%20(1).jpg)
The One Strong Mother Podcast
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee (or reheat it for the third time—we get it), and join me for candid conversations about the messy, meaningful intersection of motherhood and personal growth.
This isn’t just a podcast about planners and productivity—though we love a good system around here. It’s about what it really looks like to pursue your goals while raising a family, managing chaos, and trying to stay grounded in the process.
Each week, I’ll share stories from my own life, behind-the-scenes lessons from building the One Strong Mother brand, and practical tools to help you stay organized, get intentional, and move forward—even when it feels like you're doing it all with a baby on your hip and laundry on the couch.
Whether you're in the thick of diapers or driving teens to practice, there's space for you here. Let’s figure it out together, one strong mother at a time.
The One Strong Mother Podcast
Elevating Your Online Experience with Purposeful Content
This episode dives into the impact of social media on mental well-being and offers actionable advice on curating a positive online space. With personal anecdotes and insights, we explore the importance of protecting your peace and the power of accountability while interacting with digital content.
• Emphasizing the significance of celebrating small victories
• Sharing personal reflections on doom scrolling during workouts
• Highlighting the importance of curating a positive algorithm
• Encouraging listeners to take accountability for their social media experiences
• Discussing types of uplifting content to include in your feed
• Addressing feelings of jealousy and negativity when consuming social media
• Reinforcing the need to protect one’s peace and intentions online
• Introducing the 90-Day Project Planner as a tool for goal-setting and accountability
Resources
90-Day Project Planner
90-Day Project Planner Episode
Hey there, welcome to the One Strong Mother podcast, the space where empowering and inspiring moms unite to embrace strength, balance and well-being amidst the beautiful chaos of motherhood. I'm your host, ashley, a military spouse and mom of five walking this incredible path beside you. In each episode, I'll bring you candid conversations, expert insights and heartfelt stories that touch on every facet of modern motherhood. Whether you're sneaking in a listen during a quick coffee break or savoring those rare moments of quiet, together we'll tackle the hurdles, boost each other up and cement our place as the strong, resilient women we are designed to be. Thanks for tuning in and let's dive into today's episode. Shall we designed to be? Thanks for tuning in and let's dive into today's episode, shall we? Hello and welcome back to another episode of One Strong Mother.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited to be here again. I am super proud of myself. I am getting to record two times in one week. Let us take a moment and celebrate, because this is a really big deal for me, because I went from not being able to hit the record button for a long time to feeling inspired and rejuvenated enough to hit that record button multiple times not once, but twice in the same week. So I am going to be vulnerable and count that as a win with you guys. I'm going to celebrate it with you. If you're listening to this, just take a moment and stop with yourself and find something to also be grateful for. Find something to be grateful for. Find something that gives you the feeling of gratitude because even if it seems as simple as hitting the record button just one extra time, it's a big deal. I am going to let it be a big deal because it took a lot for me to show up and even hit the record button once. So a second time is a huge win. I actually wasn't planning on recording another episode this week, but I was in my garage, I was working out. We have a home gym and I have the privilege and luxury of working out pretty much whenever I want. That may be changing. I am hoping to be taking a job soon, but in the meantime, I will count my blessings and find something else to feel grateful and gratitude towards is the fact that I can work out literally whenever I want.
Speaker 1:And anyways, I was in the gym and that typically tends to be when I have my most like creative thoughts or my mind. Just it's. The blood is flowing, my mind just really opens up to different topics. This is typically when I take notes on my phone and just something that like really comes to mind and something that I've found myself doing. And it's not that this organically came to my mind, but I had to catch myself in the act of doom scrolling during my workout, and I hate that. I do that, but it's something that I do in between my sets and sometimes it's okay. And then other times I find that I've done a set and then I the next thing, I know it's like 10 minutes later and I'm still scrolling on my phone and I've completely, like lost the pump in my muscles and you know I you're not getting the full benefit out of your workout and you're not there's so much that goes into it Like you're not focused, you're not that mind to muscle connection is broken and all the things.
