Woe

On the one hand, morning 'larks' prefer getting up and going to bed early, and are at their peak performance early in the day. On the other hand, night 'owls' like sleeping in and staying up late, and don’t perform well until afternoon or evening. - Psychology Today

A night owl is someone who not only prefers to be up later at night, but functions better later in the day or evening, and does not do so well early in the morning. Sleeping in works better for them.

A typical preferred schedule for a night owl might be going to sleep around 2 or 3 in the morning and waking up around 11 a.m. or noon. Is that similar to the schedule you would choose, if you could?

For night owls, going to bed at what seems like the right time, often leaves them lying awake, wishing they could fall asleep.

And then they frequently glance at the clock, still awake, and recalculate how much sleep they’ll get if they fall asleep soon. But they don’t fall asleep soon, because they can't.

I am all too familiar with this struggle.

I was born just before midnight, and I suspect I have struggled to go to sleep on time ever since. I remember lots of childhood nights, lying awake well past the time I went to bed, bored, and wishing I could be in the family room, watching TV with my parents. I could hear the faint sounds of whatever they were watching, and those sounds called to me.

My mother seemed surprised and annoyed each time she came to check on me, and found with my eyes open, still wide awake. She didn’t know what to do to fix it, and neither did I.

I know I did not get enough sleep during my childhood. Did you?

Children who are wide awake at bedtime and sleepy the next morning, often grow up to be adults who struggle to conform to the cultural norms of going to bed at a reasonable hour, and then getting up in time to go to work, or begin the day with their own wide-awake children.

Has that been your experience? It certainly was mine.

When my work days began at 8:30 or 9:00, I struggled nearly every day to make it work. I’d fall asleep right after David Letterman said, “wake the kids and call the neighbors.”

And the next morning would find me struggling to wake up, feeling like I was moving through molasses as I tried to get ready as quickly as possible so I wouldn’t be late. Eventually, I was eating in the car, and putting on my makeup, during the half hour drive to work just to try to give myself a better chance of getting there a minute before I’d be late.

Once my son became my personal alarm clock, the struggle continued, just in a different way. He was bright-eyed and bushy tailed, eager to hang out with his mommy, and I could barely open my eyes.

What is the solution for those of us who struggle with an early-morning wake-up call? Many night owls try to become a morning person.


Become a Morning Person?


There is lots of advice out there about how to become a morning person, but is that really possible? You can wake up earlier, start your day earlier, and decide to go to bed earlier at night, but can you become a morning person?

Based on what the experts say, I think not.

Most people can’t simply switch wake up and bed times, because their bodies won’t allow them to. Our circadian rhythm is controlled by a tiny area in our brains, the suprachiasmatic nucleus. -Dr. Nathaniel Watson, co-director of the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Centre, incoming president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. -BBC

But it is possible to get to the point where you are waking up in the morning, naturally, without an alarm, at your ideal wake-up time.

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Your Ideal Wake-Up Time


Do you know what your ideal wake-up time is? Though it is less likely to be an exact time on the dot than a general range of time, it provides for the amount of time you need each morning.

That sounds simple, but for those who struggle with getting up on time, or with getting ready as quickly as we need to in order to be ready for our obligations, it may not be simple at all.

And I’m not saying that your ideal morning time is your preferred wake-up time. But it is the time that would make your morning life, and your mom life, run the most smoothly.

What’s your ideal? It may be affected by the time you go to bed, because functioning your best, on any given morning, is likely to depend on sleeping enough and sleeping well the night before.

Do you struggle to get to bed or to sleep on time? That would push your ideal wake-up time forward in a flexible schedule. But if it’s not as flexible, then we need to get you a better night's sleep.
 

Your Best Night's Sleep


For night owls, what constitutes getting to bed or to sleep on time may be different than it is for morning larks, those who love mornings. And if you don’t work outside the home, getting up early enough to go to work on time is not an issue.

Plus, there’s no universally agreed upon best time for going to bed and falling asleep. But whatever late turns out to be, for you, it will deny you the sleep you need.


So the goal becomes whatever time gets you better sleep and enough of it.

But with no agreed upon standards, your ideal bedtime will be based on your lifestyle and needs. If you’re a mom, it also will be based on what time your children wake up, what time school starts or homeschool begins, and when you need to sleep in order to be your best during their mornings.
 

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What is Your Ideal Bedtime?


Experts suggest that we need 7 to 9 hours of sleep in order to function optimally and be at our most healthy. So, in order to find your ideal sleep time, you need to know when your ideal wake-up time is.

If it takes you a while to “yawn and stretch and try to come to life,” (Dolly Parton, Nine to Five theme song) then your wake-up time probably needs to happen before your kids get going in the morning. How long does it take you to wake up properly and be ready to roll?

And what time do your children wake up? If it takes you an hour or two to be functional, then you’ll need to get up an hour or two before your children do, and be asleep 7 to 9 hours before then. That hour is your ideal bedtime.

It may take some experimenting to find those numbers. And you may need more time in the morning than you think.

Does it need to work out perfectly? Perfection may not be possible.

I find that I need to be awake and out of bed at least 3 hours before my son wakes up – probably because I am also an introvert – and now that he’s a teenager, and we start our homeschool day later in the morning, that works out well.

But when he was younger, I couldn’t make that work, and had to settle for 2 hours when I really needed three.

So aim for the best combination of sleep time and waking up, and then make the very best of whatever way it shakes out in practice.

And once you have your ideal bedtime and wake-up times in mind, the problem becomes getting yourself to sleep at that time, if you’re a night owl. What’s the best way to get to sleep at that time?

Well, you may have heard or read that getting to sleep on time will become much easier if you back away from your devices an hour or more before you want to go to sleep.

