Dancer pose is one of those poses that has everything… showing grace, balance, flexibility, and creativity. You see your limits and your possibilities.
Whether you love yoga or not, you can use Dancer pose productively for the next steps (or habit stack on top of another activity or intention).
Dancer pose is a good opportunity to feel like you’re already at that place you want to be in this season (where you can lift yourself off the floor ground).
You can believe yourself into your next destiny or destination. And you can feel fearless in the moment that can carry you in your day.
And it doesn’t require much. 😊
You can do Dance pose anywhere you can stand and spread out.
The middle of a room is a good place, but a good way to start off whether you’re new to the pose ornot quite awake in the a.m… is to do the pose when you’re in the kitchen waiting for warm water or food to heat up or drinking a glass of water.
You don’t need to be cooking or baking (but that’s an option!). And you can use your kitchen counter or a solid above waist flat ledge to help you balance.
Or you can use a chair with the back of the chair facing you to support you. It’s not just sitting chair pose. 😉
This’ll give you the edge for a better Dancer pose stretch and to give you a little foundation until you feel stable enough.
It may not be as pretty as free form, but it can give you your best form for the day. And you can stretch your flexibility further.
After you get used to how it feels, you can get free from your nearby props.
Dancer is a great balancing pose where you feel empowered to do more than you would. You can feel like you’re on top of the world.
It’s a graceful pose, and if you like Barre classes, this might be right up your alley! You feel a bit like a ballerina. 🩰
So to start, rest your palms on the counter if you’re using a support. Then take one hand and grab the same side ankle and then extend that leg behind you. And let go of the opposite hand and aim it in front of you.
You’re now in a balanced Dancer pose (without worry of falling or wobbling over).
You’ll feel a nice stretch up to your backside and mid-back. So you don’t have to be on a mat face up or down.
And when you do this standing pose for 30 seconds maybe on each side, you’ll feel tension release from your back.
You feel lightweight like you’re floating a bit. It’s as close to a bird with wings as we’ll get.
And as Dancer pose becomes (or is) second nature to you, and you can do before you’ve had your morning caffeine jolt if that’s your jam, then here’s one added useful intention:
Content creation that has grown wildly since around 2015.
I’d been regularly blogging since 2009 (yeah… I’m one of the ones that started back when Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were the big social media sites, and blogs fell in those categories).
Back when social media was the wild-wild west. 😁
And now this is how we regularly communicate with those we know, and grow ideas and do business life with.
So getting in the habit of doing Dancer first thing can be the way you habit stack to grow your ideas.
…And maybe take a pause to hold the pose a little longer than usual and come up with one creative idea as your intention.
We’ve gotten past the point of just sharing about our immediate lives. We want to share more (in what that means to each of us) and expand what we’re about.
So a hobby or interest that we’re passionate about can be conveyed in photos, videos, and words.
Little did I know that I would be posting about my healthy baked creations. But this has become my passion over the past few years, second to writing.
Dancer pose can help you find what it is that you want to communicate to the world in the first place.
Then when you content create regularly you build something special.
We all start off wondering if we’ll stick with what we’re working on, or branch into something else. It’s all good. It’s always a branching off to the next step on your journey.
And when you put a creative intention out to the world, and you want to contribute as a content creator in some way, that opens you up inside
…Doesn’t that sound appealing to have a unique purpose along with some other activities you love, such as visiting the same stores where there’s comfort and familiarity?
You can run the same track but doing something different with your tracks helps you find a new dimension in your life.
We’re all meant for so much in this life if we stay open.
Your creativity has no limits.
You’re only limited by your beliefs and limitations.
When I went from a traditional college to corporate work path, my creativity drifted and stayed hidden.
Only when I picked up writing as a regular habit and practice did my creative juices get ignited where I wasn’t needing to start and stop to let the creativity flow out of me.
And Dancer pose was one of the first yoga poses that let me feel like I was free to do something outside my structured corporate mindset I had grown.
And you have something in you that is wanting to come out, and the world would love to see… and more of! Unleashing yourself (and maybe with a Dancer pose to start) brings out your best.
For many of us, when we’re in school we’re chasing good grades. But grades never determine whether you’ll have a happy or successful life.
Those that chose an unconventional path to drop out or take a creative arts path I believe helped themselves out, so they could find their deep creative well earlier on in life before practical adult responsibilities grew.
I didn’t do that as I took the traditional path.
The good news is, the second best time to realize your dream or life’s work (especially if you didn’t like your first career or path)… is NOW.
You can restart and pivot. Dancer pose is a good metaphor for pivoting. It can help free up your mind to feel untethered and get on a leveling playing field with yourself so there are no more limitations!
