What Happened When I Did The Miracle Morning for 30 days - Friday Focus

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I restarted The Miracle Morning routine in January this year. I had done the routine a few years ago and loved it, then with time I stopped doing all the savers every morning. At the end of last year I was starting to think about starting up again. Then I was listening to a Linked In learning podcast with Hal Elrod speaking about what successful people do in the morning and then I decided to start the routine again and buy the app. I am so glad I did because it is changing my life again for the best. I discuss below what changes I saw and what I enjoyed most about the routine over the past 30 days. I woke up at 8 am daily an hour or more before work and did the savers. I always wake up feeling hopeful for the day ahead and as I am doing the savers I am feeling grateful and hopeful as I bring intention to my morning and the day ahead. 

The app has been so much more helpful and motivating than I thought. In a previous post, I shared that the app include a different video from people who did the miracle morning. This is an awesome start to my morning because they are always talking about how the routine changed their life and it makes me excited to continue on and see the same results in my life. I love how I can check off the savers as I complete them and there is a popup after that is so satisfying that says how many days you completed with confetti. In Hal Elrod's podcast he recently shared that they will be adding more resources to the app soon and I can't wait to see what else they share. Once I completed the 30 days (on day 33 now) I received a 2 minute message from Hal and it was inspiring to continue this journey.

The SAVERS (Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, and Scribing)

Silence - I have meditated for 39 consecutive days so far. Before this I wanted to have a more consistent meditation schedulem but it was hard to do it everyday because I didn't set time aside in my mornings. Now that I carved time out of my schedule before I start the workday, I am in the habit of doing it and it calms me before the day. I do guided meditations and the Insight Timer app I use will recommend meditations to me based on my mood and to offer me the best meditation for how I am feeling. I also join live events on the weekend and there is meditation as part of the event. Next month, I will be continuing to meditate using guided meditation, and also incorporate some just timer meditation to be silent and practice stillness and focus on my breath.

Affirmations: I would write that I am committed to my personal growth and development and my health most mornings. I also would find some affirmations or read out some from Pinterest. You can see my miracle morning board here for some ideas I have shared.

Visualization: I visualize what I want to see happen in my life. I picture a few things for my work life and also for my personal life. Doing this daily has given me direction and makes me realize what is truly important to me and what I want most in life. I have started making moves each day to obtain these wishes that I have been visualizing. I think this is probably my favourite and most important of the savers for me because I can visualize what I want every morning to remind me to keep moving forward and working at my goals. 

Exercise - I felt so much stronger and more flexible as I am doing a 10 minute exercise daily. I have been doing the same morning stretch workout from YouTube daily. It is from MonikaFit and the standing morning 10 minute exercise. I feel like I am much stronger in the movements than when I started and feel more flexible and it makes me feel happy doing the workout. I think that the low impact stretching and movements helps to wake up my body and mind for the day. I want to check out some more of her videos to try out next month and also incorporate more yoga exercises.

Photo source

Reading: I finished reading a book called The Bookshop of Yesterdays during the 30 day challenge. It takes me a long time to finish a book sometimes working fulltime and not devoting time to it. Reading part of the savers I finally had the push I needed to read a bit each day. Even if I read 3 minutes some days it was better than nothing and I enjoyed it. Now I am excited to read more self improvement books in the upcoming months to feel motivated before the day starts.

Scribing: I wrote in my 5 minute journal app by Intelligent change. It helped me to set goals at the beginning of the day and count three things I was grateful for. It also prompts you to enter some affirmations and what are you going to do today to make it great. 

After the past 30 days challenge, I felt overall more positive and hopeful. Each day before work and my weekend days, I paused to think of what I was grateful for, affirmations, moved my body, read my book. I think doing these things each day made me so grateful for my life and excited for what is to come. The visualizations I think of daily keep me focused on my goals and hopes for the future and remind me of what is truly important to me.

