5 Ways to Find Your Glow

Rejuvenate this summer with 5 simple but life-changing steps from our Warrior Ambassador Amber Gregory to help you find your inner glow and harness positive energy to expel back to the world. 

1. Wake up with the sun, go to bed by 10 PM

This is an ancient tradition honoring Ayurveda or the traditional Hindu system of medicine, which is based on the idea of balance in bodily systems and uses diet, herbal treatment, and yogic breathing to attain optimal health within your own personal constitution or “Prakruti.”

I have always been an early riser and at the same time treasured my sleep. Whether I am teaching a 6 AM yoga class, meditating, or walking on the beach, there is something about the sun cascading its warmth over me first thing in the morning. It feels like a safe cloak scooping me up and wrapping me in love. This morning, I am sitting on the beach, in the quiet, with a brand new day ahead of me, full of wonder and unknowns. The sun burns away the day before and the water glistens and sparkles with mystery and loyalty all at once.

From a holistic health perspective, light has a direct effect on our health because of the way it influences circadian rhythms. Health problems can result from a disturbance to the circadian rhythm. These disturbances often have a negative effect resulting in fatigue, depression, and insomnia,

Try to settle yourself inward at the end of each day and do whatever it is to get you into your sleep zone before 10 PM, creating harmony, comfort, and ease for a satisfying and peaceful night of rest.

2. Cherish Yourself

This one can take an entire lifetime to fully grasp. It includes releasing limiting beliefs, vibrational blocks, and ancestral trauma. You have an opportunity and obligation to yourself to be a “game-changer.” To perhaps change your own story by cherishing yourself so much that absolutely nothing can compromise the love and respect you have for yourself.

This includes vulnerability, humility, self-reflection, and making mistakes. It means trusting and honoring yourself enough to live your life as your fullest self.

To wake up with the sun each day and thank your spiritual being as well as your human form for all that it has to offer. To care enough to treat yourself as you would treat an innocent and precious bird as you hold it gently between your palms at your heart center. In doing so, you may in fact find an enormous amount of peace as you lie down each night to sleep.

3. Remove the things from your life that lower your vibration

What is a “vibration?” The informal definition is “a person’s emotional state, the atmosphere of a place, or the associations of an object, as communicated to and felt by others,” as defined by Oxford language.

For me, I decided to remove alcohol from my life a while back. I felt that I was getting attached to having drinks on Friday nights. I wouldn’t drink all week but it became some kind of “reward” at the end of the week, which seemed like hypocrisy to the simple rewards of being a Mom, waking up to the sun, and cherishing myself completely.

I believe that many different things can lower our own vibrations and what lowers mine is not a baseline for yours. Whether it is a relationship, a job, or a specific thing we may do in excess, it is not a platform for all people. By removing whatever obstacles are in your path to true freedom within yourself, you begin to live as your fullest self in your highest vibration.

As I strategically placed my beach chair in a direct line to the sun this morning, I know that I am charging the crystal that is me and the path is now clear. I know that I am reclaiming my own personal state of health and joy and living in my highest vibration.

4. Nourish yourself with nature’s ingredients

The bounty is all around you!

I made a change back in February 2021 to remove granulated sugar from my delicious cup of pour-over coffee each morning and replace it with local honey. This simple gesture has had a long-lasting effect on my overall enjoyment of coffee and dare I say, life…?

Rather than the “quick fix” of energy, my cup of coffee has a mindful, meditative quality and the overall experience is enhanced. By enjoying the natural elements around us and incorporating those ingredients into our bodies nutritionally, we can truly connect mind, body, and spirit.

It is not about compensation as a whole, but rather the simplicity of what we can utilize around us to enhance our overall experience.

The same goes for our yoga practice.

5. Simplify to find a connection to your highest truth

Be moderate. My stepfather, otherwise known as my “Life Coach,” gave me this advice a long time ago. I didn’t always listen but I believe that if you are taught things repeatedly, you will eventually learn the lesson. As I have continued to remove the things in my life that take up unwanted space, I make more room for peace. Through this peace, I can  follow what I truly desire without clouding my vision with patterns or external circumstances. In yogic philosophy, this is called Sankalpa, a Sanskrit term that “refers to a heartfelt desire, a solemn vow or intention, or a resolve to do something.”-Yogapedia

As a natural mystic, I have whispered many offerings to myself through my yoga practice over the years, wished upon manifestations, and cultivated my very own personal Sankalpa through the power of connection to myself and the certain transformation that takes place on my yoga mat.

A while back, I participated in a Yoga Nidra class and silently whispered to myself that I did not want alcohol in my life anymore. I placed my hand over my heart and whispered comforting words of encouragement to myself. Once the mind is in a very deep state of relaxation, you can write your Sankalpa on your subconscious and real, uncompromising change can take place.

One of my favorite quotes is, “It is not about finding peace, it is about being at peace with what we find.” Once we can find the truth within ourselves and reclaim our natural state of health and joy, the sun will always rise and we will glow and shine from the inside out and beyond.

- Owner/Founder of Wild Hearts Yoga School & amberbyoga

“The senses declare an outrageous world-

Sounds and scents, ravishing colors and shapes,

Ever-changing skies, iridescent reflections-

All these beautiful surfaces

Decorating vibrant emptiness.

The god of love is courting you,

Light as a feather.

Every perception is an invitation into revelation.

Hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching-

Ways of knowing creation,

Transmissions of electric realization.

The deepest reality is always right here.

Encircled by splendor, in the center of the sphere,

Meditate where the body thrills

To currents of intimate communion.

Follow your senses to the end and beyond

Into the heart of space.

-The Radiance Sutras

Lorin Roche, PHD

Foreword by Shiva Rea

Photography by Gaelyn Luna Photography out of Scituate, Massaschusetts.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out our others like: "5 Tips to Help your Mind from Wandering during Meditation"  "The Power of Affirmations" and "A Warrior Among Us."