You can start at any age, wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing in life. Your past doesn’t dictate your future abilities.
So use your dreams intentions to bridge your creative self (hmm,a dancer maybe?) that brings new ideas, meaning, and purpose to your life.
That’s where I’m heading now… and you can too on your path.
To finish off your Dancer pose, you can rest your right palm on your heart to get centered and reach back your left hand to meet your left ankle.
These days, we’re open to expressing our burnout feelings. And that’s a healthy restoring move. But the cure to anxious situations and moods is in your mindfulness.
We all know what mindfulness means… being present in this moment.
But do we practice often?…
Usually not, unless we’re in an engaging activity we’re all into.
Mindfulness isn’t the natural path. Our minds tend to naturally wander to dreaming about the future and drift back to worries from the past even if that was earlier the same day.
Mindfulness is an open-door opportunity in every moment. It’s less exciting and also less dramatic.
It’s where your peace is at, in any moment.
If you’re solving a problem, you’re finding a way to have peace of mind, and that’s what satisfies your mind, your loudest critic.
In mindful peaceful moments, you can be the heroine in your life, and the solution to rising above your situations…
So below, I share some tips and lessons learned on how to connect the dots to this valuable life skill of getting mind freedom.
If you already know how to stay in constant mindfulness, kudos to you because you’re far and ahead of the pack. It takes work in a noisy world, but it gets easier when you know what to do and look for…
And if you can break through the noise and find your mindfulness, that can help unleash bottled-up inside thoughts and emotions that cause unhealthy stress.
That describes me in my early 20’s when I suffered a panic attack at work.
…That was the symptom. But, the deeper message was I had a lot to learn and process with emotional trauma buildup from those earlier adult years and childhood.
All that kept me playing small, stuck in life, and stunted my growth in fulfilling my identity potential, even though everything looked fine on paper.
And that kept thoughts and feelings pushed down so they couldn’t ripen (and I couldn’t bloom) sooner. When those thought-feelings re-surfaced, they disappeared when ignored in life’s busyness.
But then would rear its ugly head again later on down the road in the unconscious mind that caused inner strife, and was the lens I looked out from to make small decisions.
The better way all along would have been to process and purge the emotional thoughts at the moment in time it happened (or asap), so that healthy information was recorded as plain as black-and-white, and not left in the dangerous gray zone.
That sounds obvious when pointed out, but we don’t usually process difficult and subtle situations right away. Delaying is a missed opportunity.
Instead, we process and make choices that are easy and light for us, like what to eat and what to do later in the day.
But in life’s design, we don’t get to choose everything, good or bad, that happens to us in our day.
We do get to choose how we react. And if we healed the damage done by some situations better and quicker, our lives would be better off and we wouldn’t carry around invisible baggage that shows up later.
…Like, if we brush off feeling anxious energy as a natural body reaction, that can interrupt the entire day. That’s a message we shouldn’t ignore.
With anxiety, the body is alerting you that the mind has detected a threat based on a harmful situation or one that is deemed as “dangerous” based on context and past experiences you’ve had.
Your mind sends panic signals to your body that are very similar whether you’re being chased by a bear or in a non-life threatening verbal attack made by a person. Attack is attack.
And another person’s attack can be even worse to a mind if it’s personal. Because then the receiver has to deal with all the emotional thought drama that the ego loves to spin. At least with a bear you know it’s innocent. 🧸
And either way, if anxiety is something you feel often, then this might help get your body calm and relaxed quicker…
When the body alarm bells have gone off, a list of restoring drills can be performed, like drinking a lot of water.
…And 4-7-8 breathing to reset a calm mind and heart. And while calming the body, changing negative and fearful thoughts (where the anxiety started) helps restore the mind-body fastest.
And this is where most people stop… once they’ve gotten out of the woods and the bear out of the picture, they forget to practice changing their thought process as part of the drills so that next time they can shorten the anxiety episodes and restore in minutes (vs. not easily recovering).
You can do yourself a favor with a reminder prompt like: “I don’t have time for that!”
And that gets you to do better the next time. Quoting the late Maya Angelou, “when you know better, you do better.” But if I take a page from my young history book, I didn’t know better…
I stayed inside my mind drama for so long, like most do until they learn a better way. Then I woke up one day from years of unaware less-than thinking that I didn’t recognize as misery being a prisoner in the mind at the time. …Not knowing there’s a much better way than misery existence! 😉
…And that’s the higher way of living and thriving. It’s not choosing fruit from fallen apples on the ground. It’s growing orchards that you and others enjoy for years to come.
