Ep 100 Hannah Brencher viii

Hannah Brensher is the guest on the 100th episode of the Born to Fly podcast. She is a writer, TED speaker, and mental health advocate. She is the author of three bestselling books and the founder of More Love Letters, an organization that writes and mails letters to strangers in need. Hannah talks about her journey, including her battle with depression and how it led her to discover the power of habits and routines. She emphasizes the importance of unplugging from social media and finding a slower, more intentional pace of life. It is here, you are listening to the 100th episode of the Born to Fly podcast and I could not be more thrilled about the guest that I'm speaking to today. She has been on my big names list for a long time and I think I even emailed her and reached out to her for almost over a year and a half. But you know, if you're persistent and you're persuasive, I think that's the key. So I admire my guest, what she does, the way she does it, how she inspires others and how she's using words to really build others up. I'm talking about Hannah Brensher. If you don't know her, Hannah Brensher is a writer, TED speaker and mental health advocate with a heart for building leaders. She's the author of three bestselling books, Fighting Forward, Come Matter Here and If You Find This Letter. She's the founder of More Love Letters, a global organization using the power behind social media to write and mail letters to strangers in need across the world. Named as one of the White House's Women Working to Do Good, Hannah and her work have been featured in publications such as CNN World News, The Wall Street Journal, Oprah.com and Glamour, among dozens of others. Hannah lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, Lane, and daughter, Novalie. She is a perfect person if you want to know more about routines, writing and parenthood, among other things, which we will all cover in today's episode. Enjoy this 100th episode of the Born to Fly podcast and don't forget to leave us a review. You're listening to another episode of the Born to Fly podcast and today my guest is Hannah Brensher. Welcome, Hannah, on the show. Thank you for having me. I've been so excited to have this conversation. Me too. So I'm excited. So let's dive right into it. For people who don't know you, can you tell a little bit more about yourself and how you became such an, I don't know if expert is the word, but I like to say expert on routines, on time management and everything regarding that. Yeah. So I would definitely say it's been like a pretty unexpected journey. Like if you had told me, you know, like 10 years ago, this is what you're going to be doing. I don't think I would have ever anticipated that, but you know, I am an author. I'm a writer. I've been a blogger for gosh, like more than the last decade back when like blogging was like right on the cusp and it was like super fun and cool. Like that was when I started blogging and I have loved it ever since. And so, you know, I built a readership through that. And then I think that readership has just kind of evolved with me and grown up with me. And when it comes to, you know, habits and routines and rhythms, a lot of that was spurred on from a really dark time in my life. And so I dealt with depression in 2014 and it was a pretty severe depression that left me fighting for my life. And, you know, I came out on the other side of it by both the grace of God, but also understanding and learning the power of habits and routines and rhythms and how those could fuel my life and like actually lead to like more freedom than I could ever imagine and like more health than I could ever imagine. And so as I've been a student to like habits and routines, you know, I've taken people along with me and I've started teaching classes on it. And it's honestly been one of the most fulfilling parts of this whole journey because I think it's one thing to like write words that inspire people. I think that's beautiful. That's wonderful. But it's another thing to like give people the tools for them to show up to their own lives intentionally and for them to like really take hold of their lives. And so that has been kind of the antidote with the rhythms and the routines. That's interesting. One of the first things you said is, I could not have imagined doing this, what I'm doing right now. What was it that you imagined that you would be doing? You know, I always hoped that I would be writing and I think that I have a very creative spirit. And so I do remember like calling my mom. It was my first year of college and I remember calling her on the phone and I was crying, you know, having one of those like quarter life crisis where I was like, all I want to do is write and create things, you know, and I look now and I say, oh my gosh, that's what I'm doing. But I think maybe more so the subject matter. If I looked at my lifetime years ago, I was very disciplined when it came to work, when it came to productivity, when it came to hustling. But my outside part of work, you know, like cooking and health and all of that stuff, I think was very like, it was maybe rooted in the wrong things, not rooted out of a spirit of rest or compassion for yourself or the power of slow results. It was more like instantaneous drive through culture, very much like I want to be able to scale this as fast as I can. And so that has really shifted and changed over the last few years that I've learned to appreciate slowness and the power of small, consistent steps, compounding and adding up over time. Yeah, I understand. I think it was