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November 4, 2019 | CREATE YOUR LIFE
Hi beautiful,
Morning routines have become a hot topic and “must” on the self care checklist.
Fantastic! We’ve all heard about the benefits of a routine such as greater productivity and effectiveness. Crucial! BUT… I’d like to take you deeper…
I believe a morning routine is the cornerstone to loving yourself.
Yup, mornings are about loving YOU!
How?
YOUR MORNING ROUTINE IS YOUR FIRST OPPORTUNITY TO BE KIND TO YOURSELF.
It’s your first opportunity to set how you want to feel during the day,
and therefore you set how the energy momentum and action and even the tone of your conversations can (and will) unfold throughout your entire day. Remember, if like me (and Einstein), you believe in universal law, likes attracts like, what you put out (how you feel), you will get back (what you experience).
It’s basically, your first chance to tell yourself and the world you live in
- how important you are,
- what you deserve and
- what you are open to receive… cough cough [reminder]… your morning routine is your first chance to give yourself love and receive love.
So in my Natural Alchemy world, morning routines are NOT about adding ANOTHER thing to your list.
Nope.
Morning routine is about GIVING TO YOURSELF FIRST.
AKA in Natural Alchemy, your morning routine is about HONOURING YOURSELF.
Let’s get honest for a second…
HOW DO YOU BEGIN YOUR DAY?
- Do you hit snooze 4 times?
- Do you wake up in worry thoughts listing out all that you have to do? AND more specifically, listing out what you have NOT done?
- Jump out of bed, moving so fast, you’re already in the bathroom before you’re fully awake?
- Are you exhausted and sleepy and grumpy, even after you wake up?
While I am partial to hitting the snooze button (I am not here to be perfect or pretend that I am)…
it’s the morning’s that I don’t hit snooze, and
- I put on music immediately, and
- leave my phone on airplane mode
that I’m finding that I’m more productive, more present, more pro-active on giving to myself throughout the day (aka loving myself).
Equally, I find that I’m taking work curveballs and people’s reactions less personally. That might be the part I’m enjoying the most!
For instance, from practising “self-prioritisation” every morning for 22 months now, I can concretely report that my morning routine is having a positive domino effect on my
- productivity,
- creative work,
- relationships,
- decision making, and
- my body.
Therefore, I’m more anchored in myself.
Because this internal anchor of “I’M MOST IMPORTANT” / “I TAKE CARE OF ME FIRST”,
I can return to this well of SELF HONOUR with greater and greater ease throughout the day.
As you can see, my morning routine really does set in motion, the momentum of self importance.
HERE ARE THE MUSTS OF MY OWN MORNING ROUTINE
1. Put on music first thing in bed and wiggle around stretching and waking up in my body
2. I go through phases according to what my body requires either LEMON IN WARM WATER in the morning or CLAY in water. Perhaps either of these will contain an essential oil to support my body needs that morning, of which I’ll intuitively select.
3. I put on a face mask or an enriching cream or serum while I put on my stove top espresso maker.
5. More music while I stretch or move my body.
6. I do my “morning pages” a practice I adopted from “The Artists Way” which includes writing my current affirmation that I’m focusing on embodying.
7. I sit and meditate for 20 – 40 minutes.
8. I eat a nourishing breakfast and listen to one of my favourite authors, then review my tasks/projects/objectives for the day.
Of course these are ALL important MUSTS for me and they don’t always happen in that order BUT they ALWAYS happen every morning.
For example, some mornings, I feel the urge to meditate first and some mornings I might write first thing when I wake up. As rules can be seem restrictive for me, I allow myself flexibility in choosing what I feel like with the KNOWING AND COMMITMENT that all must be done. And to be honest, at this stage, these 8 principals have become as second nature as going to the toilet. Not doing one, feels like walking around with only 1 shoe on for the rest of the day!
Now, over to you HOW CAN YOU set an even stronger foundation for increased productivity, presence and positive experiences… and most importantly SELF HONOUR?
