What are some some micro habits, right, that they can start changing to interrupt that negative thinking in in their brain? I mean, are there steps or tools that you guys use and and maybe they can incorporate in their lives? Yeah, that’s a it’s hard, right? This is Wake Up with Marcy, a space for honest conversations about healing, recovery, and women’s wellness. I’m Marcy Hopkins. Take a breath. You’re safe here. Let’s begin.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Wake Up with Marcy. I am so grateful you are here with us today. This is a space for real conversations, radical healing, and waking up to your worth. I’m Marcy Hopkins, your host. And before we dive in, I want to ask you to please follow and subscribe. to help to build the impact of Wake Up with Marcy because these important conversations are built to help others to change lives. And that brings us to our guest today. They’re not only change makers, they’re also teenagers who have built a movement that is reaching millions. And I’m so excited to welcome Mercedes and Anastasia Corn Gut, the teenagers, the sisters that are behind Small Bits of Happiness, a wellness and happiness brand that has impacted over 4 million people. And they are here to teach us how we can find the small bits of happiness in our lives. So, welcome girls. So great to have you on on the show. We are so grateful to be here, Marcy. We’re very excited. We’re Yeah, we’re so excited.
Oh, so you girls created small bits of happiness. Can you take us back to that moment that the idea was sparked? What inspired you to do something so powerful at such a young age? Yeah. So, taking us back to around 2021 during the pandemic. I was 13 and Anesthesia was 11. And you know, early teenage years on the brink of teenagehood, we were kind of struggling to feel happy between the pandemic and all the stress that that brought on our world and just regular things like friendship challenges or teen hormones, all of that. And we were struggling to feel happy. So were our friends. And just like a lot of statistics show, a lot of people were struggling. And we noticed as sisters and as a family that by focusing on the small good things, we really felt a lot happier. a control over our own mood. So like going for a walk with the dog or watching a comedy, those types of small things that we could do regularly that we knew would make us happy were so became so pivotal in that time. And what Annitation and I wanted to do is we wanted to share those small bits of happiness, that idea of just doing something that you know will make you feel good every day with our peers. And so we started on social media, the easiest place to reach teenagers for us. And we also just wanted to add some positivity into a place where you might be doom scrolling and sometimes have negative content. And so we started posting like quotes and fun facts and funny videos on Tik Tok, YouTube, Instagram. And since then we’ve really kind of grown and evolved into more than just social media, but a website, a blog, products, all just to help find more happiness for teenagers, for adults, for anyone who needs that.
Well, that’s amazing. And so your mission is all about finding happiness in these small bits. So what does that exactly mean for you and why is it so important for our teens today? Yeah, absolutely. I think that for us it’s really just empowering and realizing that you have so much control especially in these uncertain times where you know we don’t always know what the state of the world is going to be. We don’t really know exactly what the future will look like. But knowing that we can control how we feel and not be dependent on events like summer or the holidays or just having something good happen to us, we can choose to see the good things that are always going to be around us. And I feel like that kind of mindset shift, like I said, is very empowering and realizing that you actually have way more control over yourself and kind of that surroundings around you. Yeah. Because we do try to control so much in our lives, right? The outcome of things, our future, which creates a lot of anxiety and frustration and worry. But the reality is is we can’t control any of the outcomes. We can control ourselves, right? So, you’re showing us how to show up for ourselves and find happiness in each of our days.
So what are some of the messages that you are sharing right now and and the younger generation is responding to? Yeah, one of our core messages and the thing that we try to promote to our to our audience in any way is that you can take control of your happiness. I know sometimes we are dependent on other people like you know how our friends feel or maybe how well we’re doing at school or at work or at something that matters maybe an activity that matters to us but really if you look for it you can find you know that confirmation bias. If you’re looking for positive things you’ll find positive or like the silver lining but if you’re looking for the negative things you really will like kind of find the negative in any given situation. So, it’s really about taking control of your own happiness and doing things that you know will make you happy, backed by science that you know you enjoy, and trying different things out, seeing how they make you feel, and incorporating the good ones that you love into your daily routine, making room for them in your day.
