I moved into a new apartment recently.
That first morning waking up, I felt lost for a moment on what to do first in my new space and overwhelmed by how many boxes I needed to still unpack around me.
The stacks of boxes in my bedroom kind of looked like my life at the moment.
Problems I needed to address and things I needed to do piled up on each other. Then I went into the living room and there were boxes there too. There wasn’t any escaping it.
But waking up with this feeling of being lost or overwhelmed was familiar to me.
I’ve trained myself for these types of mornings because they happen more often than one would like and life is hard.
So I picked myself out of bed, tried to not trip over boxes as I made my way to the living room, sat down at the window and journaled.
I was going to choose how this day was going to start.
Despite all the boxes around me, I knew it was going to take doing just 1 good thing in the morning to set me up for other good things in the day.
My favorite Youtube trainer Sydney Cummings calls this the ripple effect. She says that a workout can be the drop in the water that makes the ripple effect of good choices for the rest of the day.
For me, that drop in the water is journaling and maybe for you it is something else.
I think it is about choosing to do something for yourself first thing in the morning that makes life feel manageable and reminds you that you’re capable of taking on this day.
It could be a walk, meditation, yoga, writing, or sitting with your coffee in silence for 10 minutes as you look at the window.
It all starts in the morning. Some would argue it starts the night before by making the choice as to how you’re going to start the next day.
You choose just 1 thing to do in the morning that is going to uplift you, and a lot of other things will fall into place.
I like to think about journaling as my “morning muscle” to get me through the day. I can train it, flex it, it can make me stronger, and give me energy.
The most important choice I make every day is what is going to be my morning muscle and how it is going to set the precedent for the rest of my day.
Trust me I’m going to need to flex that morning muscle so I can feel capable of getting all these boxes unpacked.
What is your morning muscle?