How to plan your day effectively: here’s your template
While we all lead different lives, the human in us allows us to work from the same basic structure, one that you can work from to help you step into your day in the best way possible, and one that you can then customize to work with your unique environment and your true nature. Understanding and aligning with your own nature and circadian rhythm allows for better flow in your life. Your mind and body will work with (not against) you, and you will feel both energetic and relaxed and in touch with the most authentic part of yourself.
What I share with you below is what I call The Daily Ritual template. It includes notes to help you customize your day according to your mind-body constitution. This Daily Ritual covers your entire day, and it’s filled with self-care practices to raise your frequency (which means you’ll feel lighter and project and attract all that is good) and experience generosity of time. Simply plug your work, play, and passion must-dos into this template where there’s room. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of room.
Before going through the Daily Ritual template, let’s identify your current mind-body type
If you’re already familiar with yours, skip to the next section: The Daily Ritual.
The mind-body constitution you were born with (in Ayurveda, this is referred to as your prakriti) is most likely different from your current constitution, or what you are experiencing today (your vikriti).
What you notice are your imbalances. Like with your home’s heating and cooling system, you don’t think about it until something goes wrong with it, and then you notice because you’re too cold or too hot and changing the thermometer isn’t doing anything. Also, think how a chiropractor makes regular adjustments to get your spine back in alignment from the stress caused by injury, or from moving and positioning your body the same way every day. These regular adjustments help you mitigate potentially chronic issues around posture, nervous system health, circulation, pinched nerves, and slipped disc.
Similarly, the descriptions below of each mind-body constitution focus on the imbalances that you may be noticing today, and this will help you customize your Daily Ritual. The Daily Ritual, like regular chiropractic adjustments, corrects these imbalances to move you towards and maintain wholeness.
A VATA person may feel all over the place, quick to learn but also quick to forget. Being spontaneous and creative, she starts many projects but struggles to get anything completed. She tends to walk and talk fast, get anxious under stress, get cold easily, and get dry skin. She likes to go with the flow - so she resists schedules, which is what she needs most to correct her imbalance and let the positive expressions of vata shine. When you’re feeling a vata imbalance, choose what supports CALM.
A PITTA person is the most direct communicator of the three constitutions, both constructively (when in balance) and critically (when out of balance). She’s more focused but also more easily irritated, falls into perfectionism, and loses patience under stress. She tends to get hot easily and may suffer from skin redness, eruption, and heartburn. She’s on time and on schedule and can’t stand when others are not. To correct her imbalance and let the positive expressions of pitta shine, she can include more nature into her day and create space for others. When you’re feeling pitta-imbalanced, choose what supports COOLING, both physically and emotionally.
A KAPHA person is either content (when in balance) or complacent (when out of balance). She may be slow to learn but once she does, she doesn’t forget; she’s a walking encyclopedia. She tends to walk and talk slower than her counterparts and moves on her own time; you can’t rush this person. This is the person that will say, it is what it is. Under stress, she tends to get lethargic and stay in. Choosing activities that are energetically and mentally stimulating helps to correct her imbalances and let the positive expressions of kapha shine. When you’re feeling a kapha imbalance, choose what stimulates ENERGIZING energy.
If you resonate with more than one, that’s perfectly normal. In fact, I hold characteristics from all three almost equally. I check in with myself to see what’s causing me the most trouble at the moment, and that’s what I focus on adjusting in my Daily Ritual.
The Daily Ritual: your template to support good health, good decisions, and Joy.
Mornings
Wake up before 6 am. The hours between 6 and 10 am are the Kapha hours, which can bring on feelings of heaviness throughout the day when you wake up during this window. And you thought it was you; it could just be the overabundance of Kapha energy in your system! The hours between 4 and 6 am offer the energy of creativity, lightness, and mobility. Many highly successful people get up before 6. You might consider doing the same. VATAs have more wiggle room to wake up after 6 am since they already have a lot of Vata energy. That said, it’s super important for Vata to get up at the same time every morning.
Upon waking, sip some warm to hot water: this helps your body with the elimination process. 💩 If you don’t have the routine of pooping first thing in the morning, sitting on the toilet for 5 minutes every morning when you wake up will help your body get the message that this is the ideal time to go. Your body loves routines whether you think so or not. 😀 Just hang there for a bit after you pee, but without scrolling your phone because that action will move your internal energy upwards instead of downwards to promote elimination.