Until you know and experience a higher way, you can stay in a fuzzy caterpillar existence. And then when you’re ready, you can be a uniquely patterned butterfly fluttering around in the air tasting honey… and being useful to the world by visiting all the colorful flowers.
With new higher perspectives comes a new mind-body and a new identity.
So with a new thought life, you can have a much better life.
But how you will stay that way is in maintenance, practice, and creating habits that help you to refer back to mindfulness.
Why Mindfulness Works As a Better Way:
Mindfulness bypasses fears.
Because in mindfulness, you let go of fears that are rooted in the future (aka worry), and you stop losing time thinking of sad memories from the past.
Hanging on is ego’s trick. And in design, will keep playing with you until you disengage or can snap out quicker in mindfulness.
In lessons learned, dodging daily ego-mind tricks is like passing a grade and earning a butterfly wing.
And, using daily mindfulness skills is like graduating with both wings intact because then you have the practical mindful way to dodge the ego.
I think it’s sad we learn all these useless things in our school years that 99% of our life will never use, and the daily life-giving skills we need, are never taught! …Or work we don’t enjoy and will never do again as part of our life’s process of moving us along.
Thankfully with mindfulness, you don’t have to revisit any of those places again, or even feel pain.
Because in this moment, you’re fine… you’re breathing… and well, you’re more than fine. You’re growing, and feeling neutral at worst and joyful at best.
That’s something to be happy and satisfied about.
And when you focus on what this moment has to offer, and not the future that hasn’t happened or the past where ego lives, life is pretty darn good.
Numbing pain is the opposite and only delays pain. Time doesn’t heal, but changes can heal over time.
In delaying hurts, the thoughts resurface like described in my example above. And you want them to, so you can change and re-write them, and practice the new script that helps you evolve.
…And maybe can even laugh now at how far you’ve come. That’s a joy worth recording.
…Or maybe you help others who have the same struggles you once did. In mindfulness, your attention changes as you can be present and focused on what others are going through and what they’re saying to you.
That’s what getting on the other side can do.
And finally, your mindfulness breeds productivity since you have freed up headspace from noisy thoughts.
So if that’s something of interest, here’s how to build up your mindfulness skills…
Building Up Your Mindfulness Skill
Imagine stepping out of your body and observing the entering thoughts from an outsider’s perspective. The person you see in the mirror is someone different than what’s coming out of the mind.
And while that can sound complicated (an outer body experience?), awareness produces great results… and dare I add role models too!
Mindfulness is hyper-focus and can be the cure to any A.D.D. labels.
Like most skills, it can be learned with regular practice and habit.
If it’s one you want to build, you can proactively think of a weaker area you want to improve today that you can apply mindfulness to.
By choosing a weaker area, you’ll see a larger difference in your progress vs. marginally improving a skill you already know.
This can be for work or personal areas where unpredictable situations arise weekly. You could write down right now a few practical areas where you can apply this so you don’t forget. Then start practicing mindfulness in that area.
And in making progress, you get to pat yourself on the back and you never know, you could turn your weakness into a new interest.
…and that could be a byproduct game-changer for you this season (in addition to mindfulness mind freedom)!
That’s the high note I wanted to leave you at… and hopefully, this helps you or someone you know (and wasn’t too much like heavy pillow talk 😊). Brain health talk gets my wheels turning.
Next time I’ll bring my energy to a lighter body health diet topic, as it’s hot on many minds.
Work-life balance idea is a good one! Let me explain…
Being a living balanced advocate and practicing balance as a way of life, I often hear others who believe that the work-life balance idea is unrealistic for dream life goals to pan out.
Work-life balance doesn’t have to be like a non-working time warp clock (in photo). It can be a priority for your best life yet 🧩
…That is, if we want the life we want, we have to go all in. And giving up on work-life balance is one way to better achieve this.
But, I don’t think “either/or” is the best option.
And from my perspective, the more you lean into deeper desires from your intuition source, the work-life balance idea becomes more important (not less)… and then you don’t want to live without it so you can explore and discover more about yourself and manifest more in your life.
It can become a spiritual pursuit, and not necessarily the desire you start with.
You can aim for self-discovery, balance, and success goals, and be healthier and happier.
If we delay gratification in those two places (healthy and happy), then we’re most likely seeking instant gratification in other ways like outward material things and experiences that have a short-lived impact.
So I break down below how balance can be part of the life you want if that’s what you choose, to not miss out unintentionally…
Balancing Life Priorities
As an adult and individual, you’re busy and usually juggling your time working, managing your relationships, and putting yourself out there. Plus, spending time and prioritizing what you value most today.
