Hey friend, how are you doing? How was life landing for you these days? How it is your heart? How was this moment? This has been a week, this episode is airing later than I expected this week. And you know, we're just going with it. I'm hoping that it's going to meet you in a spacious place where you've got some time to tend to yourself. And as with most of our conversations, this one I'm hoping is going to be pretty thought provoking for you. Because I think that there's some confusion happening out there in the world, between consistent and constant. Now I know that we know when it comes to definitions consistent is something we're pretty dependable about doing. Usually the same way, while constant means doing something continuously without interruption. And while we know those definitions, right, when it comes to our committed actions in the world, the things that we are actively doing, supporting, working toward, somehow I've found, maybe not in all situations, but in more than maybe I'd like to see, our effort to be consistent has morphed into an expectation, including a self expectation of being constant, as in always tuned in, always moving forward, always thinking always in some sort of planning or action to disrupt or support others. And somehow, when we are when we pause, or we're forced to stop, say, to go to the bathroom, do you tend to a personal matter to tend to a family member? Or if we get sick, we then feel guilty, like we're not doing enough and like, the effort that we're in will stall because we're not actively moving forward. And I mean, maybe I shouldn't even mention disk disconnecting from our efforts for a bit. And when I say we, obviously I know that's not all of us, right? But many of us, this happens to and what I've been reflecting on a bit recently is, it's as if we've taken the hustle and grind of dominant culture that's attached to success and gaining things and status. We've repackaged at some of us as being quote unquote committed in our liberation focused and social change, work and culture. But that's literally crushing us in so many ways, in our ability to access ease, not to mention our sleep both in quantity and quantity, quantity and quality. Did I say the right quantity and quality? That's what I would say. I know that there's so much awful shit going on out there here in the US and abroad, PS Free Palestine. So you may be like stuff, there's like no ease in the world, right? It's not possible. It's not accessible to me right now. And you're right. And you still need to access ease. And you still need good quality and adequate quantity of sleep, which is our focus for today. Back in January in Episode 44, we talked a lot about tips for taking it easy. And if you haven't listened to that episode yet, definitely take a listen. And when it comes to taking it easy, I feel as though that is a big disrupter in terms of the hustle and grind culture. The way some of us have adapted that unknowingly maybe into you know, this liberation, focus, social, social justice, social change work. And it's really, really messing with us. And I think that for some of us, we've come to just accept limited sleep or sleep that doesn't it's not very quality as kind of just Alright, well, this is just what it is. But I disagree with that. I disagree with that. And sleep is such a big part of our health. Right getting good sleep. Keep helps us to function with clarity with a little bit more ease. It increases our output of course, and also, getting good quality sleep also helps us to maintain a lifestyle of well being. Because it helps us to manage stress and when we can manage stress, then we are less likely to develop some health issues. And that's what we want right? Now, when it comes to getting better sleep, old conversations, and when I say old Conversations, I'm even mean like in the last year, my conversations around sleep have changed. So if you've listened to episodes in the past, where we talked about sleep, today's conversation is probably going to be a little bit different, right? Those old conversations used to be based on caffeine consumption and timing, which of course is important, maybe not consuming caffeine past 10 o'clock in the morning so that we it has the chance to run its course through you before you're heading to bed. You know, stopping working, stopping working, not working two to three hours before bed, right. So letting there be a boundary there turning off devices, at least 30 minutes, if not an hour before bed, doing something calming right before you lay down and you know not scrolling mindlessly till you close your eyes. These are the things that we typically talked about. And these are all important things. Our conversations also might have included talking about some of these other factors that might be completely messing with your sleep, including but not limited to ongoing unmanaged stress and anxiety that's messing with how you experience and engage with your day. Second one might be you know, often dealing with or ruminating over work stuff, way after work hours. A third thing might be staying up too late at night watching TV, trying to decompress from the stress and demands of the day. As well as you know, laying in bed worrying about the next day kind of you know, thinking about scenarios, just losing time that way. Definitely head back to Episode 22. For a lot more on these things, in case you're new to this conversation, because what I want