How To Re-Define Your Morning Routine

Why is a morning routine so important and how do you create a morning routine that’s tailored to the time and needs you have? If you don’t think you need one, think again! Tune in to get powerful ideas for what to do in your morning routine. My guest, embodiment coach Caitlin Parsons, shares short breathing techniques to reset your energy, clear your mind, and get you into a sense of calm before the day. Finally, find out what we mean when we say: Write it. Speak it. Feel it.

Transcript

Welcome to Mindset Reset Radio where we're on a mission to help millennials get intentional in life,

Business,

And career with practical advice and real stories of living with intention,

The good,

The bad,

And lots of the ugly.

I'm your host Jess and my goal is to flip your perspective on what's possible with the help of the amazing intention getters I get to have as guests.

Find my community on Instagram at Jessica Tiefels so we can keep these conversations going while supporting one another to stay intentional every day.

And finally if you love this podcast please subscribe,

Share,

And review.

I would greatly appreciate it.

Oh today I have an amazing guest,

One of my very best friends in the whole world,

Caitlin Parsons,

Founder of Caitlin Parsons Yoga Therapy.

Welcome to Mindset Reset Radio.

I am so excited to be here.

Thank you Jess for having me.

Yeah of course.

Now let's just jump right in.

Tell the listeners what amazing things you do.

Hi.

What amazing things I do.

I am a yoga therapist and embodiment coach and what I really do is help people to get out of physical pain,

Chronic stress,

Anxiety,

Or just living a life of feeling stuck and in fear and not knowing how to create momentum moving forward and really to find freedom in all of these avenues,

Find more joy,

And find more fulfillment in their life.

Beautiful.

I love it.

And I see if you follow her on Instagram you will see that she 100% lives what she teaches.

She's very much in it,

Experiencing it,

Healing,

Growing.

It's incredible.

But what we're here to talk about today is actually something that I feel like I noticed at the very beginning of sort of your healing journey and stepping into this new space which is morning routines.

And I actually,

I might have written this in an Instagram post.

I remember seeing you do or hearing even about your 30-minute morning routines.

You have this whole process.

I remember thinking,

There is no way in hell I could cut out 30 minutes of my day.

This is ridiculous.

Like power to you,

But no thank you.

But we all know.

.

.

Well,

Maybe we don't know.

So let's start with why did you start a morning routine?

And tell us about the value of setting aside that time.

Yeah.

I mean,

I'm so impressed.

There's so many pieces to this,

Jess.

And I felt the same way when I saw other people doing these like bougie routines.

I'm like,

Oh,

It must be really nice to have that space and time.

And little did I know it's just you create it.

And that's one of the most important things.

And I just started to feel,

Especially when I really started to put more momentum and focus on my business,

I started to feel how kind of scattered I got throughout the day.

And I'm just generally an ungrounded person.

If anyone knows anything about Ayurveda,

I'm very airy energy.

I have a lot of fire,

But in order to stay grounded,

I need certain structure.

Not too much structure,

But just enough.

So I just started exploring and my morning routine really started much different than it is now.

It started a little bit more rigid and a little much shorter than it is now.

And I've allowed it to just expand.

And honestly,

Every day is different depending on how I feel and what I'm doing.

But I found it to just be so beneficial,

Especially for my sanity,

But for my business,

For how I show up for my friends,

My family,

For how I show up for myself,

How I show up for my business.

Amazing.

And there is so much to unpack in there.

So I want to start with what sticks out to me,

Because this has always been my challenge,

Is the rigidity.

Because everyone's like,

Oh,

I wake up and I stretch and then I get my tea and I meditate and then I do yoga.

And then and for me,

Some days I want to do all those things,

But some days I just want to sit and stare out the window with my teeth.

So can you speak to us a little bit about how do you create a routine without putting boundaries or,

You know,

Like making it a rigid thing,

Allowing yourself to flow through it while still staying in a routine?

Yeah.

One of the things that I feel like is really important is for each of us to get pretty clear on what we need and what kind of personality type we are,

Because some of us really need rigidity.

We need to be like,

OK,

For the first 10 minutes,

You're focusing on this for the next 10 minutes of focusing on this.

And then for you and I,

That's like,

Oh,

My God,

I'm going to go crazy.

