I was contemplating how different my morning routine is compared to a few years ago…
In the past I woke up by being jolted from an exhausted sleep by my alarm blaring in the background; I’d slap it resentfully with my hand to shut it up, groan “oh God, why isn’t it Saturday” and lie there in the dark while I summoned up the energy to switch the bedside light on. I’d languish in bed watching early morning TV whilst drinking a strong coffee to get me going.
Then it was a mad rush to walk the dogs, make a packed lunch, eat some toast and have at least 2 or even 3 more coffees before I could consider showering, brushing my teeth and going to work.
Mornings were a half asleep rush and stress to get out the door on time. Getting out of bed was an effort and some days I would even cry on my way to work because I was so exhausted before my long day even began.
I look back at how easily I’d become stressed and frustrated by the little things; like a patient being five minutes late, a filling turning out to be more challenging than anticipated and even simple paperwork that needed completing. I was like a time bomb with a short fuse, so exhausted I couldn’t cope, exploding with frustration on a regular basis.
Back then, coping meant yelling at my staff, reaching for a coffee or a doughnut between patients, pushing myself by going for a gruelling run, collapsing in front of the TV with a couple of beers before falling into bed in a stupor wishing that a good night’s sleep would make it all better again… which of course it never did, because nothing had changed.
These days I wake up early and naturally, I hardly ever need the alarm to remind me it’s time to get up. I feel refreshed and alert after a good night’s sleep and no longer need coffee to get me started, nor do I dread that it’s a work day and not the weekend.
I have plenty of time to prepare for my day and mornings are steady, not rushed or stressful. I have time for me and my family. I meditate for a few minutes, read, check my social media, spend an hour studying or writing for my work website or blogs, walk the dog, have a cup of herbal tea, make a nourishing breakfast and pack lunches.
All this is done in a gentle rhythm that supports me to feel who I am and where I am at. There is time for a soak in the bath, to do my hair, moisturise my body, dress myself, care for me and appreciate who I am. I check in with how I’m feeling and adjust my morning routine to suit and support me for my day ahead.
I do not have sleep-ins on a weekend, simply because I do not need them as each day I feel full and energised, not drained or exhausted, even after a heavy workload or challenging day.
So why is my morning routine so different now?
Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day. I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.
The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.
By Dr Rachel Hall, Holistic Dentist, Kenmore Brisbane Australia
Somedays I can have a super busy day, go to bed and wake up refreshed, other times I wake up from a crazy day feeling like death warmed up. Regardless of the work load it’s how I am in the day that determines how I am afterwards. The work load or situation isn’t the determining factor on how I feel, drained or vital.
Purpose gives us energy, if we feel the pulse of life and the need to help in anyway we can, it is purpose that ignites our way.
All of what you have shared Rachel, relates so much to what so many of us feel every day of our lives and the turn around you have shared is a conformation of what is available to us all through the presentations by Serge Benhayon.
Totally agree with you Greg, I can also look back at how easily I’d become stressed and frustrated by the little things in life that would just either frustrate me or tip me into overwhelm and self pity. Meeting Serge Benhayon was for me a life changer because now I can see that when I get affected by my choices during the day they will play out in my sleep pattern at night.
What an incredible turn around Rachel
I love my early mornings and all because I have so much love and purpose in my life, I can’t wait to get up and share it.
It’s the how and not what we do that makes the difference to our day and our morning routine. I love reading this blog and know I myself and a few others can so relate, because we have made different life choices.
So true Sue, so much has changed since we started on our return journey to our essences as presented at Universal Medicine events.
Greg feeling the essence of who we truly are is the most delight-full experience, I have several friends who I just adore to be around because they feel so yummy and content within themselves and this is because they have re connected to their essence and share this beauty with everyone. We get to feel this quality and somehow know we are the same too, maybe just not aware that there is another choice or way to be.
It’s the ‘how’ that gives life it’s the depth, it’s the doing that keeps life superficial.
There is a fitness to life I’m discovering, I have recently had an interesting night where it was not possible for me to sleep. So I rested deeply as much as I could given the circumstances. When it was time for everyone to get up my body felt tired but there is a part of me that still feels very vital. I have not resorted to any stimulation such as coffee or sugar I know I must take great care of my self as I work through the day possibly have a nap at lunch time. A few years ago I would never have been able to do this I would have been tired, grumpy and resentful to be kept awake all night. There is so much to be said for living in a way that honours my body it keeps me steady.
Beautiful to hear Mary. Even if we can’t sleep we can rest deeply. I find Esoteric Yoga to be deeply supportive and also refreshing.
Michelle I love what you are saying here because what you are referring to is a deeper level of life that we become aware of when we are in an even state or being steady with ourselves. This deeper aspect of life is fascinating as it is like peeling away a layer of life to discover a much richer source underneath that we have been completely unaware of.
How we live is truly incredible, we literally have an opportunity every day, every hour, every second to choose to be more loving, more wise and more understanding.
Choosing the real you -now thats power.
This is a brilliant sharing Le because we have forgotten how to be how you describe but here you are reminding us what is possible. Anything and everything is possible when we make loving choices.
There is always an underlying reason we may feel exhausted, it is usually to do with taking on to much or taking on other people emotions, when we look at the root cause and deal with it we no longer have that exhaustion in our bodies.
How about your whole day? I think we underestimate the effect anger, frustration, bitterness, resentment, critique and all of these things have on the body. These exhaust us much, much more than a lack of sleep, the drain on the body, stone like bourdain can really make us feel depleted and given up.
There is nothing more satisfying than looking after yourself and when possible taking this deeper, so that you get to feel how precious we all are and how we do not allow this preciousness to be in our lives.
We are the life we’re living, we’re not separate from life, we and life are one and the same and so our actions, our thoughts, the way that we move, what we say all governs the life that we live because it constitutes the life that we live. When we are not conscious of the way that we are living then life happens through us and we are the recipients of whatever it wants to dish up but by being consciously gentle and loving with ourselves we are in actual fact making a decision that life will be gentle and loving with us in return. And much more. much more will follow.
What a stark difference Rachel between the two different experiences and therefore a stark difference between how life is viewed, your interactions with people and people’s perception of you. We are all either streaming the truth of who we all are or the lie of who we’re not and you are now live streaming the truth of who we all are for everyone to feel. Sublime.
Rachel what a testament to looking after yourself and the benefits it can have on your body and wellbeing and to everyone who comes into contact with you.
Such an amazing topic of discussion, the nature of a study itself and also the delivery of how to live true vitality in life .. so amazing
What would life look like if we eliminated all the drugs including caffeine and alcohol and turned the power of at nine so we all had to get to bed early? Probably a lot like you have shared Rachel when you started to make different choices!!
I woke up this morning really tired even though I slept deeply and very well. This was because of emotional tension I was holding from the day before. As I had the day off, I was able to take half an hour’s rest at about 11am. I chose to surrender deeply and felt way more refreshed than I did earlier. For me this is proof that what we chose by way of energy either drains us or rejuvenates us.
I agree with you Rachel as I have found if I take on emotional energy during the day it affects how I sleep as I wake up in the morning feeling drained because I was still holding on to those issues and thoughts before going to sleep. Esoteric Yoga is a great support as it allows our bodies to let go of the tensions we tend to hold onto and enjoy a restful sleep.
I love your honesty. What came to me reading this is that quality really is everything and how we are with ourselves and what we feel about the day is exactly, energetically, what we bring to others. I am understanding this more and more.
Beautiful. Same person but a very different way to choose to live.
Yes and we all have the power to make different choices if we find life to be a drag rather than joyfull and full of vitality. Thankyou for sharing the stark contrast between your life so many years ago compared with now and possibly even more so since writing your post? !
“These days I wake up early and naturally, I hardly ever need the alarm to remind me it’s time to get up. I feel refreshed and alert after a good night’s sleep and no longer need coffee to get me started, nor do I dread that it’s a work day and not the weekend.” This is me too these days. Remembering the time I would dread going onto the hospital wards on night duty – that hasn’t happened for years now. I look forward to what each day will bring. 🙂
We think by ‘doing’ we are getting somewhere however in truth it is the relationship we have with ourselves that truly makes a difference to our vitality and wellbeing and that of others.
Caroline what you have shared rings true with me
‘We think by ‘doing’ we are getting somewhere’ when actually we are just going round in circles each and every day is the same day. I woke up this morning with this feeling with my body saying to me ‘and again Mary go deeper’. I fully understand there is no ‘doing’ only to be all that we are and that is enough.
My relationship with exhaustion changed when I stopped fighting it and pretending it wasn’t there! In the acceptance of feeling exhausted I gave myself permission to rest and it really doesn’t take long to turn around. It is like in the very act of honouring ourselves, the exhaustion falls away naturally.
Honesty with where we are at and how we feel is a huge gift we can give to ourselves for in the honesty there is an opportunity to stop the momentum of how we are living, whatever that may be and change our ways.
Beautiful Matilda. Fighting against anything brings up even more tension – and exhaustion. Accepting where we – and our bodies – are at – the first key to change.
So true Matilda, when we try and pull the wool over our eyes and pretend that said situation does not exist we are perpetuating it, but when we are at-least honest, we can start to find a way to clear and heal any ill way of living.
I love what you are sharing Matilda because I have been fighting myself all my life and I agree it is exhausting, I had no idea I was in a constant fight with myself until I came across Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and through the workshop and presentations began to see that I was living in a way that was self abusive and destructive. Turning my life around has taken a few years because of my ingrained behaviours, ideals and beliefs but worth all the hard work because now I live every day in the joy of being me.
If I don’t lovingly set myself up for the next day the day before I am easily frustrated, teary, overwhelmed and also giving myself a hard time knowing ‘it’s my fault’ and berating myself for my choices. The hard time I give myself is compounded by thoughts of the day I could have had. So I stop and say, ok I do feel terrible, it wasn’t worth eating what I ate, staying up late or watching TV. Ok, just feel how horrible this feels.
Great, now just stop the beating up of myself and be loving with how to manage the day. Stop with the wild expectations and feel the consequences for me not being in full form for others too. Great, now look at what was it that got me in the first place. Was I upset about something? Learn and be there for myself.
Karin this is a great sharing because we can all relate to what you have shared. The biggest lesson is not to beat ourselves up as this just exacerbates the situation we find ourselves in.
I love how when we start to truly look after ourselves and honour what we are feeling then everything else in our lives change. It shows how everything we do has a direct effect on everything else.
Yes, honouring ourselves, our body, our feelings enables such a transformation in everyday living. All it takes is the will to step away from our go to habits and start to deal with our hurts. Simple, but not always so easy. Reaching out for support when necessary makes it easier.
I love how our daily choices to be gentle with ourselves (or not) can have such an amazing impact on our quality of life ‘…in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself…’. It is so very simple! Not always easy, but simple, yes. Even as I fall in to making choices to not be gentle with myself for whatever reason, I have a deep inner knowing that choosing differently again is all it will take to bring me back to my gently loving ways.
And that inner knowing is a forever friend that we have access to 24/7; unconditionally ready for us to listen and respond.
Giving ourselves more time to get ready and prepare for the day ahead actually allows more space to open up. THis might sound a bit strange, but it really does. I find the more space I give myself in any situation, the more space I get to do more of what needs to be done. It really is quite magical.
I agree Sandra – it is amazing how time sees to open up the more space we allow….. Truly magical!
I have implemented lots of changes in my daily routines over the years, but agree absolutely, Rachel, that the biggest change is in the way I treat and speak to myself. The more respect, care and honouring I introduce the weller I am.
This blog is a great reminder of how I used to live my life, I still get exhausted from time to time, the difference is it doesn’t last and I’m not using endless stimulants just to get me through the day. When you think about it most of the world are propped up by drugs in one form or another just to keep them going.
Yes, propping up to even get the day started with the coffees etc. The proliferation of coffee shops even since this article was written is evidence of how much of society needs caffeine to keep going throughout the day.
Very inspiring Rachel, life is so much more vital lived this way.
Reading this article reminds me of how I used to feel – being reliant on caffeine and cigarettes and how I would rush to work and feel tired and lacking in confidence. It feel so much more loving to have a steady pace and to take care of myself with foods I eat and having a more loving sleep routine.
