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In this episode, I’m answering a question from an upcoming Q&A session: What does my morning routine look like? I give a few details about how I start my day, including the balance between finding time alone and juggling homeschooling, caregiving, and household responsibilities. I find that many morning routines I hear or read about are unrealistic for my particular situation.
You'll hear about the differences between what I'd like to do and what actually happens most mornings. I also share more about how I've adapted the one the one thing I do pretty much every morning - a daily walk with my dog - into a tiny morning routine of sorts.
If you’ve struggled to create a morning routine that feels realistic and meaningful, I hope this episode gives you ideas for starting your day in a way that works for you or at least takes away some of the pressure to have an elaborate/extended morning routine.
Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future episode? Submit it at www.intheclinic.com - I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for listening.
I'd love to hear from you. Leave me a voicemail with feedback or submit a question (click the pink "Send Camille a Message" button on the side of the page) 💚
Camille's Helpful Links for Practitioners
WEBVTT
00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:04.257
Hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman.
00:00:04.477 --> 00:00:07.957
I'm an herbalist and nutritionist, and in this podcast, I share little tips
00:00:07.957 --> 00:00:10.377
and tidbits that might be helpful for other practitioners.
00:00:10.877 --> 00:00:15.977
So today, I wanted to answer a question that was submitted for my upcoming monthly Q&A call.
00:00:16.257 --> 00:00:21.577
This is a call that is open for people who are in a bunch of my different programs,
00:00:21.577 --> 00:00:26.397
and the idea is that people can submit questions about anything that's vaguely
00:00:26.397 --> 00:00:31.057
related to being in practice and, you know, that sort of thing.
00:00:31.457 --> 00:00:35.677
So the question was if I could share a little bit about my morning routine.
00:00:36.197 --> 00:00:39.437
And I was thinking, you know what, it might actually be good to share this more
00:00:39.437 --> 00:00:44.357
broadly because I have some thoughts on the topic that maybe will be helpful for other people.
00:00:44.917 --> 00:00:51.697
So first of all, this is a kind of a sensitive subject for me because I am a morning person.
00:00:51.957 --> 00:00:54.397
I love mornings. I wake up ready
00:00:54.397 --> 00:00:58.257
to go. My brain is super fresh in the morning. It's my best time of day.
00:00:58.697 --> 00:01:05.077
And I know a lot of, you know, businessy productivity types of people are really
00:01:05.077 --> 00:01:09.277
into the morning routine and talking to people about their morning routines.
00:01:09.797 --> 00:01:13.797
And a lot of these people I know have kids, like small kids,
00:01:13.797 --> 00:01:18.897
and they've got these complex morning routines that take at least an hour or two.
00:01:19.237 --> 00:01:21.517
And I'm just like, what in the world?
00:01:22.517 --> 00:01:27.837
Do you have a nanny? Is your spouse or partner just 100% in charge of the children,
00:01:28.577 --> 00:01:30.477
while you do your morning routine?
00:01:30.477 --> 00:01:33.757
Because I tell you what, as soon as anybody in the house is awake,
00:01:33.877 --> 00:01:38.397
especially if you're planning to have some nice quiet time, the first thing
00:01:38.397 --> 00:01:42.337
that happens in our house anyway is that somebody wakes up who's not normally up at that time.
00:01:42.617 --> 00:01:45.677
So anyway, I just feel like there's a lot of.
00:01:46.643 --> 00:01:54.183
Privilege and unrecognized labor that goes into making time available for a
00:01:54.183 --> 00:01:59.183
morning routine that maybe isn't accessible to everyone, and especially those
00:01:59.183 --> 00:02:00.663
who have caregiving responsibilities.
00:02:01.043 --> 00:02:04.223
So I want to answer this question two ways.
00:02:04.383 --> 00:02:10.083
One way is, if I were just living in a little utopia and I didn't have any caregiving
00:02:10.083 --> 00:02:16.223
responsibilities, my day was 100% my own without, you know, other commitments or things like that,
00:02:16.443 --> 00:02:19.563
what I would do would be, I would like to wake up.
00:02:19.903 --> 00:02:24.043
I would like to start preparing my morning tea.
00:02:24.223 --> 00:02:27.563
And while it is steeping, I would like to do a meditation for 10 minutes and
00:02:27.563 --> 00:02:30.563
move my body for 10 minutes, like a stretching or yoga session.
00:02:31.163 --> 00:02:36.203
And then I would like to drink my tea while I journal or write or do something
00:02:36.203 --> 00:02:41.423
creative with my art supplies or something like that. And then I would like to eat breakfast.
00:02:41.623 --> 00:02:44.063
And then I would like to go for a walk with my dog.