That won't work for me.

It'll just feel like a to do list.

So finding that that part of you that you need more rigidity,

Do you need more structure and also allowing your morning routine to kind of be fluid that it can change?

But one of the most important pieces is that I set aside time no matter what time I'm getting up,

Even if I have to be at work at six o'clock in the morning,

I am making sure that for a half hour I have dedicated time for myself.

And that's been really,

Really powerful.

And honestly,

It's just my routine started with like,

Let's see how this feels to move my body in the morning.

Let's see how it feels to meditate in the morning.

Let's see how it feels to do this in the morning.

And what I've over time gotten clear on is there's some main points that I in order to start my day and feel really,

Really good and really myself and in my power,

I need to move my body.

I need to clear my mind to some extent.

I need to sit and be and breathe.

And I definitely have to walk my dog.

So she's happy.

So there's kind of main pieces to everyone's morning routine and what works for everyone I think is really different.

So that was a really long winded answer to your question.

No,

I love it.

And that's so that's so perfect.

Being allowing yourself to flow but to start by sort of,

I guess looking at it as the same way that I try to look at healing like with curiosity,

Like what is what does this feel like?

What does this look like?

So would you say like the first step in getting intentional about creating a morning routine might be just playing with different things every day,

Like waking up and seeing what feels good and maybe more just having that dedicated time regardless of what happens in that time.

And you know,

Having the resources on hand,

I feel like is so important.

So at the beginning,

I had to write out like,

Okay,

Caitlin,

What do you need to focus on?

Because in the morning,

I'm not necessarily always like,

Get out of bed.

Let's do this.

And sometimes I'm like,

Okay,

I feel like drag myself to do the things.

And I think many people can resonate with that.

But writing out some of the things you want to do so that in the morning when you're tired,

You have this list that you can go back to,

Especially at the beginning when you're new to it.

And then if you're wanting to meditate,

Have an app downloaded,

Research a meditation maybe that might feel good or a couple meditations that you have on hand.

So that when you get up in the morning,

You're not like,

Okay,

Now what?

Totally,

I love that.

And,

You know,

I guess maybe some people are listening thinking like,

I don't need a morning routine.

I'm happy to just get up and bop in my car and head to the office.

Like,

What's your I have a feeling I know what to say to those people.

And maybe what are some things we can look to that guide us toward creating a grounded morning routine?

Yeah.

Um,

There's so much here,

My gosh,

And I,

Like I said,

I've been that person that I did not think I needed one.

I thought I was fine.

And I did go to work right away.

And what I again started to notice is that I was a bit more ungrounded.

I was a bit more easily influenced by my external stresses came up.

There was extra traffic on the way to work.

If things that I couldn't like control came in my way,

I was a little more irritable,

A little more agitated,

And I didn't handle them as well as I wanted to.

I mean,

When I have one more morning routine,

Whether it's 30 minutes or even just my these days are like two hours,

Which I would have never dreamed of before.

When I create that space for myself again,

I feel ground in the day.

I get to shift in how I feel in the morning,

No matter how I feel when I wake up,

Because I'm not always an angel,

Beautiful little,

I don't know,

Ready to go spiritual guru.

Yeah.

I like to say that maybe I am,

But I'm not.

So I get to shift my energy into whatever I want to create for the day.

And that's one of the most powerful things because for those of us that are wanting to live happier,

More joyful,

More freedom lives,

We tend to get caught up in the fear or the masks or the external.

And so finding ways that we can connect more to ourselves,

Get more grounded,

Connect to our truth and our power,

I think it just sets the day completely differently.

You show up differently for yourself to those around you.

And when I was working as a dental hygienist and if I didn't do my morning routine,

I was probably a little bit grumpier to my patients,

But they didn't know it or a little like quicker.

And now I'm just more focused.

I'm more clear.

I'm more intentional.

I communicate better.

Again,

Again,

The biggest thing is I allow myself to step into my power and be intentional every single day rather than flowing through the day or not even flowing through the day,

But getting floated through the day by whatever happens in my life.

Yeah,

Exactly.

Being at the whim of every potential trigger,

Every potential nuisance,

Irritation.

For sure,

I find that when I make the time in the morning,

Which I do in some capacity,

For sure not,

Well,

Maybe closer to 20 minutes.

