I love reading and think it always a good idea to keep learning and growing. One of my big goals in 2017 is to read 24 books during the year. My first book that I just finished is called the Miracle Morning and I just don’t have enough good things to say about it! I used to be a morning person, I would wake up fairly easy and get my day started, then I had kids. Don’t get me wrong my kids have actually been really good with sleeping through the night from a young age, but when they came everything changed. I found myself sluggishly getting out of bed and yearning for my cup of coffee.
The worst part was when the kids would actually wake me up in the morning. That quickly would make me feel like I was starting off behind with no alone time to prepare for the morning. Once I started implementing my sleep habits I was getting a better night of sleep but I still didn’t wake up at a specific time and the kids would still get up before me sometimes. Since reading this book I now have the missing piece to the puzzle.
The Miracle Morning allows you to get up with intention, having a plan of what you want to accomplish first thing in the morning. Allowing you to feed yourself first, do the things that are most important to you, before your normal day starts and you start taking care of everyone else. I have found that by allowing myself this time in the morning I feel more refreshed, calm, and centered, ready to take on whatever my day throws at me.
I generally wake up at 6am, though you can do whatever time works best for your family. I use this first hour or so of my morning to read a few chapters in the bible, do a short meditation (no I don’t mean clear your mind meditation, but I’ll share more on that later), look over my goals, look over my schedule for the day, go over my affirmations(more on that in the book), read a book for 10-15 minutes and do a short 15 minute Pilates video. On the days where my kids sleep in a little longer I go right into a little work time before they get up.
I have such a feeling of accomplishment first thing in the morning. No matter what my day throws at me I know I have accomplished something right away and I really helps me to keep focused and balanced for my day. I highly recommend this book to any busy mother or father, which lets be honest is all of us. Start feeling like you do more before 8am then most people do all day!