What Yoga Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship?

As everyone knows, the strongest asset an entrepreneur could ever have is good health. Like Mahatma Gandhi famously said: "It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver". Then again, have you ever wondered how you can achieve that? In this article, celebrity yoga-preneur, Megan Nolan and I sat down to discuss these 3 key topics:

1) Why taking care of yourself should be a priority in your business strategy

2) What Yoga Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship

3) How Entrepreneurs Can Master Their Morning

If you are finding it hard to wake up early or even if your health has been deteriorating over the past few months, then here are some advice and tips which I believe will be helpful.

1) Early Bird Catches The Worm

The idea behind the expression refers to the notion that the birds that wake up the earliest have the best chance of catching a good meal since no other birds have?yet emerged to hunt for worms.

It just means that you'll have an advantage if you do something immediately or before anyone else does it. Being first improves the chances of success.?

"Live as if life is rigged in your floor." Rumi        

2) The Importance of Morning Rituals

As stated by Megan, our businesses are reflections of us. It's essential for us to feel calm, clear, energized, and grounded. In order for us to do that, we have to be taking care of ourselves on every level: Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical.

It's important for us to prioritize our health and happiness. The most successful way of doing that is to do it first.

"Having a morning routine that you love that makes you wanna jump out of bed is the best way to kick start each day." Megan Nolan        

3) Scheduling Your Morning Routine

"You are far more likely to complete something if you schedule it. When you schedule in your morning routine and do it first, it makes you far more likely that you are going to do it. It also sets the tone for the day. You start the day feeling calm, grounded, and clear. Meaning you are going to make healthier choices along the way so that you won't start the day feeling frantic.".

Instead of waking up and feeling panicky by checking your messages, emails, and social media first thing in the morning, Megan said that it'll be great if you do this: Give yourself time to get quiet. It can be 5 minutes or even 20 minutes.

She suggested that you can start your day with Yoga, exercise, Qi Gong, Taichi, meditation, or whatever that you like to do.

When you start to practice what Megan has suggested, that will highly affect how you show up throughout the rest of the day.

"You feeling your best is the secret sauce to your success." Megan Nolan        

4) Start The Day With Water

One of the routines Megan mentioned was to drink more water. Research has shown that drinking water first thing in the morning flushes out the stomach and therefore balances the lymphatic system. When you have a stable lymphatic system, your immune system will become stronger. This will prevent you from getting sick as often.

5) Have Reminders

"The easiest way to create a new habit is to make it easy for you to do and have a reminder". According to Megan, a lot of times many people start with wanting to master their new morning routine and told themselves that they are going to do a certain routine within X amount of weeks.

But, if they don't do that routine within a couple of days, they'll start to get hard on themselves and it'll be less likely for them to do it.

She stated that the easiest way to create a new habit is to make it easy for you to do it. She added that what you can do is pick something that's happening in your day like when you are brushing your teeth.

She also recommends you to choose something that's going to happen every day. Whenever that happens, you use that as a reminder to do your morning routine.

Remember: Make it manageable for you by starting small. An example will be 5 minutes of meditation.

"Wanna have a great morning, then start with an amazing morning." Megan Nolan        

6) Your Body Is Not Designed To Sit

Okay, I know what you are thinking. You must be thinking: "How can it be?" but what Megan is trying to imply is that we are not supposed to be sitting for long hours at a time.

"Your body is designed to be in motion and it likes to be in motion. It doesn't like to be sitting down for a long time and that's probably when you noticed it's starting to complain a little bit. So maybe you start to get neck and shoulder tension, or maybe you get headaches, pains in your wrists, or maybe your back, hips, legs, ankles, or all of the above".

Megan shared that what happens when you sit down is that everything starts to slow down. "So, your circulation slows down, your digestion slows down, your metabolism slows down. It can affect your guts and your intestines". She then added that this can in turn increases your blood pressure, sugar levels, fatty acids, and cholesterol in your blood.

That's why it's so important for us to be moving more.

7) Breathe From Your Diaphragm

Megan stated that when we sit for long periods of time, we tend to slouch.

"What tends to happen is that we take short and shallow breaths. Because we are sitting down and our belly is compressed or kind of squashed, we don't breathe very deeply.

Therefore during the show, Megan demonstrated an effective deep breathing technique which you can do as well. Watch it here (27:36 onwards).

8) Remember To Take Breaks

Megan shared that the more often we can get up and move, the better. She stated that our brain doesn't really like to concentrate for more than 45 minutes and it needs little breaks.

So how long will that break be?

"Getting up and moving your body every half an hour is great. That's the gold star standard. But at least every hour you need to get up and move. You can do a little Yoga At My Desk break or you can get up and do a little dance. Whatever you want to do. Go to the bathroom and come back. But see if you can move your body more frequently throughout the day because your body really needs that to keep your energy up and your stress down".

"What happens there is when we are sitting up, when you were breathing fully and deeply, you were able to breathe using your diaphragm. So when you are slouched over, it's compressed and you can't breathe as deeply. So, your ability to breathe properly by taking deep breaths goes down by 30% when you are slouching".

"Be energized rather than exhausted so you can say bye bye to brain fog." Megan Nolan        

9) Have Pattern Interrupt

Megan explained that having a pattern interrupt means creating new habits.

"So, you are interrupting the normal way of how you have been doing things and trying to figure out a way to help you optimize your health and happiness".

Megan added that it will be great if you can combine the habits.

"You are going to layer it. So, you start with something that you've been doing and then add on something else that's beneficial. Like if you are going to fill up your water, what can you do on the way there? Maybe you can stretch yourself up or whatever you are going to do".

Remember to make it easy if not we will never do it.

"Only you can do what you do, in the unique way that you do it." Megan Nolan        

Aside from that, she has also shared some amazing tips for young and aspiring entrepreneurs. They are:

1) Know that anything is possible. The key to you being able to get to where you want to go is to not doubt yourself anymore.

2) You have the tools inside of you. Your success is inevitable if you choose it to be.

3) You got to recognize how awesome you are, keep going after your dreams and keep showing up.

4) As soon as you can afford a coach, hire one rather than figure it out all by yourself.

5) The more intentional that you are by the way you show up, the more it will affect your results and the transformation that you help other people.

6) Don't wait and just go after what your heart is asking you to do. Regret is the worse thing ever.

"Remember don't worry about being perfect and just go out and put it out there. Trust that it's part of your journey". Megan Nolan

"Entrepreneurs are a special kind of crazy." Megan Nolan        

Listen to the full episode:

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