Thank you for stopping by today! I will continue to do the Miracle Morning routine every morning and will share some more updates with you in upcoming posts. I think my life has improved since restarting this routine and I am so happy I made it a priority again. There is so much that can be shared regarding morning routine and my experience. Let me know in the comments below if you do the Miracle Morning too or what your routine is that works best for you. 

Have a great day!

Getting More Organized - Friday Focus

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! Today we are in the first Friday of February and I wanted to focus on ways that I am working on getting more organized this year with my goals and to dos. Organization has never been my strong suit, but I am constantly trying to work on this goal and feeling like I am becoming more of an organized person. I have been using different methods and feeling a bit more on track lately and doing things daily I want to get done. Below are some tools that have been making getting organized and motivating me to get things done more fun and attainable.

Happy Planner - I have been using this planner for about four years now and really love using it. I found a routine that works for me best by finding a time on Sunday night where I can sit down with my planner and stickers and plan out my week. I then refer to it throughout the week to keep on track with my to dos and goals. I like how I can be creative and have fun with it with the stickers.

Bullet Journal - I have a bullet journal where I write down goals for each month starting January. I do a reflection at the end of the month and see which goals I accomplished. I started drawing out trackers and forget to use them. I want to get better with tracking my habits in the journal each day so I don't forget if I did them and I can hold myself accountable.

Using Google calendar - I schedule all kinds of things on this calendar and use my phone to view the calendar and check my lap top as well to see the weekly layout. I schedule blog posts now that I am posting 3 times each week and I also schedule when to start working on them. I like to put tasks in there as well that I would like to accomplish and like how it says mark as complete in the corner because I like checking things off.

Miracle Morning - I have talked about the Miracle Morning more lately because I am now on day 11 of the Miracle Morning program by Hal Elrod. It really does hold me more accountable to focus on myself right when I wake up. It helps me to make my mental, spiritual, and physical health a priority. I am working on this everyday to get more in tune with myself and live my best life. I can't wait to share with you how my 30 day challenge went at the end of this month and what I notice and what I have accomplished.  I am adding this following comment now as I had a comment and question below about the app. I am using the Miracle Morning app and I purchased it through Apple. I would say the app is worth the money because it holds me accountable to complete the savers daily. As I am doing the morning routine and savers, I check them off an it is satisfying to hear the little sound when it is checking them off. Once you do all the savers there is a congratulations message with confetti. Every day there is a video of someone's story using the app which is so inspiring. I like how to keeps track of how many days in a row you have done the savers. I also like how Hal Elrod will share a special message to you to encourage you at 10 days and I will see if he does again at 20. I love the app and hope that you enjoy it too if you do get it. It is part of my morning routine now and just adds to the special feeling of setting time aside each day for myself and my journey.

Brainstorming ideas - I usually spend some time each month brainstorming and going through a list of possible to dos to remind me of things. Then I write them all in a list in notes on my phone. After I have the list, then I put the thoughts down into my planner to then strategize how to make my thoughts and hopes a reality for the month. I have running list of things I want to do and when I have a thought I like to add to the list so I don't forget.

Thank you for visiting my blog! I know it seems like I have a lot on the go, but all of these strategies used together seem to work for me. I am still working on my combination of resources to work best for me to come up with the ideal solution to accomplish the tasks I want to. I feel like I am working towards creating a routine that I get more done and I would like to hold myself more accountable. What are some of your ways to keep you organized with to-dos and to keep you on track with goals? 

Have a great day!