Speaker 1:Today was one of those days where it did not necessarily impact me in a negative way, but actually it struck this, this realization. Um, I was actually reflecting on, like the accounts that I was coming across as I was scrolling and I am weirdly, like really proud of the algorithm that my phone shows me right now. But it's a topic. That has not always been the case. I have not always been proud of the algorithm that and not that it was anything bad but it wasn't always stuff that positively impacted my life, so I thought that that would actually make a really fun topic, in the sense of, like working on our goals and working this is the new year. I know you just set your goals. If you have the planner, then you've probably sat and planned out your 2025, at least the next 90 days and so this is something that can very much impact that goal that you're working towards, and it can be a good impact or it can be a negative impact, and I've been on both sides of the coin in different times of my life. Right now, I'm very proud to say that, for the most part, as long as I can control the time that I spend on any kind of app, it typically impacts on the good side of the coin right now, but that you know that's something that, like we have to like really protect our energy.
Speaker 1:I'm a huge believer in what energy you put out into the world is the energy that you're going to receive, so so, if you, this is this is one bullet point that I find very important to cover about social media. Whether it be on it doesn't matter. If it's on Pinterest and I know Pinterest isn't exactly social media but you still, there's still an algorithm there and it's still going to cater to what you tend to click on and you know whatnot you tend to click on and you know whatnot. If you are finding that you're scrolling and you are experiencing envy or judgmental thoughts, then maybe it's time to take accountability and take ownership and unfollow that person. It is literally as simple as that and I know, I know that we've all heard that before and I'm not one to leave nasty comments. I rarely comment on anything, if at all. But even if I'm not commenting, there's been accounts that it definitely still impacts my energy. For example, like maybe there, at one point, there was this one influencer.
Speaker 1:I liked the stuff that he put out and then he started talking politics and he definitely and I knew this when I started following him he definitely fell on the other side of politics than what I typically agree on. It doesn't matter, like that's not something that affects me usually, um, but I liked his content. It brought positivity, it was funny. I enjoyed it for the longest time until I didn't. And then what I noticed was every time his um post would come across my Instagram algorithm, I would find myself getting super annoyed, like again, I would never comment, like I'm just not one to do that. So it's not a big deal, it's not like I was like putting negativity out into the world in that form, but, nonetheless, like his posts were controlling my mood, I would see it and this is it was through the election, so of course, his stuff got more political, as did everybody else's, and it was just to the point where it was so political that like it was just it was.
Speaker 1:It was not stuff I wanted to hear. I did not agree with it to a point where I'm all for a healthy debate, but it wasn't healthy at that point. It was just so far out there where it was just negatively impacting the way I felt about this influencer and and here's the crazy thing is, I don't actually think that he's probably a very nice person and probably does good in this world, and so that's why it was actually really important for me to mute his account. I didn't completely unfollow him, not that it would have mattered, but maybe there's a day that I can unmute his account and see his stuff again, but for the time being, it was really important to me to not see his content, to protect my piece. Here's the cool thing is I didn't have to comment and be like why are like there? You don't need to put negativity out there and like why are you posting this stuff? I miss your old content. No, it's his right to post whatever he wants. Like that's the cool thing about social media and freedom of speech.
Speaker 1:I firmly believe in freedom of speech. It is his right to post whatever, but it's also my right to protect my peace and I had to do that in that moment. When it came to social media. I had to protect my peace because I'm a firm believer that when you are experiencing these judgmental thoughts and you're just like, you're really just putting a lot of negativity out there and it greatly impacts the rest of your day because you're inviting, you are inviting that negative energy into your day, whether you realize it or not. And this may sound crazy, maybe you believe in this, maybe you don't, but I'm a big advocate of what you put out there is what you're inviting in, and so if you're constantly finding yourself scrolling, doom scrolling which we all do it and I am not going to be here to tell you just delete the app, just get off. It's not conducive to your goals. Girl, I get it. We all need some time. We all need to just like, let our brains rest.
