Coach Maylen

Do you find that it's easier to take care of yourself when you're working full time (vs. when you're vacation)?

There's something about summer vacation where the lack of structure combined with the growing piles of laundry, dirty dishes, and the ability to sleep in without major consequences (can) create a recipe for disaster for self-care.

That's why I'm so beyond HAPPY that I'm now back to work.

Now, I get to get up at 5am to do the things I need to do for me. This morning time is my favorite time of day for self care, a creative blank slate that gets redesigned year after year as my needs shift.

What does my morning routine look like now?

5am: Wake up and meditate 🧘‍♀️ with a new technique I learned this summer (transcendental meditation)

5:30am: Exercise. I'm reserving Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for walking/ jogging along the trails near my house (see photo from my morning jog yesterday 🚶‍♀️ 🌄 ), and Tuesdays/Thursdays will be for strength training 💪 in my garage gym.

6:30am: Shower and start transitioning to helping others with their needs-- feeding the baby, folding laundry, etc.

7am: Cook/Serve breakfast

7:30am: Leave home/ Bike/E-Bike to school a few days a week (this is a new routine).

When do you get to take care of yourself?

What do you do?

Need support finding space to take care of yourself? Feel free to reach out to me for coaching support!

This question comes up often when I do career coaching for jobseekers.

It's a question that can be asked over and over throughout your life to help you reflect on your skills, your character, and all those things that set you apart.

I also recommend reaching out to former colleagues and supervisors and asking them about how they view your unique strengths and contributions. They might surprise you and actually name what you perceive to be an area of growth.

Good luck to all job seekers!

I found a bright orange card on my windshield this morning, see photo.

This is a great example of how NOT to give feedback.

I double checked how I parked, and I don't really see anything wrong with the way that I parked. I am between the two limits of the parking spot and I'm not too far from the curb, maybe eight inches. My car is straight, and I don't really see what the issue is.

However, if there is something I could do to be parked better, I would love specific feedback on that.

I suspect that the person who put this on my car is one who's always yelling at people who park in that spot, because his own parking lot is badly designed and it makes it difficult for him to get out when somebody is parked in that street spot where I parked.

Regardless, berating people on a job not well done is never gonna get them to understand what they can actually improve.

That seems pretty obvious to me, but perhaps my neighbors don't know how to give feedback in a way that helps people grow.

🤣🤣🤣

They put a broken table inside the bathroom at the restaurant across the street from my house.

My first thought was "That table is broken".

Then immediately "That's kind of neat that Instead of throwing it out, they continued to use it."

I got a little closer and examined some of the broken parts, "They make very interesting and beautiful patterns".

Followed by "Okay, now I'm spending way too much time in this bathroom and I should probably get out so someone else can go." 🤣

Our imperfections are what make us unique and beautiful.

On household chores: Dishes edition

I avoided doing dishes yesterday due to the 4th of July holiday (gave myself the day off).

This morning after breakfast, I saw the pile of dirty dishes getting taller, and knowing that we'd soon run out of clean dishes, I gave myself a pep talk: let's just get them done!!!

To help me feel better about this chore, I turned on a "Stopwatch" on my phone.

If there's one thing I've learned about time management when it comes to pesky tasks that many of us avoid, is that we actually spend more time complaining and avoiding than actually doing the thing that needs to be done.

We often think that household chores will take much longer than they actually do.

Looking at the pile of dishes, I estimated that it would take less than an hour.

After I finished, I looked at the stopwatch, and it took less than half an hour!

Not too bad considering I'm on summer break and have literally zero work responsibilities at this time. I can do 30 minutes of dishes.

Last night my husband and I went on date night. It was so fun and full of insightful conversation about our lives and future plans.

First, we had dinner at Sushi Deli 3, and then we went to get gelato at Nado Gelato.

What's one thing you'll do soon to spend time with someone you care about?

I've won a scholarship to learn transcendental meditation 🧘‍♀️.

I'm super excited to add this tool to my personal toolbelt.

Do any of my friends and connections practice TM?

If so, how do you like it? Add your insights below!!

