How a morning ritual can set you up for a great day

For a long time now I've been trying to get a morning ritual established. But I'm a mum and my kids are not exactly respectful of my dreams and ambitions to start my day in a calm, reflective way!

But after years of starting a morning yoga practice, or meditation practice, or journaling practice, only to fall off the wagon after a few days, everything seems to have finally fallen in to place for me. At least for the time being. And it feels good.

My practice involves 10-15 minutes each of journaling, meditation and yoga, so a total of 30-45 minutes. To make it barrier free I have my journal by my bed before I go to sleep and night, and I've identified my meditation and yoga coaches so I don't waste time finding what to practice each morning. For meditation I use the @calm app, which provides a new 10 minute "Daily Calm" meditation each day. For yoga I am using @yoga_with_kassandra on Youtube. I really like her practices. She has lots of existing 10 minute morning routines but also she is currently doing a 30 day morning yoga challenge, so is providing a new morning routine each day throughout the month of April. If you're looking for some online yoga, I'd highly recommend her.

It has been over a week since I started my daily practice and I really notice the benefits of having this "me" time - particularly in the current Covid-19 crisis where anxiety levels are running high and all routine has been lost. I'm finding my morning practice is giving me a good foundation to start the day mindfully and relaxed. So much so that I didn't even feel a flicker of anger when my daughter appeared this morning to show me the bite marks her brother had inflicted on her back!!! Said brother was spoken to firmly, but calmly. I'm sure he must have thought his real mum had been kidnapped by aliens.

The current social distancing situation with schools closed and everyone confined at home has provided me with the perfect opportunity to get this routine established. The morning rush to get to school has evaporated, so I have the space to get the habit firmly established before things go back to normal. I'm also really lucky that my kids have now entered a phase where they can amuse themselves when they get up in the mornings. I would prefer if they weren't choosing to watch TV or play on tablets, but needs must and I have chosen not to feel guilty about that. These are extraordinary times, and as a result of me getting this much needed time at the beginning of the day, they can benefit from having a much better mum for the remainder of the day.

Do you have a morning ritual that really helps you get through the day? If not, what would be your ideal morning ritual if you could get one established?