to focus on today, when it comes to what's really doing a number on our sleep, and that is actively upholding burnout and overwhelm is the pace of your day, pushing your inner engine into overdrive on a regular basis. It's so interesting to me how the anti hustle and grind culture like conversation has shifted right, as I said before, to our liberation and social justice work. And I've noticed over the last year or so how easily some of us, including me, get caught up in the hustle and grind mentality no matter the situation. So like even though you may have as I have right identified and understand how dominant culture is pushing us into the cycle of burnout, and constant stress, right. Many of us don't have clear boundaries between work and home life or flexibility between these areas. But the hustle and grind mentality is following us into our liberation and social justice work in the Go Go going the doodoo doing always thinking planning or scrolling in the name of the fight. And sometimes some of us don't even realize it until we're in the thick of it. You may be like, oh shit, I didn't even realize this. And sometimes we don't realize it until we've gone completely over the edge or into the rabbit hole for a while. And now, I have to say to you that the hustle and grind of keeping up with dominant cultures pace and production focused mentality is not at all the same as striving to disrupt and dismantle oppressive systems for fighting for equitable rights or demanding a ceasefire. They are not the same, right, the core of each of those things in terms of dominant cultures hustle and grind towards success and getting being and doing more versus disrupting and mental dismantling oppressive systems, et cetera. Those two things are not the same.
The core of it right, but pushing through the day is pushing through the day. See the effect of that, and always staying connected to your efforts and the fight is the same in both situations. Right? The effect is burnout, the effect is overwhelmed, the effect is dis ease. Now people often say to me, we understand it's systemic is a systemic problem burnout overwhelm, we understand its dominant culture playing a part, even in our efforts to disrupt and dismantle everything. And yet the hustle and grind mentality persists. So what do we do about it? My answer is always the same. When it comes to interrupting the cycle of burnout and constant stress society has created for us, whether that is in, you know, the grind of the day, the grind of succeeding, or in the grind of showing up to oppression, dismantling, dismantling it, showing up to social justice efforts. The iron Vedic principles of taking it easy. And enjoying abundant and restful sleep are integral in how we interrupt the cycle of burnout, and stress. And the way we support ourselves, especially in getting good quality and quantity, sleep has everything to do with how we go throughout our day. It has to do with the things we've already named. And it also has to do with kind of like the structure. So how in liberation and social justice, focus work, we talk about the oppressive systems in place, those oppressive systems still play out in our day to day life. And so, you know, not only are we paying attention to the caffeine, and some of the other things that we're doing, we also have to pay attention to the way we are doing things and the systems behind what we do. So some of these supportive measures include having a well timed and intentional schedule throughout the day, slowing your pace and pausing more throughout the day, especially establishing a power down timeframe, engaging in evening rituals, and a consistent bed time and sleep time. So my advice to you whether this is the first time you're hearing about this, or you've been around the show for a while, is to just pick one area to focus on for the next couple of months, you may have a desire to implement all of these practices into your life. But I are better strongly encourages us to do one thing at a time and not like American culture, like Oh, I'm gonna like get an A and go all in on this for one week, and get it down pat and then add the next thing the next week, or better really invites us to be with this practice, examine it from all angles, try it out in different ways, really get a good fit on us that is also flexible. Before we add in something else, give us time to let life unfold challenges to arise in different ways. And so you might choose the one that needs the most attention, or the one that's easiest to start with. I'm going to take some time to offer some insight into each of these things to in case this helps you out in making your decision. So when it comes to having a well timed and intentional schedule throughout the day, this goes especially for eating and sleeping. Remember that skipping meals or waiting until you're hangry puts a lot of stress on your system. Now I'm not talking about intermittent fasting, or anything else. At this time I'm talking about like, like actually skipping meals, or waiting too long to eat too. Of course we can be flexible as life needs us to be. So we're not talking about being super rigid. When I read it talks about schedules, it's often in windows of time. So for instance, if your work and life responsibilities happened during the day, meaning like you don't work at night or overnight, then you might be up by 6am. Doing some morning rituals having breakfast sometime between seven and 