Episode 37: Design Your Summer Around How You Want to Feel

Tina Boogren
6 hours ago
6 min read

Description: Summer has a way of disappearing before we've done the things we actually wanted to do. This week's invitation is to design your summer before it gets away from you, not with a rigid schedule or an overwhelming checklist, but by starting with one simple question: how do I want to feel this summer? When we get clear on that feeling first, everything else falls into place.

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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Everyday Wellness. I am your host, Dr. Tina Borgren, and I am so excited that you are here. This is episode 37 and per usual, I just want to take a second and say I hope that you have been implementing these last few invitations and are pausing to think about if you're noticing a difference. If so, keep doing it, and if not, let it go, right?

So the last few weeks I especially love, because we talked about kind of book ending our days. So starting our days on purpose, maybe doing some journaling, maybe doing some reading, you know, just thinking about how we really want to start the day. And then last week the invitation was related to how we want to end the day, and making sure that right before we drift off into sleep, that we're thinking a positive thought. And so hopefully, in theory, you've been doing this for the last seven days, give or take, and I want you to pause and just think about has that made a difference? Do you feel like it's made a difference? I will tell you for me, ooh boy, yes, it has.

So I have had that strong morning routine of journaling and reading for a while now, and it makes me so happy. And when I have purposely thought about those final thoughts before I go to bed, I did notice a difference. And here's the interesting part. So as I've shared many times, I'm a voracious reader, and I read fiction at night. And what's really interesting is I read some pretty heavy books and memoirs and deep themes, and it's, they're not always super happy-go-lucky. And so I find myself, I read until I fall asleep, and typically what happens in the past is that I always read on my Kindle because it's easier at night. I don't wake my husband up with the reading lamp, all of it. But I'll just like hit the off button and drift into sleep. Well, I wonder if I am bringing those images because I struggle sometimes with nightmares and strange dreams. And so this last week when I did the same thing reading because I had the sticky note reminder, right as I was turning my Kindle off to go to bed, I saw the sticky note reminder, and I just forced myself right before I drifted off to just think of something outside of the book if what I was reading was not so pleasant, and I feel like it really made a difference. And so I'm going to keep continuing that. So I'm hoping you're finding these small little invitations are actually adding up and feel pretty good.

So this week's invitation, because we are approaching, oh my gosh, when this comes out we are going to be right smack dab in the middle of May. I want us to start thinking about what we want our summer to feel like, to be like. Let's design our summer. Now, many of my listeners I know are educators and get a big chunk of time off in the summer. Yay! Lean into that without guilt. And I know many of you do not have a summer of your childhood or maybe your children have that big chunk of time off, and yet there's just something that feels different in the summer, and I want us to not miss that.

For me, sometimes the seasons can go by in the blink of an eye, especially for me in the summer because my busiest time is actually in the summer. And if I'm not careful about choosing how I want to feel, what I want to do, what my summer bucket list is, I can just really work and that's it. And then all of a sudden I wake up and it's fall, and I'm like, "Wait, I didn't do all the stuff I wanted to do." So that's what I want us to work on this week, is I want us to just think about what you want your summer to feel like, what you want to do, places you want to go, experiences that you want to have, whether that's by yourself, or with your family, or with your children, or with your friends, or with your partner. All of the above, perhaps. Instead of getting, you know, to fall and saying, "Woo, I didn't do the things that I thought I was going to do," let's be purposeful in trying to make those happen.

Now, for some of you, it might be like an actual checklist or like a bingo board. For some of you, that does not appeal to you at all, and it might just be thinking about it. For some of you, maybe you actually write some things down. I'll probably start a little list in my journal. Maybe you pull out your phone and start a list on your phone. But the idea here is about just being purposeful and thinking about, ahead of time, when and how we'll do something, because by doing that, we are much more likely to do it.

So there's research from Peter Gollwitzer, I believe , called implementation intentions. Implementation intentions. And the idea here is that - again, when we decide ahead of time when and how we'll do something, even if it's just kind of loosey-goosey, we are much more likely to follow through with that thing. What happens is by thinking ahead like that, that implementation intention, it's reducing the mental load of deciding in the moment, and that matters because when we get tired and decision fatigue sets in, in the moment, we're usually like, "Well, I'll go to the farmers' market next week. Tonight I'm just going to lay down and watch TV." Instead, let's be purposeful and go back to one of those questions I love: how do I want to feel this summer?

So maybe you want to feel rested. Maybe you want to feel spacious or connected. Or light, or creative, or adventurous. Once you identify that word or even just that sense of a word or feeling, then you can start to design your summer around that feeling perhaps. So maybe you want to feel adventurous, and so you are going to think about this summer, what are the things, what does adventure look like and feel like for you? Are you taking some day trips to, to some different festivals or an amusement park, or doing some hiking? What does that adventure look like for you? Maybe it's rest. How are you going to rest this summer? Are you going to rest in a park? Are you going to rest by a pool? What does that look like for you to feel rested? Maybe you want to feel unhurried. What are you going to do to make sure that you slow down where summer doesn't just fly by? That's what I want us to do. We don't have to think about, like, optimizing our summer unless that feels really good to you. What I want us to think about is how can we be aligned this summer.

So take a little time this week, just a few minutes, maybe you do a little bit each day or a big chunk of time, whatever works for you, and I want you to ask yourself the question, how do I want to feel this summer? And then what are a couple things that you can do that would support that feeling? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? Who do you want to be with? Envision yourself living that vision that you have. Have that be the last positive thing that you think about right before you drift off and go to sleep at night. Ooh, that sounds fun to think about. Maybe it's a vacation or just a day trip or a new patio you want to sit on. I mean the possibilities are endless. So whether you have some time off or, ah, nothing really changes but the season, be purposeful so we don't miss this season. I want us to really think about, oh, purposely recognizing how we can fully, fully enjoy the summer that is coming our way. That's it. That's your invitation for the week. I'm cheering so hard for you.

As always, we're grateful to Adrienne and Marzano Resources and Solution Tree for this busy job in the summer that I have, but I love. It means that I get to get out and see a lot of people that make me so happy. So I'm grateful for that, and grateful for you, this incredible badass Everyday Wellness squad. Jump on over to the Facebook group so we can share ideas for how we want to feel, what we want to do, how we can align our summers in a really conscious way. Mm. Wonderful. You guys have a great week. I love you.

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