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The fourth thing that's saving my life right now is it's the cleanser. It's the cleanser I mentioned at the top of the show. Okay, so it's from rms. That's the brand. Now, y'all know how much I love this brand. I think I've had something from RMS on my last three what saved my life episodes. Like, I think now I'm not saying that RMS products will work for everyone, just like that's the case with any brand that you might love. It's not going to work for everybody because that's just not how things go. But RMS sure does work for me. I love their products so much. I have makeup, I have. And I have skincare, but there's a new product I tried because this has sort of been my. My process is when I run out of something I already have that does a certain job, then I explore a different brand that might be better, particularly rms, because I just love their stuff so much. So I ran out recently of my green clean cleanser. That's the, the, like the balmy cleanser from Pharmacy, the brand pharmacy. And I've loved that for a long time. Like it's, it's really solid and I've used it for years. But I was like, it's time to try. It's trying to try the RMS one. It's called the Coconut Coconut cleansing Balm or Coconut balm cleanser or something. Anyway, it's like in a light blue tub, like shallow tub. So here's the deal. This stuff is so good. So it goes on like a balm, you know, like, like an oil. It's oil based, right? To remove makeup and stuff. But then what you do, because usually when you do a cleansing balm is you put the balm on and then. That sounded like Seinfeld. And then you use like a rag and you take the balm off and then you use a water based cleanser and you wash your face again. That's like a two, like a two step cleansing process, which is recommended especially if you wear makeup. Because what both water and oil, like neither one remove everything. You kind of need both. Okay, here's what's so great about this cleanser. You put it on your face like a balm. You know, you rub it in. It's like an oil to remove the makeup and then you don't wipe it off. You put water on your hands and you work the water into the balm on your face and it creates a lather It's a double cleanse in one product. So then I rinse my face, and then I do, like, one final wipe with a washcloth, and my face is washed. And this stuff smells amazing. Works like a dream. It makes my skin feel so good, like, really clean. But, you know, not stripped, not dry. It's just very moisturized, but not, like, overly so. It's one product instead of two. I'm so obsessed with it. I'm so obsessed with it. I've been using it every day for, like, a month, and it makes me happy every single time. So good. So officially the name is called. I looked it up. It's called Coconut Clean Cleansing Balm from rms. Okay, so that is my. Whatever. Number fourth thing. Saving my life. So good. Okay, Number five. Very different from a cleansing balm. Number five is noticing. Now, this whole episode is a practice in noticing, but noticing my life and all the small things in it has been massively important. The last couple of months, I've had busyness, like, kind of a regular busyness. I mean, part of it is the time of year, right? A lot of us are having that. But there's also been grief in several areas, some ongoing unknowns, both personally and professionally, that are still happening, like, right now. And then just the pace of, like, regular life, you know, when life is irregularly busy, not just busy, but, like, it's a little more so. Which now is the time of year it seems to be for a lot of folks. Plus, there's personal difficulties and heartache for me, my default with all of that is to go into robot mode. I just plow forward and I prepare and adjust and prepare and adjust and prepare and adjust so that life can keep going. And I move so fast in doing that that I don't stop to notice what's happening around me, what's going on in my body, what my body's trying to tell me to do, to slow down or whatever, and also what tiny little nuggets of good are here right now. That is why the phrase good is here right now, which I've shared in many a podcast episode, is such an important mantra for me. It has to be a mantra. It has to be, because it's not natural. It is not what I think to do first. I do not practice noticing first. But the more I do, the more I practice, the more natural it becomes. And I'm genuinely grateful, because in this season, I've needed to notice, and I've noticed small things more naturally than I ever have before, have needed to. It's been a gift to notice my kids laughing with each other, or notice the new gray cat bird that started visiting my feeder. Or notice how much I love wearing these bright blue earring studs and I just, like, feel happy when I wear them. Or notice how familiar I am with Annie's hair because I braid it every single night. And like, what a tender, sweet thing that is. Noticing will always save my life, but it's been so high right now. It's been so important that it actually makes the list this month. So number five is noticing. The sixth thing that's been saving my life is deleting Instagram from my phone for long stretches of time. I've mentioned this a couple of times in various places. I'm not sure if I've brought it up on the podcast before. I can't remember. But basically, since January, since the beginning of January, I have had Instagram deleted from my phone. Not just hidden, because hidden wasn't enough. I could still get to