The best way to start your day
Morning spirit
Something strange happens to me in the mornings. After meditation, writing, gratitude practice, setting my intentions, and going out running, which is the best way to start the day, for me.
Something in my mind opens just about when I return from my three-k run, and I can do anything.
I call this “my morning spirit”. Which somehow sets the tone of the day. It’s not important how I ran that day, it’s a triumph simply having done that. Usually, the next phase consists of physical work: Repairing the studio floor, gardening, sweeping the paved trails, cleaning the chicken mess, and preparing my surroundings for the day. Respect your surroundings, that’s what I say.
When I’ve done all that, I’m good to go for the first primary task of the day.
Morning spirit is very individual – find your own
It’s true, I have all these rituals and routines I’ve grown into, and that works for me. However, others may not need all these steps before getting to the first major task of the day.
It can be as simple as making your bed when you get up, as Admiral William H. McRaven suggests, in his University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address.
The point is, says Admiral McRaven, that making your bed first thing in the morning will have you start with successfully accomplishing your first task of the day. After that, it gives you the power to go about the next thing and the next.
In my view, this is what morning spirit is all about – starting your day off with success, the bigger, the better.
The best way to start your day
Take that spirit with you everywhere you go
So once you’ve tended to your spirit, and used it to succeed with your most demanding task for the day, you’re on a roll. The next thing to do is thank your spirit for the energy it brought to the task. Be with it for a while and take it wherever you go.
You can bring it with you to meetings, inspire others, give some away. Be generous, contaminate your surroundings with a well-tended, acknowledged spirit, and watch how you change the world around you.
Let me know how that went in the comments below
