Lessons from the Beach: the importance of routine

14 July

Last week I went to the beach with my mate Jules (it was fkn lavish - mini album below!), and at some point she said to me ‘I imagine you have a pretty solid sleep and morning routine, right?’ to which I replied ‘HA!’

The truth is that I’ve been massively neglecting my own self-care (more on that here), all but losing my own mindful practices along the way.

The beach trip served as the perfect mid-year checkpoint for me to assess wtf I’m doing and how I’m feeling vs what I’d like to be doing and how I’d like to be feeling.

This past week I’ve consciously made a few small, manageable changes including starting up a simple morning routine. And when I say simple, I mean it. Check it out:

Get up 30 mins before I need to leave for my first class
Journal when I get home from morning classes
(and here’s the kicker) do a super quick somatic centring practice before I leave the house

Turns out, it doesn’t take much or long to centre and ground the anxious, frenetic energy that I often find swirling around and inside of me.

Because I am a person who struggles with stillness.

If I’m not moving my hands, I’m moving my feet or picking at my nails. When I watch videos of myself I understand exactly what people mean when they say I have an ’expressive face.’

I think what I actually have is involuntary tics but hey - tomato tomayto .

The further I go on my somatic path, the more I understand how essential it is to cultivate stillness and grounding, as both a coach and a practitioner.

Taking 30mins out of my morning makes such a huge difference but probably the most surprising part is that a simple, 45 second somatic centring exercise truly gives me a place to come back to when things feel stressful during the day; something sticky for all that frenetic, frizzy energy to land on.