28.4K
Downloads
674
Episodes
Do you feel overwhelmed with your todo list? Is "creating fulfilling happiness" missing from that list? Everyday Happiness with Katie Jefcoat is here to help you. In 2-minutes a day, over time, you’ll discover how to reduce overwhelm and create lasting happiness through Katie’s signature method of Intentional Margins, happiness science, and musings about life. Start your day with a positive mindset. Many of us can get deep in the feeling of overwhelm. The anxiety of our own ambition can weigh heavily on our thoughts and emotions. We lay down and close our eyes at night and our chest begins to feel heavy. More items on the to-do list than the day before. How will we ever going to get off the hamster wheel of to-dos? When are we going to start living life for more than the hustle? As a recovering lawyer and passion driven entrepreneur, Katie knew something had to change. What she found is that you can have harmony, be intentionally productive and create massive impact, all at the same time - without feeling guilty. So she asked herself a simple question: "How can I get off the hamster wheel and how can I show others how to do the same? She knew she'd had a system for herself, but she’d never put it into defining words. On August 15, 2019, she sat down at her dining room table with her friend Jenna (her business bestie). Post-It notes covering the table. This is where she first defined the concept of Intentional Margins. What are Intentional Margins? INTENTIONAL MARGINS™ (n): A buffer of space and time to create harmony between your to-do’s and your priorities. Now you can get the support you need to manage your overwhelm, one little tip at a time. Regardless of the industry, Everyday Happiness blends inspiration with a pragmatic approach to finding Harmony. You'll be encouraged to throw “balance” out the window for a more achievable approach called harmony. Through Intentional Margins™, you'll be encouraged to develop what harmony means to you, by identifying your priorities at work and at home. Every day, we'll end the podcast help you feel equipped to jump off the hamster wheel of overwhelm and go out there and crush your day. --About the Host-- Katie Jefcoat is a community curator, speaker, author and motivator who supports ambitious women (and a few good men) move from feeling hectic to harmonious. As a recovering trial lawyer, she knows first hand what it feels like to have a demanding job. As an entrepreneur with a passion that lights her hair on fire and a busy family she’s in the thick of it with you. Many people strive for balance and think overwhelm is just a part of life. Sadly, the hustle culture and our never-ending to-do list is creating a life where our priorities are getting the leftover scraps of time. Katie introduces people to what she calls - Intentional Margins™ - a kind of life in which they reduce randomness, create harmony between their to-dos and their priorities and intentionally enjoy the meaningful parts of life - without feeling guilty. Without exposure to a different way, we remain stuck on the hamster wheel of to-dos and never find the “balance” we yearn for. Katie works diligently to expose her community to different ways of doing things, because she fundamentally believes we deserve to make time for our priorities. We deserve to live a life of harmony. And it’s within our control to create it. Katie curates a smorgasbord of content related to managing your calendar, handling overwhelm, setting boundaries, reducing randomness, saying no, self-care, the power of your choices, and more in her Intentional Margins™ Membership Community -- which she calls the coziest virtual coffee shop (on Facebook). Connect and learn more at www.katiejefcoat.com.
Episodes
Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
It’s my birthday and I’m dishing presents.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I’m curious, how do you feel about birthdays?
Today is my birthday, it’s not a big one. It’s just a day. My husband and I through the years stopped giving gifts. We realized we bought what we needed and if we wanted something, we’d get it. Now, I’m not saying that to sound like a pretentious jerk. I’m just trying to say that we don’t feel the same way about stuff as we do about experiences. We save a lot for travel and entertainment.
So when a birthday, anniversary, or Christmas rolls around, we don’t exchange gifts. Instead we are reminded that each day should be celebrated. I honestly would be more excited to get flowers on a random Tuesday than on my birthday, but that’s just me.
Side note, the kids get gifts, we exchange gifts with the kids, I get presents from the kids. We’re not scrooge over here.
My favorite gift was given to me by my husband 13 years ago. It was a leather bound book with blank white pages with the gold foil embossed words “Mom’s Memory Book”. And for Mother’s Day, my birthday and Christmas, the children draw me a picture or write me a letter in that book. It is by far my favorite thing about a holiday, opening that book.
So I have this thing, “it’s not about the day” it’s about the life we’re building. And I’m so curious, what does celebration mean to you?
