Daily Routine

This time the girls are talking about routines for daily meditation and spiritual practice. We’ll each share about how we try to set ourselves up for a good day with a healthy morning routine. Then we’ll get into the tools that work best for us, including how to practice gratitude and when it makes sense for us to do meditation in bed! What kind of routine helps you with finding your spirituality? Get in touch and share your spiritual daily routine, too. Can’t wait to hear from you xox

Transcript

Thanks for joining us here on Pretty Spiritual where we're attempting the unthinkable about how to navigate this messy,

Beautiful,

Imperfect life with spiritual tools,

What principles and our own personal stories.

So we're not experts,

We're not religious,

We're definitely silly.

We're honest,

Real and willing to share.

So join us as we connect,

Bond and grow together.

Hello friends,

We're so glad you're here.

So glad to be back.

So today we are talking,

This is practical spirituality and we're talking about our daily routines,

What our daily spiritual practices look like.

Do you have a daily routine?

And we're not just talking about like getting out of bed and brushing your teeth and putting on pants.

Congratulations.

That you did,

That's amazing.

That's actually a very big deal.

Putting on pants can be a spiritual practice.

But we mean like a daily routine of getting in touch with your higher power,

Your idea of God,

Your inner consciousness,

Whatever it is that connects you and kind of fills your heart up.

So we'd love to hear what your daily routine looks like.

So as we're talking,

Kind of think about your own own life and what it's like and email us.

Oh my God,

You have to email us.

We have to know.

We're so desperate for an email.

Can you please just send us one?

Who's it going to be?

Who?

We're looking at you.

So we're Pretty Spiritual Podcasts at Gmail.

And we're also at Instagram at Pretty Spiritual Podcasts.

So you can message us or email us.

You know,

We grow by connecting and learning from other people.

And so this is why we started this so we could get tools from our other spiritual friends that we have yet to meet.

Spiritual best friendies.

So as you're kind of thinking about your own routine and like what you would like it to be or what it looks like now or what it has been in the past,

We thought we would share what it looks like in our lives too.

So you could just have a peek into what we're doing.

Ella,

Do you want to share with us what your daily routines like and how it developed?

Of course I do.

My daily routine is long.

Yeah,

Girl.

The main thing about a daily routine is that it has to work to connect me to my heart.

It has to work for me because I'm really sensitive and I like to think about and feel things.

Instead of just doing them and a morning routine.

Takes so much time actually.

It's how I like to spend my days.

I remember when I first moved to this monastery and there was a very tight schedule that we had to follow all day and I was coming into this really full schedule from basically like doing whatever I wanted all day long.

Wild animal.

Yeah,

Exactly.

Yeah,

Feral cat to monastery.

Such a good idea.

It was messy.

Yeah,

I know,

Right?

It was,

I was like,

This is the most oppressive thing.

I hate having a schedule.

Like it was just like so hard and I rebelled against it.

But then there was like kind of this like group pressure.

So I succumbed,

Tried my best to,

You know,

Follow the schedule.

And what I found was really cool,

Which is that I think I hate routine and schedule,

But it's such good medicine for me.

And that having a container,

I didn't have that language until I lived in this community,

But having a container for how I connect with,

You know,

My heart or my higher self or my God consciousness or like whatever it makes sense for me to call it at the moment.

Hashtag new AG.

Hashtag new AG.

Can't get away from it,

Can I?

It helps me,

It actually helps me to have a container to practice it into.

It makes me feel safe.

So for me,

A morning routine is all about getting away from perfectionism and all or nothing thinking and just finding what works for me today and what I can actually do.

I love the two for one spirituality stuff because my morning routine is so long.

So if I'm doing physical therapy and stretching out my neck,

I meditate while I'm doing that.

Or while I'm doing my long physical therapy routine,

I look at puppy videos on Instagram because they make it go by faster.

Yeah,

It's all about how I can just do the action instead of avoiding it,

Debating it,

Or getting stuck in any of those other traps.

Ms.

Pony,

What about you when it comes to daily life and spiritual practice?

Daily life.

Well,

My alarm goes off.

I feel my brain begin to balk and resent the very fact that I'm alive.

