The beauty of a simple routine
As I grow older I realise how much comfort there is in keeping things simple. Lately, I’ve started looking for simplicity in every aspect of my life. Each time I do something, my first question is: How can I simplify this?
Humans tend to overcomplicate things, often because we believe that complicated is better. How many times have you found yourself getting attracted to complicated problems, complicated projects, complicated recipes and even complicated relationships? It all stems from our innate conditioning.
The first thing I changed on my quest to simplify life was my morning routine.
Up until six months ago I wanted my life to look like one of those “Productive Morning” YouTube videos – accomplishing several things in a few hours after waking up and feeling proud about it. When I started practicing that, however, I got overwhelmed extremely quickly.
One of these days when I was feeling down in the dumps about not sticking to a morning routine, I came across a podcast by Dr Rangan Chatterjee, a British-Indian physician and internet personality. He spoke about having a VERY simple morning routine. He calls it the 3M routine.
The 3 Ms stand for: - Mindfulness - Movement - Mindset Listening to that instantly made me feel lighter. I later found out that this method has been spoken about by quite a few people and has proved to be effective.
I started practicing about 4 months ago. And I’m pretty sure this is one of those things that is going to stick around for life. To say it is profound would be an understatement.
At present, my 3Ms look like this:
Mindfulness: Not looking at my phone the first thing when I wake up. Followed by sitting next to my window and practicing deep breathing
Movement: About 30-45 minutes of Yoga
Mindset: Reading something inspirational or listening to a podcast. Absolutely no news.
No conversation about morning routines can be complete without mentioning Hal Elrod, the author of Miracle Morning. It’s a slightly-cheesy, somewhat helpful self-help book with little nuggets of wisdom sprinkled throughout its pages. One of the quotes that resonate really well with me is this:
“How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life…By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible.”
A question for you
If you keep doing what you’re doing every morning, how will your life look 10 years down the line?
Think. Ponder. Take Action.
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