Balancing time can be a challenge as we all only have 24 hours in a day.
But prioritizing living out balanced healthy intentions today (and not some future someday) is still a good goal even though it’s not measurable… and I wholeheartedly believe leads you to the best life.
In the process, you dig deeper into your heart’s desires and purposes in this life.
You get further investing in yourself more than in the things of this ever-changing world.
And by prioritizing and investing in yourself, you have more to give to the people around you… and get more out of this life.
It’s where “it’s better to give than to receive” has a deeper meaning.
On the other side…
Without work-life balance, the regular daily grind of draining tasks, stress, and overwhelm is taxing and a burden on health.
Our bodies keep score and one day can snap. And just like that, the juggling balls can all drop.
So then it’s best to prevent an ongoing or recurring stressful life situation that an unbalanced life can bring.
By replacing a giving-up-to-get perspective with mindfully focusing on today’s priorities that build your tomorrow, you can let go of control over things that aren’t the best for you.
Gradually I made this mental shift away from the first perspective that I now think hinders abundance.
…But in my earlier bright-eyed-bushy-tailed days, I had no work-life balance. I worked in hotel catering sales where events I planned happened every day, including weekends.
Hotels are a 24-7 operation like hospitals, but without the saving life aspects.
In my high-energy 20’s, I was drained by the end of the 60-plus hours including commute time.
Plus, my role included sales weekend hours and rotating hotel manager-on-duty responsibilities (to relieve the general manager) where I would stay in the hotel over a weekend.
Dine for free in the restaurant and stay in a luxury hotel. …sounds fun, huh?
…But it’s not when you’re stuck under one roof with 400 occupied rooms in a full-house hotel where anything can go wrong.
And then exhausted, I would go home for a few hours and put on a new customer service smile and clothes for work Monday.
My manager co-workers were the only others that fully understood this life, as it’s not usually uncovered in the news.
And as an insider… the first hotel I worked at was an airport property and many hotel guests were unhappy because they were distressed passengers that couldn’t get on their flights.
You can imagine how a whole new level of customer service has to show up engaging with a bunch of grumpy guests whose flights were canceled.
I’m happy I never had a guest throw a drink in my face or anywhere on me. I think my naturally friendly and happy aura rubbed off on them. 😊
…And then I moved out of that hotel life for a more balanced corporate 9-5 gig where I could actually get vacation time off… and enjoy a hotel room without any responsibilities.
Ah, but stability in any corporate job is dependent on the world and the economy. Through recessions, I moved on sometimes landing back at rung zero with more experience… but no lasting balance learning the ropes in new and different organizations.
Starting over seemed to be a theme for a while. But striving for work-life balance was not something I EVER gave up on after my first taste. And I learned to value work-life balance even more having seen both sides.
My lesson takeaway over the years, is that balance is not always consistent but you can high-value prioritize it if that’s a desire you choose. And it’s a healthy sustainable design in this changing, sometimes chaotic life for us breathing humans.
Experiencing constant change amplified to me that nothing here lasts.
The systems and routines that I desperately wanted to stick, didn’t… like when I left a job or moved.
All those accumulating pivots (…would be great if they were like travel reward points 😊) had left the impression on me that only this moment matters most.
“Today is all we have.”
The timeless cliche is wisdom when you’re navigating uncertain waters that most of life is in some way, shape, or form.
You get to keep going and growing and let go for a better outcome.
Staying open to possibilities is more achievable with a healthy work-life balance lens. It can help to steer you in times of setbacks or disappointments when you start over and aren’t sure of the next steps.
And balance keeps you from holding onto a part of life or a desire that was never meant to last.
You can decide it all ends up working out and those beliefs work out as reality.
With work-life balance, you can spend more (or as much) of your free time being reflective instead of busy. Reflection time is more strategic.
…I’m sure this has happened to you as it does for me often… where I reached out to someone I know and they say, “funny, I was just thinking about you this morning.”
That ain’t no coincidence.
In texting, I usually would smiley face back with my words, BUT through mindful reflection I know that was the Universe orchestrating connection. I could’ve just as easily dismissed the moment.
With every little situation, we get to decide what we see and act on (free will). And in the balanced order that this planet we live on is, the steps we take are the ones that were specifically meant for us. Like a mysterious puzzle piece that just fits. 🧩
We can grow and become aware of our greater and empowered existence which makes us want and strive for more out of this life.
Especially, when we choose to see the amazement of our world in the small and joyful moments. Without work-life balance, we can miss it like a vanishing rainbow. 🌈
And without balance, I know I would have taken longer routes. And worse, I could’ve stayed in the Murphy’s Law realistic or pessimistic way of thinking that used to be popular in my adult formative years… when I was meant to be (and better off) optimistic and hopeful as I am today.
