Tips for How to Begin the Morning
Transitions and Resilience
April 29, 2016
Tips for When Our Child’s College Plans Change
May 31, 2016
After sleeping and resting our body and mind, we can allow ourselves to slowly enter the day that awaits. Before we reach for an electronic device, we can consider the options available: read an inspirational passage or book chapter, stretch our body, and focus our mind on gratitude with a few deep, purposeful breaths. This morning ritual may lead into a practice of meditation or prayer.
As mentioned in the Daily Habit, it is up to us to create a moment in time where we are “device free”. We are then free to think about one thing we appreciate in our life. Because we are not interrupted by pings and rings, that thought is less likely to get lost or overshadowed by other thoughts or demands. We can bring it front and center. In this quiet space that WE CREATE, we experience a feeling of gratitude and calm.
In the morning, many of us focus on what we want TO DO during the day and we make our “to do” list. And then we stop there. We often don’t give thought to how we may respond when the day does not go according to plan; when we feel frustrated, overwhelmed, disappointed, diminished, angry. The next step can be how we want TO BE as we move through the list and that takes intentional commitment to the way we respond in challenging situations.
2 Comments
In gratitude & friendship. Your faithful reader. In particular I found the distinction between tradition & change most helpfil. Thanks.
While reading Dr. Dale Atkins’ article, Anticipatory Worry, I was reminded of a great leader, Vaclav Havel. ” Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.”