Building the Habit of Starting Every Morning With A Little Self Care

Since working from home, I have maintained a routine of working out before noon every day if possible. It’s surprising to me because I am not a morning person at all. But powering through the morning to do yoga and meditate is such a nice form of self care and a boost to my days. Depending on how early I wake up, I can do a 15-45 minute yoga session, 10-30 minute pilates/HIIT videos then meditate for 10-15 minutes.

Back when the outside was still open, my only work out consisted of swimming 30 laps twice a week and hiking for 1 hour twice a month if I can make it. Now that I basically got almost 2 hours of my life back since I don’t have to commute anymore, I saw this as an opportunity to train myself to be consistent.

There are many health and wellness vloggers I am subscribed to but my favorite digital yogi right now is Ariana Elizabeth. She has different variations of yoga, meditation and flexibility training videos including 7-30 day challenges to help people like me form healthier habits. My favorite are her power vinyasa yoga sessions, and I am currently doing her 30 day meditation challenge.

Sometimes I meditate on my own or I do a guided meditation. Ariana Elizabeth also has some good meditation videos that you can do sitting up, laying down, whatever is comfortable for you.

Before I meditate, I smudge guava leaves and set my intentions while lighting candles. Shout out to my friend Olivia for putting me on Herbalaria. She says it’s important to cleanse your space with what your ancestors used, and in Filipino culture guava leaves have many cleansing properties. I’ve been looking for another way to cleanse my space since burning sage isn’t really good for the environment, I’m so happy to learn guava leaves do the same thing!