Friday Focus: Restarting The Miracle Morning

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! For today's Friday Focus I would like to focus in on something very special to me that keeps me feeling on track with my goals and taking care of myself. I am talking about my morning routine. Last year my routine was different every day, I would sleep in late sometimes and then only have 30 minutes before work so I would quickly journal or read or meditate, but I didn't prioritize my routine. Towards the end of the year, I made it more of a priority by spending more time reading and meditating. At the end of the year I was deciding I wanted to read The Miracle Morning again as shared in my books I want to read in 2022. The miracle morning was developed by author, success coach, and keynote speaker Hal Elrod. It is basically doing 6 activities each morning to start off your day on a positive note. The 6 SAVERS are Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing. I am currently on day 4 of the miracle morning 30 day challenge. I am tracking my progress using the Miracle Morning app. It helps me to see the list of savers and check them off each morning. I will share below what I have been doing for each of the savers daily.

Silence: 

I looked back at my first post on the miracle morning, and I see that I started using Insight Timer because of my researching the miracle morning when I first started. I found a vlog on the miracle morning routine, and the vlogger shared that she used this app. Ever since it has been such an important tool for me in my mediations. I love how there are so many guided mediations as well and live events and I just participated in a few so far this year and love those. You can also just use the timer if you want to sit in silence and clear your mind. I use the guided ones mostly. 

Here are some of my go to meditations:

5 Minute meditation - Hugh Byrne - I love this teacher's calming voice and always feel so at peace with this short meditation. 

Five Minutes of Self Compassion - Lisa Abramson. Very helpful message and to be kind to yourself.

Be Happy Morning Meditation - Amanda Sellers - I just listened to this one yesterday morning and it really made me feel so positive. I will be adding this one to my rotation.

Affirmations

I listened to Hal Elrod's podcast called Achieve your goals with Hal Elrod and he spoke about affirmations and how we often do them wrong. We say a phrase to ourselves repeatedly that we don't truly believe and expect to feel them when our brains are telling us no we aren't or its not true. He suggested saying or writing "I am committed to..." I have started writing this in my 5 minute journal in the affirmations section and it has been making a difference because I am thinking of what I am committing myself to doing or focusing on for the day. 

Visualization

For this saver I just close my eyes and ask myself what to I want to see for myself in the future, and I imagine the things I dream about and my goals playing out in my mind like short video clips. It brings me a lot of joy to see these things and makes me feel closer to my goals and reminds me of my purpose and what I am working towards.

Exercise

I have been only doing the savers for 4 consecutive days now, and I kept failing and having to restart because of the exercise saver. The reason is because doing exercise in the morning seems like more of a chore than the rest of the savers to me. I figured out how to fit it into my routine. I found a really good YouTube morning exercise video that I can do the workout and it is short and more of a stretch than an exercise jumping around. It is Standing Morning Workout - Beginner Friendly by MonikaFit. I am sure there are many more videos like this one on YouTube and online if you want to get started with a quick workout. I look forward to trying out more exercises.

Reading

I have been reading my two books The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson and Expecting Better by Emily Oster. I have been switching between the two. It is nice to have a fiction and non-fiction book on the go to swap between the two depending on what I am interested in reading and my mood. I would also like to get more self improvement type books this year to incorporate into my morning routine for some inspiration in the mornings.

Scribing

I have been writing in my 5 minute journal app for scribing. This is a habit I have been doing for two years now, mostly daily. I am able to stick with it because it is so fast to go through what I am grateful for, what I would do today to make it a great day, and affirmations. Then I review at the end of the day what the highlights of my day were, and what I would do differently if I could go back. Hal Elrod also uses the 5 minute journal he mentioned in his podcast.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I am looking forward to spending the next 26 days doing the miracle morning to complete the 30 day challenge. I have been enjoying restarting the routine again and already feel more on top of my goals and feel more focused on myself and good habits. I will be sharing what I have learn, my thoughts, and what I accomplish in these 30 days in a Friday Focus post at the end of February. 

Link to past posts about my miracle morning here

Have a great day!

