How do you talk to yourself?

Well…I’m going to give this another try. The last time I shared a post was in January. I vowed to post 1x a week….and clearly that goal was not accomplished. So maybe I just need to be a bit more realistic with my expectations. To be honest…you would think that throwing a post together would take like 15 minutes, after all, it’s just typing a bunch of words that pop into your head, right? It takes me hours sometimes to choose just the right quotes, pictures, links to products I want to share, etc. Creating the content that goes in a post takes a lot longer than I would have ever thought. No wonder popular bloggers hire people to put their content together! My blogger status falls a bit short when it comes to being able to hire a staff to create my content. So I’ll continue to take way too long to put together a post that probably takes all of 10 people 15 minutes to read through. {insert laughing emoji} And I’ll apologize ahead of time if this post is ridiculously long…remember…it’s been since January since I’ve put thoughts into writing.

I feel like everyone at our house has fallen into somewhat of a routine now that we have transitioned from summer to the school year. It still feels like summer outside so I cannot officially say we have moved on to fall. With heat warnings and humidity off the charts it will continue to feel like summer to me. And on the weekends I will try and soak up as many days in the sun as I can before we close up the pool for the year.

Although I feel as if a routine has been established, I am still getting used to the 5am wake up call and the 45 min drive to and from work each day. I am finding myself feeling as if I could call it a night at 9pm and that is a drastic change from my summer routine. I’ve gone from an estimated 3,000 to more than 13,000 steps a day during the week. That might take a little while for my body to get used to. I do get to start over with my wardrobe though so that’s a huge benefit to the start of a new school year. Not wearing the exact same outfit at any point during the school year might be one of my greatest accomplishments (facetiously of course) in my 20 years in education…I’m in year 21 and I look forward to continuing the streak!

One thing that I have been enjoying about my drive to and from work is my newfound likeness to listening to podcasts. I know they are not a “new” phenomenon for most people, but I have always told myself I would never be able to listen to them because I’m not an auditory learner. It’s hard for me to listen to books because my brain wanders and I think about other things and then have to rewind and go back to re-listen. I can’t remember exactly why I even thought about giving them a try, but I think it was the thought of another year of 45 minute drives 2x each day and all of the overthinking that I do while driving. I used to think that this time to think was my way to decompress or prepare myself for the workday, but it has become something that sometimes causes me more stress because I run over and over in my mind about things that I want to do, haven’t done, wish I’d done differently…you get the point. And once I get to work or home, sometimes all of those thoughts are hard to turn off. That can be a good thing sometimes (especially on the way to work) but not so great when I get home.

So I got on my phone and downloaded Google Podcasts and Spotify and started searching topics that I wanted to explore. You would think that listening to mindless and “fluff” type podcasts would be the route I wanted to go down, but instead I wanted to explore episodes about leadership, self-care/love, confidence, and everything about how to stay positive and reframe your thinking. Basically…how not to overthink and think critically about myself. I am linking the 2 podcasts that I have basically been rotating between below. The 1st one I am in love with. Given the title, I knew I would be a fan. And the lady that creates the content has such an interesting background and she tells it how it is. She is a life coach and it’s almost like getting therapy for free every time I listen. I look through episodes and add ones that I believe I would benefit from to my library so they are ready to go when I get in the car. My phone syncs to my car and I hit play. By the time I get to work or home I feel so much more calm, refreshed, and present than I ever did while rotating through music stations and analyzing everything that happened throughout my day or preparing for what was about to happen for the day.

I won’t be so dramatic as to say it’s been “life-changing,” but I am not going to lie that I can definitely feel a change in my total wellbeing. I find myself feeling so much more positive at work, even when things happen that typically would stress me out. I come home feeling more refreshed and ready to be present with my family. Not that there aren’t things I complain about here and there and that my life is all of a sudden free of stress, but I can 100% feel a difference in my overall outlook on things that happen every day. The episodes I have listened to have taught me to put my thoughts into perspective and have helped me to realize that sometimes the things that are stressing me out are really just thoughts I am thinking and aren’t even a reality. I am really trying to work on not taking things so personally and internalizing other people’s opinions. I care way too much about what other people think and I know that it isn’t healthy, but haven’t ever been able to “fix” how my thoughts manifest themselves. Listening to someone breakdown how these thoughts come to be and how to change them into thoughts that aren’t stressful has been a game changer for me. I’ve also explored topics on perfectionism, defensiveness, anxiety, handling authority and the list goes on.

I want to be able to walk the walk when I am leading others at work and when parenting. If I can’t be confident and sure of myself, how can I give advice to others to be that way? If I am critical of myself physically, how can I tell my daughter not to pick at her own imperfections and help her believe she is beautiful despite them? Did I mention that being vulnerable is a topic I have been listening about? (Brené Brown fans, anyone?) I keep typing sentences, deleting them because they’re too personal. Typing another version of the same sentence, then deleting that one…I need to move on here…

<<Remember how I said it takes hours to write a post? I’m at about 2 hours right now.>>

Click on the banners below to be directed to the podcast in Spotify to check them out. A few of the episodes from UnF*ck Your Brain that I have found particularly helpful are:

Episode 191: When You Feel Triggered
Episode 137: Defensiveness & Shame
Episode 82: Generating Positive Emotion
Episode 174: Radical Self-Love and Self-Care

I’ll wrap up this post with my most recent Amazon purchases. Because…why not? No rhyme or reason for the items I’m including, but I’m going to look at my most recent purchases and just share them. I thought that might be kind of fun to do…almost like a “product dump” of sorts.

The next time I’m ready to create a post it will be about time to decorate for fall….I also need to post about our total floor overhaul. We replaced every piece of carpet and refinished every area with wood flooring. The transformation of the house has been incredible. It’s crazy how different the house feels with new flooring. It even smells like a new house. So I’ll try and make the focus of my next post about home décor.

Remember ladies (and gentleman if any read this…but they wouldn’t care about this) I am still selling Avon and loving the products I am using. I would not say so if it wasn’t true. I believe my skin has improved over the past 2 years of consistently using various anti-aging products. I don’t stick with just one because I like to try a bunch to be able to tell customers about them. I’ll include the link to my e-site below in case you want to take a look-see at what products we have to offer. If you want more information about different ways you can order from me, visit my {Avon with Stephanie} page by clicking in the banner at the top of the page. Coupon code {FREESHIP} will you get you free shipping directly to your house for orders over $50. www.youravon.com/smeibers

I hope everyone taking part in Friday Night Lights somewhere isn’t getting stuck in a storm here soon. The sky was looking pretty ominous earlier and I have heard that many games have been postponed. Might be a long night for many people…including my husband who was still waiting for his game to begin warm-ups at 8pm.

Ta-Ta for now chickadees!