your recent newsletter on the Monday that you talked about slowing down, about the eggs that are being fried very slowly. And it's something that God has been telling over and over and over as well in my life to just don't haste into things. Don't go into the rush of wanting to have a business scaled within five years, if that's even your goal. It's just because society tells us that we have to do everything at once and at the pace of running. It doesn't mean we have to. And I just like how you were describing the way we can fry an egg and slowing down really matters. Do we have to do everything at the same time? And I think you said, okay, you started creating these habits and looking at probably things differently from different perspectives while you were at a very dark place. You have to, and I think that's where you really can meet truth and things that are really important. Totally. It's beautiful that not everybody has to go to that place that you were, but you can already help people now before they get into that place to get them into those routines and habits. So can you elaborate a little bit more on what was like one of your biggest aha moments when it came to a specific routine or a specific habit that really changed how you thought or how you work? Yeah. So I'm very much like, I love to experiment with new habits, try things out. I very much come with the mindset and I have been breaking it for a while now, but old mindsets are hard to break, you know, of like, Oh, I can just like overhaul my life. I can just, I'll be a new person tomorrow. Very much like that new year mindset that I don't know, maybe there's other people listening that are like me where it's like, Oh, June 1st sounds like a new year to me, you know? But in actuality, that's not really how new habits and routines and rhythms take shape. You often have to start small and build from there. I would say one of the most pivotal habits that has led to a lot of health and growth in my life has been the habit of unplugging. And so that's something I started doing in 2021. Like I had done it on and off. I'd take a weekend off of social media or I, you know, I'd take an extended break. In 2021 was when I really started to be like, okay, how can I make this a daily habit for me? Like, what does it look like to start unplugging every single day? And from that, I learned so much about myself, about routines, about rhythms and disciplines, because I realized that once I got rid of the noise, I started clearing out the noise by turning off my phone. I realized that a lot of the things that I was feeling and a lot of the pressure that I was facing was actually, it was self-inflicted. It was me. It was my voice telling myself that I needed to hustle harder, that I needed to be productive, that I needed to keep up. And like, no one was asking me to be in that race. That was really my own spirit wanting to run ahead. And the more that I've slowed down and cleared out the noise, I realized like, oh, I can actually go at a much more enjoyable pace. I can listen for what I believe to be like the voice of God. And God is never telling me to hustle or push harder. His voice is very kind and it's very much like one thing at a time, one task at a time. Look at the day before you. You don't need to look into tomorrow. And so if ever I feel out of sync with that voice, it often usually means I'm too plugged in. I think that's the way of social media and the way of tech is like, how can we make things faster and faster and faster? But honestly, I think it's an epidemic and I think we're overstimulated and there's too much communication happening that we don't even know how to be like fully present in our daily lives. And so I would say that that became kind of like a foundational habit for a lot of other habits that I had wanted all along, but like maybe was too distracted to do them or like felt like I was always pushing from email to text to this, to that, where once I like started to clear all that out, I was like, oh, I have time to cook a meal. There's nothing urgent happening. It's me creating the urgency, if that makes sense. Yeah, that makes total sense. And we were talking a little bit about tech. Technology is great, but if we use the technology to speed our lives up and then replace stuff by the time that we get back, I think we missed the point of technology. Right. And that's probably why when you use technology in the right way, then, yes, you do have the time to maybe cook that meal that you want to cook instead of like in a microwave. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the things that like once I started unplugging and slowing down, I was like, oh, I don't make breakfast for myself. You know, I just like throw something in the microwave or like I wait until I'm like so hungry at lunchtime. And it was like the slow act of just like, you know, cooking the eggs slow or sautéing some vegetables as not even like I need to eat healthy, but more so like, am I worth preparing this meal? Same thing with my daughter. Do I want to give her good things? Can I take the time to prepare those good things for her? And does it matter and mean more? I'm like, I'm not against the microwave. I still use the microwave. It was more so like, OK, what's really the root of this is that you feel like you can't slow down to nurture yourself, to nourish yourself, to rest, like all of these things that in my 20s I did not value at all. And then in my 30s, I was like, if I don't learn to value these things, like I am going to live in a constant state of burns. Yeah. OK, so unplugging. So