Life can get messy—deadlines, distractions, and that never-ending to-do list—but that doesn’t mean joy has to disappear. In this episode, I am talking about how to protect your peace and keep your inner sparkle shining even when things feel overwhelming. From simple mindset shifts to little rituals that make a big difference, this episode is about trading pressure for presence and stress for sparkle.

Mentioned This Episode:

Finding Your Sparkle Worksheet

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Conversations with Kate is like a conversation with your friend, hairstylist or therapist, where we will talk about music, life stories and everything in between with interviews and guests sprinkled in. As an LCC student, it's an honor and I love bringing a fresh perspective to the podcast menu on LCC Connect. I am your host, Kate.Let's get into this episode.

To me, it sounds like keeping my sparkle even in everyday life, everyday tasks. What does sparkle mean anyways? It's not just the glitter on your favorite party dress or your favorite mascara or your favorite eyeshadow.

It's that inner light, that excitement, that curiosity, the joy, the tiny little fireworks of yes, inside me, inside you, and inside of us.

It's that thing that, for instance, I just one of, one of the things that I revert to when I think about sparkle is my salon owner told me a little story about how I ran into one of her clients in the Dollar General by our salon. And he told her, he's like, man, I ran into Catherine and she was just smiling and bebopping and just, you know, sunshiny, basically.

And she goes, yep, that's, that's Catherine. She's like that every single day. And so that's what we're here to talk about is how do you keep that sparkle? Sometimes life is not the easiest to do.

So and you know, it kind of gives you the, the one, two punch, so to say. And I'm here to chit chat about how I help keep my sparkle and how you keep your sparkle or what we can do in general to help keep, you know, what's.

How do we, how do we do that? The micro joy moments, those everyday little pauses that refill your glow. Like for me, it's that first sip of warm lemon ginger water in the morning.

I know it sounds silly because I'm a huge coffee fan, as we all know, that is a micro Joey moment because I know my morning is starting and I'm about to do my cold plunge and feel phenomenal. Those other things that can do is that first sip of coffee, the sunbeam of sunshine in your face.

Whether you're waking up like I do and do that first thing in the morning or just whenever you wake up in the day and you like open your curtains and there's a little bit of sunshine on your on your face or that quick little dancey dance break. And for those that know me well, you all know that I love to do my little dancey dances.

Whether it is the dog days are gone or it is my silly favorite childhood song or I'm just, you know, doing a dancey dance to, you know, put a smile on my daughter's face or be silly with my daughter. Dancy dances are an important micro joy moment that you shouldn't really miss.

Sending a meme to a friend, a family member and that makes you laugh, that also then makes them laugh is kind of like a shared micro joy moment.

Notice your sparkle sparks just anything that causes you to have those little moments of like woo, yes and joy and happiness and puts a smile on your face. Because the reality is is that you can't be in a cranky or a negative mood and a happy mood at the same time. That is science driven.

We will talk about that another time though. Boundaries as glitter shields. What does that mean to you?

So much better. Protecting my peace like it's the rare gem that it is. Let me repeat that one one more time. Protecting my peace like it's the rare gem that it is.

The other thing that I want to talk about today is the magic of making bare minimum days.

So I found true joy and sparkle in having slow mornings, which for me slow mornings look a little bit different than everybody else because I'm a usual early riser. And for me slow mornings look like sleeping in until like 6:30, 7 o', clock, sometimes even a couple of times.

I will stay in bed until 8, 9, 10 o' clock honoring my rest and my sleep. My body is 10 out of 10 now currently governed by getting minimum 6 maximum 8 hours of sleep.

And that's one of the great ways that I have continued to have my sparkle is honoring that sleep and that rest, resetting expectations if they need to be reset. And celebrating survival mode.

Sometimes there's those times in life where you're just, that's it, you're in survival mode and you have to celebrate that. It looks different for everybody because even low battery sparkle is still a little bit of sparkle.

The magic in curating your atmosphere, the vibe matters. Music that either lifts you up or just holds you in a space of gratitude is wonderful.

And sometimes don't let everybody tell you that you have to listen to like you have to think positive, be positive, whatever, all of the time.

Especially when it pertains to music, because you can listen to music that's not so great, but the music that lifts you up and that makes you feel wonderful definitely radiates from you.

