20 Simple ways to rebalance + recalibrate throughout the day

Need a pick me up? Replaying an icky conversation in your head? Can’t shake off the last email from your coworker?

Pretty much anything and everything that comes at us throughout the day can affect our mood and our sense of balance. When we begin to feel that afternoon crash or short-temperedness, there are more beneficial options besides reaching for a cup of coffee or writing that snarky text.

Try out a few {or all} of these other ways to reharmonize and reclaim your sense of centeredness.

The first and most obvious: drink water! Intake 200-500ml and hydrate your whole being!

For Awakening and Energizing

1. Shake

   • 2-5 minutes of full body shaking is sure move through some lingering heavy energy - just like animals do after a chase or stressful encounter!

2. Dance

   • helps to improve cardiovascular health, muscular strength, sense of balance, spatial awareness, and facilitates a form of nonverbal expression of emotions

3. Bounce - 30 seconds!

4. Jumping jacks - gently increase the heart rate to boost your energy levels! Try 20-50 jumping jacks

5. Squats - been sitting for hours? Get the chi moving back through your legs! Try 10-30 squats to activate the quads and the glutes

6. Downward Dog - reinvigorate and stretch with 30 seconds to 1 minute

7. Breath of Fire, Kapalabhati. In Sanskrit, “kapal” means “skull” or “forehead” and “bhati” means “illuminating.”

   • Inhale passively and exhale forcefully. The exhale, which requires you to contract your abdominal muscles, is the main focus.

   • This type of breath helps to relieve stress, increase concentration and build mental alertness

8. Texture / Symmetry scouting - increase your mental alertness and awareness by looking out for patterns, textures and symmetry in nature or in architecture around you

9. Cool Water Splash - whether it’s splashing your face or taking a cold shower rinse, cool water will awaken your mind and body

For Calming and Resting

1. Stretch your legs up the wall for 10 minutes

   • inverting is a great way to “rest” - ten minutes with your bum against the wall and legs up the wall is equivalent to about a 45-minute power nap

2. Child’s pose - ground and realign in child’s pose, connecting your forehead to the ground, palms flat and stretched out

3. Meditation - 2-5 minutes of gazing inward

4. Nadi Shodhan -Nadi = subtle energy channel; Shodhan = cleaning, purification - this is a calming and balancing breath alternating inhales and exhales through each nostril - find full directions here

5. Savasana - give yourself 5 or 10 minutes of resting directly on the ground or a mat, allowing the nervous system to decompress

6. Kidney and Lung awakening - stand with your knees slightly and ease fully bent. Begin to gently sway and as your arms swing to either side, allow alternating closed fists to rhythmically tap your kidney points of the lower back and lung point of the high chest. 30 seconds to 2 minutes of this creates soft awakening, balance, and fluidity in the Chi flow

7. Barefeet - take your shoes off and bring your awareness to the points of contact between the soles of your feet and the ground. Spread your toes, gently pushing each of them individually into the Earth.

8. Cat or Dog therapy - Rest and digest by petting a furry friend for a few minutes!

9. Earthing - find a nice patch of grass to lay down with. Putting a sarong or even with direct contact, placing the palms of your hands or laying face down on the ground. See if you can hear, feel or sync up with the Earth’s beat.

10. Shinrin Yoku, “Forest bathing” - surround yourself with foliage and bask in the color green, activating the heart chakra and expanding the lungs for some fresh Oxygen