And sometimes for me,

It's like literally just looking out the window and drinking tea,

But I definitely noticed just for me,

It was like,

It's like the sense of calm that I'm able to bring to the rest of my day,

Which I feel like is so valuable.

I noticed actually one day,

This is a perfect example.

When we started traveling,

I realized I didn't need to jump right out of bed and jump right into work.

I realized I could really play with that morning time and I could start work at 11 and work until 4 and be good with my day.

Even that was like the most I might spend working while we were traveling.

Regardless,

We came back to San Diego.

I think honestly,

Probably one of the first mornings we were back,

I was going to meet a friend for coffee and I had a bunch of stuff on my schedule.

So I was really stressed.

And instead of waking up and taking even just 10 minutes to just chill,

I thought like,

I need to get right out of bed.

I need to get right on my computer.

I have to get right into it.

And I literally had a meltdown.

I had a full on meltdown.

I started getting mad at Ben,

My husband.

I can't remember why.

I started getting annoyed with him.

And I was freaking out because I had to go meet up with my friend.

And I literally yelled at him,

My husband,

Before leaving the house and then got to the car,

Turned around and came back in the house to be like,

I can't leave you like this.

I'm sorry that I yelled at you.

And then he came over to be like,

It's okay.

And I just started sobbing.

So I was angry and frustrated to be like,

What am I doing to sobbing?

But that was all because I just didn't take a few minutes to just center in the morning.

And the biggest thing I like to talk about is you don't have to meditate.

I think it's extremely powerful.

But we also have to remember meditation is simply sitting and being.

That's kind of the definition.

So I feel like people hear morning routine,

They hear yoga and meditation.

It's like,

That's not me.

And it's like,

Well,

Just sit and enjoy the silence.

Just enjoy the peace.

Instead of reading the paper while drinking your coffee,

Just drink it without doing anything.

For some people,

It is reading too.

True.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what would you say?

What are some things that you would recommend bringing into a morning routine?

What has been most powerful for you?

Not that it's the same for everybody,

Of course.

Yeah.

Yeah,

It's definitely not.

And I definitely notice that I go through seasons in my daily routine.

And again,

None,

Probably zero of my routines in the morning have been the same ever.

Because I do like to,

I like to have some consistency with certain things and try things out,

See how they feel long term.

But really,

I like to just have some freedom to just be.

I think,

There's so many things here.

I think there's so much validity and just being and breathing and even counting to 10,

Really 10 long slow breaths before you get out of bed.

Maybe your thing is just not checking social media till you do X.

Maybe it's just sitting up.

And guys,

When I say I do yoga,

It's like bed yoga,

Like the most simple stretches lounging in my bed so everyone can do it.

I'm not doing headstands at six in the morning.

I do meditate,

So I really appreciate even if it's a three or a five minute,

It just,

Okay,

Get in my body,

Relax my mind,

Get rid of kind of like the gunk from yesterday,

Perhaps,

Or my partner's gunk that I slept with and kind of reset myself.

So writing,

Sometimes I just read,

Sometimes I just sit and look out the window.

Sometimes it's like,

Again,

A two hour long thing where I do yoga and I do breath work and then I dance.

But breath work for me has been one of a really powerful one.

Breath work and a little Kriya,

Which is like a movement they do in Kundalini,

Which I was always anti-Kundalini yoga,

But it's actually a great way to,

I do fist of fire is what it's called.

You can probably YouTube it,

But it really just helps to,

And it's three minutes,

You guys,

Three minutes,

We all have that.

And it really just helps to kind of reset my energy,

Clear my mind and get me in a sense of calm before the day.

Yeah.

So when you say breath work,

Oh,

Sorry,

What'd you say?

I don't know.

Perfect.

When you say breath work and our listeners are tuning in and they're wondering what the hell does she mean?

Like,

Could you give,

You said the breath of fire,

Are there other like sort of breath work options they could look to and like,

What about that has been powerful for you?

What is different than meditation or yoga or the like?

Yeah.

So breath work can be so many different things.

Breath work is actually quite a buzzword right now because there's a lot of people doing extremely intense versions of birth work,

Which extreme value in certain cases.

But sometimes those are like as long as 30 minutes or an hour.