you unplug every day. You unplug one hour. So you like you shut down or you turn off your phone. That's basically no technology. Is that how you unplug? Yeah, basically. And I tell people, too, though, I'm like, if you do want to start unplugging, like your version of unplugging might look different than my version of unplugging. You know, for me, though, it's no tech. I'm not watching a show on Netflix. I'm not on my phone. I'm not on social media. I'm not on email. And it varies. So the goal is to unplug every day for me personally. But there's also times where like I hit the weekend and then I'm unplugging six, seven, eight hours straight. And so you kind of have to like figure out, OK, like how does this rhythm fit into my life? So there's no overarching pressure of you have to unplug. But if anybody wanted to unplug and they were listening to this podcast, I would say, you know, think about your life and think about the things in your life that you want to be fully present for and just start there. Start with the quiet time in the morning. Start with the dinner at the table. Maybe you've said to yourself for a while, I want to read more books, but you're always reaching for the phone in and out of reading the book. And it's like, well, what would it look like to put the phone somewhere else for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour and actually just like single mindedly focus on one task, whether that's reading, whether that's making a meal. And so I think it evolves over time. But for anybody that's like wanting to unplug, I would definitely say, like, think about what it is that you want to do with that time. Like, what do you want to claim your time back for? Because I think a lot of times we don't even realize like we're filling it with scrolling and checking and all of these things. And then when somebody goes to unplug for the first time, they don't know what to do with themselves because they're used to filling every gap in the day with scrolling and checking and all of those things. Yeah, that's so true. I remember going to like networking events. And the first thing you want to do when you arrive at such an event is like get your phone out and check. Like, you're so important person, give me an email or something. Because you feel uneasy, right? You don't feel comfortable where you are. No. Yeah. Grab my phone. That's so funny. I was literally just going through, like, material for one of my classes and it was about like, you know, there was like a little part in it about, you know, when you go to a place for the first time, whether it's a party or it's a networking event, like, I'm like, am I the only one that's like off in the corner, like making up a fake conversation to look like I am busy on my phone? Because like you said, it's uncomfortable. It's hard. And I feel like we're not putting ourselves in those positions as much anymore because we have a device that allows us to, like, shield from the discomfort. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's also a step that you can take. It's just like, don't grab your phone. Just go through the uncomfortable feeling that you have and experience it. Yep. So one of the reasons probably why you also unplug is to be present in the moment. So I think one of the things, especially when most people that are listening are parents and they want to build something like a business, a side hustle, they already are building it. So there's lots going on and then your mind might be with all of the things you have to do for your business, but you also want to be present with your children. Yeah. How do you ensure that you as a mother and as a wife are present in the moments that matter? You know, I think the biggest answer, and again, I am just as much a student as anybody else. I'm learning every single day, you know, like our little girl, she's four and so she's always entering to some new stage or new era and have to learn it all over again. But I think the most important thing is presence. I know that we just said that word and we're like, well, duh, it's the most important thing. But I think that like, honestly, 15 minutes of being fully present somewhere actually goes a lot farther than we can think or imagine. And so I found that in my own life and parenting journey that we have what we call like pockets of presence where it's, okay, when I'm with you, I am fully with you and we are in this together and the phone is not present and we're doing this thing and we're committed to this thing, you know? And I think that that's kind of one of the ways that I've figured out how to balance. Like, I know what my workload is and I know that there are times where I'm going to be in my office doing work, but I try to be really mindful. I'm not going to be like constantly working on my phone in front of her. I'm not going to constantly have my phone. I've even given her the phone a few times to be like, hey, you go and put the phone away for mama so that she can see mama is off the phone. And so one of those areas, you know, is like bedtime. I have it this month that I'm cultivating as being more intentional with bedtime. I think it's easy to get to the end of the day and you're just like ready to have some me time. So you're like, let's just fly through this routine. And then what does it look like to slow down just a little bit, to be more intentional, to read the story, to pray over her rather than just going through the motions. And I think the misconception is that it has to be a huge amount of time that we have to always be present 24 seven. I don't know that the world that we live in is really set up for that, especially if you're a mom that also wants to build a business and like wants to dream bigger. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I think it's getting to the root of like, okay, this is what it looks like to be present, but also this is what it looks like when I do plug in to be focused. What does it look like to focus? Because we can waste a lot of time or we can make a list for ourselves. It's not actually a realistic list. And then we're just kind of floating all over the place like, oh, I think I'll check this email. Oh, well, I think I'll do this. Wait, what was the task that I was going to be doing? And so getting really clear, I'm like, okay, what is the map? What is the things that I have to do for this day? And then like, let's set timers, let's put the phone away. Let's be present to the work we're doing instead of just like distracting ourselves on the phone. And so I think honestly, the thing about unplugging for me is like, I am not anti-tech. I am not telling anybody to get rid of tech. I love tech myself, even though I feel a lot of my practices are more like analog than anything, you know, but I just feel like it's how we use the tools more than anything. And so for me with my relationship with my daughter, I had to ask myself every time I pick up this device in front of her, is it taking me away from her? And what kind of story is it telling her? And then can we work to change that story? Yeah, absolutely. Because that's the thing that I struggle with as well, is the phone is constantly with me in the room that I am in, and then my children are there and they see me with the phone. And like, what are you communicating with them? Because you can be present with them for like every day of the week. But if you're constantly like half present and they see you on the phone, I don't know what they're thinking of that much yet, right? Like, what are they perceiving when you do that? I think it's very important to be mindful of what you're doing, I guess. Absolutely. And I think too, like, you know, because I'm always curious about what she's taking in or what she's receiving. And even times where I feel like I am too plugged in, I will just talk to her about it. And I'll be like, I'm so sorry that I didn't feel like I was present with you in that moment, because I think that they can understand that. They're little, but like, their minds are like sponges. And so just the other day, actually, like when she was going to bed, I asked her, I said, if you could do anything in the world tomorrow with mama, what would it be? She was like, I want to do a puzzle. And I was like, a puzzle, like of all the things that we could do, a puzzle, you know? And so then the next day, we made it a point to sit down and do that puzzle. And I think that that's been a huge lesson that I've learned in unplugging is that like, when you're plugged in, and you're on social media, especially as a mother, it's so easy to see what other people are doing. It's so easy to see how other people are like, quote unquote, winning motherhood. It's so easy to see the like, birthday parties that honestly, I feel like rival weddings have these days. And it's so easy to think if I'm going to give my kids something, it's got to be extravagant. It's got to be big, we've got to go to the museum, we've got to do this, we've got to do the big things when in actuality, they just want you to do a puzzle with them. They just want you to ask them questions. And so I don't know, that's been teaching me so much because I'm like, okay, if this is what little kids want, I think this is probably what we all want. We all want somebody just to spend time with us to feel deeply connected to us to feel like when you're sitting across the table from somebody at dinner, they're with you, they're interested, they're invested. And so I think where I used to struggle with the balance, I think now like, no, this is actually like, this is a part of the life's mission. Like, this is it to be deeply present wherever I am. And yeah, it's going to be a struggle sometimes, but like, the struggle is a good thing. The discomfort is a good thing. Yeah, absolutely. And this is also encouraging for people who are working a lot and they're maybe too guilty because they can't be home as much as they want, but you can make the time that you are home, you can make it very special just by being there at like a hundred percent. Just by being there. Yep. Yeah. And so to get there, to be fully present, you say it is important to focus in your work, in your workday. So if we were to give people who are starting out with business, if we were to give them advice on like what kinds of habits or routines would be very useful for them to really have like their work mindset with work and then their parenting mindset with parenting when they're with the children. What would you advise them? I know it's not like a blueprint for everyone, but what would you advise them? Totally. Yeah, so a few things. I think more than anything, I think it's really important to have a plan. I know that probably seems really basic, but like if your goal is to start a business or to start a new venture or to work on a project, I think you can waste a lot of time just like sitting down and then being like, so where do we begin? What do we start with? You know, and then you're like roaming around the internet and then you're doing this and then you're doing that. And then you see an ad for something that you've wanted for a while. So then you're over there, you know? And so I think