So when you girls are trying to balance it all right and you’re you just came off exams and life is crazy busy and during that time you feel so much overwhelm. How are you finding the time to find happiness in your day? What do you do to find a small bit of happiness in your day when you’re feeling that stress and overwhelm? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that’s what’s so powerful about the small things. You don’t need to spend an hour writing down all the good things that are going to happen to you or that have happened to you. It’s just taking that moment of like appreciation and saying, “Oh, you know, like this is such a like good thing.” Or being able to like notice the beauty around you. I know for me, whenever I’m like driving to school and maybe I’m a little bit stressed out, I like to look at the sunrise and look at kind of like the moon there. And I I feel like it’s such a beautiful way to start the day and it just it makes me really happy. And it’s just a really really beautiful way to kind of start the day. And again, it just takes a moment of appreciation of looking at that beauty. For me, I love to have my morning coffee. It’s so simple, but you know, it’s like you can either drink your morning coffee in like a hurry or you can really enjoy it. And I love to just take a second to be thankful for it and to just really enjoy my coffee. It has like some cinnamon sugar in it and it’s so tasty and I have it every morning. I always know there’s something good coming first thing and it just brings me a small bit of happiness. And you and you’re really present with yourself during that time. And that’s for for anyone.
So what about for a young person that’s out there right now and and they’re struggling. They’re not finding the happiness. What are some small ways that they can some micro habits, right, that they can start changing to interrupt that that negative thinking in in their brain? I mean, are there steps or tools that you guys use and and maybe they can incorporate in their lives? Yeah, that’s a it’s hard, right? It’s hard, especially when you’re like used to being stuck in a certain way of thinking, to kind of re rewire your brain, shift the way that you look at things. One thing that I really like to think about is like what do I get from this situation? So, for instance, if I’m really struggling in a class, I’m like, okay, this is not happening to me, it’s happening for me. Like, I’m struggling because maybe I need to try a different study strategy, which okay, now I know that about myself. I learn better this way. or if you are struggling in a relationship, maybe you really can’t find the people that you mesh well with. First of all, realizing that you’re not the first and not the last person that this is happening to. It’s a part of the human experience and having grace for yourself, but also like kind of taking accountability like what can I learn from this or what can I do about it? I really like, you know, taking small actions in parts of your life that are not making you feel super happy and fulfilled. So, whatever you can do, maybe that means that you’re going to learn like I don’t mesh well with these types of people. Maybe I should go try something new. Maybe I’ll really enjoy it, match better with those people. Or maybe this is a season in my life that I’m going to reflect more on what makes me happy and just learn more about myself at this point. And I also think taking time away from the screen. Sometimes we really can get stuck in that doom scroll. And not when we’re bored, that’s what we reach for, right? Our phones or putting on the TV. But if you take a second to do something else, like maybe go for a walk or I love to cook. I love to cook. It’s such a great way to kind of get out of your own thoughts and focus on something physical and then have like a, you know, a gratification for that, something delicious. Those are all little ways to kind of just break up your routine and focus on the more positive. Absolutely. And I think another thing that’s really amazing is very similar to what you were saying, Mercedes, is um about taking action and realizing that if you feel stuck in kind of a form of your life, if you just feel really unhappy and you feel like you can’t change that, realizing that you really aren’t stuck, you can change your life in multiple different ways. And that doesn’t mean you have to move to another country or across the ocean. It means kind of saying and taking inventory of your current habits and then kind of realizing how do I feel after that? If you know I’m kind of wake up in the morning and I start doom scrolling um how do I feel after that? Am I feeling revitalized? Am I feeling excited or do I kind of feel drained and now like the day feels like it was kind of ripped away from me because I spent an hour and a half on my phone scrolling instead of getting up and brushing my teeth. So kind of realizing that every single action that you’re doing, you’re choosing to do that. But you can also choose to do something else. So instead of scrolling first thing in the morning, you could just, you know, not look at your phone for maybe the first 10 minutes if that kind of helps kind of stop breaking that cycle and then seeing how you feel after that. Maybe you feel like you’re a lot more awake and you feel like, you know, you have a lot more of that time back again. Just realizing again that if you’re not liking how something is going, you can change it to make it more positive.
Well, I have to say, you girls are so wise. It took me a long time through my healing journey to recognize that I did have a choice and I could make my own decision. So the fact that you are teaching this to young people so they can start taking control of their lives early on is amazing because it’s lifechanging when we start to know that we have a choice. we start making different choices that our mindset matters and that there are so many tools that help us and you showing that those small bits of happiness are really recognize the things that you’re grateful for in life and when we are grateful in life we are attracting more things to be grateful for in our lives. Exactly.
