Morning routine Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Fresh Orange Juice (No Juicer Needed)

Fresh orange juice is a popular, year-round favorite. In the winter, oranges are in season, so you can find an abundance of oranges.

orange juice

That’s also when most people load up on Vitamin C that they associate with orange juice, and why orange juice grocery shelves can be full or running empty.

And summer is a popular time too as it’s served in vacation towns and resorts.

I share below how you can optimize an entire orange in homemade fresh orange juice squeezed by hand.

If you’re inspired by fresh juices, this is a smart idea to save money, be healthy, and enjoy conveniently at home.

And speaking of enjoyment, last week I had a nice surprise.

I won a gift card to a local smoothie place I’m inspired by. They are my inspiration for tropical smoothies.

One day I saw someone coming out of a yoga studio in my town who was carrying this mermaid blue color bowl that’s the size of a large yogurt container.

I had to find out what this healthy ingredient is!

I learned it comes from an ingredient called blue majik (that’s the magic in the blue bowl). 🥣

The South Block smoothie chain also uses ingredients like camu camu and maca root.

You feel like you’ve been invited to a new array of rainforest superfoods shipped from an exotic locale in the world and infused in your made-to-order bowl or smoothie.

It’s dreamy, no?

OK, I could go on and on excited!…

But, today I also wanted to share how you can optimize oranges in a house-made fresh orange juice.

I’ve become super sensitive to how much sugar I consume and that’s healthy motivation.

And that hopefully inspires you to think healthy food and drinks at least most of the time (as it does for me).

Vatas are attracted to oranges and sugar so this is perfect for satiating sweet cravings.

Next time you think about getting orange juice from the store, consider making your own fresh orange juice from whole oranges where there’s no added sugar.

Fresh Orange Juice

organic navel orange peel for fresh homemade orange juice. — Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment)

And oranges are one of my favorite fruits as I love the smell of oranges. Here’s why…

They are good for calming anxiety, aromatherapy, and if you’re leaning into the Vata mind-body ways or wanting to restore any Vata imbalance.

If you can’t get the work life balance or life is stressful, keeping an orange near you to sniff and that’ll help calm you.

And making fresh orange juice will also in its healthy-balancing effects.

And if you feel it in your nervous digestive tract, you can try an orange elixir like this recipe:

organic navel orange peel for ayurveda drinks

Orange Digestif Juice

Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 orange (pulp, zest, peel)
Apple cider vinegar (amount adjustable to liking)
5 Spice blend (Five spice is star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, and black pepper) - (amount adjustable to liking)
water (dilute as needed)

Instructions

Zest and peel an orange. Keep all the parts. Tip: use navel, Cara Cara, blood, or heirloom oranges. They are good for the calming (and good for parasympathetic nervous system also affecting good digestion).
Squeeze the pulp into your orange juice container (or enjoy).
Add your zest and peels to the container.
Add five-spice blend.
Add apple cider vinegar
Fill up with water. Shake and refrigerate. Enjoy when you have an upset stomach.

There are so many orange varieties to choose from. I love the Cara Cara sweetheart orange variety (common around Christmas) that can be juicier and sweeter than a California navel orange that’s in season a little earlier.

Plus fresh orange juice makes me think of my second home, staying in nice hotels! Once upon a time I worked in hotel catering management where I got my first taste.

And you may have seen out and about those gigantic commercial machines that crank out fresh orange juice from whole oranges. That would be a fun job for a day!

You may have seen one of these at selective grocery stores if you live in a larger metro area.

Fresh orange juice definitely ruined me for any added sugar orange juice that comes from a carton (like I grew up drinking).

Concentrated is high sugar and harsh on the stomach, and especially along with a morning coffee routine that Americans commonly do. That’s double acidity.

Plus ontop of that, most common foods are usually acidic.

And if that’s your typical morning routine…

👉 You can opt for making your own organic cold brew coffee and diluting orange juice with water.

So let’s begin and get your fresh orange juice-on!

