Back On Track Challenge Day 1

The Back on Track experience is all about helping you to do the practical work that you need to do, to get back on track.

On day 1, we explore the morning routine options and tune into what you want it to be for you.

Transcript

Welcome to this Back on Track Experience Challenge Day 1.

I'm Claudia Sam,

And I'm your Soul Connection Coach.

I'm so excited because the Back on Track Challenge is all about helping you do the practical work that you've been waiting to do to get back on track.

And one of the things I hear the most often is,

I want to have my morning routine up and running.

I want to do the yoga and the meditation and the breathing and the walking and the affirmation and the positive,

All of it,

But I sleep in or I think I should go to bed earlier or I don't have time or I don't commit to it or I don't stick to it.

Does that feel like sometimes that's you?

Yeah.

So we're going to explore that together.

The first portion of this Day 1 is going to be just me sharing a little bit about what my morning routine looks like.

This is called the Absolute Guide to Happiness and Health,

15 Yogic Lifestyle Steps.

Now,

This is a document that I created after I came back from Nepal,

And I'm going to walk you through it.

And one thing I want to remind you of at this time is that this isn't like a have to thing.

This isn't this is the only way for you to get back on track and feel happy and healthy.

No,

No.

This is an example.

And if at any point what I'm saying has you feeling like,

Oh,

This is like a lot,

This feels forced,

This feels rigid,

Scratch it,

And we're going to tune into what feels good for you.

So the first portion,

You can tell my excitement.

The first portion of this chat today is going to be me sharing my experience,

Walking you through the document,

And then we're going to dive into coaching.

So we're going to dive into what are resistances that might come up for you to feel back on track,

To feel like your routine is something that works for you.

For example,

One of my clients once said,

I really need to have a gratitude journal.

I want to have the gratitude journal,

And I have to do it,

But I don't do it.

Oh,

You have to do it?

There's the rigidity.

As soon as you think you have to do something,

That doesn't work,

Okay?

So there's the energy behind it.

We can use the word have to without the energy of I have to.

We're just being aware of the use of that word.

About that example,

What was happening for her is that she was writing the gratitudes like a list.

Like,

Okay,

I'm grateful for that.

I'm grateful for this thing.

I'm grateful for that thing.

There was no feeling.

There was no feeling of the gratitude.

There was no accessibility to the feeling of gratitude.

So it just felt like another list she had to tick off.

So that wasn't working for her.

So we found a way that she could incorporate the feeling she wanted out of the gratitude journal and made it into an intention-setting practice because for her,

That's what worked.

So we're gonna today find what works for you.

For sure,

You can send me an email,

Find me on Facebook.

I'm accessible.

We can chat.

I can help you through that.

I'm gonna tell you a story.

I don't know if you know this story.

I lived in Nepal and I lived in an ashram where the first day that I slept there,

My bed was stuck to the wall of like,

Imagine that this is like the boys' bathroom and my bed was like stuck to it.

And while I was sleeping,

I could hear,

You know,

The bathroom noises of boys.

It was not fun.

And I was freaking out also because the bed was like super hard.

Oh,

I was like,

What am I doing there?

I shouldn't be here.

Totally disconnected from the actual idea that I was connected to,

Which was I'm connecting back to me.

I'm tuning back in to who I am,

That I had forgotten that because I was stuck to the wall of the boys' bathroom.

In Nepal,

In that ashram,

I learned to cultivate inner peace,

Inner calm,

To make decisions from a place of clarity.

And I eventually moved the bed and had a mattress made for me.

When I was in the ashram,

There was a strict daily practice.

We would wake up before the sun.

We would take our shower before we meditated so that we didn't clean the energy off of the body.

We had to be in silent all the way until the yoga class that lasted three hours.

And the yoga class was very structured in the same way every day.

And it was beautiful for the body,

Beautiful for the mind.

And when you take that kind of structure and that rigidity,

Even after the yoga class,

We were eating,

But in silence,

It was all beautiful.

And when I got back home to the Western world,

That didn't work.

I couldn't wake up with the sun every day when I didn't have the same mountain view.

I mean,

I could,

But I didn't.

Actually,

It's not true that I didn't.

I did it for like a few months and then I realized how hard it was.