And so much more fun and sustainable both short and long term
I really love this too; ‘I have plenty of time to prepare for my day and mornings are steady, not rushed or stressful.’ It feels so supportive to have space in the mornings so that there is no rush leaving the house and getting to work; it allows me to feel steadier in my day.
It makes sense that when we choose to live in the quality that we are made of and that is love, everything in our lives changes. You could say it is actually very simple and only a choice to not complicate life anymore with drive, certain foods and drinks that we don’t need, we light up the world when we choose to live a simple dedicated life.
” I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.” It’s so true that many of us turn to our version of support, such as alcohol or TV, which actually devitalises us further and buries the issue . We truly need support to understand what true self care is and how to apply that to our lives.
It is so true Rachel, we need energy to feel vital and prepared for life otherwise we can operate on exhaustion using stimulants like coffee to keep us going in the short term.
The short term becomes the long term and we get stuck in ways of coping and dealing with our exhaustion that becomes so normalised we don’t think about the choices we make.
What you have described Rachel is the trap we fall into that as you say we then normalize as life, when what we are currently living is so very far away from ‘normal’
It is lovely when we wake up refreshed even before the alarm, the body know what it needs and when it is being cared for.
When we do not rush each moment we are prepared to deal with what life brings to us.
Rather than being in absent abandon of our bodies and the way they sign post us so honestly and effectively, it is great to build the respect and willingness to listen – honouring ourselves and building wellness.
So many people I talk to have sleep issues where they can not get to sleep or can not stay asleep. I know myself if I get emotional during the day or eat badly my quality of sleep is affected.
Life is actually so much more simpler then we think, look after ourselves during the day and our night sleep is nourishing and rewarding just like our day.
I also used to reach for things such as sugary foods and caffeinated drinks, to help me get through the day but without any real concern for how that day would be lived, just as long as I could get to the end and sleep. Serge Benhayon however, has taught me that the most abundant form of energy for my body is the living quality of me, the loving heart that I have, and the full commitment to life that I bring. All of these and many more are now what makes each day a joy.
‘The most abundant form of energy for my body is the living quality of me’, beautiful Shami and this truth also holds the answer as to why so many of us are absolutely exhausted. Most of us are either careering around at break neck speed or lying around unable to motivate ourselves. Either way the quality that we are in is depleting us to the point that many of us don’t have the energy to fall asleep, which might sound odd but it actually takes energy to fall asleep!
Whenever I find myself going into rushing there is a moment to come back to me, feel and move with me from that point on.
If we can catch those moments when we start to leave our bodies, then we will spend a lot less time absent from their wise guidance.
It can be very easy to slip into that rushing mode, but as you say jennym as soon as we clock it we can change it; coming back to the body, breath and allowing more space for what needs to be done is a great antidote to the rush mode.
It’s awesome how looking after ourselves, really caring for and nurturing ourselves impacts on all other relationships -as soon as we drop the ball on this our other relationships go down too and when we more deeply appreciate ourselves we take that appreciation with us in all that we do, all that we express.
When we commit to ourselves, to resolving issues and truly healing ourselves, our life transforms, ‘I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.’
I really am amazed how easily I wake these days and get myself to work and it is only getting better since I have started swimming on a regular basis which supports me no end. The other day I was feeling how amazing I felt and had to remember far, far back to childhood before remembering feeling this good. And it can only get better still as I still have so much to change.
The mad rush is not an innocent side effect but has another purpose we need to disclose – to numb our feelings, bring our energy down and ‘fit in’ in a world that races around. To stop this madness is a great sign we are willing to know more.
Looking after ourselves, caring and nurturing our body with healthy food, water, exercise, rest and play makes such a difference to how we feel with-in ourselves.
Confirmation that everything is founded on the relationship we have with ourselves first… disregard, lack of self-worth and dismissiveness = resignation and giving up on life OR honouring, respect and caring = engagement and joy in life. And it is not to say we will nail the latter always, but our choices either lead us to this or away… simple.
Your former morning routine reads like a nightmare of rushing, pushing, wishing and giving up. No comparison to the spaciousness and ease that you describe are presently your morning companions and background.
Some morning I can awake refreshed and ready to start the day quite early and if I fight this and try to return to sleep I can wake up later feeling tired and grumpy. The body is indeed a great marker of truth if I choose to listen. Similarly if I am tired from the day and keep pushing past when to rest or go to bed, often I do not get a good restorative sleep when I finally do.
Years ago I was involved in Hot Air Ballooning and there were often weekends where the weather would be calm in the early mornings so everyone wanted to go for an early morning flight. I would sometimes go to bed praying for wind, rain or both. I hated getting up at 4:00 am in the morning to go flying. I had to drag myself out of sleep and a warm bed I was not an early morning person at all. I have found that if I actually listen to my body it has a lot to tell me and if I go along with my body and don’t go into resistance or stubbornness then I have far more energy than you would think possible.
Gosh 2 or 3 more coffees before you even left the house! Our Livingness (how we live) is an absolute key to our wellbeing. So our livingness could be as it was for you a continuous momentum adding to the exhaustion not stopping to look at or truly deal with just how exhausted and stressed you were or it could be how it is now for you where you have learnt to truly deeply look after love and care for you. The two different ways of living could not be more opposite and it doesn’t take a genius to know which one is more supportive. We really do hold our health within our hands.
“this is done in a gentle rhythm that supports me to feel who I am and where I am at.” Our morning routine and for the whole day from this reflected and prepares us for anything and is so supportive alive and beautiful to feel the flow and expansion from here.
It is amazing how well our body responds to being truly taken care of. Even the smallest change that is self loving towards ourselves can initaite the biggest and most profound changes in how we feel both physically and mentally.
I found some old loyalty cards for cups of coffee today, as I thumbed through them I could feel how addicted I was to my morning cup of coffee and it felt really refreshing not to have any part of me wanting to buy a coffee.
It’s really loving with ourselves to take the time and space to feel how we are in the beginning of the day , because this simple choice of being with ourselves first, will come with us during the day as a support to check how caring we are or not and adjust our ongoing choices when needed.
It makes such a difference to simply commit to changing what not works and then when we notice things that get in the way of these changes to deal with the issue that is coming up. Without looking at our issues there is no possibility for true lasting change as we will try to not feel it in whatever way we can.
I remember being a ‘time bomb’ ready to explode, I am much more calm and settled in life these days, but there is always more to learn and what I am learning is the more I care for my body the more I offer myself and others, ignoring our wellbeing, creates a stress that is hard to bare, overriding what we feel is true does the same and is the same.
What I have found too is that ignoring the body comes at a price which is exhaustion, lethargy and depletion. From there it’s very easy to want to give up on life simply because we feel like we don’t have the energy for it. Taking deep care of our bodies supports us to live our natural vitality and bring that into everything that we do and all our relationships. It’s simple stuff but actually a very lovely and enriching way to live and be.
True, ignoring our body does come at a price, whereas taking deep care of, listening to and honouring our bodies ‘supports us to live our natural vitality and bring that into everything that we do and all our relationships.’
The quality with which we close our day will be the quality we take into sleep and then awake and arise with to then imprint our day and thus ‘end’ it again. This is true at the close of our current incarnation as well as around and around we go in the great cycle of life. You see here how on a sphere it is difficult to find a defining beginning or end point – just one life, one breath and one way to move when that way of moving is dedicated to returning to the All that we are. Here on Earth we live under very specific universal rhythms that support this re-turn and our daily routines can either be in harmony with these or in discord.
I remember when I used to wake up and my first thought of the day was a counting exercise of how long it would be before I could go back to bed, such was my exhaustion! Today like you Rachel is a very different story thanks to a few simple self-care techniques I adopted that were inspired by the presentations of Universal Medicine that helped restore a level of vitality to my body I had not experienced since I was a child. Oh yeah, and letting love back in…and out, simply because it takes more energy to resist love than to be it!
Inspiring how it is totally possible to restore our levels of vitality to how they were when we were children.. we get used to feeling lethargic and tired as if that’s ‘just the way it is’ and part of getting older and taking on more responsibilities. What you’ve shown here is that it doesn’t have to be that way: nothing is fixed or set by anything other that our own moment to moment, day to day choices which then influence our levels of health, wellbeing and vitality.
Allowing ourselves the space to feel what our bodies need and honouring that makes all the difference to how our days unfold. I can relate to feeling in the past like I was on a never ending hamster wheel of activity that exhausted me but actually what was draining me was the lack of self-care and my emotional reactions to what was going on around me.
I can so relate to this; ‘Mornings were a half asleep rush and stress to get out the door on time. Getting out of bed was an effort’. I remember that this was how I started my day – I would feel letharigic and anxious about going my day and sufferer from a lack of confidence. I can feel now that starting my day in such a rush and with so little self-care did not support me at all. Allowing me the time and space to get ready at a natural pace and allowing me time to be gentle with myself feels key now for me and means that I feel more confident and more vital in my day.
Yes when we do not take the time to connect to ourselves then anxiety is often our constant companion as we struggle to get through our days.
Rachel – this is great to read. I too have changed my morning routine and have gone from smoking cigarettes and having toast and string tea and rushing out the door to waking early and having a gentle start to the day with at least two hours to shower without a rush; to prepare food for the day and have the time and space to get ready gently and with care. This feels amazing and makes a huge difference to how I feel in the day. This new morning routine supports me to feel steady and relaxed and to enjoy my day.
There is such a powerful yet subtle difference between developing a supportive routine versus a supportive rhythm described in this article. Without including the discernment of what is the quality we bring to what we do in our routine we are simply left with a healthy routine that is not necessarily full of who we truly are.
I have come back to this blog after some years and have noticed how these hallmarks of exhaustion no longer a part of my life. Choosing to bring more love and honouring the body for what it offers us in the day is given straight back when we are feeling less exhausted.
“Back then, coping meant yelling at my staff, reaching for a coffee or a doughnut between patients, pushing myself by going for a gruelling run…” All of our coping mechanisms are exactly the same and do precisely the same thing, which is to achieve an outcome of being numb or blind to what we are seeing and feeling in life. Going for a run is praised in society but what if this is done for the same purpose as yelling at staff?
When we override or dismiss what we have felt our bodies need we have disconnected from our whole body intelligence and are working against the natural harmony and order the body knows.
Adding simple rituals to our morning routine can support us enormously to develop a rhythm that truly serves us.
I can definitely verify that lack of proper rest makes me behave like a bear with his paw stuck in a hornets nest. The benefits of nurturing ourselves truly, deeply can not be underestimated.
Absolutely, totally agree, and I love your analogy of a bear with his paw stuck in a hornet’s nest. I can have a feeling of being on edge and irritable when I do not have good quality rest and that usually makes me want to reach for foods and drinks that take me even further away from the connection to myself.
What an amazing contrast and to see, through what you have shared, that this is something we all can experience simply through how we are with ourselves first, the way we treat and care for our body and being is very inspiring. For me it was being honest that I was not enjoying life that kicked it all off, and there were a few habits to break out of, but in doing so what followed was a greater sense of freedom in being myself with the awareness of how present I now am throughout my day. At the end of the day connection is everything and what we are connecting to is what governs that quality of the day we live and share with others.
I remember feeling quite shocked that it was the very foods and drinks which I had thought were giving me energy to keep going were actually leaving me exhausted, sugar, caffeine and fizzy drinks all stimulate us and give us a false high which when it goes leaves us feeling very depleted particularly if it means we over ride our bodies natural rhythms and communication to sleep.
We think that those sugary and stimulating foods are an answer to our fatigue and whilst there might be an initial spike in energy that slump afterwards never delivers than consistent energy source or flow.
As much as a morning routine can be really supportive, it’s how we are moment to moment in the whole day that affects us the most. I recently spent the weekend with a friend and saw how she surrendered to the flow of what was needed, and when. There was no self, it was just feeling what was needed next, and next, and next.. no reactions, no pictures of how things should be, just a surrender to a steady and consistent flow. A super gentle and loving nature way to live, that sustains and supports us from one moment to the next.
I love early mornings, so many people say I am crazy when I tell them what time me and my husband tend to get up, but we love it, we love having that extra time in the mornings, feeling the freshness of the morning preparing for our day.