Ninety percent of people in the U.S. admit to using a technological device during the hour before turning in, and children often use electronic media to help them relax at night. If you’re among these nighttime technology-users, you may not realize the extent to which this can make it harder to settle down to sleep. But it can. The truth is, using electronic devices before bedtime can be physiologically and psychologically stimulating in ways that can adversely affect your sleep. -National Sleep Foundation

I found this to be true in my own life. I had just moved, and had to wait a week before my cable appointment. Plus, no one came at the scheduled time, which added another 2 weeks of being without my favorite TV shows!

But here’s what happened that surprised me.

I found that without having the TV on all night, it was easy to go to bed a couple of hours earlier than I normally did. And not only that, I would go to bed, thinking I’d probably read for an hour or so, and find myself getting sleepy in 20 minutes or less.

It was so easy. I got more sleep, and woke up earlier than I had been getting up before the move. So, to be honest, I felt ambivalent about finally getting everything set up with cable.

Would I be able to stick to my new schedule once those late night shows were available? I knew the answer was probably going to be no, and I was right.

TV can be irresistibly tempting. But it also, apparently, throws off your sleep biology and will make it harder to go to sleep at the time you have chosen.

Unless you are able to talk yourself into turning it off ahead of time.

But once you’ve turned off the TV, stepped away from the computer, and put your phone aside, what do you do then?

Do you like to read? Or listen to music? Have another hobby, like knitting?

This is where creating an ideal evening routine comes in.

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How to Create an Ideal Evening Routine
for Better Mornings


If you need an earlier wake-up time, and thus, an earlier bedtime, then getting your evening routine right will empower you mornings. But what would make for an ideal evening routine?

Let’s talk about that next.

Here are 4 must haves for your evening routine…

(1) It needs to help you wind down well enough to become sleepy when you need to, so it will be easy to go to bed when you’ve chosen.

(2) Though this one isn’t a must, it is ideal – your evening routine should help you let go of and recover from any stress you experienced during the day.

(3) And ideally, your evening routine will give you time for things you love to do.

Reading, watching a movie, spending time with your family. In an ideal evening routine, there is time for what makes life sweeter.

(4) But that also means that eating dinner and getting the dishes done need to happen in time for the rest of your evening routine to occur.

How can you carve out time for an evening routine and what would it include?

Once you have planned an evening routine that will work for you, it’s time to craft the ideal morning routine.

5 Must-Haves for Crafting
Your Perfect Morning Routine


(1) It needs to give you plenty of time to come to life before having to function well.

(2) It needs to help you be more present to your children and what they need.

(3) It needs to make it easy to be on time for whatever you’ve got on your morning schedule without having to rush.

(4) It needs to empower and support the day you want to create.

(5) It needs to create the feelings you want to experience. How do you want your mornings to feel?

And would slower mornings feel better?


7 Reasons Why a Slower Morning Routine Will Make Your Mornings Easier


Slow morning routines are morning routines during which you don't rush through the process of getting ready and you take the time for self-care or other experiences you'll enjoy as you gradually wake up fully and become more alert.

Slow mornings don’t rush. In fact, they are carefully designed to move more slowly, and to bring what is needed to the person who got up for them.

So, aside from the beauty and wonder of slow living, in general, slower lifestyle mornings may actually be more practical for those of us who struggle with mornings.

Here are 7 reasons why…

(1) They give you the time you need to become fully functional. You’ll no longer have to do something while you’re only half awake.

(2) They eliminate the stress of rushing and falling behind in your schedule.

That frenetic, rushed, harried experience that happens when there’s something to do that feels urgent, but there isn't enough time, is part of what can make mornings so unpleasant in the first place, right?

(3) They give you the opportunity to create moments and experiences that help you enjoy mornings more. Like a self-care routine. Or morning coziness.

(4) If you're a woman of faith, a slow morning routine will give you enough space in your morning for a quiet time that fosters a deeper connection with God.

(5) Slowing down your morning routine will give you time to set and attune to your intentions for the day, and prioritize the ones that are most important.

(6) Your slower morning routine could be designed to give you some alone time before the deep dive into interactions with your family and others.

(7) With a slow morning routine, you can take back your mornings, instead of being owned by them, so that mornings feel better.

I'm a big advocate of designing your morning routine based on the way you want your mornings to feel.

But if you don't have a morning routine that you've created, and made time for, then you lose some of that freedom to choose the way you want mornings to feel. And they are much more likely to feel rushed.

So, I’m suggesting a slow morning routine, but how long should a morning routine be?

There is no ideal amount of time it needs to take. Instead, it’s whatever amount of time you need to become fully functional.
Do you know what that amount of time is, for you?

Even if you don’t fill it up with mindful activities, then your morning routine will allow that much time to pass. Silence and sips of tea are just as good as anything else you might include, as long as you don’t pressure yourself to be completely operational before you’re ready.


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Cozy Mornings & Hygge Moments


What if you could make mornings more cozy?

Denmark winters are cold, dark and dreary.

But Danish people fought back with hygge and they won! Could deliberately creating cozy, hygge moments help you take back your mornings the way it helped them take back winter?

The definition for cozy is giving a feeling of comfort, warmth and relaxation.

And hygge, pronounced hue-geh, is a word that is hard to translate precisely into English, but involves the same kinds of cozy feelings.

Hygge is an intended focus on creating warmth and coziness, both through what you do and what you place into your environment. It is an emphasis on doing all the comforting things you enjoy, and it’s a way to enhance those moments so that they are even sweeter.

So if you love to read, hygge plumps the pillow on the chair you’re sitting in, brings you a cup of tea, lights a candle nearby in your favorite scent and hangs your favorite throw over the back of your chair in case you get cold.

