Hoda said the ‘plate trick’ showed her life was ‘not okay’

Hoda Kotb announced in late September that she would be leaving the role of TODAY co-host – but her attempts to re-evaluate her life and priorities began much earlier, she explains.

In a recent interview with TODAY.com at TODAY’s Making Space Wellness Weekend with Hoda Kotb, sponsored by Miraval Resorts & Spas, the journalist and mother of two revealed a simple trick suggested by her friend Maria Shriver helped her realize that she was not spending her time the way she thought she would.

“One day I really found myself in a difficult situation, everything was kind of out of whack, and I said, ‘I don’t feel right.’ (Maria) says, ‘You need to reevaluate your life… Go into your cabinets and grab a dish,'” Hoda recalled.

“So I have a platter where I’ll serve cheese or something like that. I have a piece of paper—we talked on the phone—and she says, “Now start breaking it down into pieces that identify the parts of your life that require your time.” , your heart, your attention, your emotions and start writing them down.”

Hoda says she then began cutting up pieces of paper representing her children, her job, her momwho wasn’t feeling well at the time, travel, sports, friends—“every little thing took a bite,” Hoda explains. Maria then asked her to make sure that the pieces of paper corresponded to how much time and energy each one required of her.

“When I looked at my dish, I realized it was completely out of order,” Hoda says. “My kids didn’t have as much time as I thought they would. If you add up the hours, my work took up a lot of time. All free time was buried. time for this and so on.”

“So when I was looking at all these things, (Maria) said, ‘This is your life. Do you like her? Because that’s how you live. You can continue down this path or you can reevaluate it.”

“I did a re-evaluation and I think it’s magic: when do you stop and look at your life? You don’t have time because you’re too busy going to the grocery store, getting something from your kids. Someone has a fever. Your boss is angry. You can’t sleep, so you watch some terrible show and then wake up irritated. You don’t have time,” Hoda continues.

“It was very helpful. And I thought, “Now I’m going to start making changes.”

Hoda says that after doing this exercise about two years ago, she decided to change the way she approached her work responsibilities.

“I decided that for work there are things that are needed have do things you would like to do good if so, and the things that you choose “What to do,” she explains. “So I just cut back on the ‘action choices’ because it wasn’t doing anyone any good. I didn’t feel good doing it. My kids were losing me while I was doing this. And then I kept thinking… why am I doing this? … Am I receiving or giving something?”

“When your output far exceeds your input, you’re doing it wrong. If at the end of each day you are exhausted and empty, then you are doing something wrong and it is on.” It’s not like everyone is taking it. This is not true. You give… And then you decide that this is what I need now,” Hoda adds.

Hoda says she’s also been focusing more on feeling healthy mentally and physically over the past few years, largely so she can spend more time with her. daughters, Hayley, 7, and Hope, 5..

“When I feel good physically and solid emotionally, I think, oh man, you feel like you could live forever. And that’s the whole point. When I think about my young children, I often think about longevity.” she says. “I want to be there, so I won’t worry about it. I’ll just do everything in my power to see them walk down the aisle, have their graduation. I want to testify to this, so I hope all this will lead me there.”

“I want them to know that energy matters, happiness matters,” Hoda adds.

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