Speaker 1:I love scrolling because there are things that inspire me, the things that give me creativity, and but that's where I've worked really hard to protect the piece on my scrolling algorithm and it is things that are starting to serve me more and more. There's, for sure, different categories in this realm. For me, for example, you can have different types of categories, like educational content. I have categories in like lifestyles, like I love following different homesteaders because a lot of them are educational, and I know that someday I'm going to have a property that has land and I do want chickens and I can't have chickens right now and livestock and goats and all the things, and I don't have necessarily the ability to plant a garden at the moment not the kind of garden that I want. So I love filling my algorithm with pages that are going to bring positivity and different perspectives and different lessons in that genre to teach me. I have collected so much knowledge that some days I feel like I have chickens. Like I feel like if I had come across a problem, I'm probably going to know how to deal with it. Probably not. I say that in all wishful thinking, but when it comes to the real deal, I'll probably still panic and I'm going to fall hard on my butt and fail before I succeed. And that's okay because that's all part of the learning process, but nonetheless, I love filling my algorithm with that category.
Speaker 1:I also love, love, love filling my algorithm with nutrition stuff. Some of it's educational, some of it is recipe ideas, but I love picking and choosing, like that's the freedom that you get with social media. I've made sure that it is, especially when it comes to the recipe and also the educational, I guess. But the recipes it's a beautiful thing being able to control the kind of recipes that I see. I am a busy, busy, busy mom of five kids and with a working husband, and we have a very, very busy lifestyle. So what does this mean? I want recipes that are in my favor as far as time, efficiency and currency, and I get the very cheap price tag of it being a quick and easy meal but still meeting all of my goals, still being macro friendly.
Speaker 1:We just covered this in the last episode. If you've listened to it, you know all about macros. Now you don't have to track your macros, but all of these recipes that I choose to fill my algorithm with are typically very high protein, which is a huge plus for me as someone who has struggled in the past to meet my protein goals. So that's the amazing thing about filling my algorithm with positive, beneficial stuff is, if I'm going to spend the time doom scrolling which, let's be real, it's going to happen I'm not going to take that away from myself. I do limit myself, I do set a time limit on myself each day, but it's going to happen and that's okay because I give myself that time Like it's like a reward, like I've done the things that I need to cool time to check out and doom scroll and I'm not going to feel guilty about it. But I also know that I'm filling my brain with things that are beneficial and positive and it's not bringing the energy down throughout the day bringing the energy down throughout the day. Same with the educational nutrition content. I love seeing educational financial content out there. Do you know how many things I've learned Currently? I love learning stuff more about crypto and investing in that way.
Speaker 1:I have learned so much about XRP and I like I wanted to learn more, and so I basically trained my algorithm to show me things about XRP. It took me a little bit to filter through the weird accounts to the accounts that I more resonated with, but nonetheless I took the time, I trained my algorithm and I filtered out and unfollowed and muted accounts that I didn't want to see, and now I feel like I'm getting very reputable, good information about XRP right now, as I want to learn more, and a lot of these people have YouTube channels, and so I've gone from getting surface level Instagram worthy content to then I can go look it up on YouTube and I can get deeper than surface level content on the same topic from the same person. So that's been amazing. What are some other categories? God, like I love following fitness people because I love being inspired with new workouts, new exercises, new form. Like I've learned so many things.
Speaker 1:There's so many freaking solid coaches out there that will teach you really amazing lessons about that mind to muscle connection and like how you should feel in a certain exercise where you should feel it. What you shouldn't feel there is. Like Squat University is one of my favorite accounts to follow as far as information and education on rehab and injury prevention and injury rehab, and he's a physical therapist so that's what he does, but he puts out information that anyone can apply and it's very credible, very, very, very credible information. So, of course, it's a positive benefit, for social media is getting to experience his page. You know all these pages. So that's the thing about doom scrolling is.