For equipment, you can use a citrus squeezing tool, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools because it’s bright yellow so I have no choice but to be sunny with the brightening citrus when I use it 😉.

And a zester microplane tool that looks like a zester.

Orange zest from a fresh orange juice.

These are the parts of the orange.

Orange Zest (essence). Before I cut into the orange for orange juice, I go around the orange peel, grating, and capturing all the outside orange zest as essence for zhughing up other sweet morning smoothies, dishes, and garnishes (that’s where my former-catering mind goes and yours can go wild too!).

Orange Pith. Most people throw the spongy, slightly bitter part out, but consider keeping.

This would good in the orange digestif recipe mentioned already.

The orange pith is high in Vit C (as is the juicy pulp) and anti-inflammatory flavonoids. For those reasons alone, it’s worth considering mixing in foods and drinks/smoothies.

Plus leaving no traces of fruit is good for not attracting critters. 😉

Orange Juice and Pulp. Then cut the orange in half (perpendicular to the top or the stem or from left to right).

I know it’s tempting to cut the orange any which way since it’s perfectly round, but cutting the right way lets you cut through each orange segment to maximize juice.

Otherwise you could get stuck on a pillowy-feeling orange segment.

Now you’re ready to squeeze each orange half or use a citrus squeezer tool, and squeeze away the juice into a tall glass.

Let go of all your stress squeezing oranges. Activating calming oranges around you is a relaxing sensory exercise.

Keep repeating until you have the amount of juice you want. Add back pulp as desired if you like high pulp juice.

You can also add some water to dilute some or stretch the juice out for more.

And enjoy!

No-Waste Eco-Friendly Ideas: Save the orange pulp if you prefer high-pulp OJ and add small orange pieces to your drink.

Save the seed to grow a plant. Save the pulp and zest for cooking and baking recipes. Save the pith that has the most nutrients for digestifs and foods. Save the orange sticker as a reminder for getting the Produce LookUp (PLU) item again. 😉

If you like fresh juices, you may want to give Fresh Peach Juice and Mango Juice other sunny yellow inspiring fruity juices a GO.

Breakfast Quinoa Recipes, Homemade Granolas, and Oatmeal Ideas

Let’s see… does this describe you? You wake up and you want to eat something, but you crave something different than what you had for breakfast yesterday. (That’s a sign you could be a natural Vata). Why not try quinoa recipes for a morning cereal bowl that healthy eaters are raving about?

Btw, it’s OK to feel like you’re in a food rut, seeking food variety and abandoning old ways. That’s actually a healthy natural selection way for your body to get different nutrients and as nutrition information evolves.

Cereal used to be the most popular way to start your day, with a nutrition label full of vitamins and minerals. But then the healthy truth came out and went south when you learned that the source was fortified, (nutrients were added), or enriched (nutrients removed and added back). You see preservatives like BHT on the list of ingredients when they could (and you can) do without.

Our childhood favorites that end in “O” (maybe for “oh-no!) have been called out for having Roundup weedkiller ingredients. Even if it’s small traces, you don’t want your food near pesticides that aren’t natural foods you pick off the land, ya know what I mean? So what’s a girl to do? Like most, we grow up and tweak our diets to match a healthier lifestyle?

Other-once childhood favorites like a tart popped from the toaster are no longer appealing to a healthy adult. The nutrition label can make your eyes pop out of your head with high sugar, low fiber, etc… (you might as well go for a bakery creme-filled donut or chocolate croissant).

For our daily breakfasts, we love our fast favorite cereals and breakfast sweets, but we can love our health more.

Well… when you put it that way…

That’s not a pick-me-up way (and not my usual Enneagram 7 enthusiasm). It actually sounds a bit like wah-wah-wah, but wait… there’s a new wah in Keen-wah (quinoa)… a much better alternative to get excited about. Now, that’s what I’m talking about! And, my favorite easy, quinoa recipes are below.

