How a small mindset shift can help your hands in a big way
Every day, up until about 2 weeks ago, I would wake up reactively to the sound of 1 (or 2, or 3) of my children yelling over the children’s monitor we keep in our room, asking “when will my light change to yellow??”
(In case you missed it, I have three kids 5 & under.)
(Also, in case you missed it, we did a rigorous 2-month program of sleep school to get each of our children on track with sleeping well; commence the color-changing nightlight which dictates when they can get out of bed.)
While everyone is miraculously now sleeping through the night, and truly adhering to our magical changing nightlight system, I still ended up waking up to the sound of them awake.
This did a few things for me:
Because I thought sleeping in as long as possible was my only way to get enough sleep, I would wake up completely disgruntled.
I started my day off on someone else’s terms, not on my own terms.
I proceeded to have a mediocre-at-best morning.
I was waking up reactively, instead of proactively.
Up until 2 weeks ago. Maybe it was one tough morning too much, but I finally determined that evening that something needed to change. Truly, there must be another possibility besides waking up at 6:35am every morning to the startling sound of multiple children loudly demanding their light be changed.
I decided right then and there I was going to set my morning alarm to 5:00am, and that every morning it was a non-negotiable time I HAD to get up. I also utilized my phone’s bedtime mode, which cued me as to when I needed to go to sleep to get my sleep goal achieved.
Now believe me, I have tried alarms in the past - but I don’t think my mindset was truly as behind it then as it was on this particular evening.
So I set my alarm…and since I knew I completely meant business this time around, this forced me to go to bed earlier (ok… my phone’s bedtime mode played a good role in this as well).
The next morning rolled around - 5:00 am - and I was UP FOR THE DAY. I had a whole hour and a half to myself to make coffee, feed the dog, meditate, do whatever the heck I needed to do to start my morning off well.
And guess what?
I proceeded to not only have an awesome morning, but a stellar day as well.
When the next night rolled around, you’d better believe I was in bed on time so I could wake up on my terms again.
And it worked! I felt like this was the best kept secret. Why hadn’t I tried this sooner??
Getting it right just a few times built up momentum and created an unbreakable routine.
What does my sleep schedule have to do with you??
Maybe lately you’re feeling reactive to your hands.
When you’re reactive to your hands…
😓 you only put on your hand support when it's throbbing at the end of a long day.
😓 you only ever really consider doing hand exercises when you can’t open a jar, or you're dropping items an embarrassing amount of times.
😓 your hands hurt at seemingly random times.
When you are proactive with your hands…
🙌 you add in hand supports throughout your day because you know your activity pain triggers
🙌 you regularly do your hand exercises - perhaps in the morning, mid-day, and in the evening
🙌 you experience less hand pain overall
🙌 you can knit, bake, cook, sew, play guitar, mountain bike, lift weights, basically do ANYTHING you want to do with more efficiency and less discomfort
🙌 you decrease the progression of your joint damage
Listen, I believe in you.
I believe you can shift from being reactive to proactive when it comes to exercising, supporting, and protecting your hands.
Make one small mindset shift like I did.
👉 Tell yourself your hand exercise alarm is non-negotiable.
👉 At the end of your day today, look ahead at your day tomorrow and ask yourself what your hands are going to be doing, then come up with a game plan for how to best support them if needed (kinesiotape, braces, compression??).
👉 Sign up for my free masterclass if you have hand arthritis (coming up 12/6!).
I believe small mindset shifts are some of the largest hurdles we have to overcome, and each small mindset shift adds up exponentially in the right direction for us.
