“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.” –Richard Whately
You know the drill. The alarm begins ringing, and with a groan you press the snooze 10 times. You finally drag yourself out of bed 20 minutes before you need to leave. Cursing every stoplight and beating yourself up, you arrive to work already on the wrong foot.
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I know, I’ve been there. It wasn’t until about a year ago that I began taking advantage of a morning routine. And this is what I found: subtracting an hour of sleep for an extra hour of getting myself on track in the morning made me less sluggish and more productive throughout the entire day.
The benefits that I’ve come to know and love include the following:
1. Time to actually wake up.
I can’t tell you how many times in the past I’ve jumped out of bed late, basically ran out the door, and arrived to work/school super groggy and unequipped to deal with any challenges that might occur throughout the day.
I love being able to ease into the day, so that by the time I’m out the door my body is buzzing with energy, completely awake.
2. Time to center and ground.
Just the simple act of waking up early leads to greater focus. By not having to rush to make it out the door on target time, I can take the time to be mindful of every activity that I do, leading to greater overall focus.
3. Ease into a positive outlook.
There are many days that I still wake up grumpy at having been woken up from a slumber. However, after I get up, I’ve found that within a time frame of under 30 minutes, a positive attitude begins to manifest almost like magic. The grumpyness is
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