It's a proven fact that when you are happy and your heart is which again, scientifically, your heart has an electromagnetic field that radiates outside of you about three feet. So when you're happy, that is radiating three feet away from you at all times, which is super cool.

That's why I say listen to the music that lifts you up. And that can be heavy metal or it can be, you know, a light, fluffy musical piece. Whatever gets you feeling in that space.

And curating spaces that feel like you are taking a deep breath. And that can be as simple as your cozy bedroom. And it's just simple. It's just your bed, your space in there, and it's plain.

There's not a lot of stuff. Or it can be your reading nook where you have a couch or a chair that has pillows and blankets. And as cozy.

You can also have, you know, your favorite room in the house, maybe just a corner spot at your kitchen counter or at your dining room table, your favorite recliner in the house. There can be any number of ways to create a space that feels like a deep breath, which I think is super duper important.

Routines that nurture instead of nag. I like that in and of the fact that I put five things on my to do list every day. That's it. That's. That's it.

I am, I am hammered down four or five things only because I really want my routine and my day to day thing to be nurturing and not a nagging thing from me. And that is a gift that I give myself and that starts with my morning routine.

And just think like sparkle supportive environments, sparkle supportive activities and sparkle supportive spaces for you. And then identity beyond your achievement.

Because here's the realistic thing is that There's a lot of people that are driven by, you know, awards and money and that type of stuff, and reminding and reframing your self worth that you're not a walking checklist, that your joy does not need permission from hyper productivity, from goal setting or whatever. It can be as simple as, you know, vacuuming the living room floor or taking the trash out.

Those are simple things that, you know, just make you feel good, that gives you that dopamine hit. And here's some rituals that I have found that are great for reigniting your glow and reigniting your sparkle.

Just, you know, sprinkle in the sparkle, just like some confetti or glitter. Some simple practices are gratitude lightning round.

So literally just, you know, rattling off as fast as you can for 30 seconds or a minute all of the things that you're grateful for. And you can do that out loud. You can record it into your phone, you can write it down on a piece of paper. Either way, you do it any way you do it.

It helps because by the time you're done with that, you're like, oh, my God. Wow. Yeah, I actually do feel super happy. And I have an immense amount of gratitude for everything in my life right now.

So one of the other things that I had to write down was the sensory delights. Sometimes you get your sparkle back from things like scents, textures, or tastes. So what does that look like, Kait?

That looks like, for me, this is for an example, at the beginning of the year, every single year, I put in my floral plugins. It's not necessarily my spring plugins, but it's my fresh and clean floral plugins. And that just brings me that little bit of sparkle.

Even though it's cold out, it's January, I put away all of my decorations. Boo. Buddy the elf gets put away with them. But that's a different episode. But those scents I know, and they come around every quarter of the year.

There's the ones in January, the spring ones, the summertime ones, the fall ones, and Christmas ones. And then textures.

Textures for me really are about my super floofy robe, my super floofy socks, and my super comfy soft blankets that I keep in my living room to snuggle up with on the couch or my glide rocker that I have in the corner of my living room that is a very prominent sparkle enhancer for me.

I love sitting there and just having my little cup of tea or cup of coffee and, you know, going through my gratitude lightning round or, you know, talking about anything that brings me gratitude in My life. Another thing that you can do is affirmations rooted in presence versus pressure. I'm going to say that another time.

So affirmations rooted in the presence versus pressure. So you want to say things that are in your and reminders of your current or affirming your current reality and not things that put pressure on you.

That's, you know, it's an easy way to, you know, bring back that little sparkle. Be like, hey, I am really good at blank or I did da da da da da really well or I accomplished blah blah, blah, blah blah.

And those are just, you know, it's again, another thing that you can put into your gratitude. Lightning round if you would like. There are so many different ways to find your sparkle, to bring it back, to keep it there.

And none of us are sparkly 24 hours a day. I don't care who you are. And I am, if you ask anyone who knows me, I am a super peppy, outgoing, positive, sparkly person.

So thank you so much for like, we're just gonna go back over some of the different ways really quickly about how to bring back and find your sparkle. So what is sparkle? Sparkle's the glitter inside of you. Stress is the sneaky little sparkle thief.

