The Morning Magic: Finding Peace and Productivity Before the Day Begins

How Early Rising Can Transform Your Routine and Enhance Family Dynamics

One of the only positive sides of lockdowns is the opportunity to see all my family members together, playing, chatting, or even just watching a movie. Only one sight I like better: all my family members asleep. It's literally "going with (family) and feeling without." One of the only ways to achieve this idyll is to get up before them in the morning. How far ahead of them? I risk sounding even older than my age, but now, with the outbreak of the third lockdown, I get out of bed already at five in the morning.

And I'm not alone. One of the most popular self-help books of recent times is Robin Sharma's book "The 5 AM Club." Sharma recommends starting the day at five in the morning and suggests dividing the new real estate in your day between three activities: vigorous physical activity that will make you sweat; reflection, in thought or writing, which can range from meditation to journaling or planning; and a third category called "Growth," in which you devote quiet time to reviewing your goals or promoting them by learning, for example, through reading.

I do not connect to this uniform formula. Lately, my early morning hours have been devoted to meditation, physical activity that most mornings does not exceed breathing exercises, cooking abnormal chocolate (50 grams of cocoa, coconut oil, cayenne pepper, cloves, cinnamon, soy milk or rice, sugar, and a little salt), and reading. But on other mornings, the morning can include a hot bath, yoga practice, baking, or writing. There are days when getting up early is the only connection I have with nature. In this respect, the morning is also an ideal time to focus on the present and practice mindfulness. It's an opportunity to see the dawn rise, hear the birds outside, the garbage truck, go out with the dog, and feel the wind on your face.

Unlike Sharma, I will never "waste" quiet time reviewing my goals. Unless it's about memorizing our existential goals, in the words of the Dalai Lama, who said: "Every morning when you wake up, think to yourself, 'I'm lucky to have woken up today. I'm alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart towards others, to work for enlightenment for the welfare of all living beings. I will think benevolent thoughts about others, I will not be angry, and I will not think bad about others. I intend to benefit others as much as I can."

In short, it doesn't really matter how you use these hours. The point is that there are many signs indicating that the morning hours are of much higher quality than the night hours. Even if you are awake for several hours each day, say, 18 hours, it's worth trying to place them between five in the morning and 11:00 p.m. at night. This is because the two hours between five and seven are a much better quality resource than the two hours between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Here are their advantages:

1. Whether your sport is inhaling through one nostril and exhaling through the other, or whether you run seven miles, it is easier to do sport early in the morning than late at night. This is a multiplication of operations because exercise wakes up the body, and few people's lifestyles require waking up the body in the middle of the night.

2. When there is more time to organize the day, there are fewer breakdowns. Even if I don't spread out the world map in the morning and plan the invasion of Poland, I do take a few moments to review in my mind's eye the expected day for each family member, including mine. A moment like this helps me remember to leave money for the maid, food for the dog, and put the laptop charger and an apple in my bag. Such a start also allows (on days when there is somewhere to go) avoiding traffic jams and reducing delays.

3. When we get up early, our eating tends to be more organized. And when the early rise comes at the expense of the last two hours of the day, it also prevents unnecessary night snacks.

4. When we get up early, we have time to wake up properly and start our workday more focused. We don't yawn during the first meeting, and we don't start seeing things clearly until the sun is already in the middle of the sky.

   
   

But more than all that, in my opinion, one of the most important principles is to use this time in a way that is right for you. It may seem like a waste to me to play on the phone while the world is just waking up, but I came to this early riser habit out of a need for privacy. And privacy means that no one is looking over my shoulder, telling me what they think about how I spend my time.

This privacy has, in my opinion, a great and beneficial effect on the relationships between the members of the household. After I have an hour and a half to myself, I am much more open to the needs of the rest of the family. I can wake them up more pleasantly and help them prepare for the day ahead. And during the lockdown, when some of them get up in the morning and then don't go anywhere, the private time I had in the morning and the knowledge that I will have such time again the next day allow me to bear more easily the fact that during the rest of the hours at home, privacy is a luxury (and not through anyone's fault).

I want to make it clear that it is really not important to get up at five in the morning. The main thing is to get up earlier than usual. Start a quarter of an hour earlier, and gradually you will find what is right for you. In the first few days, you can expect to be a little more tired than usual, but this will pass.

Of course, if you are night owls, none of this concerns you. Different people have different biological clocks. Some people do sports at night, and it works wonderfully for them. Some people's concentration at night is masterful, and their quality time with themselves comes after all the members of the house fall asleep. Marcel Proust used to eat dinner at midnight and then write until dawn, and lovers of literature thank him for sticking to it and not changing these habits by going for a run at half past five in the morning.