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.

Why Podcasts are Awesome... and Some Recommendations

I never really got into podcasts.  I don't have any Apple products so I don't even have an account with iTunes.  And I always thought following podcasts through blogs seemed cumbersome.  Plus, I have a horrible time listening to audio books.  I have a tendency to wander out of the room for something quick and come back later to realize that my book was reading itself to no one.  So, I kind of just wrote them off as nice but not for me.

I listened to Serial online and really enjoyed it, and then, a few months later one of my friends was telling me about the podcast, Stuff You Missed in History Class.  It sounded geeky, and interesting at the same time and I decided to check it out.  Not knowing where to begin, I searched "podcasts" in the Android App Store  and found "Podcast Addict".  I downloaded it, and so began my podcast adventures.  I know there's other apps out there, but I've loved this one and have had no problems with it, so I can't really recommend anything else.

Basically, I just added a few podcasts that sounded interesting and got to listening.  And now I listen all the time.  I download episodes and listen in my car.  I listen while I sew, I listen while I scrub floors, I listen while I get ready for work.  And since it's all coming from my phone, I can just carry it with me throughout the house while I do chores.

If you aren't listening to podcasts yet, here are three basic ones I recommend:

Stuff You Missed In History Class- This one is full of interesting historical stories that you probably weren't even aware of.  Want to learn about the Dyatlov Pass Incident?  The Hope Diamond?  Who was Tokyo Rose?  This is the podcast for you.  My favorite episode so far: How Vincent van Gogh Worked

NPR: TED Radio Hour- These area always pretty interesting, and on a variety of topics.  And each podcast includes snippets from several TEDTalks as well as interviews with the speakers.  It's a nice little mashup.  My favorite episode so far: Just a Little Nicer

Accidental Creative from author Todd Henry is full of great ideas to inspire you to be a more creative person and who doesn't want to be more creative.  It's geared towards creative professionals and freelancers, but he gives lots of great tips and the episodes are all pretty short. My favorite so far: The Power of a Morning Ritual

Note: All these links are to the individual websites, but if you really want to get into podcast listening, I highly recommend using a player like, Podcast Addict.  It's free to install, keeps all your podcasts in one place, checks off episodes you've already listened to, always you to download episodes, favorite episodes, and is easy to update with new episodes.

And, if you have any recommendations for podcasts I should be listening to, please feel free to leave me a comment below!