My morning routine right now

*it all started with a one minute meditation

Dear Kula Diaries,

It’s been a while since I’ve shared about my morning routine — and since this is such a popular topic, I wanted to share an update. I also hope that it inspires you to look at your current morning routine — or consider starting one, if it isn’t already a part of your daily practice. Most importantly: do what works for you. And, if you aren’t sure what works for you, be open to trying new things.

I love routine (I mean, I do have a weekly pizza and cookie day)… but I’m also a firm believer that when you continually do the same things over and over again, you get the same results. Which can be a good thing, and some folks thrive on doing the same thing over and over again. However, I find that I’m one of those people who thrives in having a routine that is constantly adjusting to the flow. This means that I do have predictable routines… and that I do have an intentional morning routine… but the actual contents of that morning routine tend to ebb and flow as I incorporate new or different practices into, ‘the mix’.

Tahoma, from my favorite ledge!

I have not always had a morning routine. Or rather, maybe I should say that I have not always had an intentional morning routine. For most of my life, I had an ‘auto-pilot’ routine. Once MySpace and Facebook came into the scene, my morning routine looked like this:

• Wake up

• Make tea

• Immediately login to Facebook

• Scroll Facebook for 45 minutes mindlessly

• Drive to work while eating peanut butter toast in the car

Not surprisingly, my life was in a constant state of chaos, because the first thing that I did in the morning was fill the empty space of my consciousness with whatever ‘junk’ happened to pop into my Facebook feed. Instead of giving myself a sense of spaciousness and possibility during the day, I immediately filled those potentially creative bubbles of goodness with all of the things that I needed to worry about. As a result of this, I lived in a constant state of distress or worry.

After my near death experience in 2017, something shifted fundamentally within my entire heart. To be completely honest, I cannot explain exactly what happened, except that I knew that I needed to change how I was living my life. I was spending most of my time complaining about, ‘my situation’ — and in the aftermath of nearly losing the very ‘situation’ that I spent most of my time complaining about… I realized how good I really had it. I was suddenly overwhelmed with a deep sense of gratitude for my life that I had somehow missed in the years that I spent whining about everything that was, ‘wrong’. I had missed out on the miracle by needing everything to be different than how it was.

In that first week after my near death experience I suddenly knew in my heart that changing my external situation was not the answer. I had spent my entire life looking for the greener grass, and (not surprisingly), I had never found it. I knew that I needed to change from within. I opened YouTube and I found a 4 minute gratitude meditation led by Tony Robbins that included him prompting the listener to rapidly exhale in short breaths while pumping their arms quickly up and down. I sat in my office and followed his guidance: I forcibly exhaled over and over again and rapidly pumped my arms up and down… and then, as guided, I settled into stillness. Eventually, the meditation guided me to envision the things that I was grateful for. With brilliant clarity, I saw the endless abundance of things that had been bestowed upon me in my life: my husband, my cats, my family, my job, food and fresh water… the list was endless. I dissolved into a mixture of gratitude and tears. At the end of the meditation, feeling abundantly grateful for the infinite goodness in my life, I wondered: How had I missed this all along?

A rainbow on my morning walk.

I started a meditation practice that day, and it was that tiny decision that opened the door for everything else to arrive. Each day, no matter what, I found time to meditate — usually in the morning. At first, my practice was small… since I was working as a railroad police officer, I found ways to fit in a short meditation in the morning for a few minutes before I left for work. I took time each morning to do something that helped me find a feeling of gratefulness for life. During my shift, I’d sit in my office during my meal and I’d use an app to do a 1-2 minute meditation… just a tiny smidgen of peace goes a long way.

From that point in my life, I could not have possibly imagined having a ‘lengthy’ morning routine — because I decidedly did not have the time to fit it in. My days were usually a blur of working 12 hour shifts and scrambling to get things ready for work. And yet… as I started to include intentionality into my mornings… my days seemed to feel a little bit more spacious as time passed.

Eventually, I quit my job at the railroad to start my ‘career’ in the outdoor industry… and it was during this time, when my ‘morning routine’ became the most important part of my entire day. For me, it didn’t matter exactly what I did each day… what mattered is that I brought some intentionality to every single morning. If the morning routine is the ‘welcome mat’ that invites in what that day will bring, I wanted to lay out a really incredible welcome mat.

