A LITTLE MENU OF GIFTS

TO CARE FOR YOU

(THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO)

SOUND THERAPY:

🌟listen to a soundbath! (FAVE FREE Youtube videos here—-I also love the work of Sara Auster and Taleen Kali, who has great online sound bath events for the seasons…. fill your space with sound)

🌟make a playlist of good vibes tunes — play when needed

🌟ring a bell in your home and around your body to clear the air

🌟play a singing bowl (if you have one) to also purify the energy of your space

SCENT THERAPY:

🌟 Burn ethically-sourced sage or palo santo and smudge (i.e. let the smoke clear the space) your room (here’s basic info on history, technique and places to ethically source it)

🌟Light a candle or incense with a scent you love

🌟Use scented oils for aromatherapy or just a perfume you love

WORDS:

🌟 Read favorite poems. Here are 2 good classics (totally both on birds, ha, totally different vibes): Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese /// Bukowski’s Blue Bird

🌟Work with a mantra (repeat in your mind, write on post-it notes in your home. Here’s one I love: May I be safe, happy, and at ease.

🌟Sit and meditate on Gratitude: repeat to yourself in your mind: I am grateful for ______ (and fill in the blanks…it might feel silly or strange or forced at first, but like a muscle, once you work it it grows….and then, later in the week, you may find yourself naturally noticing what you’re grateful for more since you worked the muscle!)

COLOR THERAPY:

🌟 Coloring books for adults MAY have been a “THING” a couple of years ago, but there is something really calming about picking one color (pencil, crayon, etc) at a time and filling in lines. Download some sheets here.

🌟 Consider the color in your space or outfit for the day, and see if you can shake something up: maybe you need a touch of yellow for levity, or deep green for calming

🌟If you have paints (acrylic, tempera or water) play with mixing colors. Instead of red, blue and yellow as primary consider magenta, cyan (turquoise) and yellow to get more subtle (cyan and magenta as a recipe, magenta and yellow, yellow and cyan—work toward variations of secondary colors).

POSTURE THERAPY: USING KIDS YOGA ASANA (POSE) TOOLS FOR YOU!

🌟Candle Pose (AKA Legs Up the Wall): 5 minutes = REFRESH

🌟Rock Pose (AKA Child’s Pose): 3 minutes + big breath = REFRESH

🌟Restorative Butterfly (AKA lie on your back, feet together knees apart like butterfly wings, pillows under the knees)

🌟Burrito Pose! (AKA roll yourself up in your mat….yes, this is a thing….and practice savasana this way. the feeling is one of a gentle compression blanket, and can be very calming)

🌟Reach out to OM Schooled for an Anti-Burnout class! (this is for caregivers and educators, and includes tools from yoga and creativity for self-and-community care)

WATER THERAPY:

🌟Take a bath, shower, even wash your hands and feel the energy of the water

🌟Take a walk to water (if you can) or look at some water videos on Youtube and contemplate the energy of motion~~~~~(or: condensed water!)

🌟 Drink a big glass of water

LAND THERAPY:

🌟Get grounded. Go for a walk.

🌟Take off your shoes and socks in your home and feel the floor beneath you.

🌟Massage your feet and give thanks for all they do

🌟Hold a rock.

🌟Lie in savasana and listen to a Yoga Nidra practice to guide you inward. Here’s one of my faves…FREE, from a student of Dharma Mittra’s (a favorite yoga teacher)

🌟Repeat the mantra: It is safe to be in my body

BREATH THERAPY:

🌟One hand on the heart, one hand on the belly, breathe so deeply from the belly to the heart: this is Anchor Breath

🌟I totally recommend Robert Bahedry’s  breathwork sessions! Offered via ZOOM.

🌟Take Five Breath!

MOVEMENT THERAPY:

🌟 Go. For. A. Walk.

🌟Turn on music and just free dance/ move

🌟 Take a yoga class!

WHEN IN DOUBT, NAPPPPP:

🌟Zzzzzzzzzz, seista