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It Gets To Be Easy
We empower women to grow confident in creating their most healthful & joy-filled life with ease.
It Gets To Be Easy
Metamorphic Morning Routine for Personal Growth and Parenting with Tess Chupinsky
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Ever wonder how a powerful morning routine could completely transform your life? Tess, a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of four and passionate runner, shares her incredible journey of personal growth and motherhood. In this compelling episode, Tess discusses how journaling, meditation, and personal development helped her navigate the grief of losing her father and the surprise of an unexpected pregnancy. Discover how her intentional morning routine has strengthened her emotional health, enhanced her parenting skills, and improved her running and training, making her the person she always aimed to be.
Tess explains how daily gratitude and mindful journaling have led to more patient and while she also introduces us to a unique journal she’s designed, The Run Your Life Journal, which combines planning, goal-setting, and gratitude, emphasizing the need for a positive mindset to achieve personal goals. Whether you're looking for inspiration to start your own morning routine or seeking ways to live a more fulfilling life, Tess's story offers valuable insights and practical advice that could be the catalyst for your own transformation.
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Welcome to it Gets To Be Easy Podcast where you're granted permission to live your most healthful and joy-filled life with ease.
Speaker 3:We are your hosts, katie and Shauna, and together we've been cracking the code to creating our own realities with ease, and now we've set out to help you grow confident in this too. Hi friends, welcome back to the show. Today we have a special guest with us that I am so excited to introduce you to. This is my friend Tess. Tess is a mom of four by day, runner by early morning light, passionate about mastering your mind through journaling and using her five-step metamorphic morning to intentionally live out the life of your dreams, no matter how mundane it might be. She's a stay-at-home, homeschool mom and business owner, and Tessa's personal mission statement is I work hard to live out each day so that I can be everything I want to be wife, present, homeschool mom, runner and business owner. While keeping her values and priorities in their place. Tess is confident the most important work she will ever do will be thin the walls of her home. I love that. We love the statement that you shared, tess, that success isn't a level of achievement, but rather how I feel. This is so in line with our vibe around here on the show. We can't wait to talk to her today. She's even created an amazing journal that we can't wait for you all to hear about. So, without further ado, let's welcome Tess.
Speaker 3:Awesome, thank you for being here. I just want to share a little bit about how we know you. Yeah, so Tess and I just met. I honestly just typed in the hashtag like running moms, and that's how I came across your page and then just sharing in the you know the life of motherhood, natural living, and so just so honored to have you here today. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Good, all right. So, first and foremost, I want to start off with a fun question. I know you're a big reader and I, from personal development to fun reading, and actually you really inspired me to start reading for fun again, by the way, I love that. So what are you reading for fun and for personal development right now?
Speaker 1:So for fun, I just finished One Star Romance last night. It was cute. I'm kind of really loving the like fun little rom-com. I call them my brain candy books, so I always have a book that I'm reading at night. That's my brain candy. And then in the mornings I have, as part of my metamorphic morning routine, a personal development book or two or three that I'm going through.
Speaker 1:So the way I do that I'm currently reading I don't want to butcher the name, it's A-R-E-T-E. I don't want to butcher the name, it's A-R-E-T-E. Arete or something like that. The whole genesis of the book is about becoming 1% better in like all categories, all aspects of your life. And I'm also reading the Pivot Year from Brianna Weist, or Weist. Yeah, probably gonna butcher that one too. So I go back and forth between the two every morning. They're just to be read like you read a couple of pages per day and then move on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I know some of the ones that I think that I've loved from your. Your recommendations really started with like the untethered soul and the same concept of just a little bit, and then you soak it in and integrate it. Yes, that's so great and we'll get these links to books and share them in the comments or the notes section of the episode. But I'd love to kind of take a step back and hear just really, this has been a journey for you over a couple of years, I know, and so how is this focusing on your emotional health? How has it kind of started? And tell us about the downstream. It's impacting your training, it's impacting your parenting. Kind of just give us your story.
