Your Power Hour
How do you wake up in the morning? Are you dreading the day? Did you not get enough sleep? Do you have a hard time getting out of bed and wish you could sleep just a little longer? Is your mind thinking coffee...get me to the coffee? This is very normal and so many of us live this way. Most of us are rushing around in the morning, grabbing some coffee, skipping breakfast, and putting makeup on in the car. Believe it or not, this morning routine is not helping us and instead it is setting us up for a day of stress which then can turn into our mind and body breaking down one way or another. We end up feeling unorganized, stressed, and fatigued.
I did this just like so many of you, but if you know me now I am all about self improvement and personal growth and I have been searching for a way to accomplish some things that were just not getting done. I found this amazing book and started reading it last week. This book kept showing up in different ways on my phone or coming through emails from amazon as a suggested book so I finally bought it and I am just about finished with it. It is called "Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod. It has encouraged me to wake up a half hour earlier than when I was originally. It also helped me to take my morning strategy to the next level. I started off with 15 minutes the first day and then added the additional 15 min the following day. I can tell you this has made a huge difference with setting the tone for my day. I feel empowered! I feel motivated, energized, and accomplished. Within that one hour I have achieved my meditation, morning reading with prayer, writing in my gratitude and goal journal, and getting in my morning yoga workout. I realized that I always made working out or journaling a bigger deal than what it needed to be. I would set times of the day to do these things and set ridiculous goals that were a bit much in my busy schedule. Once I realized that even just 15 minutes can take you steps further rather than not doing it at all, I was all for it.
I believe setting aside an hour or more in the am will help us all to attain a positive mindset that will jump start our day for success. It made a huge difference for me this week. You will need to get to bed at a decent hour so that you can feel well rested and motivated to get out of bed and get right to it. I choose yoga as my morning workout as it gets your heart rate up and tones your body all while giving you a full body stretch to rid you of any aches and pains. Yoga will also help you to focus on your breathe while going through the poses to assist your mind as our brains need oxygen to thrive. So many of us forget to breathe properly as we rush through our busy days. The more you do this the more yoga breathing will stay with you and become a healthy habit.
If you don't have a morning ritual I would highly suggest you consider trying the power hour I am suggesting here. It will assist you in all areas of your life. I also suggest you go shopping for some journals, specifically ones that jump out to you with pictures or words of encouragement written on the cover. You'll want journals that you can't wait to open up and start writing in, ones that resonate with you and motivate you. They have some that specifically have columns for gratitude and goals, but you can always make your own columns in the ones that have just bare lines. Get yourself some neat pens, highlighters, and tabs as you may want to do this with your morning reading or journaling as well. Make it fun!! Let that little child come out and jot down your dreams and visualize it as you write. This can be so empowering. It will give you a feeling of accomplishment and control as you are "DOING" something that will better yourself and your life. Instead of just getting up like everyone else and slowly moving yourself over to the coffee pot before you are able to function. Coffee is great, but we should not have to depend on it to get us going in the morning. Our minds and bodies have the ability to energize themselves if we give and do the proper tasks to assist them.
Another great morning addition is celery juice first thing after you shower and before coffee or food. Drink 16 ounces on an empty stomach. I am going to talk all about celery juice, this miraculous healing potion in a future post so keep your eyes open. For now, get your plan in place and start your own power hour! It doesn't have to be in the morning, but I find that the morning is the most powerful time for me.
I am excited for you!! You can do this! I will be right beside you at 5 am sharp! :) Please share any morning rituals of your own and success stories with your power hour. I would love to hear them!!
All my love, Marcia
