TOP PICKS FOR GOOD MORNINGS

We love brands that champion our values of sustainability and positive change. We want to highlight people, companies and resources that we think are great and have helped us on our own journey, hopefully helping you as well.

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JOURNALING

Some of you will have used this, some of you will have never heard of this. If you have read The Artist’s Way then you will know all about Morning Pages. This is the practice of writing, free form, for a few pages each morning. There are no themes, there are no parameters, you just write whatever comes into your head. It’s a great way of unjumbling everything that’s been wrattling around in your head overnight, sorting your thoughts and getting everything out of the way to have an uncomplicated day.

ZERO WASTE STORES

A few of our South London Favourites:

@wearegather_uk -Peckham
@bringyourownuk – Nunhead
@beetrootbeans – Forest Hill
@nakedlarder – Herne Hill
@jarrmarket – Herne Hill
@byo_london – Tooting
@commonclapham – Clapham
@pipocavegan – Brixton Road

TALK

Hosted by Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at the University of Maine, and Ramesh Laungani, a biologist at Doane University; ‘Warm Regards’ is the podcast about climate change that we get up to in the morning.

BOOKS

We have a list as long as our arm (probably longer) but we’re finding that without a morning commute we can have more time to read which makes for good mornings. Some of our top picks are:

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
The Mars Room – Rachel Kushner
Girl Woman Other – Bernardine Evaristo
The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
Stay Close – Harlen Coban
Queenie – Candice Carty-Williams
Still life – Louise Penny
Three Women – Lisa Taddeo
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara

DOCUMENTARIES

We love a documentary, and there are plenty of great options out there to educate on the state of the planet and what work we can all be doing. Some of our top picks are:

The Game Changers
Our Planet
A Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy
A Plastic Ocean
Cowspiracy
Before the Flood
Food Inc

Taking some time to educate yourself on the state of the planet and how we can each help, is a great way to make your morning good!

SCREEN TIME

One of the great additions to the iPhone has to be the screen time function. Head to your settings and set up time restrictions for using your phone. We set ours from 9pm until 9 am; that way we minimise the amount of blue light at night, leading to better sleep, and also ensure that our mornings aren’t overtaken with checking our devices.

BREATHING

We’re fans of the Wim Hof breathing method. Here’s a little guide on how to do the exercise.

1: GET COMFORTABLE Sit in a meditation posture or lie down. The important thing is to be comfortable enough to expand your lungs freely without any feeling of constriction.

2: 30 POWER BREATHS Inhale through the nose or mouth and exhale through the mouth in powerful bursts. Keep a steady pace and use your midriff fully as though it is a balloon. Repeat steadily 30 times. You might experience light headedness or tingling sensations in the body.

3: THE BREATH HOLD The hold, retention after exhalation. After the 30 rapid cycles, draw the breath in once more and fill the lungs to maximum capacity without using any force. Let the air out and hold for as long as you can. Hold the breath until you experience the gasp reflex. 4: RECOVERY BREATH

Inhale to full capacity. Feel your chest expanding and when you are at full capacity, hold the breath for around 10 seconds and this is round 1! This cycle can be repeated 3 more times. 5: ENJOY THE FEELING

Having completed the breathing exercise, take your time to enjoy the feeling afterwards. This feeling will be more and more like meditation each time you do it.