We are loving our book chats this year in our Facebook Group. I'm so glad I decided to take the plunge and try a whole new format this year in the group, one where we can focus on a theme each month and dive into some amazing content, chat about a book, learn from experts and so much more.
This month we are discussing The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.
I decided to feature this as our first book because I happen to love what his morning routine suggestions have done for my own morning--and whole day going forward, for that matter. I don't want to give away everything, but I will share my own Cliff's notes version here for you and tell you what my mornings have looked like in the last few months.
He uses the acronym SAVERS to prioritize and structure your morning to allow yourself to optimize your day. It works.
The first component of an ideal morning is Silence.
Silence stands for meditation. Now, let me assure you that I am not someone who can meditate easily; this really took some practice for me. I even went so far as to buy another book - Practicing Mindfulness by Matthew Sockolov- to give me 5 minute meditations I can pick and choose from. This was a game changer. I now meditate for 5 minutes every morning and I can't believe it. Relaxing my mind was never something I thought I would be able to do, but low and behold, here I am...In fact, I invited an expert on all things mindfulness to our group this month to give us some suggestions on how to incorporate meditation into our lives. One other suggestion I can provide for learning to meditate with more ease is to go on Youtube and search 'positive energy vibrations music' or similar terms and listen as you drift off into bliss.
The next letter in the acronym SAVERS stands for Affirmations.
This is my personal favorite. I'm going to combine this one with the V that stands for Visualize since I use these together. I also use visualizing during my meditations to visualize my affirmations coming to fruition, so don't be afraid of a little overlap here.
I love to write daily affirmations. I've done this for years, and I also make vision boards. Hal has a different approach to vision boards and affirmations in general that truly does make them more effective. Following his suggestions is something I changed in my own routine, and I am loving it. I have always found Affirmations to work in my own life, but now I am moving this practice to a whole new level. In fact, we are doing our own vision boards using a workshop I created and sharing the results in the group.
E is for exercise.
I can't stress enough how much this one has changed my entire morning. I used to really be affected by seasons, and probably have an undiagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is the first year (even despite my menacing menopausal symptoms and hormones) that I have not felt down or anxious during the winter. In fact, I look forward to my early mornings and getting outside to walk every single day once I finish my morning journals. I have even been known to walk in 20 degree weather. Just sayin'.
I brought a fitness expert in to the group to help our friends with this to get ideas and to answer concerns or questions they may have about starting an exercise routine or altering an existing one. Adding experts to our group has been such a blessing this year so far. Not only am I helping other women showcase their own skills and businesses, I am providing my own audience with such great information -- all for free!
I'm going to leave this here for now because you really should order the book --and then jump into our group or join the email list to be kept up to date on the happenings. It's going to be an amazing 2022. The pandemic has nothing on us!