having a plan and then being like realistic and like focused with that plan, meaning I always like I tend to make my plans the day before because if I wake up in the morning and say, for instance, like the morning doesn't go as I anticipate, when I sit down to make my plan for the day, it's going to look very different than if I created the plan the day earlier, not in a heightened emotional state. And so especially as somebody who works for themselves, like I need to be my own boss. I need to say this is what needs to be done today. Whether you feel like it or not, like this is what we're doing. Because I think especially as solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, we can go off of feelings. You can be like, I don't feel like doing that today. I don't feel creatively charged today. And it's like, nope, this is what's on the list. So at least let's give it a try. And the other thing that I do, I swear by, is the Pomodoro technique, which I'm sure some listening know about Pomodoro. But basically, it's a technique of focus blocks of 25 minutes at a time. And they say that that is like the ideal time to focus in on a task. And so for me, like I turn it into a game. I'll pick a task, I'll set the timer for 25 minutes. And then when it's done, I'll get up, I'll probably go for a walk around the block. I might pace back and forth outside a little bit to get some steps in. And then I come back and I set the timer for the next task. And so during that time when you're focusing, you're not on your phone, you're not roaming from browser to browser. Ideal if you're not going to be on email, though I do sometimes set Pomodoro timers where I'm like for 25 minutes, we are intentionally responding to emails. But even that, like when I do Pomodoros, I don't use my phone as my timer. That's like way too tempting. It could be right there. I could pick it up without even realizing it. And so I even have it right in front of me. You can't see it, but I have like my little kitchen timer. And I'll set the timer and then I will press go and I'll be racing against the clock. It's crazy the amount that you can get done when you decide to be like single minded, focused on a task and you will get that task done so much better and so much more intentionally than like trying to do a million different things at once. I think the thing is like our generation, we were programmed to believe that like multitasking was the best thing in the world. When in actuality, it's really bad. It's not helpful at all. And so we have a lot of people, especially like that are dealing with diagnoses of ADD and ADHD, very real diagnoses. But I also think that there's a lot of people who just can't focus because we're overstimulated. We are distracted at every angle. We have so much information coming at us from every angle. So what does it look like to clear it out and focus in on the task right in front of us? And if 25 minutes is too long, start with five minutes, start with 10 minutes. Like my golden rule is like 15 minutes, set a timer for 15 minutes and get started. You'll be so surprised by what you can do just by saying for this 15 minutes, for this 25 minutes, I'm not focusing on anything else. I'm going to be here and I'm going to be present to this task. Yeah, and it's going to be so difficult for some people to focus for just 25 minutes. Yeah, kind of crazy if you think about it. ADD and ADHD are very real things, and we are continuing to develop tools to help people in that space, you know. But I also think, too, like for the person that might not have that diagnosis, like focus is still a very hard thing to come by for a lot of us. And I think even coming out of COVID, it's like even worse because everything was happening on our screens for a while. And that was like our lifeline that I think a lot of people picked up habits in COVID that got them through the pandemic, but are no longer serving them, yet they don't know how to change routes. Yeah, for sure. And so when you work in that 25 minutes and you don't complete the task, but you work days over, what do you do? I think you have to know when enough is enough. And that's the toughest part. And that's something that I think we all have to continually try to get better at. But I think I felt the tension for me specifically because my daughter, she goes to a preschool four days a week. It's like a little half-day preschool. And one day a week, she does not have school. And for the first, I think, five or six months, I struggled with building a to-do list for myself for my work, and also knowing that she was at home with us. And I never felt satisfied. I always felt like this deep tension that I wasn't doing either thing well. And then I just had to have a moment where I was like, maybe I'm not meant to do both of these things well at the same time, and that's okay. And so I realized it's like from a place of privilege that I'm able to say, okay, on Wednesdays, I'm going to do more home tasks. I'm going to be around with her. We're going to run errands together. I'm going to intentionally look for things I can do with her. And that means I'm not going to be at my desk super focused on those days. And there's definitely that part of me that still wants to be, that it's like, oh, but I could be getting more done over here. But I had to let go of that tension of trying to do both at the same time because it was never working. And so I then started to look at the day and be like, okay, well, what are the things that still need to get done to make our lives and our rhythms work better, but allow me to be more