At one point in this journey of becoming a mom, pausing my career, and trying to maintain some sense of schedule, routine, and normalcy with a good attitude and positive outlook, I got a little lost. Mostly I lost the good attitude and positive outlook part, but also I think I lost myself. Life looked very different than it did pre-kids, and no one was really talking about the fact that that was really hard.
I love my kids more than life itself, and being a mom was something I always knew I wanted, so don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. But, the reality was that life was different, I was different, my time and how I spent it was different, my productivity from a work standpoint was non-existent, my body was very different, and my life revolved around meeting the needs of two very small, very demanding, very cute humans. I was so OK with that, but also kind of resentful at the same time.
Weird, I know, but that’s what’s cool about being a human being, you can feel both of those things at the same time.
I say all of this for a reason. Essentially, what I realized was that I had an attitude problem, not a time, body, or productivity problem. My perspective about the state of my life was the issue and I needed to be the one to change it. Instead of blaming everyone else for why I was frustrated and annoyed, I needed to look inside and change my tude.
So, that’s what I set out to do. And the very first thing I realized was that if I wanted to have any time to myself to sort things out, I was going to have to get up early. Before my kids could wake me up and the day would get away from me.
I committed to doing the work and that’s how I created the morning routine that changed my whole life.
I had heard about meditation, journaling, deep breathing, starting your day with intention, and all the things that worked for other people, so I figured that’s where I would start. I started doing some meditations from The Mindful Movement, and was instantly hooked. I added in some journaling, a daily devotional, prayer, and eventually some movement into my mornings. I stumbled around a little bit until I found what worked for me, and it took a little while until I got into a groove.
Here’s what my morning routine looks like now:
Get up early on purpose (up around 5:30-6)
Sunlight and movement (or sauna on rainy days or if it’s still dark out)
Mindset work and intention setting
Breakfast and coffee
It’s taken me a few years to get this dialed in, I am certainly not perfect at it, and I get out of the routine occasionally, too. However, having a morning routine has been such a game-changer for me, how I show up every day, and my attitude throughout the day, so I wanted to share it with you.
To make things easier for you, I created 10 Minutes of Intention as a tool to help you create a morning routine that will change your life. It truly only takes 10 minutes of your time, but gives you the chance to start your day with purpose and take ownership of your day from the moment you get up in the morning. It is a seven day challenge where you set aside 10 minutes each morning to work through the reflect, process, and plan exercise template provided as you set a daily intention, increase awareness of your thoughts, and influence the choices that you make throughout your day.
I hope you give it a try and that you start living each day with intention.