I’m into the fourth month doing my miracle morning routine. I admit that there were a few mornings over the holidays that I didn’t get it done, or at least not the full routine. It’s not hard to get some of the pieces in, even if I don’t get them all done.
As I mentioned when I first wrote out my miracle morning routine here, I use the Headspace app to meditate for the silence portion of the routine. I started with the Basic program and, well, I’m still doing the basics. I’m too cheap to subscribe and get access to the other programs. Since the app lets me continue to redo the Basics over and over again, that’s just what I’ll do. I also think that it’s not a bad thing to get the foundation set right, so it works. I started with the five minute version and now I’m doing the ten minute one.
I experienced a great, noticeable, external benefit of meditation last week when I helped people move.
A little background. I like to help people, and often volunteer to help people move. Carrying things is pretty simple. Hard work is often a good way to bond with people too. The funny thing is that I hate moving. I do it too often myself. From my experience, it always happens that no matter how ready and prepared anyone thinks they are for moving day, there are always unexpected hurdles that frustrate progress. I often find that frustrating. I don’t know why. I didn’t think I could change it. It has happened with every moving experience I’ve had in my life (around 20 times between myself and helping others).
Something different happened this most recent time. I didn’t get frustrated, at least not like I have in the past. That’s not to say that it was a smooth move. There were hiccups. I think that I was just not as uptight as I usually am about these things. I attribute that to having a better frame of mind from meditating.
For me, the whole day went so much better than I expected. I’d like to think that since I was in a better frame of mind, I might have been even more help to those I was helping.
I have always had a hot-headed temperament. For the first time that I can remember, I was able to stay calm in the midst of what usually would have been a frustrating experience.
For that, I will keep up my meditation and my miracle morning routine.
Routines are powerful, aren’t they? My successful mornings go like this: 1) wake up by 5am, 2) listen to an audiobook by one of my favorite authors while eating a small, high-fat breakfast, 3) take a cold shower, 4) turn on my computer and write around 200 words in my journal, 5) work on one of my writing projects.
If I don’t wake up early and have plenty of time alone, I pretty much never follow through. I’d like to improve on that problem.
My routine works best if I’ve prepare a few things before bed, getting my breakfast together and opening the computer folders & programs I use for writing before putting my computer to sleep for the night.
I don’t use my phone or computer for anything but writing, audiobooks, and music until at least 7am.
I used to try productivity & positive psychology methods in the morning, but I kept abandoning the practices because of the time it took. Eventually I realized that the most positive, energizing thing I can do is to do the thing itself (writing) instead of planning and visualizing. I like to plan too, to be sure, but usually on a weekly basis. So now, every part of my morning routine is there to get me from bed to my writing projects as effectively as possible.
I’ve also found that I can extend my productive morning by listening to a lecture while making my second breakfast (hehe, around 7:30) & preparing my food for the day; this keeps feeding my mind during the break instead of letting me relax too much.
Thanks for sharing this. I like having some alone time and can only get it if I wake early as well