My Morning Routine

I thought I'd share my morning routine with you. It's perhaps the single smartest, most joy-producing, productivity-enhancing, personal-growth fueling thing that I do, and it's one area where I am truly walking my talk, and it's always best to teach what you actually know from long practice. Even if you intellectually know it and can talk eloquently, there is a certain vital energy missing, I find, in people who are talking the talk but not walking the walk. I think it has a very large effect on whether people actually transform after listening to them, or just have a temporary new-years resolution type thing, and then go back to what they were doing. That's just a theory so far, no strong evidence to support it, but I'll likely start getting some more evidence one way or another as I keep teaching.

In any case, I'm always fascinated by that: what is it that makes us sometimes transform deeply and permanently, and other times makes just go off in a direction for a bit, and then bounce back, like a bungee jumper.

In any case, my routine (with some pictures that are actually my own, rather than ruthlessly stealing from google image search.)

First: the night before. This part I'm not as good at. Currently I'm trying to turn off and put away my computer around 7pm. Obviously that has not happened tonight, but not for lack of trying. I am desperately trying to finish the few things that seem actually important. In fact, as soon as I finish this post I have one more must-do computer thing, and then I'm turning it off! Though that still might not get me to bed by 9, which is my general goal. (my stretch goal being 8:30, at which point I think I can start waking up at 4 am and have an extra 45 minutes to work on top priority things)

Sleep.

My alarm goes off at 4:45 am every morning, regardless of when I go to sleep, unless it's really late, like midnight, which does happen occasionally. Then I allow myself to sleep enough that I can get 7-8 hours of sleep. Sometimes.

My alarm is a custom ring tone that I made from a recording of birdsong. I do this for several reasons: one, I always place my alarm far enough away from my bed that I have to actually stumble out of bed to turn it off. This is ESSENTIAL to me actually getting up. Without that one smart pre-planned bit of environmental assisted willpower, I'd never have made it past the first day or two of my early wake-up.

So, because it takes me a few moments to wake up enough to stumble out of bed and fumble the alarm to the off position, I chose birdsong, so that other people in the house won't hear an annoying alarm going off, they may just think it's some birds outside. It being loud and in my room, it's generally incongruous enough that it does in fact wake me up. Though I have occasionally woken up very confused while I was out camping, hearing the loud sound of birdsong and wondering for a moment if it was time for me to get up, before I recognized the fact that it was different birdsong and went back to sleep.

Second, I have bird song because it's something beautiful and pleasant to wake up to. A nice way to start my day. I had previously tried some Tibetan singing bowls as a wake-up ring-tone, but they were too mellow and didn't end up waking me up on nights when I hadn't gotten a full 7-8 hours of sleep (which is a lot of nights. As I said, still not so great about the night before thing.)

OK, so I've stumbled to my phone and turned it off. Next, and also highly important:

I turn on the lights.

This is super helpful in leaning me away from that precipitous edge that exists for the first few minutes of waking up early, where it is super, duper easy to just fall back into bed and go to sleep. Some other steps I do that help push me onwards rather than bedwards: I put on my clothes. Activity plus not being cold help a lot in convincing me this is a good idea. Brushing my teeth: it's simple enough that I can do it with only two brain-cells firing, and it gets me moving and feeling a bit fresher. Glass of water. I sometimes forget this one, but it does help get me feeling more human when I do it.

OK, now I'm pretty awake (or else I splash some cold water on my face too.

Now I sit down in front of the little sacred area I've created for myself, and pray, and meditate. Here is the part where the early wake-up time starts paying for itself in gold. There is not better time in the day for me to meditate. Everything is quiet, still. My mind is clear and fresh and not filled with the clutter of the day. I have much better meditations, much more frequently, when I do it at this time of day. Also prayer. Just generally connecting to spirit and practicing/working out those non-physical muscles. A good time is had by all.

Next, a rather new addition to my routine (I'm always experimenting and tweaking, removing things that aren't as useful and trying out new things that sound promising) is a glass of warm diluted milk (about half milk half water. easier to digest) followed by a morning walk while I sing devotional songs. This is a keeper. Especially anywhere with respectable nature around, as this is perhaps the most beautiful time of day. The early morning hours. Sun is rising, perhaps stars are still twinkling, and the energy, the feeling, the smell of the air, the quietness. It is absolutely magnificent. No better setting to praise the creator of it all and feel humble and grateful and vast.

Next, an even new thing, and also definitely a keeper, is a Jog. This is absolutely fantastic. Any remaining logy-ness is gone by the first few minutes, the nature is still beautiful, and once I'm done, I've already gotten in at least one good bout of exercises for the day. I cannot have a truly horrible day now. I have at least done two or three really awesome things. Even if the rest of the day is a wash, I've got that.

And the rest of the day is way less likely to be a wash, because I always feel lighter, bouncy-er, more sparky, after a little bit of good physical activity. So I'm set up for good things now.

I take a few minutes at my sit spot to revel in nature, practice a Tom Brown Jr. Skill or two, and re-connect with my purpose, my vision, what I want to do with my life. In a word, the things that motivate and inspire me. And then I have a chat with God for a little bit. Call it my Higher Self if that sounds less alien to you. I mainly take some time to be quiet and listen, for if that quiet voice within has something to tell me, for the coming day.

Then I'm back inside. I do some sun salutes as I watch the sun rise, (I've recently added in listening to the surya namaskar mantra/song while I do it, which is also definitely a keeper, and at some point I want to be singing it myself.) And then it's time for a shower.

