Reading Time: 2 minutesInvestigate Your Morning Routine This Week
Simple Instructions:
- Choose a 10-minute personal practice to be a part of your morning routine.
- Complete the practice in the morning, before you leave for or begin work.
- Some examples: reading a book, meditation, prayer, mobilization, exercise, journaling.
- If you already have something like this as a part of your morning routine, continuing it will count for this week’s Well-Being Practice.
- Practices like mobilization and exercise will also count for that particular Habit for the day.
- There is no credit for watching TV or news, checking social media, checking email, texting, or for completing the practice after you’ve started work.
Watch this video for an explanation of this Well-Being Practice from Whole Life Challenge co-founders Andy Petranek and Michael Stanwyck.
Why Is This Practice Important?
Mornings can be tough. Without a good start, it’s easy to feel a little bit off for the rest of the day. Usually, that means hitting your marks — getting up on time, getting showered, eating quickly, and getting out of the house before the day gets away from you. This ends up looking like practicality and productivity with little peace.
When living in a world that wants to continuously pull you forward to the next obligation, taking a moment for yourself can be challenging. Our own daily rhythms can become determined by forces outside of ourselves as we start to put our own needs out into the future.
Without setting an intention to break free from that routine, it becomes increasingly difficult to draw our focus back to ourselves in order to reflect, grow, rest, or rejuvenate.
A powerful way to give that quality of peace to your day is to include something for yourself in the process of getting the day started. Putting yourself into your morning routine becomes a good reminder that you are the most important part of your day.
Whether your the focus of your morning practice is inner, like reading or journaling, or outer, like exercise or mobilization, taking the time to prioritize yourself and your growth from the moment you wake up will help you claim space for what you want in your life. And it won’t stop there.
When you establish a pattern of “I matter” as a part of your thinking, you may discover your choices begin to reflect that very idea in all areas of your life.
P.S. If you think mobility might make for a good morning routine, listen to Andy’s brand-new podcast with mobility expert Jill Miller for insights on movement, self-care, and a whole lot more.
He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.
Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.
He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.
