In the Fall of 2017, almost 3 years ago, I discovered the Miracle Morning.

For those of you that aren’t familiar, The Miracle Morning is a book by Hal Elrod that outlines a morning routine. I - for one - became hooked on it. It gave me all I’d ever wanted in a morning routine. It combined movement, midnfulness, and so much more and allowed me - for the first time ever - to finally consistently make these things apart of my morning routine.

For the first time ever, I was meditating every day. At one point, I had a 150 day streak going.

For the first time ever, I was journaling every morning.

It got me through a busy, overwhelming time in my life, giving me structure and helping me prioritize the most important habits and behaviors for my sanity, my health, and my happiness. It was a game-changer in many ways for me…

but eventually, i got a little tired of it…

I got a little tired of it’s length. I mean, 6 steps? That’s a lot of steps to take every single morning. Especially because I honestly didn’t even feel a lot of benefit from a couple of them…

But before I get into that, let me recap the Miracle Morning for you a little bit before then:

• Silence. Intended as a meditation practice. A time to sit, quietly, by yourself and just still your mind. That's how I've always used it.

• Affirmations. I created my own affirmations, that I either read them or I listen to them every morning via a recording I made of myself reading them.

• Visualization. My visualization practice was always in flux and never something that I dialed in.

• Exercise. Two of my favorites have been stretching and working out as a part of my Miracle Morning. For stretching and range of motion work as a part of my Miracle Morning, I used RomWod. Otherwise, I would get my workout on in the morning. I tend to do Beachbody workout programs as my workout, but I will periodically go running.  

• Reading. I spend this time in the morning in silence, sipping coffee, reading my personal development book of the moment. It's as simple and straightforward as that.

• Scribing. Sometimes, I would simply writing 3 things that I am grateful for in my Bullet Journal. Other times, I would use my journal or an app on my phone called Journey to do a brain dump or journaling of whatever I'm dealing with.

That’s the Miracle Morning process, but, admittedly, I could never quite get the affirmations and visualizations part of the process. So, I’ve since modified and simplified it. I’ve also renamed it into what I call…

The Mindful Morning

Yup - I don’t know if you could say that I’ve created a routine to rival The Miracle Morning. Give it 10 years and maybe, but I do find that this morning streamlined approach works much better for me.

I also find that it allows me to pivot my focus to exactly what I need in my morning routine - mindfulness. Because, as a high-achiever, I need this…

My mornings? They’re one of the only times where I get to just focus on myself. I get to focus on rejuvenating myself. I get to focus on replenishing my mind, my body, and my spirit. And mindfulness? I never thought it would give me so much of that rejuvenation…but it absolutely does.

My Mindful Morning incorporates some of the same factors as the my previous routine, but they’re much more streamlined. This is what the Mindful Morning looks like, in no particular order:

• Meditation. I’m still an avid meditator. I aim for 10-15 minutes of meditation every morning, usually first thing. My meditation time is one of the only times when I allow myself to turn off my brain…and it gives me such peace. Meditation is also one of the primary things that has helped me strengthen my intuition over the years and it has become a non-negotiable mindfulness practice for me over the years.

• Morning Pages. Morning pages is a journaling practice from the book, “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. It’s 3 pages of stream of consciousness journaling. I do this almost every morning and it’s an incredible way to vent out emotions, work through problems, and navigate uncertainties, insecurities, and vulnerabilities.

• Movement. I make it a priority to move my body every morning. Sometimes, this looks as simple as stretching or a few inchworms. Most times, it looks more like morning workout. I’m still a Beachbody lover and swear by their OnDemand streaming platform, which is like Netflix for workouts.

• Morning Reading. This is still one of my all-time favorite morning practices. It’s incredibly important to me to gain knowledge, grown, and improve, and I personally love doing so through education. So, it’s only fitting to prioritize and place reading high on my list of morning priorities.

These are the 4 aspects of my Mindful Morning routine. Each are important for providing me with a mindful morning. Meditation gives me a short time to disconnect from my thoughts. Journaling provides me with self-awareness to know myself and my thoughts. Movement helps get me in tune with my body and what it needs. Reading allows me to enrich and strengthen my mind.

I no longer find myself overwhelmed by fitting in all the pieces of my morning routine. However, I continue to find myself rejuvenated in all the most important ways.

So, that’s why, after almost 2.5 years of doing the Miracle Morning, I’ve let it go. I’ve streamlined my morning routine. It’s still rejuvenating and it gives me exactly what I find myself needing each and every morning - mindfulness!

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