Ease into this when you’re ready. And/or: take a 3 minute cold shower or give yourself a full body warm oil massage (abhyanga) before you shower. You can also opt to do the warm oil massage at night and do the cold shower in the morning. The cold shower will wake up your soul, circulation, and nervous system, strengthen your immune system, and reduce inflammation in your body. The warm oil massage is soothing, moisturizing, balancing, detoxing, and feels absolutely luxurious. It’s an excellent way to begin (or end) your day with this deep practice in self love. Here are some oils you can use based on your mind-body type.
VATA: Use this calming blend.
PITTA: Use this cooling blend.
KAPHA: Use this uplifting blend.
GOOD FOR ALL: Use this or this tridoshic blend to cover it all.
Practice Yoga & Meditate for at least 3 minutes each. 11 minutes each is excellent, and of course if you can give yourself more time, wow! Stretch, get your heart going, wake up your joints and muscles and set the tone for your day, increasing your grit and capacity for self-care and consistency.
Take a moment to say your gratitudes and read something inspiring, motivational, and prompts elevated action.
Break the fast (breakfast). Morning-time breakfast is optional. It’s important not to multitask! It’s ineffective, and it will sabotage your ability to get into flow when it’s actually time to work. Skipping breakfast is fine if you want to break the fast at lunchtime. That said, it's important to break the fast with something nourishing to your soul. Coffee is not an ideal fast breaker. Consider breaking the fast with something more nourishing. I usually drink lemon/honey tea or MUD/WTR (an adaptogen) with almond milk.
Go to work! Whatever that looks like for you. Choose to do your highest value work here. Get into your most CREATIVE space during this time of day. This is a good block of time to put your phone on silent and find your flow, unless of course your important work is done on the phone connecting with others (this was me back in my recruiting days). Still, in this case, find your flow. Studies show that it takes 23 minutes to get back to focus after a distraction, so the “quick thing” someone wants to tell you, or the email or text you want to check in with “real quick” does not help you focus on, and excel in, your important things… which aggravates your stress levels.
Notes on morning work & activity
VATA: Focus on one thing at a time. Trying to do more will only add to your Vata deregulation and make you feel more anxious and out of balance.
PITTA: Leave space in your schedule between commitments; stress irritates you. Take a moment to pause after you end one thing and before you begin the next.
KAPHA: Start your morning with something energizing. When exercising, choose a more active, dare I say, intense workout.
ALL: You’ll resist what you need. Vatas will resist keeping to a schedule. Pittas will want to overbook and add those hot peppers to their meal. Kapha will want to choose the mellow activity. Once you’re in balance, you’ll start to naturally crave what you need. Until then, small steps and patience. You got this.
Lunch
Your digestive fire is strongest between 10 am and 2 pm. Enjoy your lunch in a calm, peaceful environment, sitting down away from screens and other distractions.
VATA: Vatas do best with well-cooked foods that are either cooked or drizzled with healthy oils. Avoid dry or uncooked foods like cereal, granola, raw salads, fruits, and veggies. It doesn’t matter about nutrients being “cooked out,” if it’s difficult for you to digest, those nutrients can’t be absorbed into your body anyway. You’ll get more out of what you can digest. Favor sweet, sour, and salty foods (see examples below).
PITTA: Between the three body types, Pittas have the strongest digestion and therefore can get away with more i.e. raw, dry, cold, and tougher-to-digest foods. That said, don’t take this for granted; heartburn is a Pitta imbalance. Favor sweet, bitter, and astringent foods (see below) and foods that are cooling to the body. Pittas tend to like spicy, but spicy tends not to like Pitta.
KAPHA: Use oils sparingly. Favor pungent, bitter, and astringent foods and foods that are light and dry (the kapha element is wet and heavy, so this is the balance). Fewer meals is better. Grazing: not so good. Of the three constitutions, Kaphas benefit most from fasting.
GOOD FOR ALL: Eat slowly and mindfully, and until you’re 80% full to prevent lethargy. Sit for a moment after eating, and then take 10 to 15 minutes to move your body to help your digestion (I walk my dog after my meals). Taking your time with lunch - without multitasking - will go a long way and create a better, more energized-relaxed afternoon for you. No food coma, no indigestion. Instead you’ll see better focus, productivity, and flow in your work and other activities.
