How a Morning Journaling Routine and Self-Esteem Work Transformed My Week

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to the vlog. Y'all already know what time it is. It is 6 a.m. I'm not even trying to say this as a flex. Like, it's a condition that I have. Like, my circadian clock is so fixed that no matter what I do, I cannot sleep in. The only thing I can do is go to bed earlier. And that's a battle every single night. So, I'm officially on week five of this sentence completion program from Nathaniel Brandon. He's the author of the six pillars of self-esteem. This book has turned my life around. I love it. Every day for 5 days, you answer a series of questions. I'll show you guys what week four was. If I bring a higher level of self-esteem to my activities today,

so you finish this sentence a minimum of six times. You want to dump out the first thing that comes in your mind. You want to make sure that it's like a complete coherent sentence. This whole process should take no longer than 10, 15 minutes. If it's taking longer, that's kind of a sign that you're overthinking it and you're performing. You got to just lower that standard. Like this activity is a way for you to dump out the subconscious thoughts. Like what is exactly in this mysterious box in your mind? Then on the sixth day, you answer this question. If any of what I wrote this week is true, it might be

helpful if I really enjoy the sixth day because that is when I read back all my answers and I identify patterns and specific themes of like, oh wow, like I kept on saying this and then it helps me set my intentions for the following week on how I want to behave and how I want to move through the world. How many of you guys journal in the morning? Like, or how many not even in the morning, like how many of you guys journal period? Like whether that's the morning, afternoon, evening. Is it just kind of like a free flow dump? Do you guys need specific prompts? Are you guys doing morning pages? I don't know. Either way, this has really been scratching a part of my brain that I haven't been able to

reach in a while. Feel like I've been chatting about this for quite some time. We got to get this little one some breakfast. 9:30. I'm on my second decaf cappuccino. I love decaf. I love my auto barista. It's made life like at least 40% better. I know that's generous, but it's really made me so happy. It actually gets me very excited to roll up my sleeves and get cracking on with work. I would say this time 9:30 to 1 is when I'm the most locked in and focused. Like my peak performance begins right now. So, I don't want to waste it. I feel like this is when I can use my brain power to do

the most cognitively draining tasks. So, that would look like scheduling things out for the week, writing treatments, editing videos, if I had to film. Oh my gosh, I'm filming right now, but you know what I mean? Like, if I was going to do like a proper sitdown video where I have like a script and everything, basically anything that requires my frontal lobe to do a lot of work, this is the time to do it. I'm about to post a sponsored Instagram reel from a brand that I absolutely love, Hyundai. Like, they've been a dream to work with and it's been one of my favorite projects to work on. Me and Ben were really able to work together creatively and it just makes me happy that we're able to co-parent and also

still work together on campaigns like these. And they also let us bring our son to the to one of the World Cup games, which was like literally such a dream. I'm going to leave some of the clips rolling over here. By the time you guys are watching this, both the Instagram reels are already out. So, if you guys can please head on over, like it, comment it, it really helps support me and my channel and my family, and it mean the world to me. So, let's lock in. Hi, how are you? Oh, thanks. Happy birthday, Ashley. Oh, you're going to read it right now, girl. Yeah. I feel like I'm living my life right now. I'm living very clean.

I love the portions here. You mean like those uh those look great on camera. They really do. giving like Lux Space Miami. They're really good. Announced yesterday he went somewhere else. He went somewhere else as of yesterday. Invited to the Elias. Oh, really? Yeah. Robert, we just secured Ashley's 40th birthday gift. I am here with a pair of brand new sunglasses. Sunglasses are my weakness. It's my kryptonite. When I see just a beautifully designed pair of sunglasses,

like a part of my heart flutters after like an hour at Cardier. I decided to get these ones. They're even more beautiful today. Oh my word. I just find this silhouette very flattering for my face shape. It just looks elevated. I look grown. It's got a nice rose tint to it. So, life seems pleasant to view. It's a great season for sunglasses. When I was in St. Laurent, I was like, "These are also really great, too." But one pair is enough. And I also got a pair for Ashley. So, two pairs it was. That was the budget. That was the budget queen.

Since we're unboxing things, I thought that I would also open this one up. I ordered a I ordered some jewelry. I got a pair of these earrings over here. I'm always wearing my silver dome earrings from numbering, but I wanted a pair that was gold. And then I also ordered a ring. Oh my gosh. Wow, that's gorgeous. It's stunning. All the stones are cut in different shapes. Very whimsical and feminine. The last piece I have is this emerald necklace. Imagine I was wearing like a just like a even just like a simple cami. As you guys know, my dad is in his baking era. So, he left me with his newest baking badge. He's been experimenting with different shapes. So, we've got a heart, a star, flower print.

