You want to feel good right? I bet you also want to feel alive, awake, energized, and healthy. We all do! I have good news…feeling this way is attainable no matter where you are in your journey. Truly. You just have to start making choices every day that support an upshift in your experience––choices that move you from where you are right now toward where you want to be. Below are the habits I embrace daily that keep me feeling tuned in, turned on, and alive!

#1: MOVE

With all the hours we spend facebooking, twittering, texting, pinning, gramming, chatting, and emailing, we are not doing our bodies and minds any favors. We would be better served if, throughout our busy days, we’d step away from all of our gadgets. We need to intentionally dissect ourselves from distraction. It doesn’t take much––a good stretch session, a walk, or a hike to breathe in some fresh air will do the trick. Enrolling ourselves in enlivening classes such as Barre and Yoga invigorate, tone, stretch, and ground our bodies. Every little bit counts. Telling ourselves we don’t have time is a lie! Even if our activities are broken into increments of ten minutes a few times each day, that is better than nothing.

#2: BREATHE

It might sound ridiculous to remind ourselves to breathe but believe it or not, most of us do not do enough of it; at least the kind that counts. We need to breathe deep into all cells of our bodies, deep into our guts to stimulate digestion and build internal fire. We need to breathe deep into our lungs and diaphragm to expand and open our hearts. When we rise, our smartphones and iPads should not be there to greet us. We need the stillness of the morning to connect to our breath, to connect to the day ahead. Ten minutes to breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the nose will invigorate our bodies and still our minds…it will encourage mental clarity and detoxification. Throughout the day, we will be well served to take breaks to breathe in rich, fresh oxygen. As we retire each night, another ten minutes of deep breathing while all electronic devices are powered off will restore calm to our state of being and prepare us for restful sleep.

#3: EAT REAL FOOD

Whenever possible, we need to eat the real thing. We need to mack down on a whole apple, a kiwi, or buttery avocado. We need to enjoy unrefined and protein-rich grains such as buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, and millet. Protein and fatty-acid rich seeds such as chia, hemp, pumpkin, and flax should be included in our daily eating routine. Sea vegetables build muscle and detoxify our organs and cells. Let’s commit to eating more seaweed and algae in the form of spirulina and chlorella! We need greens of all kinds––kale, mache, arugula, spinach, chard, mustard greens, dandelion, and beet greens (I could go on and on.) Let’s eat more of them! Vegetables, those beautiful plant creations that are ripe for the taking want to be in our bodies. Let our eyes be open to their vibrant colors. Let us expose our palettes to the many textures and flavors of these incredible plant foods. Eat them and we eat sun energy––we eat life. These unpackaged and preservative-free foods give us natural and sustaining Energy. They fill us with fiber and contribute to the glow of radiant Health. We all want that, don’t we? To be glowing, radiant, and fabulous?

#4: LOVE

We need to more deeply and unconditionally love our bodies, our companions, co-workers, friends, our furry pets, and most of all…ourselves! We should each be applying our oxygen mask first before assisting others. This means being unapologetically truthful––saying yes when we mean yes, and no when we mean no. This means practicing daily rituals that nourish and beautify our bodies like dry brushing, applying warm oil to every inch our of our skin, soaking our feet, or slipping into a relaxing bath. There is so much to love if we just attune our eyes, ears, and hearts to our surroundings…the sun on our faces, the sound of raindrops on the roof, the smiles and tears of our friends and neighbors, the changing scenery of each new day. there is good woven into challenging experiences…we just need to be open to discovering it. We can operate with more love by forgiving ourselves and others, and by inviting second chances. Feeling love for all things creates opportunities for more positive vibes to come our way. So let’s be more loving.

#5: EMBRACE STILLNESS

Find pleasure in slowing down. Embrace the stillness of a bubble bath, of reading an inspirational book, meditating, catching a mid-day nap, enjoying lunch in the park, or simply listening to soul-vibrating music…Let’s do more stilling and less doing. We will be well served to embrace calm every day, to be fully awake and quiet within. We can come back to our breath to restore peace and slow the rhythm of our racing minds.

#6: BE GRATEFUL

When we have a grateful heart, the universe smiles and responds to us with more things to be grateful for. Every breath, every blink of an eye, your warm and safe home, clean water to drink, those shoes you are wearing, the organic food you can buy at the market, the car you drive and the gas you can put in it, the friend who is there when you need them, the comfortable bed you get to sleep in…these are all things to be grateful for every single day. Try and make a habit of witnessing all the good that is in your life. Apply your attention to the positive and proceed with gratitude in your heart.

#7: SURRENDER

We cannot know what tomorrow will bring. We cannot force what is not meant to be, or at least we shouldn’t try. Surrender is one of my favorite habits––a tool I consider essential to living a joyful and healthy life. Surrender doesn’t mean we give up. It doesn’t me we lay down in defeat. It means we recognize we can’t see into the future and that perhaps there is a path for us that is far better than the one we are on, and so we let go. We let go of what is not working. We let go of the need to have it all figured out. We lesson the grip on our day to day and let moments carry us in the direction we should be heading. To surrender means we operate on instinct rather than expectation. Surrendering helps barriers to happiness dissolve. It allows us to feel more free, at ease, and in flow. It helps us return to living from intuition and our senses, rather than letting our head get in the way.

Photo Credit: beyoga