With a work-life balance, I was more proactive in my life and am able to see out from two helpful lenses instead of just one. These two are:
The achievement lensthat’s on the level of our choices and decisions we make, our rational brain, and what we want. Most of us look out from this healthy lens.
Aiming and working at high standards makes for better personal progress and innovation than just waiting to see what happens.
And then there’s the spiritual lens. The one that’s trusting the Universe when we let go, that our mind-body can help us better see when we’re calm, and not stressed or busy.
There can be an internal tug-o-war between the spiritual lens when at odds with the achievement lens.
Because the achieving mind can become unhealthy with our born ego in us, where we can lose sight of what’s good, and then reject mind-body health and happiness.
Keeping the mind-body-spirit alignment is part of the smart checks and balances. And being attuned to your intuitive and balanced mind-body can lead you to your best life… and not just listening to and relying on the mind for answers.
These are just some good things I encourage you to think about this week. 💭
Instincts help you out. You’ve probably heard of the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO).
During the global lockdown, we went with our better instincts to make decisions, as no one knew for sure immediately what next steps to take.
Deeper joy is unleashed here in my Sunday brunch experience. Onion pizza recipe below 👇
Some healthy outcomes during that time were that a lot of people grew, became more resilient, and today are still reaping the benefit of becoming better versions of themselves. That’s something to celebrate! 🎂
Even though “missing out” wasn’t something we chose, that’s what most of us did to stay safe and healthy in the world.
But tell that same story logic to a child or a teenager (…or the child still in us 🧸), and missing out on events can be devastating. But it doesn’t have to be!… and below I share two ways that “missing out” can be the biggest blessing for you and us all.
If our happiness is based on external situations, and not on ourselves, we can suffer sadness and disappointment.
Instead, inside us, we have the peaceful joy instincts built-in that today we may or may not have developed fully yet like we would in learning a skill.
…Wherever you are on your journey now is great. You are exactly where you’re meant to be, and you have a choice to replace what doesn’t work best.
And from what I’ve experienced, I know those deeper instincts are there to help us if we’re ready. They give us more peace and steer us to our best life. And I wish I tapped into my inner joy instincts sooner in life.
Feeling inner joy gives us better control over our lives and our feelings in situations we can’t always control dealing with specific people, places, and things we encounter.
And with practice, we can bring out our inner joy and turn it into a daily healthy habit we apply (replacing our original “happy” lens that doesn’t always help us).
I know this all too well from my younger days when I got excited about going to parties that sometimes got out-of-hand… a little too many Animal House-type parties that I wish I could take back now (…and go figure I became a professional party food event planner as my first career to round it all out).
During those immature pre-school graduation days, I wasn’t in control of my life on the inside. I lived for the outward happiness feelings that put me on an emotional roller coaster when situations didn’t go as planned.
And as I grew up… and as you and I are growing now, we naturally grow out of what we already experienced that wasn’t good for us whatever that looked like… and maybe even a bit relieved that we’re past those years and times… grateful we’ve “been there, done that” and not going backward.
For me today and maybe you too… happy fun is re-defined from a new lens of daily joy.
Inner joy is more freeing than external happiness that’s fleeting.
It doesn’t mean giving up on fun because that would be no fun! But coming up with new ways… that’s what I do anyway to please my Enneagram 7. We tend to get our enthusiasm from fun. That’s one thing I hope to never change.
…And that motivated me to set out a fun day (Sunday) anti-inflammatory donut table while Nadal showed his sustainable match win, and the Queen her Jubilee and longevity.
You don’t usually see donuts on an anti-inflammatory menu, but these ACV cinnamon honey ones are without added sugars.
…While creating a menu and daily food joy like this is nice, it doesn’t make or break the day. That’s an example of finding joy in the moment and then movin’ on.
And that keeps the inner peace, and naturally feeling good in daily calm living. Good grows. And I don’t mess with good growth! 🌱
And if you’re into growing, want new experiences, and are ready to tap more into your deeper sides and joy instincts if you’re not already… or still wondering why that matters or how it’s different than what you could be doing…
Here are a few more differences…
By developing your joy instinct by filling up your moments with your peaceful and calmer desires, you feel less disappointed moment-to-moment (or not disappointed at all) when events don’t happen and situations don’t pan out.
And ultimately, you’re in deeper control of yourself, thoughts, and feelings… and that’s super powerful to your life. Finding deeper instincts feels like a superpower when you discover it later in life.
Finding that life-giving abundant space inside is a gift. I think so, anyway.
