Something about setting yourself up for a day of success and OWNING your mornings resonated with a lot of you. A morning routine lets you remember you’re a divine being with a purpose beyond the roles you’re given on Earth.
My original morning routine article took an in-depth dive into how to create the perfect one.
Whether you’re a single parent, student, or stay at home mom there are tons of things tugging at your time. You may have created a great routine and good flow in your life but struggle sometimes.
When life requires every ounce of your attention, it’s hard to do a full morning routine. Unless you wake up at 4 AM. Which, let’s be honest, no one wants to do.
Maybe you moved across the world, like I did, or have an intense work deadline coming up. Sometimes we have more demanding periods of life so rather than fight it, let’s work with it.
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Let Your Mind Lead
Before we start, I want to ask you to make the same two commitments I ask of you in my original article:
- Show up in life, every day, whether you feel like it or not. Take action.
- Prime yourself for joy, every morning, by investing time in what fills you up.
The intensity with which these statements apply can vary depending on the life cycle you’re in.
During a major life change, showing up may mean doing 3-4 short things from your routine and not much else.
The most important part is letting yourself know you still exist among the chaos and are aware and care about your well-being.
The point isn’t how much you do but the intention behind what you do even if it’s for 10 minutes or 50 minutes.
And remember…
A morning routine is an outward manifestation of faith. An action which tells yourself, and the universe, you have a purpose. Something to offer the world. By committing to filling up your cup each morning you’ll be able to give much more to yourself and those you love.
Here’s what you’ll gain from this post:
1. Common ways resistance shows up.
2. Solid tips on how to tweak your full routine for those crazy life periods.
3. A renewed perspective on life. Because not everything is black and white.
Here we go!
Recognize Resistance
Dr. Joe Dispenza talks in great length about our minds training our bodies into certain states of being. For example, if we’ve created habitual thinking patterns that are negative and low energy then our body operates from this same low energy.
Our bodies follow the lead from our minds and create chemical habits based on our thinking.
When we work to change our habits with more positive and high energy thinking our bodies take time to catch up.
Your mind may be fully committed but your body resists or fights back because it’s still chemically wired to your old way of thinking.
What I’m getting at is . . .
You may feel resistance to doing a smaller version of your morning routine.
Common resistance sounds like…
“I’m too tired.”
“There’s too much to do.”
“I feel selfish putting myself as a priority during this crazy time.”
“If I can’t do my whole routine, there’s no point in doing it at all.
As tempting as these sound, I can promise you the benefits of sticking to your routine far outweighs the tempting talk your body gives.
I hope you’ve already created a fulfilling morning routine and are ready to follow the simple, yet important steps below. If you haven’t, read my original post first.
Plan Ahead
I had 3 weeks to sell, ship, and start a new life in New York City. After living in Zurich for 3 years, we’d only been back in Los Angeles for a month before finding out we had to move again.
I knew once we got to New York life would be chaotic so this is how I planned for my morning routine a couple weeks ahead:
1. Make the commitment NOW and plan
If you’re lucky enough to know in advance when a major change or event will happen hash it out with yourself how you’ll handle it.
In self-defense classes, instructors will often say if you don’t make the commitment to kill your attacker now while you’re safe and without threat then there’s no way you will if a threat does come.
Can you tell I come from an Italian family yet?
Make the decision NOW so when life changes you don’t have to think. At all.
That’s also why brides are told to assign someone to make sure she eats. When you’re overwhelmed by the stimuli in a new situation you often forget the basics.
Create a basic outline of how each of your days will work while knowing you need to be flexible. See your morning routine as non-negotiable.
2. Cut your routine down to the three or four core components
These are the four components that were non-negotiable. The life support pack of my morning routine:
Meditation
Even if you can’t do a full 15 minutes but can do 5 minutes before bed that’s better than nothing.
Daily pages
Pent-up creativity is malignant.
This is the easiest way to make sure you’re still creating and getting stuff out of your head. Most days my daily pages are a boring stream of consciousness but that’s ok. It’s what they’re there for.
Prayer, reading scriptures or an inspired book
After you create it’s good to consume some bit of inspiration. That way your mind frames how it needs to operate for the day. It also helps you get out of the intensity of whatever situation you’re going through.
Exercise
This was a MUST, for me. Plus, once I stop working out on a consistent basis it’s hard for me to start again. My fear of losing progress was bigger than my desire to stop working out.
Two weeks before our big move, I looked up yoga studios near the friend’s house we stayed at and got a weekly pass once we arrived. Looking the information up before the intensity of our move was great because I already knew what to do.
Exercise can mean taking a ten-minute walk or doing simple physical therapy exercises. It doesn’t have to be rigorous. Just something you love to do that takes you out of the chaos.
3. Stick to your guns*
Once we got to New York, I found myself craving my morning routine because it gave me a sense of stability more than I was expecting. While everything around me was changing and intensifying my routine kept me grounded and connected.
You may know the non-negotiable nature of your routine but others around you might not.
You must be brave enough to create boundaries with others.
My husband and I looked at apartments from 9-6 every day for at least 5 days. Every night I’d ask what appointments we had the next day and would schedule yoga classes around that. A couple of times last-minute viewings popped up during class time.
I would ask my husband if he could go alone and if he loved the apartment enough to bring me back. He was very understanding and did just that.
There were a couple of times where he wanted me to reschedule or not go and I had to kindly say, “Honey, I love you but if you want me to be 100% during this time then I need you to understand why I need an hour to work out. It helps me stay calm and attentive.”
Don’t be afraid to state your needs and stick to them.
If others don’t make self-care as much of a priority that isn’t your responsibility. You have ownership over your body and it’s your job to take care of yourself. Even if you’re married, no one will make sure you have what you need more than you do.
*Have compassion and empathy
You won’t do everything perfectly and you may still feel stressed after the routine. But knowing you took some time in the morning will give you strength. Many times after walking over 20k steps, looking at apartments all day, it gave me comfort knowing I still remembered myself in the morning.
Take Away
1. Download your free morning routine workbook if you haven’t created a routine yet.
2. Write down a life-support routine for when life gets crazy.
3. Commit to making a morning routine an uplifting, non-negotiable part of your day.
My morning routine is the worst, trying to recover.
Thanks for your tips.
Hi Rimi! I hope these have helped you. Don’t be too hard on yourself 🙂 It may take some time to tweak your routine until it feels right. If you have any questions I’m here!