Mindfulness Habits for Women Entrepreneurs: 10 Ways to Reset Your Day
Some days just go sideways before you even finish your first cup of coffee. A client emergency lands in your inbox, your kid wakes up sick, you slept terribly, and suddenly the plan you made is already irrelevant. That's not a failure of discipline — that's just the reality of running a business and a life at the same time.
This episode is about what to do in those moments. Cara walks through 10 mindfulness practices for women entrepreneurs that you can actually use mid-chaos — not as a morning routine or a 30-day challenge, but as a toolkit you reach for when your day takes a hard left turn. From box breathing and getting outside to journaling, body scans, and the deeply underrated practice of staring out the window, each one is simple enough to do in under 15 minutes.
These are the same reset strategies that live inside Chaos Detox — because knowing how to handle the imperfect days is just as important as planning your week.
In this episode, you'll learn:
What mindfulness actually means — and what it definitely isn't
How box breathing slows down the panic spiral in about five minutes (00:02:45)
Why going outside without your phone beats almost every other reset
The embarrassingly simple reason you might be crashing every afternoon at 2pm
How to stop spinning in decision paralysis and find the next right thing (00:06:26)
What "observing your thoughts" means in plain language
When journaling works and when it doesn't — and why you should try both analog and digital
Why staring out the window is a legitimate productivity strategy (00:09:00)
How a body scan brings you out of your head and back into your body (00:09:35)
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Want to read the original blog post that inspired this episode?
CLICK HERE → 10 Empowering Habits to Cultivate Mindfulness In Your Busy Day
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Full Episode Transcript
# (51) Mindfulness Habits for Women Entrepreneurs: 10 Ways to Reset Your Day
[00:00:00] I know you had a plan for today. You really did. So why does it feel like everything went sideways by 9:00 AM? Welcome to Ditch the Chaos. I'm Cara Chace and this is your space to figure out how to run your life and business without running yourself into the ground. Today I'm giving you 10 mindfulness practices you can pull out when your day takes a hard left turn so you can slow down the chaos, gather yourself and keep moving forward without ending the day feeling like you failed.
[00:00:29] Let me paint a picture of the day. We all want all your top priorities get done. You make some money. You have time for yourself and your family. You eat real food. You get to bed at a reasonable hour and fall asleep with a clear head feeling like a total boss. The deep satisfaction of done that day exists.
[00:00:51] I know it does because I've had it, and maybe you have too. But honestly, how often does your day actually go as planned? Because [00:01:00] between a rough night's sleep, a client emergency, a sick kid, and the random fires that show up between 10 and noon, the perfect day is rare. Like really rare. Somewhere between my first and second kid, I had to face reality.
[00:01:14] I was almost never gonna have the day I planned and I had two choices. I could keep white knuckling it and end every day feeling frustrated behind, and exhausted. Or actually build some tools for what to do when things inevitably went sideways. Because without those tools, I'd land in bed feeling overwhelmed and anxious, like I failed as a business owner and as a mom, and if you've ever crawled into bed with your brain still running at full speed, replaying everything that went wrong in your day, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
[00:01:47] So that's what today's episode is about, not how to have a perfect day, how to handle the imperfect ones, which let's be honest is most of them. Before I get into the list, I want to briefly explain what I mean by [00:02:00] mindfulness, because I know that word can feel a little vague and kind of even woo woo.
[00:02:05] Mindfulness is just focusing your awareness on the present moment while calmly noticing what you're thinking and feeling without judging yourself for it. That's it. It's not sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop. It's not a two hour meditation practice. It's a way to come back to right now when your brain is three weeks ahead and you're in panic mode.
[00:02:25] And what's great about these 10 ideas is that you don't have to do all of them. You just need one or two that become your go-to. When things start to spiral, think of them as your reset toolkit. Here are the 10 best practices that I have found for more mindfulness in a chaotic day.
[00:02:45] Number one, take those deep breaths, but really do them. Not one deep breath at your desk before you just keep typing. That's not gonna cut it. What actually works is something called box breathing, a four count [00:03:00] breathing exercise where you inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four, and hold for another four.
[00:03:08] And then you repeat. Do that for about five minutes and I promise you, you will feel the momentum of panic start to slow down. If you've never done it before, search box, breathing on YouTube and follow along. It sounds almost too simple, but it genuinely works.
[00:03:24] And the great thing about something that simple is it's easy to learn and do. Number two, go outside. Not only when the weather is nice, not after you finish. Just this one more task. Like right now, whether it's raining, cold, you're in the middle of a city. Go outside. Even 10 to 15 minutes of standing in fresh air can do something almost magical For a spinning brain.
[00:03:48] Leave your phone. Don't put in earbuds. Don't listen to a podcast on a walk. Just be with yourself for a few minutes. The act of stopping, stepping out and breathing fresh air is [00:04:00] often enough to break that spiral. Number three, hydrate. Okay. This one sounds embarrassingly simple, but I need to tell you what was happening to me for years before I figured this one out. Almost every single day around 2:00 PM my entire mood and mindset would collapse. I'd get sluggish, foggy, and start thinking things like, my business is never going to work.
[00:04:24] What am I even doing? I'd try to push through my to-do list and feel like I was walking through water. The harder I tried, the worse it got. Turns out I was massively dehydrated. For real. When your head down, working at your desk, drinking water is easy to forget. Now I aim for at least a hundred ounces a day.
[00:04:44] I have a 25 ounce water bottle, so I know if I get through four of them I'm good. And when I need a minute to regroup, just sipping on water slowly and intentionally, genuinely feels like my brain begins to light back up. Try it before you assume you have a productivity problem. [00:05:00] You could just need a glass of water.
