Start the day as you mean to go on.
We’ve all heard it but in truth this advice is worth its weight in gold. How you prepare for your day every morning from the moment you wake to the moment you start – be it your work, school, productive activities of the day – that time is precious in forming what your day is going to shape into. Either a good day or a bad day. A day spent frazzled, rushed, stressed or a day where you feel present, grounded, calm and together.
This reasoning is very trendy amongst the health gurus nowadays but that knowledge is age old and Ayurveda is very strong on designing healthy rituals that you perform day in day out to create wellbeing. It’s like working from the ground up, you wouldn’t build the wall of your house before you’d dug the foundation. Morning routine is your foundation for the day and it’s an inside job. The self-care we practise and the time we dedicate to ourselves daily before we go out in the world builds our stamina for facing the day ahead.
In Ayurveda the optimal daily routine is called Dinacharya and here is a little flavour to give you an incentive. Do what you can when you can. Create habits by starting somewhere, anywhere, and adding a little to your daily regimen. What you focus on will grow in your day. If you focus on self nourishment and serenity then guess what, you’ll see more of it pop-up in your day.
WAKE UP EARLY
Timing is everything. Our days are sliced into cycles of energy. Wake before 6am to benefit from the Vata cycle and rise refreshed, energetic and light. You’ll be more alert than if you wake later and you hit the Kapha cycle risking feeling weighed down and sluggish. You’ll also gain the time you need for your self-care practise (that’s if you haven’t got a toddler-in-tow like me obviously, in which case you need to become a bit more resourceful or wake still earlier…)
ELIMINATE
Early morning is the time of Apana Vayu, a downward flowing energy in the body which supports the body’s clearing functions.
TONGUE SCRAPE (& brush your teeth)
I’m not going to re-invent the wheel, I already wrote about it here.
DRINK WARM LEMON WATER
I wrote about that there.
MEDITATE
Make the best of the early hours’ peaceful environment to cleanse your senses and center your mind. You needn’t meditate for hours on end but regularity is what will bring a real difference to how grounded you feel in your days. Start with 5 minutes and build up if you have the time. Try to keep a loving attitude to balance the airy energy of vata prevalent in dawn and to create a relaxed energy, helping prana – the life force – flow.
EXERCISE
Move your body. Raise your energy. Perhaps find out what your metabolic make-up is here and exercise in accordance, though yoga and walking are generally good for everyone; helping you loosen up, warm up and prepare for activity and digestion. Jumping up and down on a trampoline might be a good way to wake up all your internal pipes.
SLATHER ON SESAME OIL & shower or vice versa
For this one see my post here (this is turning out to be an easy post!).
EAT A NUTRITIOUS BREAKFAST
Fuel your body with fresh quality food that releases energy slowly to keep you going until your main meal of the day (lunch).
All systems go!
Anne Schouvey 