Lisa’s Winter Self Care Routine
5 Ways you can benefit from Winter
plus a Yoga Sequence🧘🏼♂️ and a Winter Recipe 🍴
Are you a winter person? Do you like the cold, short days? Do you tend to hide inside in front of the heater, eating lots of warm, rich food, and end up feeling heavy, tired, stressed, and even more resistant to get the things done that need to be done?
Let’s have a quick look at the Natural Element Health theory of winter and my recommended daily routine to ensure that you get the most out of this precious restorative season.
“Winter is the end of all seasons when the energy is at its lowest. When we want to get the most out of winter, our focus will be on yin energy, storing and building it”.
My recommended routine is:
1. Daily mindful yoga practise 🧘♂️
Get up at sunrise and do a daily yoga practice - the best is slow static held postures that focus on balancing the spine and strengthening the back muscles.
In winter, our yoga practise should focus on our structure (the bones especially the spine) our lifeforce (your get up and go feeling), wisdom (mindful practise), stamina and endurance (build your reserves and immunity).
👇🏼 Below are a couple of morning yoga moves which are great for getting the core temperature for the body up and improving the sluggishness of your digestion making you feel energised with that feeling of wanting to drive forward and not curl up back in bed, feel less stressed and sleep better.
Don’t rush your practise and focus on improving your postures with static held postures thinking about what your body is doing.
About 3-5 repetitions of each move is plenty.
Email me to get my instructional video which has specific technique tips so you get the most out of the routine.
You can also download the Winter Self Care Yoga Sequence to Energise and De-stress. You can print the Sequence out to have handy as a reminder for each day of which moves to do. or just have it on your device next to your yoga mat to follow.
2. Kickstart your core temperature 🚿
Have a shower with a 1-minute cold blast at the end - to get the interior warm and your energy up. The benefits of cold showers are immense from immune and metabolism boost, skin tightening, improved sleep, reduce stress, increase productivity, speed up muscle recovery, and improved blood circulation.
When you cool the surface of the body then it is important to make sure the core of the body stays warm, to protect all our vital organs. The short days tend to make us want to stay inside, keep warm by rugging-up and eating lots of warming foods.
Our bodies tend to get cold on the outside in winter, and the natural healthy response is to heat the core temperature to keep warmth to our vital organs. Sitting in front of a heater tends to heat our exterior, and that makes our interior core cool, hence you end up feeling colder and less energised and have achy back muscles and bones.
If you actually cool the outside of your body, it turns on the thermostat in your body, this is why in cold countries like Russia there are many people that plunge into the ice water. Have a cold blast rinse at the end of your shower in the morning. The initial screaming cold goes very quickly and is replaced with that burning feeling as your blood is pumped around your body, heating you from the inside out.
Try to stay under the cold blast for about 1 minute, but don’t run the cold water on your head.
You will feel truly alive, zinging and pinging. Make sure you let me know how it goes?
3. Eat to rebuild your bones and nervous system
Have rice congee for breakfast - you will feel fed and not want to snack. This high mineral density meal feeds your deepest organs and bones. This improves the quality of your blood to carry more nutrients and eliminate more waste products leaving you feeling full of energy and not heavy and achy.
Include mineral rich food in your diet. Adding things like sea vegetables, miso paste and tamari to your soups and casseroles.
Try having rice congee for breakfast for that warm feeling in your tummy and feel satisfied and energized.
Click below for the Vegan Congee Breakfast Recipe and enjoy!
4. Rehydrate with room temperature H2O 🚰
Ensure you get the correct hydration during the day.
Avoid having endless cups of hot tea and coffee. They actually are very dehydrating to the body and overload the kidneys and bladder which ends up with you urinating constantly. This fatigues the body, and also makes the core temperature drop with the loss of fluid and heat.
Make sure that you drink at least 1.5 litres of room temperature (or body temperature tepid) water every day.
We tend to not drink enough water in winter which leaves the body achy tired and blood deficient.
5. Time to meditate and reflect 🧘🏽♀️
The days are short in winter, sunrise at 7.00 am, and sunset at 5.00 pm. It is cold and dark in the morning, and the same in the afternoon when you leave work.
The Water Element relates to winter with downward energy flow and has inwardly directed qualities, the time to meditate and reflect.
Spend some time in the evening to reflect on your day, maybe keep a journal, or meditate on your thoughts.
In winter it is not the time to be taking risks and trying new things but reinforcing good habits through daily practise.
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts on my Winter Self Care Routine and most importantly how you feel before and after in the comments below.
Want more??
🎗Winter One Day Self Care Retreat in Sydney (Coming Soon)
Do you want to join me on a one-day winter retreat where you will get to experience the cooking, yoga self care and breathing techniques that will support you through this season?
For those lucky enough to be living in the Sydney region join me for a hands on one day Winter Self Care Retreat. Scheduled once COVID lockdowns are over, the date will be announced.
📧Spaces are limited so pre-register your interest now.
Last week I was so happy to see so many of you joining me via Zoom for yoga. Well done to all those who attended!
Next week I have classes via Zoom every day at 6pm so please join me.
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