Note: This article is taken from the writer "MARC CHERNOFF", and he tells us about the three most important rituals that can be adopted in life before noon, which will change our lives for the better.
Therefore, each of us makes our way daily with difficulty in this life, in addition to suffering from dwindling goals, lack of determination, and a lot of unnecessary frustration and resentment. We forget that the morning hours that precede or pave the way for midday are critical, as they form a foundation for the entire day. We also need to remember that we can use how we spend these hours each day to determine the quality of our next days and, thus, the quality of our entire life.
Normal daily activities, such as using social media, watching TV, or thinking about things we cannot control, usually set every day of our life and determine its rhythm. This means we waste a lot of our energy and rest time on silly, unimportant things. We are gradually losing touch with the more important aspects of our lives that we can control.
On the other hand, having nice, quiet hours in the morning from the time we wake up to midday generally allows us to rekindle a sense of purposeful control over our lives so that we can control our lives again and live a more active and deliberate life again.
Simple life-changing rituals that must be done before midday
The following rituals or activities should be done right before midday, not earlier than that, because we do not all wake up at dawn break and have similar schedules or duties. You are not required to follow someone else's schedule to incorporate these rituals into your morning activities or add them to your routine. The secret is to carry out these rituals in the early morning before you become overburdened with many duties at noon.
Surprisingly, you weren't asked to do these things earlier now that you know how important the pre-midday ritual is. The issue is that most of us need to be more active about doing the things we should do for ourselves, despite our awareness and actual knowledge of the negative consequences of that. My wife "Angel" and I have repeatedly given many tips about these rituals in our blog.
My wife "Angel" and I were used to being distracted and casual in our early morning hours as everyone else. We used to wake up quickly and let unexpected issues dictate how we spent our first morning hours. We needed clarification amidst our duties, work, tasks, and client meetings, which were considered obstacles. Our life was terrible, and we did not know then that life could be different. Hence, we did not believe in our ability to change things, only to be later proven wrong at the time.
We gradually implemented the 3-morning rituals mentioned below, and everything in our lives has changed since then. The morning has become a solid foundation that constantly brings us gains and positive results. For more than 10 years, we have been actively working toward successive successes while also assisting hundreds of coaching clients, trainees, and conference attendees in putting these rituals into practice in their own lives. Many of them expressed their gratitude to us later, and I hope you find it helpful and valuable in your life as well.
Here I want to focus on the gradual development that will take over your life when you apply them. So, if you are not doing any of these rituals before midday, start by practicing the first ritual only. Then, try to add the second ritual to your life later, and so on. These rituals are:
1. Washing dirty dishes right after eating your breakfast each morning
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You can take advantage of this meal and invest it in enhancing your self-discipline and strengthening your will. Self-discipline is a basic and essential skill we should enhance and develop in our personality.
Self-discipline is overcoming distractions and accomplishing the most important things in your life. It also includes acting and taking actions according to what you know is right and appropriate instead of being driven by your momentary feelings. You might feel tired, lazy, or distracted by something else, so you must not follow these feelings. Self-discipline usually requires sacrificing momentary pleasure and excitement to achieve the more important things in life.
Most of us need better self-discipline due to our poor focus and concentration. In other words, we often tell ourselves that we will do something but do not do it later. Therefore, starting with simple steps and sticking to them every morning by washing dirty dishes after breakfast is one of the most influential and easy ways to make and maintain self-discipline as a part of your day.
I mean washing your dirty dishes with both hands, which is one small step forward each morning. When you finish eating breakfast, wash your plate and spoon. Also, wash your cup and coffee pot after you finish your morning coffee. Do not leave any dirty dishes in the sink or on the dining table for later; rather, wash them immediately after breakfast.
Once you've been doing that for a few weeks, you can advance to thoroughly cleaning the sink, cleaning the dining table, making your bed, and packing a healthy lunch for yourself. After that, you can continue with some abdominal strengthening exercises, a brief period of meditation, and other activities.
So, every morning you have to do only one of the previous examples to start building a healthy self-discipline routine for yourself and finally make sure that you can carry out your duties and tasks with focus and sincere determination. However, I will reiterate that you should wash dirty dishes only after breakfast over the next few weeks and do so consciously with a big smile.
2. Exercising for 15 minutes at most and investing it in training your mind and body
Exercising is the easiest, simplest, and fastest way to change your life, strengthening and enhancing your body and mind. Exercising is considered an activity with a self-initiative that requires a certain level of mental and physical effort to encourage development and growth and enhance it in a person. It also directly instills a positive sense of self-control in a person's subconscious, even when other circumstances in your life seem chaotic and turbulent.
In a vast, unmanageable world, exercise becomes your personal space, as you can simultaneously train and regain control over your world. Only you can move your body or put one foot before the other. You can only determine how much you will push yourself to achieve something. When you start your day this way with your hands, dealing with the outside world becomes more manageable. Furthermore, the commitment to exercise thoroughly changes the way the mind works.
In his best-selling book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, Dr. John Ratey discusses the data he collected during his years of research about the neurological changes exercise causes in the human brain. According to physics laws, exercising raises the level of a specific protein in the brain, which Dr. Ratti calls "the miracle of the human brain."
He said: “Exercise is the most powerful way to improve mental function. Aerobic exercise has a major adaptive effect by regulating the systems in your body that might be out of balance and improving the balanced ones. Exercise is an indispensable tool for anyone who wants to reach their full potential.”
