Transitioning our systems from waking to sleep and reverse is so beneficial and something I work on with clients and people in my classes. The right simple practices have a huge impact.

Try this simple yet powerful series before sleep to settle your nervous system and relax a tight or clenched jaw.

During graduate school in 2005 I led weekly Stomp classes on stair master machines in San Diego. They were intense, but short and putting the music playlists together for them was so fun for me.

After class one day..

Cueing with - open your chest doesn't always cut it when it comes to mindful movement and relief for muscles like pectoralis minor.

No worries if that's how you cue. It's a starting point. Much like using the ever so common door stretch for addressing chest tightness, it is helpful. 

What does your core and abs want to say to you today? (set a timer and write for 5 minutes, then share!) Here’s what mine told me today.

There's one single piece of advice that's universal amongst all sleep experts and researchers. It's to have a consistent bedtime and rising time. This can seem impossible in a culture where we essentially have control over the sun (our indoor lighting). Why does that matter? I'll share a few examples and you'll hopefully have a good laugh at how annoying it is for the human body to change up the schedule too often.

Every human on the planet is born with a magic sleep number. This is the amount of sleep your brain needs to run all of its programs at night. It’s non-negotiable.

What happens when we attempt to release energy without storing enough?

I’ll let you in on a little secret: Sleep can’t clean up all the messes of the day.

Our sunflower, marigold & veggie babies bend toward the light every day, even if I spin their homes around. I used to bend toward the light (in a big way), by wanting more energy, more time awake, more time for life! Some things have changed recently…

Easy there lady.
Be gentle with me.
I have dozens of muscles you see…

Follow along with this audio to hone in on your ideal posture for today. It’ll help you tune in to your body’s needs and the alignment that supports your structure best.

Use your inside voice and let the outside voices fall away.

How do you dodge a cold? “Oh, I just take this mushroom supplement when I feel a tickle in my throat and I don’t get sick.” Wow, that would be amazing! Everybody’s got their go-to illness prevention and remedy strategy. Echinachea, zinc, vitamin C, etc. Whether these are placebo effect or real, most of the time - they can’t hurt.

I realized this week that my favorite immune system related remedies are not just to avoid and get away from being sick, but also about enjoyment, rest and self-care.

When I travel and stay with different people, I can’t help but notice what priority smart phones are taking over our own self care.  It’s hard to hear the subtle signals the body is sending you when you’re distracted.  How can you get focused on your day when you’re busy looking at what everyone else is doing first?  Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed! 

Check in with yourself before you check Facebook.