Daily Alignment Routines

This week I’m sharing the practices and routines I use daily to keep myself centered and aligned, moving from the heart, and to promote healing on all levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. After spending most of my life battling depression, anxiety, and low-self-esteem with medication and other coping mechanisms, I found freedom and healing through meditation, energy healing/reiki, mindset shifting practices, and herbal support. I’ve moved from surviving (just getting through each day) to thriving, finding peace, joy, balance, and happiness in myself, and in turn transforming my outer life.

I use my skills and knowledge to balance myself, but believe me, it’s an ongoing practice. I don’t always wake up early and get all of these things done. Sometimes I just use two or three as part of my daily routine, mixing up the order and length of each as my schedule, energy, and intuition guide me. Sometimes I spend 6 minutes, sometimes 60.

I highly recommend checking out my Empowered Reading List to help you get started on crafting your own daily routine!

Meditation + Reiki

Meditation can seem daunting to many people, especially if you are under the impression that you have to sit cross-legged and “clear your mind.” There are many ways to practice meditating, and their greater purpose is all the same: to train your mind. It is a practice, just like going to the gym or learning a new skill. This is one that helps you learn to observe your thoughts, instead of being prey to them or being swept away by them. Meditation doesn’t necessarily eliminate thoughts. Instead, practicing meditation helps you train or rewire your mind to create space around your thoughts, increasing self-awareness, reducing stress, and developing mental focus and clarity.

Most days of the week I practice meditation for 20-45 minutes. Usually it’s a self-reiki meditation (which is part of my Reiki Level 1 Self-Healing Course), where I give myself a reiki treatment. Giving myself energy healing for a few minutes at each of the 7 main chakra points helps me to reclaim balance and invite in a deeper sense of well-being and connection to myself. I often do my reiki meditation in the morning after waking up while still in bed! It can ease the transition into the day, and sets me up for a more centered, peaceful day.

Sometimes I do a Yoga Nidra meditation, which is known as “sleep meditation.” This practice can help rejuvenate energy when used during the day, and can help you fall asleep when dealing with insomnia at night.

When I was first beginning to meditate years ago, I used the Headspace App for guided meditations on my phone, and still use some of the lessons I learned there.

Journaling

Journaling is the practice of writing down your thoughts, observations, and feelings, as well as using prompts to invite in self-reflection or to rewire habitual thought patterns. There are many journaling practices, the simplest one of which is Gratitude. Taking time to start or end your day by listing down 3-5 things you are grateful for is a powerful way to call your mind back from stressors and refocus on the positives in your life. Tracking your emotions on a day-to-day basis can also help you become more aware of your triggers, as well as identifying what brings you joy. When you can pinpoint what makes you feel good or bad, you can increase the things that make you feel joy, and work on reducing the things that bring you down. Spending at least 5 minutes writing each day is a powerful way to communicate with yourself. Journaling is also helpful when used as part of a mindset shifting practice (see below).

Some days I can write pages and pages of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Some days I simply list a few things I am grateful for. The book The Artist’s Way encourages creatives to write three pages per day, even if you just start out by writing “I have nothing to write” over and over again. Trust me, this doesn’t usually last.

Journaling is a way to put things onto paper and get them out of your head. Journals aren’t for anyone to see, you don’t have worry about punctuation or spelling or being organized. It’s a brain dump! Let it out!

Mindset Shifting/Personal Development

Often journaling goes hand in hand with Personal Development practices. There are many books and websites dedicated to this self-healing practice, some of which I list in my Empowered Reading List. Studies show that it is totally possible to rewire the brain, retraining it to think and see differently. This is especially important for anyone struggling to manage depression, anxiety, lack mindset, or a host of other issues that arise from habitual negative thinking. Your current mindset is simply a product of your past and present beliefs. While many people believe all of their thoughts, or think their way of thinking is their personality, this is simply untrue. The brain is a powerful organ, always capable of growth and change.

One simple way to learn to reframe negative thoughts and lessen their power is to see them. Through meditation and journaling, I often uncover a powerful belief that is very negative. Just seeing it and pausing with the thought is powerful. Then, you can address it. Speak kindly to yourself, the way you would to a loved one. You can ask yourself “why do I think this?” over and over again, digging deeper to uncover more about your thoughts. You can start to see that while the ingrained belief seems absolutely, this is not necessarily true.

For example, one belief I had to address was being unworthy, literally the belief that “I am broken and not enough for anyone.” Another pesky issue was centered around money, and beliefs such as “It’s hard to make money” and “I’ll never have enough to do what I want.” These deep-seated and learning thoughts had wormed their way deep unto my subconscious over many many years, but through practicing personal development techniques and reading books, I was able to learn more about how to root them out and bring them to the light of day, where they can dissolve.

