I am a true believer on the more mindfulness you put into starting your day, the more you will get out of the day. But when you “start” your day can be relative. And when I accepted that I could “start” my day at any time of the day a big fat bright light bulb went off!

I have a 2-year-old. I can’t set my alarm to wake up before her because she is my alarm. And the day I set it for an hour before she wakes up, the little love goblin will sleep until 10am. For. Real. So, I start my day around 7/7:30am around when she usually wakes up. I have NOTHING planned before 9am, because this is all about her and her routine, not what I had planned. Coffee is the only thing that is about me in the am, and she respects that. Once she is out the door to school (yes, I call it school) I start my day. . . If I tried to schedule anything before that, she would laugh an evil laugh and prove she is the one actually in charge when she decides that she wants to: not wear a diaper, pick her own shoes out – after trying every pair on, take a bite of everything we have in the fridge, pantry and on rare occasion the freezer.

I time block every single thing in my life, as multi-tasking is the devil. So my first time block is email! My type-A self needs to get that inbox to 10 before I can exhale comfortably. Then, I meditate. I do some wonderful deep belly breaths and quiet my inner chatterbox (as much as possible) and write down my affirmations.  I am a visual learner, so writing things down and repeating them makes them sink in way more than chanting them. Then I foam roll – because I am a 40-year-old mother to a toddler and every. thing. hurts.

What’s next – making my bed. This was a new thing I added, and if you can at least make your bed in the morning, you have accomplished something! A wise man (legit Hindu monk now priest) taught me that you need to start with making your bed daily to feel accomplished and change your mindset. Do that for 30 days and then you can move on to the next little thing. Mediation-bed making takes an entire 30 minutes MAX. Gandhi-level mediation, nah, but enough peace to have an awesome day – YEP!

I then make more coffee (or heat that early cup up, let’s be honest) and pick up the house a bit, and if I have a time…I even get to SHOWER! WOOHOO! A shower and coffee  – NOTHING will stop me today. It’s the little things, and by accomplishing those little things my day is already off to an amazing start.

Redefine conventional thinking and you do YOU!!! Try out different approaches until you find what makes YOU feel good. If you want to explore mindfulness and just being a better human, I suggest visiting dandapani.org for some amazing insight and inspiration.

Savoring the Mindfulness Experience,
Gina