Speaker 1:Okay. So it was kind of two parts. One part my dad passed away and I had three kids at the time and I allowed myself months and months to grieve, but I just felt like I wasn't getting any better. I just felt like I was like in this hole and I couldn't dig myself out. And meanwhile I've got these three kids who need me to be at my absolute best, and so it was a combination of that. And then recognizing like there was a gap between how I was showing up in motherhood versus the parent I wanted to be, and there had been months I'd gone by, like I want to say, seven months after my dad passed, and it was just one of those feelings that I was like I have to get back to my life, like I need these children need me. And then at the same time I found out I was pregnant, with a surprise pregnancy, and then that was just the the turning point where I was like it's, you can't. You can't bring a new life into this world when you don't even have your own under control.
Speaker 1:So I was, and I still am, in a what's called a forum, a group of girls that we get together monthly and we work on growth and those topics and I was recommended to start journaling and so I started my journaling journey from there and then that kind of evolved into a morning routine ritual. As I was preparing for a natural childbirth, I coupled it with meditation. I had always read in the morning, so I had that part of my morning routine. I read a little bit and then I was a runner so I also ran and I just noticed like a year later I was just not the same person that I was before and I had grown into like more of who I wanted to be and it just was this like aha moment to me. I was like, oh my gosh, this morning routine, coupling these things together is what brought me here and like I can share that. Anyone can do this. I'm no one special, you know.
Speaker 1:So that's that's kind of the journey of, of how I started and, like, the metamorphic morning routine that I talk about is, you know, very simple two to five minutes of meditation. I spend 10 minutes, or recommend 10 minutes, of reading a personal development book in an area of life and this is important in an area of life in which you want to grow and succeed in, and whatever that means to you. Part of it is the journaling. So I say five to seven minutes of journaling per day in the morning, and then some sort of movement, ideally a movement that you enjoy better if it's meditative, like yoga or running, and then the last portion of my morning routine has been the cold plunge. So that's kind of the what I've put together and that I've found has been like extremely transformative for me, and I know it can be for other people too.
Speaker 2:I love that so much. Tess, I want to ask you a question about the journaling while you're there talking about that. When you started doing that, it sounds like it was new for you. Were you just doing a blank page? Did you find that there was certain topics that you were journaling on, or were you going through kind of what became your journal, that process? Can you share a little bit about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a gratitude journal. It's part of what I kind of based building my own personal gratitude journal off of, so it had prompts every day and you would just answer those prompts.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was going to say too, actually, about that. As far as those prompts go and I'm only saying this because some of our listeners have talked to me before when we talk about journaling on the show that sometimes those journal prompts where it is just like things you're grateful for on repeat, that sometimes they found that challenging because it just kind of felt like they were having to come up with answers Do you feel like, as you start to build your own journal, like that's?
Speaker 1:why you got specific about what you chose for the prompts that you have. So I, yeah, I am very. There's a reason why I feel like the prompts work and you know, one of them is you know what are you grateful for and and it can be redundant, but I think the whole idea behind the journaling is that it doesn't get to be redundant. You get to be intentional and so as long as you're coming forward every day with intentionality towards that journal, it's not going to feel redundant, because every day is a little bit different. Every day you're going to have something a little bit different that you're grateful for, and I really try to tailor every answer to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome, I love that.
Speaker 3:I love that intentionality piece of it. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, and I think that that segues nicely. I'm sorry I probably threw you because I asked my questions in the wrong order, but now that you've had that intentionality, how are you seeing an impact in, you know, homeschooling for kids at home and still taking priority of your training and taking care of yourself?