Image Credit: Jared Rice
https://unsplash.com/

NUMBER 5 OF FIVE APPS TO TRANSFORM YOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH

The last app in this series is Down Dog, a yoga app. This app is FREE for teachers and students with their school email address. https://www.downdogapp.com/schools

Features:
🧎‍♀️‍➡️7 different forms of yoga available
🧎‍♀️‍➡️3 different forms of meditation available
🧎‍♀️‍➡️Adapts to all levels from total beginner to advanced
🧎‍♀️‍➡️ No two work outs are the same! When you're ready to work out, pick the type of yoga you want, the level that you want to do it at, and how much time you have available. It then creates a custom workout for that session.
🧎‍♀️‍➡️ Soothing voices, invigorating music, and real people demonstrating each pose, which you can follow along with your phone or cast from your phone to your TV.
🧎‍♀️‍➡️ They also have a prenatal yoga version of the app for pregnant people filmed with pregnant people.

Down Dog is the last yoga app I'll ever download, as it meets all my needs.

Prior to finding this app, I used the free videos on youtube by Yoga with Adriene, which are also very good. If you do not have a budget for the Down Dog app, consider asking your company to pay for it or go on YouTube for a goldmine of free yoga!

NUMBER 4 OF FIVE APPS TO TRANSFORM YOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH

Today, I'll be writing about the meditation app "Calm".

Calm is not free, but you may be able to get it for free through your employer or health care provider. I get mine for free through Kaiser Permanente health insurance.

Here are all the features I enjoy on Calm:
🧘‍♀️ Several daily meditation series (eg: Daily Calm, Daily Trip, Daily Jay) with 10-minute guided daily meditations.
🧘‍♀️ Sleep stories to help soothe you into sleep-- I've enjoyed these enormously.
🧘‍♀️ Informative podcasts on a number of topics.
🧘‍♀️ Relaxing music and soundscapes.
🧘‍♀️ Meditation series to help address specific problems, including strategies for dealing with issues at work, anxiety, overwhelm, navigating relationships, work/life balance, etc.
🧘‍♀️ Daily movement/meditation series
🧘‍♀️ Keeps track of your history and "streaks", as well as cumulative total number of mindful days.
🧘‍♀️ Timeless wisdom that really resonates and helps create an overall better enjoyment of life.

Whenever I struggle with stress and going to sleep, the meditations and sleep stories on the Calm App provide instant comfort and... calm. I also learned about solving Sleep Issues through the Dr. Orma's Sleep Science podcast on Calm. There's even a couple of sleep stories in French and Spanish, which I absolutely love.

A great app to have, which is why I recommend that all employers offer it to their employees for free.

NUMBER 3 OF FIVE APPS TO TRANSFORM YOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH

I'll now discuss my weight training app, and though I'm not a huge fan of weight training, I've started to do it more, recognizing the role that maintaining muscle mass plays in strength and longevity.

Number 3: Caliber

Caliber is considered one of the best apps for weight training in 2024. It has both FREE and Premium versions, and, you probably guessed it, I use the FREE version!

Here's what Caliber offers:
💪 You can easily and efficiently track different weightlifting exercises, so gone are the days of paper and pencil tracking, where you have to rack your brain to find when was the last time you did a certain exercise to see if you're progressing.
💪 It has a library of thousands of weightlifting exercises that incorporate all sorts of equipment and even calisthenics (body weight).
💪 Most of the exercises are accompanied by a small video that shows you proper form, and you can play the video as many times as you want. The exercises also come with notes and explanations.
💪 There are informational articles on the app that you can read to learn more about fitness and weight training. The articles are short and so far from what I've read and given my knowledge, very accurate.
💪 When I first logged onto the app, it asked me what kinds of equipment I have access to. Because I have a home gym, I entered that information. The app then created three custom workouts for me that cover the whole body and include various exercises, but not too many. I loved that because I took the guesswork out of figuring out what to do.
💪 You can also add exercises and design your own custom workouts if they are not included in their extensive library.
💪 Calculating dumbell weights, sets, time to wait between sets, time spent on a specific hold (eg. plank) is now seamless. The app keeps track of everything and provides various tools all in one place.
💪 At the end of each workout, the app gives you a cheery update on achievements and "personal bests."
💪 Just like the running app, you can take time off and come back to it and do exercises whenever you want, and it does not make you feel bad for going a while without training.
💪 You can add your own notes inside and exercise. For example, there are some exercises I'm not able to do in the full form yet. I do them in a modified form, so I note that for my own records.
💪 To ensure progress, every time you do a specific exercise, there's a little number displayed at the bottom of it with how much weight you lifted the last time you did that exercise. Then the choice is yours- stay the same, go up, or go down if you're not feeling your best. This feature alone is a game changer.
💪 The Premium version (which I don't use) includes form checks and personal fitness coaching.

I started this post by saying that I've never really been a big fan of weight training, but apps like Caliber make it possible for me to persist.