Own Your Mornings - Turning Routine into Ritual

Strong routines can make a difference between feeling strong during uncertainty or feeling like you are sinking.  In this episode I talk about two small routines that I have stacked together with great outcomes.  I am so devoted to this routine that it is now embodied as sacred ritual - said another way, its become a non-negotiable in my life.  Listen in to own your morning.

Transcript

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I'm your host, Leslie Braverman, and I'm bringing you holistic health content and wellness information to reconnect you to your most centered self, that place within you that is energized, knowing, and uplifted despite the chaos and demands of life. It's that place within you where you become the portal of possibility. And today I want to give you a little reflection. I had a big birthday over the weekend. I turned 50. And I want to share with you that I've never felt like younger, more full of wisdom and education. And I've never moved better in my life. I've never been more adaptable. I've never had like a stronger mindset, a more loving mindset, a more self-compassionate mindset, and a more adaptable mindset than I have at this point in my life. And what I really boil it all down to is super strong morning routines and shifting them from routines into rituals. It's that sense of embodiment when they become rituals rather like they're sacred rather than something I have, another to-do list item, something I have to do. And owning my morning in this way has been incredibly instrumental in making the shifts that I wanted to make in my life. So I'm gonna give you one shift, one part of my morning routine that is a non-negotiable and has worked incredibly well for all of my clients, regardless of gender, male, female, regardless of age, regardless of just like their layout in their day, their requirements and responsibilities. This is the one that I have found that everybody loves. Okay, so here it is. So waking up, going right into a state of gratitude. So just feeling grateful for being alive, feeling whatever you're feeling in your body without judgment, and then getting up. And whether you're moving into a space in your kitchen that's clean or dirty, regardless of that stuff, just go right into this step, which is boiling water and fresh squeeze lemon or lime, and then mixing the two together and go right outside, regardless of the weather, regardless of anything, just be out in the daylight with your lemon or lime water and walk. And it doesn't matter where you walk, it doesn't matter who you walk with. Of course, you can amplify this by walking with your sweetie or walking with your pet or walking with connect, deep connection to honoring the state of the day, whether it's sunrise or before sunrise, it doesn't matter. It's the idea of connecting inward to yourself. The way I do it is I have I created a space in my front garden to walk in a circle because I found over time, at least where I live now, that I don't really want to interact with anyone outside of my inner circle. And so I created literally and figuratively an inner circle in my garden within my garden walls. And it was originally like kind of an arc shape, and I just turned it into a circle through walking the path so many times. And over time I've added wood chips to it and some rock decoration. And I basically created a like a walking labyrinth without complexity. It's just very simple. And so every morning I get up, I boil water, and I either, you know, enjoy it by myself or, you know, my faithful companion, Zia the puppy, is with me, but she being a puppy is very distractable. So she's either off doing her own thing or she's right with me and she's kind of one way or the other. And I just embrace it and let her do her morning thing and I do my morning thing, and we catch up when the time is right. And I don't bring anything into this, I don't set any intentions to feel any certain way. I just let the day start to unfold as I walk this circle. And one thing I love doing is my timing is typically organized with the sunrise this time of year. So I get to see the sun coming over the canyon walls that are in my backyard. And I can see it over my house, and I can sometimes see the moon setting. And this connection to solar and lunar, if it's available, whether you see it or not, is incredibly powerful for your body. You're resetting your natural rhythms. So this is the science behind it. You're resetting your body's natural rhythms, you're creating structure that your body can connect with to know that regardless of what's going on in your cortisol melatonin balance, that it's going to be reset during this time. This consistency is really important for the body's rhythms. And then with the lemon water, you're not only providing hydration for your body, which it needs well before caffeine, if that's your normal habit or food or anything else, it needs clean, clear water. And the lemon, what it helps with is to create a balanced pH within the organs. And specifically, it helps with liver detox, gallbladder balance, and it helps to stimulate the digestive juices, which increases kind of that fuel and the fire for digestion and sets you up for really good digestion for the rest of the day. I'm not going to say optimal because everybody has their own needs. You have your own blueprint and your own balance. But typically, this works very well for most people. And lemon is more heating, more spicy, and lime is a little bit less. So you could almost think of it as a little bit more neutral. And it so it depends. If you're in the heat of the summer and you tend to have a spicy personality, more of a pizza-based, um, lime is better. And if you are like more cold, typically have a lower circulation rate, lemon is better. So you can play with these different and you can mix them, and you could do neither, right? You can just do hot water. And that is one thing I always say to my clients is that, you know, sometimes we run out of things. Sometimes, you know, we just don't have it. And you can kind of watch yourself get bent out of shape or disappointed or have some sort of emotion or criticism related to the fact that, hey, maybe you don't have lemon or lime that day. It doesn't matter. The idea is turning the routine into a ritual. So your body is perfectly happy with hot water too. And why not cold? Good question, if you were asking that. I'm reading that some from somewhere. So the body really needs warmth in order to optimize digestion. And so setting yourself up for with warm water in the morning versus cold is gonna help optimize that digestion, even if it's warm out. Just get yourself started that way and see if you like it. If this is all an experiment, give it a try. This is what has worked for me and for my clients, and then this way of turning it into a ritual, meaning it is not gonna be disturbed, you're not gonna be distracted, you're just making it happen every day. And if that means getting up 15 minutes earlier so that you can get it in, do it. If that means changing it when you travel, I remember being in a hotel in in Miami, and I was really stoked about the hotel because it was like on this lagoon, and I was like, great, this is gonna be so great to walk around. Well, when I got there, it turned out it was like backed up against the runway of the airlines. And I was like, I'm not walking out there. So I drove and I drove and I found another place to walk. So you make it happen if it's important to you. Someone else might have just walked and laughed, and that's just the way it was for them. But the idea is that you continue it regardless of the external circumstances, and it becomes a stabilizing force in your life, so that when other things change, like in this example of travel, travel can be one of the most disruptive things for routine. And yet you're constantly having new experiences. The body's trying to integrate and digest so much, not just food, but culture and noise and sound and sense. So having routines is so vital. And again, having it being so so comfortable with them, they turn into sacred rituals. So give this one a try. Let me know how it goes. Again, I haven't had a client yet who didn't comment on how much of a game changer this is for them. And this, the background of this, is just that it's all the things the body needs in the morning. The body needs movement, the body needs hydration. And we don't just get hydration from fluid, we get hydration by movement, and moving the body moves the tissues that create hydration in the joints. Okay, so there's a lot more than just one thing happening just by doing this walking. Walking in general, people who walk in nature or even in social environments more like cities, have still have a lower cortisol rate than people who don't. And then, of course, this this connection, this idea of honoring the sunrise or honoring the time of day that you're out walking is huge. So, again, multiple this is a multi-pong-pronged approach for so much. And it's one of the simplest and easiest things to do. So, in my in my reflections of what I've added to my life this year, this is one of them. And this has been probably like six months strong on this now. And I don't think I will ever stop. It's just so good. And I think what can be cool is when you change locations during travel, is you get to experience other places to walk and drink your lemon water and have this joy, this embodied ritual. And rituals are always better when shared. So let other people know, send them this podcast and keep being that portal of possibility.