Stimulate your life-force, feel great and wide awake, ready to go yet beautifully balanced, with these simple tools.

Suddenly waking from sleep and throwing ourselves into our daily lives is disorientating.  We go to sleep gradually, and it is best for our wellbeing to awake gradually.

Our minds may still be “jarred” from a particularly active dream, or still be woozy from sleep, so  take just 7 minutes to check in with your mind/body and reap the benefits all day long.

Best done as soon as you step out of bed (after you’ve been to the loo, of course)

You’ll need:  A mirror, a glass of water, space to swing your arms.

1) The Re-Mind organising Technique (up to 2 minutes)

Sit on the edge of your bed, eyes open or closed, and just focus on your breathing.  Don’t try to change it, just focus on it, notice it as you breathe in, and breathe out.  Notice the space that you would call your breath.

Resist moving on.  Too often we dash from one thing to another, without any time in between to reflect on what we have done, or what we are about to do.  So resist THREE times from moving on.  When your mind says “right, that’s enough, let’s go”, just stop yourself and focus back on your breath.   Only when you are mindfully-ready to move to the next element, should you. (This is about stopping the re-action, and taking charge of the action)

2) Pick your mood for the day  (30 seconds)

Choose your mind-set for the day.  Whatever mindset you have picked, organise your face to suit it.  (Note: Our facial expressions can elicit emotions: https://psychcentral.com/news/2010/02/01/facial-expressions-control-emotions/11082.html  and https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2014/05/facial-expressions-and-emotions/ so how about picking a really fantastic emotion, and making the face to suit it.  Delighted, charmed, happy, joyful, content, relaxed, energised… you choose.  And then make the face that will best convey that emotion.  Look in the mirror, and exaggerate the emotion as much as possible.

3) Get a bit of humour (60 seconds)

Laugh.  Yes, you’ll probably be laughing at yourself in the mirror anyway by now, but if you aren’t, just do a few chuckles right now.  Another fact:  We don’t laugh because we’re happy we’re happy because we laugh.  SO right now, choose to be happy, with a chuckle or a guffaw.   (Oh and your body can’t tell the difference between real and fake laughter, so it really doesn’t matter if you’re not connecting with this laughter… although after a few minutes laughing at yourself in the mirror, you won’t be far off the real thing)

4) Boost for the body (60 seconds)

Now boost your immune system – your thymus gland plays a major role in your immune system.  It is just behind your breastbone, about 5cm below the collarbone.  All sorts of daily life situations affect the thymus, including stress, vaccinations and emotional shock.  Boost your thymus by tapping firmly (but not to cause you pain) over the middle of your breastbone, using all your fingers.

5) Body energiser (60 seconds)

Stand with your feet slightly apart, and check you have enough space to swing your arms. Now start gently at first just moving your shoulders around slightly (as if you are turning your head to look to the side) so that your arms swing round and gently slap the other half of your body.  For example you might swing to your Right and your Right arm will swing across and slap your left hip, whilst your left arm will swing behind you and hit your back on the middle to right hand side.   Spend a few moments swinging and slapping, making the movements larger and wider.

6) Bringing body and brain together (60 seconds)

The cross-crawl helps both sides of the brain to talk to each other.  I’m going to suggest you do this with a smile on your face too.  The cross-crawl is used by many people with positive results and is a favourite of performers, speakers etc, before they are about to take the stage.  The activity helps to create thousands of new neurological pathways across your corpus callosum (the bridge between right (creative) and left (logical) side of our brain).  When both sides of our brain are in harmony we can create greater empowerment.  Regular use of the Cross Crawl can reduce stress, improve co-ordination, enhance creativity, support our immune system, improve memory and help digestion.  What’s not to love!

To do the Cross Crawl imagine marching with gusto on the spot.  As you lift your right leg and left arm together, gently twist your upper body so that your raised arm crosses over to the other side.  If you wish you can tap the opposite knee with your hand. (Left hand taps Right Knee).

7) Hydrate! (30 seconds)

Time to tell yourself “well done” for giving yourself a daily boost. Now raise a glass of water to yourself!  Hydration is important, as it’s a conductor of all our tiny electrical impulses.  It helps mind and body, it helps us to flush out toxins and makes us feel fabulous.  So don’t hold back, make this a  big glass, and even enjoy a slice of lemon or lime if you wish.