Getting up at 6 a.m. in a fabulous mood: it seemed impossible to journalist Jocelyn de Kwant. But after reading the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, she feels fully equipped to try it.
For the whole week, I manage to get up around the same time, just after 6 a.m. Brushing teeth and wearing my sports outfit turns out to be the perfect trick to get my morning motivation going. I usually also stand outdoors a bit to breath in the fresh air, something I already knew I enjoyed doing. I always start by doing yoga for twenty minutes and after that it’s different every day. I read features in the newspaper or write or draw in my notebook. And I make great smoothies.
Elrod’s Life S.A.V.E.R.S (an acronym, with each letter standing for something he recommends doing in the morning) also include Affirmations and Visualization of your goal, but those don’t do much for me. Maybe because I don’t know what my goal is. I do think of an intention for each day, which is something I learned from my yoga teacher: a thought or attitude that you want to hold onto throughout the day.
For me my intention is always pretty much the same: patience. But wow, getting up early really is a magical thing. In the evenings I am already anticipating what I can do with my time in the morning. That ‘Ugh, I have to get up early’ feeling is slowly changing to ‘Oh good I can get up early tomorrow’. It gives me this feeling of being in control of the day, grasping the nettle and all that. The only disadvantage: At ten in the evening I crumple and have to go to bed. But in the end what I’m actually doing is swapping an hour of doing nothing – watching TV – for productive morning time.
- You can read more about a miracle morning in Issue 20.
Text Jocelyn de Kwant Photography Bonnita Postma Styling Anne-Marie Rem
