“Those who have found tranquility are calm and pleasant to be with.” —Zen saying, excerpted from A Thousand Paths to Tranquility 

Good morning! Since our day is greatly dependent on how we begin our mornings, give yourself some extra time to calmly organize for your day. I know this can be hard. I am not a morning person. If it was up to me, life would start around 11:00 a.m. But, it isn’t up to me, so if you can’t beat them, join them.

I bound out of bed every day by 5:30 or 6:00 and give myself thirty or sixty minutes to center, sort, and get in the right mindset to face the day. I do some positive reading, I put on my makeup, I write my affirmations, take a look outside, I say a quick prayer. I don’t oversleep very often, but when I do and don’t have this “centered time,” my day looks more like “A Thousands Paths to Chaos” than the quote above from A Thousand Paths to Tranquility.

For those of you with school-age children, try to get in this habit now, before the start of the school year. It will be much easier to wake up your children with a smile and a compliment if you have had that cup of coffee and a chance to center yourself. Morning should be a pleasant time, not a mad dash and scramble to get everyone directed down their path for the day. Everyone will feel so much better, all the day through, by getting a confident and calming send-off first thing in the morning.

Your Turn:

Find fi fteen to thirty minutes of time for YOU in the morning. Tune out daily demands and pressures and tune into the positive. Consider reading a positive passage from a book, writing affirmations or reading them aloud, or writing in a journal. Give yourself some “soul food” to begin your day.

Today’s Affirmation:

I care for myself and in turn care better for others when I give myself morning reflective time.

...............Brook Noel