Affirmations

Affirmations are a powerful part of shifting your mindset. These positive statements can help to retrain your thoughts and rewire the mind. By stating certain things with confidence, you are helping to reduce the electrical charge that a negative belief has in your brain. Our minds work through habit and repetition. When we’ve habitually believed something negative or think the same thought over and over, it strengthens that neurological pathway. But we can also strengthen a different mindset.

I regularly repeat affirmations throughout the day, especially during or after meditation. My personal affirmations are positive statements, usually created in opposition to one of the negative beliefs I’ve learned. When I was first beginning to practice personal development, I had a huge list in the Notes section of my phone that I would look at and read aloud as often as possible. For example, I am enough. I am limitless. I have all the time in the world. I am worthy. I am successful. I have xxx amount of money in my bank account.

While affirmations alone won’t do all the work of retraining the mind, they are definitely a powerful technique to include in a larger practice. I also use this time to set intentions, either for the day, or to repeat to myself my larger goals in life, love, healing, and work.

Physical Movement

Moving your physical body is as important as moving your thoughts and exercising your brain. Physical movement does so many positive things, including increasing oxygen and blood flow to the brain and cells, reducing stress, increasing energy, controlling blood sugar, boosting the immune system, increasing coordination, and aiding in restful sleep. You don’t have to go the gym 5 days a week or start jogging to take advantage of the healing effects of movement on the body. There are so many options ranging from gentle to sweaty: simple stretching, yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, walking, hiking, swimming, weight training, cycling, team sports, martial arts, and many more.

I try to start my day by at least stretching my back, neck, arms and hips for 5 minutes. I always feel so much better once I start releasing stiffness and get blood flowing into my muscles, and many times end up continuing on for longer than I originally intended. Often I stretch for 20-30 minutes. I try to go for a walk or hike at least a few times a week. I also love weight training. Feeling strong and flexible is a powerful mood and self-esteem booster!

Water + Supplements + Herbal Remedies

It’s common that most people drink enough pure water and don’t get all the nutrients they need from a regular American diet. The healthy functioning of our body’s cells and our brain relies heavily on what we put into it each day. While Western medicine loves to throw pharmaceutical pills at us, and the average doctor only spend 1 week learning about nutrition in med school, more and more people are learning about how damaging these things are and that there are endless ways to improve your help with food and plants.

I was someone who used to emotionally eat a lot of junk food and take anti-depressants. And these things didn’t do a lot of help me find lasting health or mental peace. I found a lot of positive changes came when I first heard of the Whole 30 diet and began learning how deeply interconnected gut health, food, and mental health are.

I start each morning by drinking 2 glasses of water and gentle movement to help get the water move through the body. I drink at least 1 glass more 30 minutes before each meal, during exercise, and before bed. Drinking pure spring water FROM A SPRING OR WELL, not from a bottle or Brita filter, has also helped my body actually use this hydration, instead of jut peeing it out. Check out WaterIsLife.love for fascinating information on our water supply and body systems!

I take high quality vitamin and mineral supplements each day, either vitamins from DoTerra or the green vitamin powder from VitaMineral.

Plants are also a powerful source of support for mental and physical health. Plant compounds were the source for many of our synthetic drugs, and often do the job better and with less harm. I love taking the herbs Ashwaganda and Skullcap daily for supporting my brain in heading off depression and anxiety. I also keep a handful of Bach’s Flower Remedies and Rescue Remedy around for short term support of various issues. If I think I’m starting to get a cold, the Gypsy Cold Care tea blend from Traditional Medicinals usually helps me so much.

If you’re unfamiliar with herbs or don’t want to research for yourself, try finding a naturopath to help guide you.

Sound Therapy

Sound vibrations are a powerful tool in harmonizing the cells of the body (read my post on it here). Music and sound have been used throughout human history to increase mental clarity, aid meditation, find joy, stimulate energy or calm it, to reduce pain, unify groups, and much more. You don’t need to be a musician or a singer to utilize sound therapy as part of your self-healing practice.

One of the newest practices I’ve incorporated into my weekly routines is using sound. Sometimes I play crystal singing bowls, or a drum, or a flute. Sometimes I sing, or join a virtual Kirtan (group signing/chanting of mantras). Sometimes I listen to Solfeggio Frequencies or nature sounds. Sometimes I blend these together.

Using sound to find peace is usually not with intention of “performing” or sounding good, or singing a pop song. Sound therapy works best when I am allowing myself to release emotions through non-verbal expression. It’s play-time!

Habit Tracking

I used to use a journal, but now I like using the Habit Tracker App to keep track of my daily routines. When I start feeling off balance, I will look back at the previous week or month, and I can quickly see in what areas I may have been slacking off. I also get a sense of pleasure when I check off my day’s worth of self-care rituals, since I’m letting myself know I’m doing the work to grow, to heal, and to honor my mind and body.

I’ve researched and experimented a lot over the years to create the personal Daily Alignment Routine that works best for me. No two people will have exactly the same routine. I encourage you to keep seeking, keep trying things, keep your mind open to finding the practices and rituals that work best for YOU!