Speaker 1:I am not going to be here to guilt trip you. Should you have your 2025 goals and if, like I said, if you're using the planner great, you have these goals, you have these ambitions. I'm not going to sit here and lecture you about you. This is like we're hustling in 2025. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are going to work towards our goals and we are going to progress and we are going to be organized and we are going to work on our non-negotiables. If you have the planner if you've listened to the episode, you know what I'm talking about you have three daily tasks and three non-negotiable tasks that you should do every single day. That moves the needle forward. Their goals are not always the same or the tasks are not always the same, but nonetheless, every day, you have three things that you have to work on to get accomplished within that day. So we're gonna still do all those things, but we're not gonna feel bad for scrolling, we're not gonna feel bad for checking out, because you also deserve that.
Speaker 1:I just covered yesterday about giving yourself time to rest and relax and restore. This can be part of it, it's okay. But what I am telling you, what I will lecture you on, what I will encourage you to do, is protect your peace. If you find yourself experiencing judgmental thoughts, like I did with the one influencer that just simply his political content was so far out there for me that I found myself having negative thoughts about this creator when I don't even actually know him. He has nothing to do with my daily interactions I was having judgmental thoughts. That's not the right thing, like that's not what social media should be for. I'm all for healthy debate, but it had moved me on that point, for me personally.
Speaker 1:So I had to make a conscious choice to protect my peace, protect my thoughts and not project negativity out into my own bubble. It only affected me. This dude had no idea that I felt this way, but my body, my energy circle, my bubble knew that I felt this way and I body my energy circle. My bubble knew that I felt this way and I was inviting more negativity and more just blah into my life, and you have to protect that. It's your responsibility to protect your bubble. You're the only one that can do that. So so take accountability, take the responsibility. If you're going to doom scroll and I know you are, and it's okay, you have the permission to do so Fill it with things that are going to be beneficial, and they don't even have to be things that go towards your goal.
Speaker 1:I love following like just funny stuff too, like I've definitely trained my algorithm to show me funny things, because it's like it's totally okay to not always have your brain turned on and looking for the creativity, looking for the inspiration, looking for the education. It's also okay to just want to laugh and have fun or, or, god, I don't know. Sometimes I'm a sucker for the sad, like soppy military homecoming, even though we're a military family, and it's not always like like. It's actually like very rarely, very rarely like that. But it doesn't mean that I'm not a sucker for those videos and those stories and I like to see it happen. And am I going to cry my eyes out yeah, you betcha, but also like it, it serves a purpose. You know, like it's okay to feel these things, to feel these things, but it doesn't bring me any type of energy except for positivity, wholesome, loving all the things that you want to invite into your bubble. That's what I try to fill my feed with.
Speaker 1:So I am going to keep this episode super short because I feel like I've like made the point and driven it home with my own examples and my own judgmental Like you're. Nothing's wrong with you. Like, if you find yourself feeling envious, this is another great example. Before I close this out, this is another great example. Like, let's take I know I gave you the example of using an actual creator, that I was having judgmental thoughts, but sometimes I love following like DIY pages and or like just luxury.
Speaker 1:I love, um, it's very much a goal to one day have just a beautiful. We have a big family, so my goal is to have a very beautiful big home that can, that can um cater towards our big family, as my kids come back to visit and grant we start having grandkids and all the things. So so it's not that I like necessarily care about material things, but I do care about. Someday. It is a goal to have a very large home that can be filled with memories and cater to such a big family that we have. So I love following home pages. Whether it's home decor, whether it's DIY, I love following these pages. They, for the most part, inspire me.
Speaker 1:Every now and then I go through phases where I find myself feeling envy instead of inspiration. Well, that's a problem, because that completely defeats the purpose of being inspired and being motivated and being willing to be disciplined. If I'm feeling envy and or or completely defeated, then it's not serving me right now and so that's where, like, I kind of have to step away, and then that phase doesn't always last. You know, these, these things don't always. They're not permanent. They don't have to be. If I'm in a phase where, like, I'm feeling inspired again, like right now, because I'm starting to build momentum back in the podcast and my goals, and I, like I have a lot of clarity for what I want out of 2025. I am doing okay, like we're doing great. I am making, building momentum, I'm building that confidence, I'm building the patterns that are needed to work towards those goals that are going to get me where I'm wanting to go. So I am in a position that I'm not necessarily going to feel envy.
