3-Tips to Help You Prioritize Self-Care

As we enter the holiday season, it's easy to let our self-care slip and fall back into our old patterns. One day off turns into two, then a whole month, and suddenly it takes triple the effort to get back to square one. 


Daily self-care practices help you maintain physical and mental fitness no matter the circumstances. 


Self-care constitutes any action that supports your physical, mental and/or spiritual wellbeing. It is something you do for yourself, because it makes you feel more like yourself. 


I want to help you support your wellbeing during this celebratory time, with simple, effective strategies to implement throughout your day. I've created four helpful strategies to follow when you're feeling uninspired. 

1. Recognize the resistance. The truth is that no one really wants to make time to sweat, stretch, sit and reflect, especially when we're traveling, working hard, and taking care of others, but when you recognize that, you are ALWAYS BETTER FOR IT, the impetus strengthens. So realize that the feeling of resistance will always be present. 
2. Be stronger than the resistance. My teacher says that the larger the stain, the stronger the detergent needed to clean it up. What that means is we have to cultivate the shakti (energy) to rise above our resistances. We do this by number 3.
3. Small daily actions. When I was writing my book Yoga Therapy for Diabetes I would get so overwhelmed with the final result I didn't know where to start writing. I resolved to write one page a day, and suddenly one page would turn into three, four, or fifteen pages. Resolve to do one thing a day, however short or simple, it is a starting point. Complexity is where many of us fail never to return. I love to bring "yoga snacks" in throughout my day, weaving them into transitional spaces. 

For instance:

• After you finish a project, take 12 nadi shodhana (alternate nostril) breaths. 
• Before you finalize your day, close your eyes, take three breaths, clear your body, brain, and spirit. 
• While driving or walking your dog, chant your favorite mantra or song. The key is to do it with meaning!
• Before dinner, take five minutes to ground yourself: breathe with the pranayama ratio 1:2 and five minutes to feel the root mantra "Gam" at the base of the spine. 

4. Make it meaningful. Anytime you do anything with intention, reverence, meaning it becomes sacred. When practicing, no matter how small or simple, it is wildly influential when you bring meaning to it. Meaning is a feeling of love, devotion, openness, and curiosity. It embodies the sacred. The goal is to make our whole life meaningful through our intentional actions. 

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