If you're tired of being tired, don't skip this practice

Do you ever wake up tired of being tired? Low energy can impact our mood and in turn, impacts our capacity to feel good in the body. Here are five steps to turn around low energy. (Don't miss step five, it's a life-saver.)

Step one: Check-in with yourself.

Do you need a nap? I don't have time for a nap you say... Naps encompass a wide range in time-frame, my friend.

* Micro closed eye breaks take 1 minute

* Mini-naps take 10 minutes

* Power naps take 20 minutes

And sometimes I've napped helplessly for 2 hours.

Napping is a powerful solution to reset the nervous system, interrupt the noise in your head and increase your productivity. It's also a revolutionary act of kindness that flies in the face of work-addicted culture.

Refusing to nap is like the woodcutter who refused to stop and sharpen their axe. 

Step two: Review your sleep habits.

I had an argument with my naturopath once about bedtime. Who likes being told what time to go to bed? I admitted I was having a 4-year-old tantrum, but I felt so much resistance to changing my habit of going to bed at midnight. She asked me why I went to bed so late. I said, "I don't want to miss a thing, I want to live my life fully and I need all the time I can get."

In her mind, backed by science and western herbal medicine, this was backward thinking. If you want to live life fully, you need to have great sleep. I gave up my tantrum and took on her coaching (I mean, that's what I was paying her for and to not take the coaching and at least try it out would be insanity.) I've since adapted to her recommended routine for me of 9 pm and yes, it's worked.

Do you need to tweak your sleep habits?

Step three: what's in your future?

Do you need a break? Have you got your next weekend away or a relaxing holiday actually booked in? Without it being booked in, it's not actually happening in reality and your brain knows it. There's a difference between slogging it out, not knowing when your next break is, or only having some vague idea, and giving it everything you've got because you know you're taking a break next week.

Take an action. Book in your next break.

Step four: Resistance is the lover of tiredness

Have a look. What are you resisting? Is there a conversation you know you need to have that you're avoiding? Do you have outstanding parking fines accumulating in a drawer? What are the things you said you'd do and you haven't done them and are hiding that fact? What are the promises that you've made to yourself or others but haven't kept? You might not think that these types of issues are impacting you and your vitality, but they will be there in the background, haunting you. Some part of your brain will be on alert for when you'll be found out. Make a list, do some adulting and get those suckers handled. Watch the weight lift off your shoulders and your vitality return instantly.

Step five: Use tantric breathing to immediately increase your vitality.

Lifeforce or Ojas is housed in the breath. Our breath is one body function that we can bring consciousness to. The heart beats by itself and pumps blood around the body. We don't have to intend anything about this. It does it itself. Breath is different because we can bring consciousness to our breath and change the depth, breadth, and type of breathing. You can increase your vitality through a tantric practice called circular breathing. Here's how.

1. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes. Find a comfortable position

2. Gently close your eyes

3. Visualise a line down the front of your body from above your head, down the center of your body. As you visualise this line, breathe in and watch your breath travel down that line.

4. Now exhale and gently squeeze everything 'down there.' Send the breath back up into the body. Visualise it coming out of the top of your head. 

5. Circle it around and breathe down the centerline of the front body again.

6. Repeat.

As you are squeezing the exhalation back up into your body, you are increasing your vitality each time.

Try it and see what happens.

Enjoy

Love,

Danica

P.S. When you’re ready... here are four ways I can support you to feel good in your body, be 100% at home in your own skin & feel connected.

1. Download the best part of my restorative yoga class on audio here. Click here.
2. Follow me and request a dedicated #dancebreak. Click here.
3. Book a time for a complimentary call with me and we’ll look at your situation together and create a plan for empowering you through the body. Click here.
4. Work with me by staying sane with an online yoga community, be uplifted in a performance group Show Ponies or Kings of Joy, or become a great lover with queer tantra. Just click on “Yoga”, “Show Ponies”, “Kings of Joy”, or “Queer Tantra”.

Photo credit: Zara Lawson