Oh,

Yeah,

It's morning.

Welcome to the world.

Yes.

This is my reminder that I must get into action.

It really was a miraculous tool,

Daily practice that I never wanted to use.

I certainly thought that it was too much work.

Perhaps it was useful for those other people.

They need it.

They need it.

That's good for them.

But in that I often get myself caught up in this thinking that this won't work for me.

No thank you to sitting in meditation in the morning.

But luckily for me,

The pain of being full of myself and obsessed guided me towards morning routine as an outlet to center myself and get myself looking to helping others rather than satisfying my own tiny wants and desires.

My first real entry,

I was so fortunate to be lovingly added to a gratitude list.

Like Ella was talking about a big reason why I didn't even want to start morning routine or practice.

I would listen to Tim Ferriss and he'd be like,

What's your morning?

These people would go through all this stuff and I knew they were really successful and that I should be doing these things.

But what all this was going to take was a setback for me and I'm defiant by nature.

And so it was really a miraculous thing when this woman,

When she was like,

Oh,

I was complaining about something.

Really,

Really going on and on about it.

And she said,

Oh,

You know what?

You should be a part of this gratitude list.

She added me to it.

I think that she could hear my distaste for everything in life and how I was looking at it through the lens that wasn't serving me.

I really was not interested in this list.

I can't tell you how much I was not interested in it and how much I did not participate,

But it didn't matter.

The gratitude kept coming and I kept reading them.

One day,

Miraculously,

Here comes willingness.

I wrote my first list.

I began to get consistent with the list and then I met women on there who shared and I could see how much they had to be grateful for.

And they had this language about gratitude and things that were going on that I really wanted,

That interested me to keep participating.

The gratitude list really began to change me.

Throughout the day when something would happen,

I noticed my reaction to it was instead I would find the good in it instead of believing that this situation was just all bad.

I remember the day that I had been doing gratitude lists for a while and something happened and I was shocked at my first reaction to be like,

Oh,

Well,

At least it wasn't for four days.

And I was like,

What?

Wow.

I could feel a different pathway that my brain had started to take just from,

This was from building my gratitude muscle.

Starting with one thing,

It really opened the door.

It was that tiny crack that was able to open the door for me to really find things that feed me in the morning so that I can show up and be available in ways that I am not able to when I'm full of self and really wanting life to go my way.

It's so great.

It's so beautiful for what you shared.

So much gratitude.

I'm so interested in daily routines because I've heard both of you guys say I am absolutely defiant and rebellious and I hate the idea of structure even if I'm the one who is inviting myself to do it.

So mad.

I agree.

Stop holding me down.

And I somehow think that I'm actually confining myself or shortchanging myself if I have a consistency and what I have found and what I heard both of you girls share is that when I have these things that I stay with and commit to,

It actually gives me a lot of freedom.

Because otherwise my brain kind of runs untethered and it doesn't run untethered to beautiful places.

It's pretty negative.

Nightmare on elms.

Yeah,

Exactly.

Every day I start my day with my daily routine and because like Lindsay was saying,

If I don't start with that,

Then my day starts off if I'm on my phone and checking emails and answering texts before I do my daily routine,

Like my morning practice,

I am so important.

My brain is already off and running.

I'm too busy to slow down.

Everybody needs me.

I'm a big deal.

And so it's like if I just put this little baseline of this morning practice into place first,

It gives me a little ease,

Like eases that idea that I am running the show.

It makes my day nicer and I'm more helpful to other people and myself and like I'm more of service to the world essentially.

What it looks like now is about 15 minutes of writing and reflection and then around 20 minutes of meditation and prayer.

And that's just what it looks like now.

And that has been over years of development.

So when I first started experimenting with meditating,

I would time myself for two minutes because I could not sit still.

Like I felt like my it was going to jump out of my skin.

So and I would hear people talk about meditation.

They'd say I meditate for 20 minutes or I meditate for an hour.

Yeah.

And I was like,

Annoying.

Show offs.

So that's just where it is now for me.

But whatever it looks like,

For me,

The important thing was that I just had a thing that I did every day.

And I showed up for and it really was key because before I started this and before I became willing to kind of try something new,

My life was total hedonism.