Like it was more difficult to try to fit the Nepal lifestyle into the,

I was living in New Zealand then,

To the New Zealand lifestyle.

It just,

It didn't match.

So I developed tools to help me recognize,

Okay,

What works for me?

Can I make this work for me?

Can I access the same feeling I'm getting when I'm doing three hours of yoga?

Can I access that another way?

Let's play.

So that's what I did.

The yogic lifestyle,

Yoga means to unite,

To relate to ourselves,

To connect to ourselves,

To be in connection with ourselves and the world.

And a yogic routines means to regularly choose a way of living that doesn't harm who we are,

That doesn't harm others,

That doesn't harm us.

So if you're forcing yourself into a routine,

That might be harming for you.

So it wouldn't be like a yogic routine.

And if you don't wanna use the word yogic,

Don't use it,

Okay?

This is just to give you an idea of when I created this,

I'd come back from there.

And so the first step that I invite you and that I do,

This is,

These are all things that I do.

So we're gonna talk about it.

In the morning routine,

I make sure that I do not look at my phone before I consciously wake up.

Well,

Now that our alarms are on our phone,

I mean,

We look at the phone,

Right?

Because it's on the phone and my phone is in airplane mode.

So I don't see the pop-up of ding,

Ding,

Dings.

I don't see my emails.

I don't see any messages.

I am solely focused on my breath.

So the step one is just basically choosing you first.

That means no phone,

No messages,

Nothing else than maybe your breath,

Maybe feeling the sheets on your body,

Feeling the weight of your body in the bed,

Taking a conscious choice that this is the start to your day.

You get to choose you first.

This is the first thing that you do in the morning.

It says so much.

So for me,

My phone is on airplane mode because I don't want the frequencies of the Wi-Fi to go all around my body while I sleep.

And I try to have a gentle alarm,

Like bird sounds or a nice mantra song that I like.

I love songs from Beautiful Chorus.

Beautiful Chorus is a great band that I like to,

Like they have beautiful mantras and gentle sounds.

So I like to wake up to that.

Okay,

Step two,

Keep your phone off.

I mean,

Okay,

Same step kind of.

Notice how this is pretty much,

In other words,

An invitation to go in first versus going out to the world,

Taking the phone and going,

Okay,

I'm gonna respond to these people first,

Or I'm gonna look at the news,

Or I'm gonna look at Instagram or Facebook.

That is outward energy.

And that easily grasps or easily sets the tone for the rest of the day,

Where actually you get to choose you to tune in first.

If it's taking one conscious breath,

Let that be okay.

If it's 10,

Let that be okay.

Just touching my feet helps me feel grounded.

Another way to feel grounded is when you wake up and stand,

Right?

You come from a horizontal to a vertical position of your body.

Well,

What I like to do is that the first thing I do when I sit up and place my feet on the earth is that I will take breaths connected to my feet,

As if my feet had lungs and I could maybe lift my toes,

Just really connect my feet with the earth.

And that has changed the way I move through the day because instead of waking up and right away fast going out of bed,

Fast taking on the next action,

Fast going to the next appointment,

Why do we need to do that?

Can we tune in again and just fully connect?

Our body was horizontal for so many hours.

Now we're moving vertically.

Let's like be kind to the body in that way.

That works for me.

The step four is a gratitude practice.

I like to tune into my heart and align with any thing that I'm happy about,

Anything I'm proud of,

Anything I'm grateful for.

And this can be one thing,

This can be two things,

This can be how many things you want.

The important piece here that you get to even play with in this video is that you get to feel it.

For example,

I am so proud of myself for having taken care of my body.

Last night,

For some reason,

My arm couldn't lift up.

I couldn't lift up my arm.

I don't know what was there,

But I couldn't lift it up.

And so I put ice,

I went to bed early.

I knew that it was energetically a thing,

That it was all the emotions that was creating this.

So I didn't overthink,

I didn't panic.

So this morning when I woke up,

I was really feeling grateful for,

Wow,

I can move my arm.

Wow,

I can move my arm.

This is so fun.

So like one thing to be grateful for,

Maybe it's,

Wow,

These sheets are so warm.

So grateful to have a cozy bed.

Thank you,

Life.