Another favorite is old-fashioned or slow-cooked oatmeal (whole grain rolled oats) that’s a particularly great morning warm meal for natural Vatas who love to multitask while getting food in the morning body. It’s a good morning bowl because it doesn’t get soggy (it’s already mushy!). And it’s fast to make so it’s no bother if your brain hasn’t caught up with your stomach needs before you’ve had any caffeine. You just need a little hot water.

For slow-rising Kapha energy, warm oatmeal could also be the simple meal that works. While healthy Pittas love to eat and go! and love foods that cool their bodies down. A meal with milk or a dairy alternative is perfect like cereal or a morning healthy goodness smoothie.

Because I mentioned how finding healthy store-bought cereals that you like can be tricky, making your own homemade granola cereal (crunchy) or oatmeal (soft and warm) from whole-grained rolled oats is an easy alternative. It’s tasty and takes very little time.

And you can pre-make healthy granola cereal as an extra time-saver. The only sweet ingredient is a small amount of high quality or local honey (to act as the glue) and optionally add in your favorite dried fruit and nuts, such as almonds and raisins as the healthier choices.

If you want a crunchier granola cereal, then use less honey, and bake in higher oven temperatures for a shorter amount of time, making sure to watch your batch so they don’t burn.

Quick funny story… or at least it was entertaining to me. Long before I worked in hotel catering, I worked in the kitchen of an upscale Italian restaurant where I did food prep. One salad task I had was to prepare and bake pine nuts. I remember they were extremely temperature and time-baking-sensitive. If you didn’t stand there and watch the oven, the pine nuts would go from unbaked to burnt in the blink-of-an-eye. That happened more than once, but I got smart and learned to stay mindful on my task.

[OK…anyway, where was I? 😊]…

Granola is a little more forgiving, but every oven is a little different and depending on where in your oven you set your sheet pan. I take my Silpat off so that I can get crunchier granola (but that’s just preference). In baking, slight altitude and temperature changes outside, affect indoor baking conditions.

Another alternative and my favorite and maybe yours too (or could be yours), is the breakfast quinoa bowl. I promised some quinoa recipes (they’re further below).

When I was growing up, we didn’t know quinoa existed. Before then as far as I can remember, cous cous was the exotic and chic healthy norm alternative to pasta or rice before superfood quinoa came along.

Quinoa is actually mistaken as a grain, and even set in the grain aisle in the grocery store. It’s acually the fruit part of a dried herb (but it looks and cooks like a grain so it’s treated like one).

You know that saying, if it looks and acts like a duck, then it’s a duck.

Anyway, now we’re all fully quinoa aware.

We add healthy grains to our lunch and dinner salads like dry dressing. For breakfast ideas, have you tried or thought about adding breakfast quinoa recipes as the new cereal or oatmeal?

I did and that really spruced up my healthy morning breakfast options. You may also love (or grow to like) the quinoa-forward trend for starting your day right. ♥
Continue reading “Breakfast Quinoa Recipes, Homemade Granolas, and Oatmeal Ideas”

Shower Thoughts For Self-Care and Creative Day

Shower thoughts often give us new and creative ideas because in the shower we’re relaxed and that’s good daily self-care.

Sometimes that brings a smile and a laugh to our day.

Bring on the feel-good water sprinkle! 🚿

self-care and shower thoughts

We can wash away our anxious thoughts temporarily.

And, you can get the dual benefit of self-care and shower thoughts from your shower experiences. This article is how to embrace and bring more shower thoughts alive!

A shower can be both a sauna and steamy therapeutic experience more powerful than taking a walk outside.

You can turn showers into a productive ritual in your mindfulness where you’re focused in the moment.

Mindfulness is full of physical and mental health benefits in the mind-body connection you may not have known about.

When you feel good, that shows up as good happy feelings, but also as healthy in and on your body. In other words, your skin radiates too when you’re feeling good.

Plus, when you get shower clean, you’re washing away bacteria on your skin accumulated from sweat and dirt and maybe why you got in the shower as a daily ritual in the first place.

