Mornings! Early Ones!

I really would prefer not to speak to anyone at all before 8 AM. OK, maybe Jacob, if he brings me coffee in bed. Just kidding. Maybe. Ever since I can remember mornings, I have hated them. I need multiple alarms that fire off obnoxious sounds from across the room so that I actually have to get out of the bed  to turn them off. And even then, if it weren't for Jacob trying to get back to sleep, I would probably snooze for several hours. My current strategy is to set an alarm for before I actually need to get up with a relatively mild noise and then another at the actual time I need to get up with a noise that's so horrifying that it makes me lurch out of bed to silence it. But the problem is that I then hop right back in bed and fall back into a deep slumber immediately.

So that sets the stage. Then last Tuesday, on our lovely snow day, I listened to the first podcast from a yoga teacher and blogger I adore, Mary Catherine Starr, and her husband, Ben. It was all about doing something useful or helpful or calming with your mornings, and how you should use that precious stretch of uninterrupted time to do something that you wouldn't be able to do the rest of the day. Things like reading the paper, exercising, walking the dog, spending time with a partner, etc. as opposed to checking email, which you can do all day. And then Ben said this thing that gave me a massive guilt trip: your morning routine is a microcosm of your life. Well, shoot. That explains some things.

So I thought, well, I could start that next week ... And then I thought, no, start right now. And then I kept thinking about my mornings, but was not about to arise earlier to exercise in the dark, frigid weather. And then I kept feeling guilty, as though I was wasting so much time and making myself a frazzled mess, but I didn't bother to get up early. Then last night came, and it occured to me that I could get up ten minutes earlier and not be as rushed in the morning. So, with some trepidation, I reset my alarms and chose different tunes for the early alarm and the *new* on-time alarm. The early one scared me 5:15 this morning.

We shall see how this goes. Mary Catherine and Ben said to make sure that your morning routine involves something you enjoy, otherwise you won't do it. Right now, if I shuffled almost any activity (other than wilfing or writing) to the morning, I would immediately come to despise said activity. So I'm writing now, this morning, trying out this whole morning routine thing. I almost preemptively gave up on myself last night as my mind filled with negativity regarding the early hours of the day. Then I remembered the growth mindset and thought of what I would say to one of my students if he or she were to say, "No, I have never been able to do that, and I know I never will, and I am not even willing to try because I know I will fail."

On that note, I'm off to go talk to people.

But first, a huge thanks to Mary Catherine and Ben for their hilarious and useful podcast, Starr Struck Radio!

Coming up soon:

  • a recommendation for The Empathy Exams 
  • a few words on teachers buying school supplies