Let’s have a conversation. I’m at @everydayhappiensswithkatie on social.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Links: https://bossladybio.com/everydayhappiness/
Monday Aug 23, 2021
Monday Aug 23, 2021
What if you didn’t have the thing you love or the thing you take for granted? How would you feel?
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and I read this idea recently and remembered, we’ve talked about it here, in Episode 18 so I wanted to share this idea again. It’s negative visualization for gratitude. Some people call it practicing the take-away.
When you have trouble thinking about gratitude. In Episode 82 we talked about how we don’t always feel like it. You can practice the take-away approach.
When you feel like you have nothing to be grateful for, the sky is falling and you are feeling all the feels. One exercise is to start by thinking about how you’d feel if certain things that you love were taken away from you. For example, if suddenly your eyesight was taken from you, how would you feel? The science indicates that this can help you feel gratitude for having eyes that see, in this example.
I think about this with my husband. If he were gone, how would I feel? I’d feel terrible. It reminds me of all the good things I love about him and are grateful for. I’m less annoyed by the little things and feel grateful he takes out the trash and listens to me verbally process almost every thing in my mind (bless him - he’s a saint, and so patient).
I guess it just puts things in a different perspective. It’s not easy when you are feeling really crappy and you really want to go down that road of negative energy, and negative energy is so contagious that it’s easy to get people to drive down that road with you. But that’s where the work starts, when it feels hard.
I’m cheering for you.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Links: https://bossladybio.com/everydayhappiness/
Sunday Aug 22, 2021
Sunday Aug 22, 2021
Oh man, sometimes it’s really hard to feel grateful. Then what?
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and what we know is that our emotions are complex. Even a glass half full person like me doesn't feel happy all the time. As humans, we have a range of emotions - happy is just one of them. Sad, annoyed, depressed, angry, cranky, frustrated are just a few of the other feelings we could feel on any given day.
When I feel annoyed, which let’s be honest, happens more than you would think, I lean in on kindness. To myself, to feel the feels, but also I know that kindness toward others is a sure-fire-way to boost a little chemical in my brain that feels joy and gratitude.
I remind myself that feelings are temporary and we are not our feelings. I think about that when I’m having a bad day.
So in that vein, I really acknowledge these non-happy thoughts. I sit with them and I try to recognize that they are not completely true. There is usually something you can pull out of a negative thought that brings some positive feeling. I am annoyed that the doctor’s office did not order a test that I need, so I have to go back for a second appointment. On the flip side, I really like my doctor, who I haven’t seen in a while and I was able to share how successful our family managed covid and give her a perspective that might be different that what she hears more regularly.
So when I’m feeling all the feels, I am intentional about looking for the silver lining. I hope this little trick might help you sometimes too. I’m curious, do you have a hack that would help?
Message me on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Links: https://bossladybio.com/everydayhappiness/
Saturday Aug 21, 2021
Saturday Aug 21, 2021
Hey there Winnie the Pooh fans. Are your genetics predisposed to be a Tigger or an Eeyore?
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and what Gretchen Rubin, the author of the happiness report said was that "about 50 percent of happiness is genetically determined, so some people are born Tiggers, and some people are born Eeyores,"
What we know is that happiness is partially genetic. But what I think is even more exciting is that there is a big portion of the happiness equation that we can control, especially if we pay attention to the thoughts and actions that contribute to well-being .
I wake up happy. I’m a Tigger. It is easier for me than for others, genetically, to be happy.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, about 41% of American adults report recent symptoms of an anxiety or a depressive disorder. This is a real thing. We, as a society need to be protecting and checking in with our mental health.
What we know from the happiness research, is that ‘connection to others’ plays a significant role in whether people feel happy.
People who have long term intimate relationships where they can confide in a person or where they feel like they belong, tend to be happier.
The research suggests, it’s not the big fancy car, house, yacht, insert any extravagant thing, that makes you happy. But the little things, the smell of your coffee brewing, the glance of a loved one, a homemade card from a child.
It’s so easy to be distracted by the big shiny thing and think, when I get that, what I accomplish that thing, then, I’ll be happy. And really, what we’ve learned in previous episodes on gratitude and happiness, is that it’s the little things that matter most.
For me, happiness is coffee in the morning. First alone when the family is asleep. Later with my husband before he starts his day. What’s a little thing that makes you feel happiness? Let’s connect on social @everydayhappinesswithkatie.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Links: https://bossladybio.com/everydayhappiness/
Friday Aug 20, 2021
Friday Aug 20, 2021
Can experiencing happiness be good for our physical health? That’s the question we dive into today.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and what we know is that gratitude can make you feel happier. But scientifically, chemically, what’s happening?