Winter Morning Routine - Blogmas Day 5

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. If you have been visiting my blog for awhile, then you might remember when I have written posts about the Miracle Morning and my morning routine. Since I started the Miracle Morning, I have always tried to stick to having some sort of relaxing and reflective morning routine. It is tough sometimes during the work week when I get out of bed and sometimes have to work 30 minutes later.. Today I am sharing what my morning looks like on a Saturday, Sunday, or a morning when I have more time. Yesterday I was able to do more of the things I enjoy for a good Saturday reset Winter morning. Below are some of the activities I enjoy to have a relaxing, yet productive morning. Here is a photo of my living room/dining room area and I sit in the corner of the couch and put my legs up and get cozy and start working on my morning rituals. I feel like getting comfortable is so important to me to start working on these things in a cozy and calming space.

5 minute journal - I write in my 5 minute journal right away when I wake up and am sitting on the couch. I used to write in the actual journal, but now use the app.  I type in what I am grateful for each day, then fill in what would make my day great, and then affirmation of the day. At the end of the day I write the highlights and what I would do if I could go back. I have noticed this practice works well for me because it is quick and now that it is on my phone, it is even easier to sit on the couch and remember to do it now that it is busier with my kitten in the mornings. I know I will always have my phone with me so I won't skip this important practice.

Winter meditations - Insight Timer has a lot of Winter related meditations and I have been listening to the winter themed meditations lately. They have a lot of musical winter mediations that are lovely. It calms me and has a special feeling to start the day. This year I really worked on meditating daily, but I didn't keep it up all the time. To end the year, I will do my best to do meditations even a short 5 minute one daily because it really helps me to keep calm and to focus on how I am feeling and take those deep breaths.

Photo source

Knitting - I have been enjoying some knitting time in the morning, and yesterday I was working on the Santa hat for my baby nephew. It is so calming to do a bit of knitting at the start of the day before it gets busy. Millie was keeping an eye on my knitting as well. She likes to sit nearby at times and bat at the yarn and needles.

Reading a festive book- I started reading The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews and I am enjoying reading a festive book at this time of the year. I love the book already with the cozy old farmhouse and hint at a romantic interest brewing. These are such fun books to read and make me feel happy and warm at this time of year.

Coffee in a Christmas mug and peppermint creamer - I like to use festive mugs this time of the year. I only actually have this cat mug that is Christmas themed. I have some others like a gray knitted mug that I use as well. I think it would be fun to get more mugs to add to my collection. I saw this silk creamer in peppermint mocha on Carter Sullivan's morning vlog and really wanted to find it. I am so glad I did! It is so delicious and festive for my mornings now leading up to Christmas.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope that you enjoyed reading about my Winter morning routine ritual. I don't do all of these things in one morning every morning, but my morning looks like this on the weekends when I have more time to spend just relaxing on the couch. Of course I was also blogging yesterday morning to write up this post, which made it even more special. What are some things you like to do in your morning routine? especially during the Winter? 

Have a great day!

Blogmas Day 8 - The Gift of a Miracle morning

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Today's post is a little less about Christmas and more about gifting yourself some time this holiday season. Once Covid hit in March early this year, I basically stopped my morning routine. I did read and exercise here and there, but it was nowhere near what it had been before. I think because it was all too much to comprehend and through a lot of us for a loop. I had read a life changing book called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod a couple of years ago. It was just amazing because before that, I hadn't really spent time on myself that much in the morning and it was always just sleep in and then get ready for work and rush out the door in a flurry. It turned out that this routine made a huge impact on my state of mind, positivity, fitness...everything really. This morning I woke up at 6 am, way before my alarm. I felt that feeling of needing that morning routine all of a sudden, out of nowhere. I wanted to work out, so I did some stretches, and I did my morning routine following the S.A.V.E.R.S in the book which stand for Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing. I have shared below the order I did my savers today and what my experience was coming back to Miracle morning after almost 10 months. 

Scribing - I started with scribing this morning by filling out the prompts in my Five Minute Journal. I used to write pages of journal entries over the Summer, and then bought this journal and simply fill out these pages. It helps me think about what I want to accomplish for the day ahead and then reflect at night on the day I have had. 