00:02:44.743 --> 00:02:48.423
That would be, you know, again, without any outside influence,
00:02:48.423 --> 00:02:50.863
that's what I would be doing in the morning.
00:02:51.023 --> 00:02:53.463
And then maybe I'd come home and putter around and, you know,
00:02:53.543 --> 00:02:55.083
pick things up, clean up a little bit, whatever.
00:02:55.743 --> 00:03:03.643
In reality, in reality, what happens is I have two kids, they're homeschooled, they are here a lot.
00:03:03.983 --> 00:03:08.163
And as soon as they wake up, I'm in sort of like, make everybody breakfast,
00:03:08.423 --> 00:03:12.743
figure out who needs to go to which class and help so-and-so with their homework
00:03:12.743 --> 00:03:16.083
that needs to be done by today and this, that, and the other.
00:03:16.223 --> 00:03:19.723
There's different crises and situations that need to happen.
00:03:20.303 --> 00:03:24.783
And I have work things that I need to do at some point during the day.
00:03:24.943 --> 00:03:28.943
The easiest time for me to do this work things is when the kids are asleep.
00:03:29.183 --> 00:03:31.323
And they usually sleep later than I do.
00:03:31.663 --> 00:03:33.303
So what actually happens is
00:03:33.303 --> 00:03:39.103
I get up and I try to get some work done in those early morning moments.
00:03:39.103 --> 00:03:43.783
If I'm up pretty early, I can usually do some mindfulness practice and move
00:03:43.783 --> 00:03:47.223
my body a little bit and get some work done. But that's not always what happens.
00:03:48.103 --> 00:03:52.143
So anyway, typically I'm doing a little bit of work before breakfast.
00:03:52.343 --> 00:03:54.523
And then as soon as people start getting up and moving around,
00:03:54.743 --> 00:03:58.243
I'm making breakfast for me and whoever is awake.
00:03:58.463 --> 00:04:02.983
The one thing that I do consistently every single morning, rain or shine,
00:04:03.723 --> 00:04:08.003
sleet or snow, So I'm like the USPS over here is walk the dog.
00:04:08.383 --> 00:04:16.103
So instead of trying to be vaguely resentful and irritated that I don't have
00:04:16.103 --> 00:04:18.883
a normal morning routine, I have just shifted to say like, OK,
00:04:18.963 --> 00:04:22.063
the dog walk is my morning routine. That is my morning anchor.
00:04:22.883 --> 00:04:28.283
It does incorporate aspects of moving my body because I live in a very hilly town.
00:04:28.583 --> 00:04:32.063
So, you know, there's a lot of a lot of up and down going on on the dog walk.
00:04:32.063 --> 00:04:33.243
Also a lot of sniffing, but still.
00:04:34.223 --> 00:04:37.963
So I do get to move my body. I do get to go outside and get some fresh air. And that's nice.
00:04:38.143 --> 00:04:41.623
Sometimes I'll listen to a book or a podcast while we're walking.
00:04:41.623 --> 00:04:45.023
But the main thing that I do in order to kind of.
00:04:46.059 --> 00:04:49.559
Set my day up, is there's two things that I do on the walk.
00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:53.719
One of them is that anytime I see anybody, I often walk through a university
00:04:53.719 --> 00:04:55.179
campus that's right near my house.
00:04:55.459 --> 00:04:59.639
And a lot of times, students are on their way to their first class or whatever.
00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:02.779
I don't know what they're doing, actually. They're wandering around campus when
00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:05.439
we're walking. And I see the maintenance people a lot.
00:05:05.579 --> 00:05:08.139
They're out driving around and doing whatever they do.
00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:14.219
So anytime I walk past somebody or see them, I wave, I have a waving relationship
00:05:14.219 --> 00:05:15.079
with the maintenance people.
00:05:15.899 --> 00:05:19.419
I always try to think something nice about them. So I'll think like,
00:05:19.419 --> 00:05:22.199
you look amazing today or day, whatever.
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.439
I just think I try to think something really nice about each person that I see.
00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:31.819
And for me, that just helps my day go better because I feel like I'm just really
00:05:31.819 --> 00:05:34.539
looking at each person I pass and thinking something good about them.
00:05:35.239 --> 00:05:38.799
That helps me feel better. So that's one thing I do. And then the other thing
00:05:38.799 --> 00:05:40.659
I do is that while I'm out walking the dog,
00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:43.919
because I'm picking up his poop anyway i have a bag so i
00:05:43.919 --> 00:05:48.339
try to pick up trash just a couple pieces of trash as i'm wandering around i
00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:51.779
don't live in like a filthy area with trash everywhere but there's always something
00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:57.239
you know water bottle or a whatever so i try to do that and i just feel like
00:05:57.239 --> 00:06:00.899
if i've done nothing else today i've thought some good things about people and i've,
00:06:01.479 --> 00:06:05.499
made the area that i live in just a teeny bit nicer for me and other people.