Amy E Keller,PSYD, who has her doctorate in psychology and works as a clinician, says: “experiencing gratitude activates neurotransmitters like dopamine, which we associate with pleasure, and serotonin, which regulates our mood. It also causes the brain to release oxytocin, a hormone which induces feelings like trust and generosity which promotes social bonding, and feeling connected.”
There have been studies on this and in 2003 a paper published by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough did a little experiment. In that study, college students who wrote about things they were grateful for just once a week for 10 weeks reported fewer physical symptoms (such as headaches, shortness of breath, sore muscles, and nausea) than students who wrote about daily events or hassles. It’s this concept of where do we focus our attention.
In an article published by the Mayo Health Clinic they discuss how having a daily gratitude practice, over time, improves sleep, boosts immunity and decreases the risk of disease.
Of course, if you’ve been with me for a while, you know how important sleep is for me. So when I heard that gratitude helps with sleep, I was excited. I am only one person, and I’m a super anxious person, but “counting my blessings” before I close my eyes has, in my opinion, helped me get a more restful sleep.
Whether or not there are true measured physical improvements from gratitude and happiness, there’s no reason not to try.
What do you think? Send me a message on social @everydayhappinesswithkatie
Inspired by this article in Very Well Mind and this article from the Mayo Clinic.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Links: https://bossladybio.com/everydayhappiness/
Thursday Aug 19, 2021
Thursday Aug 19, 2021
Activating gratitude starts with the little things and if we can feel gratitude for the people and the places and the experiences, over the things we have, we can activate these emotions that help us feel happy.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and what we know is people who make gratitude a habit tend to have a sense they have fulfilling lives. So one of the best ways to make gratitude a habit, to activate this gratitude high, is to practice gratitude for the little things. Instead of waiting for a big thing or a special moment, it’s about recognizing the little things.
Now, a lot of us will think we are grateful people. We practice gratitude all day long. But it turns out, keeping a gratitude journal, keeping yourself honest, is really the best way. And there is a theory that journaling also increases happiness, so this is a win-win.
In your gratitude journal, you can notice small acts of kindness shown to you by others. This helps us appreciate the little things, the moments and not material things.
The next time you are writing your gratitude, I invite you to smile while you are writing in your journal. Studies show that smiling can change the way you feel. Turning up the corners of your mouth while you are writing will increase the benefits of this practice.
What we know is that activating gratitude starts with the little things and if we can feel gratitude for the people and the places and the experiences, over the things we have, we can activate these emotions that help us feel happy.
Join the conversation over on Instagram at the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #EverydayHappinessWithKatie
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Wednesday Aug 18, 2021
Wednesday Aug 18, 2021
How would you define happiness? This episode shares how the researchers define happiness, would you agree or disagree?
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and what we know is that happiness isn’t always a fleeting feeling ‘I’m happy and then I’m not’ - it’s an overall satisfaction of your life. Are you a happy person? A lot of people describe happiness as a range of positive emotions.
In her 2007 book The How of Happiness, positive psychology researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky (LU-BO-MER-SKE) describes how scientists refer to happiness as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”
So while happy people experience more positive emotions, joy, love, contentment, and experience less negative emotions, that doesn’t mean to say that happy people don’t have negative emotions, of course they do. But what this research indicates, is that positive emotion is only one side of the coin. You can experience a lot of positive emotions and still not be a truly happy person.
The research indicates that you need the other side of the proverbial coin too. And that’s having a sense of satisfaction and purpose in your life. Feeling like you are progressing toward your life goals.
I think of this as a yin-and-yang. You can have a high sense of purpose and satisfaction and not experience a wealth of happy emotions. I think about the months after having babies and having a high purpose, but wondering why I wasn’t flooded with more happy emotions.
The goal is to find harmony between both sides of the coin, for you. The one side is happy emotions and the other is satisfaction or purpose.
Join me in conversation about happiness topics over on Instagram @everydayhappinesswithkatie
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
I invite you to take a moment and check in on our mental health. You deserve to get the help that you need, from a professional, if you need it. It’s time to de-stigmatize the language around mental health.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and if no one has told you lately, you deserve to check in with your mental health. And that means, getting professional help when you need it, when you want it, when you don’t know if you need it but you can’t shake a feeling. You deserve it. We should be talking more about mental health, de-stigmatize the language around mental health.
