Hey Love, 

How you feeling today? That's a question I often ask myself when I wake up. It gets me to do a body and a mental scan. For example, yesterday I woke up exhilarated and ready to tackle the day and today I was a little slow and loopy. Mind you, I got about the same hours of sleep. What I love about that question is that it makes me aware of myself early on in my day. It reminds me that each day is not only different, but that I am different each day. That awareness helps me throughout my entire day to make the right decisions for my body and my mind. It's really transformed my life in the past 5 months of this pandemic. Along with that question I've curated a wake-up routine and a morning routine I've been following that's completely changed my life. I want to preface by sharing that during most of the quarantine I worked from home, I'm single, and childless. These things matter when shaping your own routine; I hope my morning rituals inspire you to incorporate a bit more love and joy at the start of your day.  



Wake-Up 

I split my morning routine into two segments: my wake-up and my morning. Wake-up is just the flow of easing into the day. When I had to report to work at 9am or had scheduled Zoom meetings I'd get up by 6:30am, which meant sleeping around 10pm. The most important part of my mornings started the night before with proper sleep. If I don't get 7.5-ish QUALITY hours, then the next day is simply not going to be the best it can be before it's even started. Quality sleep is the catalyst, or the force that sets the dominos in motion. Once I'm up I follow this flow: 

Pray 
Before getting out of bed and as my mind awakens I say a pray. Just a simple prayer thanking God for this new day. I praying for a good day for me and my loved ones. 

Drink Water 
Once I'm up and I've made my bed, I make my way to my morning area. This area for me is my home office, but it can be a curated corner with a mat or a small area rug that you keep a bit sacred. Once there I drink my warm lemon and ACV water. I prep this in my water bottle the night before.  

Worship 
In a corner of the room I've set up this beautiful botanical little rug that's surrounded with my favorite plants, a mirror, and more florals. I call this my meditative garden (see main image). I turn on my speakers, open Spotify, and play a worship song from my playlist. If there's a particular song on my heart I'll play that, but normally I just shuffle. I try to focus on the lyrics and meditate on them during this time, sometimes I get into full worship mode with hands up and voice off-key.  

Meditate 
A 5 mins meditation proceeds my worship. I typically use Insight Timer for my meditation and 5 mins is all I need. Sometimes I'll do about 10 mins, but it's uncommon for me to do more than that. This is also where I physically start to waken my body through deep breathing.  

Yoga Stretch 
Early in the quarantine I used YouTube (Yoga by Kassandra); since then I've formed my own 10mins yoga flow. I play a Yoga playlist from Spotify and hit some down-dogs, sun salutations, and vinyasa. Lately I've been changing my stretches to correspond with my menstrual cycle; so right now I'm in my follicular phase and have way more energy so I incorporate more planks and warrior poses; however, in my luteal phase I do more seated stretches and sometimes a shorter flow.  

Devotion 
Once off the mat/rug I go to my desk or couch and read my morning devotion from the First 5 app. I love this app because it's a relatively short devotion, but I get to study a whole book of the Bible and have it really broken down for me.  

Journal 
The last thing I do in my Wake-Up part of my day is read my journal. I look over my monthly vision board and read my monthly manifesto. Then I pray over my prayer section and look at my plans for the day.  

Morning 

My Wake-Up routine typically takes about 30mins; I know it looks like it takes much longer than that; but that's exactly why I love it and have been consistent  with it for nearly half the year. It's short and nourishes my mind, body, and soul. All in half-and-hour. I love that. Next is my Morning section. This also takes about 30mins, however, I'm much more flexible in this segment. If I have to be a work or need to leave my house early, this does change. The most important thing in this segment is breakfast, everything else is "optional" and can be done later in the day or not at all.  

Tea and Breakfast 
I grew up with my mom waking us up with tea; literally forcing us to drink it. Now I drink it on my own volition, no forcing necessary as I love it and love the benefits of quality tea. I keep breakfast easy and filling: avocado toast and overnight oats using granola instead of oats. If I don't have time to brew tea I'll simply have water or OJ.  

Bible and Insight 
While eating breakfast I'll listen to my Bible reading plan and in the past month I've added a Course from Insight Timer. I'm in a season of my life where I have the time to include these. I'll be starting a different job a few weeks and this will certainly change in some way.  

Bible App and Devotion 
I know there's a surplus of Bible and Devotions going on here. I love it. I'm in a season of my life where I can fully do this and I'm taking full advantage. I read a Bible app plan and read a daily devotion.  

Smoothie and Vitamins 
Lastly, yes, we're finally at the end. I drink my smoothie and take my vitamins. I typically prep my smoothies so they'll be available, otherwise I find that I simply won't have the time to make it.  

And that's it. Simple right. I'm laughing with you. It really hard to believe this takes about an hour, but again, I don't often have someone interrupting my flow. I get so much done that feeds my soul so early on in my day. It sets the tone for everything after. Getting up by 6:30 means I'm done by 7:30. I leave the house by 8:30 so that gives me an hour to get ready (hygiene/dress) for work/day and "buffer" time to move leisurely; and if I happen to wake up a bit later or feel sluggish I can still nourish my soul. I use a routine app (Sunshine app) to keep track of all this and to reduce decision fatigue.  

I hope this inspires you to examine the season you're in in life and what you can do to nourish and cultivate a morning ritual that feeds your soul. Leave any questions down in the comments. Thank you for reading. 

Faithfully,  

Marie