How My Morning Routine Saved My Life

I never really had a consistent morning routine, or thought too much about it for that matter, until about ten years ago. At that time I was a newly christened Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and had learned all about the benefits of meditation, keeping a gratitude journal, morning journaling (morning pages) and movement. Because I consistently ran 3-4 days a week, movement was the only basic thing resembling a "morning routine" that I had in place at that time.

So, I began to play around with different rituals to see if I could create the perfect morning routine. I decided to try out my newly acquired knowledge and walk my talk.

My intention at that time was to create the perfect morning routine that would set me up for a great day and also help me become the best possible version of myself. Good intentions, right?

What I didn’t know at that time was how invaluable some of these rituals would become for me, but I’ll explain that shortly.

I began by drinking a cup of warm lemon water and journaling anything that came into my consciousness for 3 pages (this is called morning pages and usually takes 20-30 minutes).

Then I would meditate in silence for 20 minutes and finish up by writing down 3 things that I was grateful for. I would also pray.

After that I would go for a 3-5 mile run, which took about 45 minutes. The whole routine took about 2 hours or so, but it felt longer!

To be honest, I found it kind of exhausting, but I also found it very grounding and peaceful.

Side note: It didn’t need to take that long. It’s possible to create a morning routine that fits into any schedule. Frankly, it wasn’t even the amount of time it took. Looking back, I probably just took on too much all at once. Generally speaking, good morning routine should create a solid foundation for your day, but not become the entirety of your day.

At that point, I do think that meditation helped me to become more aware of my thoughts and feelings and morning journaling helped me purge my mind of negative, unproductive thoughts for a clean start to the day.

Drinking lemon water first thing helped me to tune into nourishing my body right away and a gratitude practice helped me to stay present to all the good things in my life.

Prayer, running and movement were always a part of my day, but not with any particular structure.

So I stuck with it, not always including the morning journaling, but I did keep a morning routine.

And this is what happened…

I am eternally grateful that I had these practices in place when just a few years later, my youngest son would leave this world to go home.

While these practices were really helpful prior to his passing, they became crucial afterwards. Not only were they crucial but they all become longer practices for quite a long time.

They honestly were my "tools" for coping with my grief and an avenue for processing my feelings and emotions. In acute grief, my morning routine became my whole day routine.

If I didn’t run or if I didn’t meditate in particular, I would quickly spiral downward into the dark pit of despair.

I’m so grateful that because I had a meditation practice, I was able to sit in stillness and quiet my mind. It gave me some space and created a buffer between me and my grief. It gave me pockets of much needed relief from the intensity of my grief.

Meditation helped me stay aware of my thoughts, so that I could question their validity.

That awareness helped me to see that I had choices about what I was thinking.

It helped me move away from, “the should have, would have, could have’s”. It allowed me to observe and question my thoughts.

With the help of this practice I began to choose thoughts that were more peaceful and more self-compassionate over painful thoughts and rumination.

Honestly, the thoughts you think repeatedly show up as your life. So, it’s important to be aware and to choose your thoughts carefully.

Eventually, meditation brought me back to prayer. I can’t say I stopped praying altogether, but it was painful in the early days after Brian’s passing.

Prior to my son’s passing, I mostly prayed with an end result in mind. I prayed for his recovery for instance and what I assumed that would look like.

I usually wanted God to give me something. Afterwards, I didn’t really know what to pray for. Prayer for me became more than reciting prayers or asking God to change outcomes.

I began seeking God more in my everyday life, intentionally. What began to happen is that my relationship with God changed. It deepened and became stronger.

My stronger relationship with God gave me the ability to surrender to what I cannot understand in my “humanness”. It gave me permission to admit that I don’t know everything and that I am not that powerful on my own. Heck, that I am not powerful at all on my own.

Prayer helped me to see the divinity in my pain. It gave me the ability to trust that everything is happening for me and not to me. God really does have my back. Always.

And movement! I couldn’t read or concentrate on anything written, but I found that I could listen to podcasts and run! The benefits of moving and all of the physiological responses that occur were nothing short of life saving for me. There are immediate, short term, as well as long term effects that moving has on your psychological wellbeing.

All of these things along with the endorphins and the lingering effects that movement provides gave me hours of relief. Again, I am so grateful that I was able and am still able to move!

