The focus for our last couple of blogs has been around our sleep and evening rhythms, therefore in this blog we felt to bring some awareness around the importance of establishing a nurturing, self-loving morning rhythm when looking at deepening our health and overall well being.

The quality we choose of how we are with ourselves upon waking can set ourselves up for the type of day we are about to embark upon. Have you ever noticed that if you get out of bed grumpy or racy, then that can easily become the flavour of your day?

Here we are sharing some simple rituals that can support you when waking up and how establishing a caring and nurturing morning routine can make a real difference to how you feel into your day. These simple and practical tips offer support in how to start the day reconnecting with yourself and how to hold this connection into your day ahead.

1) Upon waking, pause and spend a moment re-connecting with you, your breath and body. How are you and your body feeling?

With the busyness of our lives, it is common and easy to jump out of bed and race straight into the day. Or even upon waking, turn our phone on and get caught up in emails, Facebook etc before we even land our feet on the ground.

What if, upon waking we created space (just a few minutes) to be with ourselves and held a gentle conversation with our body through awareness of feelings/sensations and a commitment to keep our mind with us/our body (conscious presence). Then and only then, get out of bed, holding and nurturing this precious connection with self. Could this be a different start to our morning that would lay a solid foundation for a more harmonious, gentle and joyful day?

2) Meditate a few minutes upon waking when/if feeling out of sorts

Having checked in with your body and how you are feeling, if there is a raciness in the body, mind and/or physiology, nervous tension or an emotional overwhelm – sadness, anger, frustration etc – 3 to 5 minutes of Gentle Breath Meditation will help you come back to a precious place of centredness, gentleness and support the clearing of stress/disharmony held in your body. You could also enjoy our 13 minutes free online body awareness meditation .

3) Enjoy being organised and getting ready with ample time

Allow yourself plenty of time to get ready so that you don’t end up rushing. Is it really worth sleeping in those extra 15 minutes, then to have to rush to get out of the door and deal with the created nervous tension? Planning in advance for your day ahead, getting up earlier and making a priority to take the time and be gentle/present with yourself in your daily preparation (preparing breakfast, showering, getting the kids ready, exercise etc) offers a deep support for carrying a connection with yourself into the day ahead. Being present in what we do allows for spaciousness in our life that can be tangibly felt in our body.

4) Develop awareness around what and how you eat for breakfast

Is coffee and/or sugary food a must to get your mood picked up and your brain functioning? Are you gobbling breakfast before you zoom out the door or on the go to work? What about experiencing making breakfast a nurturing moment for both your body and whole being and observe how this can support you through your day.

5) Nurture, celebrate yourself and have fun getting dressed

Be present and enjoy getting ready and dressed for your day – for you . How often do we dress in a hurry in an effort to rush out the door, to impress, or cover up how we are actually truly feeling? If we come back to everything being energy (which it is), what if we took the time to be precious, tender and playful with ourselves as we dressed in the morning for our day ahead? When we put energy into truly caring for/honoring ourselves as we get ready, it feels lovely and this loveliness naturally nourishes us throughout the day.

The way we feel in the morning is strongly linked with the quality of our sleep, our evening rhythm and all the daily choices we make – you may find it valuable to revisit our prior blogs on those topics. 

It is not about getting it all perfect at once, rather about ongoingly developing our awareness and commitment to ourselves. Celebrate each baby steps you take to develop a loving foundation from which you begin your day. It is precious and powerful.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane offer Yoga/Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Esoteric Healing and Massage at their clinic in Balmain, Cammeray  and Balgowlah

Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

The post Self-love: A morning rhythm appeared first on Yoga & Healing | Therapies Massage Exercise Corporate Wellbeing | Sydney, Balmain & Northern Rivers.

In our prior blog Do you have difficulty with sleep? we shared the WHY as to falling asleep or staying asleep can be difficult – the fact that the way we live throughout our day, i.e all the choices we make, has a direct relationship on the quality of sleep we get at night -, and discussed how this can be addressed with some simple and playful tips.

In this blog we are introducing the notions of “rhythms” and “cycles” around sleep and discuss how our “daily evening rhythms” can prepare us for a quality of sleep that is both deeply rejuvenating and healing.

We tend to think about our days in a linear way – i.e the beginning of the day being as we wake up and the end of the day being as we fall asleep. What if we were to consider our days not so much in a linear way, and rather in a cyclical way?

What if we considered the possibility that energetically the start of our day actually already well begins the day before? That how we prepare ourselves for bed is going to deeply affect both the quality of our sleep and how the day ahead will unfold? Could this influence how we prepare for bed and impulse us to unwind our days in a more conscious, responsible and self-loving way?

What if we took the time – or rather created the space – from early evening (or about 3 hours before our current bed time for the night owls or those on night shift work) to begin to wind down with a quality of presence/being that prepares us for both a rejuvenating and nurturing sleep, and a productive, joyful tomorrow?

What would that look and feel like?

From our own experience, wind down time usually starts around 5.30pm-6pm. Often we can still be working at this time however we become very aware of not going into a drive or nervous tension to get things done. We begin to deepen in conscious presence (the mind being with the body in what we are doing) and become even more considerate – or rather more self-loving – with whatever we do and how we relate with others.

For some people it may be that the few hours preceding bed time they are still at work, for others they may be preparing the family evening meal, getting the kids to bed or commuting home. The evening (or those few hours prior to bed) is going to be different for each one of us and what is important is not WHAT we do, but rather HOW we attend to it.

How many of us tend to rush to get things done in the evening to have some “me” time, without the kids, without any work? Sounds familiar…? Could that “rushing” actually be counter-productive and unhealthy?

That “rushing” or “let’s get it done” way of being is running a pattern of energy in the body which drains our vitality, overstimulates our nervous system and takes us in disconnection with ourselves.

With the resulting tiredness, exhaustion, excess in nervous tension accumulated in the body when we eventually get to the “me” time, it can then be quite difficult to re-connect deeply with ourselves and gently, lovingly wind down.

In the evening, the level of stress and dis-harmony accumulated in the body may have become so un-pleasant to feel that we would often go into the use of any form of distraction or numbing to NOT feel/be aware of it – TV, computer, over or wrong eating, alcohol to name a few -. Possible? That precious “me” time then loses in quality and the opportunity to reflect on the day, enjoy being with ourselves/those around us and prepare the body for deep rest are often missed.

By developing conscious presence (mind body together) throughout the day and then deepening it into your evening rhythm, you will find that the way you feel as you head to bed will be a very different quality of energy that will support you into a restful evening and good night sleep.

And what about living the future in the present by developing in your evening daily rhythms the quality of being that you want to be met with, enjoy as you wake up in the morning? Now, that is something special….

For our Top 10 tips for a good night sleep, read our next blog.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane teach Yoga, Meditation and assist people in their healing via Esoteric Therapies, Massage, Yoga and Meditation. Contact them here.

The post An introduction to rhythms and cycles around sleep appeared first on Yoga & Healing | Therapies Massage Exercise Corporate Wellbeing | Sydney, Balmain & Northern Rivers.