How to cultivate a morning ritual, starting tomorrow
Most of us have a morning routine. We wake up at the same time of day, we make a trip to the bathroom, we eat breakfast, we get ready and we get to work, school, etc... We’re on auto-pilot for the most part. It’s a routine we’ve been programmed to follow. We may not enjoy it, but we do it over and over again day after day because we have to. A morning ritual on the other hand, is much more than that.
What’s a morning ritual?
It’s a deliberate, intential action or set of actions that you chose to take every day to help you face the day ahead with a clear mind and a nourished soul. The solution is not one size fits all and it may take you some trial and error to find YOUR morning ritual, but once you do, you won’t be able to do without it, and your mornings and days will be infinitely better as a result.
I appreciate that many of us are busy. Our days are filled to the brim, with commitments and deliverables. Our schedules don’t belong to us and are often hijacked by our employers, our children, our families and our friends. It’s life and as grateful as we should be to have a job and loved ones in our lives, it can be pretty exhausting.
Cultivating a morning ritual is an excellent way to take back time for yourself. It doesn’t have to be long and overdrawn, in fact the most effective morning rituals are pretty straightforward. Even 10 minutes a day can make a difference.
The options are endless, from gratitude journaling, to meditation and yoga. But we’re all different and what appeals to and works for some of us may not appeal to or work for others.
Finding the perfect morning ritual?
My morning ritual has varied a lot over the years. What once worked for me didn’t quite fit my life once I became a mama and I struggled for a long time to find the right morning ritual.
I would look at lists for 101 morning rituals to help you start your day, or the 7 most effective morning rituals of the most successful entrepreneurs and think, yes, that’s it, I have to do that every morning. And when I couldn’t make it work, I would blame myself and think that I’m just really bad at adopting new habits.
All lies.
The truth was that I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, or someone else’s morning ritual into my life. Trying to cultivate the perfect morning ritual was stressing me out, and that’s when I knew it had to stop.
Slowly but surely, my morning ritual came together, almost on it’s own and if you give it time, yours will too.
My real life example
My morning ritual is a two step process and it actually started happening on it’s own, as part of my morning routine. I only realized it had become a ritual when I would miss it on the days that it didn’t happen and find a way to squeeze it into my day. If you’re not interested in my real life example, just skip below where I share 3 tips to help you design a morning ritual that works for you.
The first part of my morning ritual is waking up early, before anyone else does to sit by myself in silence and enjoy a cup of hot water with or without lemon. I treasure this alone time and I use it in different ways. Sometimes I take it up to the terrace to watch the sunrise and observe the seagulls doing their morning dance. Sometimes I stand by the window watching the rain outside, and other times, I sit on the sofa, alone with my thoughts and ideas. It has become a sacred time, just for me and while there are days when I can’t make it happen because my little girl wakes up in the middle of it, I find a way to incorporate this special time into my day once she’s at school.
Once the morning routine dust has settled and I’ve dropped off Amal at school, I enjoy my morning walk back home alone, rain or shine. Sometimes it’s a quick walk, sometimes I meander and window shop, sometimes it’s a longer powerwalk, and other times it’s a walk to the organic supermarket. Either way, it’s another part of my morning that has become a ritual, something that started happening accidentally as part of the morning routine, but that I am now very deliberate and intentional with. On the odd day that I have to catch a bus in a rush to make an early appointment, or when Alessandro takes care of the drop off, I miss this ritual that has become a defining part of how I start my day, and find a way to incorporate it in another part of my day or simply look forward to it the next day.
So how do you find the morning ritual that is right for you?
Here are 3 tips to help you cultivate the perfect morning ritual:
Your morning ritual is as unique as you are. Don’t try to play by anyone else’s rules. Find what works for you and your life.
Your morning ritual should make you feel excited to get out of bed. Keep it simple and ejoyable so that you can look forward to it every night and be excited to get out of bed for it.
Your morning ritual should be something you feel good about doing because it brings you pleasure and nourishes your mind body and soul.
The bottom line is do what works for you and your life, or you’ll end up unmotivated and frustrated, which is what drives so many of us to give up on forming new healthy habits.