Morning People
What is your relationship to mornings?
I’m still surprised at the number of people who roll over pick up their phone and get absorbed into notifications, alerts and messages without a second thought.
Or similarly you switch immediately into your head and start planning the day ahead, what you will wear, what you won’t have time for.
Having long been an advocate of the morning practice and I know without a doubt that that is not how I want to start my day. I know one the few times that I have turned first to my phone and got lost in the scroll and responding to messages and I feel stressed, under pressure and like the day has gotten away from me.
If you start you day off responding to others where will you find the spaciousness for yourself?
If you start yourself off with a run-down on what have to DO in the day, where do you find the time to BE?
Your morning thoughts in particular significantly contribute to how your day unfolds. Knowing this you deserve to declare your mornings sacred.
A morning ritual sets you up for the rest of the day. It gives you time to check and give some sacred time yourself before the day starts steamrolling. This is particularly important if you are required to be ‘on’ for others (your partner, your boss, your kids). A morning routine where you are setting time aside for yourself provides you with the necessary spaciousness to respond and give to others.
There is plenty of advice out there about how to start your mornings off, but it deserves some thought.
This is your opportunity to create your reality for the rest of the day.
It deserves a short process of enquiry.
What does your morning look like right now?
Do rise late? Do you awake at the same time everyday?
Do you roll out of bed and into a coffee?
Where is your phone when you sleep?
How do you feel when you wake up?
What are the first thoughts in your head?
What did your mornings like for you growing up? Has this affected how you see mornings now?
Can you see the connections at play? Delving into these questions will help you gain the awareness you need to start to change your mindset about mornings, and become the creator of the most therapeutic and life-affirming way to start the day - meeting the morning on your own terms every day.
So, what does your ideal morning look like?
Your body has just awoken from a state of deep rest, it’s primed to let you dive into its depths before the superficial and distracting world takes over. Morning mindfulness is the path to accessing your superpowers, your strength and your calm, as well as connecting you to the sacred inner self.
Want to know what I do?
Begin with gratitude
Lie there and give thanks for where you are, take a moment to do a small gratitude practice. It may just be that you are glad that you are alive today, for your pillow, your mattress, a less interrupted sleep than normal. This practice becomes easier the more you practice it.
Aspiring to a fullness of heart, practicing gratitude is one of the most overlooked and underestimated rituals you can bring into your life. Not only are you starting your day on a positive note – but it literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the grey matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.
Check in with MY body
How is your body feeling, are there any aches and pains? What emotions are present?
Run your hands over your body and send it a little healing touch where it needs. Take as long as you like, massage your hands, your hips. I like to finish with my hands in a love heart over my womb space, connecting to the sacred centre of all women.
Move
What kind of exercise speaks to you? I find that moving first thing I the morning starts me off beautifully. I used to love an early morning swim in the ocean when I was blessed to be living on the beach, without a kid in tow. Now days I take to a gentle yoga practice, usually quite a fluid one, and (*gasp) I do it naked. It’s a practice of reverence to my body, my breath through the movement irons out all the kinks that settled overnight, and it sends me into a beautiful space of awareness. This is the one thing I will never let go of.
Qi Gong, Tai Chi, or simple stretching to music are also good alternatives.
Meditate
After some light movement I am them in the perfect space for a meditation.
This moment of stillness is about tapping into the life force, the pool of nourishment that’s always waiting for us and watching what arises without judgement.
Journal
Write it out! Journal your stressors, motivations, desires, and intentions that you have for the day ahead.
MY one thing
Identify the ONE thing today that will help you lead the life you want. This simplification of a to-do list that focuses on the one thing you can do to reach your higher goals, is purported by Gary Keller to be the way to achieve extraordinary results. He wrote an entire book on minimising the distractions and focusing on the quality exercises. Note the one thing you can do in each of the main areas of your life, these areas are specific to you but they may include your health goals, your financial goals, your family ideal, your social life, your work, your spirituality and your mental capacity. Apply your focus and energy to the one thing in each realm that will have you achieving your ideal life.
I personally find this process works really well if I do it the night before, rather than the morning of - then your off and rolling for the day without a second thought!
Rise early
This may be the foundation to all the other rituals. Make time in the beginning of the day to do the things that matter to you. It gets easier with time and you’ll reap the rewards immediately.
Many, like myself, find that they are more productive in the early hours of the day.
Research supports it, going to bed earlier and rising early closer to the earths own circadian rhythm helps promote restorative sleep. There are also indications that early risers tend to be more optimistic and can anticipate and solve problems more efficiently than those who slumber!
Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
- Benjamin Franklin
Sorry, but we can’t talk about mornings without a mention on sleep hygiene
It’s a mundane term - but sleep hygiene is important.
Dark, quiet, cool. Set up block-out curtains in your room, or wear an eye mask. If you can use air-conditioning in the warmer months around 19-20 degrees is optimal. Choose a room off the road, wear earplugs if necessary. Not sexy, but effective. We are often disturbed without even ralising it, and this has a huge impact on our quality of sleep. Cats and dogs should be kept out. I’ll be controversial here, if your partner has a different shift to you, or is particularly restless, sleep separately. You can still find moments of intimacy, indeed the separation might even work for you. Go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, even if it’s the weekend. Your body thrives on routine.And please, absolutely no screens – no TV, no phone, no iPads. A bedroom is a place for rest, reading, and intimacy. Nurture this space and you will reap rewards.
Select and choose from rituals that make you feel GOOD
The idea with these suggestions is to have you rising like you want to get out of bed in the morning, therefore I invite you to select and choose from rituals that make you feel good. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it. But a disclaimer, there is a difference between something that doesn’t feel good and resistance. Resistance is normal on the path to successfully embedding a habit, but if it is extended, and it’s fierce, then it’s not for you.
It goes without saying that you need to work around your family and your lifestyle.
Personally, I just rise even earlier so I am not met with the toddler alarm bell – sometimes that means it’s 4am. Perhaps you can tell your partner or husband or roommates that everyone is to pretend you aren’t here until a certain time. If you have older kids, establish clear boundaries, tell them Mum needs to fill her cup first and you’ll be available afterwards. They will learn to respect it, and it models good self-care practices to them.
What else can you incorporate?
Other things that I toy with from time to time, which may work for you include:
A morning boogie to your favourite tunes
A steaming cup of tea gazing out at the sunrise
Lighting a candle
Reciting affirmations, a verse, or a prayer
Work! It’s the prime time for the creative juices to flow, (and sometimes it’s the only space in the day for a mumma-bear).
Learn something new. The 5 am club, a concept set-up by Robin Sharma suggests a routine of 20mins of movement, 20 mins of writing, and 20mins of learning. He says “If you wake up before everyone else, you’ll be more productive, less distracted, and able to accomplish your most important tasks before the rest of the world has even stirred.” All the billionaires are doing it.
You are by no means encouraged to do all of the above. Select what resonates with you, and you think is achievable in the hours you have.
So tell me, what does a beautiful approach to mornings look like for you?
What things you will you stop doing? What things will you start doing? And best of all, how will this make you feel?