If you love spending time with your friends, hygge invites them over for game night, but tells them to come in time for nachos & beer first, and promises dessert after the games are over so your friends will stay longer and you’ll have an even better time.

Then, it adds cozy atmosphere in the room where everyone will be by keeping a fire lit so they’ll want to stay inside where it’s so warm and cozy, rather than leaving to face the cold.

Hygge is like a cozy best friend!

Simply put, according to the dictionary, it’s “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture).”

What would it be like to add elements of hygge coziness to your morning?

I know it has worked for me, over and over again. When getting to work on time was a struggle, and there were days I wished I could stay home, the promise of making my cup of tea when I got there, and lighting a vanilla candle or two, helped me have something to look forward to when I got there.

By the way, back then, no one seemed to care of you set your building on fire, so I was able to light as many candles as I wanted. But unfortunately for me, that soon changed, candles were disallowed, and I had to come up with other ideas.

I also made my office look like a cozy living room and seeing it, with my throw across one chair, and my other decorative touches, made me feel good each morning, and every cozy change I made helped make those mornings easier.

Now that I work from home, my mornings include a great big cup of tea, and any candle I want to light. Plus, other cozy moments that make each morning easier than mornings used to be.

Could that work for you, too?

Here are 5 ways to create cozy, hygge moments each morning…

(1) Light a tealight candle. This could be especially soothing if you wake up when it is still dark out, or not quite fully light.

(2) Drink your favorite beverage and give yourself time to linger over it.

Let yourself relax fully. And make that moment just about the tea or coffee, not a backdrop for whatever else you are doing.

(3) Spend your first moments in your favorite room and make it look cozy. Open the blinds or curtains to let the sunshine in.

Maybe you could have your beverage on your balcony or patio, so you can breathe in fresh air and watch the birds fly from one tree to the next.

(4) Instead of checking in on social media, to see whose pictures and status updates suggest they are is having a better life than everyone else, spend a few minutes reading, or listening to music that inspires and energizes you.

(5) Give yourself enough time to connect with someone you care about and you get to have the cozy warmth of that connection at the start of your day.


12 Ways to Use Aromatherapy
to Empower Your Morning Routine

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I've created a cozy morning aromatherapy guide, with essential oil recipes and blends you can use to empower your morning routine.

To find out more about it, and how to access it, fill in the form for the morning routine quiz. You can use aromatherapy as part of your next steps in creating an ideal, personalized morning routine.

But first, let's look at 12 ways essential oils can be a positive influence on your mornings...

What’s so remarkable about essential oils is that they influence the whole being. Just as they are the catalyst that can make a wound heal, or a mind relax, so can they transport a soul. – Valerie Ann Worwood, Aromatherapy for the Soul

(1) Morning aromatherapy can ground and center you for a peaceful morning.

(2) You can use it to help you relax deeply for your morning meditation.

(3) Use morning aromatherapy to help you think clearly as you write in your self-care journal.

(4) Morning aromatherapy can help you stay focused on a task or project you need to get done.

(5) You can use it to help you wake up fully and become more alert each morning.

(6) Morning aromatherapy can help you leave behind the cranky mornings and have cheerful ones, instead.

(7) It can help you be more present with the kids.

(8) It can help you stay on task instead of becoming distracted or returning to sleepiness.

(9) Morning aromatherapy can support the way you want to feel as you do your yoga sequence or poses.

(10) Morning aromatherapy can help you banish the sluggishness & molasses moments that make it harder to move through your mornings.

(11) It can help you return to calm more easily after a stressful moment in your morning.

(12) Morning aromatherapy can help you create coziness as you spend mornings with your family.


Journal Prompts & Questions for Reflection


What changes have you felt inspired to make as you’ve read this post?

What will you need to do to make those changes possible?

Is there one change or shift you could make right away?


Putting it All Together


If you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken in a lot of information about how to create an ideal morning routine. 

Keep in mind that gradual change is more lasting. And creating an ideal morning routine is not about the shoulds, it’s about empowering yourself to create the best morning experience you can have.

Doing that will transform mornings for your children, too.

Start small and adjust as needed.

What’s the first change or shift you feel inspired to make? Tell me in a comment.

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine


P.S. Just a reminder that you can take my free, printable
morning routine quiz & then, watch my video for
results & next steps. Fill in the form here to access it...

4 Comments

How to Craft the Perfect Self-Care Sunday Routine

5/31/2019

4 Comments

 
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Sundays should be sacred. Rejuvenating. Healing. Empowering.
- Sahara, at EatFeelFresh.com
Ideal self-care Sundays will embody those four qualities, and accomplish these four missions, as well - reconnect you with the essence of who you are, give you time to rest and recharge, prepare you for the week ahead and help you heal, let go of and recover from the week you are leaving behind. How close do your weekend experiences come to the ideal?
Self Care Sunday. Three magical words that will change your life if you let them. - Melody Godfred, at FredandFar,com

Self-Care Sunday: Reconnects You
with Yourself


As women, we wear so many hats, most of them being different roles we play. But what happens to the one with our name on it?

On a self care Sunday, if you make it spacious and open, you can give yourself the freedom to tune in to your own voice. And reconnect with the self you might have neglected during the week.

Get the chores done ahead of time, and save some leftovers for the microwave or oven, so you have plenty of time to check in with yourself. To be still. To catch your breath.

Plan it that way, to make sure it happens.


Self-Care Sunday: Gives You Time
to Rest & Recharge


There's an episode of the old family drama, Judging Amy, that I think perfectly captures the feeling of getting enough rest. In the episode, she only experiences this feeling because she got sick and was  forced to rest, so for her, it's neither real nor lasting.