Yes. So, with the young people that you are reaching, are you finding that they’re reaching out to you and and that you’re really making an impact? And is there any one person that stood out for you? Yeah, we get people who like will respond to our newsletter. They’ll like message us or DM us or comment on post and it means the whole world to like know that, you know, there’s something that has resonated with someone. It means so much. I know we’ve had we do like popup events in our community because we love to, you know, really get to know the people who were who we’re impacting and who we might be interested in our content in person, face to face. And so like there’s been several occasions when moms like start tearing up and crying at the opportunity that like our product offer for them to connect with their kids or their teens in a way that they haven’t seen in the past. And I would say that those are the most kind of memorable because I mean it’s just so moving that something that we have done and that you know anyone can do. Anyone can start an organization or anyone can shift their habits can also positively affect others. It’s just it’s so exciting.
Well, and that’s a big one. It’s hard as an adult, as a parent to know how to connect with your child and know when to talk to them and what to talk to them about and and how to talk to them so you you get more out of them. So, what would you advise parents to do to connect more to their child and and be able to get more out of them? Yeah, absolutely. That definitely is a difficult situation. We know lots of teens and parents who just don’t have that kind of amazing connection. And I find that what has really been really impactful for our family and that has been scientifically proven is that when you’re having a conversation kind of like one person here and then there’s a table and another person on the other side like at dinner. Exactly. It feels sometimes like a bit of an interrogation. You’re asking lots of questions but it doesn’t exactly feel like it’s that casual manner. It’s kind of like tell me what happened. who are you talking to? What did you do today? But if you’re doing it in a more casual setting, maybe going on a walk or in the car is a great place to have those conversations because it doesn’t feel like you’re coming off standoffish telling me everything. It’s more like a we’re just making conversation. We’re just filling in the space and I just want to learn more. And it’s a great place for it to kind of come off as more natural and just to kind of start sparking those conversations and learning more about each other. And another thing that I think is a really great way for connecting is going and having intentional events to spend time together. But a lot of them just have to be something that you want to do. For example, I know my mom loves going on walks and luckily so do I. But if that’s not something that you really want to do as the teenager, you’re not really going to be that inclined and you’re not really going to be as open. So sometimes you as the parent need to realize that this is something that my teen really likes to do. Maybe it’s not my favorite thing or maybe we both love going to the mall and walking around together, but realizing that you also have to go out of your way maybe and do something that they would like to do to show that, you know, I care about you and I know that this is what you love doing and I just want to spend time with you and talk to you.
Well, I don’t know if you know this, but for years we have been taught to sit down as a family and that’s where you catch up. That that’s where you’re going to get the conversation and the information from your kids. So, it’s really interesting to hear from your perspective how it feels a little bit more like an interrogation. And I think those also it’s probably easier to open up on a one- on-one conversation anyway, right? And you you will feel more of a connection to that. And it’s also interesting that you said I had a a situation recently with my daughter. She’s 20 now. And I myself I like to try to do things with my kids that they enjoy. I want to talk about boundaries and setting boundaries as a young person, but also as a parent and she enjoys doing certain things, right? And there was a workout class that she wanted to do. We were trying to find something to do together. And I knew that it was outside of my comfort zone, but I was going to do it anyway because I knew she wanted to do it. And then something occurred and I couldn’t do it. And we were trying to find other things. And I felt like it was more around what she wanted to do instead of finding a common ground of something that would work for both of us, right? Because ultimately at the end of the day, I just wanted time with her. And so in that situation where, you know, we both have a different perception of what’s happening. And like what would you recommend to a mom and a daughter maybe in that space, right? because the mom may feel that the daughter’s being very selfish in that situation and the daughter doesn’t even understand how it’s impacting the mother. So, I’d love to hear your perspective on that. Totally. I think it’s important for both people to be comfortable in, you know, what you’re doing. There’s a difference between like not feeling comfortable in doing something versus just like, oh, I’m okay with doing that, but I’d rather we both do this. So, I think it’s important to find something that everyone is comfortable doing because if someone’s uncomfortable, it’s going to kind of not make the whole experience as good as it could potentially be. That’s where like communicating is so important. Like saying like, oh, you know, maybe I don’t like to I I don’t want to do this class because of X reason. I think especially for us like if someone tells us a reason like oh I don’t want to do this because I don’t feel comfortable or like I don’t know if I can do it physically or whatever it might be the reason why you don’t want to do a class or go someplace or at a certain time. It does help I think kind of make that mutual ground and then you can both kind of find something that you both feel good doing because at the end of the day like you said Marcy it’s about spending time together and the best time is spent when both people feel comfortable and happy together. 100%.