I did what I wanted when I did what whatever I wanted whenever I wanted usually the detriment to my well being or those around me.

It's not a bummer.

Like I wish that worked for like happiness recipe.

But it's like the little like the bad kid in Pinocchio when he takes Pinocchio to like fun land,

But it's really like super my favorite part.

I thought I was a free spirit,

But it really just made me not have a very,

I didn't have a sense of self or integrity after kind of chasing my idea for happiness for so long.

So I kept hearing people talk about meditation,

It kept kind of popping into my life in different ways,

And I kept like,

Punting it out the door.

Bright color.

And then I hit enough pain that I became willing to try it and it started to work.

For me building a spiritual practice has been a form of surrender and discipline.

So for me,

It's like accepting this gift every day.

And I thought discipline was a bad word.

Like I equated it with prison,

Essentially.

What I have found is that when I offer this moment of the morning,

That there's all this bigger stuff that I can tap into and I don't know what it's going to look like.

But like these other ways of being kind of show up for me.

And as far as where the daily practice takes place,

Some people have like little spaces in their house or like shrines and I mine is a really like travel and go type thing.

I just do it wherever I'm at.

I travel frequently and so I just take my show on the road and it's just me and a notebook.

I have all kinds of so many random notebooks.

All of so much very organized.

Yeah,

My wife knows not to open any notebooks that are mine.

Who knows what's in there?

She's a saint.

I put it on a scrap of paper.

Like I've written it on napkins,

Like whatever just to kind of get my stuff out.

So that's what my daily practice looks like right now.

So what we really want to know,

We want to know about tools.

Ladies,

Tell me,

Tell me what kind of tools you're using right now to structure your daily routine.

We love a good tool.

We love a good tool.

Oh man,

So many tools in my pocket right now.

Which one to pull out?

What I was talking about before,

Like the gratitude list is my best go to number one packs a punch connects you and helps you grow and connect.

I love that one.

And of course,

If you want to join my personal gratitude list.

Oh my God,

It sounds exclusive.

Is it?

Oh,

It's so exclusive that all you have to do is email me at prettyspiritualpodcastatgmail.

Com and I'll put you on.

So I really mean it.

I would love,

I love the gratitude list.

I'm on there.

There's a bunch of people who I do not know them.

There's people that live in New York.

It's so amazing.

And every time I get their gratitude list,

I just love it so much.

The way that I feel connected and what I've learned from these people on this list is I can't even describe it.

You just have to try it.

It's totally free.

Come on and buy what I'm selling because I'm telling you what.

Gratitude list is the best.

So I really do love that tool.

And then of course I'm going to go on and on again about how important and how life changing any kind of mindfulness practice has been for me.

It's hard and I am in debate about it all the time.

And it's so weird how for 150 days on my insight timer,

There I was,

You could see me there.

I was just meditating away.

Here lately,

It's been a real struggle for me to do my morning routine.

And so this morning what I did is I woke up 30 minutes early because that's what I needed to do to like,

Oh,

My making my breakfast and my lunch and packing that for the day is like getting in the way.

So I started doing that at night when I'm not completely exhausted at 11 PM,

Putting that together.

So I realized a lot of times about prioritization,

Sometimes I'm going to have to ask them things to myself that maybe I'd rather not do such as waking up 30 minutes early so that I can prioritize my meditation so that I can put myself first and do that.

And I'm a big believer in just start.

It doesn't have to be long.

Your morning routine does not need to be long.

But showing up and prioritizing yourself,

That is such,

When I do that,

It's like I'm answering the call to myself when I do something like that.

It's just so fulfilling to me.

So that's why I woke up 30 minutes early this morning.

And I told myself,

You just do this one nine minute meditation.

And like I said,

Insight Timer,

That thing has completely turned around how I've been able to show up and meditate.

And I'm so grateful to them.

And so after I did my nine minute meditation,

I thought,

You know what?

I found another one.

I did that one.

What does my spiritual practice look like today?

Can I hit these main points?

Can I do my gratitude?

Can I do my mindfulness?

And then at any point during the day,

You know,

Just like they say that prayer is portable,

You know,

I'm frazzled.

