Most of us have some kind of morning routine — at least on work days — a ritual that we perform to not only get us to where we need to be, but also one that centers and prepares us to survive the day ahead.
Some of you may have balked at my use of “survive” back there in my intro. Good for you. I’m sincerely happy that your days don’t feel like an “Alone” episode. Sometimes mine don’t either, but at the moment I’m surviving and that’s ok. Well, it’s not ok but it is better than the alternative, and I have hope that I’ll get to “thriving” at some point in the future.
Back to morning rituals: I work 20 minutes from home, and though I am not required to be at work until 7:55, I’m a teacher and even though I have tried to only work my contracted hours this year, I need that extra 20-30 minutes in the morning to feel prepared. Long story short, I try to leave my house by 7am. I refuse to get up earlier than 5:30-plus-one-snooze (maybe two), and the first 5-10 minutes of being upright involves Jane the Cat in my lap and occupying my right hand with all the scratching, while my left hand scrolls through my phone to make sure the world didn’t end overnight. My goal is to be in the shower at right around 6am, mostly because I have to be out and at least partially dressed to go knock on the 14-year-old son’s door to get him up.
He has his own rituals, involving a precise 7 minute shower, then probably watching YouTube on his bed until I holler from the kitchen that I need to leave. He goes to school in my district, so he needs to catch a ride with me. Though he sometimes turns on the seat warmers and naps, he is more often chatty and funny, keeping me awake on our dark winter drive. Lately he’s been asking a lot of questions about driving (coming up on his permit) and telling me how my car works (he’s taking “Know Your Car” as an elective). I sometimes have to shush him in order to hear something the KAXE morning show hosts are saying, but he understands that. He’s been a fan of the Tuesday morning Phenology since 2nd grade!
I know that a lot of people insist on having a sit-down breakfast as part of their routine. My husband has a bowl of cereal after he walks the dog and before he showers. My mom used to have her coffee with Good Morning America before getting ready for work. My friend Mikki slams one cup of black coffee with breakfast. I make my coffee in the French press, fill my to-go cup, and take breakfast in the car. When I get to my desk, I take the top off of the insulated mug and set it on a tissue. I stare at my laptop, trying to keep my sandy, heavy eyes open while writing a morning message and reading emails. Usually, the coffee cools enough to drink just in time to have the first glorious sip right before the thunder of boots and cacophony of voices comes streaming down the hallway. Several times a week I find myself closing my eyes, savoring the warm, oat-milk-creamy mouthful and thinking, “Coffee is everything.”
It isn’t that I don’t drink coffee on the weekends. I do, and it is delicious. But I don’t have a routine on weekend mornings. Some days we sleep late and coffee is hurried or skipped altogether. Some Sundays I go to church with my to-go mug. Other times I forget it and that’s ok because the church makes coffee, but lately they only have the flavored creamer and I can’t stand the chemical, over-sweet taste of it. (This is not a complaint, Jennifer. You are the best.)
Often, my morning ritual feels similar to the rituals I go through before a performance. In order to bring the best of myself to my class (or audience), I need to be able to shed the outside world. Those isolated moments with my coffee — the Elixir of Life — remind me of the seconds before I make an entrance on stage: closing my eyes, taking a deep breath, focusing my mind on the present and blocking out distractions and intrusions from elsewhere. I suppose it is akin to a mindfulness exercise, though brief and often interrupted (because who are we kidding, we all get texts all day long, and I am certainly not the only teacher in the building before contract hours). However, my coffee ceremony does the job of centering me. It is just as much the steam on my face and aroma in my nose that opens my eyes as it is the caffeine.
What are your rituals? I would love to hear about the habits and customs that drive you, settle you, calm you, or energize you. No single practice works for every person, but I have definitely experienced periodic success with adopting ideas from others! Plus, routines are sort of a personality test. Sharing them with others gives real insight into our characters, and how we approach the world.
Perhaps I should develop a Cosmo-style quiz: “What Does Your Breakfast Say About Your Sex Drive?”
Thanks for reading.
Love, Susie
I just smile at myself in the mirror, over and over, having read that not only does your face reflect your emotions but that your face can CREATE your emotions. Not wanting to get up, of course, I need that fake smile to wake up my face and eventually the rest of me. And coffee, doesn't that go without saying?
I used to be more of a morning person but this fall and winter I have struggled to leave the bed and I have developed the bad habit of returning to it as part of my morning ritual. Occasionally I have even angled the top half of my body out of the bed held up by my hands on the ground as a way to attempt to leave the bed- it sounds dramatic but it’s both ridiculous and ineffective. I don’t know if I have just practiced yoga too long now or what, but I will just hang out like that for a few minutes and the intended consequence of being uncomfortable enough to get the rest of the way out of bed doesn’t work. When I finally emerge from my haven I use the bathroom, put on yoga pants, feed the cat, do yoga, make oatmeal (the lazy microwave way, even though I don’t use quick oats), either wash my face or take a shower depending on the day, then I go back to the bed with my oatmeal (that I add craisins and raw almonds to) and coffee that Dave usually makes and play Wordle, Connections, the mini crossword, and depending on how badly I’m procrastinating sudoku and recently a cryptogram game. Eventually I shame/guilt myself into stopping and make sure I have lunch and brush my teeth before bundling up and walking to work (11 minutes). I don’t think oatmeal is necessarily an accurate indicator of my sex drive and now I’m going to shut up about my routine/ritual, hopefully I didn’t make you sorry you asked 😅