So, you both have touched on self-discovery, right? Learning who you are, which is huge, especially at a young age. And I know that that’s really difficult because of outside pressures, social media, comparison. So, how do you stay grounded in your identity and your needs and set those boundaries for yourself? so tough because you know there’s always like external noise from every side about kind of who you could be or what others are doing and what’s worked for someone what could work for you and I think that really that’s why taking that time to like really know who you are is important and so that’s where I like to for myself at least reflect on like past experiences like what have I learned from past friendships or from like old even like class if I’m trying to discover what I’m interested in old classes that I took like what really kind of made me excited and made me feel like energized or what kind of made me feel drained and that I don’t enjoy doing and really realizing that like just because what you’re doing is a bit different from what your peers are doing or what people online are saying they did doesn’t mean it’s wrong like I know that for instance starting a business small bits of happiness is something that we don’t see a lot of our peers doing at least in our school um and not to say that like they don’t think it’s cool or that they don’t support it but it’s just that it’s different most of them doing sports and we’ve just we tried the sports but we were just not as into that. And so realizing that you know it’s okay to do something different because this is me. This is what makes me excited and that’s what makes them excited and it’s we’re people. All of us are different. And when you take some time to discover who you are through, you know, reflecting on past experiences and thinking about how it’s okay to do something that not everyone else is doing if that’s what you want to do. Maybe you really love say soccer and you want to do that and it’s what makes you happy then do that. So that’s what I that’s what’s helped me. Absolutely. Yeah. For me I find that journaling is very similar in the sense of what Mercedes was saying. Um but it’s really nice to have like concrete evidence of something that you wrote. For example, you know, so and so was not that is not that great of a friend to me. And then you kind of go your different ways and then a few months later you’re like, I kind of miss so and so and I kind of feel like we had like a good friendship going. I don’t really know why it stopped. And then you can go back and kind of relive those experiences and know that this is not the best person to be spending my time with because this is the way I was feeling in our friendship. There’s a reason why I kind of distanced myself. I think it’s about trusting yourself too. Like trusting your gut. Like if I am feeling confident and happy in a situation, don’t don’t question that so much. If you like if you’re feeling good in a relationship and then something happens and you don’t feel so comfortable anymore and like as you just said you ended that friendship because it was not healthy anymore and then months later down the line you want to go back realizing that I’m going to trust myself because I left that situation and even though I don’t remember how I felt in that moment I can remember that I felt uncomfortable enough not to want to be friends with that person or be in a relationship with that person. So, it’s about trusting yourself. And I think that can apply to really interests or to um relationships, too. Absolutely. And I know you mentioned there was also kind of an aspect of like not trying to be influenced just by other people and what other people might think is like cool or not. And if you’re interested in something that other people, maybe your peers are, you know, don’t think is the coolest thing ever. Um just realizing that, you know, everyone has their own opinion. Maybe you have a different opinion. Maybe your favorite sport isn’t soccer, it’s volleyball. And that’s totally okay. You don’t look down on another person who plays soccer just because you like volleyball. And I think it’s really important to know that just because someone doesn’t think this is the coolest thing. That’s them. That’s their life. But if it makes you happy, there’s no point in getting rid of that just because you think another person doesn’t think that’s cool. And you’ll find the right people who maybe like the same things as you or maybe they also think that’s cool. And that’s the way you kind of attract the people that you should and you want to be friends with. I think if you have to work so hard at getting someone to accept you and like you, they’re not worth having in your life. I find that we we do fight so hard like trying to get someone to like us that maybe they that’s not the person that should be in your life. And I think we’re all guilty of that. So I love what you said. Just stay with what you love and the right people will come into your life. Uh, but I know it’s hard, especially when you’re younger. It’s very tough.