Speaker 1:So I think, like the number one impact for the journaling for me, is just like this overall growth, like I think that it's hard for me to even put into words because you would have had to known me before to see what's changed, but I would think that you know, the number one thing is, like this, overstimulation in motherhood, the need to like pull back instead of dive into motherhood. Um, the use of screens and I could, I could go into this for for days on um how parents, um now use screens because they cannot handle whatever their kids are bringing to them they don't have, they aren't able to process it, they can't handle the emotions, they aren't able to show up in the way that their kids need them to, and so they put them in front of screens. And so I was that parent, I was that person, and so it transformed me into a parent who could, you know, I don't want to use the word gentle parenting but who could, like, truly look at my kids, understand them and have the emotional capacity to give them what they need, versus, you know, shutting them down, shutting them up, stuffing something in front of them so that I didn't have to deal with them or their emotions. So it made me grow in order to be able to show up better as a mom. We don't use screens. We might have a movie night once a week, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 1:And it also allowed me to grow into a mom who was able to handle my kids all the time and decide to homeschool versus like needing to get them out of the house. I'm not saying that sending your kids to school is a sign of poor parenting, but I'm just saying I wouldn't have been able to be a homeschool mom as the person I was before, able to be a homeschool mom as the person I was before. So it allowed me to grow into that role and discover that that was something that I was very passionate about and wanted to do. Yeah, and then, as far as like my run, training and that, I think you know that is probably the least important to me, but it's fun to see just overall growth as a person lead to better training, better racing, getting faster, pursuing the things you enjoy.
Speaker 1:So for there it's. It's this confidence that I'm going to do what I say that I was going to do, or this intentionality to was going to do, or this intentionality to even just allow myself to make time for that, whether it's, you know, demanding more of my husband and asking him to fill in, whereas before I would have just done it myself, or having that mom guilt that I can't do that or that this is bad. And then, ultimately, I think the journal led me to this abundance mindset, which is one of the things I love most about just the dream and enjoying, finding the joy and the journey of the dream and then pursuing it.
Speaker 3:Tess, ah, it's so good, um, I mean even just listening to you talk through those things. There's so many things like I hope you sit sometimes and also like absorb how much you impact people, whether you think you do or not, like I know. Just like taking the screens away with something, I was like if she can do it, I can do it. Like, and we took the screens away with something, I was like if she can do it, I can do it. Like and we took the screens away in our house. Like there's so many different things and little things that it's like I think it's often we get stuck in like, oh, it's just social media, I'm just randomly sharing my life, but you really truly are making an impact and I can speak just from my experience, but it's. It's impacted how I parent and just seeing how you've transformed your life. It's constantly inspiring. So thank you for putting yourself out there.
Speaker 1:But I also love that idea of like and I've talked about this before of like, if she can do it, I can do it, and it's like that is so true. Apply that to anything in your life, and if she can do it, you can too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the intentionality do it you can too, yeah, and the the intentionality behind it too. I think that that's like Shauna and I talk a lot about intentional living, that abundant mindset, that like if you truly are looking for it, and that's where, like, the gratitude journal comes in and the intentional like looking at your day with intention is so powerful, because if you aren't, then you can easily get caught up in just the overwhelm of everything you said at yourself. But Shauna has Shauna and I you know we have a mix of those things too but it's so important to that intentional piece and like making it a priority and working it into your life, and that just makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're not intentional with what you're doing, then life just happens to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does for sure, and there's such a ripple effect in that too. And, tess, I work with kids as a pediatric occupational therapist and have for decades and a lot of things that I've seen that over time with screens and all of that. But what I wanted to ask you about that was like what are you, what are you seeing in your kids? Because I think sometimes moms, when they are trying to be intentional and get there like some of that feedback of what they know their kids getting from it is also inspiring to keep them going with something that feels so hard, like if they have really been on screens a lot and trying to switch over. And so I know we have listeners who are tuning in from that perspective. Like what can you share as far as what you started to notice in your kids too, to see that ripple effect that you took the time to be intentional and get that set up, and then what do you see in them?
