Design Your “Flexible” Morning Routine
As I was thinking of what to write this week, I really wanted to share something that I couldn’t live without.
When I was a student, I’d share about my favorite planners and I’m frequently waxing poetic and both popular and obscure novels on my Instagram stories, but I was trying to think – what’s an integral part of my day to day life that I just can not live without?
My mornings came to mind.
I’m currently going through a lot of life change. New city, new home, new normal. I am a Type 4/Capricorn sun/Virgo Moon that thrives off of routine, so I’ve just been having a lot of gratitude for my morning “routine” – those first sips of coffee while watching the sky go from indigo to purple to pink to a hazy yellow sunrise. It’s the most grounding part of my day, and I can totally break down the science of the “morning routine” for someone else to replicate.
But here’s the thing that I’ve come to realize with morning routines – as you get older and you have dogs or bigger yet – kids – that routine becomes much less….organized. And that is ok!! I know so many of you are in a similar stage of life where you may have started a new chapter: a new job, a marriage, babies, or just generally busy schedules that don’t always allow for you to pop out of bed at the same time of day and yawn and stretch like a Disney princess.
I think a morning routine is not meant to be perfect or even – a perfect routine. Just that it’s meant to be –
grounding
mindful
and joyful.
So – alas. Let’s design our mindful morning that we can take with us anywhere. Whether you’re at a hotel traveling for work, waking up at 4 AM with a sick child, or being personal assistant to your puppy who demands a bathroom trip and a walk around the neighborhood before the sun comes up.
Choose your 3
Your 3 are your top grounding moments that you’d like to be sure to make time for in the morning. One could literally be “drink a glass of water”. This isn’t the space for you to commit to an hour of yoga and then 45 minutes of meditation and then a deep clean of your apartment. (Unless that’s your jam.) The intention here is to pick those things that really calm your soul and make you feel great while easing into your day.
For example, mine are:
- Coffee
- Journaling
- Count gratitudes (I know, I know….a little woo-woo, but it works for me!)
These are my three favorite things to do in the morning, and no matter where I am – I want to squeeze them in.
(Coffee) On most days, a cup of coffee is consumed slowly in my living room while cozy on the couch. But there are mornings where Wex is being a bit rambunctious and half of it goes cold as I’m chasing him around. s’okay. Some days I may be traveling – out of the city or in another country even, but coffee I can pretty much always rely on finding. It may be from a coffee shop or from Cam’s mom’s kitchen, but it’s coffee and I will sip it slowly and savor it!
(Journaling) I have been a morning journaler for about two years now. I know this puts me in somewhat of a unique boat – I mean, how many people’s therapists have been asking them to journal for years now and they just aren’t into it? I get it. I mean, I would definitely encourage anyone to give it a go. There’s a lot of different ways you can do it – from morning pages to just a general brain dump like I do.
Journaling can completely shift my mood. As someone who often wakes up with a lot of pain due to my chronic conditions, I can totally wake up on the wrong side of the bed – grumbling about what hurts and how I’m annoyed about it. But when I sit down and journal about it, I often feel a ton better. I can even look back and see that maybe a day before, I was feeling great and I’m often reminded that healing is not linear and it is ok to ebb and flow.
(Gratitudes) This is something I have started doing more recently, but it takes practically no time at all and really puts me in a good mood before I even get out of bed.
Note: I want to validate that it’s totally ok to feel any and all emotions. You don’t need to “put yourself in a good mood” every day. It’s hard to articulate what I’m really trying to say, but I guess what I am meaning is, appreciating where you are every day and accepting your situation – even if you can’t change it!
When I am about to get out of bed, I take some deep breaths and think of 3 things I am grateful for. Lately, it’s gone something like: “That Cameron is selfless and takes out Wex in the middle of the night when he has to go to the bathroom. For my comfy bed. For healing.”
And that’s that! I could do that no matter when I wake up and where I wake up.
So – what will be your 3?
The point of this method of designing your morning “routine” is to focus on the fact that these are your grounding practices that you can do any time and anywhere.
Whether you are springing up out of bed at 5:30 AM or sleeping in a while, this can be accessible to you and there is no judgement on when or where you do this.
If you need a little bit more motivation or a mindful reminder to practice your grounding moments for the mornings, I am going to be releasing a customizable “Mindful Morning Checklist” where you can write down what you’d like to focus on each morning. It’ll be something cute you can hang by your bed, on your fridge, or by the coffee machine. If you’d like to subscribe to the newsletter, enter your email on the opt-in on the side bar of the site!
Let me know your 3 if you’re comfortable sharing 💘
X,
Cristina