Being really honest about what supports and nourishes us, not being caught in any rights, wrongs or current fads, means we build a relationship with ourselves that is respectful, honouring and responsive moment to moment.
It has become so common that we don’t think about how we need an energy drink, coffee or sugary drink to get us going in the mornings. And yet we dont consider that the quality that we live in may also be contributing to our exhaustion.
Exhaustion is such a prevalent topic for all and it has become so normalised we have accepted it as a way of being. Yet, if we changed our way of living, as you have done Rachel, we would find that exhaustion doesn’t have to be the reality we have made it to be.
Consistent self love, self care and self nurturing supports us to come out of exhaustion.
Our routines are so very important because they support us to bring consistency to our lives.
The struggle comes through here – and something i can massively relate too. Especially after a big weekend – having to pull myself out of bed early in the morning to work and not knowing where i’d get the energy through my day. I thought food was the fix – so drinking coffee and sugar was a staple in waking me up and pushing me through. the 3pm coffee and sweets were a regular as a reward for making it through most of the day and i would eat constantly. It has taken a number of years to get to the point I am at now, raising a family, running a business and waking up early (sometimes 4am meeting starts) but doing so in a way where my vitality does not come from food but rather from how i am living. The fact I don’t push myself, that I sleep earlier, that I eat foods that nourish me and less of them, that I don’t drink and am letting go of sugar. All of these changes have come from listening to my body and knowing that pushing through is not the answer.
Fatigue and exhaustion are mostly connected to working too much, having stress or too many responsibilities. But what if we are tired even when we take basic care of ourselves? is it possible that we can exhaust ourselves simply from holding back, not expressing or not being ourselves? If this was taken into the equation we would get to the root of it much faster.
‘The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself.’ This is a paradigm shift in a simple way of living that has huge impact.
So many people would relate to waking up this way and feeling irritable and miserable throughout the day, hanging out for work to end so they can then go home and collapse. We seem to have developed a very unaware way of living, one that doesn’t listen to the body, or question the status quo of exhaustion and the lack of joy and vivaciousness in every day life. We truly are not living well. If it wasn’t for medicine propping us up we would likely be an extinct species.
Rachel, I learnt the same; ‘Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.’ Many years ago I would wake half an hour before leaving, rush to get out the door, find a cafe and have a cigarette and toast, feeling anxious and in self doubt. My morning routine is completely different now and I have a couple of hours to get ready and prepare for my day. I love the spaciousness and gentle start to the day now and so I feel steady in my day.
I’ve come to understand that we generate exhaustion in so many ways, for example, holding back, not expressing, being hard on ourselves and self bashing, arguing, taking on the emotions of others and wanting to please others at the expense of oneself. It really is not the amount of hours we work in a day that is the most draining part to life.
Fatigue and exhaustion is really something that the vast majority of us are battling with in life. To know that there is a true and real answer to this problem should have us all sitting up with our ears pricked.
Beautiful to read and feel that there was no great revelation and overnight transformation: that changing how we live, and then feeling how this affects our vitality, happens incrementally and over time, through a constant choosing of presence, gentleness and honesty.
The more we focus on bringing a quality of gentleness and tenderness to our daily rhythm the more our movements can bring an ease and space to our lives to be even more vital and engaged.
My morning rhythm has changed a huge amount to one that is based around self care rather than doing whatever I needed to do to get to work in record time. It is no wonder that I would slump at my desk after lunch and need to prop myself up with coffee and coca-cola. What I’m finding now though is that I don’t bring the same quality to the way I wind down at the end of the day, I carry on in nervous energy from the day and then crave sugar as a pick me up to get me through the last part of the day which has an impact on the quality I wake with the following day.
And what is amazing for us to ponder is that your old style mornings are what is considered normal and acceptable, like a resignation to something that is so much less than what is possible.
I agree Matilda, what’s also become ‘normal and acceptable’ is to put our bodies under almost constant attack. Our nervous systems are under the almost constant attack of anxiety, our muscles are constantly tight from unnecessary clenching, our brains are bursting most of the time with our incessant thinking, we have an almost constant thread of worry running through us, we live with fear about all manner of potential happenings, we struggle in our relationships, most of us dislike the way that we look, the majority of us live with the constant dissatisfaction of others….oh the list is endless and it’s our poor old bodies that cop the lot! It really is no wonder that we’re all so exhausted.
What I love about what is shared here is the confirmation that it is not what we do, but the quality, care and presence with which we do everything that makes the difference.
Why do we do all these things that just make us more tired, all the trying, eating rubbish, checking out, staying up late… the list goes on. Simple life, simple food, simple sleep…. just some of the components to keeping life simple!
” I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.” beautiful and such a different and amazing way to life and wake up each day loving the connection and honesty that comes with this.
It takes more energy to resist love than to be it. Does this simple truth not explain the worldwide plague of exhaustion we as a humanity currently find ourselves in?
Your first sentence is a quote of the day for me. Thank you Liane.
I agree Matilda, fridge magnet, bumper sticker and T shirt!
I often find that I go into nervous energy as soon as I open my eyes- it is like my body kicks into the rush and anxiousness of ‘what’s expected of me today’. I have become more and more aware of it of late and seeing how I then use drive and anxiousness to get through my day which is very depleting and then I rely on sugar and other stimulating foods for a pick me up.
We need to sow seeds of quality that grow to offer a harvest we can reap. It does not happen overnight, it takes commitment, consistency perhaps even dedication. It is so worth it as you have shared here.
Observing myself and how I am feeling and then observing myself and learning to read situations when I am with others certainly is having an impact on my health and wellbeing. Yesterday, I was talking with a beautiful gentleman. While he was talking about something that related to the past, I could sense some sadness. I called it out immediately and before I knew it it had cleared. Developing a relationship with self and getting to know the real me is key to not feeling exhaustion in my day.
“I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day” If for no other reason than feeling a sense of ease in our day, most would relate to this as being well worth the simple changes you describe Rachel.
Dedication, yes and a quiet realisation that there is a grander purpose than just our lives, that we are part of and have a responsibility for.
yes Matilda and this realisation also offers to us a feeling of being supported, part of something grander that carries us if we allow it to. A big difference to the – rather exhausting – feeling of having to muster through the day all alone.
It is remarkable to note the changes that occur when we approach things with quality and care. As you say, making the shift from exhaustion to vitality is not about changing everything we do but about the how and with what attention we do everything we do. Is the foundation dismissiveness and disregard or respect and value?
Matilda its incredible indeed how quickly those changes take place in the grand scheme of things and how over time we then start to wake up feeling completely different to just a few months or years before, in fact my experience so far is the changes are never stopping.
I wake up these days remembering the little boy who would be ready and full of beans for the day ahead. For it is a return to what I have known earlier in life, the ebullience and richness of the day ahead, gifted by a simple way of living.
Rachel your blog highlights that we can make choices that make significant difference to how we feel not only for that moment but for the remainder of the day and when we become solid in theses choices, they change our lives. This is important to appreciate very deeply.
For me one of the greatest things I have done for myself is to stop drinking coffee and then tea. I used to use coffee to give me a boost which it did in the short term but long term made me exhausted and ragged round the edges.
Some great basics to come back too in this. I can feel I am currently still in the cycle of ‘being done by life’ and in this I am struggling to get up in the mornings and have the energy to do all that is needed then looking to the end of the day for relief from all the tensions. I am learning instead of giving myself a hard-time, its good to start to see this and now make the changes needed.
How I feel when I wake up in the morning is always a product of how I set myself up for sleep the night before
This is sadly the reality of most of humanity and paints a picture of a life of existence instead of a life of true vitality, joy and vivaciousness which can easily be had when we live from our soul.
Exhaustion is fatigue that has become the norm and coffee like many other stimulants are the go to for humanity to function. Function has now surpassed the norm of what it means to live, but what about the vitality and joy that can be on offer? Thank you for bringing a great insight into a topic that needs to be discussed on a grander scale as the rates of illness and disease continue to rise world wise.
This is so true Nattalija, “Function has now surpassed the norm of what it means to live, but what about the vitality and joy that can be on offer?” We can easily see this everywhere, people seem to be functioning but underneath there is coffee/s to get going, energy drinks, sugar or carbs for energy, and alcohol to get to sleep.
Being honest about our exhaustion can sometimes be one of the hardest things as we don’t want to admit that the way we have been living and the choices we have made have been what gets us to that place of exhaustion. Because if we do admit it we know we would have to make some changes.
My routine is so different to what it used to be because I now have more purpose in my life, when we have true purpose in our lives we get up with a bounce in our steps and love in our hearts that we know must be shared.
Having purpose in our lives is everything – knowing that how we live and the way we are with ourselves and others makes a difference and is felt gives us a different dimension to our day. We are always making an impact on the world – so it’s our responsibility to decide what is the quality of that impact and what are we bringing and reflecting: truth, love and integrity, or not?
It is truly a beautiful thing Rachel that you have sorted yourself out as it was distressing even reading what your mornings used to be like much less living them!
Wow Rachel what a turn around, one that I’m sure those around you love and are also inspired by. This difference is like chalk and cheese, what you now offer your patients, family, friends and everyone you touch on social media is a true reflection of what it is like to live who we truly are and how much fun and joy it can be!
We can see from the state of the world that most of humanity is exhausted. Exhaustion to me equals the fact we are not prepared to be honest with ourselves we dare not admit that it is sugar/caffeine and other substances that get us through the day.
Starting to be honest with oneself is the first step in healing, imagine if we all got honest at how tired we really were – we would then have to look at how our systems -work -education -health are set up and maybe we would try something completely new, something that was not draining something that was about real healing and expressing who we really are. When that day comes there will be no more exhaustion.
Yes, I am starting to see the lack of honesty is exhausting because the body knows there is more, and until we connect to the all of what is available in that communication from the body, there is always a little niggle, like a tension, that we have not got the whole picture.
I so used to resent the alarm clock in the morning. Since my morning routine changed – by my choosing to go to bed earlier and taking greater care of myself throughout my day – I no longer need an alarm, but wake refreshed and ready to go.
These days if I wake feeling tired and feeling exhausted, I know to look into the ways I am living that may be draining me.
It really is extraordinarily liberating when we understand and let go of old patterns of behaviour that really didn’t serve us at all and yet we were locked into them.
I know the Rachel I would like drilling and taking care of my teeth.
Not only do we use coffee and television to stimulate us, we also use rush, drive and stress to spur the body into action in order to get things done. I know this well because I spent years living this way and I am now spending years undoing this way. Living in a way where I am prepared for what’s next rather than being on the back foot, is helping me to be a step ahead so that when something unexpected occurs (which it frequently does) I have things in place which are a support to handling it, rather than being in the exhausted state where life becomes too much.
Well, it sure seems like everyone can relate to what Rachel has shared here in one way or another. The interesting thing is the way that we let ourselves stay in a rut of exhaustion and stimulation via caffeine, sugar, etc. to keep ourselves going, but we take so long to see how this vicious cycle can only be averted if we change the level of self-care such as going to be early and listening to our body when it needs rest and more nourishing/less stimulating foods/drinks. For myself, it was almost too simple of an approach to accept, and using stimulation to keep me going also had a side-effect of numbing all the other things in my life that I was not willing to feel or deal with at the time.
What I love about this blog is that it all sounds so simple, and in fact it is, but initially when we are in the throws of our lives being complicated, stressful and drama filled we do not see a way out until a health issue stops us in our tracks. What is shared here is that small and simple choices make a huge difference to our health and our general well-being.
‘ I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy’. I can feel the huge power in committing to healing ourselves….in doing so my life has transformed.
‘To honour what is required’ Honour is an old fashioned word we don’t hear that often now but how glorious it is to re awaken it in a true sense, not out of any ideals or beliefs but out of a simple appreciation and commitment to adhere to what is true.
The thing about exhaustion, is how all encompassing it can be, making life itself the challenge let alone all of the normal daily challenges that would be faced anyway. And so, perhaps one of the keys to accepting that we can actually live without being exhausted, is to also accept that we are more than able to handle all of the normal daily challenges that come our way all of the time.
