Embrace the Morning: Practical Skills for 'Catching Days'
Choose how you’d like to spend your days. And then expend the effort to claim them… to catch them, and fully live them.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.” -- Annie Dillard, ‘The Writing Life’
I moved to New York City, from Cincinnati, Ohio, last October. My apartment faces east, and the rising sun now pierces directly into my bedroom window. I found myself with the luxury of being able to awaken naturally – finding that I was waking before my alarm - and rise with the sun.
The sun rises 45 minutes earlier in NYC than in Cincinnati. In the fall and winter, the earlier sunrise was an unexpected joy.
The sun has risen earlier as we’ve moved through spring and closer to summer. The sun is now rising in New York around 5:30, with the sky beginning to lighten about an hour before.
As I don’t need to start waking up at 4:30, with considerable regret, I’ve closed my bedroom blinds. I’ve been able to maintain what I’ve discovered is my natural wake time, around 6:30am, generally waking up before my alarm.
This week I decided I wanted to consistently rise a bit earlier, and, for the first time in weeks, set an early – 5:45am – alarm.
When my alarm went off at 5:45, I did something I used to do every single morning in Cincinnati, but which I haven’t done in months … I hit the Snooze button.
And, I hit it again, and again, and again … every 9 minutes until 6:30. I finally drug myself out of bed and felt utterly terrible. I had a headache. I was so groggy. I had to peel the weight of my eyelids off my eyeballs. Although I felt well rested when I woke at 5:45, I now I felt like I could sleep for hours. Even after a workout, a shower, and a cup of coffee, I still felt sluggish.
The Snooze button is a destroyer of mornings. A time stealer. A rug yanker. A proponent of mindlessness. An exhaustion creator.
It’s a habit, a practice, I had no idea was wreaking havoc on my ability to fully live my life.
What other habits and practices prevent us from being able to embrace our mornings? What giant holes are in the net we’re using to try to “catch our days” and “spend our lives”?
How to Catch Your Days, in Order to Fully Live Your Life
1. You Snooze, You Lose
Don’t hit the Snooze button. Just. Don’t. Do. It.
Set your alarm for the time you mean to get up … and then Get. Up.
The Snooze button is bad. It interferes with your sleep cycle. It can increase your stress and your blood pressure. It can lead to lowered immunity and cognitive difficulties (memory, attention, concentration).
And, for our purposes, it also prevents you from being fully present in your life. It leaves you feeling groggy. It leaves no time for you to embrace your morning and set the tone for your day.
2. Set an intention
When you first wake, or ideally the night before, ask yourself how you’d like your day to look, how you’d like to feel, what you’d like to accomplish. It may take the form of a phrase (“To be afraid and do it anyway”), or a single word (“Confidence”).
Check in with your intention throughout the day, even perhaps setting a periodic alarm, or creating visual cues, as a reminder. Are you living in line with your intention? If not, examine how you can do so.
Allow your intention to serve as a guide or an encouragement, rather than an admonition.
3. Create a Routine
Annie Dillard provides this one: “A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.”
You don’t need to wake up super early. You don’t need to be rigid in adhering to a schedule; rather, it’s best to create a routine that provides some structure while also allowing for organic improvisation.
Simply provide some structure to your morning, your day, and even your week. Perhaps try to rise and go to bed at the same time. Create several self-care routines or rituals (i.e., exercise, meditation, journaling, reading, writing, napping, meal prep) you carry out around the same time each day or each week. Ferret out the tasks you complete regularly and find a home for them in your schedule.
Allow the structure to create a foundation upon which you can thrive.
4. Practice Gratitude
Try this: each morning, fill in the following blanks:
“I love _______”
“I am grateful for _______”
“Today I’m looking forward to _______”
You don’t need to journal them or write them down, although it can help to say them aloud. Simply take two minutes to complete these sentences, and when you do so, really think about or imagine the thing you love, for which you are grateful, that you are looking forward to.
Again, it may be helpful to set an alarm or create a visual cue to assist in making the habit a regular one.
When you prep yourself with gratitude in the morning, it becomes easier to spot it throughout the day.
And when you do this exercise repeatedly, day after day, you’ll find yourself living a happier life.
In combination, these strategies create a powerful means to live each day as it comes, anchoring yourself into the day in which you presently exist. It may be best to start with just one strategy, and then, over time, layer them in.
Again, the brilliance of Annie Dillard’s prose guides us: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.” How often are you present for it? Or, are you simply existing, floating from one day to the next, living elsewhere in your mind?
Choose how you’d like to spend your days. And then expend the effort to claim them … to catch them, and fully live them.
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This blog post is offered for educational purposes only and should not be confused as therapy or psychological care.