Find a Morning Rhythm You Can Hold On To

And one that can hold onto you

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Here’s a simple morning rhythm could take as little as 15 minutes or as long as an hour. I’ll share it here with you now because I can feel the anxiety in the air less than two weeks before Election Day in the United States. I can feel it in my body, too.

Having a predictable morning rhythm means that the first few minutes of the day will be spent in quietness, gratitude, reflection, and off the internet. It isn’t much but it’s also kind of everything. And it’s a daily reminder to ground myself in place so I don’t float away or disappear or shrink.

There’s good and important work to do in the world and wringing our hands will get us nowhere. So here is what I do instead.

There’s an old rhyme we’ve all heard that says in order to ensure a happy marriage, the bride is to carry “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” (and there’s also a last bit that’s often left out: a six-pence in your shoe). Of course I don’t see this as an accurate formula for good luck, but I like the idea of having a tiny list of thoughtful things to incorporate into a special day.

Even though my own wedding day was over 20 years ago, lately I’ve been thinking about that little saying when I wake up in the morning, except instead of a one day tradition for good luck, it’s a daily tradition for good inner health: my daily morning rhythm.

Every morning these days, I incorporate:

Something Embodied

I walk outside to feed my cat, stand and look up at the sky, breathe in the freshest morning air, maybe do a stretch or two, and walk back inside. This takes as little as 30 seconds. Or if I want to take a whole walk, as long as 30 minutes.

A Written Gratitude

There’s no wrong way to do it, but in lieu of a long gratitude list I just keep a running list for every month (so at the end of the year I have 12 gratitude lists). I use The Next Right Thing Guided Journal¹, turn to the page where I have my list for the month, and write one solitary thing on it. Some things on my list for this month include:

• gardenias in bloom again

• Trader Joes

• cold mornings

• hardwood floors

• almond butter

• Greensboro friends

This takes less than one minute. You don’t have to be fancy to be grateful.

A Borrowed Prayer

Sometimes it’s the Our Father, other times it’s a line of scripture or a gathering prayer by Ted Loder: O God, Gather me now to be with you as you are with me. There is no wrong when it comes to borrowing your prayers, but I have a few favorites recorded in The Quiet Collection app if you want some help getting started. You can download the app for free here for iPhone or here for Android and listen to some borrowed prayers right now. This can take as long or as short as you’d like.

A Timed Reading

Every morning I set my timer for 10 minutes (sometimes longer, but not by much) and read a non-fiction book until the timer goes off. I’ve finished many books this way, a few minutes a day at a time. My morning reading category is usually some sort of spiritual formation / spiritual life book. A few I’ve read in the last several months:

• Even After Everything by Stephanie Duncan Smith

• The First Advent in Palestine by Kelley Nikondeha

• Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield

A Simple Reflection

For the last seven years I’ve used the One Line A Day journal to record the simplest happenings of our everyday life. In the morning I look back on the day before and write down what we did, maybe what we ate, and who I spent time with. In the moment, it’s nothing grand. But over time it tells the story of my life. This takes less than one minute.

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Reading this you may wonder, “but what about _____?!” If you think there’s something you think I’ve left out. If that’s the case, then that’s a good sign you’ve come across something you need to incorporate into your own morning rhythm.

Note: This is not the way to start your day, but it is a way. And it’s one I’ve found to be generative and grounding, particularly over the last few months. Here’s to saying our prayers, casting our votes, doing our work, reading our books, and holding on to hope.

As always, I’m glad you’re here.

epf

What are some non-negotiables in your morning rhythm? Have you added or subtracted anything to your routine these days?

1. The links in the post is a Bookshop affiliate links which I prefer to share here on Substack. But the journal is nearly half-off on Amazon and so I’ll share that link here, too.