But it demonstrates the difference between what most of us experience during our weekends, and what what we could, if we rested.

During the parts of the episode where she is miserably sick, life goes on around her, and at best, she is only dimly aware of it. It isn't happening to her, at all. She is barely present.

Do you ever feel barely present in your own life?

Then, one morning, she gets up as usual, and the sun comes out. Her face brightens, she smiles widely, and suddenly, she becomes part of the scene again, and she knows exactly what is going on. Life has come back to her.

What would it be like to experience that every Monday? Because you gave yourself up to rest over the weekend, and dedicated a self care Sunday to yourself?

Like the character, Amy, many of us have to be forced to rest by illness or exhaustion.

What if you chose it, each week? What if you heard & surrendered to your body's cry for rest?


25 self care Sunday ideas + MeetJeanine.me


Here are 25 ideas for what to do with your next self-care Sunday...

(1) Stay in bed an extra hour and catch up on your sleep.

(2) Light a candle and enjoy several hours of its warmth, scent & flame.

(3) Cuddle with the kids and hang out with them. Do something you all love. Maybe even start a family weekend tradition.

(4) Make a morning pot of tea, instead of just a cup and linger over morning coziness.

(5) Make a bigger breakfast, with comfort food that makes the day a special occasion. Or, take the time for a new recipe you've been wanting to try.

(6) Meditate for 10-20 minutes, or longer if you'd like. YouTube has some great guided meditations you can try for free.

(7) Do a yoga routine, with no rush, because you've got all the time you need.

(8) Take an Epsom salts bath and soak away the week's tiredness.

(9) While away the afternoon with a good book.

(10) Make a special meal for dinner, and get your kids, or friends in the kitchen with you to help prepare it.

(11) Listen to a podcast you've been curious about. You may find a new treasure.

(12) Take a walk in nature.

(13) Listen to music you love all day long. You could even create a self care Sunday playlist of music that inspires, encourages or empowers you.

(14) Watch a movie or Netflix series. Want company? Invite friends over and get them to bring the popcorn.

(15) Write in your journal.

(16) Wear your most comfortable clothes or stay in your pajamas all day.

(17) Bake something. Make it a day to indulge.

(18) Plan the week ahead, setting intentions for what you hope to experience.

(19) Plan what you'll wear next week. I used to set them all aside, together, in one section of my closet and would group them as outfits.

(20) Get the next week's meal planning out of the way, too.

(21) Plan a new morning routine to try for the week.

(22) Do the same with an evening routine and start on Sunday night.

(23) After all that planning, take an afternoon nap. Just don't sleep so long you can't get back to sleep on Sunday night.

(24) If you're a woman of faith, take time after church to read through your sermon notes and have a quiet time where you think through how they apply specifically to your life. Jot down your thoughts in your journal.

(25) Catch up with long-distance friends and family. Call them, do a video chat or send an email and use your self care Sunday as a planned way to stay connected.

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Self-Care Sunday: Heals the Week
You are Leaving Behind


Do you ever head into your weekends feeling a bit like you've been beaten up by the week before? I used to feel that way regularly when I was younger, and I wanted to use my weekends to recover, but didn't really know how.

Self-care strategies that feel nurturing and healing are ideal, though, and can help make sure you don't take that stress into the following week.

Journaling can help you beat the blues, reduce stress, and keep track of your thoughts and goals. If you're worried that you won't be able to get into it, just remember: There are no rules when it comes  to what you jot down.
- Candace Bryan, Bustle.com

Consider using a combination of strategies for bouncing back after a stressful or difficult week: journaling, letting go exercises and support from essential oil blends designed to empower you.

Maybe you can try a long soak into the tub, with lavender bath salts and a soothing playlist. Followed by letting it all go as the water goes down the drain.

Then, you can write your way through to insight about whatever challenged you during the past week, accompanied by a pot of your favorite tea.



Here are 17 journal prompt questions you can use for Self Care Sunday...

(1) How am I feeling today about the week that just ended?

(2) Did anything happen that I am having trouble letting go of?

(3) How did I feel at the time? And how am I feeling now, as i remember it?

(4) What do I wish had happened instead?

(5) What do I wish I had said or done differently? Is there any way in which I got in my own way?

(5) What is the truth about who I am, regardless of how it felt in the moment?

(6) How can I prepare myself for anything similar that might happen in the future?

(7) Is there anything else I need to do or say about it before I let it go?

(8) Anything I can do to help myself heal it?

(9) What happened this week that I'd like to celebrate?

(10) What could I do, today, to celebrate it? And what would it be like to plan a regular weekend celebration of the good moments that happen during the week?

(11) When was I at my very best this week?

(12) What did I do, think, say or feel that I really love?

(13) What were my favorite moments from the week? And what can I do to make sure they happen again, if anything?

(14) How did I take good care of myself this week? And if I was in any way neglectful, how can I take better care of myself next week?

(15) What do I need to prepare for, that is coming up next week?

(16) Is there anything I can do or plan today that would make next week better?

(17) What are my intentions for the week ahead?


Self-Care Sunday: Prepares & Empowers You
for the Week Ahead


Once you're feeling better about last week, you can set intentions for the following week, choose some affirmations to empower them, and visualize it all happening exactly as you wish. Then, you can plan for everything you'll need to make the week go smoothly, and feel like you're getting the jump on it all.

Finally, you can make sure you go to bed early, so you wake up on Monday feeling refreshed and ready for the week to begin. You'll need all that energy for everything the week has got in store, so never shortchange yourself by spreading yourself too thin on the weekend.

If you're a mom, plan restful and soothing weekend activities for your family, too, so everyone will be ready for the week ahead.