There's so many different ways.

First of all,

The breath has,

We have with our breath and shifting our breath,

We have the capacity to shift our nervous system.

So we have the capacity to go from this stressed out,

Anxious,

Crazy state to a place of more calm,

Connected where our body can heal and where we're most present and where we're most clear.

So by doing simple things like paying attention to your breath or slowing the breath down,

We can literally shift from a stress state to a more relaxed state.

What I am referring to as breath work in this case is like I said,

Yeah,

Breath of fire and it uses this crea that's called fists of fire,

I think,

Where you make little fists and you throw them around or you flail your arms essentially in this direction.

But breath of fire is using a more forceful and prominent exhalation.

And the inhale comes automatically and really you're just exhaling quickly,

Hugging the belly towards the spine over and over and over again.

And it is really powerful because you're utilizing your core and it's really powerful again to step into your power for personal empowerment,

Self-worth,

All of those things.

And adding that in with the movement of the arms,

I find just really,

Really potent.

Cool.

Yeah.

Breath work is an area I wanted to look more into.

I remember I worked with someone who told me about breath of fire,

But it was never something that I did a couple of times and never took.

But especially our good friend,

Courtney,

Is doing a lot of incredible stuff with breath work.

And that's the cool thing too about your morning routine is,

Like Caitlin is saying,

You could really take it anywhere,

Whatever feels good for you in that moment.

So if it's breathing,

It's breathing.

If it's breathing,

It's breathing.

If it's locking yourself in a room so your kids can't get in or something.

And I think that's the most powerful takeaway I want everyone to get from this is you don't have to do what all the Instagram people are doing or what your yoga teacher is doing.

This is your time.

Take it whatever you need before you go to work,

Before you sit down at your computer or you go wake your kids up,

Whatever the case may be.

You get to decide.

So getting intentional about your morning routine is just deciding,

I'm going to have one and I'm just going to wake up every morning and take 20 minutes to do whatever feels good for me in those 20 minutes.

Assuming that's not work,

Because if work is what really feels best in those 20 minutes,

Then I think that's another conversation to consider.

Oh,

Yes,

Absolutely.

Yeah,

I say just start,

Just do it.

Yeah,

Just do it.

Exactly.

Just wake up and do what feels good that doesn't involve work or something that is on your to do list.

Would you say that's a pretty good qualification?

Absolutely.

And you know,

I know there's a lot of clients that are moms to younger children and their thing is like,

I don't get to dictate when my kids wake up and knock at my door.

And while we can try and plan things that doesn't,

We're not always able to go according to plan.

So your morning routine can be as you're waiting for your coffee to heat up or your water to heat up for your coffee or your tea,

Breathing.

Or while you set your kid up with,

I don't know,

A book or whatever they do in the morning,

Breathing,

Or while you're making breakfast,

Make it extremely intentional and slow so that you're just aware you're there.

You're present and it gets to be sometimes as simple as that for our overcrowded,

Overdoing minds and bodies.

Yeah,

I like that idea.

Just finding a way to be present in your body and in the moment,

Even if it's only for a few minutes.

I feel like that's a really strong place to start because that could be a lot of different things for a lot of people with a really the same outcome,

Which is centeredness,

Groundedness,

Calm.

Yeah.

Well,

I mean,

We're talking about morning routines.

What'd you do this morning?

What was your morning routine today?

What was my routine?

Well,

As you know,

I told you I completely reorganized and decluttered and moved my entire house around,

Which is like 600 square feet,

But I made this really beautiful little space where I can teach people virtual yoga,

Which I've been wanting to do.

And now I have a yoga space and my first ever little altar,

Which really just has like candles and incense in my Oracle cards.

For the first time this morning,

It felt so good.

I just climbed down with a blanket around me and did my,

My breath work,

Which again is three minutes.

And I already had a guided meditation.

I use insight timer a lot.

I do a lot of my own just meditations,

But today I wanted to do a guided one.

So I opened up insight timer and did like a,

It was 15 or 20 minutes.

And then I just intuitively moved my body a little bit and got some coffee and wrote and then brought my dog on a walk.

So this morning was probably about two hours.

I definitely don't always,

Cause sometimes I do feel called to do work or I don't have that time or I don't create time for myself.