Another benefit to a shower is you can check in with your internal body thermostat temperature.

If your body feels warm when it’s cold outside, that could indicate an irritated Pitta emotional state for your season (or until your situation changes).

If you’re cold when it’s warm outside, then you could be feeling worried or anxious in Vata or depressed or tired in Kapha, as examples.

Your body leaves clues and you want your shower temperature to be a reminder and one solution to what you’re positively feeling and hoping to achieve this season.

With the right water temperature hitting your skin, you feel good, so that relaxes you all-around to allow good thoughts and creative ideas to come into your mind more easily.

Your brain feels safe and free from defense fight-or-flight mode. So then you can safely let your guard down in room seclusion.

Your spirit alignment can also come alive as you get deeper into your heart’s desires. These ideas also help you manifest your want to a life of purpose.

When relaxed, here are 3 things you can do productively:

1.You can get your best ideas in the shower when you least expect them. You can come up with new ideas while performing self-care practices.

When allowing in shower thoughts, you can get creative and adventuresome ideas for your projects, next trip, food and daily plans, and even solutions to problems you haven’t solved.

A-ha solutions can appear when you’ve forgotten you had a dilemma but were reminded at the moment. With time and space, your brain is seeking a different angle, perception, or perspective that allows these memories to pop up.

2.You can reset your daily intentions in the shower. You can change you style approach in a situation using self-care and shower thoughts.

If you’re trying to stop knee-jerk reactions or blurting out often, you could exert self-control by thinking the word “jerk” is not what you want to be, and maybe that helps you change your patterns for the better.

Sometimes we lean into being hard on ourselves for our good, so we can get over the hump of missing the mark.

3.You can pray in the shower and get loving thoughts in return, similar to ideas but they can be more focused on growing yourself and handling relationships in your life.

You can get mental self-care and shower thoughts.

You can exchange critical-judgmental thoughts for open suggestions from your mind and what others have given. That’s a good way to cool off the Pitta mind.

Heart and Soul Centering To Live Your Best Life Now!

Heart and soul is a part of our bodies that we can’t see, but we can feel daily. Pizza is heart and soul food (recipe below for making a heart shaped pizza 🧡).

This sky painting over the water is heart and soul spirit in one. A daily heart and soul-centering check-in can change your life! You could be an old soul or have an old soul like some of us who remember young life before the internet.

…I remember when I first started out working and ambitiously I thought I wanted to climb the corporate ladder. It didn’t take many years before I shifted my priority to wanting better work-life balance.

And with those intentions, I career pivoted that gave me that outcome. But had I not picked my head up to see what my heart and soul was telling me (and now I know my spirit was helping me), I would’ve missed the message about finding time to work on me. Personal growth was something I had to go outside of work to find in volunteering and discovering myself.

It’s never too early to start checking in. Maybe now is a good time to set this priority in your life as you had to rethink parts of your life in 2020, along with everyone else (so you’re in good company!).

There were many external changes made affecting your life, that you had no control over, and may help you later on in ways you may not see how yet at this moment.

So for now, you can just keep going, growing, and focusing on creating the best that your life offers in abundant possibilities that you put intention to until the next step. There’s always a next step when the timing is right.

It’s better to think this optimistic way and joyfully pivot into your forming newer overall life, including work, relationships, passion, and purpose, so you can enjoy the process with greater ease (and not create unnecessary dis-ease or woes-me feelings).

That doesn’t mean you don’t have varying feelings with so many gray areas and small decisions you need to make, but that you’re finding your happier way now in the process (and possibly then seeing through a different lens than the one you may have been previously looking from).

I provide a lasting impactful way to do a heart and soul check-in, further below. ⬇️

Encouragement: Our Society, You, and Your Gained Ideas

In America, convenience is at our fingertips, and many of us started last year to positively lean into our interests, curiosities, and skills development.

You may have learned how to grocery shop differently, cook meals, bake your own bread, and learn new digital skills as a way to communicate with the rest of our virtual world and the local community.

