Morning rituals: finding a sustainable practice that sustains you

Let’s talk morning rituals. Over the past year, I’ve read tips on making the most of the initial hours in a day—from “eating the frog” to exercising to avoiding social media to praying or fasting. Although I’ve tried all of the above and more, my focus over the past year and a half has included three top priorities: prayer, purpose and performance. During the first hour of my day, I reconnect to my “source” through devotions and Bible readings. Then, I journal for 15-20 minutes before jumping into that day’s creative pursuits. Finally, I hop on my exercise bike, hit the yoga mat and power walk through my neighborhood or head for the mountain trails. And not only has this morning ritual sustained me during an unsettled 2020 and into the new year, but it also proves to be a sustainable practice that I can adjust as needed.

Visit my new home at chrismadayschmidt.com and let me know what type of practice, morning or otherwise, sustains you?

A nasty word called addiction: from bondage to freedom

In today’s post, I share a snapshot of a decades-long journey from bondage to freedom. Until six months ago to the day, I lived as an addict most of my life. Ever since I can remember, food consumed me (pun intended). Not so much the taste and health benefits, but the ways it [temporarily] anesthetized my emotions and contributed to a false sense of control. For years I engaged in an active bulimic lifestyle (see Body shaming comes in all shapes and sizes), bound by rituals that revolved around binging and purging. More than three decades ago, I “beat” the physical cycle of abuse but, throughout the subsequent years, lived with the psychological torment of a distorted body image, yo-yo dieting (an unhealthy practice with hidden dangers) and self-inflicted shame. Social interactions where food played a major role—parties, work lunches, friendly get-togethers—served to debilitate and oftentimes paralyze my mind. Until I finally surrendered these thought patterns. Bottom line: there’s always hope.

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Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Showstopper alert: Kicking your booty back into gear

I interrupt my “Taming the monkeys” blog series with a showstopper: What happens when we’ve planned our routines, morning (and p.m.—more on that later) and, well… life? Many of my past ramblings talk about going with the flow, practicing flexibility, yada yada. But sometimes. It. Doesn’t. Work. Out. And that’s okay. The other morning, smack dab in the middle of my a.m. ritual, my husband dropped a bombshell. Uhm, now? Although the unplanned convo ate into my schedule, I opted to stick to my free writing session and forgo the bed making, albeit a little less in-your-face confident. Although I felt knocked down a peg, I refused to allow the temporary derailment to define my day. Incidentally, all got resolved, and that evening’s 60-minute hot Pilates practice followed by 45 minutes of hot barre kicked the “token old lady’s” booty—which kicked me right back, or close to, that higher vibrational frequency I’ve been operating from for the past several weeks.

How do you handle the showstoppers?

Image courtesy of photostock at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.