I'm stuck in self.

I want things to go a certain way.

Oh,

Right.

I can stop right here right now and be like,

Okay,

Universe,

Goddess,

Show me how to be right now.

Guide me.

That's what's up.

I love that.

And it's so key because when I have that base,

Then I do use the tools throughout the day.

It like lays the foundation for me to keep drawing back and it's like the wells full.

Yeah.

I love that.

The way I think about that is like spiritual inertia.

It's like the same as willingness because it's like the energy it takes to just start.

If we can just muster that then like some magical process starts happening where like,

That's why they say to make your bed because you're getting the inertia going.

That's what the make the bed thing is.

I make my bed every day.

Well,

I heard that there's bugs that when you make it,

It helps them with,

Anyway,

I've been taking all my bedding off to the end.

That's technically making it because I did something different.

I don't know if there's bugs there y'all,

But I'm here.

They're tiny.

They're spiritual bugs.

They're good for you.

Ella,

What about you?

What are some tools that you're using for your daily practice?

I remember when I left the monastery and came back into the so-called real world,

I had a lot of ideas about what meditation had to be.

And you know,

It was like,

Unless I'm sitting in a darkened room with a spiritual community for many hours,

Then it's not really meditation.

And I remember one of my spiritual mentors basically being like,

Dude,

You just have to,

Is that working for you?

That idea of meditation?

I was like,

No.

She was like,

Well,

You got to find one that does.

And that was humbling.

That was like,

She just said something like,

It's your responsibility to find a way to meditate that actually works for you right now.

And that has really stuck with me.

So for me,

The kind of broader tool is,

How can I just keep it simple?

Because Lord knows my brain likes to complicate stuff.

And how can I just use what works today?

And you know,

Once in a while,

Like Annie was sharing about,

Sometimes she wakes up and like,

Goes straight into email and gets on the like,

I'm very important train.

That's going to the big deal train that's going somewhere fast right now.

Chugga,

Chugga,

Chugga,

Chugga.

Big deal.

Big deal.

Sometimes I wake up and I'm on my phone and like,

I forego my morning routine.

And instead I'm like,

I'm going to do my morning routine today is going to be two hours of like a regimented eBaying,

You know,

And I,

The truth is,

The reason I'm sharing this is because it's true.

And because I actually need to do that every couple of months.

If I'm not doing something like that every couple of months where I'm like,

I'm good to go today.

And then remember what happens when I don't do my morning routine.

Like why would I want to do it?

You know what I mean?

Like,

I have to remember every so often what it's like.

So I actually feel encouraged by the days when I like totally eschew and forego my morning routine in favor of something that is not not a sufficient substitute for that.

And it reminds me why I do it every day.

Because like,

Why would I do it if I didn't need to,

You know,

The spiritual practice,

Not the eBay?

Thank you for that clarification.

It's very important.

So yeah,

For me,

It's like the big tool is keep it simple,

Do what works,

I just have to be able to do it.

But the some of the like smaller micro tools are when I find myself avoiding debating doing that whole brain,

Brain instead of acting thing that I like to do,

What can I do to actually like push,

Push the scales toward the direction of willingness,

And accountability really helps I text these lovely humans and let them know I'm avoiding my physical therapy and I really don't want to,

You know,

Sometimes I just need to say words to other people,

Making it as easy as possible finding something that helps me compromise like putting on Netflix while I do physical therapy that really helps or just these like tiny micro adjustments like if I don't have the willingness to start physical therapy right now,

Can't do I have the willingness to sit on the floor?

Okay,

Good.

Now do you have the willingness to lay down on the floor?

Okay,

Now do you have the willingness to pick up your physical therapy block and put it in between your legs?

You know,

It's like these tiny movements that just edge me closer and and I love that like the inertia kicks in and carries me through,

You know,

Like I just have to start the last thing I just want to say to remind myself and maybe to remind you to if you're prone to this is don't judge what it looks like.

We can't grade our own papers,

You know what I mean?

So whatever is working for you right now,

Whatever helps you connect to yourself,

Your heart,

Your God,

Your universe,

Whatever,

Just want to encourage us to keep doing what works and trust that if we're doing what works,

And we're actually doing it that will keep growing.

