- Hi, if you're new here, my name is Maddie.
I'm an Arizona girl who's been living all across Mexico
for four and a half years.
During that time, I've also made
hundreds of videos on YouTube,
which is why you probably know many of the reasons
why this has been the most tortuous year of my entire life.
If you aren't familiar, in a nutshell,
I've dealt with extreme loss.
One of those things was breaking up with my boyfriend
of five and a half years.
I had to leave my dream house and my dog
who I love and miss every single day,
move to a new city, sell my business,
start a new business from scratch
all the while dealing with things
like intense, horrible internet trolling and flying monkeys.
Safety issues, extremely toxic people and situations,
and basically just trying to reinvent myself, start over.
But hey, I'm still standing.
So that's why today I'm sharing an inside look
at my daily life and how I've been recovering, like a boss.
And I hope it'll help you out as well.
So one of the most important things I think I've maintained
over the past year during all of this chaos
is my morning routine.
And no, this has nothing to do with face products,
or makeup, or anything like that.
I'm not wearing any makeup,
and I don't have a morning routine in that regard.
The extent of what I actually do to my face in the morning
is use a jade roller to attempt to make my face
look less puffy with this whole lymphatic drainage concept.
But that's about it.
That's why, you know?
Anyway, back to it.
First of all, I start out by making myself some coffee.
I have to do something really quick first.
(water sounds)
Fill up the water container first.
What did you think I was doing?
I really love this coffee.
It is from Mexico, actually.
A small, small...
Oh, shoot, that's not where you put it.
Clearly, I need coffee.
Where is my little thingy?
What was I saying?
Yes, it comes from a small, small shelf in Fresko Selecto.
I got this espresso machine, like,
I don't know, six months or so ago.
And I was like, oh my gosh, can I really spend two...
I forget how much it was, $250 or something
on an espresso machine, but I was spending
60 pesos every day on a coffee.
So obviously that paid for itself in like a month.
(soft chill mood music)
And with my coffee, which is an iced latte in this case,
sometimes I make cold brew.
Then the next thing I do is journal.
I've been doing this for two years.
We're halfway through this year,
and I have written quite a lot.
I try to do this every single day.
This is my time to get everything out of my head.
Anything that I feel like I've been stuck on,
problems I'm having, dreams I had the night before,
pro con lists about things
that I'm not really sure what to do about,
insights that I have about myself,
the people I'm spending time with.
I have here, what does my ideal life
look like in Guadalajara?
And then I list all those things out.
For a while, my health coach had me doing
the best part of my day, the worst part,
and the positive part about that worst part,
which I really liked.
I am also going to be very curious...
Had to come into my bedroom to get my other journal.
This is the one from last year.
I can tell you one thing,
I am going to be extremely curious to reread these pages
because this is through the thick of it,
and pretty much the worst of the worst.
So that'll be an interesting little memoir
to go back and ...pleasure read?
I don't think we can call it that.
Moving on.
And maybe it's kind of ridiculous
but waking up to make coffee and do this journaling
is actually something that I look forward to every day.
It's something that does get me out of bed,
and I would be lying if I said
there weren't days over the past year
where I did not feel like getting out of bed at all,
because I was either so depressed, or so overwhelmed,
or just so not looking forward to dealing
with whatever that day had going for it.
So I'm really proud of myself for maintaining this routine
and continuing to do this so that I can work through
this really difficult phase of my life.
Once I'm done with my journaling,
I move on to the next part of my morning routine,
which is making a to-do list.
Sometimes I do them on sticky notes like this,
sometimes they go in my journal,
and depending on how rough of a time I have been having,
it could be as simple as shower, do the dishes,
go outside for a walk, water plants,
or it could be more complicated
like lately. I have to upload tax documents,
start looking for a Mexico city apartment,
and, you know, everything in between.
But basically, even if it's simple,
I get that little kick of dopamine that I completed a task,
and it keeps me from basically being
a couch potato the whole day
on days when maybe I've really wanted to do that
or just not face the world,
not go outside and not do anything.
(upbeat bright music)
So since I won't be in Guadalajara for that much longer,
I no longer have a gym membership.
There's no point in getting one I don't think,
'cause a lot of them are like six month contract
or a year contract.
But I still wanna try and get my exercise
so one of the things I love doing is coming out on Sundays
when they close down a bunch of roads in Guadalajara
all over the city for ViaRecreactiva.
So get those endorphins flowing, see all the cute dogs,
and lots of other recreational activities
that are just really, really fun for people watching.
I'm actually not sure which I enjoy more.
The very obvious benefits of exercise,
or the serotonin I get from seeing things like this guy
and his dog skateboarding together.
All these guys who pop long wheelies like it's no big deal.
I mean, seriously, that's so cool.
And this weiner dog. I just love them
and I want one someday.
Before I go on with the video,
I'd like to ask if you're enjoying it
please hit that subscribe button,
so you can see more from me. Also
if you think somebody might enjoy it as well,
please share this video on social media.
It helps out my channel a lot, and I really appreciate it.
During the past year, one of the biggest struggles
I've had is being alone with my thoughts,
my constantly racing thoughts.
This has so often kept me in such an anxious
and stressed out state that not only
does it affect my mental health during the daytime,
I find myself tossing and turning at night.
Just thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking!
And I'm not very proud to admit this,
but sometimes it just feels so bad and so overwhelming
that I turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms
like binge watching TV shows all day long or drinking.
But that is not how I wanna live my life
so that's why I've tried seeking out
other, healthier coping mechanisms.
Other ways of dealing with something like this.
