A Good Morning Smile

Our new morning routine is working! Waking up a little earlier to make a hot breakfast and read a story has changed the energy in our home and set the tone for a sucessful day. Gone are the days of rushing out to the impatient school bus with toothpaste at the corners of his mouth. I won't accept the old habit of a morning spent eating two bites of of cold cereal while watching depressing news local news stories on the tube.

HOWEVER, in the silence of our morning without tv or radio, I've become acutely aware of the programs running non stop in my brain. The to do list goes on and on like a broken record. My anger at unresolved issues simmer in the background. My worry over a nagging pain in my back crowds in. A small hopeless feeling of never getting it all done starts to mushroom, while anxitey over not doing enough to grow the business sits like a wounded animal in the far corner, whimpering. Welcome to my brain at six am.

Coffee does not help. Texting and facebook are mere distractions, adding to the psychic fragments floating like space junk over my corpus callousum.

I need nature, hours of it. In whatever weather. I need to sweat and climb hills and run until the voices are silenced and only images of my surroundings remain. And after that, it helps to write a little. If you have a routine that helps clear the mind chatter that creates anxiety, please share your method or tips for finding peace in your day, I'd love to hear what works.