No! I am not a hippy and I find meditation incredible. It has taken me so long to get into a regular meditation practice and it definitely does ground me. I can feel a difference between when I do meditate and when I don’t. When I meditate, I feel grounded. When I don’t meditate, just call me ‘Ms Scatterbrain’ because I am all over the shop.
- Do you need to be a monk to meditate? No
- Do you need special music to meditate? No
- Do you need special skills to meditate? No
Anyone can meditate and it does bring a sense of peace and clarity to my day. Meditation, prayer and journaling are wonderful exercises to clear your mind plus bring your mind and body into union and create stillness. In our digital age where we are constantly “on” with various notifications coming through, emails vibrating on the phone and text messages beeping through, I find it useful to switch off digitally and bring attention to my breath each morning.
What does my daily meditation practice look like?
Each morning, I aim to ground down with meditation, prayer and yoga before I start my day. I generally won’t hop on social media or check emails for the first 2 hours of the day. My goal is to practice yoga and meditation for at least 30 minutes to clear my mind and connect with my breath and body. Here are my tips for managing your meditation and mornings to set you up for a stellar day.
- Meditate in the morning for 10 minutes
- Practice yoga for 20 minutes
- Practice gratitude: count 10 blessings in the morning
- Drink 2 big glasses of water with lemon to kick start your digestive system
- Eat a full breakfast
How do you meditate?
- Move to a seated position with a tall spine, bringing awareness to the body and breath
- Get comfortable
- Become aware about the pace of your inhale and exhale
- Take your time to get settled and grounded
- Join for a guided meditation online which I recorded earlier this year: I am loving kindness – YouTube
- There are many many different types of meditation practices! The loving kindness meditation is only one.
What kind of yoga can you do in the morning?
- Cat position: start in your tabletop position with knees and hands on the floor, arch your spine to the ceiling
- Cow position: keep your hands in your tabletop shape, drop your belly button to the mat as you look to the ceiling
- View stretches on Roxy Aila Yoga on Instagram
- Balasana: Sink your hips back towards your hips with arms extended or beside your torso
- Downward dog: From your balasana, lift your hips to the ceiling and press into your hands and feet, pedalling out through your feet
- Tadasana: stand tall with your weight even through your feet, arms beside your body, imagine string pulling you up through the crown of your head
- Have a look through YouTube for more yoga flows
Send me any questions!
Roxy xo