00:06:06.890 --> 00:06:10.230
And so that's it. That's my entire morning routine. And it works for me.
00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:14.950
There will be a day, someday, maybe in like a decade or something,
00:06:15.150 --> 00:06:20.270
that I can have a more complicated and leisurely morning routine.
00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:26.090
But for right now, my 20 to 30-minute walk with my dog serves the purpose of
00:06:26.090 --> 00:06:29.810
helping me feel like, okay, even if that's the only thing I do all day,
00:06:30.090 --> 00:06:34.270
then I feel like I've done something good and it starts my day off in a way
00:06:34.270 --> 00:06:35.290
that I want it to start off.
00:06:35.290 --> 00:06:38.930
So that's my answer for whatever it's worth.
00:06:39.170 --> 00:06:43.270
I would love to hear about your morning routine or lack thereof if you too feel
00:06:43.270 --> 00:06:48.370
like it's hard to make it happen or maybe you don't have as much consistency,
00:06:48.650 --> 00:06:50.530
different days or different or whatever.
00:06:50.730 --> 00:06:55.650
Maybe there's like a teeny tiny thing like my dog walk where you can just slide
00:06:55.650 --> 00:07:00.750
it in there and feel like it's a ritual that supports you.
00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:05.130
So that's my favorite refrain when working with clients and myself on these
00:07:05.130 --> 00:07:08.630
types of things is like, okay, how can we lower the bar so that it actually
00:07:08.630 --> 00:07:11.150
is doable and serves the purpose,
00:07:11.290 --> 00:07:15.310
which for me, the purpose of a morning routine is I just want to be intentional
00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:17.930
about how I'm approaching the day.
00:07:18.230 --> 00:07:20.790
So there you go. I hope that's helpful.
00:07:21.130 --> 00:07:24.170
Let me know if you have any questions that you would like me to answer here
00:07:24.170 --> 00:07:28.390
on the podcast. You can go to intheclinic.com and submit your questions there.
00:07:28.830 --> 00:07:31.810
Or you can go to camillefreeman.com and sign up for my newsletter,
00:07:31.810 --> 00:07:34.210
which is for practitioners. It goes out every Thursday.
00:07:34.750 --> 00:07:37.150
And when you sign up for that, you'll get an email from me. You can respond
00:07:37.150 --> 00:07:41.150
to that if you like and ask a question for the podcast as well.
00:07:41.870 --> 00:07:46.630
Okay, I hope that was helpful. I will talk to you soon and I hope you have a great day. Bye.
00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:04.257
Hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman.
00:00:04.477 --> 00:00:07.957
I'm an herbalist and nutritionist, and in this podcast, I share little tips
00:00:07.957 --> 00:00:10.377
and tidbits that might be helpful for other practitioners.
00:00:10.877 --> 00:00:15.977
So today, I wanted to answer a question that was submitted for my upcoming monthly Q&A call.
00:00:16.257 --> 00:00:21.577
This is a call that is open for people who are in a bunch of my different programs,
00:00:21.577 --> 00:00:26.397
and the idea is that people can submit questions about anything that's vaguely
00:00:26.397 --> 00:00:31.057
related to being in practice and, you know, that sort of thing.
00:00:31.457 --> 00:00:35.677
So the question was if I could share a little bit about my morning routine.
00:00:36.197 --> 00:00:39.437
And I was thinking, you know what, it might actually be good to share this more
00:00:39.437 --> 00:00:44.357
broadly because I have some thoughts on the topic that maybe will be helpful for other people.
00:00:44.917 --> 00:00:51.697
So first of all, this is a kind of a sensitive subject for me because I am a morning person.
00:00:51.957 --> 00:00:54.397
I love mornings. I wake up ready
00:00:54.397 --> 00:00:58.257
to go. My brain is super fresh in the morning. It's my best time of day.
00:00:58.697 --> 00:01:05.077
And I know a lot of, you know, businessy productivity types of people are really
00:01:05.077 --> 00:01:09.277
into the morning routine and talking to people about their morning routines.
00:01:09.797 --> 00:01:13.797
And a lot of these people I know have kids, like small kids,
00:01:13.797 --> 00:01:18.897
and they've got these complex morning routines that take at least an hour or two.
00:01:19.237 --> 00:01:21.517
And I'm just like, what in the world?
