Get up and MOVE your Beautiful Body.
Why we want to wake up and move our body?
Part of my morning routine (regardless of any other “exercise” I have planned for the day) is a 5- 30-minute breath/ body practice. What is this, you ask? Well, I’m happy to answer.
This means waking up and moving my (physical)body enough to engage my pranic (breath) body. This might look like 5 minutes of jumping jacks or 20 minutes of yoga. It may include weights or using rubber bands. I may slip into my sneakers and out the door for a brisk morning walk, head over to my outside staircase, and run up and down for 15 minutes. Whatever it might be, the whole point is to get out of my sleepy head, invigorate my body and infuse my cells with oxygen.
Why would I choose to do that over pouring a nice hot cup of joe, cuddling up in my robe, and catching up with the New York Times?
Here’s why. After sleeping all night, your body is stiff, blood oxygen levels are low, blood flow is stagnant, and every cell needs a significant shakedown. When cells are happy, they have dynamic and integrated pulsation. When you first wake up, your vibration is dull and stagnant. We want to build a strong vibrational field for the day ahead, so we must give ourselves a wake-up call. When we air out the breath channels and ignite the physical body through coordinating breath and movement, you’ll feel light, energized, grounded, open, and IN your body, not your head. Another benefit is that we want to build the skills and habits that strengthen and nurture your muscular-skeletal structure as you age.
How to Start:
Before breakfast, get your body and breath moving for at LEAST 5 minutes. Start with any movement you enjoy and want to incorporate into your other activities. For instance, if you usually go to a yoga or pilates class during the daytime, you’ll want to add more hardening exercises using weights or kettle balls. On the other hand, if you hit the gym during the day, you’ll want to bring in more softening exercises like yoga, stretching, and mat exercises. If you do a ton of cardio, you want to balance it with hardening and softening routines.
If this is all new to you, start with anything you enjoy that you can actually see yourself doing- walk, dance, stretch, stair-step, jumping jacks, burpees, sun salutations. Mix it up. Move from your breath, breathing deeply and fully through your nose. If you already have morning breath/ body practice, crank it up. Expand your skills to enhance how you age.
As a culture, we are becoming more stagnant as we sit in front of computers and spend hours in our cars. Stagnation in your breath and blood vessels breeds stagnation. Any substance in your body that is in excess or not moving becomes a breeding ground for toxicity. Doing this sucks energy instead of generating energy. Stagnation causes chronic and degenerative diseases, from diabetes to cancer and obesity. Waking up to coffee and the computer is a recipe for stagnation and inflammation.
We want to wake up early and remove the trash (scrape your tongue of toxins, hydrate, and poop). When we do this, we up-level our own vibration and blow out any stagnation in the blood, the joints, and even in the emotional body.
Ayurveda says that when we wake up, we are tamasic or stagnant. We need to use rajas, heat-generating action, and prana (life-giving breath)to break up this dull vibration and infuse the blood with sattva or a higher vibratory field. We want to align our body and mind to meet the day feeling vibrant, excited, and on the edge of our potential. We do not want to be lugging around an oxygen-deprived body and mind.
Establishing this habit insists that you move EVERY morning- before you eat, check your email, or get on with your day in any way. Once you start to feel the effects of doing a movement practice daily, you will WANT to do it regardless of trips, holidays, later-in-the-day activities, and any other disruptive chaos joining your life. Of course, some days, you’ll want to move for more extended periods, and some mornings your body or your schedule will only allow for a short burst of movement.
Gorging on oxygen enables your brain to make better decisions, such as what to feed yourself, who to spend time with, and how you spend your time. If you think of the long-term effects of this practice- it has HUGE compounding positive consequences on your health, relationships, and life in general.
Infusing our blood with prana (energy, consciousness, and cosmic intelligence) moves into the organ body and our deepest cells. Moving the limbs around is one thing (and good), but when we move our limbs from the breath body in a deeply coordinated way, our blood, internal organs, and limbs become integrated. When we do this, we enter a state of “flow” that shallow unconscious breathing cannot access. Our cells literally yearn for breath-centered movement because it partners with our mind and body and clears stagnation, inflammation, and potential disease.
As you can see, that morning routine that has you rolling out of bed and plugging into technology first thing is not conducive to setting you up for a vibrant, energized, and optimal day. If all of this sounds hard and unattractive – I challenge you to try it. Kaizen is the method we use around here- 1% incremental steps toward a goal. First, decide how you REALLY want to feel daily rather than back it up to how you start your day.
Here’s what I’m doing SOME mornings if I don’t have a chance to get on my mat or out the door later in the day for a walk or run. Doing a High-Intensity workout is AWESOME. I can get my heart rate up, get my breath moving and engage almost every part of my body, all before the kids are up and my day starts.
Pick one or two activities that you actually enjoy. Look at what you have going on “workout-wise” during the day and balance it with something different. For example: if you hit the gym at 5 pm after work, then make your morning practice softer (yoga, stretching, or even going for a walk). If you’re a yogi and have a regular practice you’ll want to balance it by adding more hardening and cardio practices.
Below is a list of suggested practices that you can incorporate into a 5-30 minute morning breath/ body routine.
Hardening Workouts:
• Weightlifting, kettle balls, weight training
• Crossfit
• Plyometrics or tactical bodyweight training ie: Tabata
• Push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, and other repetitive exercises
• Running and repetitive- movement sports
Softening Workouts:
• Breathwork, including pranayama
• Mobility exercises
• Yoga (my personal favorite)
• Pilates, Barre
• Dance
• Martial arts, Tai chi or Qigong
• Stretching
Cardio Workouts:
• Running
• Dance
• Crossfit
• Boxing
• Plyometrics
• Basketball, Soccer, Tennis, Frisee
• Metabolic Training
• Surfing, paddle boarding, biking
• Jumping rope, jumping jacks, push-ups, burpees, sit-ups, and other dynamic exercises
• Running Stairs
• Peloton
• An intense movement that gets your heart rate up and blood pumping.
Eventually, we want to cross-train in all three categories. Especially as we age, having a combination of hardening, softening and cardio workouts is critical to healthy aging.
Again, if this is new to you...START with ONE activity at a time.
Decide what is DOABLE to implement a movement practice into your daily routine.
Does it mean setting the alarm 15 minutes earlier, going to bed 1`/2 hour earlier, or telling your family this is what you’re doing and you need their support? Ask your partner NOT to ask you to watch another episode of “Ted Lasso” so that you can go to bed earlier.
Perhaps you set up your space where you can work out so it’s ready to go in the am. Put out your workout clothes so they’re easy to access in the morning, and commit to doing 10 minutes. If that’s too long, try 5 minutes. The point is to start to lay the groundwork for making this an automated habit (JUST DO IT, not think about it)
This is one of the best INVESTMENTS you can make in your health and overall wellness.
GOOD LUCK!
XO
Paula
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