Mornings for me are sacred. A time to contemplate, to be a human being. To stretch, meditate, exercise, be near the ocean or in nature and to read and absorb knowledge. To facilitate this, we wake up early. When we rise before the sun, the heart is expanded, we are in flow with nature and in alignment with this huge sense of something bigger than ourselves, and I find this a perfect time to meditate.
This has been recommended for thousands of years, it’s not something I invented, rather something I have experimented with over time. The difference in my days when I experience the depths of an unrushed morning routine vs a frantic oversleep are huge.
Lots of students say to me that they really want to wake up early, and try this, but do it a few days and crash. The key thing to note is, something is going to have to give in the lead up to it – i.e., your evenings prior.
I had to get very real with myself about what was preventing this from occurring for 80% of my week initially. It was binging on Netflix, if I had had a glass of wine, if I ate too much sugar before bed the mornings were not as easily approached. Rather, it was reading quietly, drinking hot water and sitting with a summer breeze outdoors or a fire burning in Winter and being in bed by 9pm that created a platform for an early start. Now whilst this certainly isn’t the most fabulous of social evenings, my god do I feel whole as a human bring because of it. I wake invigorated, inspired and motivated. And that for me is worth it for the 80% of the time I can work to it. Then there’s a window of 20% to play around with the rest of the week.
So instead of trying to just wake up earlier, look at editing the evening prior. What I have found over time is that my contentment and resilience is now so much greater, that even with a play up on the other 20% I can still easily stick to my morning routine and not get thrown off balance. This for me long term is worth the energy to build up to it in the short term.
Sent with love,
Jac x