And experiencing that chosen path opens you to a whole bunch of other great things you pick up along the way.
…Like, I rid of the worry habit. Worry is helpful until it isn’t. It helps when it gets you to think, and those thoughts help you to initiate solutions or a new way to look at a solution.
But staying in the habit of worry is not helpful or healthy. So one day in the bookstore (…remember those?), I picked up The Power of Positive Thinking written by the late-Norman Vincent Peale, and read the “Worry” chapter in the self-help book.
It starts like this… “Worry is just a very bad mental habit. And I can change any habit with God’s help.”
I read that chapter over and over again and practiced the 10-point steps that literally transformed my life of worry in less than a decade. That sounds like a long time, but most great things take time.
And at the time, I loved it so much that I went out and bought a few additional book copies and gave them to my co-workers around me. And I’m passing it on to you here. Hopefully, you can read it…
How to Stop Worrying Chapter (Steps 1-6)How to Stop Worrying Chapter Continued (Steps 7-10)
So then I carried less unhealthy worry turmoil, and I worried less about my workers as they knew what to do. 😉
So leaning into joy has perks and side benefits.
…I hear myself talking about joy like it needs to be sold as a natural drug, haha. And sometimes it does feel that way in a good way!
Two cool perks about stepping into your inner joy are:
Feeling contentment – and not getting emotional when things pan out or don’t. Being free of this feels relaxing, stress-free, and breathes in more joy. Back in the day, when we didn’t know any better, we would describe this as, “you’re so mellow.”
With contentment, you feel more peace and get more done without the thought-feeling drama.
Your creativity – is the gateway to your highest purpose, second or next act, and clarity with what you want to do with your life if you’re not feeling fulfilled with the one you’re in. You can unleash greater imagination, gifts, and buried talents. There’s a treasure trove in you. And it costs nothing to discover what’s inside. Not only can it bring new ideas and save you from spending money, but also save you from losing time and unnecessary headaches.
The two C’s can be a ticket to your best life today. They can make the difference or be your launching pads to a “new life” in a world of uncertainty and give you a peaceful escape from your job, especially if you’re not happy there.
If you’re looking for more joy in your life, be encouraged that the way you started out and the path you’re on doesn’t have to be the one you stay on.
And choosing to trust and lean into your healthy natural instincts is easy, light, and aligned when you pick the channels meant for you.
This week, I’m breaking down the secrets of Ayurveda and how it can free you from feeling stuck. And how it restores calm, improves mind-body health, and allows for daily creativity which leads to your best life new opportunities, and passions.
…Plus, I’ll clear up the common confusion about Ayurveda if you’re wanting to learn more… and how you can apply simple, but completely effective Ayurveda ways to your lifestyle where you’re at… and with a special invitation offer below.
Today is a good to celebrate with joyful cherry Sherbet. Recipe below. 🍒
Last time, in Part 1 of Ayurveda, I talked about why you want to care about the mind-body connection. If you missed that blog post or aren’t sure, you can go back and read that one too as it could make a game-changing difference in getting your best life today…
I also shared how change and permanence are part of the natural order in this life. They keep us going and growing.
You get to choose whether you want to do this life holding onto anxiety, fears, or worry, or letting them go daily for your emotional freedom and better moods.
…You can restore daily calm even with life chaos happening around you. That’s a healthy choice.
You can change how anxiety, overwhelm, irritations, and triggered situations stick to you when they don’t have to …but, interruptedly rear their ugly head into your system and you just want them to go away!
As humans, we experience these negative emotions to varying degrees. And everyone grows weary and tired at some point.
And, that’s when we want to be vigilant to snap out of those emotions after we purge, process, and know what’s behind them so we can take necessary action, and so that we don’t stay stuck in those places any longer than necessary.
…How?
You step out and sidestep into your daily calm and productivity with the strategy of partnering with your mind-body to soothe and get the most out of the situation and your life… with small effort and adding healthy enhancements.
At some point, you probably figure(d) out that Life is about being in the process. And filled with trying lessons.
Sometimes it can take several similar, but different scenarios to play out to catch onto the lesson and make changes for a better today, tomorrow, and life.
But, when you see your part and role in what happens next, your eyes are open and you can apply wisdom. That takes awareness in the moment or in reflection.
And if you have knowledge or know what to do, you can save yourself from unnecessary pain… and sometimes your life. Like if caught in a rip current wave, you survive by not panicking, calling for help that’s nearby, and swimming parallel to the shore if you can.
You also can survive your daily life situations and undesired moods weighing you down if you know what to do.
