Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #274| Make The Most Of What's Left Of Summer With One Easy Tip — So You Can Feel Calm Throughout August, And Boost Your Productivity Before School Starts
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you learn how to make the most of what's left of summer with one easy tip so that you can feel calm and boost your productivity before school starts.
- 0:09Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:20Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:26Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences.
- 0:30Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:38Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend.
- 0:42Michelle Gauthier: I'm just back from vacation today.
- 0:44Michelle Gauthier: I've been off for the past two weeks.
- 0:46Michelle Gauthier: I haven't recorded a podcast in almost three weeks.
- 0:49Michelle Gauthier: I recorded them all ahead of time.
- 0:50Michelle Gauthier: So shoot, I hope I don't feel rusty and I still remember how to do this.
- 0:54Michelle Gauthier: But I wanted to tell you while it's fresh on my mind, something great that I realized while I was on vacation that's going to help me make the most of what's left of summer.
- 1:03Michelle Gauthier: Instead of just sliding into the, okay, it's the end of August, school is starting, summer is over, all the fun is over.
- 1:10Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you'll learn why your brain craves being productive, even when you're on vacation, how a few minutes of intentional presence can really shift your entire day and one simple doable practice that you can do anytime on vacation or not to create a present, calm, peaceful day for yourself.
- 1:30Michelle Gauthier: The last two weeks, I have been at my handsome man friend's cabin.
- 1:34Michelle Gauthier: You might have seen some of the pictures on my Instagram stories.
- 1:37Michelle Gauthier: It is the most picturesque place you can imagine.
- 1:40Michelle Gauthier: It's way up in the mountains of Montana.
- 1:43Michelle Gauthier: It was 65 degrees in the morning.
- 1:45Michelle Gauthier: It was sunny.
- 1:46Michelle Gauthier: This maybe is one of the last places left on earth.
- 1:49Michelle Gauthier: There is no cell service, there is no Wi-Fi.
- 1:52Michelle Gauthier: There is a creek.
- 1:54Michelle Gauthier: I would call it a river, but in Montana they say it's a creek running in the front of the cabin.
- 1:59Michelle Gauthier: So you have like this nonstop sound machine.
- 2:03Michelle Gauthier: It smells like a pine forest.
- 2:05Michelle Gauthier: I mean, it has all the things.
- 2:07Michelle Gauthier: I woke up one morning and I got myself a cup of coffee and I thought, okay, what should I do?
- 2:12Michelle Gauthier: Should I make the lunch that we're going to take on our hike?
- 2:15Michelle Gauthier: Should I start breakfast?
- 2:17Michelle Gauthier: Which on a wood-burning stove, yes, you cook on a wood-burning stove there.
- 2:21Michelle Gauthier: You have to start a fire inside of the stove.
- 2:23Michelle Gauthier: So it's a whole production to make breakfast.
- 2:25Michelle Gauthier: And I looked over and the handsome man friend is moving at his usual pace, which is very slow and unhurried.
- 2:32Michelle Gauthier: And he really helps me in this way because that is just the way he is.
- 2:38Michelle Gauthier: I could not make him hurry if I wanted to.
- 2:40Michelle Gauthier: Trust me, I've tried.
- 2:41Michelle Gauthier: But what it made me realize is okay, I need to take a note from him.
- 2:45Michelle Gauthier: And even though I was itching to get busy doing something, I thought I'm just gonna go sit outside on the front porch.
- 2:52Michelle Gauthier: And I sat down and I just started really noticing the smell of the pine trees.
- 2:58Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh, I wish I could bottle up the smell there.
- 3:00Michelle Gauthier: It's so good.
- 3:01Michelle Gauthier: These tiny little wildflowers were everywhere and they were so beautiful.
- 3:06Michelle Gauthier: I could hear the sound of that river slash creek running in front of me.
- 3:11Michelle Gauthier: And it really shifted something.