He's also expanded into muffin territory now. I think these are a blueberry muffin. Let's try a bite. M I [clears throat] think this is his best batch yet. Sweet, but not too sweet. They just taste very healthy. You know, like when something's like made out of like whole grain, it tastes like that. I am really enjoying this podcast called Miss Me. It's with Makita and Jordan. I'm listening to their episode on boundaries and it really got me thinking about my own relationship with the boundaries that I have and the ones that people have extended towards me. I think people forget its real meaning because sometimes I feel like now that there are so many boundaries that are enforced, it could feel kind of like a padded cage. You know

what I mean? So when someone feels like they're extending their boundaries, it almost feels like a rejection at times being like, "Oh I got that wrong." But the way I see boundaries, I see them as limitations, like your own personal limitations. So for me, when I extend a boundary, it's like me reaching like the max capacity that I can go. And I feel like if you're saying it like that, then no one can really get upset with you cuz it's like I'm trying my best, but it only extends this far. The biggest boundary that I have is I guess my time. It is my time. I think I'm saying no to a lot more things.

There are just certain environments where I'm like, ah, I'm just I know myself and I know I'm not going to enjoy that at this moment. For example, like a group dinner that is bigger than eight people. I'm like and especially if it's people that I don't really know that well, like it's like acquaintances. I don't know if that is going to be for me right now. It's really got to be completely worth my time. Whether it's like a novel experience or if it's with like someone I really care about or people that I really care about. I have reached my limit talking about boundaries. I'm going to go into the gym now. All right, let's go get a lift in.

I just finished filming an Instagram reel about children's books because me and my son have gone through so many books. If we had a joint like Goodreads account, it would be insane. Every time we go to the library, I think I borrow around 20 books. So, we have run through our course of great books and also a lot of bad ones, too, where I'm just like, who gave you a book deal? I thought I would go over some of the best ones, like ones where I was like, you know what? I'm actually going to purchase this. My first recommendation is I eat poop. This is such a banger of a book. Reread this at least two times a week.

It's about a beetle named Doug who has a big, big secret, which is the fact that he is a dung beetle. So he eats poop. So every day he hides his lunch underneath this rock because he doesn't want anyone to know that he eats poop because you know the other bugs can be bullies. Like this is a good representation of school. Like these days kids are bullying kids about anything. Let alone if you ate poop, he does something where he impresses the cool kids and he's like, "Oh my gosh, now I get to be part of their cool bugs table." But the problem is like it's getting increasingly harder to hide the fact that he eats poop. And the big climax is he finally admits that he is a dung beetle and that in fact is

his lunch. And instead of them outcasting him for it, everyone else also reveals something that they have been hiding or have been shameful about. But I thought it was an incredible story because it does I feel like it does mirror the fact that everyone feels like they have this secret like if someone finds this out they're not going to love me. But that's not true. It's about knowing who you are and also owning it. And I think that's a very powerful message for children and adults. Next we have there's no such thing as a dragon. This is a library book and this is one that had me gag.

It's about a boy named Billy Bixby and he wakes up with a dragon in his bed. It's the size of a kitten. So he's like, "Oh, that's interesting." He tells his mom and his mom is like, "There's no such thing as dragons, Billy." And the more they deny it, the bigger the dragon gets. It gets to a point where the dragon is so big that no one can ignore it. And finally, that is when the mom acknowledges the fact that the dragon exists. And once the dragon is acknowledged, that's when it immediately shrinks. It shrinks back to the perfectly cute size of a kitten again. What this story represents to me is that the more you deny something or you ignore something, the more it balloons

and it becomes uncontrollable. So, this is like a really great story about confrontation and facing your fears. Moving on, we have Bunny and Tree. This is an incredible picture book. It's like literally a picture book. There's no words. So, this transcends language. This one does require more brain power because you're you're improv. It's improv, baby. You are explaining. You can be as like theatrical as you want or as chill as you want. Finally, we've got Wacky Wednesday. This is so crazy because I'm filming this on a Wednesday. This was one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books growing up and I think it's like a full circle moment that now I'm reading it to my son. Some days you just wake up

and things are wacky and then you sleep on it and then it's a new day. There are so many other books, but I don't want I mean honestly I feel like I could do like a whole video about just like children's books. On a journey to grow out my hair long and strong. So I've been trying out this concentrate decalcifier from Kristto. It's like a pre-shampoo. So, I end up just using a mister because I just hate wasting so much water in the shower. Like, I'm a pretty efficient shower. Like, my showers do not go longer than I don't know like 8 minutes. I'm just one and done. I'm like, we live in California. There is a drought. So, I prefer just misting my hair beforehand because this requires damp hair. LA has very, very hard water and I don't have a

water softener. I don't. So, this is just going to help repair and detox my scalp. And then you just leave it on for 5 minutes and then you just hop into the shower and do your thing. 7 minutes. Honestly, I thought laying in your own bed after a long night was the best feeling, but I think this tops it. This tonight will be the perfect night. everything. Shower, clean sheets. You got to romanticize your alone time, too. I think that's important now. Okay, now I'm going to go in with Ano's leave-in conditioner. Guys, I am nearly out. It's a bummer, but I've got one a fresh one waiting in the wings for me. I had to purchase another one after the first bottle. I knew it was

something I would always want to keep. And now I'm just going to blow dry it just to keep my scalp squeaky clean because I don't want to mess it up. And there we have it. Fresh hair. All right. So, here are the soft cushion clothes. Wow, look at that. Here we are at the Wal event. I don't know.