Random Personal Updates | Changes You Choose

Sometimes change is forced on us and sometimes we choose change.  I'm in a time of choosing change. Before, I would have goals...like to finish a book...to lose weight...to start gardening, and I tended to take a haphazard approach.  I'm an "all in" sort of girl so I tend to get really energized about a project, have it consume my life, then move to the next project.

In the past two years, I've found myself living a different approach.  (I credit the things I learned from yoga for this.)  I've discovered that the key to radical personal change is based in what I do daily. So, whatever change I want to make in my life, it has to become part of my daily life.  

The changes I'm focused on this year have to do with my health, creative writing and improving my thought patterns. 

So, how is this playing out in the real world for me?

Morning routine

1. Wake at 4:50. Drink 32oz of water first thing.

2. Go to 5:30 am yoga. (If weekend, wake at 7am spend an hour writing, then do 20 min DVD or rebounder.) 

3. Make 2 32oz green smoothies. (Breakfast & 3pm snack)  

4. Prep dinner, if needed. Pack some fruit to take to office.

5. Choose an uplifting thought to think about on the drive to work (I have a deck of cards in my car for this.); listen to an inspirational talk or pray on my mala. (A mala is a set of 108 beads and my goal is to think up 108 praises. I haven't gotten to that many yet, but I love it as a goal.) 

6. Prepare matcha or ginger tea instead of coffee at the office. (I missed coffee as a morning ritual and needed a substitute.) 

Bulk of day spent at my day job.

Evening routine

1. Work through writing ideas on drive home.  

2. Do a 20 min DDP yoga video before making dinner. (This has REALLY helped with muscle tone.)

3. Write for an hour.  (Some evenings I can't do this because of scheduled events, so on those days I try to write at lunch. On the weekends, I write longer.) 

4. Set up diffuser with essential oils to promote sleep. (I'm actually using oils in the morning some days too to promote and energy and I even have a few spray bottles on my desk at the office.  I'm finding it a beautiful practice.) 

5. Get in bed by 9:30. Do 15 minutes of legs up the wall (yoga pose) and deep breathing just before sleep. (Really relaxing.) 

Here's what I've found: The changes I'm making in my lifestyle are actually giving me more energy and making more possible.  I've also found I watch a lot less television. 

One of the things about this "daily" epiphany is that everyone's daily routine looks different.  A parent with three young kids doesn't live the same rhythm as a single executive traveling most of the week.   But even if the routines are different, they are still the key to making the changes you want to make part of you. 

I also don't believe that the routines are static.  You have to give them some authority so that once you set them you don't break them (otherwise, they wouldn't work) but I don't think that we need to make them inviolate. They are tools to help us grow and become, and because of that, they will need to morph over time, because growth--by nature--is change.