Downward Dog for Work

Intro Music:

Welcome to An Owner’s Guide for Your Life, the podcast that combines psychology, coaching, common sense and fun. I’m Tracey Browning, an entrepreneur, life coach, and lover of people. Now let’s talk about how to live love, make money, and change the world.

Tracey:

Hey, I’m glad you’re here. This is episode 28, and I’m watching my Golden Doodle wake up from his nap. He does the best stretches. He’s so big, he’s long, he’s lean, he’s tall. But have you ever watched a dog when they wake up and they do these great big long stretches, they stretch their feet way out in front and their rump goes up in the air, and you just kind of relax with them as you see them stretch?

Well, in yoga, we do a stretch like that, and it’s called downward dog. Now there’s a fancy name in another language. I don’t know that name, but down dog that just fits it perfectly because that’s what we’re doing. We look just like my dog does when he stretches and we use that position, it’s like a resting position, a home base.

Like when you’re working in your practice and you need to rest or reorient yourself, then you just go into Down Dog and you just take a moment to bring yourself very mindfully back to the moment. And so when I’m doing regular yoga, I come into Downward Dog frequently and I’ve been thinking, “Hey, maybe that’s kind of what I’m missing in my work day.”

What could my downward dog position for my work day be?
Like a time to just really briefly rest and reorient myself during my day?

Now my work days consist of phone calls and Zoom calls and writing and thinking and studying and interacting online and doing stuff in front of a screen and reading and creating. And sometimes I’m off to teach class in real life,in person. But a lot of my time is spent in front of a computer screen in a chair, and I’m constantly looking for how to improve my work life, my work flow and enjoy myself.

I don’t want to work longer, and I really don’t want to work harder.
I want to work more effectively and have more pleasure with it.
And I think having downward dog for work could help me do that.

So here’s what I’m playing with.
About once an hour, I will take a couple of minutes where I’ll stand up and I’ll stretch.
Maybe not do the actual downward dog position, but stand up and raise my arms above my head and stretch my neck, stretch my shoulders, do some deep breathing just to kind of get my body in a different position rather than just sitting hunched over in front of the computer. So physically I’m stretching.

And then I ask myself, “Am I working on what matters?” What adjustments do I want to make?
And if I am working on what matters, great, do I need to tweak it a little bit? What do I need to focus on? What do I need to do to it? What adjustments do I need to make?

And then I’ll think about somebody who loves me or somebody that I love.

So I start with stretching my muscles that need to be stretched, and I get a lot of good oxygen flowing back through my body. And then I focus to be sure that, yes, I am working on what matters, because I go off on rabbit trails sometimes. And if I might be working on something that, yeah, it needs to be done. But maybe that’s not the highest priority might not be what needs to be done right now for me. So this is a good time to adjust and get back on track.

And thinking about somebody I love or who loves me that just warms the cockles of my heart. I don’t know what heart cockles are. It’s not an anatomically correct term, I am sure, but heart cockles- that must be from a poem or something somewhere. But anyway, it warms the cockles of my heart. So now my heart cockles are warm and happy and it reminds me that I matter and that I’m loved and that I love and that releases all sorts of feel good chemicals in my brain, in my body. And it helps me head back into my work, refreshed and ready.

And sometimes , I’ll confess, I even hug myself because why not?

So there’s my downward dog for work. That’s my rest and reorient position. Try it out in your day. Adjust it so it fits you and see if it helps you catch your breath and reorient during the course of your day.

Thank you for listening. I do appreciate you. Now let’s go live, love, make some money and change the world.

Thank you for listening. I appreciate you!

For a transcript of this episode or for more information about life and mindset coaching, visit my website https://www.tbrowning.com/.