So last night I set my alarm at 5:55 but I woke up "naturally" around 5:45 so that was quite an easy start. I got up, made my bed and opened up my window a little bit for some fresh air, went to the bathroom (washing my face with cold water really helps to wake me up) and got dressed. Now, this is the time when I would usually go straight to making myself a cup of coffee and go on my laptop. But today I did some stretches, 16 minutes in total, with some nature sounds from an app called Calm that I really enjoy and then I did 4 minutes of meditation using the same background sounds.
After that I made myself a smoothie and wrote in my gratitude journal, then went to laptop and this was also time when I checked my phone, mainly Discord and Whatsapp. It felt so good to start my day this way but I think that I made a mistake by going on laptop since I spent more time on it than I planned to and it wasn't really a productive time. Replacing that time with doing my University work in the early hours would be ideal because I could do so much from the time when I wake up until lunch time, let's say and then have the rest of the day for other things like Steemit, reading, spending time with family and friends or whatever I want to do. I also had my first (and only) cup of coffee around 10am.
The main benefit I found from waking up early is the silence. Even though my parents already got up, they had some work to do outside the house and the rest of my family was asleep. My niece and nephew wake up around 7am and my niece goes to preschool around 7:30. When you live with your family and have kids around, early or late hours are pretty much the only time when there is complete silence in the house. For me staying up late is not an option, because I know that my family is loud and they would wake me up so I wouldn't get sleep at all in this case. I am also more of a morning person so this works great for me.
I will continue waking up at this time for at least a week, as part of this challenge and see how it goes. The only problem might be if I go back to Zumba soon, which I'm planning to, because Zumba starts at 9pm and by the time I'm done, catch a bus and come home, it will be 11:30 and if we stay for a drink after Zumba sometimes, I will come home at 2am. And I need 7-8 hours of sleep every night to function. :) So I still need to figure that out.
In the meantime, I will let you know how this little challenge goes. When do you usually wake up? And how does your morning look like?
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Some of my previous posts:
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wow @nikolina reading it feels like a story of what I have been up to! I morning routine is sacred! And when someone wants to live this life to the fullest early mornings are precious and life changing! I love your article, your writing skills are top!
Thank you so much @andabout for your nice words! :)
I totally agree that morning routines are sacred, they set the mood for the day and I've been really enjoying a simple, mindful and easy start of the day even though I fail at it sometimes but it's all good, haha. :)
I like your new lifestyle you started.
I wake up at 6 am since I love waking up in the morning and start doing my things before it gets hot and I get so much more done throughout the day, since the day seems so much longer.
Hope you can figure something out with your Zumba, since sleep is very important and I don't function really good either if I don't get my 8 hr sleep.
Thank you, my friend.
Yes, days definitely seem much longer, especially during the winter.
I will definitely have to figure something out but I'm looking forward to going back to Zumba. :)
I love the sound of silence.
I've realized how much I underestimated the silence.
I know it's so healthy getting up early..
but I'm a night owl so it comes hard to me.
Good luck 😊
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