Our brains are so incredibly complex, and that’s amazing. It allows us to rewire the thoughts. The saying, what we focus on grows. That is scientifically proven that in the Reticular Activating System part of our brain that sends signals to give us more of what we are focusing on. It’s like when you decide you want to buy a new red car and all of a sudden you see red cars on the highway. Or when I was pregnant, I all of a sudden started noticing more women that were pregnant, I was focusing on my own pregnancy.
But, what I hear is that when we are stuck in a mental health situation, this can feel like spiraling out of control. It can feel dark and scary and I imagine hearing that you can “think your way out” makes you want to punch that person in the throat.
So although I talk about happiness science on my micro-podcast Everyday Happiness (2-mins a day), I have no qualifications to talk about mental health. But, I encourage the dialog to destigmatize the language around mental health and to encourage people to seek the professional support they need.
I don’t know who this message is for, but please know this: You deserve it. I'm rooting for you. I’m cheering you on. And I want you to win. I believe in you.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Monday Aug 16, 2021
Monday Aug 16, 2021
I’m obsessed with this idea. The ‘gratitude glitter’ idea just came to me when I was thinking about being sad and still trying to be open to seeing the happy.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and what we know is that gratitude reminds us how satisfied we are with our lives. I think sometimes we can forget the good things. If we can tap into gratitude, whether it’s a crappy day, a crappy week, a crappy year, if we can find something to truly feel gratitude for, it will, scientifically, help us feel a better sense of well-being.
That seems really hard when you don’t ‘feel’ like you have anything you want to be grateful for. Now, I’m not a doctor, if you are feeling so blue and you can’t see a way out, please seek out a mental health professional, you deserve to get the help you need.
I’m not saying that everyday is filled with butterflies, rainbows and glitter. What I am trying to say, is that, hopefully, we can find those specks of glitter to be grateful for. Hold on to them. And gather more, little by little if that’s what it takes. Until you can see the specks of glitter turn into a little pile in your hand. I’m imagining literally collecting specks of glitter gratitude. Soon, when those specks are piled together, it looks like a bigger sparkle of gratitude. And, over time, we see the gratitude grow, we have more sparkle, and we can start to retrain our brains to see the gratitude sparkles through the crappy stuff we have going on too.
So I’m curious, what do you think of this concept of gratitude glitter? Let’s have a chat over on Instagram. I’m at @everydayhappinesswithkate.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
What happens when your gratitude feels like it’s on auto-pilot. This was a conversation in the Intentional Margins® community this week.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and what happens when we ‘phone it in’ - you know, like we’re saying the words in our gratitude practice, but we almost start to expect it and it seems very auto-pilot.
This was a conversation I had this week with Stephanie, a Margin Maker in the Intentional Margins® community. (That’s what we call the members, the folks in the group that are creating intentional margin® in their lives to make time for their priorities while oftentimes still running on the hamster wheel of todos) She expressed how she wondered if she was taking gratitude for granted. That’s an interesting thought. It can become routine and pretty soon your gratitude is on auto-pilot. I am grateful for the partner, the kids, the food on the table, the place that I live, my health, day after day. All things you are grateful for, no doubt, but it’s routine.
During our discussion we uncovered that perhaps, gratitude also has peaks and valleys, and it’s natural to find yourself on auto-pilot every now and then. We questioned whether anyone can be truly grateful in this peak of awareness all the time. I think the gratitude can seem less sincere when you are phoning it in.
I invite you to check in with your gratitude practice, ask yourself, is this becoming auto-pilot? Are there things I can do to shake it up? For me, I’m going back to the tiny little things that I often overlook and focusing on that for a while during my gratitude practice. So it could look like one day, focusing on the kids, but instead of saying the children, I am going to dig deeper and peel the layers of why. My goal is to feel that gratitude again when focusing more intently on peeling back the layers.
I’d love to know if this technique works for you and how your gratitude practice is going, so reach out to me @everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram.
Get Everyday Happiness delivered to your inbox by subscribing at: https://www.katiejefcoat.com/happiness
And, let’s connect on social at @everydayhappinesswithkatie and join the community on the hashtags #IntentionalMargins and #everydayhappinesswithkatie on Instagram