Restorative Rituals for Runners Women and in particular mid-life women often feel they just don’t have enough energy …. they are spread thinly and running on empty. Female runners want to run more often and for longer distances, train more, be faster, get a PB, cook healthy meals, focus on nutrition for running performance, look after their families, have time to socialise and do their jobs well. Phew - It’s exhausting just listing out all those desires! But great aspirations and all entirely possible. Finding optimal energy balance may feel elusive and that’s why we focus on this as part of Healthy Woman Healthy Runner Method. When nutrition, hydration and hormones are reset, if low energy is still an issue, we must zone in on the other things in life which may be energy drains. Often these energy drains may be aspects of lifestyle, like quality of sleep and rest or how they are managing their stress load or emotions. Our solution is to identify the energy drains and use restorative rituals to plug the energy drains to restore and feel rejuvenated again.   https://sunny-trailblazer-4067.ck.page/9b73b64095 (BOOK YOUR PLACE )on our next FREE TRAINING: Learn all about our Healthy Woman Healthy Runner Method. We love podcasting but we love being with you LIVE even more so we can’t wait to meet you in our ZOOM ROOM! https://my.captivate.fm/dashboard/podcast/5d3689da-b02f-40a6-b670-c08d465f2c71/BOOK%20HEREhttps://sunny-trailblazer-4067.ck.page/9b73b64095 (BOOK HERE!) Show Notes (01:37)  Why is Energy for Everything so important for a Healthy Woman Healthy Runner. Examples of typical energy drains. SLEEP – are you getting enough sleep, what is the quality of sleep like, what is your bedtime preparation like, is your sleep hygiene good REST – do you take regular days off work, from run training, for meal breaks and rest breaks during the day STRESS – what is your stress load, do you regularly empty your stress bucket, are you TIRED and WIRED or flat lining Is your SOCIAL life draining you? Is your RUNNING and exercise schedule tipping into overtraining syndrome Having a 24/7 business and personal lifestyle Being available to everyone all the time Sometimes it’s your emotions which are draining you – you may be feeling sad and low or maybe you are always on a HIGH

We also take a look at what a Restorative Ritual is and why women resist this step in their well-being plan.  (07:32)  What distinguishes a Restorative Ritual from a healthy habit or routine?  For example, a ROUTINE may be that every Saturday morning you do a long endurance run and you have a specific breakfast before your run. HABITS may be what time you eat breakfast every day or that you always drink 1.5 L of water during your working day. A RITUAL is described in the dictionary as being a series of actions performed in a prescribed order. Others have described a ritual as being performed with intention, meaning and mindfulness, and being infused with enjoyment, beauty and pleasure.  (10:00)  How do you go about creating a Restorative Ritual?  The steps we suggest are:   1.    IDENTIFY what is draining your energy? 2.    Set your INTENTION 3.    PREPARE for your Ritual 4.    INFUSE your ritual with beauty, pleasure and enjoyment for you 5.    Finally EXPERIENCE your ritual  (13:29)  A Restorative Ritual for a woman who doesn’t make time for breaks during the working day …  (18:00)  A restorative ritual for a runner who is surviving of 6 hours sleep a night (or less) ….  (24:17)  Thinking about Restorative Rituals to support your running  (25:00)  Why is it important to use Restorative Rituals?  If we were to look at using Restorative Rituals from a physiological viewpoint – what we are creating is an opportunity for our stress