This is beautiful Rachel, in the old days you would never had have the time to write this blog and now it speaks loud and clear as it is a great recommendation for early nights, nourishing foods, and being super gentle and loving with yourself. I for one am glad you made these supportive choice as if you hadn’t we would all have missed out on your inspiring expression.
If we have experienced the natural vitality and energy we deserve in our lives, it would not be difficult to make some permanent changes in our lives even though they may not be what everyone is doing—as how we feel and the state of our bodies impact on everything and everything we come across.
We all deserve to know ourselves from a much more steady and joyful existence and bringing much more care and love into our daily routines can make a huge difference to how we are travelling within life and then the quality of what we are doing also. How gorgeous is it to know that we have everything that we need within us and all we need to do is give ourselves the space to get out of our own way and enjoy what that choice brings to us.
So true, the quality of life is not based on what we do, but how we are with ourselves before we do anything.
The last paragraph sums it up – taking care of yourself. I watch and hear many who do not truly take care of themselves or, better still there is a lack of a choice to be aware of how to care and delicately caress their body.
Rachel, I can very much relate to what you are sharing here, I used to jump out of bed feeling anxious, get dressed quickly and have toast, tea and cigarettes to start my day, I felt anxious in my day and would then do it all again the next day. I now love my mornings waking early, having a long shower with no rushing, I make packed lunches with no rush, check emails and love my very steady, gentle start to the day, this supports me in my day and means I am less tired and much less anxious and instead feel a confidence in myself – what a huge difference.
I had no idea how dependnt I was on tea and coffee until I tried to give them up.
Sometimes I wake up and feel like I want the world to stop so I can get off. This used to be every day but now, when I do I know I really need to focus on deepening my self-care as it clearly shows me something has gone amiss
I have found my morning is so determined by the night before, and being honest enough to honor where I am at in myself, taking the time to set myself up for my day ahead.
I can relate to much you share here Rachel – of how mornings were like in the past and how mornings are now. Essentially, the difference is like night and day. When we care for ourselves, give ourselves time, it is the simplest thing to do – and of course total common sense. And the difference it makes is profound.
Gosh I can relate to once wishing a good nights sleep would make it all better and take the worries of the day away. Shows how much I all just wanted to let life go and feel that I did not need to be burdened by issues. But is sleep going to take the issues away or are we in our daily choices?
I used to wake up as late as possible, thinking that every extra minute of sleep would support me, but in truth I always felt exhausted. Instead, I have now learned that getting up early, giving myself time to prepare for the day and going to bed early is the ideal support to stay more vital.
Just looking at the photo in this is soothing.. (!) to actually take the space to sit down …have a teapot, cup and pour our favourite brew.. so often we rush to flick the switch on the kettle, yet always adore the easeful pace of a stop moment to really enjoy.
Rachel, it is beautiful to read about what really shifted in your life; “to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.’ I can feel reading this that honouring what we feel is really important, often I will feel that I need to sit and rest or I would love a bath and yet I put my work load over and above these self caring things and ‘solider on’ with my work, it is lovely how you honour yourself now and to read about the huge effects that this has in your day.
I love to approach my morning routine as: what do I need to prepare myself amazingly for the day, that care and that preparation makes a massive difference on the smoothness of the day.
Our morning routine is so important because it sets the foundation for the day ahead. If we wake up, jump out of bed and ‘get on with the day’ before we have connected with our self then more then likely the day ahead will be in a similar quality, unless somewhere during the day we take the time to surrender and connect to our body and bring all of who we are to all that we do.
This is what happened to me the other morning. I was late to bed the night before ( was working) and out early the next morning for work. I was out of my rhythm, struggled to get up, and subsequently my morning was difficult, with my journey that should have took only 10 mins taking 40 or more…
Rachel, I love reading this article, I remember doing this many years ago; ‘Mornings were a half asleep rush and stress to get out the door on time.’ I now wake early and enjoy a steady, gentle start to the day, the thought of waking, rushing to get ready and out of the door feels awful now, my body loves the gentle start to the day without the rush, drive and push.
So so true Rachel: ““The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”- It is not rocket science – it is just connecting to what we truly feel and how we have been with ourselves. To stop for a moment and check in – the body will let us know and all we need to do is backtrack all our choices to get to the cause of how we may be feeling in the moment.
To be really honest with where we are at and what we need to support us is such an individual thing and changes moment by moment.
Hear hear – yes and the first thing is to stop and check in and ascertain where we are at without any glamour or pretense; honesty will go a long way here to support us making changes that will reflect in our daily routines the loving caring beings that we all are equally so.
There is nothing more rewarding than bringing more gentleness to our daily choices and movements as we allow more space for true being within.
Our bodies are so much neglected, and like accessories to a crime seem to turn up every day by default more than design. It is so true what you share Rachel that just caring for our physical being in the smallest way turns this all around, without us having to think or work it all out. Perhaps the greatest game changer though is the acceptance and understanding of our true purpose here on earth and who we truly are. Then we start to realise the everyday grind we were fighting wasn’t even real.
‘The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.’ Thank you Rachel, very inspirational – to live who we truly are and honour that completely.
Such a turn around here from being reactive and exhausted, to having the time to yourself first thing and still have the energy to enjoy all aspects of life. This is huge in this day and age as so many are struggling with life and the daily pressures, but what comes across is how the simplicity of changing the way we live can have such a profound effect.
A lot to appreciate here. I used to rush around big time and then have periods of collapse, in fact I used to get terrible migraines that would have me in bed for 3 days at a time. Living now with so much more steadiness and consistency is amazing and no migraines although if I do not keep stepping up to what is next i can still find myself with a lingering headache. Huge appreciation to Universal Medicine and all that I have connected to again through that and made part of my living way
I get up early but I’m not a morning person. Your blog reminds me that the quality we love in determines the quality of our next moment and the effects of our choices always show in our bodies.
Wow- the sheer volume of comments on this blog is a testament to the fact that you’ve hit on something that many people are looking for answers to. I don’t know that many people who live life free from exhaustion and your experience makes it clear that feeling vital and rested has a lot more to do with the way we live while awake than the quality of our sleep.
‘I was like a time bomb with a short fuse, so exhausted I couldn’t cope, exploding with frustration on a regular basis.’
This is great understanding you offer Rachel on how frustration can play such a prominent part in our lives. Exhaustion and not-copingness and stress… all examples of the overwhelm that can fracture our ability to respond to our day and move calmly about life. If it’s not already, frustration should perhaps be considered an indicator of stress in the psychological well-being world.
Another great testimony to the fact that it is not what we do but the quality with which we do everything that is the key. A meal made in rush because we are feeling overwhelmed by all there is to do tastes and feels very different to one made with care and awareness – neither one takes longer to prepare either, so it is simply a choice of quality.
Very true Matilda, I needed to send some emails this morning and follow up on a few things before leaving the house but I felt how I was sitting there in anxiousness and thought how is the quality in which I communicate with others going to be. So I stopped, followed what my body felt to do and came back to them later.
Such a great recipe for turning your life and health around Rachel from the simpleness of choosing to self care in every way and giving ourselves the space to do what is needed down to the finest detail, is truly adoring the body, and confirming we are worth this and so much more.
‘to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.’ a great recipe for life, for health and to take out to the world.
It’s great to appreciate this as well, my morning routine is now filled with space, purpose and preparation to help me be supported for the day, it is a whole different thing to getting up late and rushing from a to b! Something to appreciate that I can often take for granted.
It is absolutely exhausting to be stressed all the time.
A lot of people think I am crazy when I tell them I get up and have roughly three hours before I need to be at work (it’s a 40 minute commute door to door). For me it is now part of my normal routine to take the time to care for myself and prepare for the day ahead so that I am not stressed or overwhelmed. Those hours in the morning are very precious and are far more valuable to me now than my hours of late night ‘unwinding’ in front of the TV or computer screen ever were in terms of how I feel on waking the next day.
As a new mum, the importance of morning routine and ritual sets me up for the day. As shared here – I was someone who was not considered a morning person and most things were a rush. But this just jinxed the rest of my day – and I was left clock watching and waiting to do it all again the next day. Recently my husband and I discussed getting up earlier, finishing earlier and allowing more space in our evenings – and this totally changes the whole tempo of how we look at the day.
Knowing that we have the freedom and the power to make regular and constant daily choices which support our own sense of vitality and wellbeing is huge, it is in fact a monumental shift in perspective. Understanding what true vitality and wellbeing are however is a another subject that definitely is worth exploring, which is a personal journey, and in my experience is forever changing and adjusting to our new levels of personal awareness – which in itself is in a constant response to the choices we make to support and nurture ourselves. It is a wonderful circle that returns always back to us.
Perhaps if we gave just as much time and energy to ‘fixing’ our issues using solutions and bandaids to working on our relationship with ourselves we would have a massive turn around in the overall general well being of society and humanity as a whole.
The irritability and frustration that simmers just below the surface when we feel exhausted are like a time-bomb constantly ticking away ready to explode at the first unsuspecting person who does something we deem ‘stupid’. I am still uncovering deeper layers of exhaustion to explore but the difference is that I take responsibility for adjusting my routine to allow for more healing so others don’t get caught in the fallout.
Choosing to be gentle with ourselves and honouring what our body communicates it needs are absolutely key to establishing a supportive rhythm to our day and leaving behind the cycle of exhaustion that so many are trapped in. Super inspiring blog that simply presents the impact of loving changes on our morning routine and our whole lives.
I found that when I allow myself even just 5-10 minuets in the morning to collect myself and connect before leaping out of bed to start the day, everything feels more relaxed – it’s like saying from the first moment that space and being with me is most important
Wow Rachel, it’s loud and clear as to what way of living would be the choice for many if they gave themselves the chance to stop and feel their choices.
Committing to and working with all areas of our lives no doubt changes how we feel and our approach to life. There is always something to look at and when we are open and honest to that which arises no matter how challenging it can be i am finding it is well worth putting the time into it to heal. We can always come up with excuses to avoid people, situations or find ways to distract and numb ourselves but it is when we are willing to heal ourselves that great change occurs and not just within ourselves but all around us too.
Wow what a profound difference your turn around of your morning routine has brought you Rachel, and your staff and clients will benefit from the quality you now bring to them too.
Ruth its amazing how when we choose to take more care in one area of our life the ripple effects this has to all areas. Its quite amazing and very inspiring.
I had a big shift in perspective when I started to realise that each day is not a sepia entity and what i do today actually has a big impact on tomorrow, or even on a smaller scale – what I do in my morning routine effects my whole day. Every moment and day in our lives are linked and every choice impacts the next choice and how we’ll feel, respond and act later on.
By accepting the truth of how everything in life is inter-related, how we are all deeply connected, and how your every move flows on to the next, it’s like you have said a great big YES to God Rachael. And so naturally the space and time is there, and there is an understanding that it is the quality you do everything in, that determines the life that you lead, not the other way around in fact.
Our basic choices of food, sleep rhythm and exercise really do influence everything, and actually taking one day and making an effort to deeply care for ourselves can set up a cycle of amazing choices and responsibility! But it works both ways – a day where we get distracted and disregard our bodies can equally set us up to be in this kind of cycle and rhythm. Every day is an amazing opportunity.
Yeh this is spot on – our fundamental choices in one day set us up in a rhythm – and so it’s totally our choice whether it’s a rhythm of amazing choices, or choices that disregard our bodies and will lead to more disregard and a dis-ease with life.
When I read your past morning routine it reminded me of my own, I too would drag myself out of bed at 8.00, 9.00 or 10.00 or early afternoon only to reach for a bong , then a coffee, followed by more bongs and more coffee and somewhere in there I would have some toast lathered with butter and vegemite. I would call that a great start to my day!!!!! Now my great start is getting up at 3.00 am, drinking some water, doing a couple of hrs of work on my computer, then going to the gym for a swim and workout and then off to work. Tad different to my past.
Thank you Rachel. I have been a bit down on myself recently, realising how’ I could have done better’ but this blog has brought home to me how much I have changed over the years and allowed me to appreciate myself as I am now and to see that i am not all that bad, that my judgement on myself is holding me back from expressing myself in full. In appreciating myself I can be kinder to myself and accept that the challenges I have now are difficult but not unsurmountable. Expectations about the situation do not support me and keep me from the present moment. Staying present, in my body, at present, is the best present I can give myself……
It is amazing how gentleness and self care can make such a huge difference to our day and how we interact with people. It may sound simple but how many people truly stop to realise this and build these techniques into their lives and make it a consistent part of their living. I know it is still ongoing for me, there is always another level to go to as I deepen the love for myself, and others.