It's good when I do.

Yeah,

Exactly.

Beautiful,

Beautiful.

Well,

I think your intention getter story has to do with your morning routine.

So tell us your intention getter story.

I have for a really long time had this scary vision and dream in my meditations to be a speaker and to really show up more powerfully in my work and for quite a while I ignored it because it felt too big and too,

This can't be me.

And so really the work that I've done over the years has allowed me to step into my truth and my power.

And one of those big things,

Yeah,

Is speaking on stage and I had no idea,

Actually I think it was,

Yeah,

Last year sometime mid to the end of last year,

I was like,

Next year,

So 2020,

I am going to speak on stage and this is going to be my year.

And I declared it and it's one of those things that I try not to think about how the heck it's going to happen even though that's all I think about.

But I'd say nearly every single day I reconnect to what I want to create in my life and what I want to manifest and that was one of them.

And I wanted to not only speak on stage but speak for a company that or a business or a convention that really resonates with me,

Not just anyone.

And I've done a lot of manifestation work around this.

And so the end of last year I got asked to do my first public speaking engagement in January of this year,

So January 2020.

And it was amazing.

There was a group of 180 people at an amazing dental convention and not only was it extremely powerful in my morning routine to get me to that place and to land that interview and because I was so clear in order to get that,

But in order for me to get on stage,

Like how many pivotal morning routines I had to have,

Including that morning,

Woke up at four in the morning to speak on stage at seven thirty in the morning were so pivotal.

I just kept reminding myself,

This is what you want and you,

Everything you've done up until this point is here in order to get you to do this speech on stage.

So I woke up at four in the morning at that morning and had an amazing two hour routine and off I went and I almost nailed the speech.

I mean,

There was a few things I could have done better.

I'm sure you nailed it.

I actually didn't do the video of it yet.

But yeah,

I mean morning routines have just literally changed my life and I don't think that if I had not or if I do not take time for myself that my visions and my dreams don't come to fruition because I'm not taking action on them regularly and they're not at the forefront of my mind.

Right.

So that actually,

I love that because that reminds me of something we haven't talked about yet,

Which is outside of simply being present in your morning routine,

How can you use that to power these intentional things that you're trying to do?

And you're talking about sort of like manifesting and you know,

Can you tell us a little bit more about how to maybe bring that in to the morning routine so you can really use it to start charging toward and attracting in what it is that you want?

Yeah.

Oh gosh.

I think there are so many ways to do this and I think it depends on where the listeners are at in regards to do you meditate?

Is that new for you?

Do you do any manifestation work?

But sometimes it can be as simple as sitting down with a piece of paper and writing down what you want.

Like literally five years ago I wrote down that I want to be a public speaker even though I was writing it and like laughing out loud at myself.

What do you want to create as like,

What do you want to create that day or what do you want to create in the next year?

Five years,

10 years down the road.

I think it's going to be really powerful to not only write what we want to create,

But feel like get the feeling of other pieces here.

I don't even know how to start.

Feel like say for me a year ago I was like,

I want to get into or let's say this the six months ago because that's really when it started to happen.

Six months ago I started to be like,

Okay,

I'm going to do a public speaking event next year and I can't wait.

And even though I was so scared and all these things kept coming up,

I kept feeling how good it would feel to be on stage,

To share my magic,

To share my passion and how it would feel after.

And I got on board in my body in those moments for six months,

Not every day by all means,

But so often I would literally sit in my bed and be like,

This is how it's going to feel.

And when we can not only say what we want and declare it out loud,

But when we get our full body energy,

Everything in the experience,

It creates a whole different level of manifestation.

So there's so many different manifestation meditations you can do and all of these things,

But sometimes it can be as simple as journaling and embodying.

And the other piece to that is every day that you show up,

I'm going to show up as a speaker.

And how would the next,

That speaker version of me in six months,

Little did I know,

How will that version of me show up today?

And how will it be different than like the part of me that's like,

I don't know if I can do that.

Probably much different.

Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

Absolutely makes sense.

What I'm hearing and what I think we could break it down to,

To make it really easy to digest is,

Write it,

Speak it,

Feel it.

I feel like that's a really great way to think about it because we can sit down and we can journal even if.

.

.

