Taking back the start of my day
Who’s in bed with you when you wake up in the morning?
Ok maybe not PHYSICALLY in your bed. But you might as well be in bed with whatever you're filling your head with first thing when you wake up in the morning. And if you're like me, you never even thought about it. I was listening to this podcast by Jay Shetty recently where he asked this question. So I took a look at my habits when I woke up in the morning, before even starting my day. And shocker… I reach for my phone. And in no particular order, before I've even made it out of bed I've checked the following: my text messages, my work and personal email accounts, my bank account, Facebook, Instagram, the weather app. I've gotten out of the habit of checking the news, but that might as well be on there too. So before I've even started my day in whatever way I would have liked, I've instead invited all these other people into my bed, and my head with me. And it really does set the tone for the day.
Depending on what I've viewed in any of the above apps, I could be starting off the day grumpy, jealous, stressed out, dreading what's ahead of me to deal with, etc. It took me aback when I thought about it, because I've prided myself on a strong morning routine (which we'll definitely get into more of that later!). But what good is a morning routine if before it even begins, I'm derailing myself emotionally? I know that many of us suffer from a bit of phone/device obsession. It's become so much a part of our lives, that it's hard not to fall into that trap. But I've realized it's to the point where I don't even know I'm reaching for it. I listened to the podcast on Monday, then Tuesday took notice of my habits (listed above), then made a conscious effort Wednesday to not do any of those things and basically not touch my phone other than for the alarm. This morning? Totally forgot about my new plan, and noticed I immediately opened social media and then x-ed out of it as if it were on fire. I fell into my own booby trap :( Never mind the fact that these were all choices I made of what to open. Then there are the things that come through our phones from someone else to get our attention. A text, an email alert pops up, etc. To further complicate matters, I would also deem myself as someone who has an extremely high sense of urgency… to a fault. I struggle to not immediately acknowledge someone's ask, request, etc. And when I do that, I've just let other people decide how my day is going to go, or at least the start of it. And I haven't even gotten out of bed yet.
It's so easy and second nature to react instead of approaching life with intention. The first step is acknowledging where we react, so here I am :) Next up, setting the intention. I intend to move out of bed and immediately into my morning routine. Ok one exception. I've gotta check the weather to know what I'm facing out there, since step one is a walk with the dogs. I can't go totally rogue here!!! So here's my invitation to you- give it a try, and when you wake up tomorrow morning, take notice of who/what you're inviting into bed with you. Then ask yourself, is it setting me up for the day? If I get to choose how my day starts, is this what I'm intentionally choosing?
I have the feeling this will require a long journey to recovery, but I am totally committed to the end goal of taking back my bed. At least in the ways I can control… not much I can do about Jeb or the dogs :P
XO