This blog is still as inspiring as the first time I read it, there is always room for more gentleness and self care.
This blog shows very clearly that there is a way to live that is deeply supportive for our body and being.
I know I can whack myself out when I am not gentle with myself, today I was feeling tired and ended up carrying heavy bags, my movements during the day have highlighted my tiredness and I am now super looking forward to bed.
Wow, what a great article showing what a change in ones life can happen with applying self care and self love.
As you say, Rachel dealing with our exhaustion is a process by applying greater self-care and self-nurture though our sleep and food choices. Making sure we keep our daily routines consistent is the challenging part, but so well worth the effort as we become more vital and well.
Yes Rachel, consistency is so important as this supports us to build a solid foundation from the love and care for ourselves.
The fact that just saying ‘I sleep really well and wake feeling full of myself’ is revolutionary in this day and age says so much about where we are at, as a human race. With the plague of feeling there is a lack of time seeming to be reaching epedemic proportions and stimulant sales guaranteed to sky rocket too – we truly need to stop and start listening to our bodies and those of us like you Rachel who have come out the other side of this stress and anxiety typhoon.
I love seeing just how our morning routine not only sets us up for how our day will flow but also how we will wind down for bed and how our sleep will also flow. Every movement of our daily routines affects every moment thereafter, offering us much in terms of the quality in which we move throughout our days and how we interact with others too.
Our morning routine and the quality of our day is affected by our evening routine and so, how important is it to make our choices based on this awareness.
It is a simple question of whether we have made ourselves important enough to be included into our caring and consideration program or whether we are choosing to disregard or negate ourselves. When we get underneath “why” this is the case we can really begin to turn around the massive ship of disregard that’s heading away from us, we can finally head towards true caring and consideration.
When we are exhausted it can feel like an insurmountable problem, but what if it is as simple as: start to deeply deeply respect yourself and take care of yourself?
I used to wake up and immediately think of all the things I had to do that day. My breathing would be hard and my body tense, not really rested because my night was full of anxiety about life in general. These days I go to bed far more relaxed, making time to cream my feet, arms, hands and face, read for a few minutes and write in the Our Cycles App. I have less in my day to do and pace myself much more. In the morning the first thing I do is feel my body and ease into the day with a little bit of writing on my computer. I have a partner now, so there are lovely hugs to be had at any time of day or night and life feels good. My breathing is easier, my heart is less stressed and my body is generally more relaxed.
Purpose for me has been a huge element of how I live that has changed my sleep patterns markedly. I found when I was making life all about me and what I have to do and get done then I take things on easily and get drained and tired. When I am making life simply about being me and bringing my love to all I do simply for the purpose of all, I take things on less speak up more where needed and don’t take things personally. All of which benefit a healthy sleep rhythm.
Getting up early and going to bed by 9pm is one of the key elements that supports my life flow, and then looking at the detail in-between where I might not be quite as focussed as I could be. I know this sounds quite simple but it really does make a difference to my day and how I am with everyone. There is no need to rush and I have time for everyone rather than dismissing them because I have run out of time. My energy levels are constant and while I may have the odd tiring day, living with exhaustion is no longer an acceptable way of being
What I love about bringing awareness to my morning routine is that it has helped me realise that taking care of myself totally founds my relationships with others, my ability and willingness to work hard and my commitment and enthusiasm for each day.. so a no brainer really in terms of the value of giving attention to my morning routine.
I find it remarkable how much mornings have changed for me over the years. These days I have no desire for food in the morning and eating anything would not feel good. The only thing I take is water and this is because that is what my body is asking for. There is no other reason.
I remember the days of hitting the snooze button too often and then having to rush to work, having a portable breakfast snack in the car, sometimes even finishing my make up and already in anxiousness from the moment I got out of bed. It is now clear to see that such a start of the day can only perpetuate a day of stress, anxiousness and at the end exhaustion. When I discovered going to bed early this already made a huge change, after a period of needing a lot of rest to recover from how I lived before I started to wake up early and have so much space in the morning to prepare myself for my day.
Yes, Carolien. That was a great short-term strategy to get everything done while being very tired – the stress jolts us into action. However, it is the quality that suffers and it leaves us even more tired.
Very beautiful the feel the difference between a life lived, dictated and fueled by the world outside of yourself equating to exhaustion, override and drive, in contrast to a life lived in connection to you, guided by your inner-truth equating to real lasting fulfillment throughout the entire day, natural vitality that allows you to flow with and in a loving rhythm which supports you to live your full potential.
Let’s be honest, there are certain things we know are great for us to do, some activities that support our health and vitality, some modalities and tools that enliven and enrich our day, but the thing is do we use them that way? Or do we ignore all that’s come before, and put them off, or say ‘there’s just not enough time’? We all know common sense when we hear it, so why don’t we live it? Your words here Rachel make it super clear how crazy this is and how we just need to commit to actively changing the energy with which we live.
What you describe Rachel is indeed simple and some might not believe that it is possible to have such a full life and be full of energy ready to take on the next day, but there are hundreds now who can testify to what you are saying is true for them also, and it can be that simple.
Rachel, what an amazing turnaround in your morning routine and how supportive this now must be for your day ahead. I too have had a huge change in my morning routine; from feeling anxious about going to work, eating huge amounts of toast and smoking lots of cigarettes to now waking early, having a long shower, a gentle healthy breakfast, completing work and then going steadily into my day – completely different, I could never go back to my previous unloving morning routine which left me feeling exhausted and anxious.
How I feel in the morning is a direct reflection of the quality I lived the previous day. Its not something to judge myself with our feel bad about if i’m feeling tired, but a gentle nudge from my body to remind me that it needs my deep care, love and attention if it is going to be able to support me with vitality and energy throughout my days.
Absolute care in every single moment is definitely the way forward – what a magnificent transformation, it really shows that we are in the driving seat when it comes to our life.
Establishing a loving routine in the morning, not one that is about rushing and/or making it all about other people, kids, partner etc. But making it about gentleness, movements that foster connection and stillness within. This doesn’t mean moving at a snail pace, but movements that are about being consciously present.
Once we understand the fact that we are worth looking after it becomes easier to care for ourselves. Without a sense that we are worth looking after then nothing ever really changes. No amount of discipline delivers us true wellbeing.
It’s easy to let life ‘happen’ and go past without ever stopping to notice the beautiful and big ways that we have changed. It’s easy to focus on areas we still experience as difficult – and yes perhaps these will always exist, we are not perfect. But it’s absolutely vital and crucial we celebrate, take stock and commemorate every small refinement that we make. In life there are no experts but just people who are awesome appreciators. We all deserve to be treated this way. Thank you Rachel for the reminder that I can make this way a part of my morning and day to day life.
It is indeed lovely to wake refreshed and ready to enter the day prepared for what is coming towards us, all because we were totally with ourselves in our sleep and morning routine.
Looking after myself has been a development that is always changing and deepening. The health of my body and my emotional state provides me an insight into what is next, and what changes then need to be brought.
Very true, what worked last week may need to be completely different this week as our lives adapt and change and prepare for what’s next.
My work, my family including all my relationships, money, car, garden, animals ( I live on a farm) etc, etc, are important no doubt but unless I deal with the issues that arise, hurts that are festering and heal myself then there is no evolution. Without evolution I carry on the same merry-go-round, life after life, not getting anywhere except maybe an increased bank balance but what is the good of that! Yes it can be very uncomfortable dealing with our issues but it doesn’t need to be a drama or an indulgence (as it has been for me in the past!) but simply a willingness to being honest with ourselves and in life.
‘I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself…’ This ultimately has to be the way forward for all of us, otherwise it’s true we resort to coping strategies, like binge eating, binge drinking, smoking, extra caffeine, extra late nights watching a film and that’s the norm! So we all end up exhausted and trying to find a way of coping with life rather than living it. It’s an inspiration, Rachel that you have turned this around and you show that by making different choices we don’t have to end up exhausted, depleted and fed up with life.
Your past morning routine is probably where many people are nowadays, brings back many memories and just reading the first half of your blog I could feel the tiredness!
It is only in the past couple of years that my morning routine is changing, I love going to bed early and I love waking up early before anyone else – there is something special in this moment, a peaceful time to be with one self.
Its also amazing how the rhythm we live in the night before effects how vital and joy-full we are the next morning.
My morning routine has changed so much since being aware of the fact that every day is the same day, and is also a new day. I used to like getting up early and then enjoying the space in the morning but then freaking out when it came to getting ready! but thankfully we get many days to work on these things 😀 we actually get a new day every day to do it again where we left off.
I think many people do need a strong coffee or two to get out of bed and feel ready for the day yet how have we become to accept this as normal and ‘the way it is’ without questioning it? This is probably not what we thought ourselves to do when we were little and we should not accept it now when we are grown up. There is a way more beautiful life to be lived if we truly start to care for ourselves every moment of the day.
Exhaustion, coffee, sugar, alcohol, checking out with tv, stress etc are all recipes for disaster and set us in a never ending cycle of self-abuse with it repeating over and over again until … we literally cannot take anymore. My morning and routine is something for myself I know I need to revise as this is something I am still learning ‘to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.’
The world has gotten very lost about what a healthy lifestyle is, and there seems to be a belief that we need to fit in as many “treats” and “down times” as possible, and that the more down time you can fit into your day each day, the more successful you are. But I agree Rachel, the more down time I had, watching TV for example, the more tired and irritable I was. Perhaps our picture of what the good life is needs an overhaul.
As you say Heather, our picture of what a healthy lifestyle or better life is might be totally wrong and what we are pursuing is a total lie and not bringing us fulfilment and vitality as we thought it would. It is better to just live every moment of every day in as full as we can so we will have a more fulfilled feeling general but are not pursuing a picture.
The speed that someone talks often gives a good indication of how tired someone really is. When it is really fast, speaking at a 100 miles and hour for instance, can be a way of avoiding or distracting oneself from feeling just how tired the body really is.
I remember well the days of falling out of bed, brewing very strong coffee, smoking cigarettes before even leaving the house and being so far removed from my body that I didn’t even know how exhausted I was. There was never enough time in the mornings. Now though my morning has opened right up and I even exercise most mornings before leaving the house. Knowing when it’s time to go to bed is such a huge thing that changed my life and I now have the best quality sleep possible. It’s amazing that a few simple changes to the way we live can bring about such a massive change to the quality of our well-being.
This is awesome, and it’s amazing just how much you can get done in the morning! Your list of morning activities is super long, and I love that you have the time to look after yourself too which is so important for a dentist, parent and anyone no matter what they do.
Thanks Rachel, honouring our body and what it needs is key to having a body that is free of exhaustion and a being that is also free of the burden of emotions. It takes so much pressure off ourselves to honour how we feel and take action to support ourselves.
It is such a simple recipe of bringing self love and care into our daily routine but the effects on our wellbeing are quite amazing taking time to be with how our body is feeling and adjust our way of living that is self honouring brings us more energy and vitality in our day.
Many of us live with a level of exhaustion which is debilitating and we override what our body is telling us and push on until we come to a screaming halt with an illness or disease of some type. How more honouring of our self would it be if we were to listen to our body and stop before it is forced upon us.
A beautiful prescription and recipe for living life in harmony with yourself and those around you rather than allowing’ life’ to grind you down.
On reading your blog today Rachel I was struck by the simplicity and truth of what you have expressed here;
“I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy”.
A beautiful reminder to connect to, be honest with and deeply care for ourselves.
Yes… an ‘open to all’ invitation to make life changing choices.
Reading this article I can feel the desperation of trying to cope with life and the hurdle of kick starting myself into everyday. This has changed for me (through a similar process of building awareness, care and commitment into my days) and this article reminds me of the ever-changing relationship we have with life that is founded entirely on our choices.
