Time saving tips for busy yogis

 

As a busy Mum the most common question I get around Yoga, meditation, wholefoods and cooking from scratch is how do you find the time? Well for one thing, its been and is a ‘work in progress’. Lots of taking on to much and then shifting to too little. As with all things finding balance is key and not being afraid to make mistakes along the way.

The rest… well it’s organisation, perspiration, tips, tricks, support and a lot of initiative, planning and of course being a little flexible (in the mental sense).

So to help things along (and me along) Here are some time saving IDEAS to try ; )

1.Hot desk, web call and learn online

In the last decade the way we work has had a revolution. It’s now easier than ever to work from home and you don’t have to work from home to learn how those that do, work smarter not harder.

Companies call it Unified Communications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_communications in short in is a vast array of technology based solutions available to us whenever and wherever we can get online. It allows us to link to a pool of resources and knowledge and you don’t have to be a corporate worker bee to take advantage. Thanks to SKYPE it is now possible to have a nutritionist based in LA, a therapist in Australia and take Yoga classes live from India. You can source the best people to meet your specific needs without evening leaving the house. I’ve been able to schedule in a host of short courses by combining weekend workshops with online weekly sessions. It’s meant I can study 4-6 hours a week from home without having to factor in travel time or childcare. What I love about it most I can rock up in my robe for ‘Go to meetings’, maybe trouble myself to brush my hair if i’m booked into a Skype call. Minimum effort maximum results…….lovely!

Cutting out a commute or even just the journey to the gym can reap simple rewards for our health like more time to exercise or prepare something healthy for dinner. Web based solutions like http://movementformodernlife.com/ are transforming our options to pack more into our days. I say if your going to pack more in, let it be stuff that feeds your wellbeing. I’m loving these You tube ‘how to’s’ from my favorite nutrition and health blogger Mckel Hill https://www.youtube.com/user/nutritionstripped

Particularly as parents were pushed to make the puzzle pieces fit. I love tuning in to Ted talks https://www.ted.com/talks/browse whilst i’m prepping dinner and the kids are in bed. Recently I’ve been using that 1 – 3pm babies nap window to dial into Webinars twice a week or I book into webinars I know will run live at 8pm after I’ve tucked them up and eaten dinner.

If your not familiar with what the online world has to offer, start a little research in your area of interest and see what comes up.

Ever considered asking your boss to work one day from home? If She’s a savvy business woman she’ll likely jump at the chance. keeping site overheads low having employees work from home is all the rage these days.

2. Nutritional Supplements/Boosters

Supplements can be a controversial thing. As someone put it to me today, think of them as boosters to top up what you can already achieve with a healthy diet. Supplements were never meant to replace a balanced diet and my including them in TST Tuesday does not mean to infer they are a shortcut to skip nutrient rich foods.

What I have found in my experience of 10 years of taking high quality supplements is that they can support our individual and unique systems and especially in times of stress, trauma or when there is a high level of free radical damage in the body. If we have poor digestion and intestinal function we also won’t necessarily absorb all the nutrition our food has to offer. A good probiotic can be life changing – literally. It has been proven that today on average in the US a tomato has a 10th of the nutrients it had 50 years ago. Mostly due to farming methods, nutrient depleted soils and production from land to supermarket shelf this is not unique to tomatoes : )

Many high street supplements are laden with additives, bulking agents and artificial sweeteners. You need to look to leading world brands like DoTERRA to know your spending your hard earned cash on products you can trust. Products that have been well tested and produced as cleanly and low chemically as possible.

Don’t take my word for it, do your research, see a specialist, read up, look at Omegas and Zinc and B complexes and then make up your own mind. Most importantly try them out and see how they fair for you. For me they quite possibly saved my life. Enough said.

3. Leftovers are your best friend!

Plan ahead/ consider how to use your left overs before you get to hungry to focus and end reaching for the take away menu
package and store them appropriately so the next day they are still appealing
Remember the freezer

4. Have fast ‘go to’ meals that can save the day!

15 minutes and under my top 5

Stir fry’s
Saute fresh fish with steamed veggies
Pesto (quality jar or homemade) with zucchini spaghetti, Spelt spaghetti or buckwheat Soba noodles
Smoked salmon with avocado salad and new potatoes
Gram flour flatbreads with humous or guocamole, salad greens, chunky tomatoes & fresh herbs and a handful of mixed or toasted seeds

5. 7 / 11 Breathing

What all yogi’s know is that a stressed and over pressured nervous system can be calmed rapidly using breath techniques that deepen and calm the breath.

this 7/11 technique is great for anyone yet to develop a breathing practice that they can look to in times of duress and need something instant and super simple to remember.

In fact it is beyond simple – just breath in for 7 and out for 11 then breath this way for a few minutes. Find an Infographic to download on resources page.

6. Find your Time wasters!

We all have habits that have so long been part of our routines that we perhaps no longer see how much of our time and life they may be unnecessarily swallowing up.

For one week keep a track of where time gets wasted day to day. For example I have this habit of not checking my train times (knowing there’s a few services an hour) I rock up to find I have 15 minutes to kill on a shabby platform. I procrastinate about house work – one of my biggest time wasters is dragging my feet over chores rather than just cracking on and getting it done. Phone checking and Facebook can swallow eons of my time and a balance around this can buy you greater well being as well as freedom from time wasting.

Some of your habits (like my affection for Coffee shops). Are simply there for keeps. I often plan my journey with extra time to grab a chai tea, it eats time and i just can’t help it.

