Welcome to the Elevated Edit Podcast.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, and the goal of this podcast is to discuss all things personal development, wellness, and the art of editing your life in an elevated way.

From mastering morning routines to mastering your mindset, we're going to sift through the noise and empower you to take elevated action.

Make sure you catch the show notes for all the details.

Enjoy the show.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Elevated Edit podcast.

I am not sure what the weather is like where you are, but as of the time of recording this episode, it has gotten really cold here in South Arkansas.

Well, it's gotten really cold for us.

Low 30s at night is very cold, especially for me.

And when this kind of weather hits, especially right after Thanksgiving and there's holiday, holiday music in the air and holiday movies are on, I lose all of my motivation.

I just get this.

It's not even a funk because I'm in a great mood, but I just want to get under a heated blanket and watch Christmas movies all day long.

Like, especially now that Lindsay Lohan is having a comeback.

Like, can we just take a moment to acknowledge how proud we are of her?

I feel like I've grown up with her and she was really struggling there for me minute, and she's, she's thriving now, and I feel like I have got to watch all of her Christmas movies in support of her amazing comeback.

And so you combine, for me, you combine this time where I feel like doing absolutely nothing with the fact that January's messaging is very like, New Year, new you, you've got to come out with the bang, all these New Year's resolutions.

And so on top of that, December is just a busy month.

Like, you've got a ton of Christmas parties, you've got a ton of family get togethers, friend get togethers, trips.

All the things are happening in December.

And it has always resulted in kind of being like a time of anxiety for me.

And then that anxiety spills into January.

I set these really unrealistic goals that are well intended, but I don't set myself up for success to achieve those goals.

And so then when I don't achieve them, I feel bad about myself.

And then I'm like, oh, another year that I didn't achieve my goals.

So this last year, December of 2023, and I've talked about that before on the podcast, how I booked an Airbnb and I just kind of had some time for reflection and time to set back and think about my life and what I wanted it to look like.

And I did not set huge goals, New Year's goals.

Now I had big goals for 2024 and I've achieved them.

But I did not set huge goals for New Year's of 2024.

And I just kind of wanted to test it and see how it worked.

And it worked smashingly.

And so I'm going to carry that into 2025 as well.

And for me, shifting December from being a time that's like, I need to hustle to the finish line or I need to get ready.

I've got to gear up for a big January 2025.

It has been such a mindset shift for me.

And look, if you are like me and you're a high achieving, multi passionate woman, I completely understand that we are wired to push forward constantly.

But the truth is, most successful people that you know, they know when to pause.

They know when to take a break.

A really good book that I read, actually I read that when I was at the cabin in Hot Springs last December, is a book called Evergreen by Lydia Millen.

She is a content creator, like OG content creator.

You probably definitely know her because she's huge on Instagram and YouTube, but she wrote a book.

And essentially in the book she discusses how just like nature, you know, nature slows down in December.

Leaves fall, animals hibernate, everything slows down and the world doesn't pick back up in January.

You know, things don't bloom, animals don't come back out until the spring.

And she says that like nature, we should kind of align ourselves with those seasons so that our body produces naturally what it's supposed to do.

And so today I'm going to share how I am resetting physically, mentally and emotionally this December so that I can set myself up for growth next year.

I can set myself up for that season of blooming and moving forward and reaching my big goals.

And let's talk about for a minute why December is the perfect reset time.

Because like I said, I know we are all tempted to sprint through the holidays and then we also expect ourselves to hit the ground running in January.

And this is on top of an already busy year.

But if we're being completely honest, that is just not sustainable.

It leads to burnout, it leads to scrambling, it honestly leads to feeling really bad about yourself when you don't hit your goals.

So instead, let's focus on foundational practices that allow us to ease into the new year with energy and alignment and joy.

And also I want to emphasize that having a reset, slowing down, pulling back however you want to define it.

That doesn't mean that you're doing nothing.

It doesn't mean you're only sitting in front of the TV eating bonbons.

You're not just sitting around slouching, doing nothing.

But it can mean that you're choosing intentional practices that nurture your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.

And for me, I'm going to list off the things that I'm going to do.

And I want to caution you, like, I'm.

I'm taking this pretty seriously.

So I'm doing all the things.

You definitely don't have to do all of these.

Maybe implement like one or two tips, one or two tricks, or brainstorm your own.

