EP 71: Keeping Your Cup Filled + Creating a Balanced Cup

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Hello, hello. Welcome to the Think Happy podcast. I am your host, Kaitlin Cuevas. I just had this random memory come into my head. I have no idea why I just thought of this, but let me tell you this really random story. So one time, a couple of years ago, I was at a conference here in Houston. And at the conference, I had a name tag on, right? So it said my first and last name, Kaitlin Cuevas. Well, this lady came up to me who was also at the conference and she started speaking to me in Spanish. I can only imagine what my face looked like as I stared at her and had to, unfortunately, tell her that I had no idea what she was saying to me and that I don't speak Spanish. I was so confused why she just came up and started speaking in Spanish to me. Well, then she transitioned to English because she was bilingual. And she said, Oh, I just saw your last name, Cuevas, and just assumed that you spoke Spanish. So I don't speak Spanish. Oakley speaks Spanish, but not because he's from Spain or Mexico.

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His family's origin is from Spain, but he speaks Spanish because he took Spanish all through school and he also worked abroad in Southern Spain one summer. So he is much better at speaking Spanish than me. I wish I spoke Spanish. I hope Eleanor and James grow up learning Spanish. Anyway, that was talk about a random rabbit trail. Okay, so today we're going to talk about nothing that has to do with speaking Spanish. We're going to be talking about the importance of keeping your cup filled, plus the three ingredients to having a well balanced cup. But before we dive in, I have a question for you. Have you you ever had intentions of starting out a new habit or a new routine off on the right foot, but then you just seem to fall short time and time again? Or do you ever find yourself just wasting your time doing unproductive things, and then because of that, you can never seem to get through your to do list? Or do you ever feel like you're overwhelmed, drained, and just like you feel not like you, but like you can't get out of the funk, well, you do not have to feel this way.

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You, my friend, can have your life back. You can have time to do things for yourself. You can feel energized. You can feel happy. Think Happy's one on one life and wellness coaching is all about teaching you how to flip this narrative, how to set up new habits and routines for long term sustainability, how to cut back on unproductive time, and how to create time for you so that you can recharge. And I have a brand new coaching package that I am so excited about. Previously, private coaching was only available in a three-month package. Well, now it's also available in a six month package that is somehow even better than the three-month package. So inside of our six month together, we will tackle laying the foundation for sustainable habits, we'll tackle implementing your new habits, tweaking them and optimizing them, and then building upon them in a way that feels good to you and that serves you well, not just in the here and now, but for the long term. And as a bonus, this six month package also includes a free spot in the next round of the Becoming Your Best You group coaching program, which starts on April third.

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Okay? So this package includes six months of private personal coaching daily. When I say daily, I mean like Sunday through Saturday, seven days a week, daily, one on one messaging with me, and 12 biweekly one on one coaching calls. So topics that are covered inside of private coaching are always going to be specific to your goals and your desired outcome. But some examples of common topics are task prioritization, delegating, meal planning, time management, building routines, identifying and reallocating time that you waste during the day, and of course, creating and optimizing time for yourself and time to fill yourself back up. If this sounds like something you've been looking for, DM me on Instagram. Just DM me something that says six months, not something. Dm me a message that says six months, and I will get the conversation started. Okiey dokey, let's get to the good stuff. So to start, we need to talk about why it's important to keep your cup filled. If you've hung around Think Happy at all before, you are probably familiar with what I call the why behind your what. Knowing why you're working on something is the best way to create a strong, solid foundation, which is exactly why we need to start here.

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So I love using this analogy of a phone battery. Walk through this with me. So you have your phone with you, starting at the beginning of the day all the way till the end of your day. And you use your phone all the time for various things throughout your day. You use it to check the weather, you use it to send text messages, you use it to scroll social media, you use it to buy toilet paper on Amazon, you use it to check your maps before you go somewhere, you use it to call someone. You're using your phone all day long. And while you're using your phone all throughout the day, your phone battery starts to go down and down and down and down. You're using your phone, it only makes sense that the battery is going to not stay at 100 %. It's going to be getting closer and closer to zero as you continue using your phone battery. Well, what happens when your phone dies? Here's what happens. Your phone dies and then you plug it in to start recharging it. But when your phone is completely dead, when it has hit 0 % and it has completely died, when you plug it in to start charging, it doesn't automatically turn back on and it is not just all of a sudden ready for you to start using it again.

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No, when your phone dies and you plug it in, it takes a couple of minutes for your phone to get enough charge in it again for you to start using it. You are no different. When you let your battery get to zero, when you let your cup get completely empty, you can't just magically fill it back up again and start operating like you had this full battery, like you had this filled cup. No, it takes time and it takes energy to fill it back up enough to fill yourself back up enough to recharge your own battery enough to start being able to go on throughout your day doing your regularly scheduled activities, helping out your kids, helping out your husband, serving people left and right because that's what we do. When you have this full cup, it allows you to show up as the best version of yourself. It allows you to show up as the best version of your self for your family, for your friends, for your goals, for your commitments, for your habits, for your routines, to your coworkers, just to anything and anyone else that requires your time and energy. Having a full cup also, and possibly more importantly, allows you to show up as the best version of you.