Get a head start on your week by making a to-do list. If it looks overwhelming, be sure to schedule in some fun tasks like a pedicure or a trip to the mall so that you have something to look forward to.
- Janine Allison, JanineAllison.com

Weekend alert - there's a Sunday coming up in a couple of days. How will you spend it?

Wishing you deeply nurturing & soothing self-care!

Love, Jeanine


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Self Care Sunday is a beautiful concept & example of what
can happen when you slow down the pace a bit. Are you
interested in a slower, more thoughtful lifestyle? Read my
free slow living eBook. It comes with a printable quiz so ypu
can see if it's a lifestyle fit for you and a getting started
checklist you can download and print.
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4 Comments

How Slow Living Helps You Escape the Tyranny of the To-Do List

5/23/2019

4 Comments

 

Before reading this post, take a deep breath, drop your shoulders and let yourself relax. Which of these two questions is easiest to answer in this moment? ...

(1) Who are you today?

(2) What do you still need to do today?

I'm guessing it's the latter, because the answer to that question is easier to measure, easier to focus on and seemingly more important in the day-to-day moments of our lives. Slow living will give you time to pay closer attention to the grander question, which I believe is the more important of the two.

Are you exhausted? Women today really do feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. Every morning we are greeted with a long list of to-dos: get the kids up and out the door on time, have a meaningful quiet time, put in a full day at the office, spend an hour at the gym, prepare a healthy and delicious meal (organic and locally grown, of course), and make sure the sink sparkles before you go to bed. Oh, and don’t forget to look great and smile while you’re doing it. - Elyse Fitzpatrick
Slow down, you move too fast. You've got to make the morning last. Just kicking down the cobblestones. Looking for fun and feeling groovy.
-Simon and Garfunkel, 59th Street Bridge Song, Feeling Groovy

What is Slow Living?


Before we continue our conversation about how slow living can interrupt our hurried and harried focus on what must be done so that we can broaden our view & clarify our vision, let's get clear on what slow living is. I think Simon and Garfunkel were onto something there, though they wouldn't have thought they were defining a movement.

Slow living is about getting more out of life by slowing down your pace a bit (how much is up to you), so that you don't miss anything. It's about making sure the life you want doesn't pass you by while you're busy doing something else.

It's not about being less active, but it is about focusing less on doing and focusing more on being. To learn more, download my free slow living eBook.

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How Slow Living Disrupts To-Do List Tyranny & Brings You Back to Yourself


5 ways that slow living can bring you back to yourself...

(1) By helping you slow down long enough to be anchored and centered in the present moment.

(2) By empowering you to act and choose based on what matters most to you, rather than what is calling your name the loudest.

(3) By making it possible for you to connect with all of who you are, not just the part of you who can do, perform and accomplish.

(4) By giving you moments where you can pause, relax and reflect. Take stock and see what floats to the surface of your awareness.

(5) By helping you gain perspective, so that it's easier to see and to remember that life is about being and connecting, too. It's so easy to lose sight of that wisdom.

Which of these 5 benefits resonates most with you?

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine


4 Comments

Cozy Morning Memories & the Cozy Weekend Lifestyle

5/14/2019

6 Comments

 

It would often happen in one of two ways, when I was growing up.

I'd wake up and smell bacon already cooking. Or, I'd wake up and know because of the time that my parents were trying to decide whether or not to go to church that morning and once, they decided to stay home, I'd talk them into both bacon and the Sunday morning movie.

Those were days that I didn't have to get out of my pajamas until after breakfast. In fact, I hardly moved from the chair opposite the TV, except to eat, until after the movie was over. The bacon would often come with a side of pancakes, by the way.

They were really happy memories. No place to be, a movie to watch, comfy loungewear for a good part of the day, and comfort food. What could be better?



Cozy Morning Memories


Maybe it was those cozy mornings that ultimately inspired my current love of cozy, slow lifestyle. After all, I wanted life to be like that all the time.

Do you have similar cozy memories from childhood? Tell me in a comment; those are my favorites kinds to hear.

And have you ever found yourself wishing you could have those kinds of cozy moments all the time?

What if we can? First, let's look at how to create your own cozy weekend...

5 Ways to Create a Cozy Weekend


(1) Lose yourself in a really good book. Not a book you think you should read someday but one you already know you’ll enjoy. Or grab a stack of books, or fill your Kindle so you can have a teapot and book marathon.

(2) Have a family movie marathon or watch all your favorites back to back. Let everyone stay comfy in their pjs and order pizza so you don’t have to pause for grocery shopping.

If you’re planning this weekend in advance, though, make a list of everything you’ll need and get it on Thursday or Friday so it’s already there.

(3) Invite all of your friends to come over and bring tea or food.

Have a game night or share your movie marathon with them. Or, if you’ve seen enough of your friends, plan a bunch of fun family activities to do at home. Have a family game night or a weekend marathon.

(4) Grab your journal and a cup of tea and dream about the week ahead. What would make it truly special?

After you have imagined the entire week, go through what you’ve written a pick a few ways to get as close to the ideal as possible. One each day if you can. Extra points if you do this exercise with your family.

(5) Treat yourself to a catch-up video call or long phone call with a long-distance best friend.

While the rest of the family watches a movie, make a pot of tea and sequester yourself in a closed room and give yourselves all the time in the world to catch up on each other’s lives.

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How to Create a Cozy Weekend Lifestyle


To create a cozy weekend lifestyle, bring as many of the elements of what you love about cozy weekends into your weekdays. Here are ten ideas for doing just that...

(1) Create a slower morning routine and make sure there's time each day to savor a cup of tea and read a good book for a few minutes.

(2) Take your book to work and read at lunch, or have your e-reader in your purse so it's available at a moment's notice while waiting at appointments or standing around while you wait to pick up your son or daughter.

