(Un)Mindful Mornings

“Wait, maman, wait!”. These are the words that tell me that I’m moving too fast. In the middle of the morning rush, my son reminds me that I’m rushing us from one thing to the next without allowing either one of us to catch our breath. If mindfulness is something you practice, I think you'll agree with me that we all have some part of our lives where mindfulness just doesn’t exist, but does that mean it’s not possible? That we can’t create the conditions for a peaceful morning? Or that part of your day when it feels like rushing through it is the only option? I refuse to believe that we can’t, I just recognize that in the last year I didn’t. I let myself embrace it when I get home from work, no longer rushing to get dinner on the table, starting off instead with taking a little break, leaning into my son and partner and reflecting for a few moments on our days. And then moving into the task of making a meal, feeling inspired to create something, not feeling as rushed by time but instead confident that I can get a great meal whipped up within about a half hour if I get creative. But mornings have a different kind of pressure to them: getting to where you need to go.

I recently finished reading Ariana Huffington’s book “The Sleep Revolution: Transforming your life, one night at a time”. Not getting enough sleep is one of the first things that leads to unmindful mornings. It’s incredible when you think how much of us don’t get enough sleep. Although I’ve always known that 7-9 hours of sleep is what we should aim for, I was somewhat surprised to know that consistently getting 6 hours of sleep a night could impact cognition and memory, have an impact on mood and that it has been linked to weight gain and health issues like heart disease and diabetes. I say somewhat because not getting enough sleep has definitely been an issue for me but I hadn’t really thought that you’d start to see an effect on 6 hours of sleep, I always imagined that it was for those who only got 4-5 hours of sleep, but that’s not the case.

The pressure we put on ourselves to get too much done in the morning is another factor, or sleeping in when we know we shouldn’t or not properly calculating how long it will take to get done what needs to get done.

So what would creating a mindful morning look like and how would that change begin to happen? Or if it’s dinner time, being at work, or any other part of your day where you struggle to bring mindfulness in?

My intuition tells me that it starts by being aware of what makes this part of our day most stressful (trying to get too much done before leaving for work, the business at the office and amount of things pilling up, the fact that your kids are throwing a tantrum because they need you to know that dinner should be ready instantly).

Once you identify what is causing the pressure to rush through it, do something about it. Maybe it means prepping some of dinner beforehand and involving the kids, maybe it means taking a walk during the lunch hour or even just closing your eyes for 2 minutes every few hours and practicing some deep breathing strategies to help you recharge which will make you even more productive.

For mornings, I know for me it means going to bed earlier, waking up earlier but while having gotten 7 ½ to 8 hours of sleep, and trying to tackle less in the morning. It means catching myself when I notice that I am moving too fast, or when my son is pointing it out. Wouldn’t it be great to notice the signs of spring during that morning walk with the dog rather than hoping desperately that she will go in the span of 2 minutes so you can leave? What would be even better is sitting down with my son for breakfast, walking the dog together and allowing plenty of time to get there because I am very aware that we – in our efforts to be efficient and maximize sleep - are sometimes the cause of the stressful morning.