Rochelle Livingstone
Rochelle Livingstone is a marketing manager and yoga instructor, who recently founded Rock Your Realness. Rochelle regularly moves between living in Sydney, Australia, and Los Angeles, California.
What is your morning routine?
I like to sleep with the curtains and window open to wake up as naturally as possible.
At 5:20am I wake up and make myself a hot water with the juice of one fresh lemon. Afterwards I come back to my room and meditate for twenty minutes before embarking on my morning pages whilst drinking my hot water and lemon. Inspired by an amazing book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I have been doing my morning pages for over five years now. Every day I write questions and answers of gratitude and what I would like to achieve that day in relation to my new business.
Afterwards I’ll do 100 squats (I have recently committed to do a 100 a day, for 100 days). When I’m done, I get myself ready and either go to yoga or walk down to Bondi Beach for a morning walk and dip in the ocean, depending on the time of year.
How long have you stuck with this routine so far?
Three years in its current format.
How has your morning routine changed over recent years?
I have become more disciplined and realized the value of having a superb morning routine. I embrace it seven days a week.
What time do you go to sleep?
Around 8:30-9:00pm.
Do you use an alarm to wake you up in the morning, and if so do you ever hit the snooze button?
I always wake up before the alarm goes off. I do occasionally hit the snooze button, but when I do I never feel as awake when I finally get up!
How soon after waking up do you have breakfast, and what do you typically have?
I have my hot water and lemon soon after waking up and will then have a banana before yoga and/or a raw coconut smoothie I make myself when I return from yoga or my morning walk/swim.
The recipe for my raw coconut breakfast smoothie is as follows:
- 2 raw eggs
- 1 large tablespoon of coconut oil
- 500ml of coconut water
- A handful of frozen organic blueberries
- 2 frozen strawberries
- Pinch of cinnamon
- Grated raw ginger
Blitz it all in a blender for thirty seconds and you have a one-way ticket to breakfast smoothie heaven!
Do you have a morning workout routine?
I do squats and then either yoga, or I’ll head out for a walk and swim.
How about morning meditation?
I meditate every morning for twenty minutes.
Do you see to email first thing in the morning or leave it until later in the day?
Later in the day.
How soon do you check your phone in the morning, either for calls/messages or social media and news?
Before I leave the house I’ll do a sneak peak because my boyfriend lives in Los Angeles and we always send a morning/goodnight message to each other.
What are your most important tasks in the morning?
All of them. They are all vital to my entire day and my sense of wellbeing.
On days you’re not settled in your home, are you able to adapt your routine to fit in with a different environment?
When I visited my boyfriend in LA I kept to my routine as best I could. I modified it to suit my surroundings.
I need to get better at it though – I am relocating to LA and will tailor my routine depending on access to walks/beach, though the beauty of yoga, morning pages, and meditation is that you can do it anywhere!
What do you do if you fail to follow your routine, and how does this influence the rest of your day?
It feels like I’m on the back foot if I don’t complete my routine. I actually feel as though I’ve robbed myself of a nurturing, positivity laden start to the day. I feel like I have wasted the morning and missed out on giving myself the best possible start.
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