Silence - I did a 6 minute meditation using the Insight Timer app. I have used this over the years and I really love it for providing some guided meditation that really lifts me in the morning. It is such a wonderful way to start your day with words of affirmation. This morning I simply did the timer so I sat in silence, but after a long time of not doing meditation, it was a bit difficult and thoughts popped into my head a lot. I will be doing meditation each morning from now on, so it will get easier. I just did what is advised, to simply let them pass through and when I notice my mind wandering, to come back.

Photo source

Reading - I read some pages of Atomic Habits by James Clear. I am really enjoying this book and hope that I start some better habits. I have already taken the step to starting the Miracle Morning up again, so it might have motivated me to really look at my habits and see that my morning routine wasn't what I wanted.

Affirmations -  I found a few affirmations that I read through, and they made me feel inspired. These were "I believe I can be all that I want to be", "I have the freedom & power to create the life I desire", "I choose to be kind to myself and love myself unconditionally", and "I honor my body by trusting the signals that it sends me". These made me feel like I was supporting myself and loving myself. I found these on Liz Huber's website. I really enjoyed these affirmations and look forward to finding even more that I love.

Photo source

Visualization - I visualized my home and how I want to furnish it. We just moved, so we still have some boxes and stuff here and there. We still need some furniture to make our house a home, so I visualized what I want and it made me feel so at peace and excited to get started.

Exercise - I ended my morning with exercise. I just used the rope below to do some bicep curls and arm lifts. I haven't been doing too much other than walks since our move, so it was really nice to do some other exercise. I also stretched and did some elbow to knee touches. Just some simple exercise, but it felt great!

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope that you enjoyed reading about the Miracle Morning. Have you tried the Miracle Morning savers before? I have been enjoying posting for Blogmas again this year. I hope you are liking the content so far. Please read my other Blogmas posts from this year so far here.

Have a great day!

Miracle Morning Routine Update-Blogmas Day 17

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. At the beginning of the year I read Hal Elrod's book The Miracle Morning. I was so excited to get started on developing my morning routine that would bring positive results to my life. I did the miracle morning for 30 days as Hal suggested. I talked about my experience in a blog post called 'my experience with the miracle morning'.  I really had a good experience with it and I have continued all year to incorporate aspects of the miracle morning to my mornings.

My current routine on mornings when I work out is I do a workout for 30 minutes, then shower, then I get dressed for work and then sit with coffee and cereal. I update my planner a bit and write some notes in my notebook on my goals. On mornings when I don't workout, I make a coffee, then I write in my notebook, update my planner, and read for 20 minutes. then I have cereal and then get ready and dressed for work. The photos below are dark from taking them before work this morning. I wake up at  6:20 am on mornings I workout and 6:40 am on mornings when I don't do a 30 minute workout. I work at 9 am so this wake up time gives me plenty of time to get some things done.

My Happy planner helps me to schedule important things during the week

My journal where I write goals for the day and track accomplishments

I unfortunately have not been meditating, saying affirmations, or visualizing my ideal life daily. I stopped doing these three tasks and I do not have a reason for this.  At some point, I started my list of goals and writing notes on them which took over for journal writing which I miss doing as well. The meditation for 5 minutes at the start of the morning worked well to calm me and get me in the head space for the start of the morning. The affirmations made me feel positive and energized me. The practice of visualization allowed me some time each day to picture my ideal life and what would make me happy.

I think the reason why I stopped doing certain things from the miracle morning, is that over time I didn't hold myself accountable to do all the steps. I stopped doing the morning routine daily and then it became easier to drop some steps all together because I was doing the miracle morning some days and not others. I probably stopped the morning routine when I got the job transfer in May because it affected my routine a bit. One important thing I have learned from reading the book Better Than Before by Gretchen Ruben is that if we create habits, it is easier to keep on doing them even if we do them for a short period one day just to not break the habit. I think I started skipping days, then it was easy to stop altogether or forget to do it. I still do spend quite a bit of time on myself in the morning, at least one hour before work. I am not doing all of the steps, but my intentions are still there to work on bettering myself and my life.