- 3:13Michelle Gauthier: And that present grounded feeling didn't just last five minutes.
- 3:16Michelle Gauthier: It lasted through the whole day and even days.
- 3:19Michelle Gauthier: Here's the part that I want to be honest about.
- 3:21Michelle Gauthier: I was truly on vacation.
- 3:22Michelle Gauthier: I was not checking in with work, but even if I had wanted to just take a quick look or check my emails or make a post or something like that, there was no service there.
- 3:31Michelle Gauthier: So I didn't even have the opportunity to do that if I wanted to.
- 3:35Michelle Gauthier: And I think that that piece of sitting in the quiet and really enjoying it, not connecting to the outside world and just being there in that present moment was really the magic part of it.
- 3:48Michelle Gauthier: So what I realized after the trip, we got home yesterday.
- 3:52Michelle Gauthier: And of course, as soon as I get home, I basically dropped in my bags and I went to the grocery store.
- 3:58Michelle Gauthier: And then I was doing laundry.
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: So we had clean sheets and just, you know, doing all the things that you do when you get home from vacation.
- 4:05Michelle Gauthier: And I really thought to myself, okay, I don't want to lose this.
- 4:08Michelle Gauthier: I don't want to lose this presence that I was able to create there.
- 4:12Michelle Gauthier: And I'm recording this podcast today to share this idea with you too, that this presence, even if you weren't just at a cabin in Montana, it's available to you right now at home, especially this time of year.
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: Summer gives us the gift of light even early in the morning.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: So you have an opportunity that, say, winter, depending on where you live, doesn't have summer can hand you a few quiet extra minutes before the house wakes up.
- 4:40Michelle Gauthier: And with school starting back up in a couple of weeks and things really getting back into routines.
- 4:45Michelle Gauthier: I really wanted to encourage myself and now encourage you to take the time to be present and have that moment.
- 4:52Michelle Gauthier: So here's what I want you to try, and this is what I'm committing to doing too is waking up a few minutes earlier, nothing dramatic.
- 4:59Michelle Gauthier: And if you're a coffee drinker, take your coffee outside or just sit in a quiet spot near a window, leave your phone somewhere else, and instead of making a to-do list or journaling or being on your phone, just run through your senses on purpose.
- 5:14Michelle Gauthier: What do you see?
- 5:16Michelle Gauthier: What do you hear?
- 5:17Michelle Gauthier: What do you smell?
- 5:18Michelle Gauthier: What do you feel?
- 5:19Michelle Gauthier: The temperature on your skin, the texture of the mug in your hands.
- 5:23Michelle Gauthier: It isn't about doing more.
- 5:25Michelle Gauthier: It's about borrowing that vacation brain feeling and installing it on your regular Tuesday.
- 5:31Michelle Gauthier: And once your nervous system starts the day calm, it tends to stay a little calmer, even when you do end up going to work or driving on your commute or whatever else that you have to do.
- 5:42Michelle Gauthier: Luckily, you don't need a cabin in Montana to feel present and calm.
- 5:46Michelle Gauthier: You just need a few quiet minutes in the morning sunshine you already have this summer and the willingness to leave your phone behind and just be fully present with yourself for a minute.
- 5:56Michelle Gauthier: I would love to know how this works out for you and how it makes you feel.
- 6:01Michelle Gauthier: If a morning like this feels impossible to you right now or just getting through the day feels like a battle, feel free to take my free overwhelm quiz.
- 6:10Michelle Gauthier: It'll help you pinpoint exactly what's driving your overwhelm and what to do about that.
- 6:15Michelle Gauthier: The link is in the show notes.
- 6:17Michelle Gauthier: And when you take two minutes to take this quiz, you will understand more what's behind your overwhelm and what's driving it, and you will get a simple tip for how to take the first step to feel better.
- 6:28Michelle Gauthier: Have a great week.
- 6:30Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 6:36Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
- 6:43Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.