“Morning is the time when you set the tone for the rest of the day. Set it right!” – Fain Blake

          I’ve never had a real morning routine. Not an intentional one, anyway. Throughout the years of school and work, I would usually snooze my alarms like crazy. When I finally got up, I would jump out of bed, rushed and stressed about being late. I’d run around to get ready, often skip breakfast and fly out the door. Mornings were never my favorite. I never looked forward to getting up and going to school/work. Especially when I would stay up too late, not making ample sleep a top priority for my health. Things are different now. I’m evolving, I suppose.

          For the past two weeks, I have woken up – many times without an alarm – and made the transition from sleep to awake a calm and gradual one. I get up, use the bathroom, and then head to the kitchen. I take a half tablespoon of coconut oil and oil pull with it for 20 minutes. For those of you who don’t know, oil pulling is an Ayurvedic procedure where you swish oil around your mouth for 15-20 minutes and then expel it. It ‘pulls’ the toxins from your mouth/body and when you spit it out, the toxins go along with it. If you want to read more about it you can go *here* or *here*. I don’t know if it truly pulls toxins out, but I do know that it has helped prevent cavities (or slow their progression for sure) for me. I believe it strengthens your teeth – and that’s good enough for me. I’ve had my (un)fair share of tooth issues, so any little bit helps!

          I heard somewhere recently that the first hour after waking and the last hour before you go to sleep at night are the times that your mind is most impressionable. Basically: feed your mind upon waking, and right before you go to sleep. So I have started watching TED talks on YouTube while I oil pull. I can usually find one for 20 minutes, so it works out well. Actually, I may have heard that information on a TED talk haha. Also, I recently heard this described as “marinating” your brain. Especially before you go to sleep, the last thoughts you have are the ones your brain sits with all night. You should marinate your brain with positive thoughts to strengthen your outlook and confidence. I really like this wording. [You can find this advice from Dr. Wayne Dyer *here*!]

          After I have finished bathing my teeth in love, and my mind in knowledge, I move on to a 20-30 minute morning yoga sequence. I recently discovered *the Journey Junkie*. I really like Allie’s style and her inspirational words. And I ALWAYS feel better after a nice flow. If I’m feeling unusually lazy, I’ll leave my mat rolled up and do my own unstructured sequence just on the rug in the living room. When I do this, I’m listening more to what and how my body needs to stretch and move. Other mornings, I’ll leave the instruction to Allie and feel stronger because I’m going out of my comfort zone and trying new or different things. Not to mention at the end of Allie’s morning sequences, she adds a few moments of meditation. Meditation has also been a goal for me. Although I’ve been practicing yoga a long time, I feel that I am now building a real foundation of yoga pose knowledge. Never before had I ever done my own unstructured yoga flows. I never had the yoga pose memory bank that I now have.

          Once my mind, teeth and body have been woken up and warmed up, I then make a healthy drink (green tea with lemon or a detoxifying tea), and sit down to do some journaling. I freewrite for maybe 20 minutes, and then I focus on some intentions for the day. I say intentions because when I say to do list, it feels a bit stressful; and when I say goals, I feel bad if I don’t get them done. If I say intentions, I mean I INTEND to do them, but if I don’t get to it, IT’S OK. I’m trying to be more comfortable just going with the flow and taking things as they come. The less stress the better. After I write my intentions (which could be one, or 20 things), then I get to my Gratefuls. I try to list at least 3 things I am grateful for today, and why. This brings me to focus on the good things, even if bad things go along with them. Find the sliver lining, right?

          After I finish my journaling, I switch over to my Compliment list. I was recently scrolling through Instagram when I stumbled upon this *post* from @yogipsychologist. I immediately decided that making a list of things i like about myself was something I needed to do. I’ve only started this list in the past couple days so I don’t have much on it yet, but it feels good to search for something I like about myself and document it. There are many other articles on self-care and exploration that have activities such as this that I want to – no, that I INTEND to try. I just need to go back and read them over.

          When this is done, I can start my day fresh. I make breakfast and/of coffee for myself and Paul. I light 2 candles on the table for ambiance, and often keep them burning most of the day. I read somewhere (this was a long time ago) that watching a candle flame has the same effect on the brain as meditation. I recently found out that this practice is called Candle Gazing. I try to look at the flame here and there throughout the times I’m sitting at the table. One of these candles is also a Himalayan salt block – there’s room for a tea light inside of it – so it is throwing off some nice healing negative ions into our air space.

          From there, I move on into my day, doing things that need to be done or that are on my intention list. Some days I get everything done, some days I barely do anything I intend to do. And THAT’S OK. We all do as much as we can do with our time – we’re all doing the best we can. (Thanks, Mom.) As long as I feel good and happy, and give some of that happiness to others, my day is complete.

          I’m sure some (if not all) of you are thinking, HOW? How do you have all this time? Well, it helps that I am not working. If I was working , I would need to get up VERY early to get this done. For example, this week I did work one day. I purposely got up 45 minutes earlier to get my oil pulling-TED talk-yoga time in. I had breakfast later on in the morning and I did my writing in the afternoon after lunch. And that’s ok! It doesn’t have to all be done in the morning. On days that I have things to do earlier in the day or if we are at the RV, this doesn’t always get done in the morning, or sometimes at all. Again, the point is to create the least stress on yourself as possible.  If it doesn’t work out one day, that’s ok. It’s not worth it to beat yourself up. If I get even just one of my self-care things done throughout the day, I’m happy. You can’t be your best self for others if you don’t take care of yourself. Once I go back to work full-time after our trip, I’m going to need to figure out a new schedule to get these things done. Actually, even just switching to living in the RV and traveling will cause an adjustment for this routine – to find out what works best in the RV and on the road. While I have the time, I’m going to do what works. It makes me feel good and I hope it makes me a better me for those that i interact with throughout the day.

          I hope this is an inspiration to you to not feel guilty to take a little time (or a lot!) to yourself and TAKE CARE of yourself. You are important and you deserve a little TLC. Even if it is just 5 minutes sitting with your eyes closed and counting your breaths. It’s important to connect with yourself. ❤