If things have been feeling a little or a lot uncertain, you are not alone.
Today's episode is from my heart to yours - when life get's crazy, be relentless in making time for the things that calm your mind, center your soul and ground your next step.
Learn more about Carla: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/carlasreevesaz/
Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching
Support the podcast! Check out the merch! https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-differently-shop/
If things have been feeling a little or a lot uncertain, you are not alone.
Today's episode is from my heart to yours - when life get's crazy, be relentless in making time for the things that calm your mind, center your soul and ground your next step.
Learn more about Carla: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/carlasreevesaz/
Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching
Support the podcast! Check out the merch! https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-differently-shop/
I'm Karla Reeves, and this is Differently. Whether you feel stuck in survival, navigating a change or seeking more for your life, may this podcast be your weekly nudge to take a risk to build a life that is uniquely bold, authentic and in alignment with your deepest values. After a decade of coaching individuals, from corporate leaders to creative artists to multi-million dollar CEOs I'm convinced we are far closer than we realize to what we deeply desire, and it's a willingness to do differently that can change everything. When the outer world speeds up or gets noisy, I get quiet. Over the years, I've noticed something that when life speeds up, we feel overwhelmed, or, in a busy season of life or the world feels chaotic, it's easy to get caught up in the energy and disregard our healthy habits, because slowing down and getting quiet when everything feels urgent or out of control feels completely counterproductive and maybe even irresponsible. It feels convincing that kicking into higher gear is the answer and the solution. But here's what I've found to be true when life speeds up, when I have more on my plate to handle or life feels overwhelming, is exactly the time and an actual reminder and indicator to elevate healthy priorities and make them more important. Hear me out, I didn't say this has to take a huge quantity of time, but here's what I've found to be true when life speeds up, when there's more on your plate, when things feel overwhelming, it's exactly what you need, because getting quiet and slowing down is where you find calm, clarity, peace of mind and often, the next step, it equips me and fills me with everything I need to handle and walk through whatever things or urgent thing is happening.
Speaker 1:For me, the impact of not doing this is feeling scattered, running ragged, feeling depleted, lost in a swirl of fear and thought and whatever that is in my head, and sometimes even reacting instead of intentionally responding to what's happening. It happened to me just this last month. We went away to celebrate my nephew's wedding and the first day I felt myself get swept away with all the commotions, all the excitement, all the family and the energy. I noticed that all of a sudden, I was feeling super scattered, kind of lost in my thoughts. Sometimes, when I travel, my morning routine goes to the wayside. After all the mornings we were spending, my youngest son, shane, was there, and my great nephew was there, and we woke up every morning and did a Starbucks run for everybody something I wouldn't have changed for anything. It was one of the highlights of the trip. But a day or two without my morning routine and this might sound crazy, but I feel it it's the one thing I do every morning that anchors me, regardless of what else happens for the rest of the day. I'm a better version of myself for having taken that quiet time. So I noticed this while we were away and started to create an alternative to my morning routine, which was I started taking just a nice long walk.
Speaker 1:We were in Ojai, california. The weather was beautiful. I put on a podcast that was really calming and helped me center myself and get present and really reflect on where I was, what we were doing and what was most important, instead of being lost in the shuffle and at the mercy of my mind, or mind traffic, as one of my clients likes to call it. This made all the difference. Had I not done this, I know that I would not have been as present and I would not have been as available when my sister called the evening at the welcome dinner and said can you come curl my hair? It's not right. I wouldn't have been able to set down my own worries concerns things I needed to do to get ready as quickly and as easily as I did to go, be there and really show up for my sister.
