On the difficult mornings

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By Ellyse Rafferty

As much as I would love to be one of those people who jump out of bed in the mornings, wide eyed, refreshed and ready to take on the day ahead, it just isn’t me. I am not a morning person at all.

This being said, on the good days when I plan things to look forward to or am in a good head space, mornings are inevitably easier. However, on the difficult mornings, my bed holds me hostage.
I don’t want to face the day, I don’t want to wake up and I certainly don’t want to leave the cosy sanctuary of my blankets.

Difficult Mornings – The one hour rule

But I have found something that helps. I call it the ‘one hour rule’. Within one hour of waking up I have to be out of my bed. If I look at the clock when I wake and it is 9 am, by 10 am I cannot still be lying here. I am competitive and even some gentle competition with my own brain helps sometimes.

I tell myself, JUST TRY. Get out of bed and get up. If it doesn’t work and in an hour you feel worse, then you can go back to bed. And sometimes, you will. And that’s okay… But try it. Taste the day.

You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.

The domino effect

It has to be up though, it has to be doing or moving or creating. It can work like a domino effect…

If you are up, you may as well take a shower, may as well make some breakfast, and hey – seeing as you’re already up, you might just leave the house today.

I can’t promise that it always works like this, but one thing I do know is that I always feel better for giving it a go. Give yourself one hour. Sixty minutes. 3,600 seconds.

Baby steps

It might suck and you may get out of your bed, just to end up on the floor instead, or sitting on the landing, or you might make it to sit on the shower floor.

But at least you tried. You got up and you gave today a chance. You did the absolute best that you could, and there is no shame in that. It does not go unnoticed. There is so much power in baby steps. You can do a lot with sixty minutes.

You are fighting. You still got out of bed.
Love, Ellyse x

Reproduced with permission, originally published here