Thank you,

Ella for those fabulous tools.

Right now,

My most important and simple tool for me is no matter what.

So that's my tool is no matter what.

So for the last few years,

That has been my agreement with myself and my God is that no matter what I will show up to my daily practice in the morning and by having a daily practice in the morning,

It lends itself to me bringing in spiritual tools throughout the rest of the day.

But as I mentioned before,

Before I started trying to shift how I lived,

I was really a heat illness and I really didn't follow any kind of structure at and it caused a lot of wreckage and it caused a lot of pain.

And so for me to just agree to do this thing every day,

It feels like this kind of thank you for having this different way of being.

And it makes me feel safe because I felt so reckless before and I didn't even know that I felt reckless.

And then once I started,

For me it's just this invitation of like,

Yes,

There is something else in the world besides me.

And I don't mean other people,

But like there is some kind of God and I will reach for it every day.

So that's my no matter what.

And like Ella was saying,

It looks however it looks.

You know,

In the beginning,

It didn't,

It just looks different all the time.

And if I'm traveling and my wife and I are sharing a hotel room,

I'll listen to something on insight timer on my headphones.

A lot of mornings I wake up and like,

I'll be kind of depressed,

You know,

And I don't want to really be doing anything.

And I will just give myself the ease of like,

I call them lay down meditations and I just lay down and I listen to a guided meditation.

Or if I wake up and I have the energy to do it,

I'll sit up and I'll just have a silent meditation.

But it's like whatever it looks like that day,

I just show up and do it because I have such a desire to not lose that contact.

And this isn't the way that everybody needs to do it,

You know,

And I don't have any opinions about how other people do it.

And for me,

I think there's a certain amount of like,

Almost fear of like how out of control I can be.

And when I agree to this thing every day,

I don't mean that I think I'm like going to go off and jump off the edge of the world,

Although sometimes that's an idea.

But more like that slow,

Subtle,

Sneaky,

Anti thinking that starts to kick in of like,

I have some really good ideas of how I can solve life.

And so when I just do this thing every day,

I just know that I'm safe,

You know,

It kind of keeps me protected.

I'm just like tapping into something.

And then when my day feels crazy,

I can just pause and be like,

Oh,

Yeah,

I did that thing this morning.

And I'm okay.

I'm okay.

Even if I feel totally bananas,

I'm okay.

I love how spirituality ends up being this comfort thing for me,

Because that's what I wanted to get out of all the other things I was picking up and trying to trying to use to make me feel better.

It's like,

It just makes me feel safe and comfortable and right there.

I can use these tools and take refuge and like rest and relax wherever I am right there.

Because of them.

Oh,

Man.

Yeah,

It's really tender.

You know,

So squishy.

It is squishy.

And I think part of me too,

My ego will come up and be like,

I don't need help.

Let me run,

Baby.

Yeah.

Let me run free.

Your ego is not your own ego.

Yeah.

Oh,

No.

And we're rhyming.

It works.

So we want to hear what you guys are doing.

We're so curious because maybe you got some tools that will help you as you're structuring your daily routine or like you're building your own or you already have one.

Talk to us about what you're doing.

We're so curious.

Let's all help each other.

Yeah,

We're a team.

We love the tools.

So Ella,

What's happening next week?

Next week,

I want to talk about.

.

.

What could it be?

Anxiety.

Whoa,

Wait a minute.

My heart is beating too fast.

So I know that for me,

Anxiety was basically the first thing I encountered when I started trying to slow down and be in my body.

And I think other people might have that experience too.

Yes.

So definitely just if you feel stressed,

Anxious,

Paranoid,

Whatever it is,

We're going to talk about it and we want you to join in the convo.

We're going to figure this anxiety right out.

We're going to figure it out.

Okay,

See you next time.

Bye.

Get on your morning routine.

Yeah.

We love you.

We love you.

Reviews

I can’t get enough of these podcasts! They are my morning routine! So much gratitude for your teachings! 🥰

once again you ladies nailed it, so much helpful input, thank you for your heartwarming way of sharing. 🙏🧡😊

Loved it. And can relate! Thank you! 🙏🏼💜✨