present to her during the time that I have her? Because I made a choice to have her here four days a week. And so how do I honor that choice? And I think what's actually really cool is a really cool tradition came out of that space because I think I know I'm going off on a lot of tangents here. I get really passionate about it, but I think like we are, you know, we're dynamic people. We have lots of different goals or dreams or ambitions. And so like we may want to build a career, but we also want to be like deeply present at home. But we also want to like love our friends and family well. And so I'd encourage people to look at the whole picture, not just like I want to be successful in my work, but like what do you want for your life and how do we build that? And so for me, I want to be deeply generous. I want to love my people well. I would actually say that that's more important to me now than being successful in my work. And I love my work. But I want her to know that we can be deeply generous and that we can love our people. We can show up for our people. And so now on Wednesdays when she's home with me, we make it a point nearly every week to ask ourselves the question, OK, who do we want to bless today? And I let her choose or I get to choose. And then what we'll do is we'll go out and we will do something to bless that person, be it making a care package for them, getting lunch for them, dropping something off on their doorstep, sending something in the mail. But it's a way for me to be able to say, OK, this is something I said I wanted to do. This is something that I want to be in her life. But it allows us to be fully present in this tradition together. And so by adding that tradition into our weekly routines, I've learned, OK, like, yeah, on the days that she's not here, I can still do some things, get some things done. But we have this thing that we both look forward to that maybe takes an hour or two of our day. But I like to think that years from now, she's going to remember it. I know I'm going to remember it. It's like that was one of the best things that we thought to do with our time. And so all that to say, whether you're building something or you're wanting to be more present at home, I think the real question is, what do I want to do with my time? How do I use my time well? Because I think if we all got deep with ourselves, we don't really want to be binging that show on Netflix. We don't really care about whatever means we're consuming online. That is not what we want to look back 30 years from now and say, that's what I wish I did with my time. But like you said, it's going to take some discomfort to get to that place of using our time well. Yeah. And it's so beautiful that you created such a transition for you and your daughter to do something like that. Because that's so valuable, not just for you and your relationship, but for the people you're doing something for. I think that's instilling something that's great for her to do when she's grown up, right? Yeah. Yeah. And being generous, I think is a very good thing to learn. I think that's honestly something with the routines and rhythms that I've learned over and over and over again, is that we are living in a world and a culture where it's easy to talk about what we want. It's easy to talk about who we want to be. But if it's not backed by action, the talk is actually really cheap. And so for anybody that's listening today and you're like, I know the kind of person I want to be, but I don't know how to get from point A to point B, I would say write it down. Write down that list of the person that you want to become, and then ask yourself, okay, if I was that person, what are the habits that I would have in my life? And then just pick one and start dedicating yourself to that thing. If you say, I want to be an early riser, okay, well, like, let's set the alarm clock a little bit earlier. I want to be more generous, okay, like you might not have the funds to pay for dinner all the time. But is there something that you can do that might cost five, $10? Could you demo a friend a little pick me up today? Like, because you do that enough times, and actually, you start to live in that reality. You are that generous person. You are that early riser. It all has to be backed by action, though. Yeah, absolutely. So talking about being generous, when you're a parent, especially when you have young children, and you know, because yours is four, you want to be generous with your time for everyone, because time is limited, and you want to especially be generous with your time to God. So yeah, I struggle. And I also wrote about that. I struggle with prayer in general, because I find that to be difficult. I always was a person who did my prayer time in the morning. But then I have a three year old and a one year old, and it's just almost impossible to get up before. Yeah, because you know, you think they sleep until seven, and suddenly they wake up at six. And so there goes your prayer time. So what would you say to those people who want to spend more time with God? Or how do you prioritize your time with God? Yeah, it definitely changes when you become a mom, you know, where you're like, oh, I get to have all this unlimited time to just like, pray and talk with God and you're like, not so much anymore. But I actually think that can actually be a really cool challenge to figure out, okay, how do we kind of hack our prayer lives a little bit? Because I think God in His true nature just wants us to be around. I think He just wants us to be in communication with Him in whatever pockets and