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's like revisiting this idea of like not having instant gratification, of allowing them to be a little bit bored and to figure it out and to use their brain and imagination and then, like most importantly for my family as I have, I have four of them is to see their interaction with each other, as I have four of them is to see their interaction with each other. It's incredible how much screens pull you away from people and when you take them away, it's pretty incredible to see the bonds forming and people being present with each other, and seeing that within my kids is just been their bonds together and the way they interact, and I just think it's been huge.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that so much, that's really going with so much that we just said in our episode that dropped actually today, about how we just getting back to that connection, that human connection piece is so essential over the past couple of years and I just love how you brought that into play here as well, as it really truly is allowing them. And I love that imagination piece. We've been talking about that a lot lately too, even as adults like, imagination is our superpower as humans. We forget that right when everything is so instantly in front of us. So so, so cool. Thank you.
Speaker 3:So I think this has led us really into. You've been this journey with journaling and so you decided to create your own journal, and so walk us through like you are I know you are very it's back to intentionality. You're very intentional in how you created your journal, so share with us, and I have it in front of me too, so I'm going to follow along for my own benefit.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the the original idea was simply sparked from I was using a journal before and I it was just a journal, and I have a journal, a planner, a notes, all these books that I'm carrying around, and I was like I just need a place for everything right in front of me in one spot, and that was kind of the whole genesis of the journal. But then, obviously, let my imagination run away with me and I just created everything I wanted in one and with that, with, with the goals in my life and, um, the intentionality I want to bring to each day, I created it based on that. So, um, I can walk through, like the year vision board and the flow of the journal.
Speaker 3:Where would you like me to go with this next. Well, no, I just feel like you, you put this together and how like you had it in your hands. So you're just, is this everything like? Does it talk us through about the flow? I guess yeah, so, cause I know you have it like today.
Speaker 2:I'm grateful you put this in order for a reason, so walk us through about the flow, I guess yeah.
Speaker 3:So, cause I know you have it like today, I'm grateful you put this in order for a reason, so walk us through why.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the flow of the journal really starts with the year vision board, because I think first thing you need is a vision for your life, and I break this down into categories because there I don't think success. I'll speak of success a lot, but success doesn't mean what everyone thinks it means. It really just means however you feel and whatever you want out of your life. And so it's broken down into seven categories and then also a big five-year dream. So I want you to look at the year what do you want to accomplish within this year within categories physical goals, relationship goals, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, financial, professional and then take it a little bit further. And if you could place yourself in five years, where do you want to be? And then, so through that, you start breaking it down a little more. You look down at you, look at the month, you break down those visions for the year into your monthly goal, and then you're going to break down that monthly goal a little bit further into your weekly wellness, habits and habits to master. And then we're going to move over to the gratitude portion, because so much of accomplishing your goals and seeing those things through maintaining habits, creating habits, is your mindset, and so you have this, this gratitude page, the what I'm grateful for. So the what I'm grateful for. It can be whatever pops into your head. It can be maybe your husband, maybe you've been upset with your husband lately and he's annoying you and you need to find the good in him. Rewire your mind there, you know. Focus on something else. Besides, there's ways you can be intentional with it and the what would make today great.
Speaker 1:The one rule I have for that portion of the gratitude is this needs to be something that's in your control. If it's not in your control, do not even bother writing it down. So it doesn't have to be. And I think it's like these might be mundane things, and I think it's like these might be mundane things, like but just think about if you could do anything today and make it a good day within reason, what would you do?
Speaker 1:Today's intention is just huge. I think every day needs to have an intention. What's your focus that day? What are you really trying to accomplish? And a lot of times, my intention will be the same for the week. Affirmation of the day. I love putting something in the affirmation of the day that I am currently self-conscious about or currently don't believe I'm capable of, or having doubts in myself about, just, I know I'm capable of it, but I'm not, I haven't quite caught up yet. And being intentional about the affirmation, um, and then you take all that and you build your day, you, you write down your top priorities, you write down your goals, your schedule and you fit as much into what would make today great, your intention and your affirmation, into that daily plan.
Speaker 2:So good. I love it so much. Tess, I got a journal but I haven't started it yet because I wanted to wait until the new month, because I got it at an odd time when it arrived, and so I'm so excited for that to begin, as we're headed in there now, as we're recording this. But I love how you broke it down and just kept hearing you say intentional through it all, and I really love that you encouraged us and the listeners about that's something that we can control, because I think a lot of times we have this tendency to go outside of ourselves and to think that there are other people involved in our day and all of these things. They're gonna have to do all of these things for this to also happen for me. So I love that you pointed that out. It's so important as we are here on the podcast talking a lot about like bringing it back inward. You know where we do have more control of that versus seeking it externally, so I love that you brought that around.
