That second cup feeling

I’m writing this with a no cup feeling.

My new morning routine is starting to take shape and it looks like waking up with Craig, morning pages, blog, and then meditation work — all while drinking water. Then I feed the dog and start on breakfast for me and little man. At this point he typically wakes up and comes down, while I make breakfast I finally start making my first coffee.

I do my best to try and hold the line of ‘no caffeine before breakfast’ so my body isn’t just running on stress hormones first thing in the morning. Which means I am starting the day off blind.

No cup feeling. Empty blood and bones. 7 am. But by 9 am I’m fueled up, sweaty from chasing a toddler out the door and at the gym.

The rest of my day kind of ebbs and flows with whatever needs attention. Typically, I’ll have a second cup of coffee some time between 12 pm - 2 pm, if I press it to 3 pm this blog will be written the night before at 11:30 pm because I’m wide freaking awake.

Something I’ve been doing to keep me motivated for that second cup is, I’m earning it. Now, I will admit that 100% sounds like diet culture. But for my brain it’s more of a reward for tackling all the things I’m hesitant to do.

I’d also like to take a moment and honor my therapist in that, we never have to earn anything, we do not need to suffer in order to give ourselves the things we need or desire.

Okay back to my point though.

Here’s my trick, I always write out my to do list for the day and I’ll circle which ever tasks feel a bit daunting. I will not allow myself that second cup of coffee until I swallow the frog and tackle this circled tasks. This works 9/10 times for me because I know I have a coffee deadline of 2 pm and a nap schedule of 12:30-2:30 pm. So I gotta get my booty in gear to cross off those circled items.

In reward, hot coffee. Crossing off lists and little coffee treat, double dopamine hit! This is my second cup feeling. My little trophy in the afternoon. Life is about the little things, right?

<3