Photo © Martha Brettschneider/Damselwings Photography
Yesterday I ventured into my messy back yard for the first time this year. Because I allow dead foliage to overwinter to support critter habitat, a lot of work was needed to clear, clip, prune, and yank out what doesn’t serve the garden’s spring intentions.
I cleared space for new growth, gave the daffodils room to project their joyful energy more fully, and uncovered the tiniest of blossoms that go unnoticed if you’re not paying full attention.
Every year, this winter clean-up task feels like the outer expression of the inner work that sustains me on a daily basis through my morning rituals. These days more than ever, if I start my day by allowing toxic weeds to take root in my inner landscape first thing in the morning, I am choked off from the person I want to be.
My best days always begin the same way…
- I’ve gone to bed early enough to get a good night’s sleep.
- Upon waking, I get out of bed to turn off my phone alarm in the bathroom (I keep my phone in the bathroom to sleep better).
- I maintain my self-command and do NOT check email, read texts, look at headlines, or scroll social media at this early hour, when nobody else is expecting me to be awake anyway.
- I pad down the hall to my office to meditate (when our kids were growing up, my meditation spot was my bathroom).
- After meditating, I journal, usually for about ten minutes, sometimes less. These few minutes help me clarify what’s most important for me to pay attention to that day and how to prioritize in order to stay aligned with purpose.
- The final element of my optimal morning routine is to spend another ten or fifteen minutes with what I call wisdom reading. Spiritual teachers from various traditions, poets, and inspirational leaders make up this reading list. Right now, my wisdom reading is How We Learn to Be Brave by Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC, who gave the courageous inauguration day sermon appealing for mercy and compassion with the president and vice president sitting in the front row.
I have been cultivating this morning routine for 15 years. At different stages of my journey, other activities felt purposeful enough to hold a spot on that list. Until they didn’t.
I have enough data points now to know that these three rituals – meditation, journaling, and wisdom reading – comprise the morning blend that keeps me well resourced, clear headed, and focused on what matters most each day.
And of course I fall off the routine sometimes. Every time I do, I am never at my best. Last week, for example, I allowed myself to be lured into checking the headlines right after turning off my alarm. “Just one quick peek,” I told myself.
Those few seconds were enough to hijack me, activating my body’s alarm system. Stress, uncertainty, overwhelm, and the cortisol flood that accompanies these feelings coursed through my veins. Meditating helped some, but when I started to journal, fear-based thinking spilled onto the page.
The good news is that I have the tools to transform experiences like this into deeper awareness and inspiration to keep myself on track (and to write this blog post in the hope that it can serve). This is another benefit of meditation and other focused attention practices – strengthening the self-command we need to regroup when needed.
If my morning routine list sounds like too heavy a lift for you, why not just try one or two aspirations? Maybe pay more attention to your bedtime to set yourself up for a better night’s sleep? Maybe see if you can do just one of the “big three” as I call them (meditation OR journaling OR nourishing wisdom reading) before you open the gates to the outside noise?
Let me know how it goes.
And if you’d like to give meditation a try or reboot your practice in an easy, low pressure environment (your own home), with accountability and live guidance, my next program begins on Wednesday, March 26, at 7:00 am ET. LEARN MORE HERE.
Photo © Martha Brettschneider/Damselwings Photography
