So a friend was staying with us recently and they caught me doing something that made them laugh. Apparently, this is one of my quirks, as I've been told. They were walking through our neighborhood and saw me sitting in my car just down the road from my house. And the part that made them laugh wasn't that I was sitting in my car, apparently. It was that I wasn't on a call. I wasn't on my phone. I wasn't listening to a podcast or anything. I was just sitting there.
They came up to the window and knocked and asked, "Lex, what are you doing?" And I just said, "Oh, I'm transitioning."
Welcome to Elevate Daily, the podcast for those ready to elevate their life one intentional day at a time. I'm your host, Alexia Usgaard, here to give you a permission slip to unapologetically savor the beauty and richness of life. Join me as we explore modern rituals, self-leadership, the Gene Keys, and the art of elevating your health, wealth, love, and leadership. It's time to elevate. Let's dive in.
Hello, hello, and welcome back to Elevate Daily. I'm Alexia Usgaard, and I am enthused as always to have you here with me. So, for context, going back to me sitting in the car, I had just come from some meetings and some errands, and I was preparing myself to go into the house to move into mom mode, into full presence with my daughter and all of my family responsibilities.
I have an intention that when I walk through that front door, I want to be fully present. I don't want to feel like part of me is still in those meetings or still thinking about the errands I was running. So I was sitting there in my car closing tabs so I could fully arrive to what I was going into next.
If you're someone who feels like you're rushing all day, every day, if you keep telling yourself the story that you're always behind, or no matter where you are, if you're radically honest, your mind often feels full, overloaded, overwhelmed, or like your attention can feel scattered, this episode is gonna be so delicious for you. Today's episode is a short one and a practical one. I am sharing with you one of the simplest things I do to set up my day: build in transition time, and the small rituals I use and my clients have incorporated that support them with ensuring that their days don't just feel like one long sprint. So let's just get into it.
First things first, what is the reason I find we are often rushed all the time? Well, the big thing is we have to navigate the reality that so much messaging, information around us wants to keep us living on default mode, wants to keep us in that never-ending go, go, go energy, get it done energy. And I don't want to diminish this energy that we have, this momentum that we can create, because there's a beautiful thing about this very creative, ambitious part of our spirits that makes things happen.
The problem, though, I find, is that if we don't ever stop to feel into our lives, then we're not actually experiencing our lives. We're not actually experiencing our success. We're just getting through it. We're just living till the next moment, or we're waiting for some, insert big accomplishment, to happen so we can finally feel like we deserve to slow down. And the big problem is we miss the sacred moments, the wins, the celebrations, the small joys, the sacred people in our lives that mean so much to us in this pursuit, in this process.
And this is something I am such an activist for, is I am here for you fully enjoying your life, for you enjoying and savoring the richness of your life. I want to ensure that both the big and the small moments that deeply enrich your heart, that make your soul sing, that make you just feel radiant in all that you are, are given the space to be fully felt too.
And I find that such a big reason why so many of us can get caught feeling so tired and depleted, and like we're on this never-ending urgency spiral, is because we don't give ourselves the space to pause. We don't have the structures in place that support us with knowing it's safe to slow down and pause and to feel.
My trick is that I build in transition time. I honor transitions. I leave space intentionally between one part of my day and the next. From a practical perspective, this means I give things more time than I think they need. I create buffer space between meetings. I create buffer space between client sessions. I even create buffer space between when I'm at the gym and what I'm doing after the gym.
But I have to name as I say this that it's not just about scheduling the space on your schedule. Because the problem we know with that is if you have the space and you're not intentional about it, that space can very quickly get filled by our phones, by random distractions, or by the needs or demands of other people in our lives.
This is why ritual is so essential, and why I'm so here for everyone incorporating rituals in our life with intention. A ritual is something you do with presence. It's how you say this moment matters. Here's the thing: space gives you the room. We need to have you identify space that you are going to have in your life. The ritual, though, is what helps ensure that that space you create is enjoyed and savored and that you fully arrive and are present in those moments.
So if we look at the practical examples of my day-to-day life and how this plays out, if we go back to me sitting in the car, when I mentioned that I was sitting in the car closing down tabs, what I mean is I was taking a moment in the car to really scan through the meetings I was a part of, the errands I had just run, like all the things I had just experienced. I was taking a moment to appreciate the wins, the celebrations, the takeaways. Like, what were the biggest insights that stood out to me? What did I love about what I experienced? What were my learnings?
And just clarifying any loose ends that were still lingering in my mind, right? Is there an update I need to send my team? Is there a message I need to send? Is there something I need to add to my to-do list? I'm letting go of anything that could linger in my mind, on my heart. Because I don't, like I shared, I don't want to walk into my house and feel like I'm still thinking about those while I'm spending quality time with my daughter. I don't want to be split between my responsibilities.
Another example is I deeply honor my gym ritual. And not only is it getting to gym that really matters to me in that whole process, I actually schedule in buffer space between my gym class and my first work responsibility. So this has been so revolutionary for me on my journey because, gosh, years ago, I just had a past where I would run from the gym to the next thing, to the first meeting, to the first email, to my phone. Like I was always just going to gym and then off to the next thing.
Whereas now I find that when I was doing that, I was rushing straight into my mind, into getting things done. And I was actually skipping a really beautiful opportunity I had to be in deep connection with my body and to let my body lead me throughout the day.
