Hello and welcome
to the Own Your Health podcast,
I'm Cyndi Lynne and I can't wait to
help you step into your
health power.
So we just had daylight savings,
and whether that's
something that your state or
country participates in or
not, some love it, some hate it.
For us, it's just here.
So I use it as a time not so
much to capture
that extra hour because
hopefully it's in sleep for most of us,
or to mourn the loss of an hour
if you're in the
Southern Hemisphere,
but more to use it as an external cue,
as an opportunity for a reminder
to check in.
Some of you may already do this
because there's a lot of reminders.
Daylight saving time twice a year,
check the batteries on your smoke
detectors or carbon monoxide
detectors.
And that's the kind of cue
that I'd like you to get used to
using for your own personal habits.
So here's a couple of check ins I do.
I check in with my morning ritual.
And the criteria I use is a little
bit different than some of the
other systems or influencers
talk about.
You know, you hear people talk
about, do you absolutely love it?
And if you don't, get rid of it.
Are you enjoying it?
Well, that's a nice criteria,
but very often there's things that we
do that we want to do for ourselves
we don't necessarily enjoy while
we're doing them.
We enjoy them more having
done them.
Exercise comes to mind because
you know me as the Reluctant
Athlete.
Many of you do.
But I say, does what you're doing,
does your morning ritual bring
you satisfaction?
If there's readings that you want
to do, if there's meditations you
want to do, if there is exercise that
you want to do, if there's a time you
want to spend just sitting, thinking,
enjoying your coffee or your tea.
Whatever that morning ritual is,
is it bringing you satisfaction?
And if not, here's a really good time
to change it up a little bit.
And when I say change it up
a little bit, that's what I mean.
When we talk about making changes,
very often we make big sweeping
changes and we try to change
everything at once.
And we don't really know then
what was working well,
what wasn't working,
what changes we actually liked
or what cascade of things
happened that really don't reflect
what we wanted to end up with
that don't bring us that satisfaction.
So if you're not feeling satisfied
with your morning ritual,
take this daylight savings as a
cue to change up one or two little
things at a time. Whether it's
what you're drinking,
what you do when you first get
out of bed, even the type of
exercise you do, the type of yoga
you do, what you listen to,
change it up a little bit
at a time until you find that same
satisfaction that you're looking for.
I do the same thing, by the way,
for my evening ritual.
And believe me, when it gets
dark at 5 o'clock,nI want to start
my evening ritual about 6.
And that's usually not practical
because there's still much in life
that needs to be done.
But it's also that cue, check
in with that evening ritual.
Are you accomplishing what
you want to accomplish?
Are you feeling satisfied when
you get into bed at night?
Another opportunity is to check
in with what you're eating.
This often signals a change of
seasons. And are we inclined to eat
heavier food or different foods or
warmer foods and take advantage
of what's locally produced,
what's locally available?
There's fabulous fall foods,
but it's a good time to change up
your refrigerator, to change up what
you're bringing into the house
and asking yourself, what do I need
to support my body right now?
It's also an opportunity to look at
your schedule and say, okay,
maybe in summer you're super busy.
You're out a lot.
We have all those hours of daylight.
There seems to be so much
more energy for socializing and
entertaining. These are the cooler,
darker months that we're going to
here in the Northern Hemisphere.
How should your schedule reflect
how your body wants to feel?
So is it a time where you circle the
wagons, stay home a little bit more,
tuck in, have more personal time?
Or is it a time where you open your
house more, where you bring people
around your hearth, where you bring
people around the kitchen table or
the dining room table and share in
food more in this somewhat slower
time of year in fall? And then finally
evaluate for satisfaction your time
outdoors, because this is a big one.
This is a time when many people say,
oh, it's cold, it's raining right here now.
It's really kind of ugly out.
It's November.
That happens.
So dark, rain, ugly.
Most people want to nest.
We still need that outdoor time.
We still need that connection with
the earth. Our eyes still need that
daylight, that sunlight directly in them.
So plan for that so that you can
feel that satisfaction of getting out
for a lunchtime walk rather than
an early morning walk. That you can
get fresh air during the day and
maybe even at night.
Do you open the windows at night
a little bit. Do you close the registers?
Maybe do you sleep in a cooler
room now that you have the
opportunity with all that great
fresh air outside?
So a couple of things to just
think about to check in with.
Using these external markers
on the calendar as a cue for us to look
at what's going on inside our lives.
Now, if you're looking to develop
a ritual and don't know where
to start, or there's a piece that
you've been doing that just always
snags that doesn't feel quite right
and you're not sure what the
replacement is absolutely
reach out. Grab a time on my
calendar absolutely free,
and we'll have a chat.
So until next time,
let's go out and own it.