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Here's another analogy for you. Let's say you have an empty cup and next to your empty cup, you have a pitcher filled with water. The water inside of that pitcher is your time and energy. That empty cup is you. So when you go to fill up the cup, you start pouring out the water from the pitcher into the cup. That is you pouring out your time and energy into you. Well, so your cup, it starts to get full. Well, what do you do? You continue pouring. And then what happens? Well, the water spills out over the edge of the cup and it starts spilling everywhere. It spills out of the cup and onto the table and it even starts dripping off of the table onto the floor. It gets everywhere. Well, that is the impact that you can have when you keep your cup filled. Your time and your energy can start spilling out to your kids, to your partner, to your boss, to your in-laws, everywhere. But the key is to fill your own cup first. The key is to fill your own cup first. You have heard me say it 100 times before, and I'm going to continue saying it hundreds and thousands of times more.

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You serve yourself or you serve others better when you serve yourself first. Serving yourself first is keeping your cup filled. Now, let's talk about a well balanced cup. Now, to talk about a well balanced cup, I first have to tell you about my all time favorite latte. Does that sound random? Probably, but that's okay. My all time favorite latte is a honey lavender latte. Now, I only get these on special occasions because nine times out of 10, I make my coffee at home. And truth be told, I am just not talented enough to make myself a honey lavender latte or even just a latte. So yeah, I only get them on special occasions. But to make this delicious latte, I know that it is a combination of three ingredients. Those ingredients are espresso, milk, and lavender infused honey. That's the sweetener. That is just what makes it so good. Anyway, so with the perfect balance of espresso plus steamed milk, plus the lavender honey, a warm, delicious beverage is created that never fails to put a smile on my face. But that's besides the point. So what does this delicious lavender latte have to do with a well balanced cup?

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Well, when we talk about having our own cup balanced, I want you to think about the combination of these three ingredients. But instead of espresso, milk, and honey, the three ingredients I want you to think of are your body, your heart, and your mind. To have a balanced cup, you have to have a combination of taking care of and filling your body, taking care of and filling your heart and taking care of and filling your mind. So what does that mean? Well, I'm glad you asked. Regarding your body, this is going to look like physically taking care of yourself, right? Getting enough sleep, getting in some intentional movement, fueling your body well. For your heart, this is going to look like emotionally taking care of yourself. And for your mind, this is going to look like mentally taking care of yourself. To avoid having an unbalanced cup, we need to keep each of these three ingredients balanced. And if not, you run the risk of having a latte that's way too strong because it has too much espresso and not enough milk and honey. Or you run the risk of having a latte that's way too sweet because it has too much honey and not enough espresso and milk.

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If I am going to take the time to go to a coffee shop and splurge on my favorite, most delicious lavender latte, I want the ingredients to be perfectly balanced. Am I right? Yes, I'm right. Okay, so now that we've talked about the importance of keeping your cup filled and the three ingredients to a well balanced cup, what do you do with this information? Let me tell you, you take it and you use it. It's that simple. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to get to work on identifying ways to keep your own cup filled. I have another podcast episode that's called the 15 minutes Happiness Bucket List that walks through an activity that would be really awesome to reference as you go through identifying your ways to keep your own cup filled. Okay? So if you cannot find the link to that episode, just send me a DM and I will gladly send you a link directly to it. So something that I want you to keep in mind as you're identifying the ways to keep your own cup filled, it should go without saying, but I want you to keep in mind the three ingredients, your body, your heart, and your mind, keeping each of those filled.

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So when you do this, I want you to write them down. And then bonus points for posting it on Instagram and tagging me. Also, if you don't want to post it on Instagram, you will still get bonus points if you at least send me a DM with them. In fact, if you have any questions or get stumped along the way or would like feedback on this, slide right on into my DMs. Nothing else would make me happier. So that's the first thing that you're going to do with this information. You're going to take it, you're going to use it, and you're going to get to work on identifying ways you can keep your own cup filled. What else are you going to do? Second up, you're going to find support and accountability that you can lean into. We are not intended to do life alone. Find a girlfriend or another support person that you can lean into on your journey of keeping your cup filled. Because let me tell you something, society thrives off of bragging about having an empty cup. I have no idea why this is the case, but it is. For some reason, it's so common to brag about how exhausted, drained, and empty we are.

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I want to change this. It is not fun and it is not sustainable to live life on empty, so we have to flip the narrative. So let's start talking about how good it feels to keep our cups full, how we're able to show up better than ever before because we're taking care of our needs and pouring into ourselves. Guys, I can't do this alone. I need your help. Supporting my clients and keeping their cups filled is one of my all time favorite things to do. I am so passionate about it. So with that being said, don't forget to send me a DM that says six months if you're interested in learning more and seeing if you would be a good fit for the new six month private coaching package, or send me a DM that says three months if you're interested in that three-month package. Oh, man. Wow. I feel like I got up a little bit. This is important stuff, guys. This is an important conversation to have. And truly, from the bottom of my heart, I hope you take some of what we have talked about today on this episode and use it for you to keep your own cup filled.

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So that's a wrap for today's episode. We covered a lot in a pretty short amount of time. We talked about the importance of keeping your cup filled so that you can show up as the best version of you. And we talked about the three ingredients to a well balanced cup, which are your body, your heart, and your mind. And with that being said, I will be back in your ears next week with another brand new episode of the Think Happy podcast.