8am. lunch somewhere between 12 and one or 1:30pm and then dinner somewhere around 530 and 7:30pm. This eating schedule allows you excuse me to be fully digested before the next meal and also ensures that you're fully digested before heading to bed. Ideally somewhere between 10pm and 12am Depending on the season. Now we're heading into spring and so that is going to change a little bit. You might be able to stay up a little bit later but also being careful of that. But the idea is to have this schedule in place, right where your body can kind of rely on getting food the same way your animals might the same way your plants might. Right and so that way you can stay adequately supported and fueled for the demands of your day. Now, of course, meetings get scheduled. Appointments don't go according to the schedule, things change. And so sometimes, our eating schedule has to be pushed back. That's, that's understandable. And sometimes you might be forced to skip a meal, not because of your own volition, but because that's just what fucking happened today. The idea is, when we have a schedule in place, we can always come back to it. And we're not just living life completely, just Edo willy nilly, kind of just figuring out things reactively throughout the day. So allowing yourself to have that schedule is going to be really important. And there are, you know, allowing yourself to have that wake time that sleep time also is going to be really beneficial. We're gonna talk about why in a little bit. Now, the next thing is slowing down your pace. And pausing more throughout the day, I know you are super busy, your to do list is way too long. And too many people and animals need things from you, I get that you have to move at a pretty quick pace throughout the day to get stuff done. I'm right there with you. And for me, it's not just the issue of the pace of the day, but the driving force behind the pace. Oftentimes, I don't know about you, but for me and other people that I know, we're lit up by frantic energy, or frenetic energy depending, it's like, I gotta get this done, I gotta get this done. I gotta get this done, like on repeat through our head and through our BA. And I don't know if this example is going to resonate with you, because who knows my brain kind of works in weird ways, but I'm going to offer it anyway. Do you ever have too many tabs or programs open on your computer, and then it starts to make that overdrive sound. Or maybe that colorful, colorful circle pops up and like goes round and round and round telling you that your computer's working really, really hard while processing. That is essentially the state we're in as we race through the day powered by frantic or frenetic energy. And this is where the conversation of ease comes in. And we talked about a couple of episodes, as I said earlier in January about taking it easy. And what that means that it doesn't always mean just being leisurely, right? Sometimes it means you know, softening the aggression, we might be feeling. so hear me out when we're frantically racing through the day to get shit done. When we're so often pushing or even dragging ourselves from one thing to the next. That's incredibly taxing on our system. It's way too hard to come down from that reregulate ourselves and repair the damage we cause to ourselves all before we go to bed. But when we're able to soften the agitation, hone in on our energy and slow the pace slow, our inner thinking pace, our inner processing pace, so it's not so supercharged, especially in our in our physical actions, we get to be more present, make fewer silly mistakes, and actually increase the quality of our effort. In the end, we end up getting more and better work done with less wear and tear on us. So you don't have to recuperate so much. So the question I have for you, the points of of consideration are, what have you started to become more aware of when you're frantically or frenetically, or bulldozing your way through the day, and took a pause right there when you realize it to center yourself to exhale to press your feet into the ground or place your hand on your heart, or maybe to look out the window to remember why you're doing this thing in the first place. And then what if you light into the weight of your foot on the gas pedal just a smidge. Now it's coming to establishing a power down timeframe.
I've already said I know you're busy, right? And I also know that you know it's not a great idea to work into all hours the night right or right up until bedtime or to be scrolling mindlessly or furiously till your eyes closed or you're staring at the ceiling just waiting for sleep to come. I'm gonna say the reminder anyway because, you know, like sometimes we get caught back up in things and we just Need a gentle reminder that snaps us back out a bit. And I'm also wondering if you can identify some ways where you stay connected to your work to your disrupting efforts in the quote, unquote, after hours, that you could benefit from establishing or strengthening boundaries with. I'm also wondering, or dropping in really with another reminder, of when you're out in the world doing thinking, planning, supporting, disrupting, decompressing, friend, you're working your system. Wondering if you forgot about that. And I know that if you work until five or six or seven o'clock at night, you've got errands to do and people, animals or things to support afterward, I get it. And just like with slowing