You picked up other life skills that everyone needs so you could stay relevant.

You may have even discovered or rediscovered a few passions and hobbies, and read more books than you sought out originally to do. Those were some of the common gains for many of us.

All was not lost in our home life, and more has been gained (and is being gained) in our overall lives if we choose to focus on the higher lens way of living.

It’s helpful for you to reflect and personally remind yourself of the progress over perfection you’ve made, so you can stay feeling uplifted in your spirit. It’s too easy to get sourly influenced in our culture.

You can be less on guard, open up to your authentic self and reap the benefits in a new era where we’re all finding our way in many ways.

Over the past year especially, you may have changed some lifestyle habits or behaviors that you like, that work better, and that you decide to keep forever.

And you may have gained clarity about what you want in the next chapter of your life. Even though you wouldn’t have done this if you weren’t challenged to do so. But you can use your situation to your good advantage!

You may even have found the better way, and experienced that good changes in your life can show up as a combination of thinking, doing, and feeling what is right for you. You get internal clues and they can help you find your second or next act.

If you took or take your connect-the-dot lessons one step further, you can reflect on how you felt about what you first thought about specific ideas. You can then take another brave leap of action so you can try and replicate best practices and discover even more new ways, as our world is evolving. This creates innovation and gives you a better way of doing things.

For example, you’re inspired to try a new recipe and that seemed to work out and made you happy, so the next time you tweak the recipe and create something new and different that you enjoy. This works the same with a new workout, new route, or a new passion project you’re developing. Variety and innovation keep you making progress!

And that’s how personal growth attitudes and creative progress are fed and can seep into every fiber of your life if you’re open to new ways and ideas.

New ideas can take time to form in the process and as you start dabbling with curiosity, you can become less intimidated to make mistakes. That’s how you grow and learn.

In this forming introspective way of life, you can also dig deeper into yourself to find what gives you more meaning and joy than what you previously found made you happy, as you become more of who you are and will become.

You can also reach higher levels of contentment and then feel fewer emotional ups and downs.

Many positive changes can be happening all at once in this complex life, with yourself and your life.

You may have even re-thought your life’s retirement plans and this year’s optimistic and realistic plans. And you’ve probably learned to be more grounded in reality and to get back to simple basics, focusing on what actually is happening to you and around you.

As a global society, we’re still not able to freely travel and create safe, live events. From these changes, new ways have been born and are birthing, such as the newer apps where you’re entering live global event conversations safely and without travel hassles.

You could use the saved travel time and energy to work on your life, to double down on a new purposeful trajectory, or seek a new mission in your life.

Just one idea can change your life and if you have an extra few minutes, that could be the difference-maker in your life.

So where would you spend those extra minutes? Here’s what I do and what I suggest.

Prioritize a Daily Heart and Soul Check-in

Especially as we’re all distracted, prioritizing a heart and soul check-in can be the best way to (re)focus on your life.

Below you can be reminded or learn to take a specific step for long-term impact and to find your daily heart and soul-filled joy, peace, and balance. Continue reading “Heart and Soul Centering To Live Your Best Life Now!”

Morning Routine Healthy Stretch Start

Morning routine changes can get you up when you want to hit the snooze button on the alarm . Letting the window light in can be the baby step move…

Morning routine can include letting the sunlight in. Wake up, Sunshine! In the morning when you get out of bed, you use you mind-body muscles to get up, as part of the daily, morning routine.

You know if you’re an early riser or a night owl. You’re usually wired one way or the other.

Morning people are usually proud of how much they get done early on, while night people stay up and enjoy more leisure time.

I’m not a natural morning person and I honor that, as I do appreciate sleep. Similarly, if you’re a slow riser naturally, I have some suggestions below that can help get you moving…

Women need more sleep than men and children need more sleep than adults. Waking up adult energy changes and depends on many factors.

If you normally pop up, right out of bed, but find it difficult this season in your life, then you may have a Kapha imbalance (could be mind or body).