My wife, Angel, and I came to almost a similar conclusion, but it is not backed up by scientific research. After more than a decade of experience working personally with our coaching recipients and trainees - through our one-on-one or coaching sessions - we have found that exercise is a panacea for all mental illnesses that afflict humans. It dramatically reduces mild and moderate depression, reduces anxiety, compensates for the negative effects of extreme fatigue, and has many other benefits. The best part about exercise is that it is not just a mental exercise but a physical one; hence, the benefit is doubled.
Despite the fantastic benefits of exercise that I mentioned, I recommend doing it for only 15 minutes every morning because this is sufficient to achieve the desired benefits without exaggerating and putting pressure on yourself with many exercises. Starting gradually with simple and small steps is very important. We often hear this advice, but many must remember to apply it.
So, start with 15 minutes of exercise or less. If you feel it's difficult and need to exercise for 15 minutes, reduce it to 7-10 minutes. Stick to this for a month at least before increasing the exercise duration again.
3. Promoting mindfulness by practicing meditation for 15 minutes or less
The same principle of starting with small and gradual steps also applies here, but practicing meditation in the morning for only 15 minutes is not easy for most beginners. During the first meditation attempts, most beginners find great difficulties that make it almost impossible to calm their minds. Therefore, most of us only try meditation once or twice and do not see any value or benefit in it because meditation does not directly instill in our minds the same sense of control over ourselves and the world around us as exercise does. However, meditation can be much more potent through practice and patience, which drives me and my wife "Angel" to meditate every morning before breakfast.
For hundreds of our trainees and clients, as well as for us, meditation is a vital morning ritual. Even though it might not give us the same level of control as quickly as exercise, it still gives us a more profound and greater level of control. Taking control will eventually enable us to get rid of all the things stuck inside us that we cannot solve. It also connects us to our true, authentic selves by allowing us access to all the areas of our minds and body that we have forgotten or lost touch with.
Apart from all the details, meditation has two primary and practical benefits: reducing psychological and mental stress and increasing mental presence or awareness. Thus, when we enhance our sense of relaxation and mental presence during the morning hours, the basis on which the rest of our day events are built, it will be easier to deal with all these events starting from those morning hours.
We accept and become more aware of the burden placed on our shoulders, the hope that grows within us, and the sadness remnants buried in the depths of our souls due to the increase in our awareness and the absence of tension. This enables us to find better solutions to our problems and healthier ways to cope with reality. Additionally, it makes us feel that those around us are nicer and that nature is more stunning.
When we are anxious, tense, and distracted in the morning, our minds become tired, distracted, and divided into two parts. The first part focuses tightly on anything that stresses and burdens us, while the other part pays little attention to any tasks or duties that need to be completed quickly in the meantime.
For example, consider the scenario where you are rushing around your home getting ready for work because you are running late. You will only pay attention to what someone close to you or a member of your family says if they tell you something significant about what they will do throughout the day at this time. When we are more present, pay more attention to every moment of our lives, and use meditation to increase our awareness and acceptance of the present moment, we won't be as distracted and preoccupied as before. Thus, we can breathe more deeply and listen with greater attention to those around us. Stress consequences will also be removed from our shoulders. Through practice and training, we can learn how to have more moments of peace, reassurance, and peace of mind.
One of our trainees recently wrote: “Every moment of our life is a new opportunity. The next moment is as innovative, seductive, and hopeful as the thousands of moments you missed before. It is completely free of any judgments or prejudices. You don’t have to pass any test to prove you are a good person before living that moment, as it is completely unconditional. It's as if this next moment welcomes you and comforts you, assuring you that even if you've missed it thousands of times before, it will return and wait for you to live it with attention and focus."
In what follows, we will discuss achieving conscious presence through morning meditation. There are several meditation methods, but the following method is the one I am practicing with my wife "Angel" at present. You have to sit upright in your chair with your feet on the floor and your hands resting in your lap. Close your eyes, and focus on your breathing for 15 minutes or less at first if it feels like a long time or you cannot maintain your focus.
The goal is to spend all of your time focusing only on how you feel in your chest as you inhale and exhale, which will prevent your anxious mind from overthinking. Although it seems easy, it is difficult to practice for more than two consecutive minutes, especially at the beginning of your practice. It should be noted that it is natural if some random thoughts distract you or divert your focus. It will happen for sure, and all you have to do is refocus on your breathing completely.
Perseverance is the key to success in everything
The 3-morning rituals mentioned above are only helpful if practiced consistently and regularly. Washing your dirty dishes, exercising, or meditating just for one morning without consistency will not make any difference in your life. However, the compound effect of simple steps and actions that seem boring and routine over time leads you to achieve positive results that can change your life. There is no suspense or enthusiasm in putting one foot in front of the other every day for weeks, but this enabled many normal humans to climb more than 88 km to the highest mountain top in the world, Mount Everest.
There is also no thrill in washing dirty dishes, exercising, or meditating briefly each morning. Still, it's why I, my wife "Angel," and hundreds of our students and clients have a better life after practicing these rituals.
The mind needs training to gain mental strength, as is true for every human body muscle. It should work continuously and consistently to grow and develop over time, which the 3 previous morning rituals allow you to do. If you don't push yourself and achieve your goals through simple steps and methods every morning, you will surely fall apart later in the day when things don't go as planned.
In conclusion
The choice is yours. So, choosing to wash your dirty dishes when leaving them for later in the sink is more manageable. Exercising when sleeping comfortably and staying in bed is much easier and more enticing.
Choose to meditate when it's easier to distract yourself with something else. Furthermore, prove to yourself through simple methods every morning that you have the strength to control your day and your entire life.
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