This month is important to me as it is Mental Health Awareness Month. As many of you know I have been dealing with my own health issues and I wish for everyone to take care of their mental health.
During this time of the Corona Virus people are noticing that they are having mental health issues in relation to fear, worry, anxiety and many other feelings about what is going on around the world.
Due to this it may be a good idea to take some time to take a deeper look into what you may be going through. Whether you are forced to stay at home or considered an essential worker remember that your mental health is just as important as your physical health.
If you are dealing with mental health issues please find someone to talk to – a trusted family member or friend if you have one. You can also seek out a mental health care professional that can help you further on your journey.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
Let me just start this by saying I am NOT nor have I ever considered myself a morning person. I am a night owl. My creative juices and mind works best late at night. However, I have been slowly trying to shift into a routine that makes me get to bed a bit earlier and be more productive in the morning.
I always wished I was a morning person – I once dated a morning person – he would wake up early all chipper and kiss all over me and say “WAKE UP BABY” I would mumble and he knew that meant no coffee, no talkie. I was spoiled by his morning routine because he would bring me coffee or tea and breakfast in bed. It was pure bliss. I don’t have him anymore so I am left to doing these things on my own. HA!
I also enjoy learning about and reading about other peoples morning routines. I like to know when they go to bed, how they prep the night before, when they wake up, what’s the first thing they do when they wake up, do they eat breakfast? if so, what do they eat and so on. I especially like to learn about what entreprenuers and successful people do in the morning.
There are plenty of youtube videos and websites/blog posts about peoples morning routines. Always fascinating what people around the world do.
Since I am up early this morning (woke up just before 5am) and this blog slowly died – I was going through my neverending task list and two things on there were check out morning routines and update this blog. So here I am, on my laptop, drinking green tea at 5:54AM writing a blog post on how my perfect morning routine would look. Enjoy!
The Night Before I used to have severe insomnia – thank goodness I no longer do as it used to leave me exhausted and zombie like during the day. Even though I pride myself in being early to events and work my insomnia would make me consistenly wake up in a flurry rushing to get to work.
Now I am able to get to bed at an earlier time and if I am having a bit of insomnina I either use that time to do something productive, read or meditate. I tend to get to bed between 9PM and 1AM.
The perfect bedtime for me would be around 9PM after some journaling and reflection about my day. I would also love to prep for the next day by going through my top priorities for the next day and looking at my schedule.
Waking Up Time Going back to my not being a morning person – I used to be one of those people that set 3-5 alarms in the morning to make sure I woke up. I would set alarms on my phone (that would be next to my bed) and my regular alarm clock that was stratigically placed across the room so that I would be forced to get out of bed (during my insomia period I would sleep through many of my alarms)
Now I have 1 alarm set for 8AM. I am still a bit of a snooze queen but not as bad as I used to be. I usually wake up to my alarm and sort of just lay there taking some nice deep breaths.
My perfect morning routine would include waking up at 6AM. I just notice if I wake up at around 6AM I have a bit of productive energy before I hit a mid morning slump.
My Day Upon waking I normally drink some water and take my medications and supplements. I also start looking at social media and emails. My perfect morning routine upon waking would be going through some affirmations, journaling, drinking a LARGE glass of water to take my meands and supplements and checking my schedule – that should all take about 1 hour.
I don’t do anything physical in the mornings other than a little dance to some upbeat music sometimes – I would love to fit some yoga practice into my mornings so that is another 30 min – 1 hour of self care. After yoga I would get a quick bite to eat and drink another large glass of water.
So that would mean around 8:30AM I would be ready for my day. I currently work from home and don’t really have a set schedule – something I am trying to work on for a better morning routine. I don’t do anything very productive for about 2 hours after waking up.
My perfect morning routine would mean waking up earlier and getting all of the above done during the first 2 hours or so that I would normally spend fumbling around, drinking coffee and catching up on social media and emails.
Next in my perfect morning routine I would start work. Briefly look at emails and social media to see if there is anything important to take care of. By 9:00AM I would be ready for my work day. I would do some work for about an hour as I am sure I would be heading towards a little slump. Once I start feeling a bit sluggish I would stretch and maybe take a little walk, drink some more water and maybe get a light snack. Perhaps another cup of tea or some coffee.
I would give myself 15-30 minutes for that little break before I get back to work. I would then work until lunch time. Lunch time may include a little walk or stretch depending on how I’m feeling. But for sure get up out of my chair, eat something and maybe step outside for some Vitamin D.
Most days by lunch time I am hungry and a little tired so I may take a quick nap but my perfect morning routine (with yoga) I am hoping will help me avoid taking a nap unless I really feel the need to do so.
After lunch it is back to work for a few more hours before going into my night routine.
To Recap: My Perfect Morning Routine 6:00AM Wake up – journal, affirmations, reading, go through tasks/schedule 7:00AM Yoga and breakfast 8:30AM Emails and Social Media 9:00AM Work 10:00AM Stretch and take a walk 10:30AM Work 12:00PM Lunch, stretch, go outside 1:00PM Work
I am definately working on getting this perfect morning routine to be my MON-FRI routine. I think by setting my alarm for earlier and going to bed earlier I can really accomplish this.
I will also set my schedule (with alarms) to this so that I can keep to the schedule. I can always stop the alarm and keep working if I am in a creative zone and working on something that I’m not ready to step away from.
