Follow your body and not your mind… listen to your body and what it needs!

What does this mean and how can we apply this practically in our lives day to day and moment by moment?

To help support a smooth and easy transition back into work and family life after the changed routine and potential excesses of the holidays, work with awareness and intention around what foods you reach for and why:

• Excess sugar creates an acid state in your body which in turn creates cravings for more and more sugary foods. Increase your intake of fresh and seasonal fruit and vegetables. This will detoxify your body and help return it to an alkaline state.
• Eat only when hungry and drink only when thirsty – in this way you follow your body and not your mind!
• Avoid eating cooked and raw food together; this will help to strengthen digestive fire (agni).
• Re-establish a regular routine around sleeping, waking and eating habits, this helps to ground and balance body and mind.

When we over identify with the story of our mind and are driven by fear, anxiety, frustration, anger or worry we become stuck in our head and disconnected from our body and life. Here, the practice of the half smile is a beautiful way to help bring us back into our body, our heart and the present moment.

I invite you to experience it now…

• Slightly lift the corners of your mouth and hold softly for at least three breaths.
• Notice what changes in your body and mind… your focus drops out of your head and into your body, you become aware of what parts of your body are tense, which in turn helps it to relax, you get space from the drama of your mind, your heart can open which provides the potential to return back into the spaciousness of the present moment.
• This can be practiced during any periods of waiting – for the kettle to boil, in any queue at the shops, at the traffic lights, on the telephone as well as first thing in the morning upon waking and last thing at night just before sleep.
• There is no quick fix… benefits accrue with regular practice over time…. if you do this practice 5 or more times a day, it will make a surprising difference to your body and mind, and to the environment!
• When we smile it immediately brings us back into our hearts!

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Wendy Young is a qualified yoga teacher and Holistic Ayurvedic practitioner, has studied in India, Thailand and the United Kingdom. wendy@wise-living.co.za