Anything that has you be in gratitude for the new day.

If you feel curious about your dreams,

I like,

I carry around a journal and I write down anything that the morning's creativity brings up.

Is there a dream that I dreamed about that there was a weird message in or something,

A symbol I want to crack,

Or is there something I heard in my dream I want to remember?

Or is there something that has me go for my phone quickly for the to-do list,

But I don't want to take the action right now.

I just don't want to forget.

You can write it down.

So you don't automatically go in the go,

Go,

Go mode.

That's basically connecting with any messages that you receive.

We're getting pretty personal here.

Go to the bathroom,

Go to the bathroom.

Close,

Shut the lid,

Shut the lid.

Now in feng shui,

This is where the practice of how the energy circulates in the house.

The toilet is a symbol of prosperity.

So to keep abundance from going down the drain,

Shutting the lid is important.

And what one of the things that is also,

Physically important is that you pee before you have a stool.

But I think everyone who's here is pretty healthy and that that happens.

One bowel movement a day is also really important.

And I have to say that that took me a really long time because before I did yoga,

Before I started this and have been in this journey of self-care and self-development,

I think I used to go to the bathroom like once every six days.

Like that is constipation intense.

So when I was in Nepal and they had us do like a cleansing where they do not do this at home,

Okay?

They had us drink salted water with a little bit of lime juice just so that it tasted not so bad.

And the salt in the water had us go to the stool.

But if you are constipated like me,

Going to the bathroom every four or five or six days,

Wow,

That totally had me so bloated.

And it was one of the worst experiences of my life because it was clogging everything up.

It wasn't helpful.

My body wasn't circulating the toxins.

It wasn't relieving of the toxins as often.

So if you feel like you are like how I used to be going to the bathroom every four or five,

Six days,

Maybe look into that because it's important that you evacuate every day.

One test that you can do,

Okay?

Please disclaimer,

I'm not a doctor.

This is based on my own experience.

You can have beets,

Red beets,

Eat them once a day.

And then notice when your stool comes out red because then it tells you how often,

How fast your bowel movement goes.

I mean,

It's just a,

I think it's like a fun little thing to go,

Oh,

Just out of curiosity,

But it's not meant to like be determining your health in a direct way.

It's just a little test you could do.

Okay,

The tongue scraper.

I like to do that because we accumulate a lot of things in our mouth,

A lot of germs,

A lot of goo that we just wanna take out.

And so scraping the tongue,

It helps the circulation.

So when we scrape the tongue,

We're not only activating the tongue and the taste buds,

We are helping that there's nothing that goes down,

Nothing that's stagnant in the mouth that goes down the throat and stays there and creates more mucus.

And that might contribute to a cold or any sinus thing.

So I do that every morning,

Every night,

Every time I brush my teeth.

This is also a practice of Ayurveda.

It's,

Ayurveda is like the science of life and they have morning routine tools and tips according to your constitution.

So if ever you do wanna,

You're curious about Ayurveda,

It's just A-Y-U-R-V-E-D-A.

And my friend,

Kendra Irvin at Living Light Ayurveda,

She does consultations and I highly recommend checking her out.

I like to shower with like peppermint essential oil or eucalyptus or anything that will help me breathe clearly and will open up my sinuses.

So either I will breathe with peppermint essential oil in the palms of my hands,

Either I will put the Easy Air Blend from doTERRA in the shower,

Either I will do the neti pot to help relieve any sinuses from clogging.

Okay,

So step 10 is that I make the bed because the feng shui generally helps in the bedroom.

It represents general success.

So it's kind of saying,

I'm not leaving any clutter,

I'm not leaving anything undone.

I'm making my bed,

I'm getting dressed in a way that makes me feel aligned with how I wanna feel.

So here I wrote,

Get into your yoga wear,

But if you don't wanna go and do yoga,

You don't have to wear yoga wear.

I like to tune into how I wanna feel today and then I'm gonna look at my wardrobe and go,

Ooh,

This will help me feel that way.

Like today,

I'm wearing like a one piece long blue dress and that's how I want it to feel today,

Kind of like if I was going out to somewhere in my own office and it works to help me feel aligned with that.

Drink water.

Now you can drink water anytime during these steps.