So, let’s talk about vulnerability. I know that’s a powerful theme in your work. Why do you think that it’s so important for teens and and even adults to be real about what they are going through? Yeah, I definitely think it’s easy for everyone to just kind of put up like the, “Oh, no. Everything’s going great. I don’t really have any issues going on.” But I think that when you’re doing that, it almost kind of isolates you because other people can’t really connect with that. You know, if you’re saying, “Oh, no. I did great on all my tests. No, I have like perfect friends and everything.” Then maybe you’re talking to someone who, you know, didn’t do very well on the math test. And they feel like they can’t really connect with you on that sort and maybe you just feel uncomfortable sharing that. And that’s totally understandable. It is really hard to share the difficulties that we’re going through in our life. But realizing that everyone has difficulties and that if you say, “I did not do well on the math test.” No one’s going to be like, “I can’t believe you didn’t do good. Everyone else here did got 100%. You just don’t belong.” A lot of people can connect with that and say that me too. You know, this isn’t this wasn’t an easy test. And that can apply to anything. Like whether it’s like relationships or work or even just like, you know, fitness, any it can really apply to anything. When you pretend that everything’s okay, I think it actually narrows down your relationships because as much as we think that, you know, other people have it figured when we do not. That’s like Anast was saying very rarely the case. What we’ve learned through, you know, talking to other ex like doctors in our podcast or even just like reading articles and u books. It’s it’s everyone has something and you don’t need to like, you know, tell everyone everything, but having a few people that you can really be honest with and that they can be honest with you. Um, it it just helps us kind of process emotions, get them out, and also like find solutions. someone else’s experience. When you’re honest with someone about something you’re going through, whether it’s, you know, that you really can’t find a group of friends that you mesh well with or you don’t know what you want to do after graduating college or whatever it is, maybe they’ve been through a similar situation and they have some guidance for you. So, it really opens that up and it creates that level of trust of, you know, I’m sharing my issue with you because I trust you and that creates a kind of stronger sense of connection and it feels like you’re a stronger friends or you have a strong relationship with your sibling or your parent or your partner. Anytime you open up, I have found when I open up and I am truthful about what’s going on, the other person doesn’t judge me. they open up themselves and a lot of times they’ll share things and they’ll say, “I haven’t even told anyone that, right? Because you’re allowing someone to feel comfortable in that.” And I love what you said and it’s so true. We have to open up and talk about things so we can find solutions, which is why we do the podcast, why we do the work that we do is so we can help others to learn from others, right? what other people went through so they can help you to and guide you through maybe something that you’re facing and they’ve already been through it and you take from it what what works for you right and it’s so so very important and and even in the work that I do right now being vulnerable and telling my story you know that when you start the conversation you are a change maker because you are changing the narrative around whatever topic it can be or maybe is even if they don’t open up right away about something that they might be you know relating to on the topic that you’re talking about and being open and vulnerable around it still might change their internal thoughts about it. maybe they’ll feel, you know, less lonely in that sense or they’ll feel like, you know what, there’s other there’s something I can do about this issue that I’m experiencing. And so, it’s not only helpful to you, but it’s helpful to other people. And I think, you know, when we realize that our our situations and our experiences can actually also help others as well as us. It brings us like happiness and confidence in sharing it. And there is that huge connection through that. And we’re we’re all supposed to be connected, right? connected by the love which creates the happiness and the joy in our lives.
So can you tell us about one moment maybe from because I know you guys do a lot of speaking engagements uh or me I know you receive messages we were talking about that but how are you recognizing that the true impact that the work you’re doing is having on others? Yeah, I mean there’s been times when we like to name a more specific example, um we do like teachers convent we talk at teachers conventions um to help teachers uh help their students through like a teen perspective on happiness and happiness habits in the class. And so, um, there’s been times when we’ve spoken at a convention and or like at an online seminar and then we’re at like an in-person pop-up event and I’ve had people like come up and like give me a hug and like almost be in tears talking about how they heard us at like a challenging time in their life and that like our, you know, story and our message and our tips really helped them out. And so I think that people recognize us and come up to us because they feel so touched by that. Just even one or two people doing that means the whole world because even if you can help one person, it just makes it makes all the work so important and worthwhile. I know there’s there’s no better feeling to know that even if you help one person, right, the difference that you’ve made and like being of service and giving of yourself, like yes, that’s to help others, but truly it’s for the happiness for yourself. like there’s there’s no better gift that you can give yourself.
