How NYC’s buzziest shaman prepares herself for a day of healing

Welcome to My Morning Routine, where Deborah Hanekamp and other good-life gurus share their personal (frequently surprising, often healthy) morning rituals—to help you make your a.m.’s more awesome. 

Deborah Hanekamp, AKA Mama Medicine
New York City-based Amazonian shaman, energy healer, and seeress

I try to wake up at around 5 a.m., because my daughter wakes up at 7. I like to give myself about two hours of quiet time—it’s really special for me. I don’t really have a hard time waking up early—I’m definitely a morning person. What I have a hard time with is nighttime conversation; at around 7 p.m. I feel like my brain just shuts off.

When I wake up, before I do anything I make coffee—I love coffee. I write down my dreams, and then I spend time practicing a Zen meditation, which is just sitting in silence and counting the breath. I try to do that for 30 minutes. A lot of the time things will come up from the meditation, which I call channeled messages—it’s what I hear when I’m meditating, and I’ll take the time to write that down because I feel like it’s important.

“A lot of the time things will come up from the meditation, which I call channeled messages.”

I try to make it to the gym to run roughly three times a week, though that doesn’t always go as planned. I just run and stretch and go into the steam room. Usually I’ll have oatmeal or a smoothie after the gym—I really like the Clean Green Protein smoothie from Juice Press.

I do all of this before my daughter wakes up so I can spend as much time with her as possible. Because I’m a working mom and my time with her is limited, I just have to squeeze in some me-time before that.

If I’m in nature, [my morning routine] is a whole different thing and I will totally do things like greet the sun. In the city, it’s just like, all right, here we go. My family tries to get into nature—even if it’s just going to a beach or something like that—at least once a month. In that case I’ll have more time in the morning, and I’ll try to get outside for the sunrise and do a sun-gazing practice. That’s when you stare lightly at the sun as it’s rising for about 10 seconds, then you close your eyes then do it again and close your eyes again. It’s supposed to cleanse your third eye.

During the day I’ll do medicine readings for myself—it’s very important. I think it’s actually how I can see so many people in one day and work so much and stay grounded. At night, even if I’m watching a movie at home, I’ll have a crystal on me.

If you’re living that gem life, too, here are 7 healing stones for modern ailments—and a room-by-room guide to using crystals at home.