Hello and welcome back to yet another episode of Morning Cup of Sunshine podcast. A very warm welcome if you just discovered my podcast. I am so grateful for each and every listener. You are so much appreciated here. I am committed to bring the episodes that are valuable to you. I am so happy to finally record the most requested episode. I have been getting requests to talk in detail about my morning routine. But I always felt that it could be different to different people. I did not want to sound pompous and come across as someone who has figured it all out because that is definitely not the case. As I have mentioned in several of my episodes, I have a fair share of struggles everyday. I am a work in progress and I am evolving every single day. But then I noticed I could help those who are still on the fence about having an early morning routine. I could help those busy moms who are really struggling to find time for themselves. That is the exact reason why I am recording this episode. Before we start the episode, I have a full disclaimer that this is the most ideal routine that I have, it does not happen every single day. I don’t want you to beat yourself up if you fall out of the routine, if your body wants you to rest, listen to it. This is the morning routine that works for me and makes me feel extremely accomplished. But it could be a little different for you, so own that difference and just take a general guideline and make your own routine that suits you, that makes you feel excited about the morning, that makes you feel accomplished. Your morning routine sets a tone for your day. If you are rushed or stressed it reflects on your entire day. So, let’s work together to find a morning routine that not only accomplishes tasks and chores but makes you feel accomplished. Alright? Shall we start our day or I mean episode? Of course not before happy moments of the week.
Happy Moment of the week
As you must have heard from my previous episode, a major life update that we moved into our own new home. It was so much work to pack and then unpack. But while I am sitting here planning this episode, I can see that the house has already turned into a home, our own home. It is feeling much more like our own nest. It is starting to reflect our family’s personality more and more. I am loving every minute of organizing and making it home. But do you know what brought me joy this week the most? Finally after a couple of weeks in this house, I am slowly getting back to my old routine. I have not exercised in so long, with all the shifting , packing, and unpacking, I deliberately let go of my exercise routine as I did not want to overtire myself. But this week, I am finally getting back on track with my workout routine. Today is the first day that I am recording a podcast episode in my new home. Today is the first day when I woke up at 5 and had my entire morning routine. I am loving this so much. In this home, I have found my own little corner for all my morning routine. It is my most favorite spot in my home, I wish I could show you. I always loved routines, even when I was a school going girl, I thrived on the routine so getting back into my routine is a joyful moment for me. This definitely feels like myself now. I am so happy to share with you and I hope you also had a fantastic week. I would love to hear all about your happy moments in our weekly post in my Facebook group, Morning Cup of Sunshine community. Come join me to share and spread some joy, positivity and happiness around.
Alright, let’s start this beautiful day with a calm and intentional morning routine. I am a huge fan of a morning routine. Ever since I can understand, I remember being a morning person. I love to wake up early, it makes me feel that I have an early start to things. I believe in routines as they give structure to your day. I have been following a morning routine for so many years now but there is a huge shift in my morning routine in the last year. Till last year, my morning routine was always focused on chores, it was like go go time for me. I was completing chores after chores without really focusing on anything specific. Only thing that I used to do in addition to my household chores was exercise. I had a gym class in the early morning but apart from that it was all about completing my to-do list. But something shifted in 2020 and it became even more focused and intentional in 2021. Finally, I am at the place where I love my morning routine and I am excited each morning to wake up and get my day started. What happened that made me shift my entire perspective about my morning routine? Frankly, the podcast happened. This Morning Cup of sunshine really brought a complete new perspective to my own morning routine. I am not talking about adding a chore in my to-do list. I don’t know how many times I mention this, but I am sure more than a handful times but I am no expert, this podcast is not coming from a place of preaching. I am just like you, a busy mom who is trying to juggle her worlds and trying to do most of her abilities. I am your friend and I am growing with you every day with this podcast. Because of this podcast, I read a lot, I did a lot of soul searching this past year. I made some very intentional changes in me. I decided to slow down, let go of a few things, learn the ways to say no when I want to say no. I can not count, but I learnt so much this past year. I learnt so many beautiful things from you. This definitely made me think of my morning routine. I wanted to have a peaceful but productive start of the day. I made some changes in my routine and now I feel peaceful and productive at the same time. Today, I want to help you reach that exact same place, so come on let’s walk this path together, let’s take this beautiful journey.
So, as I mentioned, I wake up exactly at 5.00 everyday of course not on weekends. Weekends I wake up a little late but still early to finish my morning routine before my family wakes up. You have heard me recording some early Sunday morning episodes, right?. The first thing that I do as soon as I wake up is I keep my phone aside or plug it in for charging away from me. I don’t even look at it for the first one hour. This is a game changer for me. I always used to read my emails, messages the first thing in the morning. It gave me so much anxiety from the anticipation of the huge workload. I was tempted to reply to emails and take a few calls. But with that, my morning used to slip out from my hands. But now, I intentionally keep my phone aside. One thing that I have been doing for years now is to drink two glasses of warm water. I tried adding lemon, apple cider and what not but I don’t like it. I like plain old warm water. While the water is heating, I empty the dishwasher, fill my big water bottle for the day, so basically a couple of small chores. Multitasking, you know? Once I have my glass of water, it is time for my favorite time of my morning routine.
I meditate for 10 minutes, yes, I am still on that 10 minutes. I am trying but I can not go beyond 10 minutes. If you have any tips, I will be happy to try. I have noticed a boost of energy and calmness at the same time, after I meditate. I am much more calm these days. I had a hard time the past few weeks because of extreme workload but meditating every single day definitely helped me even on the most stressful days. I am no expert in this area, I am learning this skill but definitely I am seeing a change in me after I started intentionally meditating every single day.