00:01:22.517 --> 00:01:27.837
Do you have a nanny? Is your spouse or partner just 100% in charge of the children,
00:01:28.577 --> 00:01:30.477
while you do your morning routine?
00:01:30.477 --> 00:01:33.757
Because I tell you what, as soon as anybody in the house is awake,
00:01:33.877 --> 00:01:38.397
especially if you're planning to have some nice quiet time, the first thing
00:01:38.397 --> 00:01:42.337
that happens in our house anyway is that somebody wakes up who's not normally up at that time.
00:01:42.617 --> 00:01:45.677
So anyway, I just feel like there's a lot of.
00:01:46.643 --> 00:01:54.183
Privilege and unrecognized labor that goes into making time available for a
00:01:54.183 --> 00:01:59.183
morning routine that maybe isn't accessible to everyone, and especially those
00:01:59.183 --> 00:02:00.663
who have caregiving responsibilities.
00:02:01.043 --> 00:02:04.223
So I want to answer this question two ways.
00:02:04.383 --> 00:02:10.083
One way is, if I were just living in a little utopia and I didn't have any caregiving
00:02:10.083 --> 00:02:16.223
responsibilities, my day was 100% my own without, you know, other commitments or things like that,
00:02:16.443 --> 00:02:19.563
what I would do would be, I would like to wake up.
00:02:19.903 --> 00:02:24.043
I would like to start preparing my morning tea.
00:02:24.223 --> 00:02:27.563
And while it is steeping, I would like to do a meditation for 10 minutes and
00:02:27.563 --> 00:02:30.563
move my body for 10 minutes, like a stretching or yoga session.
00:02:31.163 --> 00:02:36.203
And then I would like to drink my tea while I journal or write or do something
00:02:36.203 --> 00:02:41.423
creative with my art supplies or something like that. And then I would like to eat breakfast.
00:02:41.623 --> 00:02:44.063
And then I would like to go for a walk with my dog.
00:02:44.743 --> 00:02:48.423
That would be, you know, again, without any outside influence,
00:02:48.423 --> 00:02:50.863
that's what I would be doing in the morning.
00:02:51.023 --> 00:02:53.463
And then maybe I'd come home and putter around and, you know,
00:02:53.543 --> 00:02:55.083
pick things up, clean up a little bit, whatever.
00:02:55.743 --> 00:03:03.643
In reality, in reality, what happens is I have two kids, they're homeschooled, they are here a lot.
00:03:03.983 --> 00:03:08.163
And as soon as they wake up, I'm in sort of like, make everybody breakfast,
00:03:08.423 --> 00:03:12.743
figure out who needs to go to which class and help so-and-so with their homework
00:03:12.743 --> 00:03:16.083
that needs to be done by today and this, that, and the other.
00:03:16.223 --> 00:03:19.723
There's different crises and situations that need to happen.
00:03:20.303 --> 00:03:24.783
And I have work things that I need to do at some point during the day.
00:03:24.943 --> 00:03:28.943
The easiest time for me to do this work things is when the kids are asleep.
00:03:29.183 --> 00:03:31.323
And they usually sleep later than I do.
00:03:31.663 --> 00:03:33.303
So what actually happens is
00:03:33.303 --> 00:03:39.103
I get up and I try to get some work done in those early morning moments.
00:03:39.103 --> 00:03:43.783
If I'm up pretty early, I can usually do some mindfulness practice and move
00:03:43.783 --> 00:03:47.223
my body a little bit and get some work done. But that's not always what happens.
00:03:48.103 --> 00:03:52.143
So anyway, typically I'm doing a little bit of work before breakfast.
00:03:52.343 --> 00:03:54.523
And then as soon as people start getting up and moving around,
00:03:54.743 --> 00:03:58.243
I'm making breakfast for me and whoever is awake.
00:03:58.463 --> 00:04:02.983
The one thing that I do consistently every single morning, rain or shine,
00:04:03.723 --> 00:04:08.003
sleet or snow, So I'm like the USPS over here is walk the dog.
00:04:08.383 --> 00:04:16.103
So instead of trying to be vaguely resentful and irritated that I don't have
00:04:16.103 --> 00:04:18.883
a normal morning routine, I have just shifted to say like, OK,
00:04:18.963 --> 00:04:22.063
the dog walk is my morning routine. That is my morning anchor.
00:04:22.883 --> 00:04:28.283
It does incorporate aspects of moving my body because I live in a very hilly town.
00:04:28.583 --> 00:04:32.063
So, you know, there's a lot of a lot of up and down going on on the dog walk.