(3) Have a movie night during the weekend. Instead of cooking dinner that night, order pizza for double the fun.

(4) Invite a friend over for tea one morning and have catch-up. Schedule light for that day and plan it in advance so you can stay in your loungewear that day and linger over your pot of tea.

(5) Invite your couple friends over for dinner so you and your spouse can have dinner and a movie or dinner and game night after the kids are in bed. Have dinner early enough that no one is out too late and rushing to relieve a babysitter.

(6) Choose one morning a week to run your errands later so you can wake up slowly and watch a movie, instead of rushing out to greet the day.

(7) Create a cozy loungewear capsule wardrobe so that when you're at home, whatever you wear will feel cozy.

(8) Breakfast for dinner: there may not be time for pancakes and bacon in the morning, but you can have it occasionally for a weeknight dinner.

(9) Have everyone wear pajamas and slippers to dinner one night a week.

(10) Once a week, have everyone get up early enough to connect with each other at breakfast over something more substantial than a piece of fruit or toast. Take turns cooking and make it a device-free gathering.

These ideas are just meant to get you thinking about what you could do in your own life. Share some of your ideas in a comment.

Wishing you more cozy moments!

Love, Jeanine

6 Comments

The Wabi Sabi Way and What it Can Teach Us

5/7/2019

6 Comments

 
Imperfection is the basic principle of Wabi-Sabi, the Japanese philosophy of accepting your imperfections and making the most of life.
- Thomas Oppong

What is Wabi-Sabi?


Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese concept and way of life, and a term created by two separate words. Wabi is mindful simplicity and less-is-more. Sabi is the beauty of imperfection & the acceptance of it as it occurs with the passage of time.

When you put them together, simple abundance, serenity and wonder marry transience, impermanence and imperfection.

Bringing wabi-sabi into your life ... takes a mind quiet enough to appreciate muted beauty, courage not to fear bareness, willingness to accept things as they are — without ornamentation. It depends on the ability to slow down, to shift the balance from doing to being, to appreciating rather than perfecting. - Robyn Griggs Lawrence, author of Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi Sabi House.
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There's a tranquility offered by the wabi-sabi way of life. Would a little more tranquility sweeten life for you?

Wabi-Sabi invites you to relax, slow down, and step away from the frenetic busyness of modern life so that you can experience serenity in your everyday life.

But it also invites you to embrace authenticity and a radical acceptance of who you are, warts and all.

Embracing wabi-sabi is as easy (or as difficult) as understanding & accepting yourself , imperfections & all. It’s being compassionate with yourself as you are and building on whatever that is — not feverishly trying to rebuild yourself in order to pose as something else entirely. - Mike Sturm

The wabi-sabi mindset can reach far and wide because it also can have an impact on the way you see yourself.

Its gift can teach you to see yourself through the lenses of compassion and acceptance. And help you know yourself as beautiful, inside and out, despite what you see as flaws and imperfections.
Wabi-Sabi has often been tied to the Japanese tea ceremony, a ritual that demonstrates the mindfulness and modesty needed to fully understand this way of living. But wabi-sabi is not just for Zen monks & tea masters. Anyone can exercise this mindset.  - Julie Pointer Adams

Embracing the Wabi-Sabi Mindset


Anyone can develop the wabi-sabi mindset. There is so much we can learn from it and apply to our own lives.

Here are just a few possibilities...

How to let go of perfection & embrace imperfection.

How to be happy with less, instead of focused on the relentless pursuit of more.

How to make the most of every moment, big or small & discover the beauty in your daily life.

How to accept yourself fully & give yourself permission to be exactly who you are.

How to celebrate your life as it is, right now, rather than being distracted by what it isn't yet, but should be.


Which of these possibilities resonates most with you today?

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine


6 Comments

The Sabbath Simplicity Lifestyle, Part 2: How to Create One

4/17/2019

12 Comments

 

What were Sundays like when you were growing up?

We'd go to church and then, sometimes go out to eat after the service.  But once we got home, my mom would do the laundry. I can still hear the sound of Neil Diamond's "Soolaimon," sometimes also sung or hummed by my mom, in concert with the sound of the washing machine. I'd read with the music as a backdrop, sometimes singing along.

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Yesterday, in part one of this two-part series on creating a sabbath lifestyle, I talked about how the book, Rest: Living in Sabbath Simplicity, inspired me to make changes toward creating a slower, sabbath lifestyle.

I described how doing so has changed my morning and evening routines. It's also changing my experience on Sundays.

But doing so in good ways, that make my days better. As I mentioned yesterday, it's a slow lifestyle, and her book is actually a slow lifestyle book.

Slow living always means taking more time to savor life, in addition to the Sabbath rest this lifestyle generates.

The heart of honoring the Sabbath happens on the day you choose each week, which for me, is Sunday. That is the shift I am tweaking even more than the other days of the week, toward rest.

Do you have a day of rest on the weekend?

Sabbath rest, Sabbath simplicity
“Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
- Mark 6:31 (NIV)

Shifting the Way You See Yourself


Sabbath Simplicity can become a lifestyle that helps you uncover your true self & keeps you from defining yourself in misleading ways.

In the book I've quoted above, the author makes the point that giving ourselves a Sabbath and spending time with God will infuse that day with love that has nothing to do with accomplishments or possessions.

She says that we sometimes see ourselves in terms of what we own or think we need to own. Or define ourselves in terms of what we have accomplished or failed to accomplish.

Taking a break from shopping and working breaks that spell and may make it easier to see ourselves the way God does.

Applied to myself, it means that when I choose this lifestyle, I become the person who loves Hallmark movies, and laughing with her son. Or the person who gets lost in a novel and returns to awareness to find that the light in the room changed as afternoon headed for evening.

