Good Morning

I have never been a morning person. For most of my adult life I have let that make me feel guilty, like somehow it makes me lazy to not enjoy the pre-dawn hours and running five miles before the neighborhood wakes up. Then I realized, if the neighborhood isn’t even awake yet, why do I feel like I need to be? Because all the self-help articles say that the most successful people are morning people. Are they though? And does that, by default, mean I’m not successful?

Regardless.

I hate to admit it, but I do feel better throughout the rest of my day when I have gotten up a bit early and done something, anything really. Get up and have breakfast, or read a book, or workout, or write, or just sit quietly and watch the sun rise. There is something to be said for rising early and putting the time in.

There are some mornings my mind and body, my soul, just need to rest though. And I have come to the conclusion that it’s okay. It is okay to listen to yourself, to trust yourself, and to take care of yourself without the internal judgements of being selfish or lazy. We all need rest. We all need down time. Things will still get done.

It’s all about balance. I think sometimes we swing so far one way out of a fear that we might end up going too far the opposite direction. We can’t miss a single workout day because we might end up a sloth on the couch binging on potato chips and ice cream until we can’t move any more.

But extreme is extreme is extreme. And we all need to recover. Even it out a little, let go a bit, lighten up and let things work themselves out. That’s scary to a control freak like me. I’m not good at loosening my grip, much less going easy on myself. But when I am, when I do manage to find ease and trust that things will unfold as they need to, it’s so much nicer than white knuckling my way through the day.

So maybe it wouldn’t totally kill my spirit to get up a little earlier each day or hit the snooze button one less time. It also won’t ruin my life to sleep in when I need to and allow myself extra rest. I’m slowly learning the fine art of listening to myself while simultaneously silencing my biggest critic: me.

 

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