The Sunday Sanctuary with Kelly Sutton
A weekly series that profiles the most fabulous, hard-working, 24/7 hustlers, and how they spend their Sundays.
I met the Emmy-winning TV Anchor and Radio Personality, Kelly Sutton, for the first time on the NBC affiliate “Today in Nashville.” We instantly clicked and our time catching up before and after segments was honestly, never enough. She is one of those people that totally gets it - whereas sometimes TV people are so false, phony and out there, she was so down to earth and cool. One of the girls girls that you could chat for hours with. I can’t wait to get back to Nash-Vegas to see her again soon!
Since hosting “Today in Nashville,” she recently started her “Connected with Kelly” vlog and podcast that is taking off! Her recent interview with THE Carrie Underwood was amazing and as she has had the fortune to connect with so many incredible people in the Country Music industry, she’s taking a lot of those conversations deeper. If you love music, conversations and connection, her show is the place for you!
Here’s how Kelly spends her Sunday’s -
Q: What time do you wake up or does the alarm go off ?
A: I don’t like alarm clocks. I hosted a morning show on television for 12 years, and I had to get up at 2 o’clock in the morning. So, for me, the freedom of not having an alarm clock is the best thing ever. Our dog really likes to have breakfast around 7:30, so he’s kind of the alarm at this point. My sweet husband will usually get up and let me sleep.
Q: What is your morning routine (specifically the first 15)?
A: Sunday is the one day we purposefully don’t plan anything. We just want to be still and be at home. We usually do pancakes on Sunday morning. Then, we watch our Church Service online, because we can’t go in person. My big thing on Sunday is I really try to set the intention of doing a workout and also meditating, which is something rather new to me. I just found meditation in the midst of quarantine, and I think I need something to keep me from spiraling to fear and anxiety from all that is happening in the world. I do feel like that gets you ready for the week, if you have a good Sunday and you get all that rest and a plan on how the week is going to unfold, it seems like the week goes better.
Q: What is your Sunday mantra?
A: I think my Sunday mantra would have to be focus on joy. Focus on joy, what’s bringing you joy right now— is it the pancakes we just made, the fact that I just put in a load of laundry, you know? Is it that we’re all together and we are healthy, or we are making dinner together, whatever is bringing me joy in that moment just to focus on that.
Q: What’s your go to breakfast/brunch?
A: Usually, every Sunday morning we cook pancakes in my house.
Q: Do you give yourself any Sunday self-care treatments?
A: I have a skin care regimen that I do, and there is an exfoliant that I like to do two to three times a week. It doesn’t necessarily fall on a Sunday, but I will try to do that. I give my skin a break on Sunday, like no makeup at all. I don’t want to do anything and let my skin breathe and relax.
Q: What song is a good representation of your Sunday?
A: I mean obviously because it’s in the title, Sunday Morning Coming Down by Kris Kristofferson. But honestly, my playlist on a Sunday morning is Bob Marley. So, I will go straight to Bob Marley and the song Three Little Birds. Like that playing on a Sunday morning and I’m making pancakes, the world is good.
Q: How has your Sunday routine changed over the years?
A: When I was still doing an early morning show, Sunday’s were peaceful but also a little more stressful for me because I felt like my Monday morning started Sunday night. Like you couldn't go to bed late, you had to go to bed early, and everything started earlier. I feel like my Sundays are now a lot more relaxed. Having a child that’s in middle school makes you run and gun a lot, she’s in lots of different activities. So having that Sunday and keeping it as peaceful as possible has become a focus for all of us.
Q: Do you exercise?
A: I love doing HIIT, high intensity interval training, and right now I’m doing 21 day fix with Autumn Calabrese who I love. On Sundays, usually it is typically yoga or pilates and I love that it fits the Sunday mold. Sunday’s you just want to stretch and feel good.
Q: Do you like to spend your Sunday alone or with family/friends?
A: We’re always the family unit. There’s only three of us, so we’re not very big. I like to have alone time in the morning. I’m not going to lie, working out and meditating and getting a good hour to myself, that feels amazing. Then, I like to spend the rest of my day with my family. We will occasionally, obviously not now because of Covid, have Sunday dinner with the neighbors. We have some really good friends that live in our neighborhood, so on Sunday nights we’d do chili at their house or they would come to our house and do steaks. So, we’d do a fun Sunday dinner night together, but we haven’t been able to do that for a while.
Q: Do you use any apps or products for relaxation?
A: I have fallen in love with Gabrielle Bernstein, I think she’s amazing. She’s written a ton of different books, but right now she’s doing a 21 day manifestation mantra. So, I signed up for that and I’ve been doing that. She does a lot of guided meditation so I do that, but also Headspace, the app, is good.
Q: What is your ideal bedtime?
A: Ideal bedtime would be 10.
Q: What are some of your favorite Sunday activities?
A: We started playing Monopoly deal. It is like the board game Monopoly, but it is way faster because it is a card game. We like to do board games, and usually like a movie if we're not doing a board game. It’s been really fun to introduce my daughter to the movies we grew up with.
Q: How do you prepare for the week ahead?
A: I have gotten a lot better in trying to stay with it as far as writing down all the things I really want to accomplish that week. I try to look ahead and see what we’ve got on the schedule and what it looks like. I recently launched my show on Youtube, which is called Connected with Kelly, and it is amazing because it's been doing great, but it's also all of the leg work and the editing and the extra stuff that goes along with it that you don't think about, that's so time consuming. So, I'm trying to be more respectful of how much time I really do need to give myself. I have this unrealistic expectation that I can do anything in 20 minutes, so I have to be more realistic with my time and budget my time better. So, that's what I’ve been doing on Sundays, budgeting my time better, looking at my week ahead, and not letting myself get overwhelmed.