So, let’s talk about these happiness tools that you’ve created and your products. Tell us about them. Yes. Yeah. So, we have an amazing collection of games and activity boxes designed by Mercedes and I. Um, Mission Small Bits of Happiness was our original game that has 100 unique activities to do every day to find more happiness. So, we know that habit building can be a little bit difficult. It’s hard to always wake up and say, you know, I’m going to try something new for, you know, the 66 days that it takes to make a habit. And so the idea is because there are 100 activities, you’re slowly building habits. You’re doing one of those activities once a day. And by doing that, you’re just trying new things. And not every single thing has to resonate with you. You don’t have to love every single activity in there. And that’s the point. It’s trial and error. seeing. I love going outside on a walk. But, you know, my favorite thing isn’t going to the zoo. That’s not my favorite place. That doesn’t make me happy. And that’s totally okay. And it comes with a little notebook, too. So, you can write down, I love this. I don’t love that. And also, there’s a bunch of also reflectionary questions, which are really great way to kind of make you think a little bit deeper. Yeah. And in the spirit of connection, we have a connection guided journal for parents to complete with their kids, tween or teens. So, it’s like a journal that guides parents and their kids or teens, whoever they’re doing it with, through prompts together. There’s conversation starters. There’s quiz, get to know me quizzes. There’s just like for instance, you answer all the questions about the parent and then the parent answers the questions about you to see how well you know each other. There’s like coloring activities in there. It’s really fun. It’s engaging together or you can like do it and then leave it and have your kid do it and then like both look at it when you have some time together. It’s so fun. And that’s like our latest product that we released late last year. Yeah. And they are found in indigos all over Canada. Chapters indigos around Canada. And some other things that we have aside from the activities because some people love to, you know, be more hands-on with their happiness. But some people they don’t have time or they just need like subtle reminders. So we have t-shirts, crew necks, jewelry that inspire you to be kind to others as well as yourself or like um just be true to you or get outside in nature or compliment someone. all types of different items just as a little reminder. So, less, you know, activity-wise, but more as just like a wearable reminder. Yeah. Oh my god. Right. The kindness, the ripple effect, like let’s just spread a little kindness and love and and then we’ll all be happier. If somebody is kind to you, I mean, don’t you think about it all day and then it helps you to be a little happier and then you’re kind to someone else like that made me feel this way. I want to do that for someone else. It’s really true, right? Absolutely. Yeah, it really, really is. And you girls may not even realize this, but for women that are 40, 50 above and now their children have grown up and they’re trying to figure out like what brings me happiness, right? So, they’re trying to figure it out again. They’ve lost themselves in work and the kids and and now we’re trying to rediscover ourselves almost like a child again, a young person again. And when you’re writing that stuff down as a young person right now, how fun it would be because we always say go back to what you loved as a teenager and and maybe start to pursue that, right? So maybe it was cooking that you loved. Now, maybe that’s something that you can start to pursue as the next chapter in your life and maybe you make that into a business. But you write it down as a young person. Imagine reading that when you’re in your 50s and going, “Oh my god, that’s right. I love doing that.” And maybe start exploring that again. So, I love that. Yeah. So, it’s something that can be a long lifelong effect and and benefit. So, that’s really fantastic. and and just realize the the long-term effect that these things that you’re creating can have for someone. Um I know it’s hard to to realize that when you’re so young because I mean I’m coming from a different place, but it re really triggered that for me. So that’s fantastic. I I myself in my 40s went after my dream as a teenager. I wanted to be a model. And so when I was in my 40s, that’s actually when I started getting in front of the camera and went after commercial print and acting and turned into indie film acting. So that’s what took me to what I’m doing today. I love that. That’s amazing. That’s so inspiring. I love it. Yeah. So I mean like yes, explore all the things that you love. And life I know feel like life can feel overwhelming and it is and I get that and I respect that. But when you get older, you’re not the center of attention anymore, right? And you’re having to give of yourself. So, embrace this time. That’s what I want to say, right? You be happy in these moments even though I know it’s difficult and I know that you’re helping others to do that. So, it’s really, really fantastic. keep going because you guys are this is going to grow into something so powerful because this too is going to continue to involve for you guys and evolve.
