So... you’re not a morning person?
Me neither!
My mornings used to look like this:
- Alarm goes off, press snooze.
- Alarm goes off, press snooze.
- Alarm goes off, SHIT! we’re going to be late!!!
- Leap out of bed.
Rush into my eldest daughter's bedroom “Belle, time to get up”, then into my youngest daughter's room, “Come on Kayla, it’s time to get up” (both have snoozed through their alarms, hmmm, wonder where they learnt that from!).
Race out to our backyard, feed our dogs, race inside, start making the school lunches.
No sign of my girls in the kitchen.
Geez, why can’t they just get up?!
“Isabelle and Kayla, it’s time to get up, come on, we will be lateeeeee!”
Continue to make lunches, still no sign of my girls. Head into their bedrooms and plead with them to get up NOW!!!
Finish lunches, make up my coffee to go (I only drink cold drip. Kinda like how I like torn lettuce, but not shredded... anyway as I say to my daughters, we don’t say weird, it’s just different – but I digress!)
Finally my daughters appear and organise their breakfast – we’ve been at the ‘I can put my own weet-bix in a bowl’ stage for a few years now thankfully!
Race into the shower. Jump out of the shower, half dry myself and rush out to see what stage the girls are at. Usually they’d either be: watching television, back in bed or found their iPod! ARGHHH!!!
I’d yell at them to get dressed NOW!
Then I’d go get dressed and go back again to check what stage they were at. Usually this would be the time I would remind them to clean their teeth, flush the toilet, put their lunch in their bag, grab their school hat and “Don’t forget your waterrrrr!”
I am exhausted just remembering our old morning routine!!!
Eventually, I realised things needed to change! We were often late or almost late for school and by the time I got to work, I felt like I aged a couple of years!!!
First of all I realised that I needed to go to bed earlier, like much earlier, like before midnight! That was a HARD pattern to break because often after my girls go to bed I work in my biz, which I LOVE but I wasn’t loving how wrecked I was each morning!!
So I started going to bed a bit earlier and setting my alarm a bit earlier (and waking my girls earlier too) to help make our mornings a bit smoother! Having more time for everyone to get ready helped but I was still feeling stressed. Both of my girls get distracted easily and have trouble remembering what they need to do each morning. This means I do a LOT of reminding and directing them to their task charts.
So while we had more time to get ready it still felt stressful for me.
I decided I wanted some time for myself each morning and that I wanted to start my day calmly, without my kids!
So I decided to start meditating each morning before waking my girls.
I had visions of me all zen like in my soul space (aka my coaching and creating space) meditating every day. But each morning I was still hitting snooze and then running out of time to meditate.
I knew I needed this time for me but I kept hitting snooze every morning.
Why? I asked myself. My bed is so warm and comfy! Plus I'm tired!!
Then, like a lightning bolt, I thought, can I just meditate in bed, lying down?!
I suppose I can, why not?!
I started with five minutes each day. Then I added in a self-reiki. It felt so GOOD!!!
I said goodbye to the snooze button!!
I set two alarms each day. One to wake up to and then one to wake me up in case I fall asleep during my meditation or reiki cause you know, that can happen!
Then I added in doing some affirmations and setting intentions for my day. All in the warmth of my bed, cause that’s what worked for me!
I added in some grounding (walking barefooted on the earth) when I fed my dogs along with some deep breathing. Then I added in connecting with Mother Nature and giving thanks for her beauty and support.
Building my routine slowly totally worked for me!
I started with five minutes meditation, added in things I felt called to do and before I knew it, I had a strong morning practice that supported me and set me up for the day, all before I woke up my daughters.
This practice has changed my mornings and how I manage getting my girls out of the house each day. I’m way less stressed and so much happier because I have filled my cup up FIRST every day!
After my morning practice I feel like I can take on anything! Including daughters who need what feels like a million reminders every day, a long commute to my job with my employer (as a mental health coach), supporting and guiding people who are experiencing challenging times in my job, working in my coaching biz and you know, all the things we do in life as women and mothers!!!
Plus the other thing is that so often we want to do things for ourselves and take space for ourselves but our days get away from us and we end up missing out on time for ourselves time and time again.
Starting and growing a morning practice is one sure way to stop this from happening.
If it seems impossible for you like it did for me, start small and add to it when you feel you want to.
In my experience, when we start giving ourselves space we quickly begin to feel renewed and are able to take more space for ourselves.
And hey, Lovely One, do what you feel called to do.
Do what you are craving and needing. Maybe it’s a walk around the block, maybe it’s sitting in your garden eating your breakfast, maybe its journaling. Listen to what your heart and soul wants, and start with that.
Also, try to let go of any ideas of doing it perfectly.
Just start.
My/our morning routine is still a work in progress but boy do I feel so much more relaxed and ready to embrace each day now!
Let me know about your mornings. How do they look? Can you create some space for you?