the pace of your day, for me, establishing a power down timeframe is all about your internal vibe and internal energy. So what if you started to look at again, if you do most of your doing during the daytime hours? What if you looked at the hours between six and 10 or 11pm? Whenever you go to bed as your power data decompression time, that can be done incrementally. So I'm not saying shut everything off at six o'clock be done with everything. I mean, it would be really wonderful if we could. But I'm wondering what if, during like starting at six or seven o'clock at night, you started to soften your eyes and eyelids, relaxed your jaw, soften your grip on the steering wheel if you're driving, or exhaled before you reacted, or perhaps even listened to some of your favorite music while you're doing your errands. What if you read something for leisure or doodled while you were waiting in the car for you know, to pick someone up or waiting for an appointment to start? What if instead of constantly telling yourself, I've got to get this done, I've got to get this done. It became I'm going to do this now. I'm going to do this next. Those phrases to me feel different. And then maybe you can start to inch closer to being slower or softening the vibe as you move closer to bedtime. And I know that this might be tough, because sometimes the need the just that Ron need to just be done with all of the responsibilities for the day. So you so that you can just rest can be so great, so great that you just want to push through whatever is standing between you, and that rest as fast as you can. And that makes sense on occasion, but friend not every day, because again, that is going to tax you and put you into a greater deficit. So now when it comes to evening rituals, I'm going to start this with questions. What brings you joy? What brings you closer to your most authentic self? What honor is your most authentic self? I think one of our ways of coping with a dumpster fire that is this world has become doing things at the end of the day, or in our pausing, or in our free moments that numb us or require little effort and not too much engagement. And especially at the end of the day. And I get that I'm there a lot too. But I'm wondering what if we change that and instead of the numbing or the you know, things that require a little engagement or a little effort? What if we chose to do something that we enjoy that also maybe low buy in low effort, but something we enjoy nonetheless. And like really enjoy like down to your heart, like deep in your heart? What have you started doing something that you love in the evening, something that lights you up? practices that we often talk about in evening rituals are meditating doing a foot massage and heading to bed, maybe breathing journal or gratitude practice and those are all great. I often read before bed, or I might watch a show that brings me some sort of enjoyment rather than something that riles me up. But what if you went from a joy and enjoyment place of deep joy, deep authenticity. Recently, I was in the dollar store. And I picked up a few easy needlepoint packs, ones has a unicorn one has a heart and one has frogs and it's funny because the package says you know six years and up right? But I thought like what the hell? You know? Like I often try to do things that don't cost money. This obviously cost very little money. but in the grand scheme of things, and I thought, why not? Why not, it's going to be easy, might be fun. And for me like I like creative things like that. And so I think that it'll speak to my heart a little bit differently. So that's going to be something I'm going to start doing at the end of the day. Now, when we come to the consistent bedtime and sleep time conversation, I don't love to refer to our body as a machine, we hear that a lot in fitness and wellness culture, like dominant culture, you know, that seems kind of like robotic, it doesn't really account for how incredible the body really is. But it does kind of function in like a machine in terms of its rhythms and processes. So establishing a pretty regular sleep routine in terms of like going to bed, and waking at the same time, or similar times is really important, you've likely established something like this with puppies, or babies, you know, human adults are no different than babies, or even animals. And I see often that we try to tell ourselves that we're different, but you know, when it comes to this need, we're really not. So when it comes to sleep, you know, for us to allow our bodies the chance to do the processes that it needs to overnight to regenerate ourselves to kind of digest from the day, it helps to be asleep, you know, somewhere between 10 and 12:10pm and 12am, that changes season to season. And, you know, waking up sometime between, you know, around 6am With the sun to give ourselves that time to ease into the day. You know, our body does get used to schedules. And a sleep schedule is one that that is really important to establish, for many reasons, you know, you want to be able to wake up feeling a little bit clearer. Yeah, I was about to say clear, but you know, I mean, given the weight of the world, it's hard to, to wake up feeling clear, or light. And so I want to honor that. But allowing yourself the opportunity to kind of just get into the rhythm of okay, this is the time I'm getting to bed, you know, there's that window of time, usually springtime, we can step a