“Those who have found tranquility are calm and pleasant to be with.” —Zen saying, excerpted from A Thousand Paths to Tranquility

Since our day is greatly dependent on how

we begin our mornings, give yourself some extra time to calmly

organize for your day. I know this can be hard. I am not a

morning person. If it was up to me, life would start around

11:00 a.m. But, it isn’t up to me, so if you can’t beat them,

join them.

I bound out of bed every day by 5:30 or 6:00 and give myself

thirty or sixty minutes to center, sort, and get in the right mindset

to face the day. I do some positive reading, I put on my

makeup, I write my affirmations, take a look outside, I say a

quick prayer. I don’t oversleep very often, but when I do and

don’t have this “centered time,” my day looks more like “A

Thousands Paths to Chaos” than the quote above from A Thousand

Paths to Tranquility.

For those of you with school-age children, try to get in this

habit now, before the start of the school year. It will be much

easier to wake up your children with a smile and a compliment

if you have had that cup of coffee and a chance to

center yourself. Morning should be a pleasant time, not a

mad dash and scramble to get everyone directed down their

path for the day. Everyone will feel so much better, all the

day through, by getting a confident and calming send-off first

thing in the morning.

Your Turn:

Find fifteen to thirty minutes of time for YOU in the morning.

Tune out daily demands and pressures and tune into the positive.

Consider reading a positive passage from a book, writing

affirmations or reading them aloud, or writing in a journal.

Give yourself some “soul food” to begin your day.

Today’s Affirmation:

I care for myself and in turn care better for others when I give

myself morning reflective time.