In May's workshop, I offered you a bounty of ideas for helping you to start your day vibrant and tranquil.

We explored an exercise where we examine what we already do each morning, and where we could add in small new habits that can add up to big changes over time.

Workshop notes:

-New habit ideas from bed: Breathe into right side nostril/right side body to encourage a new day of energized activity, eye exercises, joint freeing. Cultivate a thought as your feet hit the floor, like: "May something wonderful happen today".

-Let the light in, a ritual while opening blinds, windows, standing joint freeing and shake off the night's sleep.

-5 essential yoga postures: Plank, Cobra (or Locust), Leg Lifts, Bridge Pose, Bow Pose (with modifications and options. Body Brushing

-Turning aspirations into reality through habit change (written exercise)

-Prana Nidra: a supine guided meditation intended to encourage presence, (the wellspring of vitality) and balance our energy.

When you need a quick lift, this short standing practice includes big breath and movement to reduce stagnation and encourage an uplift of body, mind and heart!

For those who wish to include meditation and movement in the morning routine but aren’t able to create a habit, here’s an efficient way to add short and simple practices that can make a big impact over time.

Here are three more ideas for tiny, easy habits that you could connect to activities you already do each day. This week, I offer inspirations for shower time, the moments we spend waiting and a quick pre-meal ritual that can turn eating into a sacred moment of gratitude.

This 20 minute practice offers a technique to shift the mind away from habitual morning thinking to inspiration, presence and thoughts that welcome you wholly to a new day. You'll receive a poem to promote a more expansive mindset and a joint freeing sequence matched with breath and ideas to awaken while cultivating a kinder inner morning landscape.

A 90 minute experience featuring alternative ideas to bring into your mornings to counter habitual thoughts and feelings.

-An inspirational reading to encourage new thoughts and feelings. I shared the classic poem, The Guest House by Rumi. (text to follow)

-Focus enhancing breath to support the body and mind

-The "welcoming" of intentions during a joint freeing series

-Morning movements to promote energy and refreshment

-A guided meditation utilizing the imagination to help actualize your intentions.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

We know that presence is the heart of healing, restoration, authentic contentment and confidence, but it’s not an easy place to settle. Here’s 10 minutes of focus-enhancing movement to drop you into the here and now.

A short, seated moving meditation intended to keep you embodied while connecting with higher perspectives and intentions. An opportunity to stay grounded while harnessing the vitality and motivation to follow through on planting and growing our dreams. Expect to move your spine in its various ranges of motion, practice enlivening breath and imagery.

An enlivening 50 minutes exploring how the practice of being present can offer a wellspring of renewal and rejuvenation. This experience is ideally suited for the morning and closes with a balancing and often energizing technique in the closing meditation.

A short experience with the breath intended to help awaken and enliven. Expect to explore a very slight retention of breath on the inhale if it feels comfortable for you.

A short practice to meet a heavier day or mood. Renewing movement and breath followed by heart centered imagery to warm and lighten from the outside in and the inside out.

My most essential practice to cultivate a sense of grounded wellbeing in my body and mind. An experience of warming and freeing the joints of your body, followed by a breath technique and visualization with the intention to leave you feeling calm, present and at ease. Use often!

Neuroscience tells us we can practice the ability to create internal feeling states anytime we want. This morning practice helps us create a sense of feeling connected to the world around us, and to other people, including cultivating empathy, which has been shown to contribute to our well-being overall.

When the events of the day ahead feel overwhelming, this short practice is designed to support a shift in perspective and the possibility of doing your day from a place of love and appreciation. Includes invigorating movement and a technique to cultivate more lightness and joy.

A 15 minute standing practice intended to help overcome invasive thoughts that may prevent you from focusing on what you choose. Invitations to balance may require a wall or chair nearby.

A meditation suited for beginning a new day, week, month, or year! To support you in creating a new meditation habit in 2021, explore how techniques that prepare the body and mind to “sit” can create a more easeful experience. Includes intention setting on how you desire to feel, gentle movement and breathwork to enhance focus.

A short, accessible breath practice to relax the mind and body quickly. If it works for you, use it 3 times a day to help become more calm and content on the regular!

Start your day with this 20 minute practice that invites the mind to focus on the breath and an empowering mantra rather than the habitual thoughts we wake up with. Expect movement to ready the body and the core for a day of confidence followed by a mudra and short meditation. A reminder of the power within.

A practice to connect with qualities like love, compassion and gratitude. We begin with asking for what we need with a breath visualization followed by a heart-centered mudra and movement and we close with an embodiment of gratitude with a practice of thanks. A beautiful way to soften before a tough interaction or to lead with love.

A ritual to use anytime chaotic thinking is getting in the way of inner knowing. A breath technique to connect our hearts to our higher wisdom leads us into enlivening movement. Then, we explore a mudra to activate our intuition and 3 useful journaling prompts to invite clarity.