Life, in those moments, becomes quiet times, and cups of tea. Family time and time with friends.

how to create Sabbath simplicity in your life

How to Create Sabbath Simplicity in Your Life


I suggest starting with creating moments of rest in your day. And then, you can move toward changing what you do on the weekends.

Try it right now: take several deep breaths in a row, before continuing to read.

Mentally let go of any stress you have been feeling. Stretch if you need to and then, take another deep breath or two.

Take a moment to imagine what’s next for you, in your day. Imagine it going smoothly and well before returning to what you are doing now.


Could you find a way to take a break like this several times a day?

The next step might be to create an hour’s rest in your evening that does not include multitasking. Time with family, time with your spouse, or time just for you. At the end of that time, imagine restful sleep that night, and a peaceful day the next day.

And finally, how might you create more Sabbath rest during your weekend, each week? What shifts would you have to make?

As this post comes to an end, I encourage you to continue thinking about your need for rest and how you might meet it.

A Gift for You


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To access Sabbath Hygge: 4 Ways to Use Hygge to Create Deeper Rest, other slow living lifestyle inspiration, and the rest of my lifestyle library, click the highlighted link.
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What are your thoughts about making time for rest?

Do you create moments of rest each day? And a weekly time of rest? If you don’t, what could you shift in order to do so?

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine

12 Comments

The Sabbath Simplicity Lifestyle

4/16/2019

16 Comments

 

Just like my faith book posts, today's post and the part-two post, tomorrow, began with reading a book I wanted to share. But then, I realized that I wanted to share more than I normally would about the impact the book has had on me, and the decisions I am making as a result. Keep reading, and I'll tell you why.

rest: living in sabbath simplicity, sabbath simplicity
When I first downloaded the book, Rest: Living in Sabbath Simplicity, I really just wanted some encouragement to rest on Sundays. With my chronic illness, I am sometimes sick for long periods of time, and I find that when I don’t make it to church, it’s all too easy to make it just another day to work from home.

Reading the book did encourage me that Sunday needs to be a day of rest.



But then, the idea of sabbath simplicity as a slow living lifestyle began to call my name. And this slow lifestyle book was suggesting a lot more rest than I was getting at the time.

Was I finally ready to hear the common refrain my life kept trying to sound about how I needed to rest much more than I normally did?

It began to seem like the calling that it was. And finally, I started seriously thinking about how I could do it. How I could make it work.

And I found that it does work. Maybe it would work for you, too?

For women of faith, the sabbath simplicity lifestyle merits a closer look...


slow living, sabbath simplicity
...you need only to be still. I know how weary you are…You have been struggling to just to keep your head above water, and your strength is low. I am calling you to rest in Me. - Jesus Today, by Sarah Young & Exodus 14:14

What is Sabbath Simplicity?


Sabbath simplicity is creating a slow living lifestyle around honoring the Sabbath. But not just on one day of the week.

Sabbath simplicity can begin with honoring the Sabbath once a week, but it also means gradually beginning to honor that rhythm every day. So, your deepest extended rest would begin on the weekend, but your daily rest can begin every evening with dinner and family.

We need moments of rest throughout the day, where we give our minds and bodies a chance to push the reset button. Creating a Sabbath Simplicity lifestyle will give you those moments.

My Own Plan for Sabbath Simplicity


Though I still need to shift toward a better weekly Sabbath rest, I am benefiting already from adopting the Sabbath Simplicity lifestyle during the week.

I start each day with a morning quiet time routine that includes reading the Bible, prayer and other inspirational reading. Which means my day begins with rest.

I work from home, but even when work is calling me to jump in and get started, my days go better if I have a morning quiet time first.

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“If you are the type to keep running all the time, perhaps the first step on your Sabbath Simplicity journey is to begin to see the evening as a time to take a small rest, to reconnect relationally, to stop.”
- Rest: Living in Sabbath Simplicity

My after-dinner evening routine brings me rest, again. Though I sometimes do, my goal is to shift away from getting back to work after dinner and toward reading, watching something on TV, and hanging out with my son, instead.

I also pause, throughout the day, instead of rushing from one activity to the next. That pause seems to be lessening my stress by letting me sort of catch up to myself before going on to the next thing.

What would a Sabbath shift be like for you?

Tomorrow, we’ll talk more about this idea of creating a lifestyle around honoring the Sabbath. And I’ll share some other thoughts from the book that inspired me.

Meanwhile, download my new, free slow living eBook.

See you then!

Love, Jeanine

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The Slow Morning Solution for Night Owls

4/15/2019

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Today is a cozy, slow living one here at MeetJeanine.me.

Four slow living posts are up already and this one is the final one, today. The first posts describe and explain the slow living philosophy and lifestyle and then, several do the same for cozy, slow morning routines.

It's that last idea we'll take a closer look at in this post, as a solution for night owls. If you're a night owl mom, who does battle with mornings because life won't let you sleep in, take a look at slow mornings to see if they might help.

But first, here are the other posts in the series ...

The Slow Living Lifestyle and Philosophy
Slow Living for Women of Faith
How Do You Want Your Mornings to Feel?
Tea and Meditation: Tea Ritual Ideas
The Slow Morning Solution for Night Owls

To download all of the slow living posts in a free printable pdf & bonus getting started checklist, plus bonus information about slow living for families, go to The Slow Living eBook.

If you’re naturally a night owl, dragging yourself out of bed early is challenge enough. There’s no need to add meditation, journaling, a five mile run and a head start on emails on top of that. If mornings are hard, your morning routine should be easy. - Beth Swarecki,
A Night Owl's Guide to Surviving Early Mornings

Are You a Night Owl?


