Be Mindful, Not Perfect

How strange—and honestly, kind of perfect. I wrote about this very thing in my 365 Days of Me Facebook group last night before going to bed. I had just completed Day 1 of the 30-Day Rewire Your Autopilot workbook, and my journaling landed squarely on two familiar themes: food and phone habits.

With food, I’m realizing how deeply programmed I am. I often eat because it’s “time to eat,” not because I’m actually hungry. Breakfast, lunch, and supper—on schedule, no questions asked. Add in the belief that I should always clean my plate and never be wasteful, and suddenly I can clearly see two of my biggest struggles around food. That, and portion size.

So instead of fighting food, I’m choosing a different approach—presence. I want to be mindful from the very beginning of the process to the very end. That means grounding myself before preparing food, being intentional while cooking, and staying aware while eating. Paying attention to my body’s cues. Stopping when I’m full. And yes—giving myself permission to leave food behind without guilt. Even if that means️ means making it unappealing so I can break the habit of cleaning my plate. Food is something I can’t escape, but I can change my relationship with it—and that feels powerful.

And then there’s the phone. Ugh. This one might be just as challenging—if not more. I rely on my phone for business, communication, and daily life, but I also lose so much time to scrolling, games, and quiet disassociation. It’s become too convenient. Too accessible.

So I’m flipping the script. I’m making my phone slightly inconvenient on purpose. During daycare hours, it lives in the kitchen. I give myself intentional access during nap time while I’m working on Mind Body Soul. At night, it stays in the living room to charge while I use my Bluetooth speaker for bedtime music—no more mindless scrolling in bed. Turning it into a bit of an annoyance feels like a healthy boundary, not a punishment.

When I really step back, the solution to both food and phone habits is the same: presence. Mindfulness. Awareness. Stepping out of autopilot and back into my life with intention. Focus. Purpose. Goals.

It’s time to stop living inside the patterns I’ve unconsciously built into my days—and start creating new ones. Healthier ones. Patterns that support the life I actually want to live. That’s the direction I’m heading. And honestly? It feels like the beginning of something really good.