Whatever it is that you need to do to have, like, even a mini reset in December, I truly think will, like, set us all up for like, a very aligned, very calm, very joyful 2025.

So to start my physical reset practices, I have been practicing this first one all year.

And even 2023, I kind of really got into this.

But since we got back from Europe, I have been making sure my walks in the morning are really long.

I've been trying to hit 10,000 steps on my morning walk.

It's definitely a time commitment, but for me, it completely changes my whole day.

It gives me time to think.

It is, you know, pretty decent exercise.

It gets me outside.

I get some sunshine on my face.

Like, I can definitely tell days when I walk versus days when I don't walk.

And it's just such a.

It's been such a game changer for me.

And I used to put both of my headphones in and listen to really loud music, which is perfectly fine.

It got me in the habit.

And then I switched to listening to audiobooks, and then I switched to listening to audiobooks with just one headphone in here.

Lately, I've been walking with no headphones, and it's been really nice.

It just gives me time to think, time to brainstorm.

I feel like when my body is in motion, I come up with my best ideas.

And so I've come up with a lot of podcast ideas.

I've come up with a lot of content ideas, all things that I'm really excited for in 2025.

I've got a little file on my phone.

I can just store them away until it is time for me to really kick it into high gear.

But I am just enjoying that time to think through my thoughts and process things.

Something else that I have been doing for a couple weeks now, and I am not going to go in depth into all of the benefits of this.

You can talk to Jessica about it.

Jessica is Jessica Francis.

She's who I went to Europe with.

And I will tag her in the show notes as well as a link to book with her.

But she is a PA and she has been doing NAD treatments, and I am in love with them.

It gives you energy and it helps you sleep.

But for me, the mental clarity that I've gotten from these injections has been insane.

Like, I didn't realize how bad my brain fog was until I started taking them.

And now it's like a blanket has been taken off of my brain.

So I'm definitely going to continue those well into next year.

But that's definitely something that I'm adding into my routine this holiday season.

And so far, it's helped a lot.

And you can call up at the Medi spa and they can answer all your questions about it.

But so far, for me, it's been pretty fantastic.

And the cost is fairly inexpensive.

So I feel like that's something, even if you are on a tight budget, that you can add in and it'll just make you feel good and give you that mental clarity so that you can really focus on yourself and your family and have all the happy thoughts.

And then the final thing is I'm going to focus on taking a lot of naps, a lot of gentle movement.

I feel like I used to when January was, like, looming, I was like, oh, my gosh, I've got to lose all this weight.

I've got to go to the gym.

I've got to do all, like, I would be so intense.

I'd be doing, like, hit and all the.

All the things.

It was just so exhausting.

And I would just work myself all the time.

I was always available, and I'm not going to do that.

This December, we're doing our walks.

We might do a little yoga, but we're going to be.

I'm going to be really gentle with myself, really gentle with my body, my mind.

I'm not pushing.

I'm not going overboard.

I'm just going to give my physical being just a second to breathe and rest.

Okay.

On to my mental reset practices.

So this is something.

This first one's something that I've been doing my whole life.

My mom used to make me journal every night, and I absolutely hated it.

I would get so annoyed because I had to journal every night before I went to bed.

But now I'm really thankful for the practice because it helps me process almost everything.

Like that's kind of how I process my life.

I work through problems, I brainstorm, I come up with creative ideas.

And it's also just a place to store memories.

Like, I have kept all of my journals and I love going back and reading them and seeing my progress and looking back on memories.

That's journaling is just something that I absolutely love to do.

It doesn't have to be this big drawn out habit.

I mean, it takes me maybe five, ten minutes a day and it's something that I really enjoy doing and it creates clarity.

I can process through what worked, what didn't work, what I want more of, what I want less of.

So it's definitely something I'm going to be doing a lot of in December.

Something else that I am doing for my mental reset is I am going to collaborate with some people in my life that are super talented at certain things.

So the first thing I'm going to invest in is you probably met her.

If you, if you listen to episode number 20, you met her.

Becca Post, she's a friend and she does human design readings and I am not exactly sure what all it entails, but I am very excited to dive into it.

And so she's going to do a human design reading for me and I'm just hoping that it will come kind of open my eyes a little bit more to why I do certain things and maybe help me set my days up better so that my time and energy is more aligned.

