A Morning Routine is a vital step in setting yourself up for success for the day. I have found it to be one of the key tools in eliminating stress in my life. Rising early to achieve a short routine to optimise your health and wellbeing will be one of the best things you can achieve!
I wanted to share with you some of the Sanskrit terms around a morning routine.
Brahma Muhurta; the hour of Brahmin, the totality. The time of day that black of the sky begins to become faintly grey, and it moves into blue light. The time when it’s no longer night nor day, there is on the leading edge of dawn, the Brahama Mahurt is revered in spiritual practices as the best time to practise yoga and meditation. It is approximately 90 minutes before the sun rises.
Navaswan; is the little breeze that moves continuously around the Earth as it turns, and the sun sits in its glory and pushing ahead of the sun is a wave caused by the approaching warm air.
Brahama Mahurt precedes Navaswan. Then comes Surya, the sun.
What’s happening is that the Earth is continuously rolling, and the warm earth that precedes the warmth of the day, and it meets the cool air where the night has just been, a wave that is continuously travelling across the face of the Earth. Yogi’s rise to meet the many layers of the approaching dawn.
There are those who are up and able to enjoy the breaking of dawn. There is a yoga salutation to welcome this, Surya Namaskara (also known as Sun Salutations), and it’s much more than a few yoga moves. It’s a demonstration to the day that will be. When a person does Surya Namaskara, Surya the sun, as well as the Earth bows to him.
Here is a little diagram of Sun Salutations. If you have never done yoga before, there is a good little video here and explanation here.
MY MORNING ROUTINE
I start my day at 4.30 – 5am and I won’t lie to you, it takes determination and passion to get up. I believe it incredibly nourishing to be awake when the sun rises, and so I rise before it does. Immediately on waking, I scrape my tongue, I do 15 – 20 mins of yoga, I do a few minutes of pranayama, then I meditate for 20 minutes.
These are the things that I try to always start my day with. To be honest the rest of my days can be a big hot mess. I jam in teaching meditation, meetings, strategy creation, private consulting, coaching, writing, being a mother, a wife, a friend and owner of a very neurotic Jack Russell terrier. So my Morning Routine is vital to me being calm, balanced, inspired and energised, and I practice it 6-7 days of the week.
What do you do that nourishes you each day? What brings out the best in you? What do you wish you did every day but somehow don’t find the time to do? Now is the time to introduce just one. Maybe it’s waking up 30 minutes earlier in the morning, in order to not rush and take a pushed and panicky feeling into the day. Whatever it is, tackle one thing at a time. In order to bring about new routine, approachability and compassion must be employed, or else we set ourselves up for failure.
Image taken by Jacqui Lewis for The Broad Place