Asana/Movement: Spine Strengthening

A strong spine is a healthy spine! And keeping your spine healthy should definitely be in your interest! :) As someone who has scoliosis, these exercises are such an important part of my practice and I love to share them because they're very effective.

Breath: Calming Pranayama

The focus in this practice is on the exhale. By doubling the length of the exhale we active our parasympathetic nervous system which allows us to experience deep rest and relaxation. This practice is especially useful before sleeping.

Meditation: Choose Joy

Journal Prompt

Recall a day/moment when you felt genuinely joyful. What were you doing? Who were you with? Describe the setting and the emotions you experienced. Reflect on how you can actively incorporate more of these joy-filled moments into your everyday life.

What specific actions can you take to choose joy more often?

Creating Habits: Trigger Actions

Creating trigger actions means linking a new habit to an existing routine. Doing that is like setting a reminder that automatically prompts you to act without needing to think too hard about it. By associating a new behavior with a specific time, event, or action that already occurs daily, you build a natural flow of micro habits. Trigger actions make the process of incorporating new habits easier by embedding them into the rhythms of your everyday life.

Example

Let’s say you want to incorporate mindfulness and relaxation into your daily routine through breathing exercises. You could set a trigger by linking your breathing exercises to your morning tea/coffee break. Each time you sit down with your tea/coffee, it becomes the cue to begin your breathing exercise(s). Over time, just reaching for your mug will naturally lead you into a moment of mindfulness because the two actions are so strongly linked.

I started incorporating short guided meditations right before sleeping. So, every time I go to bed, I’m reminded to do my meditation practice which also sets my mind and nervous system in a restful state and improves my sleep significantly.

By using such triggers, the new habit becomes part of your daily rhythm, making it easier to adopt and maintain without requiring constant reminders or much additional effort.