And speaking of that, I also have another friend who does energy analysis and essentially she looks at your energy throughout the day and helps you kind of schedule your calendar.

And so I'm hoping maybe there's some tiny tweaks that I can make, like if I need to move my time when I walk or if I need to have all my calls a certain time of day.

And her name is Allie Casaza.

I will link her in the show notes as well.

But she is going to do an energy analysis for me.

And those are things that I, a couple years ago probably would not have invested in.

But I am very excited to invest in them now because I know that working on foundational things like that will help me knowing when in my calendar I need to schedule something to work around my energy.

Understanding why I interact with others a certain way will obviously help in every aspect of my life.

And so I'm really excited to invest in both of those things and learn more about myself and do it in a month where everything is kind of slow.

I can journal through it.

I can process things and then I can go back and implement it when I honestly want to feel like it.

And then on to my emotional reset practices.

So reading is something that I absolutely love to do.

I have noticed that during the year I get really stuck in a self development business book kick.

I will read like five or six books at a time and then realize that I haven't read anything fun in a while.

And so I made myself a really hearty list of books for December that have no depth.

They're not going to be thought provoking whatsoever.

I am just going to lose myself in books that are literally just romance cheesy.

All the things like some of the titles in my Kindle right now make me giggle.

But I'm really excited to just have like a month of reading really fun books.

It inspires me, it sparks my creativity and I'm really excited to dive into that.

And then I plan on spending a lot of quality time with friends and family.

Once again during the year I feel like I get super busy.

Weeks will go by at a time and I'll look up and I'm like, oh my gosh, I haven't seen this friend or I haven't seen this family member.

And so I want to be really intentional with my quality time and I want to surround myself with people who recharge me and bring me joy.

I've got a lot of fun holiday things planned with a lot of different people and I'm really excited to just slow down and be present and enjoy that time with them.

And then the last thing I'm going to do for my emotional reset practice is do a lot of meditating.

A time to just be still and let go of noise and just not think for a second.

This is one of the tiny benefits of not having children is I have a lot of time at home where like if Will's not here, I can just turn off all of the technology and the house is completely silent.

We also live in the middle of nowhere, so that helps too.

I don't know if you could do this if you were in the middle of town or in a neighborhood, but if you turn, if I turn the TV off at the house, like there's no noise and sometimes I'll just turn everything off and lay on the floor and just sit there for 30 minutes.

And it's so nice.

It calms my nervous system.

It helps me think through things.

I remember things that I have forgotten to do or whatever it is that's kind of like running.

I feel like sometimes people Say, oh, I've got tabs open.

And that's not how my brain is.

My brain is more of like a.

Oh, gosh, what are those?

I don't have no clue what it's called, but it's like an old, like, film that, like, flicks by really quick.

And I'll see flashes of things that I need to be doing.

Like, I'll be, like, in the car or like, in Walmart.

I'm like, oh, I need to do that.

Oh, I need to do that.

Like, there's flashes of things happening, but I'm in a moment where I can't stop and write it down, or I can't do this or I can't do that.

And so the moment passes and I completely forget about it until the thought pops up again.

But if I give myself time to just be quiet.

And I always try to have a notebook and a pen handy.

I try not to have my phone during those moments and write things down because inevitably, if I pick my phone up, somebody's text me, I respond to the text, and then 15 minutes later, I'm down a rabbit hole and I.

It's hard to get back.

So I try to, like, keep a pen and piece of paper so I can jot down things as they come up.

One last thing that I'm doing for my emotional reset for December is I deleted my Facebook app from my phone.

So I'm still on Facebook.

I just can only get on on my laptop.

And I also so sadly deleted TikTok from my phone.

I'm still pretty heartbroken about it because I love scrolling TikTok.

I think it's so informative.

I think it's so fun.

I think there's so many great, amazing things that you can learn from TikTok.

But my downside with TikTok is that it gives me too many good ideas.

And so I'm constantly like, oh, I need to do.

Oh, I need to do that.

Oh, I need to try this.

Oh, I need to buy that.

And I never actually get things done.

And so it's been a really nice last couple of weeks not having those apps on my phone.

I have all this free time.

I don't know where it came from.

Obviously I know where it came from.

But, like, in my mind, I'm like, how do I have all this free time?