it even if it was hidden. You can search, man. But I've had Instagram off my phone for like, 98 of the time. I reload it, I reinstall it into my phone when I have, like, an idea for a reel, or I just want to check in on some favorite creators, but when I'm done, I delete it again. I check DMS on my computer, like on my laptop as part of my workday. But ultimately, as a user, I just don't. I don't really use it as much, if at all. Now, I am not any different than a lot of you. Okay, I. I genuinely love Instagram, but there's some things that have changed about it, and the biggest one for me personally is that you can no longer reach the end of Instagram. Do you remember back in the day, in the early days of Instagram, when you only saw posts from the people that you followed so you literally could get to the end of your feed and be done? Like, especially if you didn't follow. But a couple hundred people, not everybody was posting all the time. Like, you could get to the end. That doesn't happen anymore. Plus, I think years of checking Instagram and refreshing Instagram has made the compulsion to do that more automatic than it's ever been. You know, like, we feel differently. We probably respond. Well, not we. I'll say me, I know I respond differently to Instagram now than I did, you know, several years ago. So I wouldn't say that I'm in, like, some sort of Instagram detox or anything. It's more. I'm just recognizing its value in my life compared to what it used to be, because things change and also what it is compared to everything else. You know, I sometimes miss it, but. But not very much. Like, I'm finding joy and fulfillment in other spaces on a. On a personal level and then on a professional level. I'm really lucky to be someone with a job on the Internet where I don't have to depend on Instagram to share what I'm working on. Right. I have this podcast and I have my email list. Like, those are the primary things. And then I have books and bookstores and stuff like that. So people find me that way. A lot of creators don't have those things. So Instagram and TikTok and Facebook, that's where they go to work. That's where their job exists. That's valuable and important. But since that's not my primary place of work, that's not where my job ultimately exists. I've been able to live like, that's true, and take Instagram off my phone and it's less about what has left. You know, the Instagram's gone, and more about the space that it's freed up for other things. Like, I'm adding more reading and more music and just more quiet. I'm really grateful to practice not feeling as connected to something that has an algorithm that refreshes. It's really hard. It was really hard in the beginning especially. And there are times where it's just like, oh, man, I really miss Instagram. Like, I wanna. I wanna zone out right now, and I don't have the app on my phone to do it. You know, it is. It is hard. But I have ultimately enjoyed what's on the other side, and I think it's saved my life in many ways that I probably don't even see yet. Okay, number seven, the seventh thing that's saving my life right now is doing one strength training video every weekday. Okay? Me and exercise, man, it's complicated. So exercise rhythms, for a lot of people, can just be an absolute bear. Especially if you are a person who doesn't enjoy working out, which is me. Or you have a history with diet, culture or even perhaps like disordered eating or disordered movement. I have both. Both of those things. So I don't like working out, and I have a history of treating my body in a harmful way. So as I have recovered from that for a long time, I just scrapped exercising altogether. Just didn't really focus on moving. I kind of swung the Other direction. We talk about that a lot with lazy and genius that like, when you realize the genius way is not gonna work because it's not really genius anyway. Sometimes you just kind of overcorrect and you swing the other way and you don't do anything at all and are all out lazy about it, which sometimes is necessary for the season you're in and seasons of healing and seasons where you just don't have the same access to the output and to healthy output that you might have. Not just an exercise, but in other ways. So it's a tendency we do we of swing strongly from one side to the other. And I definitely did that where I just. I just stopped moving. So I get that. I think that's what we need to do sometimes. But now I am, you know, I'm two decades removed from that most harmful time. I am 43 years old. I am in perimenopause officially. And I know that movement is a good way to tend to my body. Like, I want to care for her. I want to care for her. And I have been more and more over the past few years, but anything that was consistent or rhythmic or repetitive, you know, it. It just wasn't happening for me, like for years, other than doing the one down dog every day that I wrote about in the lazy genius way. And that was really important for me. I think that was like the starting point in me moving towards movement for the purpose of care and intending rather than control, you know, Otherwise it just doesn't work. Consistency is like not a thing. I would go through spurts of something consistent and then those spurts would drop off. And it's mostly because I think I've identified why. I think it's mostly because I was trying to create a rhythm that included consistent cardio and strength training and yoga, like on equally regular schedules. I was. It was just trying to coordinate