[00:05:02] Number four, stretch blood flow will instantly help you come back to yourself. If you sit at a desk for hours, and most of us do in the online entrepreneur space, your body is holding tension. You might not even notice until you stop and move and stretch. I deal with tech, neck, and terrible postures from years of computer work.
[00:05:23] Regular stretching breaks help your body and your head. And you don't need a lot of time, even five minutes of movement can shift your state completely. If you want something specific, search for a quick desk stretching routine on YouTube. There are tons of good ones and if you want to know what I personally do, I run through a short yoga routine every morning before I sit down.
[00:05:43] When you feel like you're constantly in your head, stretching will help you touch base with your body. Number five, one thing at a time. When you feel buried and pulled in six directions at once, the instinct is to try to manage all of it simultaneously. [00:06:00] That's the wrong move. The best thing you can do is make a deliberate, intentional decision to do one single thing.
[00:06:07] Close the tabs, clear off your desk, pick one task and stay with it until it's done before you move on to the next. It sounds almost too obvious, but actually doing it, making a conscious choice to stop splitting your focus is harder than it sounds. And more effective than almost anything else on this list.
[00:06:26] Number six, do the next right thing. Here's where most people get stuck. They want to do one thing at a time, but they don't know which one to start with, and that decision paralysis is its own special kind of spiral. When I land in that place, and I do, we all do, I stop and ask myself one question, what's the best thing I can do right now to move my business forward?
[00:06:50] Not next week, not eventually. Right now, in this moment, that question cuts through the noise. It's not just about the perfect choice or the most strategic move, it's [00:07:00] just what's the next right thing? Pick it and do it. Open loops are what? Kill your momentum and keep your brain spinning at night. Choosing one thing and completing it closes one of those loops.
[00:07:12] Number seven, observe your thoughts. I will be honest. When I first heard the concept of watching your thoughts like clouds passing by, I didn't get it. It felt a little abstract and a little strange, but it eventually clicked. The idea is that you, your whole self exists separately from your thoughts. You are not your thoughts when your brain is running the, I don't have enough time loop or the, I'm not good enough real.
[00:07:39] You don't have to argue with it or try to shut it up. You can just sit for a minute or two and watch that voice, observe it without judging it. The more you practice this, the better you get at letting those thoughts move through you without attaching to them. If this concept resonates with you and you wanna go deeper, I really recommend The [00:08:00] Untethered Soul by Michael Singer.
[00:08:02] It was genuinely impactful for me, and it might be for you two. Number eight is journal. Writing isn't everyone's thing, and that's fine, but if you haven't tried it as a reset tool, not as a productivity exercise, just as a way to dump what's in your head onto paper, give it a shot.
[00:08:21] On days when I start with even just a few sentences in a journal, the whole day tends to go a little more smoothly. There's more clarity. There's less mental noise, like the act of writing it down gets it out of the loop that it's running in. You might need to experiment a little.
[00:08:36] Some people need a physical notebook with a pen away from a screen for it to work. Others are fine typing into a document, you might need a prompted journal to help you get going. Try both analog and digital and see what really helps you. It might be that when you're in a different frame of mind, either one might work better than the other.
[00:08:57] Just try both. Number nine. [00:09:00] Stare out the window. I actually say this often, and I mean it Staring out the window is deeply underrated. Just take a look at the outside world for a few minutes. No phone, no task, nothing to figure out. Just looking at what's out there. Set a timer on your phone if you need to when you let your brain rest like that.
[00:09:20] Genuinely rest, not scroll rest. You give your subconscious room to work and settle. Some of the best ideas I've had and problems I've solved happened when I stopped trying to solve them and just watch the world outside for a few minutes.
[00:09:35] This one also pairs really well with journaling. Look outside, let something come up and write it down. And finally number 10 is do a body scan. This last one, like stretching is about getting back into your body when your brain has completely taken over. Sit or lie down somewhere comfortable.
[00:09:55] I like to do this in front of a window and slowly bring your attention to [00:10:00] each part of your body, starting with your head and moving down. Then go through your senses one at a time. What can you hear right now? What can you smell? What can you feel? What can you taste? What can you see? This pulls you out of your head back into the present moment, which is exactly where your brain can stop, catastrophizing, and start functioning Again, if you wanna be guided through this, look up yoga nidra, that's N-I-D-R-A on YouTube.
[00:10:27] There are some great options and it's a wonderful way to practice this without having to figure it out on your own. So here's your reset and reclaim action step for this week. Pick two of these 10 practices and commit to trying them. The next time your day goes sideways, just two, write them down somewhere.
[00:10:44] You'll see them. So you know what to do when your brain goes into busy mode. A sticky note on your monitor, a note on your phone, whatever. So when things start to spiral, you don't have to think about what to do. You've already decided that's it. Just start there. If this [00:11:00] episode resonated, come join the productivity rebellion.
[00:11:03] It's my free monthly guide for women who refuse to choose between success and sanity. Just one email a month with real strategies behind the scenes stories and subscriber questions answered right here on the show. Think of it like tucking into your favorite magazine, except it actually helps you run your business.
[00:11:20] Sign up for free at carachace.com/productivity-rebellion and PS. If you're ready to stop following someone else's planning system and build your own check out Chaos Detox.
[00:11:31] It's my weekly planning method that teaches you how to create your own system that adapts when your capacity shifts bends. When life throws you curve balls and evolves as your priorities change. Learn more at carachace.com/chaos-detox.
[00:11:47] Thanks so much for listening.
[00:11:49] If this episode helped you, please leave a review. It helps other women entrepreneurs find the show. I'm Cara Chace reminding you to keep questioning the rules and making your own.
