Reclaim Your Day for Your Body and Spirit
Holistic doctor James Rouse, Science of Mind magazine Revealing Health columnist, and author of the book “Think, Eat, Move, Thrive” believes that self-care is the foundation of caring for others and your work productivity.
“You need to use discipline to be a student of your own life and ask yourself some questions,” he says. “’When do I feel most settled down, happy, alive, aligned, passionate, loving?’ It is usually when you are aligned with the principles of self-care.”
Here are three tips from Dr. James for incorporating self-care and spiritual practice into your busy life.
1: Spend time outside first thing in the morning: The way the sun comes up and the way the sun sets plays a big role into our neurochemistry, in our awareness, our ability to be awake, to recover, to sleep and rejuvenate. Getting outdoors is a way of setting the table for a great day. We need to do this. No matter if I am in a city lecturing somewhere, I always get outdoors. I will take a cab to a park. I will find a way to get by trees. Patients tell me ‘I haven’t been in the natural world for years, but I am now spending 10 minutes in nature. It is amazing what it has been doing for me.’ So, I encourage people, don’t get so techie about the next evolution of head-phone-based-meditation. Those things are cool, but never underestimate the power of what nature and getting connected with the day can do for you.
2: A morning “Hour of Power:” I do a practice every morning from waking at 5 a.m. until 6 a.m. I start with a Tibetan practice called Penba Tang which is literally taking those few moments to shoot the arrow of intention into the target of what you want to create that day. Get a crystal clear idea of who you want to be and how you want to show up. See it and know it. So that is the first five minutes. The next half an hour is dedicated to sweating my prayers. It is a very integrated, full on exercise practice that allows body weight exercises, some strength training, some yoga, and heart rate work. I spend the next 20 minutes meditating on what was created in that exercise time. What is beautiful is that when you intend the day you start engaging parts of the brain that want to makes things happen. Then you exercise and start to raise dopamine and other charismatic chemicals in your brain. You really come alive and your motivation, confidence and discipline is ignited. Then you take that movement into a meditation practice. All of that neurochemical goodness gets a chance to really cement itself into the brain for the rest of the day. And that is done without any technology or media. I get a chance to make my own movie rather than watching the news or being online. Then I go to work and get connected to technology.
3: Shut down technology at night: I exercise media fasting every single night. I disconnect and I put my phone in basket. I don’t watch much television. I allow the evening to be my reset. At 6 o’clock at night I read, I connect with my family, I make a wonderful meal, I let my energy settle. And that is a discipline. People often tell me ‘I can’t. You don’t know my life, you don’t know my responsibilities.’ I know a lot of really busy people who have incredible responsibilities. All the people I know who do intense schedules really, really well are the ones who are courageously disconnected. And they give themselves permission to perform greatly for 10 or 12 hours a day, technologically connected, but say no to technology for the other 12 hours. It is a choice.
(For more spiritual practice ideas for busy people see these tips from Science of Mind magazine Real Posivity columnist Mitch Horowitz and Gary Jansen, author of “The 15 Minute Prayer Solution.”)
Dr. James Rouse is a Science of Mind magazine columnist, holistic doctor, entrepreneur, international motivational speaker and author of the book “Think, Eat, Move, Thrive: The Practice for an Awesome Life” with his wife Dr. Debra Rouse.
