Do you have a perfect morning routine?
We all know life is not perfect, but if you’re experiencing tough days (especially this year), having a routine in the morning may bring more clarity and peace into your life.
I have a certain way I like to spend my mornings, and it continues to develop. Mornings are my favorite part of the day!!!
My family knows, if I can help it, I don't like to have a lot of conversation when I wake up. I have to have personal quiet time... alone... away from everyone.
Quiet time by myself is vital for many reasons. One reason is that I’m introverted and I need my space. I need time alone. It's how I'm wired.
For the extroverted world, like my son and husband, this is hard to understand.
My son loves mornings, and he loves to talk when he wakes up (bless him). He talks about his dream the night before, his thoughts on something about the previous day, or even just humming a tune from his favorite movie.
He’s very chipper and I absolutely love it about him! For real!
Most mornings, I feel chipper inside too, but I rarely express it openly until I’ve had my alone time.
Something that I absolutely cannot do is wake up and go straight into social media, watching the news, checking e-mails, or thinking about all the tasks I have for the day. Occasionally, I have spent some mornings doing these things and it totally sucks the life out of my day and the happiness out of my spirit.
I'm grouchy, I think about only myself all day long and whine about what I'm tired of and I am super critical of others.
I need (stress the word NEED) those precious morning hours to gather my thoughts, focus, meditate, write my thoughts on whatever’s on my heart, or how I want my day to go. It’s the most peaceful time of my day!
If you wake and go straight to social media, reading all the bad news, letting the world’s troubles soak into the fibers of your soul, your day or week will end up going negatively at some point.
I’d like to share some of my routines with you. If you don’t have a routine, even a small one, I hope to inspire you to start one in the a.m.!
#1: Gratitude
To have a great day and a glorious life, waking up with gratitude is the first step!
Most mornings, I have my journal, my pen, my phone (for listening to peaceful music), I grab a cup of lemon water, and I make a cup of coffee.
While the coffee is brewing, I try to drink as much lemon water as I can. It's so good for our bodies to get water first thing when waking up!
I grab my freshly brewed cup of joe (sometimes black and sometimes with creamer) and I go outside to enjoy the sunshine.
I take a deep breath, look up to the sky, and say, “Thank you”. I feel immense gratitude just that I get to be alive! If I have nothing else to be grateful the rest of my life, this one thing is everything to me!
It didn’t use to be that way. I used to wake up stressed, in fear, in grief about my past, depressed, and in constant anxiety.
On top of all that, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the tasks I had to do and all the reasons I didn’t want to do most of them.
I used to have a very negative mindset about life and that made life feel like a chore instead of a blessing. My negative perspectives affected my dreams as well. I was always having nightmares and fear in the night.
Gratitude has changed everything in my life!!!
I don’t have any of those struggles anymore and if any of that stuff tries to creep back in; I know how to use gratitude and love to get my mind back to the right place!
Every morning, I love listening to the birds sing and smelling the fresh air. I feel free inside! I feel alive and have positive vibes for the day!
Having a grateful attitude takes dedication to your future self. Think about it. If you’re living negatively every day, always watching the news, always being brought down by everyone’s problems.
How long do you want to live in that turmoil?
Even if you find one thing every day that puts butterflies inside of you, that’s a start!
What lights you up? Having a daily practice of gratitude will change your life and turn around your negative circumstances! Saying and feeling, ”Thank you”, will set the tone for your day and eventually, for the rest of your life.
#2: Write it down
There’s something about writing what you’re grateful for. I know there are some who don’t enjoy writing, but if you wrote one thing down each day, it’s worth it!
Seeing the words flow from pen to paper, feeling the words come through your mind, and placed in front of your eyes is a magical feeling!
Don’t just scribble. Envision why you’re grateful for whatever it is! You’re setting your day up for great things, and even if great things don’t happen, your mind is going to focus on the good things that are happening.
I left my victim mentality when I started the journey of gratitude.
I don’t dwell on my past anymore. I don’t dwell on what others have done to me. I don’t dwell on the things I don’t like about life.
It’s not superficial to live this way. This is a chosen lifestyle.
I’m not living a naïve life. I have tough days and I feel overwhelmed, but I don’t stay there. I want a life that’s full of wonder, excitement, and adventure.
I already know what it feels like to live in sadness, grief, and anxiety.
I know what it feels like to dread the day, to feel overwhelmed before I even open my eyes.
I have decided that life isn’t for me anymore! It no longer serves who I am and who I am becoming.
I choose a life of hope, adventure, mystery, discovery, depth, and love! True freedom in life is getting to decide, in your mind and heart, how you want to live every single day!
When you’re truly free, you’re not bound by the opinions of others, or what the weather’s going to do, or how much work you have on your plate, or what someone thinks about the economy, or what’s happening politically.
You’re not oblivious to the world's uncertainties. You’ve simply chosen not to absorb it all.
#3: Meditate
Knowing how to let go of the negative weight of life in a spirit of gratitude, through meditation, will transform your entire being!
Meditation means “to become familiar with”. Whatever you meditate on is your business. For me, I meditate on love. I want to become so familiar with love that love completely permeates every cell and every aspect of my existence on planet Earth.
When I close my eyes, with soft music playing, I imagine love as warm light flowing through my soul, my heart, and my body. I imagine love filling me so deeply that it spreads and covers my family, my neighborhood, my city, my state, my country, and the world.
I also meditate on loving who I am, my body, my mind, my heart, and my life. I feel immense love and gratitude for my life and everyone in it!
This used to be hard for me to do also, but as I have said before, gratitude has changed my life in every way, and it just keeps getting better!
I hope I’ve awakened something inside of you to begin a deep and loving journey of gratitude and love!
It is guaranteed to transform your entire life for the better!
As always, I'm sending love and hugs from my heart to yours!
Charity
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