So alongside the other things I'm mentioning in this video,
Aura has been one of the most beneficial things
that I've used to help combat what I call the "monkey brain"
Aura is an all in one app for mindfulness,
wellbeing, and sleep with thousands of meditations,
stories, and so much more.
For instance, it also includes cognitive behavioral therapy
for people interested
in the psychological side of things like me.
Also life coaching, breath work, and spirituality.
The best thing is, it's super easy.
You take a quick survey to assess your current state
and what you're looking for,
then you have access to a variety of content
created by hundreds of expert coaches
and therapists around the world.
Content that's personalized just for you.
In the past, with other similar apps that I've tried,
I felt like they took a very one-size-fits-all approach,
which ultimately ended up discouraging me
from mindfulness and meditation altogether
when I felt like it wasn't working for me
or it wasn't what I was looking for.
Every time I come back to Aura though,
I know I can find something for whatever my mood is that day
or whatever challenges I'm currently facing.
This week, it was retraining my mind
to try and diffuse negative thoughts.
I am confident Aura will help you too,
so if you look at the link in my description,
you can get started for free.
The first 500 people to use that link will get a free trial
plus an exclusive 25% discount.
I do want to thank Aura for sponsoring this video
and making mindfulness so approachable
so I don't have to be so afraid
to be alone with my "monkey brain" anymore.
It's also been helping me get through this
to focus on hobbies.
For instance, crocheting.
I made this huge, beautiful, awesome blanket.
It's smaller than it used to be
because I realized after the fact
that this awesome it's like t-shirt yarn
called Zpagetti.
So it's like...
So it comes looking like this,
and it's like kinda stretchy, really soft,
jersey type t-shirt fabric.
But what I didn't realize
is that when you put it all together,
oh my gosh, it's so heavy.
It's so heavy.
Okay.
So I'm gonna be, oh my gosh, really, I'm not being dramatic.
It's so heavy.
It's like a weighted security blanket,
but I haven't been in a climate where it's cold enough
to actually be able to use it like this.
So this is one of the stripes that I took apart,
and I've been working to make a yoga mat strap.
So this isn't completed yet,
but basically it's gonna have a little hook here
and loop into itself to hold my yoga mat
and then be a strap in the middle.
Does that make sense?
Kinda like this is where the yoga mat would go.
Ever since my gymnastics days
and for as long as I can remember,
one of my favorite things to do
to release stress is stretching.
So I do a stretching routine that looks
a little something like this every day
if I can squeeze it in.
I've been slacking on it a little bit lately
so I've lost a bit of my flexibility,
but staying limber is very important to me
not only for my long term health,
but also with what I've been going through.
I've learned recently that stress and trauma
can be stored in your body's tissues,
and so stretching is a good way
to relieve some of that and get those things
worked out of your body.
Also, admittedly, I do think it's cool
to have the bragging rights to say that I'm 30 years old
and I can still do the splits.
But also it makes me feel really good afterwards.
It's this interesting balance of pushing yourself
past your comfort zone a little bit, you know,
that like tension and pain you feel when stretching,
and then afterwards you get such a nice relief
like cracking your back or something like that.
It's similar to that for me.
I also have to give a huge shout out to all my friends
that were there for me throughout this entire experience
because this was rough.
I know I was not always the most fun person
to be around going through all of these emotions
and all this telenovela level drama.
So seriously, from the bottom of my heart,
thank you to those people.
You know who you are, but I am gonna include
this little montage of pictures anyway
because I'm just so grateful
and I have so much love for these people
that were there for me if I needed to text
or talk on the phone, or go have a good time, or cry it out,
or really pretty much anything I needed,
they were there for me.
Love you guys.
The next thing that really helped me
get through the trauma of this past year was therapy.
I feel like sometimes
there's this stigma surrounding therapy
that it's something we shouldn't talk about
or only the weak people need to go to therapy,
but honestly, everybody should be in therapy.
There was a point though after doing many months
of weekly therapy where I kinda felt like
I was looking for something a little bit different.
So in this case, I started working with a health coach.
That was about six months ago. It's
sort of like a cross between a therapist and a life coach.
This is somebody, I meet with this really awesome lady
named Kimberly for an hour per session every month,
and we chat through some things
like what I'm currently going through,
issues that I'm having,
places where I feel like I'm stuck or in a rut,
or things that maybe I just need
fresh perspective on the situation.
I need somebody that has her wisdom
who can give me some guidance,
and then at the end of every session, I get a write up
basically addressing all of my concerns,
things that we can work on
to achieve my goals that we outline,
and how to get through those things.
So for instance, one of the very first things
that Kimberly assigned me was meditation.
She wanted to help me get back into an old practice
where I had done meditation every single day
and it was helping me out a lot.
And even though it's been a little bit difficult
to find my stride with meditation, Aura really did help me.
That app is so personalized where, like I said,
it doesn't feel so intimidating
to tackle that goal every single day.
So I do plan to continue with this health coaching
because I feel like it's just the goal-oriented,
task-oriented, future-focused type of thing
that I really need to keep moving my life forward
and work through these things.
If you're interested in a health coach,
no, Kimberly is not asking me to put her information in here
but her email and Instagram is down in the description
so you can reach out to her if you think
that would be something that would help you too.
So after sharing all that from me,
now I'm curious what do you do to cope
or to deal with traumatic life experiences, life events?
Please let me know in the comments.
I hope you will subscribe to my channel
because I post a new video every week.
On the screen here is my favorite video
that I've made to date where I was speaking
only Spanish for a day in Mexico city.
I think you're gonna really enjoy it.
But one more thing before you go, don't click out just yet.
(Maddie shouts)
(bell rings)
GONG that bell so you get notified
the next time I release a new video,
and I hope to see you there.