Since No Junk Week went so well, I thought I would challenge myself to another experiment.

I want to spend a half hour at the beginning of each day doing some movement meditation. I love to dance/stretch to music… It’s  my own intuitive mash-up  blend of yoga and dance together. It basically involves putting on some tunes and moving my body to them in whatever way it wants. It usually results in some dancing, some swaying and some stretching at various intervals. It also tends to be a fusion of belly dance with some weird modern lyrical thrown in. I keep a rhythmic movement going, even when I’m holding a stretch. It’s fun,  random, satisfying and I always feel amazing when I spend some time like that.  I don’t normally do it often enough! Usually when I’m at home, I’ll hoop dance as opposed to any other physical activity and while that’s great for my hoop skills, it leaves my body wanting more.

Since I’m not a morning person typically, this will be a challenge in and of itself. I would say that I could do it anytime of day, but I recently read a blog post on Elephant Journal (which I can’t seem to find now that I’m searching for it) that made some fantastic points about practicing in the morning rather than in the evening. While an evening practice is fantastic to unwind from the stress of the day, a morning practice is a way to prepare for it. The premise is that if you start your day with some exercise, centering and grounding your day will have the foundation in place to handle anything that life throws your way. It makes sense to me, but as someone who has always thought getting up any earlier than I had to was a waste of precious sleep time it’s going to be a big leap of faith.

A half hour at home seems far more do-able than getting up 2 hours early for a yoga class anyway, not to mention I can groove as well and just hop in the shower. It might be a great way to wake up… We’ll see how it goes.