Posted on Leave a comment

ON DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING GOOD HABITS

I have to admit I am NOT a morning person. I have always struggled with getting up in the morning. The thing is my life is so busy with 2 children, 2 businesses to run, 1 community platform to run, a houshold and garden and the usually duties that come with it there is not much time left to restore me. So really the only time where I get quiet time is in early morning. I have started doing my yoga practice early morning after yoga teacher training, but in the big school holidays and in the process of setting up the studio I slipped out of my habit – so easy.

So my dear friend Ally Hay has kindly given me the book “The Miracle Morning” which is really helpful (I promise I will return it soon 😉. So from tomorrow morning I am committing to a regular morning practice on workdays, getting up at 5.30 to give me 1.5 hours to dedicate to myself. I will be supported by my doTerra Cheer and Motivate Oils and some green or herbal tea or lemon water to start the day with.

Hal Elrod calls his system Life SAVERS – Silence, Affirmation, Visualization, Exercise, Reading and Scribing. He combines those in his morning practice. I really badly need mediation, so that will get 15 minutes incl Pranayam, 30 minutes yoga, 30 minutes journal writing, affirmation, visualisation, reading and 15 minutes prepping for the day / checking into my schedule / screen messages.

I also plan to implement a miracle evening routine when I am not teaching. At the moment I have long nights in the office which is not healthy, so I plan to be in bed at 9 studying, reading or doing Yoga Nidra.

Now don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that everybody get up at 5.30 and take up what I do. We all are so different and have to find what works for us.  I have had morning practices throughout the years on and off and when I do them I feel great and its the most beautiful start to the day. I am just reluctant to get up, because I go to bed too late (which I am addressing too, by going to bed earlier). I have found for me it is unsustainable not to do them, because I get angry, grumpy and I feel I didn’t have any time to myself and then being resentful. In my stage of life where the kids are around every day I very rarely get time to myself and even if they are at school I am either working or people are popping in and out, couriers coming, phones ringing etc. I just can’t get the quiet time during the day and in the evening I am too tired. So morning it is for me.

I always say to my students that everybody is their own best teacher. This is what I have identified for me to be good and necessary. My needs change all the time so do my routines. And everybody has different routines and nourishing rituals and if not I highly recommend to find nourishing routines that suit each individual. I have some others, like taking Lucy and the kids for walks in the park, but I need some solitude to clear my head on a regular basis otherwise I feel flustered and scattered.

I will see how it goes….

Do you have any routines / habits to support your own wellbeing. Would be interested to hear.