ways that we can. And so that's where, you know, I've gotten more, I think, savvy with just like, okay, we're going to open up a constant stream of communication. And as long as I keep the noise at bay, I actually like feel like I'm communicating with God throughout the day, which is really sweet and special. And very unexpected, probably not something I thought that I would get to, you know, like I would get to do. But there's a book, it's called The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. And it's a very, it's a little book, it would take you like an hour, maybe two hours to read. I read it probably every six months, because it's just that life changing. And he basically talks about how he like made it a point to just be in a constant, continual conversation with God throughout his day. And so if he was doing something like washing the dishes, that would be a time to commune with God. If he was doing something like picking up the toys, that would be a time to pray for your kids' hands and their lives and the gifts that you've been given. And so I think the biggest thing for me has, I've had to break prayer out of that box of like, it has to look this way, it has to look like a quiet room, it has to look like candles lit. Like, I can pray to God in the car, I can invite my daughter to pray with me. That intentional bedtime, instead of just being like praying some little rhyming prayer or whatever, which is great, whatever way you pray, I just started praying real prayers over her life. We hold hands every night and I just pray out loud the way that I would pray to God if it was just me and him. And so I think it's realizing like the fringe hours in the pockets of your day, like if we can find ways to just turn our attention to God, even if it's only for five minutes, we will start to see the power of that in our daily lives. And so, you know, it might not look like an hour, but I would even encourage you, this is something I started doing when Novi was really little, was that I value quiet time. I want her to see me doing quiet time. I can't tell her, this is a faith that you need to have. I have to show her, this is a faith that I need to have. And that is honestly the reason why I am a Christian today, is because I watched my mom engage in quiet time, day after day after day. And so in the midst of the chaos, I just said, you know what, I'm just going to do some of my quiet time right in front of her. I'm going to let her see me doing it. And it's been so sweet to watch that evolve. And sometimes she'll grab a Bible and come sit next to me. And like, they know, they get it. But they are going to look to us to say, what's important to mama? What does mama value? And for me, it was like, either she's going to see me valuing what's ever happening on this phone. She's going to see me deeply present in my daily life with my people, with my God. And so I know that's not a perfect answer, but I also think too, it might actually lead you into a place of more freedom with God, with God being like, you can meet me when we're walking around the block. You can meet me at your computer. I keep my prayer journal right here on my desk with my actual planner. It's like, well, instead of worrying about that thing, let me just write it down. And so it's kind of like hacking a prayer life, but it actually might be calling you to a level deeper than you can imagine, to a constant stream of communication with God that cannot be fit into a box. Yeah. And I think that's even better, because we have that perceived idea that you have to have your quiet time in the morning, it has to be an hour, and then what? You know, it's closed off and you can move on? Or do you desire this constant conversation with God? Yeah, I would definitely go with the latter. Yeah, totally. Which is great. Yeah. So I know people can subscribe for your newsletter. There are courses. Is there anything you want to point out to the people that are listening, if they want to know more about what you do, or they want to learn from you? Yeah. So on social media, I'm Hannah Brencher for all things. And I keep my website blog updated with new writing all the time. And so, yeah, go have a look, grab a cup of coffee, read some words. And then if you're ever interested in taking your discipline, your rhythms to another level, there are courses online that are available to help you get to that space of being more intentional, present with your time, focused, all of the above. Awesome. Is there anything you feel like Dimension did? I haven't mentioned it. No, I feel like we went everywhere, you know? It was a great conversation. I'm so inspired. I'm like, let me go write some things down. Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Sam, for sharing that and for being a guest on the show. I also really enjoyed it. And yeah, definitely for anything about routines or habits, I think you're great to follow. So thank you so much. You took the time because I know time is precious and you manage it well to be on the show. So yeah, thanks so much. And I will link everything below in the show notes so people can look it up, everything that you mentioned. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Born to Fly podcast. If you liked it, please leave a review on Google Podcasts or Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to share it with your friends. If you'd like to know more about Born to Fly, go to borntofly.face. There you can discover our How to Find Your Calling course and a community for like-minded entrepreneurs. Looking forward to having you back next time. Bye.