A morning rhythm
How I slowed down, cultivated calm and read loads of books!
Last July I discovered, and soon embraced, Slow Living, thanks to picking up a Destination Simple, a book by Brooke McAlary, in a beautiful little bookshop in St Ives. I began experimenting with 5 daily habits suggested in the book:
- Single tasking (which I think of as moments of mindfulness)
- Unplugging (from all tech, for 15–30 minutes a day)
- Emptying my mind (onto a sheet of paper… all the stuff rumbling around which takes up space in your brain and can cause worry or feelings of overwhelm)
- Three things (a short list of just three things to achieve in the day)
- Gratitude
I next started trying out a morning rhythm. I love what Brooke says about rhythm vs routine:
Rhythm moves you. You dance to it, find your groove, let go a little, enjoy the moment and see where it takes you.
Routine? Notsomuch.
You march to routine. It’s a steady metronome keeping time. And if you sway, if you linger, if you move out of order or miss a step, then you fail. You’re out of time. You’re lagging behind.
Rhythm allows change and flexibility for different seasons in life. Which is why rhythm wins out over routine every day.
My first morning rhythm looked like this:
- Get up and feed cats
- 10 mins of tai chi (following a video)
- Make tea
- Empty mind and three things list
- Unplugging (reading for 15 mins)
- Run / go swimming on days I chose to exercise)
- Shower
- Breakfast
I started getting up earlier to be able to include some of the daily rituals in my morning. I’ve just discovered some notes I made having reviewed using the rituals and rhythm for two weeks. I felt more prepared for my days, more content and hugely more organised and in control.
I’ve continued to tweak and play with my morning routine, it’s gone through a number of iterations and currently looks like this:
- Get up and feed cats
- 10–20 minutes of a Yoga video (I’m loving Yoga with Adriene for her encouragement to smile, her complete randomness and occasional singing! h/t Brooke McAlary)
- 5 minutes of filling in my Five Minute Journal App (I’ve moved from a gratitude journal filled in at the end of the day, to using this app in the morning and again in the evening. I love that I can add a picture to reflect on /remember each day.)
- 10–15 minutes of mindfulness with the wonderful Headspace App (I’m using this much more consistently than ever now I have a morning rhythm.)
- 30–60 minutes run / swim
- Shower
- 10–15 minutes cleaning (this ritual emerged from a post in a Facebook group for an online course I took called Uncluttered — that’s a whole other story!)
- 15–30 minutes unplugging — reading with my breakfast
I now do my three things thinking the evening before, and find I don’t need to do the emptying my mind habit so often, I draw on it when I my brain feels too full or I’m overwhelmed with work.
Over a period of months the habits and morning rhythm have helped me to start my day feeling calm, relaxed and nurtured. The calm feeling is huge. I had no idea it was possible for a day start and be so calm. Previously I would often feel rushed and struggle to get into work mode.
I’m less often late now, and find it much easier to transition to doing work once I’ve spent half an hour reading, usually work related books. And oh my goodness, I’ve read so much more over the past 6 months. I’ve actually finished books too, something I rarely did before, or took forever to do.
I’d like to start integrating some writing into my morning rhythm, so that I do something with all the reading. However given the full morning rhythm can be the first 3 hours of my day it will require some consideration.
I’m interested in and inspired by the structure, content and impact of other people’s morning rhythms (or routines), do share yours or links to others you’ve found.
