How An LA Meditation Teacher Keeps His Calm All Day Long
What is your day but a series of moments? It's the little decisions you make along your way that add up to a balanced life. Evolution Fresh® launched their #MySmallSip initiative to spark small, healthy daily choices we each make to better our lives. With the second annual National Green Juice Day just having happened on January 26, 2017, what better way to celebrate than to share the healthy habits of some of our community members? Read on for wellness inspiration you can incorporate into your own life.
We all lead busy lives these days, and it's easy to let the routines that help keep us in balance slip away when we start feeling too overwhelmed. This is a big part of why being a Vedic meditation teacher is so important to me. Whether I am writing, teaching, organizing, or traveling, I am always able to come back to a place where I feel grounded, and I believe that everyone deserves to have that invaluable tool available to him or her.
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Meditation alone doesn't complete the picture, though. As we all know, diet and exercise play an integral role in health as well. But a healthy lifestyle usually doesn't just happen overnight. It is often built slowly and intentionally by implementing one or two good habits at a time. For me, the combination of these #MySmallSip moments is what provides me the balance and stamina necessary to accomplish my goals on any given day. Here's a peek at a few of the things that I do to help keep myself energized and inspired:
Morning:
- Meditate. I wake up every day at 6 a.m. and meditate for 20 minutes. I am definitely a morning person and believe that getting an early jump can make all the difference. Being a meditation teacher, this is of course a crucial start to my day.
- CrossFit. I'm going through a CrossFit phase, so I go down the street for an hourlong sweat session. I refuel with an Evolution Fresh Essential Greens juice, which is bottled using high-pressure processing to maintain as many nutrients as possible!
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Afternoon:
- Lunch. I meet a friend or colleague for a healthy lunch, which is typically paleo. I've been really into that lately due to the numerous health benefits such as a heightened immune system, lowered risk of heart disease, and feeling fuller and more satisfied overall.
- Meditate. Vedic meditation is a twice-a-day practice, so my second meditation happens around 4 p.m. and lasts 20 minutes. I often find that even if I don't necessarily feel like I need to sit down a second time I always come out on the other side feeling totally rejuvenated.
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Evening:
- Write. I write my Daily Dose of Inspiration at night, which will be sent to my students the next day. Even if you just write for yourself, I think that having a gratitude practice that reinforces positive beliefs about the world is extremely beneficial and has been scientifically shown to help create new healthy pathways in the brain.
- Light stretching. Light stretching helps wind down my mind, reduces any soreness I may have, and puts my body in a relaxed place to fall asleep quickly.
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Of course, your #MySmallSip moments will look different from mine because, hey, they should! We are all wonderfully unique individuals with separate needs and interests. I encourage you to implement one of your own #MySmallSip moments into your life this week and then see if you notice any other small changes as a result. And remember to make it personal. There's no better time to start building your own personal healthy lifestyle than right now.
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Light Watkins is a Santa Monica–based Vedic Meditation teacher, mindbodygreen class instructor, TEDx speaker, and author of Bliss More, How to Succeed in Meditation Without Really Trying. He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and graduated from Howard University with a bachelor's in communications. Watkins recognized his passion for teaching meditation after meeting his Guru in 2002. Following years of daily meditation, Vedic studies, and apprenticeship, he traveled to India to be trained in the ancient ways of teaching meditation. His students have used meditation to treat symptoms of PTSD, hypertension, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression, and cancer.