Going forward, I would like to start doing all the steps to the miracle morning again. Even if I can't do all the steps for long I want to spend time daily doing the 5 steps of silence, affirmations,  visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing. For the rest of 2019 I will do the steps daily and I will let you know in an upcoming post how it went. I will continue the routine into the new year.

Photo source

I think it is so easy to get off track of something that is so beneficial for us. This can also be the same with many healthy habits we incorporate into our lives. What matters is about how we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and start again or find something else that works better for us. I think it is so worth it when it comes to The Miracle Morning because I remember how good I felt when I was doing the routine daily and want to do that again.

I am also excited to read Hal Elrod's new book The Miracle Equation, which is on my to-read list for 2020. I am planning on re-reading the Miracle Morning soon to go over the steps again and rekindle the excitement of starting the routine.

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Thank you for visiting my blog today for Blogmas Day 17.  I hope that you join me again for another daily post tomorrow. I will be posting daily blog entries all the way up until Christmas day. I will be going back to my regular posting schedule afterwards or one to two posts each week.

Have a good day!

My Experience With The Miracle Morning

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I wanted to share my experience so far after reading The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod and including the practices into my mornings. Hal Elrod who is a writer and motivational speaker and he developed the system of incorporating the six SAVERS into your morning. The savers stand for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing. By doing these six tasks each morning, it does not take long before you start reaping the rewards of putting in that time each morning to focus on yourself. You can do it for an hour or even as little as 6 minutes. One morning I decided to try the shorter version, so I did each task for a couple of minutes and still felt like I got the miracle morning experience it was more like 15 minutes for me. I was thinking of incorporating knitting into my mornings soon once I buy yarn for a new project. I have really been enjoying the meditation part of my mornings and use an app on my iphone called Insight Timer. It was recommended by vlogger named Chelsea Dinean, so I gave it a try and I love the guided meditation and talks to incorporate into my mornings another good one my sister uses is called Headspace. The meditations make me feel calm, at peace, and confident.

The books I read and write in for January

I first heard of the Miracle Morning by watching a vlog on a book review for the book by Milk and Honey Life. I was fascinated after watching her vlog because she explained that it was all about working on aspects of yourself that I have wanted to focus on in more depth for years. They were always on my to do someday list like mediate, read some personal development books, exercise in the morning, and read affirmations.

I am currently doing the savers in the order of meditation, affirmations, visualization, writing in my journal, reading, and then exercise. I do it in this order because the meditation calms me and gives me clarity before I begin, then the affirmations are motivating. The visualizations follow because I can then visualize the future I want to have after the affirmations are read a few times.  Then I journal and write in my notebook about the day before or what I will be doing or focusing on the day of the entry. Then I write a list of three things I am grateful for. I will then fill out my Q&A book I have, I am on my second year of filling it out now. Last year sometimes I forgot about filling it out for days and weeks, but now I have it in my basket so I will do it every morning. Then I am onto the reading and I have been reading the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The time to read these types of books in the morning is wonderful because I usually put off reading in the evenings or get too tired, but now I have the energy to read them in the morning. Then I exercise for 10 -20 minutes. I have been doing yoga as my preferred workout for my miracle mornings because it continues to create a calm and peaceful morning and I enjoy stretching in the morning to wake up my body.

The Miracle Morning has already been positively affecting my life after doing the routine for 20 consecutive days, and I feel more motivated, focused, strong, and am accomplishing my goals. You can read more about it on the Miracle Morning site here.  I plan to do the 30 day challenge of doing the Miracle Morning and I am almost there.

Please let me know in the comments below what your morning routine looks like and if you have tried this routine before.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you have enjoyed your weekend and have a good week ahead!