If it’s recurring every winter, then seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can be an added layer of mood tiredness. You can change your morning routine so it’s enjoyable, and you look forward to getting up.

Embrace Your Vata-ness and Why This Matters Even If You’re Another Dominant Dosha

While usual daily variance on waking up energy is a good indication that you’re a natural Vata, you may find your partner or friends seem to get up at the same time every day. They’re likely Pitta dominant people.

In true-Vata form, if that’s your natural way, one morning you could start off feeling energized, and then the next day, tired and groggy waking up, that doesn’t always have to do with what time you went to sleep.

Your eyes can open at the same time every morning naturally, that’s part of your natural circadian rhythm and internal clock, but you want to rest and snooze for a few more minutes before you drag yourself to get up.

This is especially if you wake up to an artificial alarm clock.

Your level of mood tiredness and body functions are separate aspects and both affect the energy you have for a morning routine.

Since we all possess traces of all the dosha traits, you could be imbalanced in a dosha that you or may not be dominant in, and that’s what I want to help you with today to invigorate a healthy, wake up morning routine.

If you’re not sure which imbalances you currently have and want restoring suggestions on your specific body imbalance symptoms, then I encourage you to take the body balance quiz.

The results are revealing to what your body is trying to tell you at this moment without written or voice communication. Your non-verbal response can be simple, healthy behavior tweaks to prevent irritating symptoms from getting worse and so you can enjoy foods and activities you like.

In the same way, having an inspiring morning routine for your body is going to be better than a forced one. If you’re a learner you like to challenge yourself and that will help you to get going.

Easing Into Your Morning

So, while you’re starting your day drinking room temperature water (or a warm ginger tea is good) and visiting the bathroom, this is a good time to get mentally prepared about yoga stretching.

You may need or enjoy a cup of coffee or cappuccino to wake-up your mind, and that’s great.

As part of your morning routine, find a pause moment to be mindful, and think of something to be grateful for today, or that just happened recently.

You can find this mindful moment when you’re heating water for tea, straightening up along your path, or putting the clean dishes back in the cabinet.

In America, we don’t usually stop reflecting on our busy lives and ambition. Living overwhelmed isn’t healthy.

And if you have a Vata imbalance, you easily move on to something else without finishing your current activity. Staying focused at least at the start of your day, and having a routine to stick to is especially helpful so anxious feelings don’t sink in.

So after getting mindful, and visiting the kitchen, a natural transition is to move onto stretching parts of your body that need just a little awakening and movement, from the wear and tear of yesterday and the day before.

You can call this yoga or just stretching, it doesn’t matter.

This is a good way to ease into the morning even if you only have 10 minutes before someone or something needs you.

My stretch routine is below (and if you’re a yoga beginner or think you’re not-good at yoga because of body issues, I’ll explain how not to be intimidated).

If you did a workout the day before, even if that was carrying groceries up a flight of stairs, you can reset your body for today, the new day and the only one that exists (at least in your mindful 10 minutes or the time you have).

Here’s a daily morning practice that you can try and tweak to how you like.

If you’re a Vata you’ll naturally want to change up your morning routines.

To start off, you could get on all 4’s, and in a pose called TableTop where you put your bended knees on your floor or mat and lay your palms flat on the floor.

Your back is flat and parallel to the floor. Your body looks like a table and you could set the book on your back, and it would balance.

Table Top is a neutral pose, getting you ready, and doesn’t require much energy even if you’re not yet fully awake.

If you’re still super tired from there you could go into a resting pose like Child’s pose (or a Hare pose with a rounded back). Be careful you don’t end up napping so you keep your focus on a general, not specific mindful intention like peace or love today. Take your time and don’t be in a hurry.

But once you’re ready to get up back into Table Top pose, you can flow into Downward Dog (inverted “V”).

Then when you’re ready, you can walk your feet up to your hands on the floor or take a quick jump forward (the fun and energizing way to meet your hands).

