Morning Rituals

I always think of myself as more of a creative person rather than an analytical one, and I always liked the idea of creativity being free flowing and just kind of this gem in the midst of disorder.  But you know what, creativity is really hard work.  And disorder does not encourage it; in fact, I'd say it inhibits it.  Just from personal experience, I know I don't like sewing when my office is full of stacks of clutter and half finished projects are laying all over the place. 

I had a light bulb moment, after listening to a podcast from Todd Henry's Accidental Creative about the importance of structure to your mornings with morning rituals, and I decided I should really try it out.  So one of my goals for the month of May was to start having a morning ritual.  Todd gets up the same time every day, and spends the first hour in his morning ritual,  reading for about half an hour, clearing his mind and gearing up for his day for about fifteen minutes or so, then writing for about ten minutes, and finally five minutes to plan his day.

So basically, a morning ritual gives you a firm foundation to start your day on.  It lets you kind of reflect on what you need to do, and helps get your day off to a good start.  Here's how my morning ritual goes.

1. Reading- I read out of two daily books: one is Sarah Ban Breathnach's Daybook of Comfort and Joy, which I've talked about several times before and is a book I love, and the second is a devotional called A Godward Life, which is only about two pages long.  Then I read a chapter in a book.  I've already read a couple.  Currently it's a book called You are Talented!  Which is pretty interesting.

2. I free write a page in my large Moleskine notebook.  It's just kind of whatever is on my mind and whatever comes into my head. 

3.  I pray and write my prayer requests out, so I can keep track of where my mind is, who I've been thinking of and I write down what I'm grateful for, for that day.

And that's about it, but it's really helped get my days off to a good start and get my mind in the right place for the day.  I'm still tweaking it.  Today I did a little Yoga afterwards.  Some days if I'm pushed for time, I don't write, and I'm still working on getting up at the same time every day, but I just love getting up and easing into my day with a cup of coffee, no internet, and just reading thinking, and focusing on things.

If you're feeling frazzled and overwhelmed (and who doesn't) I really recommend you try having a morning ritual and see if it helps your day get off to a smoother start.  And let me know what you think.