You know that hustle culture likes to convince us that joy is only allowed productivity. Why shouldn't we be a reward, get a reward, be a reward every single day, but like a daily vitamin.

And the ways that we can do that are like we talked about micro joy moments.

Whether it's your first sip of coffee, sunlight, a dancey dance break, sending memes to your favorite person that literally make you snort, laugh or laugh until your side hurts or laugh until you cry. Those are my favorite ones. I usually send those out instantaneously. And sometimes it's not just a meme. It's like a TikTok video or a reel.

I have a running back and forth relationship with my best friend Jamie with Reels, TikToks and Facebook Reels as well. I really, really want you to notice your sparkle sparks. Whatever they are, just take a note of them if you want to chat with me about them.

I would love to hear about it. And then we also chit chatted about boundaries as glitter shields, learning how to say no with love.

And that is a way that you can bring your sparkle back and protect your sparkle and find your sparkle. There is also the celebration of bare minimum days.

Sometimes we just get up out of bed to go get coffee and get right back in bed and celebrate those low effort moments. Because your body does need those that rest and those low energy days. No matter what anybody says, the hustle culture is absolutely wrong there.

Don't get me wrong. There is a time and a place for putting your head down and getting things done.

But there's also a time and a place for literally laying down or sitting down and relaxing and celebrating that as well. It's important and curating your atmosphere.

Whether it's music that makes you happy, that lifts you up, spaces that make it feel like a deep breath, a quiet, relaxing breath, routines that nurture instead of nag, you think Sparkle supportive environments. If you have a picture of your sparkle supportive environments, please post it with the hashtag SparkleSupportiveEnvironments.

And then we talked about also finding your sparkle through reframing self worth instead of it being a walking checklist. It's about the joy. The joy you don't need permission from productivity.

It's the joy that you find in doing little things like finishing the laundry, even though there's a whole other batch that needs to be done. Or vacuuming the house, taking the trash out.

Those little things and the rituals for reigniting the glow or the rituals for sprinkling your sparkle back in, like I said, the gratitude lightning round. Do it 30 seconds, 60 seconds and just rattle off all of the things that you have gratitude for. Find some sensory delights, scents, textures, tastes.

You know, whether that is your favorite candle or perfume smell, your favorite blanket or snuggly space snuggly thing. Or your favorite food, your favorite coffee, your favorite tea. And then affirmations that are rooted in your presence, not pressure.

So affirmations that literally are rooted in the present moment. Let your joy be loud and messy. That's another way to find your sparkle and bring it back. Imperfect joy is still joy.

It's life's confetti often lands in the laundry pile. But that's okay. Thank you so much for sitting with me today and talking about finding your sparkle and bringing your sparkle back.

I'm going to close with a mini meditation or visualization. Please don't do this if you're listening to this while you're driving or walking. Have a seat.

Or please, by all means, just make sure that you're in a safe space. And I am going to put this in with the episode description if you would like.

And I also do have a worksheet for you that if you would like to download. It's a PDF, it's called protecting your sparkle.

And you can just, you know, you can print it off as many times as you want and you can take it whenever you need it, whether it's, you know, right there on the piece of paper. You can copy it off a bunch of times and just write down. Or you can just write all of the information down in your notes app or whatever you need.

And then here's the bonus Guided Sparkle Reset Meditation Sit down, relax, close your eyes. If you can. Place a hand over your heart and inhale gently all the way up to the top and hold and then exhale all the way down and hold.

And then picture a tiny glittering light glowing in your chest, warm and soft like sunrise.

With every breath you see it expand, filling your ribs, your shoulders, your spine, and let the tension melt like sugar in tea and say to yourself, I am allowed to rest. I am allowed to shine. My joy is here. Now take a deep breath in and as you breathe out, imagine stress falling away like dust.

One more deep inhale and as you exhale, carry that sparkle with you into whatever comes next. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today to talk about your sparkle. I look forward to chatting with you in the next episode.

And again, I do have a Protect yout Sparkle worksheet that I am going to make available for you to print off. Thank you so much and I look forward to chatting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Conversations with Kate. You can find more information on LCC Connect's site as well as all social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, yes, TikTok as well. Big love.