Then you can rise up slowly and as controlled as you can like one spinal vertebra at a time, into a standing Mountain pose position.

Then, take your hands and reach in the air to the ceiling forming a “Y” with your arms. If you’re by a window or outside, you can look out and pray or take a meditation moment, or inside, you can look up at the ceiling.

Move your hands down to heart center with the specific intention of your day, or love if you don’t have one in mind.

Then, fold your body downward with hands to your thighs and shins and then shift to palms on the floor (or swan dive your hands straight down to the floor for more energy).

You can repeat these morning sun salutations. They’re good for getting your mind and body into a calm and appreciative flow.

From there I like to test where there are kinks in the body, where there’s tightness and especially cracking sounds that are common in the morning or if it’s cold outside.

You may not experience that type of sensation if your muscles are naturally more limber, as everyone has a unique body.

You may not discover these tight areas if you don’t move around. Testing slight bends and stretches allow you to appreciate your body at the moment for its abilities.

You familiarize yourself with your weaker spots and just by moving your body around, you can feel and discover where those spots are. Whatever that may be for you, you have your one and only body to fully take care of, so it helps to do these check-ins.

I like to smooth out muscles taken for granted. Where you feel tightness you can move the body part in the opposite direction to see how things feel.

I like to go from my morning Table Top waking up poses above to an inverted table (where my stomach is facing the ceiling) and move the arms behind me around, hinging back and forth. That gets tightness out of the upper arms that I wouldn’t otherwise know about.

I made that one up. In the same way, you can use yoga as a creative body expression to become aware of your body. You can make up and create your own poses and you can blend in more traditional yoga poses you like and know.

And you can do a water animal series like starting in happy Dolphin pose.

You can get in Seated Spinal Twist that has a name that sounds like a kids game you play (maybe, Twister or Sit-n-Spin?). …Anyway, it’s a pretty simple yoga pose and a great stretch for either side of your back that often gets ignored.

I was taught this pose, and have been doing these since grade school P.E. class (physical education), way before I knew any yoga poses, and before yoga was popular in the States.

And similarly, you too probably have been doing some yoga poses long before you knew their pose names.

So those are two examples of how you can get innovative and reinvent new yoga poses in your daily routine.

If you’re intimidated by the idea of yoga and doing poses wrong, don’t be.

I’ve been in yoga classes before where I would hear people say they’re “not good at yoga.”

Re-framing your thoughts help.

We all start as yoga beginners and each morning is a re-start so your body feels different than the day before. It’s a good metaphor for being a lifelong learner.

If you look at laying down flat on your back as another name for Corpse pose, you can make the connection that yoga can be a fancy name for “just being.”

Besides, the funny and interesting thing is, no one is looking at anyone else in a yoga class. Everyone is too busy concentrating and looking at their own body parts and poses.

No one talks about other people’s poses, in or after class. The point of yoga is that it’s an individual sport. You get to look inward and see yourself like when you look in a mirror.

If you’re self-conscious, then yoga can help you break away judgmental feelings about yourself.

If you’re a beginner, doing more yoga gives you self-confidence, and you feel better about your body when poses work.

When I attended my first class I didn’t like it because I didn’t know what was going on, and that’s just par for the course of learning a new skill.

And practicing yoga at home gives you more confidence. So don’t be too quick to rule out yoga as a sustainable activity for you and your morning.

If that’s you at this stage, just have fun with getting to know your body, and center your mind on parts of your body and intention for your practice. The rest will work itself out.

We all have weak spots and our vulnerabilities and bringing them to light is how to go through them. You never know, you may end up loving yoga like I did and do.

And if you’re beyond beginner yoga overthinking or any yoga insecurity, then maybe use your morning yoga practice to work on your patience and resilience.

So that’s my morning routine start (that you can use) before my coffee and catching up with my daily news.

Then I make myself a breakfast smoothie or a breakfast snack and get to productive work.

I hope you’re a bit more happily inspired to get up in the mornings! 🌅