too many things. So even doing that in a small way, it just wasn't working. It just wasn't working. So after I saw my doctor this last time, like for my annual checkup or whatever, and she's so great. We like spent probably 45 minutes talking. Like, she just spent so much time with her patients. It's my favorite. She's so kind. Anyway, she said to me that strength training at my age and in my current state of health and all of that was more important than the other things at this point because of. Because of my age, you know, so when she gave me a priority, something just clicked in my head. If I give priority and Regularity to strength training only. Only that's it. That's the only thing I like really plan for the walking because that's really what I do for cardio. The walking and the stretching, they can happen when they happen. And honestly those are much easier to make happen. Like sometimes I want to make them happen on a fairly regular basis. Like I'll want, my body wants to stretch. You know, I want to do a few yoga poses while I'm watching the NBA playoffs. Right. I love going for a walk when the weather's nice or when somebody wants to walk with me. I have opportunities to do that. So it's not, you know, it doesn't have to be like so regular, but it, it does happen fairly regularly. So basically I like to walk, I like to stretch. I don't like strength training. That is not a choice I would automatically make. Whereas walking and stretching sometimes are. So by automating that by doing the thing I really don't like to do as much, but also happens to be, according to my doctor, the most impactful thing for me right now. And by doing a small thing every day, which remember we start small here, I can let those other more natural things fall into place as they may. I don't need to create some three component movement rhythm. I can just make a strength training rhythm and Let the other two things happen naturally. So I have been doing a 15 minute strength training video every weekday. I alternate legs and arms. I really like Caroline Girvin. G I R V A N. She has a YouTube channel. I think she's Irish. She's girl could like hurt a man real bad. She has so many muscles but she has like easy to follow short videos that I don't mind so much. I usually don't like exercise videos, but I don't. I like her. I like her pretty good. And she doesn't talk during them, which I think is part of the reason I just don't want people to talk to me while I'm doing stuff. And the way it goes, it's like a movement is 40 seconds. You know, you do it for 40 seconds and then you have 20 seconds of rest. And it's that kind of video where it shows you the next move in the top corner. So I don't even have to like listen to the video if I don't want to. I can listen to something else. I've been doing that for about two months now. Doing one dumb dumbbell, basically one dumbbell video every weekday. And then the other stuff, the stretching and the walking they just happen when they happen, and they happen enough. This is probably the most content I've been with an exercise approach in my entire adult life. And, ah, that is definitely a lifesaver. Okay. The eighth thing saving my life is an oldie but a goodie. And it's my Merlin app. Merlin, like the wizard, but it has nothing to do with wizards. Is my Merlin app and my bird feeders. Basically, I've been spending more time than usual, which is saying something. Using my Merlin app, what you do is you. It's like a recorder, and you press the button. It's like a list. It listens to the birds that are around you and it tells you where they are. It's so great. It's so great. And then I also, like, have been watching my birds a lot more. I think the reason is because this is no joke. You cannot look out my windows or be. Well, I was gonna say be in my front yard, but the birds probably wouldn't come as much if you were actually in the yard by the feeders, that you cannot look out my window for 60 seconds without seeing a bird on one of my three feeders. I'm basically snow white at this point. Birds are always around, so I can watch them anytime. And I love it. I love it so much. It has been. Watching birds is like a spiritual practice for me. That's one thing. It is also very calming. And I kind of feel like the birds and I have become, like, kind of friends sort of. Don't. Don't laugh. That's why I mentioned this before. That's why it was so fun noticing the new gray catbird that started visiting like, he's new. This is a new friend. We haven't had catbirds at the theater before. And because I watch them all the time, I know that. I know that. So it just helps me feel connected to where I am, like, literally, like, physically in a meaningful way. And I just love my birds, and they're. They're saving my life right now. The ninth thing that's saving my life right now is that my boys. You're not ready. They have gotten into watching Family Feud. You guys, this has been the most hilarious, magical thing. So a few months ago, Ben happened to catch the start of an episode of Family Feud hosted by the incomparable Steve Harvey. And he was hooked. Absolutely hooked. And then Sam joined in. He kind of wandered in, and he saw it. And now, like, that is what we do as a family of four. After Andy has gone to bed from 10 to 11 at night, every single night, we watched two episodes of Family Feud. The boys always brush their teeth during the commercial break before the final Fast Money round. It has been the greatest source of joy. Just, I don't even have words