Small Essential Daily Practices
Are you ready to dedicate a portion of each day to making sure that each decision you make is in fact your own?
Are you ready to take up your sovereignty and become a force of liberation for others?
Are you tired of living with the pain, banality, and chronic anxiety that comes with living in this media-drenched epoch of late-stage capitalism?
If so, I have some good news and some bad news for you.
One, there is totally way out. Two, it’s a long road with no end…
…at least that I’ve yet found.
I promised in my last email that I'd send you all a missive about the practices I do daily to ensure the lion within me is well-fed and leads me.
Yet, the subject of daily practices can be a sensitive one.
Many of us are inundated with tips and tricks from neuroscientists, yogis, teenage health coaches, and aging athletes daily. There are so many “do this first thing in the morning” suggestions out there that if you did all of the “first thing in the morning” steps you’d be doing them well until the afternoon.
Even though I'd maintained a daily set of practices for the past 13 years, as a force of chaos, it has been an ever-evolving conversation between me, my body, my guides, and this glorious earth…
…Gaia, this good goddess whose body we share, so loves to weave beautiful structures amidst chaos.
And this is precisely what we are doing in our daily practices.
Here’s a little snapshot of my fluid and ever-evolving set of daily practices looks like right now:
Begin with breath. Every system in your body is benefited by oxygen. Give the community of life you tend within it what it wants first thing. If do so, your thoughts, emotions, and lifeforce will flow with more grace and intelligence.
I practice various patterns of the three-part breath as taught by Wim Hof once or twice a day along with breath of fire and alternate nostril breathing. No need to go as hard as I do though. Find your own way to feed the realm of the invisible within you!
2. Move. We gotta play the polarities! You just spent hours in stillness floating disembodied about the dreaming. Bring it back in! Incarnation is tough! We don’t always want to come all the way back. Use your morning practice as place to help your mind/body get aligned, lubricated, stronger and smarter.
I make sure to do yin yoga/fascial work and some strength and cardio every morning. Even if it’s a very little bit. I prioritize getting out of pain and staying out of pain. So I tend to the bones, joints, and tissues that need help getting in place and online. Do you know the places in your mind/body that need extra love? No? This is where you can find out.
You can follow the general rule of thumb, to start the day with some hip openers, backbends, twists, and inversions…you cover a lot of ground that way! Or better yet, dance and let the intelligence of your body guide the way!
3. Get outside—I try to do at some (even if there’s snow on the ground) of my practices barefoot on the earth each day. It turns the power of your practices up to 11 (hat tip to those who get this reference). This is the most vital part of grounding. And grounding is one of the most important things we need to be effective, influential, and powerful in our worlds.
Being outside also helps us to co-adapt with the vast intelligence of the more-than-human world around us. Get sunlight on your face to balance your hormones and circadian rhythms. Fill your lungs with the free spirits that surround you so you feel inspired and purposeful. Eat wild things daily so you receive the chemical and energetic communications of your ecosystem.
Mindful time outside with the wild (which is EVERYWHERE) is how we become both vast and humble.
4. Make noise. Speaking of making yourself larger, one of the best ways to do that is to use your vocal cords. Allow yourself to scream, moan, sigh, growl, hiss…experiment with all of the different ways you can expand your field of influence by letting your mood, needs, and desires be known…as the birds, animals, insects, flowers, and even the clouds all do!
Our voice is an essential part of how we humans have harmonized with and influenced our environments from the time of our deepest mammalian origins.
And, if you want to seek help from your invisible allies…well, you gotta let ‘em know you’re here!
5. Pray. It works. It can be simple. Give gratitude. Thank you is a prayer. But if you have some time, make it formal, make it a ritual, make it your own so that you feel the power of your words welling up in your chest.
When I pray, I invite in my allies; acknowledge and thank my relations and ancestors; center myself within the directions, and ask for help for those who most need it, and give back an offering to my spiritual and material ecosystem.
You are more than you think you are; you are also a tiny piece of something unthinkably vast. Daily prayer tunes us into the power of the paradox of our existence like nothing else can.
I hope you’re feeling inspired to take up or fine-tune your daily practice. Remember, your practice, like your whole life, is an art.
Let yourself have fun. Be sure your practice doesn’t become yet another weapon of our system to punish and shame yourself.
Your practice is for you and no one else. Let it be joyful. Let it feel enchanted.
Remember, our greatest power is found within play.