Some years ago, I did not look forward to my day and wake up feeling a sense of joy and purpose for my day ahead. I would wake up either feeling bogged down and already drained from the list of things that needed to be done, or I would wake up on the weekend and not have anything planned and feel really flat because I didn’t have something fun or exciting to do for the day. This drained my energy something chronic, and if I didn’t actually do anything for the weekend, I actually felt really flat or tired and lethargic. Now I can see, the body is meant to move and be doing because it naturally flows into the purpose and what is needed when you stay with your body and align to what is next and there is absolutely no drain.
The more I put myself gently to sleep at a time that suits my body and activities for the next day, the more that I wake up early feeling refreshed and prepared for what the day ahead may bring.
The beginning part of this blog reminds me of a time when I would just lie there in bed each morning trying to think of a reason to get up, trying to find a motivating factor for the day. There is no words that can describe how this really feels except for awful. And what is so amazing now, is that life has turned around, and although each morning is not perfect, there is no longer this underlying dread. this turn around has come from dedication and hard work and commitment to life again, commitment to people and to love and to myself.
It simply feels abhorrent to rush around in the mornings- I truly dislike it. I too used to ‘hate’ mornings, yet now I can see what I was missing out on. I am so glad to have gotten through this self imposed misery. It feel incredible to wake up with energy in my spine and feeling ready for the day, inspired and alive.
Wow, Rachel what a contrast from how you were feeling totally exhausted to now feeling energised due to how you are caring and looking after yourself. The part about you crying on your way to work because you felt so exhausted, I wonder how many people are in that situation too. Feeling completely overwhelmed and over worked with depleted energy. What you’ve shared, are simple ways we can support ourselves to feel healthy, vital and energized with basic self-care and self-love. This means we are able to feel more ourselves and our quality of work and relationships improves too.
I too some years ago, used to think that a good nights sleep will help me to feel better or get back on top of things, and couldn’t understand why even when I did sleep in (for too long) I didn’t feel any better the next day. We can place a lot of pressure on the sleep in, to get us out of our chosen lifestyle and in doing this, not have to look at our living choices and disregard for our bodies. Choosing to self care and honour my body more, has made a huge difference to how I feel in the morning and through my day.
It seems that the more we appreciate ourselves and truly value what we bring – the more we are able to make changes in how we live to reflect this. Every time we care more deeply for ourselves there will be an action that supports that. How amazing.
Exhaustion is definitely a modern-day plague. It is possible that for many we think it’s part of life and just one of those things and yet you share with self-care and making different choices how simple this is to turn around.
How amazing to read of such a transformation , and how lovely to feel such honesty in writing.
It’s good to let ourselves feel how exhausted we are – only then can we choose to work on it. And also sometimes our body does naturally need to sleep longer. Sometime we can get caught up in ‘pictures’, ideals and beliefs of when we should get up and when we should go to bed – a little bit like living from a rule book – instead of listening to ‘our’ body.
Choosing to be gentle allows us to connect to the true tenderness and delicateness that lives within us all, and it is only then we feel the responsibility that we have towards ourselves and others to make this our natural way of being.
We are given all the energy in the world to be loving. Holding that back and denying this love leads to a very tired, exhausted state of being.
I had never looked at life this way before Vicky, that statement changes everything.
There is such freedom in caring for ourselves. With your prior example, we are bound by our choices – exhaustion, short fuse, waiting for weekends so we can sleep in and so on. When we care for ourselves this ball and chain around our feet vanishes. No need for a sleep in, no short fuse, vitality in life…it’s a simple choice really.
Really looking at our daily choices, to be gentle, to be loving, self honouring, these all make a difference in how we are in all other daily choices. So if we don’t make these choices in the lead up and before we go to bed, then the knock on effect, affects us the next morning and then throughout the day. So perhaps it is key to really look at those choices in the lead up to bed and change them, to see how the next day unfolds.
How beautiful and the appreciation for changing the way you live is really lovely to feel and see the changes and how one’s life becomes so much more harmonious and joyful as a result.
“I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day. I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.”
To re-kindle the natural sparkle we are – the one that is waiting to come out and play, we can choose to support our bodies back to this natural state of being. It’s a pretty simple approach. If we consider little ones are full of wonder, sparkle and joy of simply being and how they live we can apply the exact same care to ourselves. Sleep when we need to, no late nights, gently bathed and dressed, food that supports our bodies, simple, natural and pure. We all know when the artificial stuff is introduced into their diets behaviours change in little ones. So we can reverse this by coming back to the same simplicity, as we would support a little one. Then the truth is a wake-up clock is never again required.
It’s amazing. You feel like two different people in this blog. But all it is is a few loving choices and everything changes. Inspiring for anyone who suffers from exhaustion.
Exhaustion is the number one killer in the world to the quality we can live each day. Could this be because of the layers of foundational care we have forgotten to allow in our lives that are so simple yet impact us in every way? A simple 5 minute sit down to check in with the body, a walk to stretch those legs and feel that fresh air or stopping to listen to the body when it sends you a clear message each night- lights out its time to go to bed!
As Rachel has shared in this blog creating blocks of support to our living is where the changes take place. This takes time and of course can be done with patience and as little judgement as possible. Like Rachel there are many others who have said goodbye to exhaustion, yes to more foundational care and a big yes to no longer ignoring the body when it sends us steady reminders.
Absolutely amazing Rachel! What you say about your previous routine would resonate with many people, and driving to work being unprepared, waking up feeling un-refreshed and yesterdays events unreleased. Its a vicious cycle that many of us find ourselves in and then feel disempowered in doing our work, we end up blaming work, but forget that life is a constant rhythm, and requires that we give our care and attention to all things, including how we look after ourselves because its the only way to clearly look after someone else.
I agree – how we sleep, wake up and get up is a reflection of our 24/7 life. If we have absorbed a lot of emotions and eaten badly during the day for example there are a lot of poisons for our body to have to clear in the night and if we keep doing that it builds up and we get more and more sluggish and effected.
The other side is that if we have taken care of ourselves and others through the quality of our Livingness then our body is actually made to work and can have the most amazing vitality. I have had a great week and been getting up naturally at 2:30am the last few days and working joyfully and productively all day – a miracle compared to how I was in the past.
I have enjoyed revisiting this blog, Rachel, as it is an amazing testament to how dramatically we can turn our lives around once we start listening to and honouring our bodies once again. I love your honesty and humbleness in sharing this with us.
I can relate entirely Rachel to feeling stressed by a job taking a little longer or a client being a little later. It is aweful to live with such a short fuse in life and we think all the stress is related to time. It is not time per se it is the quality of how we use it that matter most.
“I would even cry on my way to work because I was so exhausted before my long day even began.” We know when life is absolutely not right yet it can be difficult at times to see a way out of the state we feel. So often we wait for the body to feel so ill and exhausted before we look for the support that is truly going to bring a change. I know I tried all kinds of things to pull me back from feeling this way, but it was the small changes I started to implement and not any one thing or modality that changed things around – the little daily choices like being gentle with myself and being honest with what types of foods and rest my body really needed to feel healthy and vital.
My morning routine can be my faviouret part of my day – it tells me so much about how I have been the day before – of I slept well, woke tired or feel rushed, or if I have the space to have a lovely mornign routine that sets up my whole day.
Rachel, the change that you have described in your morning routine is huge, as it has completed changed your life. This is to be celebrated and appreciated, as it is deeply inspiring
This morning I woke naturally at 1.30 after going to bed around 8pm last night, I stayed in bed a bit before getting up, it was awesome to have so much time before my day officially began. I love early nights and I love early mornings.
I do love how stark the change is in your morning routine- you decided to make some simple changes and it’s fascinating the sort of things that make a difference to how you feel. Leaving things unresolved is not healthy for any of us- and I am sure that is one of the major reasons your body was reacting as it was, and raging itself through life. I know a tonne of sugar now makes me feel worse than relieve any tiredness I may have- it is so obvious to me now.
Inspiring to read just how much space you have in your mornings now Rachel and how this supports your day, just as your day supports your evening.
How gorgeous is it to give yourself the space to do what is needed in the morning, in a rhythm that is chosen by you and all done from the absolute support of your own self love and care. There is nothing more supportive.
Rachel, this is great to read, it is amazing what a difference to your life and to how you feel these simple changes such as going to bed earlier have made. I too have noticed that going to bed earlier; waking early so i not in a rush in the morning; being more gentle with myself and taking care of myself have made a huge difference to how I feel in my day, I now enjoy my work, family, friends and colleagues so much more and have more energy in my day, I also notice if I eat more lightly and do not overeat then I feel absolutely fine up until going to sleep and do not have the slump in the evening that I used to.
This is such an incredible turn around Rachel, and think of the affect this change in morning routine and how you look after yourself has on every patient that you see during the day!
Wow! It’s amazing when I read this description of an average morning of what we put our bodies through and then expect sleep to fix. It sounds too simple to be true but being gentle, honest and caring for yourself are the new black if you want to wake up feeling great.
Reading your blog Rachel I could appreciate just how much my life has changed over the past few years by making consistently loving choices.
When we stop using coping mechanisms and instead choose to start to deal with our issues our lives can change dramatically. Resolving issues instead of burying them is always going to be so much better in the long run.
Your morning routine sounds very much like mine Rachel. I too no longer have to rush in the mornings and I don’t feel the need to sleep in at weekends either because everyday is the same for me. I get up feeling more myself than ever before, more energised and feel absolutely ready for my day ahead.
“All this is done in a gentle rhythm that supports me to feel who I am and where I am at.”
This is key if we are to maintain a harmonious relationship between us and the world in which we live. It involves transparency, honesty and vulnerability. This is a very inspirational sharing Rachel that allows us to see how a few simple choices on our part can help support the flow of life. We are ‘a part’ of the Universal whole we belong to and not ever ‘apart’ from it, even though we may choose to live in a way that does not honour such unity and thus entrenches further ‘separation’.
Rachel this is such a massive change in the way you live, crying on the way to your work with exhaustion .. it must have been bad. Reading your morning now, before you even go to work is like a whole day in itself! This is still a huge learning curve for me, I have an alarm to get up in the morning and over the last few weeks have been sick and felt really tired so have honoured my body and slept in. I love what you shared here ‘to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs’ as it is a reminder to me, especially ‘to connect to who I truly am’. Yes the difference is in loving ourselves, easy!
These words really stood out this morning and make perfect sense ‘be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required’. Quite often we can fool ourselves into believing we are doing better but at the same time ignoring the simple messages our bodies are giving us, telling us that we are not ok.
When I override how tired I am and stay up a bit longer I suffer for it, it never is worth overriding what the wisdom of our body is telling us.
Our quality determines how energised or tired/exhausted we feel. No amount of rest or time off can rejuvente us if first our true energetic quality isn’t chosen.
This is key Vicky as we look at our time off to recover from the days we have not been in rhythm and connection to ourselves but never will this actually bring more than relief if we do not choose the change the way we are in every single day.
the world really is exhausted, depleted, running on empty as are our societies in the Western world… How can it not be so with the continual drive for increasing GNP, a sense of doom if it does not increase, and with anxiousness the bottom line in so many people’s lives… This story is essential reading.
I always thought that I was never short of energy. I only recently realised that I was just able to easily summon up nervous energy, i.e. fill my system with stress and adrenaline while underneath that was quite a strong lack of energy as the constant push led to overly strong tiredness.
As they as, ‘ah those were the days’, not. I remember back a few years ago and I was a shift worker, alarms, dragging yourself out of bed, working for days off, resenting getting out of bed, delaying going to bed and the list goes on. There was a few things running, the can’t wait to finish work, can’t wait for the week to end, can’t wait for my holidays and can’t wait to retire. Everything was geared to having time off and yet most of my time was spent at work. It didn’t make sense in that the place I was most I spent the most time wanting to be somewhere else. This is what changed for me, “The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.” Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine lead this change in my life, I applied my own flavour to it but the remarkable change in how I look at the world, my awareness of what is truly going on was seeded from there.
I have been travelling loads lately. I have been away 4 days out of a week for 2 months except for the odd weekend. What has supported me with all this travel is the strong rhythm I have developed over the years. My rhythm consists of daily activities which I never miss, for example my walk each day, my regular exercise or responding to blogs each day, it is never a push to do these things, as I know they support me to be able to do what I do with such ease.