I know I've mentioned on this blog before that I am, so if you are, too, then you have my sympathy. I know what it's like to be staring down an unbelievably late bedtime because you're just not sleepy yet. And then, being forced to greet morning far earlier than you want.

And morning might be an even bigger challenge if you're a mom with young children who are usually bright-eyed and bushy-tailed long before you're ready to concede that morning has arrived.

So how can those of us who are night owls wrest control of our mornings from our late nights? ...

morning routine for moms, morning routine, best morning routine for night owls
Being a morning (or evening) person is inborn, genetic and very hard to change. "What I think we’re showing here is that there’s some sort of importance about us ideally being able to work, wake, and match up our schedule as best as we can to what we are biologically suited for," Patricia Wong, as told to Brian Resnick, Vox.com

The Slow Morning Solution: Don't Force Yourself to Get Going too Quickly


For struggling night owl moms, who have to get up too early, design your morning routines to be as easy as possible. I'm not sure that means you can't do meditation or journaling, as the first quote suggests, or anything you want, as long as it works for you.

But give yourself the amount of time you need to come to life, no matter how long that is, before demanding anything of yourself that will challenge you unduly.

Slow mornings, as I have come to understand them, are morning routines for moms (or anyone) during which you don't rush through getting ready and you take the time for self-care or other experiences you'll enjoy as you gradually wake up fully and become more alert.

They can last 15 minutes or 2 hours or can include the entire morning - how long the routine is designed to last would depend on your needs and your schedule for that day. My slow morning routine usually lasts for 3 hours, and then, I feel much more ready to face whatever comes next in my day.

And slow mornings can include beginning the day later, when you can do that, as mine sometimes do. Creating a slow morning routine may help in many ways to make mornings easier for night owls.

But hitting the snooze button as many times as you want is likely to be a mistake. Especially if you have to go in to work.

Because when you do that, you leave yourself with no time to adjust to the fact that it's morning before you thrust yourself out into the middle of it. What if you got up earlier, but had plenty of time to actually wake up?

I have tried it both ways - giving myself plenty of time before working outside the home or at home, and sometimes I got ready first and then allowed myself free time before working and other times, I gave myself time to do nothing, and then I got ready for the day.

For me, it's the second strategy that works the best. If I have a cup of tea, have a quiet time, read or do other things that don't require any movement, I get the time I need to move later with much more coordination. :)

But for others, gentle movement like yoga or stretching might be a better way to wake up gradually. That's why I don't think there is any one way, except your way.

I do think, though, that forcing yourself to rush and giving yourself very little time to wake up is unkind, if you're not a morning person. So my question for you, night owl moms, is what would be kinder for you?

And is there one change you could try to see if it helps?

Consider adapting the slow morning routine idea to fit your own morning situation.

And speaking of your morning situation, tell me in a comment what your morning routine is like. Is it challenging?

See you tomorrow!

Love, Jeanine

1 Comment

Slow Morning Tea and Meditation: Tea Ritual Ideas

4/15/2019

0 Comments

 
There is nothing quite like a freshly brewed pot of tea
to get you going in the morning. -Phyllis Logan
morning tea lifestyle, slow living

Today's post series is dedicated both to cozy, slow living and to falling in love with slow mornings. This post is an invitation to morning tea and the tea lifestyle that fits so nicely within the slow movement.

If you're looking for ways to slow down mornings so you can enjoy them more, take a look at creating a morning tea time. If you love tea, you may find this post gives you ideas for using tea to create a soothing, slow moment in an otherwise rushed morning routine.

But don't miss the other posts in the series...

The Slow Living Lifestyle and Philosophy
Slow Living for Women of Faith
How Do You Want Your Mornings to Feel?
The Slow Morning Solution for Night Owls

To download all of the slow living posts in a free printable pdf & bonus getting started checklist, plus bonus information about slow living for families, go to The Slow Living eBook.

I structure my day by cups of tea. - S.T.Joshi

Slow Mornings & Morning Tea


Do you love tea? My own morning tea is the absolute best part of my morning. And I do structure my day around it.

Slow mornings make room for cups of tea, sipped slowly while reflecting, reading, journaling or staring out the window as the trees blog gently in the wind. During a slow morning, there will always be enough time to savor it.

And if mornings are a challenge for you, pausing for a big cup of tea may help you shift from still sleepy to willing to be awake. It also gives you a calming, soothing moment that keeps stress at bay before you move forward into whatever the day holds.

If your days often move fast, having morning tea can be one way to ease into it more slowly.

Here's a brief idea for a morning tea ritual...

Picture

Morning Tea Rituals


(1) Light a Tealight Candle: light it before you make your tea so you can see it's glow as you go through the tea-making ritual and then have it nearby as you sip.

(2) Meditation Moment: once your tea is made, take a moment as you sip to think about what the day holds for you and imagine it going the way you would like.

(3) Journal: jot down any thoughts or insights that come to you. You might even ask a question before making your tea and just leave it there as you sip, to see what pops into your mind in the form of inspiration, ideas or intuitive guidance.

(4) Reading: You can add reading to your tea moment, as part of a quiet time that includes the Bible or a devotional, or by reading your latest novel and starting your day with the relaxation of reading for pleasure.

(5) Blow Out the Candle: once you have finished your tea and journaling or reading, blow out your candle as an end to the ritual.

However you decide to enjoy your morning tea moment, just make sure there's plenty of time to savor each sip during your slow morning.

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine

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    Contemplative, mystic spirit, spiritual coach, master Reiki practitioner, and a spoonie living with ME/CFS who writes about spiritual awakening, spiritual self-care, self-love and the enlightenment path.
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