for it. It's so fun. It has also been, I will say, an interesting source of. Of, like, watching them kind of learn about the world and also, like, look at how they look at the world versus how the world looks at the world. There's a lot of innuendo in the show. Some of the questions, occasionally are a bit much. But I've kind of loved how my boys have reacted to some of those. It's made that topic, like, a little more not palatable, but just, like, easier to access, you know, because there are some, you know, there's some interesting questions occasionally. And so we. Some of the boys have learned some words for things. They were like, oh, I didn't know. I didn't know what that was. Okay, great. Cool, cool, cool. But also, it's sort of like just perspectives on how people see each other. So, for example, one recent question was something like. We asked 100 married men, name something of your wife's you'd like to super glue together. And the number one answer was, her lips. Was her mouth. Now, Ben goes, well, that's not very nice. I bet a lot of those, those wives have plenty of good things to say. It was so cute. I was like, you're right, Ben. Or there will be, like. There will be something in an answer about, like, how annoying a mother is. And one of the boys will laugh, but be like, they'll say something about how that's not me and how they think that I'm not that way. I don't know. It's just been a really interesting practice and then being entertained while also seeing that how a lot of people see the world is different from how we talk about the world at home. They also just die when people give bad answers. They're, like, incredulous. There are nights where I'm not about to stay up past 11 o'clock and I've already gotten in bed, but I can hear the boys, like, beating the couch or yelling at the tv. And I know it's because someone gave a bad answer. It's just been so much fun. It's been so much fun. I never, ever thought that family feed would be something that's saving my life, but here we are. Okay, the final thing that has been saving my life recently is my spring playbook. Now. Okay, this is going to be a seamless transition into telling you that it's time to buy your own playbook, if you want one. But this is not just a commercial. It actually was not intended to be this way. Playbooks where I make my what's saving my life List over time. Like, over the three months until the next episode. Cause I'm always trying to pay attention to that. Cause it matters to me. It's a good practice for me. And my playbook is, like, was on there. Immediately I'm like, of course it's a playbook. Of course it is. Because I'm only two playbooks in to using them. Really? Holy actual moly. So this is a beautiful coincidence that we are about to spend a week or so promoting slash reminding you about the new summer playbook. It's time for the new summer playbook, and the spring playbook has legit been saving my life. Okay, next week, we're gonna do like a kind of a whole episode on seasonal planning and also break down some thoughts about the playbooks themselves. Almost like a. Almost like a little bit of an FAQ so you can understand what they are and how you might use them. How I use them. But also just thinking about seasonal planning in general. So I'm not gonna go into that a ton today. That'll be next week. However, here's the deal. If you're like, kendra, what are you talking about? Okay, I already mentioned my book, the plan, right? Preparation, live, adjust, Notice. Not preparation, prepare. Who cares? Same thing. It came out about seven months ago, and it is all about compassionate time management because we need some new takes on organizing our time. And one of those takes involves seasonal planning. Not just planning a whole year. Most definitely not your whole life. And also, your day sometimes feels like it's a little haphazard because you're not. You're not seeing sort of the 10,000ft version of it right now. For years, people thought the answer was a lazy genius planner. People would ask me to make one. Make a lazy genius planner. Make a lazy genius planner. And I did. I did actually try. I did. But planners were not the problem. You guys, you don't actually need a lazy genius planner. The thing that we're missing from. And this is from many planners, which is why we keep getting new ones. Because the thing that they're pretty much all missing is a seasonal view and kind of a small seasonal view. So the Playbook, it is not a planner. It's not a planner. But it does make whatever planner you use or even just your Google Calendar and, like, post it Note to do lists work better. So like in fact, after using a playbook since December, because that's, we released them in November. And the winter playbook runs from December through February, the spring playbook from March through May, which is where we are now. Like I've, I've used two of them now and I never want to live without one. Oh my gosh. This thing does exactly, exactly what I wanted to do. It helps me see where I am in my life. It gives me space to name what my matters about the season, where I am and not just like conceptually, I mean like literally what's going on right now, what's on the calendar, what has to happen. There's space for me to brain dump all those things to organize what I have to do and what I hope to do. And it's tiny so it can be like a little field guide. It's not the size of those field guides, it's, it's bigger but it's like I wish I knew the measurements right now, but it's like a, it's