I find when I am exhausted I ‘think’ I am too tired to go for a walk, or it will tire me more, but this in fact is a complete lie. I go out for a walk and feel amazing for it, not tired at all, more rested.
Having an established rhythm is so supportive because then when things occur in life we have a true foundation upon which to deal with them.
Rachel, this blog is a great demonstration of the fact that it’s not what we do but the quality we do it in that makes the difference. So often we blame the job, the children, the partner for our stress and we might even end up leaving to get away from it all. We find though, that we take ourselves with us and sooner or later we recreate a similar situation until such time as we are prepared to examine ourselves and adjust our rhythm so it is more self-loving. With that as a foundation we come to work feeling loved and able to give from an overflowingness rather than a depletion.
Great blog Rachel, I think many people are able to relate to your old morning routines, beautiful how through choices that you felt supported you more deeply you changed your morning routine and your life.
That is true. The more loving we are in our behaviour to ourselves, the more we can then express during the day.
I used to think it plain ‘wrong’ to wake up before the sun rose. Today, I am up well before and appreciate the still quiet at the beginning of the day. I’ve learnt – largely through the depth of inspiration offered by Universal Medicine – that it’s all about ‘how’ we live, as you’ve shared here Rachel. Are we worthy of such love and taking the time and space to reflect on the impact of choices we are making in our lives – choices that may well be impacting upon us in a negative way in both the shorter and longer term?
It can take time to unravel ourselves from ways and habits that haven’t truly supported and nurtured us, yet if we connect with the fact of how worthy we are of allowing such a process, then transformations such as have occurred in your life Rachel, can absolutely be a reality for us all.
Need our ‘normal’ be full of the angst, the push, the caffeine, the exhaustion and the seemingly endless cycle of doing it all again and again, followed by the need for the time-out, the holiday, the relief from it all?
Or, is it actually possible to live daily in a way that is not only sustainable, but purposeful, joyful and vitalising in the main? You’ve just shown us that there actually IS another way Rachel Hall – amazing, deeply inspiring, and what a turn-around. Wow.
Everything we do starts first with the quality of our connection, all else flows from this.. so whatever we do is either in the emptiness of our disconnect, and the falseness that flows from this, or holds the quality of our true being. If we end the day drained and exhausted it is a sure sign of the energy we have chosen.
To think, so many people with exhaustion and anxiety and a general lack of energy. Yet the answer is so super simple – loving yourself and all others equally can go a long way!
It’s amazing when we make changes in our lives then look back at how we lived, there’s so much to appreciate in that willingness and choices made to change, heal, and listen to what is needed for the body next.
I am realising how hard I have to work at staying exhausted. I have to fight my own nature instead of taking responsibility for it and allowing its true expression!
I joyfully arose and started working in my office at 3:30 this morning. It is quite something to reflect on how it used to be as you have here as when I was younger there was a part of me that never wanted to get up at all and did not experience the great joy, purpose and commitment to life that I now do. I always knew deep within that there must be another way to live and I have been blessed to find it through the living inspiration of Serge Benhayon. That way is The Way of The Livingness part of which you have so clearly described here.
I have always noticed how important a good morning rhythm is, one that is free of rush and shortcuts; once we get on our back foot and start reacting to what is happening, the rest of the day can be very difficult to resurrect from that turmoil and confusion.
To reconfigure our morning behaviour seems so simple, and yet it is a very powerful thing to do… To address our rituals, whatever they are!, Is profound and far-reaching in its effect upon our life
I am totally exhausted so it’s great to read this blog. I don’t rush in the mornings but there is an anxiety in my body constantly, I worry about things that might or will not even happen. I give myself a bit of a hard time, living from my head, this for me is where I feel the exhaustion lies, constantly berating myself and working out from my head, second guessing what to do next, or thinking ahead to tomorrow, next week, next year. I’d love to switch my mind off.
I was visiting London this week and on the tube looking into the majority of faces in the carriage and there was exhaustion written nearly on everyone. Sometimes it can be easy to just be aware of our own tiredness or exhaustion, but pan out to see that nearly everyone is experiencing the same then we really have to ask how are we living and working that is making this the norm?
Rachel I would have to agree with you. Also there is no age barrier with this either and from my observations of those around me during the day coffee has become a very important aid in order to get through the day, and quite often exhaustion is a regular topic of conversation but so far no one is stating why they are exhausted.
Inspired by this blog yesterday, I just last night before sleeping and this morning took the time to check in and with more honesty listen to my body and how I felt and I could recognise and understand some important things about my body´s state of being and some behaviours I am holding onto although they are not contributing to my overall well-being nor serve anyone else. It made me fall asleep and also get up in a different way, with a different awareness and attitude. I am looking forward to the possible changes by me applying the insights into the ways I move and am with myself and others.
“I check in with how I’m feeling and adjust my morning routine to suit and support me for my day ahead.” – that is a good reminder to adjust one´s routines to how one feels and what supports best instead of just sticking to the same old habit simply because it is familiar and functional but lacks adjusted and applied quality and care.
I have realised I am being asked just now to ‘support myself’ much more deeply for a period of time. This is not selfish but will support and strengthen people I know and work with. Without me physically doing or saying anything to ‘help’ ( which feels awful, a bit like a needy saviour mentality, and also arrogant in the sense of thinking people can’t take care of themselves, I know I for one, if this was done to me, I’d say maybe not outwardly, get stuffed) them. Much more strength and support can be offered in the reflection of how I live.
Our lifestyle choices determine the quality of life we experience, as your article so obviously illustrates Rachel
It is a lovely thing to wake refreshed from a restorative nights sleep rather than waking up disturbed and exhausted from whatever I had taken to bed unresolved from the night before.
Exhaustion is perhaps something we have all got accustomed to, accepting it as part of life . Your blog shows just how it doesn’t have to be this way and with some self-care its totally possible to turn this around.
Wow, I remember those mornings. I actually have to appreciate just how willing I have been to make incremental changes to the way I live each day that really supports me not having to go through those hideous wake ups.
I barely use an alarm anymore, which I love. I’ve always hated being woken up before I was ready, and now it’s rarely a problem.
It’s amazing how supportive a little self care can be.
So important, for us to look at how we are living in each moment. I know for me, there is a self care that I allow myself in the mornings, to commit to that makes me feel ready and set up for the day. It supports me and how I am, when I arrive at work and then operate as the day unfolds. The same goes for when I go to bed, if I am not honouring in that, I then really feel it the next day.
What I’ve been finding is that responding to what the body needs in order to care for it has changed lately. As I wake up early, have more energy than I used to have than only 5 years ago but again I am waking up tired or even exhausted. Self care doesn’t remain static, it evolves the more it is practiced.
I can appreciate how part of what makes us so exhausted is running life from tick box get-things-done mentality. I have come to appreciate how every single part of my day can be super exquisite and equally has its place supporting my overall well being and way of life.
How good does it feel Rachel – “These days I wake up early and naturally, I hardly ever need the alarm to remind me it’s time to get up. I feel refreshed and alert after a good night’s sleep and no longer need coffee to get me started, nor do I dread that it’s a work day and not the weekend.” I remember the times too, rushing to get everything done be it morning noon or night. Long gone are those days now and I, like you, do have a morning routine that sets me up for the day – I can still improve on my evening routine before bed 😉
It’s quite amazing to feel how spacious a morning can feel when I don’t rush, push, force or ignore how precisely my body knows when to move from one activity to another. Our body clock is very loud when we choose to listen.
First of all your turn around has been amazing – and from seemingly simple choices to honour yourself and your body. Secondly reading how you felt “Getting out of bed was an effort and some days I would even cry on my way to work because I was so exhausted before my long day even began.” And considering you are not the only one is quite shocking. This is called normal often (probably not the crying) but the exhaustion and not liking to get out of bed is seen as normal yet is it really? It is interesting how we settle for less than feeling amazing so easily. Thank you for sharing what is possible and how it has changed your life from being a dread to being joyful.
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am” Love this Rachel. Connecting deeply with who we truly are rather than having another ‘must do better’ and different list makes a huge difference to the day.
Rachel, i love the simplicity of your post in the ‘before and after’, it’s as simple as making choices that create space to allow for spaciousness and flow in a day, and importantly, from less race or rush, the clarity to feel what’s happening to the body in what it needs, and honouring that.
I can feel that there is a deeper level of detail and refinement that I can go to truly support a vital life. Having dropped the coffees, late nights and overworking there are other areas to bring a greater awareness to. Food I feel also plays an important part here, and I find that the type of food I eat can leave me feeling sluggish or alive. As we change the body lets us feel the adjustments that are needed to truly support us.
Those dedicated and consistent loving choices can change the entire landscape of our lives; I am with you Rachel. The body is remarkably wise and knowing of what is truly needed. I may not always listen as intently as I could and my body beautifully lets me feel that choice also.
Yes I so relate Victoria – these days my body lets me know very quickly and offers the opportunity also to adjust appropriately very quickly too.
This is so gorgeous and amazing, like how can we not stand still by this blog and say; Well, oh my God this a wonder, or actually this works. AND best of all without trying! I am super inspired by your blog to claim more of the truth I know, and by this blog is given that we know how to take care of ourselves and our rhythm, we just need to choice to do so (act on what we know is true).
What a difference building this foundation of love makes in your life. It is so worth doing, creating this spaciousness in your life. Relationships are better, our interior life is calmer and we are well equipped for the day and for anything that comes.
An inspiring read Rachel and it makes me aware of some of the changes that I can be making in my life to offer myself a bit more support during this time.
I have really found going to bed early and then waking earlier has allowed me more space to truly feel what is needed to support me during my day. Each moment prepares us for the next and having a greater clarity from allowing ourselves more space to connect to our bodies is an amazing tool for life. Waking up in the morning is such a joy now and my routine is a lot more spacious these days, no more rushing around, with the tv on while I brush my teeth and put on my makeup. I now really enjoy staying connected to each movement as much as I can and doing one thing at a time. It really does make a lovely difference to my day.
Really we tend to live our lives like the world is a stage and we perform according to how we perceive the audience will like it, but in truth the body is our vehicle of expression for us to nurture and support according to our impulses from within and then shared from that well of connection.
Most of the world is suffering from exhaustion yet this is covered up my excessive amounts of stimulants and entertainment. When we stop we can take time to feel our choices and choose to live differently. Exhaustion rates will continue to impact the world until we get honest about the tiredness that is actually there.
What a great reflection Rachel, I can feel how although what you describe I have embraced as a natural way to live, I can still feel my body calling for more attention to detail in each of those crucial aspects – “dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.”
Thank you for an inspiring blog, it is an opportunity for us all to take stock and appreciate the choices that we have made and how our lives have changed simply by honouring our bodies and taking responsibility of life and not just rely on coping mechanism that are not true for the love that we are.
Rachel you bring up some great points, I don’t know how often I used to say all I need is a good night’s sleep and I will be fine, however what I didn’t take into account was that it was how I was with myself through the whole of the day, and it’s the whole cycle, not just the sleep.
The shift from not changing what you do in the morning to concentrating on the quality of what you do is the sorely needed answer that many of us are seeking in our stressed out lives. We have been focused on finding a solution by changing what we do and not being able to sustain the change or it fails to live up to what we truly need.
It’s great to read this and admit I am actually not feeling well, and exhausted and that my body needs to rest, to not do lots of things, push through – that things can wait. In fact it’s making me stressed, which may just be comfort to avoid being still, and in this I wouldn’t be thinking the thoughts, I would take care of myself first. That in fact the most self loving, evolving and supportive thing I can do for everybody is to love myself and go to bed super early this week. To not rush or feel I have to do things that are not needed just now, this week.
If we don’t look at the cause, we will never be able to change the effect. And it sounds like you’ve done a lot of work on that front. It’s a great reminder for me of the responsibility we have and that we only have ourselves to blame for that cycle of exhaustion.
Ah yes, the good old days of feeling like death warmed up every morning – I remember them! Or if I didn’t feel ‘too bad’ there was definitely a sense of yearning for the weekend. And a reliance on caffeine to get me going and alcohol to wind down. Today things are also quite, quite different for me, and for the same reasons outlined here – a 180 degree shift in the way I approach life and take care of myself. Nothing too complex at all, but definitely requiring a new level of love for myself that made the choice to self-care and embrace true healing a no-brainer.
