Five Winter Must-Reads
February 3, 2026MY 7 Practices for Success
I may be going against the grain here in looking back as opposed to looking forward with aspirations and goals. But as a 31-year-old mom of three, who homeschools part time and works part time, I don’t have much bandwidth for idle experimentation. Plus, 2025 was the year when I did take the time to experiment and, in a way, rebuild my life in pursuit of what works for me, and these are seven things that I plan to continue this year:
- Lifting Weights 3-4 days per week. Now don’t get the wrong impression, I am not someone who you’d even notice in the gym as doing something impressive. But I went through a somewhat toxic cardio era in my early twenties of tracking calories and running obsessively that made me hesitant to get back into the workout routine again. But I have found that pushing myself physically in weight training has been the best for not only my body but also my mental health. It’s given me a sense of autonomy that has been a fight to regain.
2. Ice cold morning showers 3-4 days a week. I don’t have an ice plunge and while the idea is nice, it’s just not practical for me currently. I have found that taking a cold shower for 2-3 minuets (I mean as cold as my faucet will go) has become the best way to start my day. Don’t get me wrong, it’s painful the first few seconds, but the feeling of being able to take on the world (battle orcs, scrub toilets, catch vomit, what-have-you) seems within my reach. Mentally I think: if I can survive this cold shower, I can survive anything. Ironic as it may be that cold shower gives me a sense of power.
3. Daily Tea instead of coffee. I may be alone in this, but coffee isn’t my go-to for a successful day. Do I still enjoy it? Yes, but only occasionally. Coffee honestly made (TMI incoming) BO so much worse and made me feel spacey and dizzy. To clarify I typically only drink it black or as a no sugar latte, so we can’t blame it on the sugar. Tea on the other hand makes me feel good as well as hydrated. Tea has given me a sense of self-control.
4. Journalling 2-3 times per week. I may be just a basic white girl, but to say that journaling was a significant battering ram to where I am today is an understatement. When you live a certain number of years battling yourself in your mind, taking it to paper and battling it there in the wide open which requires exposure and honesty is incredibly difficult but also incredibly rewarding. Journalling was the conduit for not only exposure to areas I desperately wanted to see change but also served as a guidepost for moving forward. Journalling has given me a sense of clarity.
5. A weekly solo date with a tv show/movie. I feel a bit ashamed to admit this, but the pleasure I’ve received from watching a show, during the day, midway through each week is almost inconceivable to me. Honestly this is one practice that I’ve fought against the hardest, because it felt so selfish, so unproductive and so incredibly unoriginal. Yet it feels like a reward, while my kids are napping or playing, to indulge in such an extravagance. I’m so thankful that this has become a practice, as this time in unproductive indulgence has given me a sense of simple joy.
6. Long walks 2-3 times per week. Without a doubt, if I’m having a hard day or working through a problem, walking is the cure. Being out in nature, feeling the rhythm of my feet, listening to my breath is one of the most grounding things I can do. When I ponder what walking has given me, I think it’s mostly a sense of peace.
7. Daily prayer and worship. Obviously, this is what every good, Christian girl should do along with reading the Bible, but this year cemented this reality: I can no longer live a prayerless life. This looks different on different days, but when looking back over 2025 these were the moments where I was healed, restored and recommissioned. As Henri Nowen say’s “my deepest vocation is to be a witness to the glimpses of God I have been allowed to catch.” While I have not returned to seek those glimpses as ardently and consistently as I wish, the ones I am a grateful recipient of have changed me at a core level. Prayer and worship have given me the deepest sense of wonder.
These five practices for success may look tidy on paper, but let me assure you, showing up in these ways felt like war some days. Some days I forgot that there were alternatives to spiraling. But as I pushed through the pain, endured the consistency, I’ve learned that discipline is what I need more of, not less of it. Discipline is scary for someone coming out of a burnout season, because they fear that that a rigid set of practices means imprisonment. I’ve found the opposite however, as a set of practices been a framework for success in my life. The practices of lifting weights, cold showers, drinking tea, watching shows, taking walks and prayer and worship have given me gifts I might not have unpacked otherwise. They’ve given me a sense of autonomy, power, self-control, clarity, joy, peace and wonder. While I don’t know what 2026 holds, I do know that if I continue in these practices, the likelihood for navigating the joys and trials of life in stride, looks a whole lot more likely.