Because of my health coach training, getting the day started with the intention of caring for the needs of my body has always been a priority. So by providing my body with something nourishing like lemon water right off the bat always felt great.

What my journey has taught me over the past several years is that it’s even so much more than that. Our brain and our gut are intimately connected. So what we feed our gut, what we eat, has profound impact on our state of mind and wellbeing. Our brain, our body, our spirit are interconnected. Healing or being well requires a mind, body, spirit approach.

So, because I was broken open by Brian’s passing and then with the help of meditation, prayer, movement plus taking care of my body (which being a health coach was already in place), my whole perception changed. I can see how all of these practices fit together.

I see how each of them has an incredible impact on our minds, our bodies and our spirit. Now it informs how I coach or mentor clients, which is from a whole body, whole person perspective.

We are human beings. As such, we experience an enormous range of experiences, feelings and emotions. Some are incredibly joyful. Some are incredibly painful.

As we go through life, we will be faced with challenges. Some of these challenges will feel like the dark night of our soul. And again, I believe that it is all happening for us; not to us.

These experiences are meant to wake us up and help us to become the best version of ourselves. To help us remember that we are divine beings having a human experience.

There are amazing hidden gems and pearls of wisdom to be found along the way, in the dark nights. These tools help us to find them.

Yet it’s not easy. Not by a long stretch.

So, why create a morning routine or a string or morning rituals?

Is it woo-woo or busy work?

No. It’s for resiliency. So that we can be present to our lives and to prepare us for a great day and so much more! These practices are tools for living in happy times and perhaps even more important during our challenging times.

I invite you to consider the following:

Perhaps the BEST reason for creating a morning routine is this:

Your morning mediation, prayer, movement etc., are also the very tools that will help you through the trials and tribulations of living.

You don’t have to make it 2 or 3 hours long. It just needs to be meaningful and grounding for you. Something to nourish your mind, body and spirit upon waking every day.

It may change a bit from time to time, as your life ebbs and flows.

I’ll share a few practices here along with their benefits.

1. Water/lemon water:

* Jump starts your energy

* Anti-inflammatory

* Boosts immunity

* Hydrating after sleep

2. Meditation and Prayer:

*Increases self-awareness and awareness of our thoughts

*Reduces negative emotions

*Reduces stress

*Allows us to focus on the present

*Encourages self-compassion and kindness towards others

3. Gratitude:

*Allows us to remember what is good in our lives

* Increases positivity/our vibrational frequency

*Signals the Universe what we want to attract more of

*Reduces stress and anxiety

4. Morning journaling/morning pages

*Helps clear our mind of overnight thoughts

*Helps purge our minds of negative thoughts

*Helps you to process emotion

*Encourages creativity

5. Morning movement:

*Improves mood by releasing endorphins and other feel good neurotransmitters throughout the day.

*Better sleep

*Increases focus and concentration

*Increases energy

*Many health benefits (regulates blood pressure, blood sugar, supports weight mgmt., etc)

*Increases overall activity

These are really just a smattering of practices and a small slice of their benefits.

I encourage you to play around with them and choose one, two or three things that you can commit to doing that will lift you up and nourish your whole being.

Try them out for about 30 days and see how you feel.

As I reflect on how these practices have impacted my life, I am in awe.

I knew they made me feel great when I first began practicing them. I felt proud of myself for doing something supportive and positive for myself.

But the truly incredible revelation is how they served and comforted me during the darkest nights of my life. They helped me tremendously as I sought peace and healing.

There are no coincidences. I believe that God gave me these tools to help me with what was to come.

And now they have brought me to a place where I feel that I have the tools and the relationship with my creator that I need to be okay no matter what life brings.

I have the tools and the ability to dig deeper and ask what I am supposed to learn from each experience.

I also know that they’ve given me, along with the knowledge that I am not alone, the insight and the ability to ask what my life experience has taught me and how I can share with others what might be helpful.

In short, these practices which began as a feel good morning routine, became my life line during adversity and now they have led me to my purpose and a closer relationship with the divine.

I hope they serve you well too….

If you need support in exploring these practices and creating a life on purpose please reach out for more information on how to work with me.

And if you liked this post, please let me know!

Thanks…and…

Have a great weekend on purpose!

With love,

Mary