the power of recovery

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great start to 2018. I love celebrating each turn of the New Year. They celebrate the wonderful opportunity for beautiful new beginnings, and the ability to create positive shifts/changes in our lives.

So many of us use this time frame to set new goals and intentions, and I find these ambitions so inspiring – it’s just wonderful to see so many motivated people around.

In order to get the New Year off to the best start possible, it’s important that we take our time to reflect and recover from the year before us. In the 365 days prior to 2018, we will have been through so many transitions, emotions, journeys and experiences. Each of us, creating our own unique storybooks of life, seeing the multitude of avenues that unfold along the path.  Therefore, in order to begin anew, it’s important we detox and detach from the past.

So for this post, I used the ‘Power of Recovery’ theme. I wanted to share a list of trusted self care techniques that will help you feel fully recovered from 2017, and refreshed for beginning this new book to write the tales of 2018 in.

1. Sleep!

Many people enter the New Year tired and hungover. I have no judgement over this – as I’ve spent a years in the past celebrating like this myself. However, over time, self care became a huge practice in my life, and through that I quit alcohol. Nowadays, I spend my New Years Eve practicing yoga and meditating – so that I get my energy in the right frequency for the year ahead. I try to keep this transitionary period between Christmas and New Years very quiet, so that I can rest and recover my body. And a huge part of this practice, is sleeping. I make sure that I develop a stable sleeping routine around this time, so that I have a solid sleeping practice in place for January. Part of this is ensuring that I have a good, comfortable mattress that supports and relaxes my body. I love the Tempur Mattresses as they are specifically designed to help the body recover during sleep, so that we can gain the most benefit from our resting hours.

2. Yoga + Meditation

For me, these two practices go hand in hand. By taking at least 30 minutes a day (15 minutes either side of the day), to meditate using different breath work or mantra, and creating conscious movement within the body through yoga, is one of the simplest, most beneficial ways to take care of yourself and gain a state of balance. Since becoming a yoga teacher, I’ve upped my daily practice to 1.5-2 hours a day. It’s a daily priority in my life, and I can’t even begin to describe the ways in which it has benefited me. Getting up an extra 2 hours early each day is 100% worthwhile and it has really helped me to realise my values and desires in life. These practices really help you to become far more aware of yourself, your body, your habits + patterns. It’s such a beautiful way to become a better, happier version of yourself.

3. Massage 

Since developing a strong daily yoga practice, I’ve really noticed the benefits of receiving massage. It helps the body relax and recover from the process of different physical movements and postures. I recently began trying Sports Massage, as I found that a deep, bodywork treatment was perfect for helping maintain a free, supple and flexible body – which also results in a free, supple and flexible attitude to life. I’ve found that a physical process like sports massage has really helped me to become a far more relaxed person, and help me to maintain a calm, focused attitude – as my body is far less tense or stiff throughout the day.

4. Baths

For me, one of the best ways to unwind after the day is by taking a long, peaceful bath. This time out at the end of a busy day or week really enables me to sit, reflect and enjoy the simple moments in life. Just taking a simple 20 minutes to sit and bathe creates the perfect amount of time out to be alone with yourself. I love adding a mixture of some of my favourite essential oils and bath salts into the warm water, to help my body detoxify and to enjoy the beautiful smells of different floral aromas. I also like to enhance this peaceful feeling by burning incense and lighting candles, to create my own miniature sanctuary at home.

5. Nature

Since living in the city, I’ve grown to appreciate the beauty and necessity of nature more than ever. Being able to escape the stress and high pace reality of living in the city, through wandering off into the countryside and going for a walk in the woods or hike up the hills, really allows space for the mind to become still. It has enabled me to experience in awe the sheer beauty and perfection of nature. Escaping into a peaceful landscape and breathing in lots of fresh, clean air is also great for the body after spending time breathing in the pollution of busy cityscapes.

Now, time for some resolutions.. What can we integrate into our lifestyles for a better, healthier, body and mind this year? 

Ultimately, your wellbeing practice is down to you – however, I’ve put together a list of my goals and ideas of things I want to achieve this year to help get my mind, body and soul into a greater shape this 2018:

• 2 -3 x weekly 1.5 hour kundalini yoga classes.
• 2 hours daily spiritual practice.
• nightly journaling my experiences of the day, to help declutter my mind.
• nightly journaling my goals and ambitions, to help keep me ambitious and focused. 
• daily 11 minute bedtime meditation.
• weekly 1 hour walk in a park/nature space or 30 minute run.
• 1 x weekly cardio class/gym session.
• 1 x weekly sunday bath relaxation with a book, candles, incense + essential oils.
• 2 x monthly sports massage sessions.
• a balanced, stable sleeping routine between 7-8 hours per night.
• 1 x healthy cleanse/detox day per week.

What are your health goals and intentions for this year? I would love to know!

I hope this post helped you to add some ideas and inspiration for your beautiful, healthy, peaceful 2018.

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Tempur Mattresses, however all views and opinions are my own. This post is in accordance with ASA guidelines.