Getting through your non-life threatening situations can be challenging for a day or two, as moods can stick like mud, but don’t have to play out and grow into a season!…
And you don’t want them to, because health and stress are on the line, and your moods can worsen and influence you to make poor decisions and miss out on great opportunities.
[In physical health terms, moods are like inflammations… you want them out or on the way out within a few days, or else it could spread like poison ivy inside and become a bigger problem.]
But the really good news here is… you can nip-in-the-bud those less-than moods weighing you down as easily as they entered.
How?…
Co-create the right and comfortable environment that your mind-body wants, and therefore is what you also want!
Remember, you are not your mind-body. Your mind-body runs 24×7 and never shuts off when you’re asleep. Keeping your mind-body in mind (no pun intended), for your optimal life you want to do what will turn things around fastest for you.
That doesn’t mean you need to move or uproot your lifestyle, that just means a few healthy tweaks that your daily mind-body wants.
Ayurveda (the science of life) helps to restore and bring natural balance and order back into our lives despite constantly changing situations… and naturally, the way it’s intended.
In our work-life balance modern world there seems to be a gadget for everything to solve our daily problems and make life easier and help us live longer. But we don’t always use (and sometimes ignore) the most effective tool that’s already built inside us!
In Western world, our health is often seen through the lens of food, fitness, wellness, and self-care. In our healthy efforts, we don’t always get to the root cause and directly restore or heal what our mind-body needs. And that can lead to a long (sometimes painful) season.
…BUT be encouraged, it’s restorable and not your fault!
As you have free will to choose. You do what you feel like doing or think will help based on the (limited) knowledge you have at the time.
And also because…
Our Western Society… The Good and Bad
Conditioning that you and I have received since we were children, that goes like this… Oh, the doctor will fix that…
And as an adult, if you were sent home with a prescription for resting or exercising more, you’d be dissatisfied as most of us know that’s helpful but not what we want from our doctor. We expect a procedure, prescription, or two.
The problem is your body doesn’t want medicines if it can handle the foreign body disruptor on its own. But we don’t know what exactly our body needs because we can’t talk to our body or get inside for those knowing answers.
So, our common Western way is curing with medicines, “just in case,” and because we’re conditioned to expect those protocols.
But, too many antibiotics in the system damage gut health, and surrounding systems that alter your body. Good probiotics can only help so much to reverse effects.
So that’s the bad, but there’s a lot of good in medicine…
Like when used for a disease outbreak where massive chaos in the body has already erupted and medical intervention is needed. Your body needs help.
We can learn from Steve Jobs’ story in more than his genius Apple tech abilities. He passed away too young from cancer. Wisdom leaves clues.
Western medicine doesn’t usually prescribe natural herbs to cure cancer or other diseases.
Anything supernatural can happen in our favor at any time, but that’s not the common or wise protocol. God created doctors and gave us our brains to make good decisions to see doctors when needed.
…So then where does Ayurveda (science of life) fit in?
Ayurveda’s sweet spot is in health prevention, and helping change unwanted common everyday moods and annoying flare-ups.
It’s risky for most conditions that require medical attention. …and I wanted to clear up in case that wasn’t clear and obvious. So good, now you know what Ayurveda is good for…
Ayurveda works for what it’s meant for. But as a practice, not mentioned much in our society partly because prevention can’t be measured. And that’s not where medicine focuses attention.
So, it can get brushed aside or seen as a health fad.
…Even though Ayurveda has been around working as an Ancient healing system for thousands of years.
People smartly use it as part of their daily healthy lifestyle.
They can be part of the routines and habits we stack and track in our day.
When you have a healthy lifestyle and know how to use Ayurveda in your daily life, then you’re better off leaning into your balanced natural essence. There are no downsides to report.
And a decade later… in my opinion, it’s still the “best-kept secret.” And why I’m unpacking it here.
Your mind-body is a direct source that knows what it needs… and Ayurveda cracks that code.
Enter Eastern-Western Ayurveda Awareness
American society tends to lump natural, holistic, alternative medicines, and Ayurveda as mystical and woo-woo, when really what Ayurveda needs is rebranding.
Ayurveda is not just what you see as available products on the market.
Two things that could make people iffy in the beginning about Ayurveda (I know I was!) are:
1.. Messy oils, strange elixirs, and take-time-out routines. They don’t always mesh well in a Western modern society that’s go-go-go where schedules are filled to the brim and even fitting in eating can be trying.
2. Silent practices when you don’t have a door that stays closed or that can shut out the world around you. And without a list of to-do’s or worries for the day running in your head.
Those daily practices are more Eastern (slower-pace life) than Western techniques.
