My goal is to wake up 10 minutes before I need to start my day, and spend this time meditating and/or stretching my body. I had a practice of doing this about a year ago, and found it rewarding for my stress levels and feelings of groundedness throughout the day. I’ve struggled to implement the habit this year.
I found that many different factors contribute to my inability to stick to this habit. One pipeline is related to my self care habits. When I don’t eat enough protein, don’t exercise, and consume caffeine to get through my day, I tend to feel more stressed out/stretched thin and have less time for self care. This means I don’t always keep my room clean and read before bed, and I end up feeling quite stressed out in the morning. When I feel anxious in the morning, I want to jump into the day rather than slow down and pause to meditate/stretch. Another pipeline is related to my social habits. If I’m drinking alcohol the night before, the chance I wake up early to meditate is much lower. Similarly, when I spend too much time socializing, or socialize late into the evening, I end up with less alone time to spend on self care and sleep. When I’m running on a sleep deficit, waking up earlier than I need to is almost impossible.
One big thing that I find helps me with this practice is pre-scheduling my day. When I write out a schedule the night before (as I did last night), I have enough time for everything I want to do. This helps me become more intentional with my time, ensure I’m exercising and planning out my meals, and dedicate time to self care and sleep. Ultimately, I end up with more motivation and ability to achieve my goal.
I enjoyed the experience of creating the fishbone and connection circle diagrams. They helped me isolate the pipelines that feed into my habits, and different places I could alter my behavior. I’m going to work on scheduling my day the night before, as well as in the morning, and see which method works better for me.
