New Routines

Blahh....I've been feeling stuck, uninspired and generally bored with writing lately. Not so much bored with my blog - I love my blog. But sitting here drinking my first coffee, checking my emails, tapping the keyboard, and feeling like I have to force the words out to make a sentence.

I had a birthday on the weekend. (40-something is all I'm gonna say). Perhaps this is why I feel a change is in order. Perhaps this is why I feel a need to "shake up my life". Instead of looking for a new apartment and moving again (my M.O. for change), I've decided to implement a little different, but very structured morning routine to my day.

As it is now I wake up, get my hatchling up, start the coffee machine, take the dog outside (& have a smoke), feed the dog & cat, make my hatchling's breakfast, pack her lunch, kiss her good-bye and park my butt with my coffee at the computer.

There was a time when I'd wake up earlier than my hatchling to do some gentle yoga stretches and poses, light some incense and meditate, or at least sit and stare at my Buddha for 5 minutes. This practice went a long way in centering me for the day, starting me off with a calm focus and a positive frame of mind.

Where I live, it's cold, dark, & snowy in the winter, and mornings are mostly gray and dull, and full of yawning as I've been on this kick of staying up way too late watching T.V. This is not me.

And so I have been making charts and lists and re-reading my Ayurvedic books, and incorporating a more healthy & structured morning routine. I'm trying to "re-set" my internal clock to rise at 6:00 a.m. (even though it's still dark outside and SO much easier to do this in the summer). This ancient Indian practice says that the hours before midnight are most beneficial for sleep, so I am trying to get to sleep by 10:00 at night....hahaha - trying....so far, I haven't fallen asleep before midnight.

Thus I'm dragging my T.V. watching body out of my futon/bed in the mornings to drink a cup of warm water with lemon juice (a great cleanse for your lymphatic system), BEFORE coffee. Then I gong my Tibetan gong, light a stick of real incense (a friend brought back from an ashram on the other side of the world), and "sit" and chant "Om Mani Padme Hum", while staring at my Buddha. My goal is to get to the point where I say enough "Om Mani Padme Hum's" to count them on my mala beads.

This is where my list takes off into the direction of diet. I've decided to go off meat & most dairy products again. I felt better, lighter, and at my ideal weight when I followed a vegetarian diet. So I went grocery shopping the other day and into the cart went the rice milk, tofu, TVP, brown rice, rice pasta, flaxseeds, a ton of leafy greens, and almonds,(I'll soon be sharing my super-easy recipe for making your own almond milk).

And so, this is where I am, this early February, following my 40-something birthday. So far, so good. I have set my intention to follow this routine and gradually add things like sesame oil massage, and using a neti pot.

Oh, and I'm trying to keep my apartment clean too. But that's another post ...feng-shui and all that.

peace