And what works in Ayurveda for Western-style living and restoring mind-body techniques, can be woven into your busy day with very little effort or inconvenience.
You can skip the Eastern-style practices and you won’t be missing a mood-improvement beat… I promise!
And some universal practices you may already be doing sometimes or regularly… like, yoga is a today-popular Western Ayurvedic general practice. Sometimes you have time to fit in, and sometimes you don’t, but it’s not the end-all-be-all to making moment-to-moment restoring changes because yoga reset to feel-good feelings lasts for a 90-minute class, a cup of tea, and maybe a relaxing spa visit, but then you’re back to your life, triggers and interruptions in your mind, and your work.
Even though I love yoga!… maybe you too?
In 2008, there were few studios when I had to search around so I’m glad it has taken root.
Another popular example is eating plant-based anti-inflammatory foods. Yup, that’s part of a healthy Ayurvedic lifestyle. Wherever you are, you have access to markets, online stores, farms, and gardens (…or you can start your own).
…So you may already have a ‘lil Ayurveda in you! 😉
…So, is an Ayurveda lifestyle right for you?
These are questions you can ask yourself and things to think about:
Are you interested in preventative health?
Are you interested in unleashing more daily creativity?
Are you a lifelong learner who is open to the deeper self?
And do you want to live sustainably healthier and longer?
…Like Blue Zone Centenarians who live healthy lifestyles that are part of their culture. They don’t live like most Americans (and not even the Adventist Health Blue Zone community in California).
Some live more simply, slower lives, eating from the land, and need less mood restoring without all the complicated high tech. 😉
And so many countries rank higher in longevity than the States, that’s ranked closer to the bottom. That’s a hard pill to swallow considering all the conveniences we have.
…Even though I can’t imagine my identity with any other culture.
So I added Ayurveda into my lifestyle to make up for the deficit.
And you can too. The thing is… you’re probably already habitually doing Ayurveda to some degree in your healthy every day routine. You’ve been using all your senses since you were born.
…But probably not for balancing moods consistently as you didn’t know what really works with your specific mind-body, type, and imbalance combinations you’re experiencing. That’s really what it boils down to.
And when you do change your moods and imbalances, then you can get to your inner creative self more easily and consistently.
Creativity Inside Us
Sometimes there’s a creative block. And we don’t know what we don’t know could be, or are missing out on our greatest passions that give us joy.
I was creatively mind-blocked in my corporate management work life.
I couldn’t be fully creative beyond short spurts of free time where I delved into hobbies for creative outlets.
In those few moments, I experienced calm, joy, and felt weight off my shoulders. I could get into a creative flow where I lost track of time and those were usually well into the weekend or on a Sunday.
…Have you been there or can relate?
Unleashing the creativity inside feels free-ing. And when I got longer stretches of time away from work, I realized I had creative hidden talents I didn’t even know I had, that were waiting inside me for the right-ready time.
…And you do too. Plus, ones that you haven’t uncovered because you have gotten there yet to take action.
After you remove the anxious, stressful, and overwhelming layers and feelings, you can get a direct path to your creative juices and energy.
That’s your ticket to your happiest and best life. When you feel lighter and good, you feel on top of the world.
You feel empowered at the very least, and maybe even superpowers to take on activities you didn’t know you could perform (like sing or dance… you get the point).
And that’s a time when you get the most out of your life and push the pedal forward and make breakthroughs.
It’s the opposite of these types of common feelings (that keep you uninspired and stagnant):
–Tired: where you don’t want to do much let alone work on a creative pursuit. You lack energy but with a good night’s rest you can be renewed and passion-filled again if you’re re-energized, aren’t triggered, feeling burnout, or are depressed.
–Anxious: where you’re trying to manage your anxiety symptoms to stay afloat… trying to stay relaxed while your body-mind takes over. That’s a bad time to make good decisions, let alone try and be creative.
–Irritated: where you’re trying to get over negative feelings and a critical-judgmental mind that permeate your system when energizing the wrong thoughts. Good creativity doesn’t emerge in non-loving attitudes.
But, you can change the channel or get your relaxed self back as quickly as you got in your tense state. Like in the shower, the ideas can come. Or in a joyful activity where you lose track of time.
And, if you’re feeling balanced and calm throughout the day as the normal way, that changes everything. You can switch to your creative self when you want without losing valuable time.
And those steps take you to your next move in life, passions, and pursuits.
And if that’s where you are ready to go and be your very best today, but maybe feeling off or not quite there yet, start with the body balance quiz that shows symptoms on the body as part of the mind-body connection.
And in creativity, I made this swirly dessert (nostalgic of Cherry Garcia and the tie die T-shirt era…). 🍥