There time eating habits I’ve curbed in the name of motherhood, multi-tasking and a multitude of sins!! Here’s some time traps to look out for

Not writing things down or keeping notes
Excessive list making
Not knowing where to find your keys and phone
Not keeping an up to date address book or contacts
poorly planned travel
Not batch cooking and utilizing freezer and storage
Gossiping
Facebook/Social media
Trash TV
Saying yes when you mean NO

7. Designate days!

I don’t really like structure, in fact i used to run from it. My hubby loves it……and its growing on me…….as a staple for family life…… setting aside days(or nights) each week that become the regular slot for things like

grocery shopping
cleaning your home
exercise
relaxation
date night
having friends over
to name but a few. The structure helps to fit some important things that can otherwise slip into a busy schedule. You can also be very clear when other commitments come along and develop a sense of discipline about keeping to your priorities.

If like me you don’t like things too predictable, keep the routine but be creative with the content.

8. Do less and learn to say no!

OK so before you jump on me for this one here’s the thing; we are really good at a) convincing ourselves we are indispensable, to our families, to our employers, to our partners and b) believing we must ‘be’ and ‘do’ more to better ourselves in all areas of our lives. As frustrating as it may be to our plans to postpone a course, delay an initiative or face another pay review without having the MBA that would shift the scale sometimes there is prioritising that needs to happen and not always in the order we might like it to happen. Like the demands of a young family for example or when our health is compromised. Sometimes we need to do less.

Sometimes we just need to work ALOT more efficiently. I LOVE THESE TIPS from one of my favorite bloggers, I’ve followed him for a year or so now and he always comes up trumps http://zenhabits.net/the-essential-time-saving-guide-for-busy-people/.

I quoted the book – The Success Principles earlier today by Jack Canfeild of Chicken soup for the soul fame. I haven’t read it for about 10 years but a few things really struck me, one of which was the idea that there’s not much point pruning the bushes and mowing your lawns every week if you hate gardening and in the three hours it takes you could pay a gardener £7 an hour but bill £35 an hour doing your own job. If your entrepreneurial. freelance or get overtime options consider the concept of speculate to accumulate – buy the help you need to keep life running smoothly and to keep yourself in tip top shape to pull the extra hours, that actually make life more profitable in the end.

If you are completely incapable of saying NO, (I used to be), start tomorrow. Do yourself and other people the valued lesson of honesty and respect; yes when you mean yes, no when you mean no and never ever ‘yes’ when you mean no! Enough

8. Make a healthy breakfast happen fast.

Breakfast helps wake you up. Studies show that people who eat breakfast are more alert and do better on tests than people who skip breakfast. Conversely, a hungry child can be apathetic, disinterested, and irritable when confronted with difficult tasks. Pretty sure this applies to grown ups too.

Breakfast is your chance to eat the foods you may not eat the rest of the day. Cram in the health and nutrients early to relax a little later. Skipping breakfast makes you grouchy. Studies show that people who eat breakfast tend to be in better moods (when I’m hungry – watch out!). Breakfast gets you started on the right track for the day. If you start out with a healthy breakfast, then you set the mood for lunch. You’re more likely to choose something reasonable for lunch if you’ve paid some attention to your breakfast choices.

Avoid anything sugary or with refined sugars especially first thing – they cause a blood sugar dip a couple of hours later. You’ll be desperate for something to perk you up, and are more likely to grab another high-sugar refined carb, for a quick sugar rush. Likewise go for a satisfying slow burn bowl of oats and you’ll be efficiently powering along all morning.

Breakfast makes your machine run better. Get yourself on schedule with a healthy breakfast and you’re sure to save time later.

9. Yoga Nidra.

Well before you start to wonder how Yoga Nidra is a time saving tip let me just tell you that some enthusiasts consider Yoga Nidra (a very deep form of relaxation) as revitalizing as 8 hours sleep. That’s gotta be tempting and time saving. So for those days you just haven’t been able to get as much shut eye as required and before you reach for the coffee pot late afternoon maybe consider a different kind of time out. Yoga Nidra brings an incredible calmness, quietness and clarity it is one of the deepest of all meditations, leading awareness through many levels of mental process to a state of supreme stillness and insight.

Yoga Nidra means Yogic Sleep. It is a state of conscious Deep Sleep. In Meditation, you remain in the Waking state of consciousness, and gently focus the mind, while allowing thought patterns, emotions, sensations, and images to arise and go on. However, in Yoga Nidra, you leave the Waking state, go past the Dreaming state, and go to Deep Sleep, yet remain awake. While Yoga Nidra is a state that is very relaxing, it is also used by Yogis to purify the Samskaras, the deep impressions that are the driving force behind Karma.*

You can find yoga classes both restorative, yin classes or more physical practices that will often include Yoga Nidra’s. Ask at your local studios or search online.

I highly recommend trying the downloads available through Yoga Nidra Network they are the best available online and currently free http://www.yoganidranetwork.org/downloads

*http://www.swamij.com/yoga-nidra.htm

10. Invest in a brilliant blender.

The prices might make you wince but I cannot rave enough about the blissful benefits of my my high power blender.

Especially if you want to eat well as efficiently and economically as possible. So most high power blenders can knock up a perfect smoothie (not chewy or lumpy) in around 50 seconds. A soup in about 3-4 minutes and in a minute or so nut milks, nut butters, dip, batters and any other kind of blend your imagination can take.

I have a BLENDTEC which i think is great value for money at around £350 http://www.blendtec.com/

The Vitamix is the market favourite and retails around about £500 https://www.vitamix.co.uk/

The Thermomix is on my ‘one day’ list at around a whopping £900 its practically from outerspace : ) http://thermomix.vorwerk.co.uk/

You can also find lots of site comparing the three against each other and a ton of reviews.

 

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