So now what I do is after the gym class, I have, like I said, this sacred space in my schedule to know that there's nothing that can go in that spot that I'm not going to be running to or feeling like I immediately have pressure or anything that I need to show up for. This is my time with me. In this space, I often either go for a coffee with a friend, I'll take a slow shower and just get ready, or I'll simply sit on the couch and enjoy my smoothie for a few moments.
What I find is this tells my body you're safe. You can move at your own pace. It feels like I'm opting out from feeling caught in the urgency go, go, go narrative that I feel I was so conditioned into and that I feel so much of society wants us constantly stuck in. And it feels like I'm really honoring my body, its wisdom, my own voice, and being deeply committed to that.
The part that has actually been so beautiful to witness is I find that by giving myself this time and having the transition time, when I get in the car to then drive to my first commitment, I am in receptive mode. So I receive so many insights. This is where I get so many ideas from my clients. I receive all sorts of business ideas. I often find I'll make decisions with ease that were otherwise feeling really heavy and confusing before.
And this is the power, is when we're connected with our body, when we give ourselves the space, it's usually in that pause and in that spaciousness. We can actually hear our own voice, we can hear our own truth, and things can become so much more easeful for us.
The last example I wanted to share is my husband and I enjoy evening walks together. For us, movement really helps both of us to wind down, to release, to relax. And so the walking is a great way for us to get into nature, let go of work, share any takeaways with each other about our day that we might need support with or want to just simply share or celebrate. And this lets us have reconnection time where we are also transitioning with intention into family mode, our time, and letting go of all of the other ways we could be focused on other parts of our life and our work and all of that stuff. And it helps us let go of having our presence still fixated on work or other responsibilities from our day.
A couple of examples of how my clients do this. For one of my clients, she works with her clients hands-on. So a powerful transition time ritual she's incorporated is washing her hands between clients. And as the water runs out her hands, she takes a moment to honor that she's closing out, releasing the energy from the previous person that she was serving and setting herself up to go into serving the next person with intention and with fresh energy.
For another client, it's as simple as enjoying her first sip of coffee with a deep breath and intention. She is someone who is a powerhouse entrepreneur and a mom of multiple children. So her mornings can feel overwhelmingly full sometimes. So for her, this one deep breath, this sip of coffee, which, she loves her coffee, is this way she resources herself. And if you're someone who feels like a morning ritual is impossible right now, this is a great place to start.
I wanted to share these examples because as you can see, it doesn't have to be something huge. It can take a few seconds, even just a breath. I just want it to be something that you can actually incorporate in your life and something that can be repeated, because the thing that makes this actually deeply impactful is the compound interest of you doing it over time and seeing the momentum and all that it creates for you in a multitude of ways.
Here's how you can start this week, three simple steps, because you know I love to make it practical. First, choose one transition point, not feeling like you need to make a bunch of changes all at once, just one. And the best place to look, I find, is wherever you feel the most rushed, wherever the pressure, the overwhelm, that feeling of behind comes up the most.
There are three places I find are best to look first. Your morning. So as you transition from sleep into your day, if you're someone who wakes up and is already feeling like you're racing against the clock, this might be your best spot. During the day, so this can be between meetings, clients, around school pickup, the moments where you're switching from one role to the next without a breath. If this is you, this could be a great place to start.
Or your evening. And honestly, this is the one I find most overlooked. It's that shift from everything you've carried, everything you've been doing throughout your day and preparing yourself, preparing your body for rest. Because the thing I will always say is your rest deserves to be honored too. So choose the one that feels most important for you right now: the morning, during your day, or your evening.
Then second, you're gonna create your buffer space. This is your transition time, and it needs to actually go in your calendar, likely. If it's not there, I find it'll just get filled with other demands and responsibilities. Here's the key. Give yourself more time than you think you're gonna need. So, whatever your first instinct is for how much time your buffer space is, I'd love to invite you to at least give yourself a little bit more. My invitation I do with myself is I usually double it. And it shocks me just how much that time is needed.
Third, enjoy that time. You can make this completely your own. But here's the simplest invitation, a beautiful way you can create this as a ritual. Breathe. Take one deep breath and come back into your body. Just let yourself be present with you.
Then honor the closing. Honor what has been. Notice what wants to be celebrated. Notice if you have any tabs still open and invite yourself to close them. And lastly, when you feel complete that the tabs are closed, that you've let go of everything that has happened until that point, then you invite yourself to arrive. You can even say out loud, "I am now present for where I'm going next. I am here." That's it.
Start simple and notice. If you commit to this for at least a week, watch what starts to show up for you through giving yourself this transition time, giving yourself this space.
Before you go, I want to leave you with this. When you're always rushing, what happens is you're getting through your life instead of fully feeling it, instead of experiencing it. And your life, your oh so wild and precious life, is meant to be felt. It's meant to be savored for the deliciousness that it is.
I'd love to hear from you, if you feel called, for you to send me a DM and tell me how you're incorporating transition time into your life. And if you'd like support with this, maybe you're sensing that more of your time and energy is slipping away than you'd like, or that you're working against yourself instead of truly working with your natural way of being, you can tell there's more ease available for you, but you're just not quite getting your finger on it. That's exactly what we explore in ILLUMINATE, my signature experience. Together we find the rituals that deeply align with your specific needs, your specific life, and how you are meant to uniquely live, love, lead, and work.
You'll find the link to that in the show notes below. And as always, thank you for being you. Thank you for being here. Until next time, I hope you continue to elevate your life one intentional day at a time.
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