I will be sure to check back in a few weeks to see how my perfect morning routine is going. I woke up a little before 5AM today and I have completed, archived or rescheduled over 100 tasks, drank some hot green tea and wrote this blog post all before 6:30AM. Imagine what I can do if I stick to my (new) routine. I feel so productive right now (and a little hungry) and can’t wait to see how my new routine works for me.
What is your morning routine? Share it in the comments or link it to your post/video.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
This should be fairly easy as it can include the smallest of things that you are thankful for. The holiday season is the perfect time to reflect on what you are thankful for.
Travel Guides and Tips
Many people travel during the holidays. Road trip, airline travel, packing tips. Write about your city and what to do there
Favorite traditions or memories
What are your favorite family traditions or memories about the holiday? Share them with your readers so they can not only get to know more about you but also be inspired to perhaps start their own traditions and create memories with their family.
Favorite holiday movies and music
The fun thing about this is that some people may have never heard of a movie or song/artist that you share. You can introduce your readers to something new!
Favorite holiday recipes
This topic you can make into a series and split it up into different dishes so that you have more than one post to share with your readers.
Roundup of favorite memories of the year
Every year I try to make a year end post with updates of things I did every month throughout the year. You can also do a roundup of your favorite memories – it doesn’t have to be listed by month but this can also be split up into different categories and more than one post.
Holiday Gift Guides
You can do this by person, gender, price point and more – also split this up into different posts if you have enough ideas.
Your Wishlist
It is always fun to share what is on your wishlist with others. Pick maybe 5 things and write about why theses items are your must haves.
What you plan to do for the new year
Call it goals. Call it resolutions. Call it whatever you please but share this with your readers so they can not only learn about you but perhaps get inspired to create a list themselves.
12 things you learned the last 12 months
This is another post that will help your readers learn a bit more about you. You can get as personal as you feel comfortable sharing.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
For many people, fighting Depression can be an ongoing thing. It can draw out daily and when it does one can feel helpless and even frustrated. One thing that can help is to create a routine and the best way to do that is to start with little daily tasks and do more and more of them each day. I am sharing some daily tasks that have worked for myself and others. You can start at the top or anywhere in the middle.
Stand in the sun (with suntan lotion on) to get Vitamin D
Choose one thing to clean
Put on a face mask
Go shopping for groceries or something nice for yourself (online or in person)
Meet up with friends or family for brunch
Take your medicine and vitamins
Drink a large glass of water
Have some electrolytes
Journal
Open your mail
Pay your bills
Bake your favorite thing
Watch a funny movie/series
Eat something or prepare something to eat later
Call someone
Write someone a letter
Read
Write/blog
Listen to some positive music – create a playlist or find a playlist online
Meditate
Do yoga
Take a walk (take your dog for a walk if you have one)
Go for a run
Go swimming
Organize a small space/area in your home
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.
Once upon a time I was online dating. Now let me begin by saying that me and online dating have a love/hate relationship. I have met some nice men online and even more outrageous, nasty, strange men online. This story occurred somewhere in the middle of me loving (meeting new people) and hating (running for the hills).
So the story goes, I met a man we will call Steve. Steve would message me and seemed totally into me. He was around my age, handsome and from the looks of it successful. He was eager to exchange phone numbers and we spoke on the phone a few times. He sounded like a nice guy – no red flags whatsoever.
He said he couldn’t wait to meet me. I had butterflies – he was so handsome but not so handsome that he was probably not real/using a model’s picture. He was a tall Latin male with dark features. I was smitten.
I was so nervous getting ready for our first date. Knowing he was potentially a successful professional man I felt I really had to look my best. I got super dolled up and was so eager yet nervous to meet him.
We were supposed to go to dinner. We met up at the agreed upon place and I could not for the life of me find him. Until he walked up to me. He was at least 10-15 years older than the person in the picture (I’m guessing the picture was his brother or son or something because they looked alike but not alike at the same time). He had pulled up in a new, beautiful BMW and though he was not the person in the picture he wasn’t too bad looking just significantly older than I was expecting. I wasn’t sure what to do at this point so I went along with it – I’m sure he saw the shock in my eyes when he approached me. It probably was expected.
The date went ok and the more I looked at him the more I noticed things that were off-putting like his HAIR PLUGS, possible lazy eye and odd way of speaking. On the phone he spoke one way and in person it was like a totally different person. Maybe he had someone else speak to me as well – maybe it was the person in the picture.
Not sure if he really was a professional or if he had rented that BMW for our date, HA! Of course at the end of the date he said he had a good time and went in for a kiss. It was so gross and sloppy. I was disgusted to say the least.
Steve tried to reach out again – he had said he had to go golfing the next day but he would hear from me. I did, however, I never picked up the phone. I just couldn’t do it. I wanted to answer and say “why did you lie about who you are” but I didn’t have the guts at that time to do it. He is probably still out there using pictures that aren’t of him and having women fall for his charming ways.
I have been catfished by at least 3 men that I recall. Steve’s wasn’t as extreme as he sort of looked like the guy in the picture but this was one where I actually went along with the date instead of bailing/having someone send me a fake emergency phone call/text.
I met one guy that failed to mention he was in a wheel chair. I didn’t care – but he could have at least mentioned it. Another guy was totally not the guy in the picture, not even close. He told me where he was standing and I bailed because he was unpleasant to look at and I was sick to my stomach that he would lie like that.
Have you ever been catfished? Share your story in the comments.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you decide to purchase something featured here. This commission will be invested back into hertaintedlips.com as well as help me buy a cheap bottle of wine or some Starbucks. For more information please read our disclosure page.