Oh,

Gosh,

I forget the name of this person.

But there's a really wonderful story about someone who wrote every single day for like a year,

50 times on a piece of paper,

I'm a best selling author.

She wrote every single day like 50 times,

50 times for like a year.

And she's a very well known best selling author.

This was many decades ago.

But I remember my coach telling me that story.

So even simply the power of writing it every day,

That's like.

.

.

The thing too about doing that is that that's more than just manifesting,

Which is manifesting,

But it's committing.

You're committing to what you want by writing about it every day,

By thinking about it every day,

By feeling it every day.

That level of commitment is what the universe responds to,

Because that means you're ready to be moving down that path.

So that's when the universe kicks in and says,

All right,

Let's start throwing some things in front of her and see if she picks them up.

So I think in terms of committing,

If you are scared to take the first physical step of something,

I think the first step really before that is to commit to it within yourself.

And maybe your morning routine can be a sacred space for you to do that.

Yeah.

And of course it can be after that,

Like,

Yeah,

What's one action step I can take towards that?

But that action step might be,

I'm going to pretend or I'm going to embody that version of me and how I'll feel once I land that speaking gig or once I get that job or once I am that bestselling author.

You get to feel as if that were true the whole day.

Like what if that gets to be the action step?

I love that.

I remember being in Africa in December of this past year and I was really trying to feel what it feels like to be a bestselling author for my editor to have been like,

They want it or good.

And I remember being in the kitchen and just like,

Ooh!

I feel it right now.

I can't even express it in words.

But I'm just like,

Oh,

Shaking,

Jumping up and down and really embodying that.

And it may sound maybe crazy or woo-woo but I mean.

.

.

Oh,

I'm sure it does.

You've shown us that it works.

And how many people.

.

.

You can ask so many of the world's greatest experts on mindset and even career and business and they'll tell you they have a morning routine where they manifest what they do,

Where they focus on what they want.

It's a powerful,

Powerful step outside of limit,

Dialing down the stress.

Outside of dialing down the anxiety.

It's like if you want to do big shit,

This is a time to step into that.

This is your opportunity to start calling it to you.

So anyway,

I'll get down off my soapbox here.

Well,

Is there anything else you want to tell us before we have you tell us where we can find you online?

Morning routines?

I've covered a lot around.

I know.

I think just.

.

.

You know,

I get a lot.

A lot of people aren't morning people and I think that's okay.

Your morning routine can be different than like it.

.

.

For me,

I do a lot of my workouts typically in the morning or movement practices but sometimes that's not always for people.

So you're,

Again,

It can be,

You can start as short as you need to and get creative,

Be curious,

But just start.

And maybe again,

Your vision or your goal for your morning routine is to be that best selling author and to manifest that.

But maybe you're going through a really,

Really hard time in life right now and it feels like you're constantly being knocked down.

And in order to just stand back up,

You create more space for yourself.

You remember how amazing you are and courageous you are and that gets you just through another day.

So it doesn't have to be for the person that's wanting to be a best selling author,

Wanting to speak on stage.

It's for everybody.

Yes.

I love that.

If you're listening,

It's for you.

Yes.

And if you're not listening,

It's for you.

It's definitely for you.

Yeah.

It's for your mom,

It's for your sister,

It's for your husband,

It's for your best friend.

Yes,

We can all use this incredible,

Powerful time in the morning to get where we want to go no matter where that is.

Thank you so freaking much for sharing your wisdom and your beauty with me because I can see you on the video.

And tell us where our listeners can find you,

Connect with you,

Etc.

Yeah.

You can find me on Facebook,

On Instagram.

My Instagram is underscore in my name.

So Caitlin Parsons,

C-A-I-T-L-I-N.

There's like 1000 ways to spell Caitlin.

My website is also Caitlin Parsons dot com.

I'm usually Instagram,

Facebook and yeah,

Find me on my website.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you,

Jess.

Everybody,

We will see you on the next episode of Mindset Reset Radio.

Reviews

Nice to hear that I am on the right path. More mindfulness during the day. Today is core values review. Intention setting can be simple. Thanks

Yeah really good

Appreciate the discussion on rigid versus fluid routine.

EXCELLENT Discussion! Very Helpful. 🙏🏻💕