UNDER THE KIMONO:MY BEST PRACTICES

HELLO boys and girls, ladies and germs welcome to the blog.

Today I want to share some of my daily rituals and practices that I do which have had a significant impact on me.

Before we begin I really want you to understand that these are the practices that have helped me attack the day with increased focus and productivity. Some of these practices might help you or might be completely irrelevant to you, but before you discard any activity please ask yourself why am I discarding this activity.

is it because it does not work for me?

or

because I am too lazy or scared to try it?

Your choices are completely personal but I urge you to at least try these practices and then determine if they work for you or not.

so let's begin.

1)GOLDEN HOUR

--the morning is the time of my day that really sets up my tone for the rest of the day.

I have a 60 minute morning routine that I perform every morning regardless of the time I wake up. the basis of this routine is to start your morning slow and focused as opposed to the usual chaos.

the 60 minutes are divided into three 20 minute equivalents.

the first 20 minutes are spaced out for reading, especially books which optimize your mindset and give you an idea for the rest of the day.

the next 20 mins are for exercising, this isn't my main workout but I use this time for priming my body.try doing some push-ups and sun saturation. I personally practice acro-yoga these days. you can find more about acro yoga on acroyoga.org

the last 20 mins are for meditation and gratitude.these days I meditate for 15 minutes and the rest of the time is allotted for gratitude where I count my blessings.

my meditation comprises of awareness of breath(AOB).if you are new to meditation, you can try the 10  minutes programme by headspace, it's completely free.

so this is my morning routine which sets the tone for my day.it comprises of the activities I like to do plus it has many benefits for the mind and the body.

2)NO SCREEN UNTIL 11 AM

--I usually wake up at 5 am and I first check my phone at 11 AM, this ritual is extremely beneficial to block unwanted distractions and external dopamine spiking.it gives you a few hours of extreme solitude and focus where you can complete your difficult tasks.

I highly recommend you give it a try, you can start by not looking at your screens for 1 hour after you wake up.

3)DAILY ACTIVITIES WITH CONSCIOUS EFFORT

--performing your daily activities with the utmost attention and complete focus is the key to getting into the zone or being in a flow state. I avoid multi-tasking so that I can have a complete focus on whatever activity I do.

a common example could be eating without watching television or listening to music.

believe me, when I say this when you eat your meal without any distraction by being grateful for each bite, the food will taste a lot better and your experience with food will take quantum leaps.

so try focusing on one task at hand,

eat without distraction,

work without having multiple tabs into your background open,

it will be much easy to be in the moment and be in the zone.

4)ALTERNATING BETWEEN HIGH FOCUS AND DEEP REST

my whole day is between periods of high intense focus or deep relaxation, nothing in between. anything in between just adds up to your stress as you are trying to achieve something but you are not giving it the focus it requires.

Either I am working or resting, I don't bother about my work when I'm resting and vice versa.

also, if you are working hard all the time or resting all the time, both are a form of laziness. if you think you can work hard all the time, you seriously need to reconsider this.

STOP BEING BUSY BEING BUSY.

5)NO SCREEN BEFORE AN HOUR OF GOING TO BED

--turning off all devices before an hour of going to bed has helped me with much better sleep.as the blue light affects melatonin thus affecting your sleep.cutting of blue light will optimize your sleep.

remember sleep is the best performance-enhancing drug.

a good night sleep pays off, so start treating sleep like a priority.

6)JOURNAL

--I use two types of journals,

• morning pages
• 5-minute journal

The 5-minute journal is the journal where I write my daily goals and track my progress daily.

I also record and track my workouts in the 5-minute journal.

I use the morning pages when I am not feeling as inspired or productive. if I feel overwhelmed or I just need to handle my emotions, that's where the morning pages come into the picture.

the morning pages are just random writings about how I feel at a particular moment. I try to get all my emotions and distractions out so that I could focus on my day.

7)READING/PODCAST

--Reading or watching/listening a podcast are my go-to ways to make a day meaning full, no matter how unproductive I have been throughout my day reading or listening to a podcast just for 15-20 minutes gives me a new perspective, gives me the wisdom to make better choices .in fact whatever I know is by listening to a podcast and reading books.

I even possess a notebook which contains notes of the podcast I have watched.

so, these were my seven go-to rituals to keep my performance up.

Implement what's best for you and leave the rest.

GOODBYE!

"

YOU DONT RISE TO THE LEVEL OF YOUR EXPECTATION,

YOU FALL TO THE LEVEL OF YOUR TRAINING

"