I’ve not always found the morning so miraculous. When I was a kid, I used to love to stay up late at night. I remember as a teenager loving to watch episodes of Beavis and Butthead...
...often at around 11 p.m. on MTV and that sometimes even would pass midnight. It looked to me then, that in the evening there was much more to happen, compared to the morning, when everything was dead. The morning after, I used to wake up when most of the time my parents would wake me up. During the week it would be to go to school and when there was no school, quite often it was for lunch at noon when everybody already awakened, judged that it was more than time for me to wake up. I cannot really say that I used to be a morning guy.
Later on, when I started to work, it didn’t really change. I used to know exactly how much time, I would need to do everything in the morning till arriving at work and I would calculate the time to wake up exactly based on that. No time for anything else during that period and arriving at work, I would definitely need my morning coffee (first pleasant thing of the day).
Work and family brought me into habits that made me move away of my times to stay in bed till noon. Now I was definitely not a morning guy then, if I could sleep longer, I would sleep longer. The only moment I would wake up very happy, is when I knew something, or special event was about to happen that day for which I was obliged to get up earlier (typically leave on holiday).
When I changed my food habits in 2014, like I explained here, my sleep quality improved and I started to realize some changes in the mornings as well. I started to explore with some morning rituals, that made me work towards a way more happier morning, and I actually really started to enjoy mornings.
In this process, a lovely colleague of mine talked me about the book ‘The Miracle Morning’ from Hal Elrod, which looked like coming at the right moment for me, I bought it right away, read it and it changed my mornings forever. For people interested in the subject, I really recommend the book.
I would personally summarize it as, when I start something, provide it a good start, completely in line with myself and built on that to realize the rest of it. Which is really what the morning is for the rest of the day. Provide it attention, enjoy that moment, make it a privileged moment of the day.
Ideally, I understand that I would live in line with the sunlight (which I try to apply during weekends and holidays), now for the other days, modern life doesn’t really allow that. So my morning ritual starts always at the same time during all seasons. The only difference is that in the summer I’ll do it outside in the garden, during mid-season outside or inside with windows open and in the winter completely inside.
My morning ritual today is;
- Wake up at 5:00 AM / 5:30 AM (majority of time with an alarm if I have obligations that day, the alarm is a sound that makes me happy to wake up, in my case ‘The Boo Radleys: Wake up boo!', not like the standard annoying alarm sounds)
- I drink a full glass of water, I drink it slowly and enjoy my body absorbing it.
- Walk around, open some windows, make up the bed and get some air.
- I prepare a morning drink with love for the family (based on lemon, ginger and 50°C heated water, mixed in the blender or cut in pieces if no blender available).(side note, we used to see this morning drink as a good replacement for the coffee, and the amount of ginger in the drink provides in fact the same discussions like the amount of coffee set in when making it, more of it making it stronger if required)
- I empty the dishwasher (seen as a service to the community of the house), increase my movement of the day, drink my morning drink and do that all that in a happy, grateful mood (even if I don’t feel full of energy e.g., I accept that I don’t feel full of energy, now it doesn’t influence my mood).
- I do a 10-15 minutes Yoga practice (a moment to connect with myself)
- I take a shower and get dressed.
- Prepare breakfast (well, we’ve a big fruit plate in the house, which is free for everybody to serve from when they want to, and I just grab the fruits that I really want that day out of the choice) to eat or take-away later in the day if I’m not hungry.
- A one hour drive to work, which I try to drive as conscious as possible (no radio or music), observing myself, just me driving and find peace with all thoughts or ideas that might come up in my head.This ritual is for me personally something that brings so much positivity to my day, that I actually enjoy it and that it is of no problem to wake up what I used to see before as the middle of the night.
Want to give it a try, here some easy propositions that might inspire;
- Make time for myself in the morning of something I would like to do! (can be exercising, taking air, walk, read, write…)
- Like reading, read ‘The Miracle Morning’ from Hal Elrod.
- Just write what’s in my head at that moment.
- A talk with my partner or family.
- A little guided morning meditation.
- A little Yoga flow.
- ...
What are your morning habits, I would love to hear about them?
#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #sleep #morningritual #enjoytheday #enjoywater #breatheair #TheMiracleMorning #HalElrod