So for any of the young people that are are watching and and even for a parent to to hear this that their young per the young person is feeling stuck, anxious or unsure where to start. What is one small step, one powerful step that they can take to feel better today? I think one of the most powerful things to do is to notice. So often we go through our lives just, you know, same thing every day. Routine, routine, routine. And routine is great, but when you don’t feel happy in your routine, you feel just stuck in it or it’s not serving you or, you know, you want to switch things up, notice what it is in your routine that makes you happy. When you’re going through your day, really pay attention to how you’re feeling when you talk to someone, when you when you’re driving somewhere, when you’re doing an activity, and after how that makes you feel, whether it fills you up or drains you, and then identify one thing you can do to take that small step towards changing it. So identify what you what how you feel right now. And then I guess the second step would be identify where you want to go because if you want to make a change, we have to know where we want to go. So I always like to think about like future Mercedes. What do I want to feel like? What do I want to like be watching and listening? And who do I, you know, want to be surrounding myself with? And then I look at how I feel in my life, in my routine currently, where I want to kind of be tangibly. And then what’s one small change I can make in how I’m feeling in my routine right now. I hope that makes sense because that’s what I like to do because I think, you know, it’s good to have those kind of like ends and then figure out the routine in between. Love that. Love that. making a routine, right? What is the importance of a routine? Yeah, I think routine is really important, especially for example, like you’re thinking about like the making your bed example. Making your bed has been shown to kind of make you feel accomplished first thing in the morning and kind of creates that good start to your day so you want to accomplish more. And I know that I love doing that first thing in the morning, but it does become a little bit hard at first if you’re making that habit of not making your bed and just kind of rolling out and getting the day started. So, just it’s just taking the moment to realize that I know this isn’t my favorite thing to do right now, but I just need to be continuous about it and that eventually it will solidify. And making a habit is not always easy. Sometimes, you know, we have to carve out of our time in our day, which of course everyone has busy days. We have lots of things going on. But realizing that if it is something that you’re prioritizing, if you really want to feel better, if you really need to start doing this more every single day, that it doesn’t have to take very long, but just making it important and making sure that you’re trying to do that every day. And knowing that it will get better and that if you’re looking for it, for example, that habit of looking for the small good things, it’s going to feel like you’re feeling it at first. You have to consciously look for those small good things in every day. But eventually, your brain is going to be so used to thinking that way that you can go around about your day without having to consciously pick up all those small good things because you’ll already be noticing that. 100%. I too am and just the same. And it was really for me it was changing the patterns in the morning, right? So really starting in the morning, starting your day, being intentional about that. And what works for me may not work for somebody else, but there are lots of little small actions that you can do to start your day in a better way. And it does it is impactful and it gets easier and easier just like building a muscle. And you know, you talk about noticing the small little things. Like even for me, like I’ll now notice a bird or you know, the chirping in in the the tree. Like I never really noticed that before, but I just see things in a different way today. And and that finding the small bits of happiness. While it’s hard because life may not look how you want it to look, when you start to find those small little things that you you are happy about, then it starts getting easier and easier and then you start having more things in your life to be happy about. So, all good stuff.
So, what is next for both of you? Well, we’re very excited because we have some exciting new products dropping this year. So, we’re excited about that. um because we’re going to be making more of products that people already love and know and some new ones coming later as well. So, that’s exciting for us um in terms of other aside from the products, we’re excited because we’re going to we’re about to be stepping into our teachers convention season speaking at a bunch of different events um for the teachers. So, we’re excited. That’s like all February and we love it so much. So, we’re very excited about that as well. So, have you always been good and comfortable with speaking in front of people? Because I know that is something that so many people struggle with. It is. It’s so hard. Absolutely. Um, we really have gotten we’ve been doing it for about three years now, so we’ve gotten a hold on it. But what I would say, this is like a fun little party fact, but Anastasia and I, we we really got comfortable in speaking because when we were little, like seven and nine, we had like a Barbie YouTube channel. We it was this big trend when we were little on YouTube. People would like film themselves playing with their Barbies and like our faces were not in it. It was just our our dolls and we would like make story lines. But we got really comfortable with speaking on camera because of that. And so I think that that really helped us kind of have a leg up, I guess, when it came to speaking like to a bigger group. Well, I I’m sure it did. I mean, my goodness. So you you guys were destined to do this. Thank you.
So you’re siblings, right? So, what do you do when you two have something that you’re struggling with? Because together, right? Because it’s hard like any relationship, you’re together all the time. You’re you have this organization together. So, how do you two get through the hard times navigating times that maybe you’re not agreeing on something? Yeah, for sure. I know one if something happens to one of us, it definitely affects the other a lot since we are so close to each other and we really care about one another. And I find that the biggest thing is honestly communication. Being able to, you know, vent if you’re having a bad day, maybe you had a hard time at school or maybe you’re just going through something. Knowing that there’s someone who you can talk to, who will understand and if you want will give advice because obviously Mercedes has been there too or I’ve also been there. But also knowing that you if you just want to talk, if you just want to rant a little bit, that’s also a good person you can go to. And I think when we’re disagreeing about something or, you know, just kind of frustrated with the other, just taking a little break like I know as we’ll go for a walk or maybe I’ll like take a little break and like go do my workout or something like just taking some time to clear your head and calm down is important because we’re all humans. We all get emotional. Maybe we really really are adamant about an idea and the other person’s really really not. It can get frustrating. That’s just normal. So instead, just taking a step back, saying, you know what, I’m just going to take 15 minutes to myself for is really, really effective, I think. And we’re over arguments fairly fast. Yeah. Well, it’s really mature because we react so quickly. And the best piece of advice is that pause before you react, right? So then you can literally respond in a positive way. So taking that little bit of time is actually a very very mature mindset. And it’s something that a lot of us at my age are having to teach others to do. And when you grow up in a home that’s very reactive, right? So now you have to change that behavior. So it’s like any type of behavior changing that with those little micro steps and and that’s what you’re teaching through the small bits of happiness.