Speaker 1:Envy, typically for me, comes when I'm not living within my purpose. Right now, I'm pretty damn close to living within my purpose and spreading the message that I really genuinely believe in and think that every woman should have. So I am not struggling with envy or a lot of like negative thoughts. I am very much like in. I'm in my zone, so I can handle seeing those Instagram pages where they just have the beautiful, beautiful homes, and I can see it with the thought of like oh my gosh, like the belief system of one day I am going to have that. There's no question in my mind that my family, my husband, like everything that we've worked for, we're going to have it. And it may not be exactly like this person, and that's okay, because I don't want what they have. I want what I want. But it's more of an inspiration. I love hearing the stories behind how these people got into the houses that they're in and like what kind of work did you guys do? Like, what's your story? That's where it becomes a positive thing for me. So that's another example.
Speaker 1:It's not just people, but it's things too. It's material things If it is having a negative impact. If you see somebody who is able to afford designer things and maybe that's something you're into and you see that and you feel jealousy or envy, maybe you need to sit with that and really digest what that means. What is it telling you? Where is it coming from? It's probably has no-transcript everything to do with inside of you. Does it mean you're not living in your purpose? Because if you're not, maybe let's come up with a plan on getting back on the road to living within your purpose, because that's a huge factor into the negative energy that we put out and receive. But if you find yourself scrolling on social media and you're in that bubble of negativity, you need to start asking yourself questions. If you cannot control those negative urges right now, then you need to mute those accounts. You need to unfollow, block, delete, whatever you need to do. Just do it until you're able to get back with living within your purpose and then maybe you can reintroduce some of those things. Maybe some of those things just don't no longer serve a purpose.
Speaker 1:There's plenty of pages that I don't follow, that I used to love, because they just don't serve a purpose. A great example of that was a ton of fitness influencers. I used to follow them. I used to love, love, love their content until I realized there was a couple of them that like as they so many of them didn't have kids, and I used to follow them because I wanted to eventually have a body that looked like them, until it dawned on me, girl, you are never going to look like them. You have five kids, they have zero, and your body ain't never going back to that. And now, as maturity has kicked in, I don't actually want to look like that at all. But also, several of them I had realized were so beyond fake and unrealistic because they had such an unhealthy some a couple of them had actually come out and said like they had an eating disorder or whatever, and that's why they were so small or they were eating like a crazy little amount of calories, and it was just so completely unattainable. So I will never go back to those accounts because there's no way that that should ever serve a purpose in my life other than being educational on like that's, girl, that's not what you want.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I'm going to wrap it up. I think that that really drives it home, and the message is what it is If you are experiencing negativity, with doom scrolling, please protect your peace, protect your algorithm. Pick the things that bring you joy, love and peace and actually serve a purpose in your life. If you were looking for something that will help you get organized, please, please, check the link out in the description for the 90-Day Project Planner. It is the thing that will help you be accountable. It'll be your best friend without needing an actual human to rely on. It is a safe place to write your goals. It'll help you organize your goals. It'll help you live within your purpose and within your values, which is everything when it comes to setting goals, and then it is the daily actions that helps you achieve those goals. So I will link it in the show and I will link the episode right next to it that describes and breaks down what the whole planner is about.
Speaker 1:There are QR codes within the planner that go really deep lessons, and they are at your disposal at any time. You don't ever have to look on your computer. If you have the planner with you, just scan the QR code and it'll pull up the episode. You don't need a streaming service. You don't need anything. It will just pull up the mp3 audio and your phone will play it. So it's an amazing little mini course that I have never seen anything like in any other planners, and I love that it's in there. So if you need a little hand to hold, that's your, that's your BFF in the form of a book. So check it out and until next time, don't forget to be one strong mother.