Which has been really fantastic.

And so I plan on keeping those apps off of my phone for sure for the rest of December.

And then, who knows, maybe longer.

Not being on Facebook has felt.

I feel really isolated Almost like I have no clue what's going on anywhere.

I don't know if anybody's gotten married.

I don't know if anybody's gotten divorced.

Like, I literally don't know what everybody else is doing.

But it's been pretty nice because I also think that I don't care.

I'm kidding.

I do care.

I just don't need to know.

I don't need to know right away.

Like, I want to be one of those people that you, like, see me at an event and you go, oh my gosh, did you hear?

And then I say no.

And then you tell me in person, like, I don't need to know play by play what is going on in everyone's life.

I just, I don't, I'm too busy.

Got too much going on.

Whether that is, you know, recording a podcast or watching the holiday for the 50th time this month.

I am too busy to care what everybody else is doing.

And then let's focus a little bit on not coming out with a bang in January.

So we talked about what I'm going to do in December.

Let's talk about January 1st, 2nd.

Because January is marketed as a very.

You've got to come out with a bang.

You've got to have all these resolutions and if you don't achieve them, you're a failure.

And all the things very stressful, especially if you're high achieving, especially if you're multi passionate, can be a very difficult month because once again, nature does not explode into action on January 1st.

Nature's still hibernating, it's still cold, it's still resting.

Growth is happening gradually.

It is building roots, it is developing all the things.

I don't know anything about plants, so I'm not really sure what's happening.

That would have been a cool analogy though.

If I was a plant girl, I could have added in something about like a tulip or whatever it is.

But yeah, I don't know anything about plants, but I am, I'm taking that approach.

So in January, I am going to take slow steps towards my goals instead of having these massive resolutions.

I want to.

It's my hope that I'll just keep continuing the small intentional habits that I've built in December.

And I plan on avoiding like guilt driven goals, goals that other people set for me.

And I'm hoping to avoid the pressure of feeling like I need to achieve everything immediately and just give myself grace to grow into the year.

Now, with that being said, my January is so busy, I Looked at my calendar earlier, and I have, like, three trips planned.

I do have a really exciting.

My neighbor actually is hosting a quiet retreat, and I'm going to that.

I'm going to Georgia for a really exciting opportunity.

And then I've got two fun trips planned.

So January is definitely going to be a busier month.

But I'm excited to not have, like, the pressure of, like, okay, I've got to lose £40 and I've got to do this, and I've got to do X, Y and Z, and I have shape perfect, and if I mess it up, then I'm just a failure for the rest of the year.

I'm not doing any of that.

I don't even think I'm going to set New Year's goals.

Obviously, I've got some business goals that I would like to achieve by the end of Q1, but I am not setting, like, my New Year's resolution is to never eat chips again.

Like, I'm not doing all that this year.

I don't think it works.

I don't think that putting that much pressure on ourselves is ever a good thing.

So, yeah, I hope this inspired you a little bit.

I hope it.

You don't.

Like I said, you don't have to copy what I'm doing, but I hope maybe it inspired you to, you know, sit down and think about some things that you could do in December to intentionally set yourself up for 2025.

Really think about what you want your 2025 to look like and env that person.

And then work backwards and say, okay, if I want to be this kind of person, what.

How does she act?

How does she show up?

You know, what kind of habits does she have?

What kind of books does she read?

Maybe that is your goal for January.

Like, okay, I want to be this kind of person by the end of 2025.

So in January, I need to start off reading this one book.

And so instead of feeling like you have to change your whole life overnight, which is not achievable, you actually do something that moves you forward and, like, yeah, it's going to feel slow.

It is going to be slow.

But just like nature, like, growth is really slow.

And if you actually want to achieve your goals, you have to, you know, set in that discomfort and set in that growth.

And this is your permission slip to not come out with a bang in January.

We are doing the opposite of New Year's resolutions.

We are just setting goals for ourselves that feel aligned, that feel comfortable, that feel achievable, and we're letting real growth happen, so I hope this episode resonated with you.

If you enjoyed it, please share it with someone who also needs this reminder.

And don't forget to leave a review.

It helps the podcast reach more high achievers just like you.

I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll see you in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning in to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I hope you found today's episode inspiring and full of actionable tips.

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Until next time, Keep growing, glowing and elevating your life.

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