Over the past 7 years, my morning routine has ebbed and flowed — it’s changed and morphed as I have grown and learned. I’ve added to it and subtracted from it. The content of the morning routine is in flux, but the overall ‘container’ of the morning routine is non-negotiable. Every single morning, I will wake up with intention — and I will make it my priority to prepare myself for the arrival of unlimited magical things. This, more than any action that I take during the day, is always my priority. In fact, it is my morning routine that places me in a state of being that will inspire me to the actions that will have the most effective and magical results… not the other way around.

Morning walk, complete with bear spray (because, you know… cougars… and bears… and owls).

These days, my morning routine looks a bit like this (although it does change frequently… and I happily make adjustments for it if I’m travelling or otherwise feeling tired or uninspired about it):

• wake up, put my feet on the ground and spend about 10-15 seconds feeling the sensation of my feet on the ground

• walk to the bathroom … feeling my feet on the floor with as much attention as I can muster

• brush my teeth while noticing the sensation of the spinning bristles on my gums

• get dressed

• drink some powdered greens or a little bit of a protein drink

• put on my trail runners, grab my headlamp and bear spray and walk out the door

• Then, I walk in the early dawn hours (sometimes around 4:30 or 5:00 am) for an hour or two, depending on how much time I have

• Sometimes, I will listen to a book like Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now

• Most often, I will listen to nothing

• I do not check my e-mail, social media, or my Shopify/Kula Cloth store

• I walk

• I will sometimes use an app on my phone to guide me through a walking meditation that helps me tune into my senses

• Sometimes, I’ll lie on the ground and look at the sky and just let myself feel totally and utterly free

• Sometimes, I’ll dance in the dark

• Sometimes, I’ll talk out loud and share all of the things that I’m grateful for… I’ll usually do this for long enough that I end up crying in deep gratitude

• Around 6:30 am, I will join our Dance Experiment Zoom Call. On Wednesdays and Fridays, I usually lead the call — other days, I join as a participant because I genuinely love sharing a morning dance session with others. The start of this call is a meditation. If I’m not leading the call, I’ll usually find a nice place to sit and I’ll do the meditation before the dance.

• Sometimes, if I don’t feel like joining the dance call, I’ll hike down to Homestead 2 (our treehouse in the woods that isn’t completely finished yet), and I’ll sit alone and do a meditation. Then, I might dance by myself for a little while.

• Eventually, around 7am, I come back to the house and I make sure that my husband Aaron is awake. If it’s a work day, we will walk together… then we’ll do a meditation together… eat breakfast and head to work.

• If it’s a weekend, I will often hop back into bed and sleep for a bonus hour. After many years of never resting… I’ve been savoring the luxury of being able to take an extra nap.

Current view from an unfinished Homestead 2

In total, I’m usually walking… meditating… noticing my senses… and/or dancing for around 1-2 hours each morning… which is wild… considering that about 7 years ago, I could barely find the time for a 1 minute meditation. I am 100% convinced that my schedule today only exists because I made the time for a 1 minute meditation 7 years ago. In order to find space, you have to create it. You will never find it if you are waiting for it to arrive in the future — you have to notice it, exactly where you are — which might mean only one minute of space. And that’s enough. All it takes is a teeeeeeeny tiny opening to let the light in.

Meditate with me for a couple of minutes at my ledge! The bird sounds were so lovely.

If you are somebody who doesn’t have a morning routine, the easiest way to start is by doing one small thing tomorrow morning. It doesn’t have to be a lot. It could be as simple as placing your feet on the ground in the morning and taking 4 intentional inhales and exhales… or focusing on your breathing for 30 seconds. The most important thing is that you are giving yourself the time to come into the present moment — you aren’t allowing your consciousness to immediately be swept away by your mind. When you can give yourself the space to be here right now… even for a moment… everything in your entire life will start to shift and change.

I’m sending you all a wish for presence, ease and joy in your life — today, and all days. You are loved, friends.