Speaker 1:I do around myself if it's like we're all running out of time or anything and you're all running out of breath just due to kind of clicking on the handmet and the gloves and walk sign right over them. You know, 10 minutes of curling her hair was one of the highlights of the whole weekend for me. This is exactly why slowing down when things are speeding up has to be a priority and has to become a more important priority when things are crazy. I've noticed this with my clients over the years that when things get crazy, when their work is demanding more or their family is demanding more or their life has just gotten more and they have some new challenge or circumstance or just a different season, they tend to let their healthy habits, the things that actually sustain their well-being, they let those habits fall and in the moment it feels like the right thing to do. But I'm constantly reminding them that now is the time you actually need to elevate the priority of those healthy habits. It doesn't have to be in quantity of time, but it's just elevating that priority to make sure that it still happens. So what if the next time, things speed up for you at work or at home, or with the kids, or even just out in the world? Things are chaotic, which they are right now. What if that's your indicator or reminder, or like a yellow caution flag to remind you to elevate the importance and be relentless and creative in finding the time to make sure that you do those healthy habits. It doesn't have to be a large quantity of time, just be intentional about making it happen.
Speaker 1:I want to share with you some of my go-to habits that really help in times like this so that you can be thinking of your own. Like I mentioned the first part of my day, the morning routine. I wake up, I drink a glass of water, I make my coffee and I sit on my bed where I have my books and my Bible. I sometimes listen to a short podcast, I might write, I pray and I really think about the day ahead and I call it kind of creating my day. But it's really thinking about what's on my schedule today, what do I want to bring to today, how can I be of service to my clients today and really just having a little time to kind of plan, listen and create.
Speaker 1:Another way I do this is making time for my marriage. I learned a long time ago, when my marriage was getting the breadcrumbs of my time, that elevating the priority to spend time together to listen, to listen, to listen, to snuggle, to hike, to communicate about everything, even all the little things, is vital to my well-being. It's vital to the well-being of our marriage and it actually doesn't just make our marriage better, but when we're in sync, everything in my life works better. So another way I do this is spending quality time talking to a friend, having coffee or lunch with a friend, connecting with my boys. These things all fill my cup and often provide really great perspective, which helps my mindset, which helps my well-being, which keeps me grounded.
Speaker 1:The other one is any activity that gets me out of my head. My mind is busy. I don't know about you, but there's a lot of traffic in my mind. Things that require all of my focus, like golf or some kind of tennis, coloring, watching a movie I'm still working on this one. Things and activities that get me cooking I guess is another good one, but things that really take my focus so that I don't have to think, finding more ways to get out of my head and into my physical body is always rejuvenating. I can go back to the thinking projects or creative projects with much more creative energy and inspiration when I've allowed my brain to rest. And the last one I wanna share is one I have shared many times before. If you're new to the podcast, thank you for listening. I see some new listeners and I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:There are many episodes on writing and journaling, but just getting the spinning thoughts, the worries worries about the world, worries about your business, worries about your family, whatever those worries are getting them out of my head helps me to then turn to places in which I have control, to influence. And writing that out helps me separate, get it out of my head and then really shift focus to where I can make a difference. And then I can come out of the spiral of worry and show up to what is mine to do. After all, worry is a misuse of the imagination. Such a good reminder. This is why these tools and slowing down are such a core part of the work I do with my clients for high achievers, especially because we are so used to moving at a high pace, thinking at a high pace.
Speaker 1:When things escalate in our life or in the world, in urgency or emotion, or just the load that we're carrying in our lives, the default is to kick into higher gear and bust it out. And I found that, while sometimes this is necessary, it's mostly where I end up overusing my drive in energy and losing my calm, grounded, sound mind, which ends up leading me to getting overtired and burned out. And then that chaotic energy I sort of expose everyone else to, which doesn't usually help anything. So this episode is from my heart to yours. I wanna invite you next time you feel the commotion stirring up inside your own little world or in the larger world, instead of getting swept away in it, elevate the priority of slowing down, getting quiet, and show up to the busy with a different side of yourself and see what happens. And I wanna leave you with this quote peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of all of those things and still be calm in your heart.
Speaker 1:Hey, thanks for tuning into this episode of Differently. I hope it stirred your thinking and I invite you to take one inspired action from something that stood out to you. If you wanna hear more conversations like this, be sure to hit follow on your favorite podcast app, and if this episode could impact someone you know, please help us spread the word and pass it along. Remember, new episodes drop weekly. See you next week.