The 6 tastes: it’s ideal to take in all 6 tastes from each meal to feel fully nourished and satisfied. The flavor profiles that are missing in your meal is what you’re more likely to crave in between meals. That said, you will lean into one more than the other depending on your current constitution. Examples of food that fall into each flavor profile:
Sweet: sweet fruits (bananas, dates, mangoes, melons), grains, milk, sweet potatoes, honey, nuts
Sour: sour fruits (citrus fruits, apple, pomegranate), yogurt, fermented foods, cheese, sourdough bread, sour cream, sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar
Salty: seaweeds, anchovies, miso, cheese, tamari/soy sauce, pickles, nuts w/ salt
Pungent: black pepper, chilis, garlic, mustard, wasabi, ginger, leeks, mustard greens, turnips, radishes
Bitter: dark leafy greens, eggplant, lettuce, basil, jicama, olives, grapefruit, sesame seeds
Astringent: avocado, broccoli, green beans, lettuce, beans and lentils, tofu, fresh sprouts, raw fruits like apple, pomegranate, unripe bananas, cranberries, green and black tea, white and apple cider vinegar
FYI: Foods fall into more than one flavor profile, so the foods you see on this list will overlap into other categories.
Afternoons
VATA: Consider your environment for the day and dress appropriately to stay warm. Vatas tend to get cold easily, especially when it’s windy or drafty, and this can throw you off. Vatas can benefit from a short nap between 2 and 4 pm.
PITTA: Do you have trouble sleeping at night when you workout in the afternoon or early evening? This may be due to excess Pitta energy; get your workout done in the morning and save this time for more cooling and calming activities. Meditation is perfect. So is going for a stroll, especially in nature.
KAPHA: Avoid taking an afternoon nap, which increases Kapha energy. Engage in a more active workout or stimulating activity.
GOOD FOR ALL: While mornings are a good time to create, afternoons are a good time to CONSUME, as in get through your emails, take workshops, and learn. For those witching hours between 4 and 6 pm, that time when you’re most likely to reach for the chips, wine, coffee, social media, and think of everything that’s wrong with your life - MEDITATE. It will elevate and reconnect you to your divine nature, your infinite wisdom and sense of connection.
Evening
Have an early, light dinner. Use the same food guidelines for each constitution from lunch. It’s ideal to make lunch your biggest meal of the day. This should not preclude you from having a social dinner with friends and family. Just don’t start with the bread and you’ll be fine. If you have a difficult time resisting it, hold it off to the side as an after-dinner treat with butter or olive oil. When the time comes, you might have it, or you might not. Also, when I say lunch is ideally your biggest meal of the day, some people come back with, then I won’t be able to focus the rest of the afternoon. This means you’re overeating or choosing foods that do the opposite of energize and relax.
After your meal, take your time, sit for a moment like the royal being that you are. Royalty does not rush.
Move your body low-intensity to help your digestion. If you’re home, this is a great time to walk your dog, do the dishes, fold laundry, take out the garbage, and pick up around the house. See? You’re getting it all done.
Enjoy time with friends or family in a relaxed and loving setting to help you feel connected.
Bedtime
Choose activities that are relaxing, self-caring, and light. Avoid things that are intense and excitable. Bedtime is a time for CLEARING.
Stop it with the social media and news in bed.
BONUS: Enjoy a relaxing, warm bath before bed. This is also a good time to do your warm oil massage to soothing music before your bath.
Turn off the lights and let your head hit the pillow by 10 pm. Set an intention to wake up before 6 am. Instead of counting sheep, count your gratitudes.
This daily discipline of nourishment and self-care strengthens discernment and balances the mind body constitution, bringing bliss to your life.
If you want to learn more about your mind-body constitution and how it’s impacted by the times of day, seasons of the year, your age, the foods you eat, and other choices you make, go here.
The Prayer I Say to keep the B.S. at Bay
Free me from the obstacles of illusion
And lead me to thy shores of fulfillment.
Tell me what to do, where to go, who to talk to, and what to say.
May we be healed, loved, and fed,
And may peace dwell in our hearts and on this planet.
Sat Nam (truth is who you are).
Let me know how this goes for you.
Love, Savitree
