Getting Better One Day at a Time - Day 2
On December 31, 2014 I set the goal of doing my 9 Daily Health Practices every day during January 2015. Day 2 was even better than the first!
On Day 1 I was able to get most of my practices done before sunset but yesterday I had to work in the morning and I didn’t get to practice until 4 p.m. At one point I thought I was going to fail to do most of my practices but even though I wasn’t feeling as energizes as in Day 1 I still managed to finish all of my 9 practices before midnight!
I got my singing done while going on a walk around Santa Barbara and then I spent the next two hours practicing Foundation Training, Yoga, Pranayama and Meditation.
For my Foundation Training practice I used the new Foundation Training DVD. I explored disc one and did a handful of the workouts that focus on exercises for lower back pain. Since I began to use Foundation Training to improve my posture I haven’t found any better exercises to relieve lower back pain, it is simply one of the best things you can do to take care of your body aches and pains! I strongly recommend that you give it a try.
For my yoga practice I decided to stay home and follow a 20 minute routine on a new phone app called “Yoga Studio”. It was my first time using a phone app for my practice and I truly enjoyed it. I usually create my own sequences but this time I found it liberating to relax into the unknown and simply focus on the breath. I will surely use it again, it is not the same as being in a yoga class but it does give me the flexibility to have a guided practice outside the studio.
Yesterday’s meditation and breath work practices consisted mainly in focusing on a slow and deep diaphragmatic breath. Every time thoughts came into my awareness I noticed them and as often as possible I let them go. By quieting my mind I was able to continue to focus on the breath and move into deeper states of relaxation.
Meditation and breath work can be challenging and it has taken me time and effort to build a regular practice. Fortunately, the more I do it, the easier it gets. When I began to practice even five minutes felt like an eternity, now I can sit for 20 and find joy in the experience. I do not believe that we all need to sit for hours to find eternal bliss. Sometimes a short pause is all we need to feel grounded on ourselves again.
After dinner I spent 30 minutes doing a gentle Qi Gong practice to purge some of the leftover stagnation from the day. For my self-massage practice I used Acupressure to stimulate some of the major key points in the meridian system. Acupressure is a massage technique with similar applications and benefits as Acupuncture. The difference is that the later uses needles and the former uses the arms and hands. I recommend you give both of them a try.
Before going to sleep I spent some time drawing. Drawing has always been one of my favorite pastimes. I am grateful that I decided to invest more time on my creative pursuits. Below is one of the drawings I made, I hope you like it:
Thanks again to all of you who have been following me on this adventure. I hope you have found these posts useful, inspiring and entertaining. If you haven’t been taking care of yourself lately today is a good day to get back into it. Feel free to share your experience or add any questions you may have.
See you again on Day 3!
Wishing you a healthy weekend,
- Bruno Treves