little bit later. Just because the energy that's present in nature, but even in the fall, and then even in the wintertime, we're kind of getting to bed a little earlier with the the darkness. So it does change, you know, the recommended bedtime in an Ayurvedic sense, you know, based on the season. And you may find that your bedtime kind of shifts, you know, like as we get more sunlight, you may want to stay up a little bit later. And that makes sense. But paying attention to trying to be a little bit more consistent rather than all over the place is helpful. Now, of course, you may find that there are days or weeks where you have to shift from your original plan and that is okay, that is okay. And you can also shift your eating time, as needed based on what you've got going on in the day. So know that this doesn't have to be a rigid thing. It's, it's an invitation, it's a guideline. But allowing yourself to have that ease of knowing, okay, it's almost time for bed, or you know, allowing your body to do that power down before you head to bed so that you can get some good quality sleep is going to be really important.
So this conversation around sleep is especially timely with time springing ahead this upcoming weekend on I think it's March 10 In many parts of the United States, you know, as well as some other countries in the northern hemisphere and others around the world. And also the glitch period, the transitional period between the end of summer, end of summer, oh my gosh, the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Why do I have somewhere on my brain? It's starting next week, which can be a bit disruptive and sometimes a tumultuous period for us, especially for sleep, and that you know can last and really mess with us. So this is always this time of year is always a great time to revisit sleep practices. And again, not just the action of getting to bed, but paying attention to what is going on throughout your day. And how you might make some adjustments so that you might sleep a little bit more easily and for you know and with better quality and for the quantity that you would like. So, I'd like to check in. How is this information landing for you feeling super resonant? Is the resistance? Where's the resistance? And why? What's it tied to? What are the truths? What are the lies, stories? Where do you think you could benefit from making these shifts, you know, not just for your own personal responsibility and well being but for your collective responsibility and the collective well being in terms of like how you move through the world, mitigating harm that you cause and deepening the service and support you provide. And what might be some mental reframes to help you move through the discomfort of doing things differently and thinking differently. Now in case all of this is resonating resonating with you, and you're still feeling like there's a massive, or maybe just big enough mountain, between your understanding and actually feeling supported, to take action on this, know that you're not alone. I know, we're all freaking tired around here. And so much of the world feels hopeless. But remember, it's on us to do something about that so we can keep going. The world is not gonna give us the support right now. It hasn't been to live at ease to persevere in our fight or to keep going. And so finding that support we need is on us to create a space to process the overwhelm to come back to ourselves and to refuel our power. So if you're feeling like a big hell yes, so this or even a little one because energy is come hard to come by, let's be real. This is what the upcoming offer refuel your powers for and I hope to see you on Zoom March 23 at 11am. Eastern world connect and process, hold space for one another as we share what we're experiencing only if you want to and validate it all will recalibrate as we explore a framework to alleviate burnout and overwhelm sustainably and then you'll take some time to identify a self care practice that you want to focus on becoming more sustainable, to support you in your efforts that will catalyze your energy working through a process to help you meet yourself where you are. And curate this self care practice to fit your needs will also include tools to support you in any resistance you're feeling coming to the practice and through the discomfort of doing this practice even when the world isn't cooperating. And so you'll leave this session with a plan in place for your chosen self care practice. With flexible options based on your responsibilities available time and energy that you can continue to take care of yourself even when the world is on his bullshit and keep on going. You can find all the details and registration info at Steff gallante.com/refuel-your-power And I've included the link in the show notes. I'd love to meet you in that space there and if your resource to do so please share this information with your inner circle and beyond. Until next time, my friend please be kind and gentle to yourself just as you would to those who are most precious to you. Whether that's a human and animal baby or a plant. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the support and guidance I provided in this episode of please feel free to reach out and share and if you've been loving the show, please share it with your nearest and dearest and leave a review or rating. My friend you are a badass and you are enough now go be your favorite self and be well
