The Power of Having a Morning Ritual
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Ooooohhhh, it’s getting cold here! We’re well below freezing tonight and tomorrow night. I’ve tucked all the plants in and told them their bedtime stories, covering them lovingly with light blankets to protect them from the frost.
Right now I’m loving the cold weather. It means I get to start my ritual of hot hot morning baths, which is sooooooo yummy! I get up super early (around 5), turn on the heater in the bathroom, grab my Intentions/Appreciation journal and my favorite pen (very important), light some candles, turn on some soothing music, and draw my bath with the warmest water I can tolerate. Add in some epsom salts, baking soda, vitamin C powder, and essential oils (usually lavender…just can’t go wrong with lavender). And while the bathtub is filling with this delicious soothingness, I sit and write. I do this almost every morning. And if I don’t do the bath, I try to *always write down my intentions for the day and lots of things I appreciate.
Then, my sweetie and I meditate, do a short powerful workout and some yoga and…we’re off!
There is so much power in this simple practice. I’d gotten out of the habit of doing it for awhile and I can definitely tell a difference. We’ve talked about inertia before and this is the perfect example of how inertia can be our friend or our foe.
Have you noticed that if you wake up and immediately start looking at emails or are immediately bombarded with problems that the rest of the day tends to feel out of control and like you’re putting out fires all day?
Conversely…when you take the time…even just 15-20 minutes…to center and think about delicious things, your day will go much much more easily.
Since I’ve been doing my morning ritual again, my days have been absolutely PHENOMENAL!! All in all, it takes me about an hour and a half, but again, you don’t have to spend that long. I’m just finding that I’m having so much fun and reveling in the yummy yummy of it so much that I want to keep on with it! So sometimes I do.
If you don’t have a morning ritual yet, start simple. Meditate for 15-20 minutes and then write down 5 things you really love and enjoy.
If you’d like something that’s a little more substantial, here’s what I do just about every morning:
Write down my intentions for the day. These are BROAD intentions. Things like: “Today I intend to have fun.” “Today I intend to love and adore myself unconditionally as much as possible.” “Today I intend to focus on what it is I want.” “Today I intend to play.”
Spend 10 minutes writing down things I love and appreciate. These can be as simple as running water or oranges. Or it can be a person. Anyone! Maybe the lovely checkout lady at your grocery store. If you can, write down a few reasons you love and/or appreciate it/them.
I lurvs my hot baths, so when it’s chilly out I take one filled with the goodness outlined above.
Meditate for 15-20 minutes. This can be guided or not. You can listen to music if you’d like to…or not. I like to mix it up.
Do some exercise. I love doing my High Intensity Interval Training followed by a little yoga (some days I’ll do a full yoga class as well, but that’s a lot;).
There! Now…you are ready to start your day. Fully and completely. I know not everyone has the time to do that much, so take what you’d like from my morning ritual and create your own. It is SO very worth it.