Welcome to Coffee Time with Kristen - my official blog!
Here I will talk about all things life. Thoughts I have flushed out during quiet time with a cup of coffee.
As an introduction to Coffee Time with Kristen, I will tell a story about being a new mom, having a cup of coffee, and coming to an understanding of the impact fifteen minutes of quiet time can have on a busy mom. This story (plus a dinner with friends early into motherhood) is what became the catalyst for writing my debut picture book - Mommy’s Time - the story of a mom who takes a moment to herself, so she can be more present for all of life’s moments.
To begin this story, lets backtrack to my life pre-motherhood. I was a busy young professional. I was a lawyer actively involved in all kinds of boards and committees. On top of all of this, I taught yoga in hopes to balance out the complete stress of practicing law by trying teach humans how to stress less during the early hours of the day before going to the office. Whenever I wasn’t teaching or lawyering, I was doing yoga myself - it was my stress relief and a way to try to stay healthy and grounded under the stress of being a new lawyer. Then I had my son and went from yoga all the time to occasional ten minute flows. Sometimes I would just lay on the mat with the baby and not actually do yoga. Coupled with a few stroller walks, that was the extent of my fitness routine. Eventually I decided to do one crazy intense workout on Saturday mornings - a HIIT class. I figured one kick-ass workout a week would counter the lack of activity the rest of the week brought.
So on Saturday mornings I went to HIIT class - a fifty minute workout that took place five minutes from my house. All in all, the entire commitment took just over one hour. At first, I would rush back home - worried my family needed me but my husband and son were always fine. Happily playing away the morning (or off on some adventure to the park or museum). So I began popping into the coffee shop next to the HIIT class to grab an iced coffee and zucchini loaf to go after class. An added ten minutes to my Saturday adventure. My family neither noticed nor cared.
Finally, one Saturday, after happily chatting with my favorite barista, I said I would dine-in for my coffee. I sat in silence doing absolutely nothing but drinking my coffee. It dawned on me that this was the first time I had ever sat and enjoyed a cup of coffee by myself without some sort of task to accompany it. Whether it be work, a writing project, paying bills, or checking emails, I always tried to utilize every minute of every day as efficiently as I could. I never knew how much value a quiet fifteen minutes could have on a busy person’s well-being. Brene Brown describes this phenomena in her book Atlas of the Heart. She explains how the cure to overwhelm is non-doing. Coffee time is my non-doing. Coffee time is my cure to the overwhelm that naturally happens when living out a beautiful, fulfilled life.
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