A recipe for a GREAT day

In my never ending quest for transformation, uplift-meant and getting off my ass, I am always looking for those things that add to the process or, conversely, shoot me in the spiritual foot. Most recently I have discovered that doing yoga every morning(without fail!!) really sets my day up for success. I know it isn't rocket science... when we dedicate to a practice, move our bodies and are proud of ourselves we just FEEL better right? Well, believe it or not I have always been challenged with laziness and a kind of "head-in-the clouds-Itous". When left to it's own devises, my body wants to sleep and dream fantastical dreams for 12 hours and be awake for 12 hours. I would then wake up groggy and feeling guilty that I slept so long. The problem is my dreams were always more pleasurable, more real and just plain more FUN than my waking reality. I realized I was more excited to go to sleep(oooh dream time.. yay!) than to wake up.. yikes! It came down to a choice. Do I want to live in THIS world or my dream world? I needed something to wake me up, anchor me in the waking world and push me through the initial laziness of the morning. Here is the magic formula I have found that has had me sailing though my days with enthusiasm, motivation and ~gasp~ a strong work ethic:

• Wake up between 7 and 8:30(don't want to go the other way and be TOO militant)
• Drink some lukewarm water and take some probiotics to wake up the digestive system
• Make a big cup of Yerba mate tea
  
• Head into my Yoga/meditation room(more on how to create a sacred corner later)
• sit in front of my altar, light a candle and burn some sage.
• breathe.
• accept that in order to thrive, I must exert myself
• recognize that moving your body and doing things feels GOOD(i know sounds silly, but for a natural procrastinator.. HUGE)
• pull an animal card, rune or throw the i-ching(more on divination devices later)
• Drink my tea while taking in the beauty of my altar, the sunshine and anything else in my environment that feels good.
  
• Get down to yoga
• remind myself again that it feels good to use my body
• imagine all my joints flowing open and my body becoming ever more limber and flexible
• Do at least 20 minutes of yoga(pushing for more like an hour)
• Sit again and take in the yumminess I have created and congratulate myself for keeping a promise.
• Take a shower, eat breakfast and jump into my day!!

Seriously, this one commitment, to do yoga and take a small amount of time for myself EVERY morning no matter what(even if it is only 10 minutes), has made a HUGE difference... In the way I feel, the quality of the work i do and the amount of work I get done. At the end of the day, I feel satisfied, complete and in love. Now, do i still have "moments" of grumbling or being lazy.. sure, but there are far less and I am much quicker to move through them when they do occur.

Alright then.. I am off to power out my day!!

hoopiness to you and yours and see you in the circle sooon!
xo~Anah