If I haven’t mentioned it before I hate mornings. Literally for as long as I can remember I’ve dreaded waking up in the mornings. I can still feel anger seethe from my skin when I recall my dad flipping on my bedroom lights before my alarm clock had a chance to go off in high school. This is not exactly the way anyone wants to get woken up let alone a teenager. To this day my mom still tells people that I opened up my own business so that I didn’t have to be work right at 8:00 a.m.! It’s just a known thing-mornings aren’t my business!
Months ago I was prompted by my good ole Headspace app to do a gratitude meditation. I obliged and at the end of it thought I would create a new gratitude challenge. I’m pretty good each day at recapping things that were super awesome about my day. My morning’s however tend to be slow, tired, and irritable especially if anything comes before a hot cup of coffee.
“Challenge accepted” I said to myself. I’m going to wake up every morning and before I begrudgingly get out of bed like an 80 year old woman, I’m going to have a moment of gratitude. It was really hard in the beginning. Like REALLY hard. I pondered, “what’s there really to be grateful for at 7:00 a.m.?” I started focusing on my small dog Rutherford and thinking about how grateful I am for him. He was an easy target snuggled in to his blankets, dead to the world.
Now, each morning I wake up and give him lots of scratches and tell him just how much gratitude I have for him. His little brown eyes look up to me as he starts his morning yawns and his little small dog stretches (also known as the long dog). I don’t know if he gets it but I can tell you by the time I get to the office I’m a little bit lighter. Even without coffee! This just may be doing something slowly but surely with my mornings.
Slow Down. Embrace New Habits. Gratitude Minute.