00:04:32.063 --> 00:04:33.243
Also a lot of sniffing, but still.
00:04:34.223 --> 00:04:37.963
So I do get to move my body. I do get to go outside and get some fresh air. And that's nice.
00:04:38.143 --> 00:04:41.623
Sometimes I'll listen to a book or a podcast while we're walking.
00:04:41.623 --> 00:04:45.023
But the main thing that I do in order to kind of.
00:04:46.059 --> 00:04:49.559
Set my day up, is there's two things that I do on the walk.
00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:53.719
One of them is that anytime I see anybody, I often walk through a university
00:04:53.719 --> 00:04:55.179
campus that's right near my house.
00:04:55.459 --> 00:04:59.639
And a lot of times, students are on their way to their first class or whatever.
00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:02.779
I don't know what they're doing, actually. They're wandering around campus when
00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:05.439
we're walking. And I see the maintenance people a lot.
00:05:05.579 --> 00:05:08.139
They're out driving around and doing whatever they do.
00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:14.219
So anytime I walk past somebody or see them, I wave, I have a waving relationship
00:05:14.219 --> 00:05:15.079
with the maintenance people.
00:05:15.899 --> 00:05:19.419
I always try to think something nice about them. So I'll think like,
00:05:19.419 --> 00:05:22.199
you look amazing today or day, whatever.
00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.439
I just think I try to think something really nice about each person that I see.
00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:31.819
And for me, that just helps my day go better because I feel like I'm just really
00:05:31.819 --> 00:05:34.539
looking at each person I pass and thinking something good about them.
00:05:35.239 --> 00:05:38.799
That helps me feel better. So that's one thing I do. And then the other thing
00:05:38.799 --> 00:05:40.659
I do is that while I'm out walking the dog,
00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:43.919
because I'm picking up his poop anyway i have a bag so i
00:05:43.919 --> 00:05:48.339
try to pick up trash just a couple pieces of trash as i'm wandering around i
00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:51.779
don't live in like a filthy area with trash everywhere but there's always something
00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:57.239
you know water bottle or a whatever so i try to do that and i just feel like
00:05:57.239 --> 00:06:00.899
if i've done nothing else today i've thought some good things about people and i've,
00:06:01.479 --> 00:06:05.499
made the area that i live in just a teeny bit nicer for me and other people.
00:06:06.890 --> 00:06:10.230
And so that's it. That's my entire morning routine. And it works for me.
00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:14.950
There will be a day, someday, maybe in like a decade or something,
00:06:15.150 --> 00:06:20.270
that I can have a more complicated and leisurely morning routine.
00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:26.090
But for right now, my 20 to 30-minute walk with my dog serves the purpose of
00:06:26.090 --> 00:06:29.810
helping me feel like, okay, even if that's the only thing I do all day,
00:06:30.090 --> 00:06:34.270
then I feel like I've done something good and it starts my day off in a way
00:06:34.270 --> 00:06:35.290
that I want it to start off.
00:06:35.290 --> 00:06:38.930
So that's my answer for whatever it's worth.
00:06:39.170 --> 00:06:43.270
I would love to hear about your morning routine or lack thereof if you too feel
00:06:43.270 --> 00:06:48.370
like it's hard to make it happen or maybe you don't have as much consistency,
00:06:48.650 --> 00:06:50.530
different days or different or whatever.
00:06:50.730 --> 00:06:55.650
Maybe there's like a teeny tiny thing like my dog walk where you can just slide
00:06:55.650 --> 00:07:00.750
it in there and feel like it's a ritual that supports you.
00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:05.130
So that's my favorite refrain when working with clients and myself on these
00:07:05.130 --> 00:07:08.630
types of things is like, okay, how can we lower the bar so that it actually
00:07:08.630 --> 00:07:11.150
is doable and serves the purpose,
00:07:11.290 --> 00:07:15.310
which for me, the purpose of a morning routine is I just want to be intentional
00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:17.930
about how I'm approaching the day.
00:07:18.230 --> 00:07:20.790
So there you go. I hope that's helpful.
00:07:21.130 --> 00:07:24.170
Let me know if you have any questions that you would like me to answer here
00:07:24.170 --> 00:07:28.390
on the podcast. You can go to intheclinic.com and submit your questions there.
00:07:28.830 --> 00:07:31.810
Or you can go to camillefreeman.com and sign up for my newsletter,
00:07:31.810 --> 00:07:34.210
which is for practitioners. It goes out every Thursday.
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And when you sign up for that, you'll get an email from me. You can respond
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to that if you like and ask a question for the podcast as well.
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Okay, I hope that was helpful. I will talk to you soon and I hope you have a great day. Bye.