Speaker 3:Um, do you have anything like what's the what's next in your creative journey? Right, you've got the journal it's and it's looks like it's going well. You're super inspiring. Do you have anything else on your imagination that you hope to to dive in or release?
Speaker 1:Um, I was going a few different ways. I'm trying to stick to the, to the journey that I'm on, and not jump around Um. So, with that being said, you know I find I am working on fine tune editing of the journal just make it 1% better and working on, you know, especially the, the, my run portion. I definitely want to make running part of it, but I don't want it to be so centered that other people can't use it. So I'm I've kind of edited that part which I think is going to be really great for the general public and people wanting to accomplish goals and whatever fitness and sport that they're in. So I'm just fine tuning right now.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love that With the last piece here, the abundant mindset, and I think that I know your husband's also an entrepreneur. Am I right in saying?
Speaker 1:that.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, oh my gosh, do you and I love? Something else that you guys are super intentional about was just your date nights connecting. How has that helped inspire you? You know, seeing him and you supporting him and crushing those dreams. How do you see that? Has he kind of absorbed some of the things that you've done? It's not easy being an entrepreneur. No, how has that impacted it.
Speaker 1:He is my biggest inspiration. He is an amazing person and it is an absolute joy and honor to be able to have a front row seat into such an intelligent, magnificent mind and to watch him overcome so many struggles in business and to keep pressing forward and just to watch his growth from five employees to thousands of employees has just been absolutely incredible. And, honestly, he's the one who pushed me and said to go do this like and you know, encourages me along the way, helps me whenever he can, and so it's been really inspiring, helpful, all of the above to to have him in my corner.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, so good. So do you have any other questions, shauna?
Speaker 2:No, I think that really encompassed a lot already.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so what is one message you'd like to leave our listeners with Tess?
Speaker 1:So I'm going to piggyback a little off of what Shauna had said earlier and bringing it back in. And something that I've been really loving lately is this idea of personal responsibility and approaching everything with this in mind. And this is a little bit of a silly story, but it's just an example of like I leave a tray of food on the table that the kids are kind of picking out of and I walk away and the dog jumps on the table that the kids are kind of picking out of and I walk away and the dog jumps on the table and immediately my first instinct is like to be so angry at the dog. It's the dog's fault, you know, get the dog out. But really I left the tray on the table that I know the dog could easily get to and often does.
Speaker 1:And instead of getting angry at the dog to taking it back to myself and saying, like Tess, you left it on the table, you should put it away, Don't do it again next time. It's just to to not even be like mad at myself, but just to learn from it and to just take that anger that I wanted to direct at the dog onto myself and just say next time, do it better next time. So just this personal responsibility, and I try to approach every situation, every conversation in my life in that way Like you can only control yourself, but what part of you is responsible for this and how can you either fix it or just do better next time? And then my last thing would be just the power of the mind and there's a gap between.
Speaker 3:Where can our listeners follow you? Of course, get your journal. Tell us how they can continue to follow your inspiration.
Speaker 1:I have like a motivational like journal specific page that's at run my life journal and then my personal Instagram that's running related. My, my training is at Tess Chepinski, and then the journals can be bought on wwwrunmylifejournalcom.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Well, tess, thank you so much for joining us and taking time out of your incredible schedule to help inspire more women, just to release the hustle and be more intentional with their lives and hopefully start to really grasp their own metamorphic morning.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:We want to welcome you, to tune in, stay close and grow with us. Come feel empowered, inspired and connected.
Speaker 3:Check the show notes to follow us and, of course, we'd love for you to take us on social media and you share wetlands for you.
Speaker 2:Until next time, breathe on purpose, stay curious and trust your intuition.