In Nepal,

We learned to scrape the tongue before you drink anything.

Scrape the tongue and brush your teeth before you ingest anything.

So that's what I've been doing most of the time.

If I forget,

Like if I just need water right away and it's in the middle of the night,

I'm not gonna go scrape my tongue.

The whole point is to not be so strict and rigid with yourself.

I like to take one drop of essential oil in my water.

You can squeeze lemon,

You don't have to.

This is really great to just promote a natural detox in the body.

It wakes you up as well.

This is just a suggestion.

You can,

You know,

Some people like to just play with their water and add like cut cucumbers or strawberries that they have or whatever,

Just to be fun and make water drinking less boring.

Okay,

When we get to step 12,

This is where you get to choose.

Am I going for my walk?

Am I gonna do a few stretches?

Am I gonna take a yoga class?

Am I gonna just focus on breathing?

What am I going to choose to connect with my body?

Sometimes,

Honestly,

I just go outside and I hug a tree and I feel like I'm connected.

And other times I'm gonna do a Zumba class.

And other times I'm gonna do just meditation.

And other times I'm gonna do,

Yeah,

A yoga class.

The purpose of this step is not to force a specific practice but it's to tune into how you wanna feel and what will help you do that.

Because when you're focusing on how you wanna feel first,

That becomes your anchor.

You're not letting yourself be forced into like a gratitude practice or a yoga practice or walking 15 miles because you said you would do that.

That has a forceful effect that kind of has you disconnect from your truth,

From your intuition,

From what you really want.

So my suggestion here is to just tune in.

What feels good today?

And notice if the mind is trying to negotiate with you and say,

Oh,

You don't need to move today.

Notice if that's true,

If that's really what your body needs or if that's the mind saying something just to negotiate and try to be right and be honest with yourself and tune in.

Okay,

Step 13,

How do I wanna feel?

I've been talking about this throughout this whole guide that you can always keep tuning in.

How do I wanna feel?

What is my word for today?

What is my intention for today?

And this can be really fast.

Like you can look at yourself in the mirror as you brush your teeth and go,

Wow,

I get to flow today.

I get to be in flow today,

Period.

So it can be that simple.

This step was super beneficial for me.

Step 14,

To sit in thunder pose.

That means on your ankles was super helpful for me when I was not going to the bathroom like every day because the heels will go just under the buttocks and they will activate digestion.

So that is a super powerful pose.

Sometimes when I feel like I need to activate the bowel movement,

I'll sit like this.

So this is a suggestion,

You can try it out.

You know,

In countries like Turkey,

Nepal,

India,

People go to the bathroom,

Not sitting on a bowl.

They crouch like when you would do a squat,

When you do a squat,

Because there was a hole in the ground.

But it's a little bit like that pose where the knees are closer.

I mean,

That it looks like,

You know,

We're sitting like in a chair some way,

But the heels help with like acupuncture,

Acupressure type of thing.

And when you're squatting,

What you're doing is that you are massaging your ascending and descending colon.

So when your knees are closer to your tummy,

You're massaging the belly.

So that helps with going to the bathroom.

So actually a little personal tip,

I keep a yoga block next to my toilet.

So that,

This is very personal.

If I feel like it's not so smooth and so flowy,

Well,

I'll put my feet on the yoga block so it elevates my knees a little bit.

Works every time.

Last,

Last step here is to take any food intake,

Any nutrition for your body in the morning.

Coffee is not breakfast.

Tea is not breakfast.

So anything that will help you feel nourished and give the fuel to your body with full presence.

That means there's a difference between taking like a peanut butter toast and like roaming around in your house,

Doing all the tasks that you wanna do while eating and actually taking three breaths with your peanut butter toast and being fully conscious of how and what you're eating.

And if we really look into this,

This nourishment is really in connection with the word presence.

You can be present with drinking your water.

You can be present with eating a full breakfast.

You can be present by taking your vitamins.

You can be present in any way.

So this is just a suggestion.

It's kind of like a baby step map to those who,

For those who need it.

And I'd love to ask you a question and coaching about this.

Let's exhale together.

Inhale,

Exhale.

Just take a moment to tune in to your heartbeat,

Tune in to the present moment and tune in to what has you be here?

What has you be here in this call?