Below I offer the foundations that are IMPERATIVE for integrating a consistent morning routine…
HOW TO CREATE A MORNING ROUTINE:
THE 3 CORE FOUNDATIONS
1. It’s about you HONOURING yourself
2. Your morning routine begins the NIGHT before
3. You set the tone of the day with your awakening THOUGHTS
Now, let’s dive in deeper into each of these core foundation steps:
1. IT’S ABOUT HONOURING YOURSELF
Beautiful, this is your life. Why would you not create the best experience for yourself?
On two mornings this week, the 9th thing I did (after my routine list) I had a bath! (This high level of bath in the morning “self honour” has been 4 years in the making!!) What may be even more astounding about that, they have been my most productive, most creative, most decisive days of the week. This morning, I was resisting the bath… listing out all the reasons why there wasn’t enough time, I wouldn’t be able to relax, it would take too much time… but here’s the breakthrough… as soon as I committed to the bath (committed to giving to myself FIRST) and started running the water, time expanded. My morning rendez-vous asked could I meet them an hour later, so then i got to my journalling and meditating and breakfast after bath, zero rush, fully anchored in ME.
Could you take a few moments to
- listen to a song and visualize you achieving your current #1 goal
- listen to a song and strech in bed
- repeat your current #1 affirmation
- review your agenda for the day and ask each event what’s the best that can happen?
- sit up and meditate for 2 minutes
- not turn off airplane mode until you have had your cup of tea, then stretch that to until your dressed, then strech that until your out of your home?
How can you HONOUR YOURSELF FIRST in the morning?
List out your JUST FOR YOU morning routine.
2. YOUR MORNING ROUTINE BEGINS THE NIGHT BEFORE
There is absolutely no point in conceiving any more (we’ve all thought about improving) morning routine thoughts, if you are not going to set up some loving disciplines in the evening.
How about…
- going to bed 1 hour earlier?
- taking a night time tea into bed and listening to music as sip slowly?
- putting your feet into a basin with baking soda? (you can add all fancy oils and salts, but baking soda is all you need to alkalise your feet and get yourself out of your head and out of your day).
- making your bed a no-phone-zone.
- listen to music, write, sew, read, stretch, meditate, breath, sip tea, listen to a podcast (put phone on airplane mode is acceptable).
Let the resistance (because there will be resistance) begin in the evening and tackle it, head on the evening.
How can you HONOUR YOURSELF before you sleep?
Choose one BEDTIME COMMITMENT to kickstart your morning routine.
3. YOU SET THE TONE OF THE DAY WITH YOUR WAKING THOUGHTS
How you speak to yourself is the how you experience your life.
If you want to heal and create effectively in your life and in alignment with what you want, it’s best to become the commander, the officer in chief of your thoughts. A nice way to anchor into this habit, is to become aware of how you speak to yourself before you sleep and when you wake.
And naturally, you set the tone with your awakening thoughts, with your final thoughts THE NIGHT BEFORE. I have started a night-before-practise of reviewing the day (in my head) and thanking my conversations, tasks completed, encounters, trip ups and triumphs. Feeling gratitude for all that I learnt and experienced in the day. And releasing people’s energy from our connections during the day. I find the nights I can’t fall asleep with ease, it’s because my energy is stuck in the past entangled with someone from earlier in the day.
And in the morning, I begin with gratitude and tell myself
“I love you, let’s do this! What’s the BEST that can happen today??”
As I put on a tune and start to lazily but wakingly stretch my body around my bed.
I guess what I’m really trying to hit home here (and honour my own practise more) is that this time for myself, with myself, is SACRED and it’s limited, not only on a daily, hourly basis, but in this lifetime!
My time in this body is limited. And so I’ve started to reflect and ACTION on all the ways I can HONOUR MYSELF myself (SELF HONOUR is the cornerstone of Natural Alchemy Method.)
Showing up for myself begins with the smallest of steps.
Honouring myself begins with the smallest steps.
Loving myself begins with the smallest of steps.
Receiving greater abundance begins with the smallest of steps.
COMMIT TO GREATER SELF HONOUR NOW:
1. Update your bedtime activity
2. Upgrade your morning with HONOURING YOURSELF
3. Elevate your day with appreciation and affirmation, last thing at night and first thing in the morning.
Are you willing?
Are you ready?
Set…
Start tonight!
Let me know what YOUR MORNING ROUTINE is in the comments below.
To supporting you,
Heidi