a very compact little friend that helps you see your current season of life. I also love that now that I have playbooks for these seasons, I can look back on them in future seasons and I can see what worked and see what didn't. What I enjoyed what happened in my life at that time. Like I, I cannot tell you how great these things are. So I created the initial vibes of them and then Leah, Leah Jarvis, who's our director of content and strategy, she did like the design work on them. Then we found this woman owned company in Asheville, North Carolina called Otter Pine that does printing and fulfillment as where as well as like design consultations. And as a unit as like Team LG and Team Otter Pine, we have created a truly like such a fantastic product. I'm so proud of this thing and I use it every day. I look forward to opening my Playbook because I know I'm not going to be overwhelmed. Like it's meant to keep what's here, now, now and then the rest can wait. It helps me see my life for what it is and I get the things done that I need to do. But some people like they don't even use every element of the Playbook like they just use parts of it. So you can use however you want to. But I just know that I personally love using them and I feel a genuine sense of calm when I think about them. The Playbooks absolutely saved my life. So like I said, I will share more about them next week as well as just like, ideas about seasonal planning, especially as we start moving into summer. Hopefully any questions that you have about them will be answered then. But if you know, you'd like to go ahead and get the Summer Playbook before June begins, or, you know, even the whole seasonal bundle, which is undated, by the way, so you can start with like, whatever season you're in, even though you're buying all four, they are currently available to order. Y'all bought up our first round of stock faster than we anticipated, which is a great problem to have. So we've been out of stock for like a couple of months, but now we have a warehouse full of them and ready to go. The Summer Playbook runs from June through August, so May is the best time to order yours in order to have it before June starts. So you can like start thinking about the season that you're in. So that is my tenth thing that is saving my life is my Playbook. So to recap, the 10 things that are saving my life right now are the album Jesus by John Guerra, the Bama podcast, doing my own colors and wearing the right ones, the coconut cream cleanser from RMS noticing deleting Instagram for the majority of the time, doing one strength training video every weekday, my Merlin app and my bird time watching Family Feud with the boys and my Playbook. And that is what's saving my life. All right, if you want to go ahead and check out the Playbooks, you can click the link in the Show Notes or you can go to the lazygeniuscollective.com playbooks. You can get all four seasons as a bundle, or you can get the summer one in preparation for this next Northern Hemisphere season. The Summer Playbook is this delightful tomato red that is so happy and cheerful, I think you're going to love checking them out. Also, a reminder that the next latest lazy letter goes out this Wednesday, so if you don't already get that, you can please sign up for that. It's I think it's probably this is kind of a weird thing to say, but it's like the most human thing that we do in this space. It's the most personal for sure. You know, I'm writing about my actual life in actual real time. Like I write it the day before it goes out always. And it's something I personally find valuable. And I'm always so encouraged by how valuable you all find it too. So if you would like to try it out, it's also where I share all my book reviews and Your girl reads a lot of books. You can sign up@the lazygeniuscollective.com join okay, before we go, let's celebrate the Lazy Genius of the Week this week it's Bethany Crumb. Bethany writes, I have a birthday bin I keep in my kitchen cabinet that holds all birthday items. Candles, balloons, decor, plates, napkins, et cetera. My kiddos, four birthdays are one a month from September through December. So I whip that baby out before the September birthday and take stock of everything I have and everything I need. Then I place a pickup order. If I'm out of a certain candle, need a couple more birthday plates, et cetera. That way I'm not scrambling each month trying to figure out what I still need. I also decided once that our birthday decor is one garland, one birthday banner, and huge balloon numbers for the birthday kid, as well as fun disposable birthday plates and napkins. I even keep the push pins above the window where I hang the banner so I don't have to replace them from birthday to birthday. Boom. Done. Birthday bin for the win. Bethany this is so great. As a family that has a mess of birthdays across a couple of months, I personally love the brilliance of having everything in one place. Deciding once with the decor is and most importantly, noticing what you need, what is necessary before that need becomes urgent. Such a great idea and one that I think will encourage a lot of listeners. So thank you for sharing, Bethany, and congratulations on being the Lazy Genius of the Week. This podcast is part of the Odyssey Family and the Office Ladies Network. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly weekly Production. Thanks y'all for listening and until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra and I'll see you next week. LA.