I've completely dispensed with shampoo. Shampoo has sodium laurel sulfate, which is super caustic and destroys your hair, to the point where you need conditioner just for it to not be super weird. It also has all sorts of other weird chemicals in it. I just use a bar of truly natural soap, something like dr. bronners. Rub it up in my cranial zone, lather, rinse. This only works if your water isn't hard, otherwise the soap doesn't fully wash out unless you add something that's a little acidic. At some point I may switch to just having a bottle of water with a few drops of lemon juice in it, but for now I'm just using a bit of conditioner. Which maybe defeats the purpose a bit, but it doesn't' have SLS in it, at least, and I'm saving a bunch of money on not buying shampoo. And using less plastic bottles. And less chemicals in general. Also, I've got less things to in the shower. Soap for hair, soap for body.

Most weird, cheap, soaps are not even real soaps, by the way, so if you try to do this with them, you'll get a similar result to shampoo. Often even the soaps have sodium laurel sulfate in them. Weird stuff.

The last bit of my shower, which I've grown quite fond of, is the cold immersion. Right at the end, before I have time to think myself out of it, I switch on the cold water. My rule is at least a few seconds front back and top, but sometimes I go for a bit longer. I use a Tom Brown Jr. method of body control that he supposedly . used (or something similar) for entering freezing water and sweating. I don't know if I could do that, but I am getting more tolerant of the cold, and better at maintaining my focus and calm even under the duress of the cold temperature.

This has several purposes. A minor one is I heard that doing something like this is good for you. Apparently cold showers are good for getting rid of depression (though I see a catch 22 there, as someone who is depressed is gonna have a real hard time motivating themselves to actually do it) and boosting cold resistance in general, and improving the immune system. Moreso than all of those, I'm doing it to practice the cold-training and body control, and also because I've read about willpower, and how one practises and gets more willpower. You get more willpower by practicing on small things, regularly. Something as simple as continually reminding yourself to stand up straight ( and actually standing up straight, then.) or squeezing a hand grip exercises thing until you can't anymore, not only improve your willpower about doing that specific action, as you continue to plow through the mild discomfort and do it anyways, day after day, but that willpower seems to start leaching into the rest of peoples lives. They start exercising more, eating better, etc. So I am practicing willpower.

That is kind of the end. Breakfast is next, and then sometimes I will do a bit of journaling, but that takes a long time and I'm not sure how useful it is. I do it when I have time but when I've got a lot to do during the day, or if I"m getting a late start, I may skip it.

If I don't skip it, I have a few different journals: One is just what I call my Laax Log. "Laax" stands for "Life As An Experiment" And it's basically just my reflections on anything I tried the last day, things that went well, things that went poorly and I need to figure out a solution to in the future, things I'm planning on doing in the future. I'm experimenting with my life constantly, and I can quickly glance back over the last few days and be reminded of the highlights of those experiments.

Then there is my calendar. When I do that, I check off all the steps of my routien using a handy, funny acronym I came up with: AMPS, Bam! XL PC. I check off all the things that I've done, and sometimes give myself a little smily face or just a cheer for myself, doing all this good stuff. Trying to use positive reinforcement on myself :D . It is very satisfying to be able to check all those things off. Then I look at my schedule, write out the most important goals I have for the day and check if there are any appointments or what-not, and then get started on work. OH, I almost forgot. In the front page of my Calendar book is a little drawing that I sometimes re-draw, other times just look at, that has all my most important learnings and reminders for myself. The phrases and attitudes and ways of being and acting that make the most positive difference in my life, when I'm living with them in mind. That's my Priming journal, I call it. It doesn't take very long, but it does remind me of the best possible things I could be reminded of. It reminds me of what I value, it reminds me of what works for me.

And that's my morning routine! If I don't get distracted part-way through (often happens around breakfast time) I can easily start the day by 8-8:30 am. And I am coming into whatever I'm doing, turbocharged for focus, happiness, determination, creativity.

Now you know my secret! But I think it will remain a secret, eh? which of you dares to take up the Miracle Morning challenge? Hm?! Come forth if you can! Show me! (said in a gladiatorial, deep, booming voice)

Seriously, I wish you all could experience how awesome it is to do something like this, but I don't think I know one person who's picked it up after I explained it. Which seems crazy to me. After the first morning, when I had just read "The Miracle Morning" and done it, I was feeling so good, it became an easy choice. It was so, so worth it, of course I'd get up a bit early for it. It had nothing to do with teeth gritted painful determination. It was all about how enjoyable it was.

As I was getting bedtime routine a bit better, there were several days that I had to take short naps to wake up for the afternoon though. I suppose that's one of the biggest barriers. But what ended up working for me was just deciding firmly that I was going to get up at the same time every day. After a few days of getting up early and going to bed late, you couldn't pay me to go to bed late, I was so tired and ready for sleep by 9 pm.

Careful if you take an afternoon nap: set a loud timer on your phone for 30-45 minutes and put it way out of reach like you have to do in the morning, so you have to stand up and walk over to turn it off, or you may end up sleeping through the whole afternoon and then not being able to go to sleep until midnight and then your routine will be getting worse rather than better.

OK, that's it. That's the keys to the kingdom. Obviously your results may vary, but seriously, if you like yourself, you aught to design a super awesome morning routine that gets you excited, and get up super early, and try it out, and see if I'm not right about this. I'm pretty sure I'm right about this. As I said, this is far and away the #1 thing I'm doing consistently in my life, in terms of making my life awesome.

Now to work on the evenings... (he says, looking at the 9:26 pm clock.)

Good night!
;-)
Isaac

P.S. I said picture and I'll have pictures but not tonight! I will post them... I guess in another post? I'd rather put them in this post though. So if you want pictures, you'll have to come back in a day or so and check this post out again after I've added pictures. But I wanted to get something out, since it's already past my usual Sunday output date.