What's the flame that you have about creating a morning routine for yourself?

What's the desire of a morning routine really about?

And go ahead and write that down.

So what has you be here on this back on track call and what is it about a morning routine that has you need it?

Great.

Now that we just looked at what the desire of a morning routine really is about,

We get to tune in to what's worked in the past.

So the question now is what has worked for you in the past and what has not?

Now,

Maybe there used to be an energy of,

I have to do this or I need to do this.

And perhaps holding on in that way didn't work for you.

Didn't work for you.

What has worked for you in the past and what has not?

Every few weeks,

Perhaps because it's difficult to stay consistent with something that is a need to or a have to.

So the next question here is,

What would you want your new morning routine experience to be like?

What would you want your new morning routine experience to be like?

Now,

We're not planning the routine per se yet.

It's not about the tangible thing right now.

We're looking for how will it feel,

This new morning routine,

When you prioritize yourself,

What will open up for you within you?

What's the deep experience that you want?

For example,

You might choose to say,

Hey,

Regardless of how my energy is,

My morning routine will always respect the wholeness of who I am.

I want an experience of self-respect.

So you get to tune in right now.

What would you want your new morning routine experience to be like?

A question I received was,

I struggle most with my morning routine because of getting up on time to do it.

So either I have to work on my sleep schedule so I can get up in the morning earlier,

Or,

Earlier,

Or I have to trim down my AM routine desires.

And her desires are meditation,

Tapping a little bit like what I was explaining at the beginning.

There's all these things that we wanna do,

But this does not include showering and getting ready for work.

Although my routine is about an hour long,

I barely wake in time to get ready for work.

And now she feels defeated because she doesn't do it often.

She wants to feel refreshed,

Accomplished,

Motivated,

Productive,

And clear on her day and the objectives.

To feel refreshed,

Accomplished,

And motivated,

Productive,

Clear on your day and on your objectives,

What I recommended about not being so hard on yourself and saying,

This is the only way I need to go.

And one question that I would add for all of you is if you go about how you wanna feel,

So in this case,

You wanna feel refreshed,

Let's keep one word.

I wanna feel refreshed,

What do I get to practice today?

To feel refreshed.

What do I get to practice or focus on or connect to to feel refreshed?

By closing your eyes,

By bringing your hand to your heart,

By listening to this voice,

To what feels exciting,

To what feels uplifting,

Not just to like what you think you should do,

But in that moment,

Are you willing to trust that what feels refreshing might be different than what felt refreshing yesterday?

And can you let that be enough?

I'd love to hear in regards to this,

How are you feeling with your morning routine right now?

When I ask the question,

What do you wanna get back on track for and to?

And I get,

Well,

I need to get my morning routine on track and I don't wanna be pushed off track or get sidetracked by all these other things in the day that come at me.

Day two of our challenge,

We're gonna dive into how to not be sidetracked,

How to stay focused,

How to honor what we really want and have that be the focus for the day.

And mind you,

We are human.

If we get sidetracked,

It happens.

And the thing we'll get to explore is,

Can we get sidetracked without judging ourselves?

Can we get sidetracked without thinking it's bad or wrong and it makes us a not good enough person?

What is the inner mean voice saying about my capacity to stay the course?

What is my inner mean voice saying about my capacity to stay the course?

And you can just tune in,

Listen,

Hear any voice,

Any judgment,

Any fear that comes up,

And then we'll get to play with that on day two.

Does that sound good?

Please feel free to reach out to me.

We are making this super personalized.

And so my intention is that you feel like you are getting back on track,

Like you're not letting the thoughts of fear,

The thoughts of worry,

The thoughts of doubt and any other people,

Any other person's fears or doubts get in your way.

You're here on this planet to be you,

Okay?

To not be anybody else than you.

So why would someone else have you force yourself into a routine,

Into a way to go forward?

There are many,

You know,

There's many people who will say,

Do this,

That'll work,

Do this,

That'll work.

Just like we explored the 15 yogic lifestyle steps,

The difference in the energy is this isn't a have to,

This isn't the only way.

You get to go,

Ooh,

That's curious,

That's one way.

Am I taking anything from that or not?

And let that also be okay.

Thank you for being here and I'll see you on day two.