Right after I meditate, I take a minute or two to sit quietly and then I write my journal. I started writing the journal in March 2020. I completed one year of journaling just this week. I never imagined myself writing a journal before. I remember I wrote the journal for the first time after listening to one of Rachel Hollis’s podcasts about 5 to thrive. I was impressed and I wanted to try it myself. I had so many emotions, so many ideas, so much confusion in my mind about the direction my life was heading. It was the beginning of the lockdown. I had some extra time and I thought of giving it a try. I was unsure of what to write in it. I started with one prompt. Things I loved about today. I started writing about small moments that brought me joy. Those moments were so trivial that they could have easily gotten unnoticed. But as I started writing about them in my journal, I realized how beautiful my day really is and how I have so many great and happy moments that I should be grateful for. I had been thinking about starting my own podcast for a month now, but it was not really taking any momentum from my side. That’s when I decided to add one more prompt in my journal, dreams/goals. I started writing the same 5-10 goals every single day in my journal. I write them in such a way that it has already happened. I started writing in my journal that I have recorded and published 100+ episodes of my podcast. This is one of the goals that I write every single day, even today. If you remember, I mentioned something in my episode, Dealing with change. It was September 2020 and there was a lot of confusion about schools, whether they will go virtual, hybrid, in-person. Daycares were closed. We had been working round the clock with kids at home. It was the most stressful time of the year. I was having a really hard time dealing with this change. That’s when I added one more prompt to my journal, Intentions for the day. I started writing how I want to feel that day. Somedays I write that I am determined to be calm and patient. Somedays, I write that I am determined to be productive and peaceful. Till date, I write in these three prompts every single morning. I might add new prompts as and when needed. I don't have a fancy journal. I have a nice diary from the dollar tree. I have already filled 4 diaries and I am on to my 5th one. I have all the intentions to keep on going. I really see a shift in my mindset after I started journaling. I can not recommend journaling enough. It is such a powerful tool to get to know yourself.
After journaling, it is my focus hour for my podcast. I plan my episodes, write an outline of my episode, create a blog post for the episode. All the focused and creative writing happens in that one hour. It is my time to be creative and create more and more useful content. I love to sit near windows, look outside. Sometimes it is still dark, sometimes it is just about to be sunrise. I have seen the beauty of all four seasons through my window. It inspires me to write and create something beautiful and inspiring. After an hour of focused writing, it is time for my blank canvas. I started doing this recently, maybe a couple of months back. I just sit in peace and quiet for 10 minutes. I like to call it white space or blank canvas because it helps me think of so many beautiful new ideas that I can later work on. I know it seems a lot for a morning routine. It seems I have done so many things before the day barely started. But it is hardly 6.30 by this time. By this time, Rushikesh also wakes up so we have a cup of coffee or tea together. We chat, we laugh. It makes my day even brighter. I love this part of my morning routine. After all this calm and peaceful time, I am all ready and charged up for the day. It is now time to take off the hat of a podcaster and put on a hat of a homemaker. It is time to cook, make breakfast, make lunches, get kids ready for school, still virtual. By this time, even kids are awake. They have so much to tell as soon as they wake up. Sometimes, I wonder how they can have so much to talk about right after they wake up. But I love their chatter. It feels our home with so much energy and joy. We then have breakfast, get ready and then the day starts for all of us. Rushi and I start our work. Mihir logs in for his school and Maitreyi also gets busy with her activities. I feel accomplished and calm when I start my work for the day. Since I already got a chance to work on something that is so dear to my heart, something that I love so much, I get such a boost to my day. I highly highly recommend that you work on something that you absolutely love, the first thing in the morning. If you can spend just 30 minutes on that, you will feel so great about yourself. It is not about discipline but about finding your passion and working on it.
Again, are all days the same for me? No of course not. There are days when I don’t feel like waking up this early. There are days when I wake up but don’t feel like writing anything. I can not put a single line on paper. There are days when I have office calls so early in the morning that I have to cut short my morning routine. There are days when Maitreyi wakes up early in the morning and wants some snuggles, I keep aside my pen and paper and snuggle with her. So, yes, not all days are equal. It is a new day every morning right? If it does not work out today, you try it again the next day. I do that same, if today does not go in my favor, I wake up with a fresh mindset the next day and try again. With practice and perseverance, I am now able to follow my routine most of the days. Do I want to change it? Not really, I wish I could find time to exercise in the morning. I used to workout in the morning and I loved it. But I don’t have time for it now. If I workout in the morning, I can not spend time writing. I need a quiet and fresh mind to write so morning works better for that. So, I switched my exercise routine to evening right after I am done for the work day. It helps me get the boundary setup between work and family time. So, I workout in the evening but given a choice, I would love to workout in the morning. But I can’t see that happening at least in this season of my life and I am okay with it. Apart from that, I love my morning routine. I feel happy and excited to start my day. I love to wake up early in the morning as I look forward to writing. I always loved writing but I lost touch for years after having Mihir and I felt terrible that time. I felt as if I had no passion and I was not using my gifts. Now that I have found it again, I don’t want to lose it just because life got too busy. I am ready to make changes and make the most of it. I have found my peaceful morning routine and I hope I am able to give some insights on how to create your own blissful morning routine. I love the smell of endless possibilities in the morning and that is the reason I absolutely love mornings. As Tim Ferris once said, “If you win the morning, you win the day” So, let’s wake every day with a thought and belief that something wonderful is about to happen today. Shall we?