So you girls are doing amazing work and I really loved having you guys on wake up and you know wake up is about waking up to your worth right and waking up your subconscious and it’s it’s wiring your subconscious in a certain way right so how can we know our worth especially at a young age it’s so tough I love the concept of of your first of all, but in terms of waking up to your own self worth, from what I’ve experienced, what I’ve really realized is like sometimes for myself, I’ve had to like create evidence for myself in a way, which like you shouldn’t have to do that. I I know it’d be great if we could all just feel worthy all the time, but sometimes I’m like, you know what? I want to prove to myself that I can do something that’s difficult and like still come out on the other side. And this doesn’t mean doing something really hard. That for me that means like my daily workout. like that proves to me I can go through something that’s challenging and still get stronger because of it in a very like controlled means or like I can you know control how I say something and I feel better about myself because I you know prove that to myself. So, I think when you can like kind of show to yourself, I have these like proofs of evidence through especially like fitness or like different like micro challenges like maybe you want to do a micro challenge where you wake up 30 minutes earlier every day and you prove to yourself that you can do that. You can kind of realize, you know what, I can do what I set my mind to. I can get through hard things and grow because of it. And this can be extrapolated through many different parts of life. Absolutely. I think for me as well is just knowing that what other people think of you is not always a fact. an opinion if you know you think of something of another person you know that that’s not 100% true because they’re different to everyone and I think just being able to recognize that also if it’s not a person that you like very much then you know you shouldn’t really value their opinion because I think you should have a solid opinion on who you are as yourself and knowing and trusting that you know what other people think is going to be changing all the time one day someone could like you another day they might feel differently And at the end of the day, what matters is what you think of yourself as well as what the people close to you think. I love that. I love that self-confidence. And it’s a hard one. It’s a very hard one, especially for the younger generation. Like I remember being there. And you know, it’s just always about acceptance and who’s going to like me and sometimes not being truly authentic to yourself because you’re afraid to do that because of how others are going to perceive you. So just being confident within your in who you are and just showing yourself you can do those things and and somebody else’s opinion doesn’t matter and it is about those that are surrounding you and lifting you up because that’s what we are meant to do really at any age. I mean, why do you want to surround yourself with negative people? Because if you’re doing that, you are not going to feel yourself and you’re going to fall victim to that negativity. So, who we surround ourselves is also a big part of how we we see ourselves.
So, girls, I am so just grateful to have had you on the show and I love what you girls are doing and how you are impacting other people’s lives and like, you know, is there one final thing that you want to say to the audience out there who’s listening? I don’t know. I think we covered a lot today, but I just would say that like you have the power to feel happier in just small little changes. That’s all I guess I would leave with. Love it. Love it. So, thank you again for being here and for the incredible light you are bringing to this world. You are a reminder that you’re never too young to make a difference. And sometimes the most profound changes come from simply choosing to focus on what’s good. And if you’re struggling with that right now, you can, you know, start with these little small acts each day to find the things you’re happy with. What was the one product that you had that that lets you find those things in your day like to to add to your day each day? Mission small bits of happiness. Mission small bits of happiness. I love it. Well, I’ll have everything in the comments. And I hope today’s conversation has inspired you all to pause, to look for joy in the small moments, and to remember that you don’t have to fix everything to feel better. Sometimes presence is just the gift. So be sure please to follow the Small Bits of Happiness and check out their podcast, Hack Your Happiness, and as well as all the other tools that they have. And you can check them out at small bitsofhappiness.com. And please don’t forget to subscribe to Wake Up with Marcy on your favorite podcast app and YouTube and leave a review. Share this episode. And until next time, remember, you are enough. You are worthy. You deserve your own happiness one small bit at a time. All right, guys. I’ll see you next week. Thanks again, girls. Thank you so much, Marcy.
