Five habits for a happier and productive you

It’s not what you do once every year that is going to allow you to live a legendary life, it’s what you do every single day — Robin Sharma

I live in New York City and the pace of the Big Apple can sometimes drive you versus you driving your life. Over the past year I came up with 5 simple daily habits which help me live those moments more consciously and productively.

Early to rise….

I was a night person — would sleep past midnight and struggle to get up in the morning. My mornings were rushed with enough time to get up, dress up and rush for work. Eventually my body told me to slow down my mornings.

I now wake up an hour or more before my usual time and spend that time with myself. As a result, I notice myself reaching my workplace relaxed and unfrazzled. It is a great start to the day by focusing on self-nourishment before you give back to the world throughout the day

Make my bed….

Believe it or not, I did not make my bed every day. Now I get up with the alarm and make my bed before I do anything else. Not only does this simple 1-minute task make me feel productive (first item of the day completed), but also encourages me not to jump back in bed. Most importantly, every evening, I come back to a clean bed and that is a wonderful feeling.

Drink warm water

My first drink is not coffee! I do drink coffee, but later in the morning. My first drink is warm cup of water that helps me flush out toxins. The feeling of holding a warm cup of water and looking out my window is the one thing I look forward to everyday. Our body is still waking up when we open our eyes and nourishing it with some lukewarm water (with or without lime), helps add Agni (fire) to it.

Chew!

This has been revolutionary for me. My digestion was often in flux even though I ate clean and in right sized portions. In one of my Ayurveda courses, we were encouraged to chew our food well before swallowing. One of the tricks I adopted is to put my spoon down before I take the next bite.

I definitely eat slower, but my digestion is so much better. If there was one habit I would ask you to pick up, it would be chewing! The habit also helps right size portions because with time between swallows, you can listen to your body and gauge if you are truly hungry or if you are going for that serving out of habit.

Ask myself one important question….

Every morning, I sit down and write down a question that I want to answer — ‘How do I want to live this day that will not come again’. It is a powerful question that awakens me to the reality that the 86,400 seconds in this day are not going to come back tomorrow.

Time is a one-way street and realizing this was ground breaking for me! I write down the simplest thing I want to do and remember that consciously through the day. Sometimes I write down a few bullets, but most often I identify a theme to live my day by. The themes might include — forgiveness, gratitude, humor. Rarely, the bullets might look include:

a. Smile often

b. Go for a walk during lunch and be aware that you are in the sun

c. Focus on your breathing as much as possible through the day

d. Call your parents and give them warm and comforting energy

e. This day is about forgiveness

All these five activities are simple and are based on the foundation of carrying out your day with awareness. When you are consciously engaged in these activities, your mind is not in flux. You can start just with one of these five activities for 21 days and feel the feedback! Intuitively, your body will communicate if you are headed in the right direction and if you are ready to add some more daily habits.

Would love to hear some of your daily nourishing habits!