And this intense consumption of stimulants of coffee et al has been normalized, and that 90 % of some countries’ population start the day with a psychoactive drug is an extraordinary reflection on our world.
Yes it is it any wonder we are living with more exhaustion and anxiety than ever before, when the fuel that we are relying on is not generated from the connection we have to our natural inner source.
I still have a bit of chaos in the mornings on a too regular basis! But what I do know is that it is just me avoiding the simplicity of life – because I also know this can be lived and do live this also just not with the consistency that you describe here. It’s a up and down game that many are playing also and the more I see it the more I can see it just is an avoidance of being truly powerful and connected to my body and there fore to everyone else.
I agree in my experience there is a big difference in managing life and using coping strategies to get by, versus actually making true change to my lifestyle by listening, observing my body and learning what supports it and what does not. This also takes a lot of honesty and the answers to both of these questions have often surprised me as they are not always what I would have expected or assumed.
Your morning routine sounds absolutely amazing Rachel. I can see that the mornings you have created are simply a result of the way you have chosen to live each and every day. One of the biggest traps is the things we use to ‘cope’ the coffee, the sugar, the alcohol. etc. I can see that I am still in this trap using fruit and sugary foods to pep me up when I feel exhausted. It’s a false economy that comes crashing down on a regular basis. Better to feel how truly tired I am and move through my day in that than to stimulate my nervous system for a short term payoff.
What a vast difference between the rush and madness of the past and the beautifully and purposefully ordered morning rhythm that you have now developed.
I thought the same – and how great it would be to see the two morning in parallel in video. World’s apart!
Would make an eye-opening movie indeed!
Your mornings back in your earlier days sound nuts Rachel but how many people are actually living like that today? Much of humanity and like you, at the time, thinking there is no other way. No wonder mental illness and illness in general is going through the roof. You cannot sustain that sort of life style and remain sane and healthy. I had a similar lifestyle for years and I was nuts and my health was really bad!! Now like you thanks to Universal Medicine my mornings are totally different , truly supporting me for the day ahead.
I am in that process now of developing the rhythm from the quality of my being rather than a controlled managed way of being that may look good but is equally exhausting as the chaos you describe – which I also know too well.
Great sharing Vanessa – it’s not about ticking the boxes and doing it right – it is about conscious presence in all that we do – and then there is no exhaustion, just a lovely and supportive flow.
This is an amazing turnaround to read about. But I can totally relate to how day after day can feel like a real drag if there is no joy being lived.. Real joy. The kind that bubbles up from your heart and makes every moment a fascinating journey through life.
My mornings were pretty similar Rachel, at least you got up and went to work, I often just hung around the house drinking coffee and eating vegemite on toast and feeling sorry for myself….feels like a past life!! Now, like you I am up at three o’clock ready and looking forward to the day ahead.
I like the way you talk about adjusting your morning routine to suit how you are feeling. I know in the past I have been quite dogged about what I should do in the mornings, but that doesn’t allow for changes in how I am. Asking myself what is needed right now is a great question that has recently come into my repertoire.
One would never consider the morning routine of alarms, coffee and toast, dragging ourselves out of bed to start the day exhausted could change so much by just adding self love and self care into the equation.
We put so much expectation on ourselves we exhaust ourselves trying to fit in just some of what we think we can achieve. I have found that through resting and eating well, living without expectation I am no longer exhausted and enjoy waking up in the mornings to a new day.
We tend to think if we can’t get to something or need to fit more into our day that we need to speed things up. What if that is the trap and in fact to have more space in our day we need to slow things down? Let me guess you haven’t got time to slow down, well maybe we all should try it. The slow down isn’t that you need to walk slower but we need to deal with one thing at a time and not try and do 10 things at once. We can only go so fast before things break or we loose control, not unlike a car. Everything needs a stop and we can choose to stop running like we are or something will break or loose control. There is a why to support yourself and it comes back to how you are with yourself. Mornings, evenings, midday are all the same and need the same level of care. Don’t relate to times of day to how you will be but more see them as moments that you are in and so take care, deeply.
Yes, Ray, I agree – and what you write about taking care, deeply of those moments reminds me of a quote from Leonardo da Vinci: “Time stays long enough for those who use it.”
It is so worthwhile to reflect and appreciate how when we focus on the quality of our connection we bring to our day it feels effortless and lovely. Building appreciation for my quality of connection or being in life allows the self-loving choices to flow rather than something that I should do.
Hello Rachel and here in your blog is a key to why our mornings would never change and why your mornings have changed. We look at mornings or parts of the day isolated from each other, we have different days of the week, different times and different routines. It’s not that this is a problem but the key is how we are in these ‘parts’. In this case as you say the way to your morning was from the way you lived everywhere, you didn’t just try and try again to improve your morning. This has been my experience as well because everything impacts everything. So to bring more to a morning you would need to have a look at your evening, your sleep, your day before etc etc. There is a connection between everything and so when you just try and grab part of something and fix it in isolation it is never going to last. You may make some good steps but in the end the morning would just move itself somewhere else.
Because of the way things are now, with the constant rush and push and hyper communication/entertainment happening all the time, i wonder how we will ever get to feel the impact of our exhaustion on our bodies before serious illness and disease sets in, which makes us stop and take notice, but surely these consequences can be avoided if we dealt with the underlying exhaustion in the first place?
It is easy to default back into our old patterns of nervous tension, rush, stress and anxiousness, they can even slide back in insidiously and before we know it, we are back in the spin… but the more I understand I always know this, and that somewhere along the line is a deliberate choice to engage in these patterns, to keep things , the more I can catch myself out in the intentional sabotage and in that a deliberate choice to stay small and disempowered. This realisation is the beginning of the freedom of a different choice.
The key word here is routine. Our routine can either support us or work to keep us in the cycle of exhaustion. I have noticed that this has been the case for me with a balance between work life and home life. In order to keep up the demands of my high pressured job, I would over ride every moment in my home life . The levels of exhaustion would escalate and even though I wasn’t a fan of coffee I was quick to grab food that would sustain me until the next drop. Routine is paramount in keeping steady, supporting the body to maintain levels of energy that last throughout the day and putting self care high on the agenda. My personal changes like yours Rachel Hall has left me realising how long I thought there wasn’t another a way to live and now bring more quality to both my home and work life.
It is an awful curse to feel defeated before the day begins. No wonder our vices to help deal with our exhaustive lives are some of the most traded commodities on earth!
Most people are so overwhelmed by the way their life leads them. Yet you have turned the mountain in to a mole hill with this blog. It simply is this simple.
An amazing transformation that is felt not only by you but everyone you work with and everyone you meet and this comes through different choices in the way you live. Beautiful.
Why can mornings be so hard and evening be so easy? Why at times do we find it hard to wake in the morning but then in the evening we find it hard to sleep? Funny that in the same day we can be so tired at one point but then so awake at another. It’s all about how we are, the quality of how we live and move. I’m not talking about whether you have a roof over your head type quality but more how you are with yourself, your thoughts, your movements when it comes to yourself, are you hard and abrupt with yourself in thought and action. You can push this all to another day or not even give it a thought but you will need to ask the questions, how can one day be different in how you are just by having a different heading. So Sunday into Monday, are they different?, because the sun still comes up and the time in the day is the same but how you are, how you move is different and this impacts greatly on how you feel. Which in turn flows onto the next day and week etc.
Being able to constantly look at our rhythms and see how we can refine them is a constant. Because there are so many things that can change from week to week, so I am constantly looking at how I can support myself to these changes.
It’s amazing how much my quality of life has changed by simply being more gentle and loving with myself, and by listening to and honouring my body. Life is not meant to be this hyper stressed cycle of depletion, yet that is what I have lived for most of my life. Every day is now another opportunity for me to challenge my “normal” of feeling stressed and depleted, of pushing myself, and of feeling unwell and pressured. Self care is the most amazing thing to commit to as the benefits have been across every facet of my life. Before finding Universal Medicine I was ready to give up on life because I always felt so terrible, yet what they present on self care has completely turned life around for me and continues to do so.
Absolutely agree Elizabeth, exhaustion is at epidemic levels, with new coffee shops springing up all over the place and they are always full. Why do we override our feelings and body so much? And what damage and ill health are we creating as a consequence?
One of the great things in life is to feel vital and alive yet most people put up with being depleted and exhausted most of the time. Why? Why do we care so little about ourselves that we are prepared to override and ignore ourselves in that way? Isn’t it time for humanity to take stock, look around and see what is working and what isn’t and from there bring more honesty to our conversations and discussions about how people are living to become so depleted and exhausted?
This is such an extraordinary transformation you must pinch yourself looking back. The power of treating yourself with the love and care you deserve is undeniable…. and in truth, we deserve nothing less.
Growing up in my family it was normal to jump out of bed and be ‘on’. There was always a level of rush and tension- once you were awake you had to be doing something. Everyone in the house was always in a state of anxiety. This has been a habit I am learning to let go of, to not going into anxiousness as soon as I wake but to maintain a steady rhythm.
This is such a powerful reflection of the disregard of our body and the ripple effect this has in our day Rachel. We can change the world by taking responsibility to care for our bodies in the way you have described – amazing and totally within the realm of possibility.
‘The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.’ This is massive, most people feel when change is needed they have to change what they do, but what if all you need to do is change the way you are with yourself, and the quality of how you do what you do? It makes life so simple and you don’t have to leave your job, or your partner or anything… you just need to make a commitment to yourself.
Such a cool blog Rachel – we all focus on what we are doing we forget the fact that it is about who we are and quality we move with – we can do all the right things but if they are not with love then nothing changes.
It stands to reason that depleting ourselves during the day and running on empty is setting ourselves up for how we go to bed and in what state we will wake….and so the cycle continues.
It is very well worth the rich quality of living that is possible by honouring ourselves during the day and making lovingly one loving choice after the next.
Reading your blog again today Rachel – I just love this as this is totally the same experience I have too: “Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.” – And when I am out of whack a bit with this, boy do I know about it the next day…
Like it or not , “The Way Of The Livingness” has turned so many people lives around that you would have to be blind freddy to not at least look deeper into what is being offered right now.
This offers great insight – that how we sleep and wake up in the morning has a lot to do with how we are living during the day – the energy that lives us and we move with or against our true flow.
Rachel thanks for sharing, its a great reminder that if we get caught into being tired or exhausted,its bringing it back to self care and loving choices. When we taking time to self care, make loving choices in the foods we eat and how we take time for ourselves. All these things support our body to be healthier, with more energy and vitality.
Your original morning routine sounds horrendous! and yet it is probably a ‘normal’ sounding morning. It’s common to feel like life is bigger than us and we have to fight our way through the day, working to keep the things we enjoy and need in life while seeking some sort of salvation whether it is through slumping into bed at night or some form of hobby/entertainment, food etc. What you have presented is that there is a way to live which is much like how a child lives, they simply are themselves and master each moment as it comes, they don’t have any ideals or expectations that they are clinging onto which makes them want to have life a certain way – and this gives us our natural rhythm which is powerful and not draining at all!
Taking the time to check in with our bodies and what we are needing, makes the world of difference. Nurturing ourselves supports us throughout each and every day and it is well worth creating the space for us – we are worth it.
I love the simple wisdom of this blog Rachel. A loving relationship we build with ourselves, literally changes the quality of everything in life.
So true Victoria, and when we have set this as our base marker, anything that does not fit into this marker, our body will show us straight away. Awesome body 🙂
I notice that the days where I ‘take the heat off’ and spend the afternoon either eating too much or looking for some sort of distraction that I then wake up the next day behind the eye ball feeling tired and exhausted before the day has started. When I look after myself I have a much more restful sleep and wake up having more energy the next day.
Starting the morning in a gentle rhythm makes a huge difference to my life, no more rushing around and trying to fit it all in; just by changing my routine and developing a steady rhythm I have so much more energy and joy in my mornings – such a different start to the day.
Going with our true flow definitely impacts on our vitality and lives. Going to bed early and making supportive choices during our day, flows on to the next day and the next…
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.” – Your blog is deeply inspiring and what an amazing change Rachel. I too, am learning to listen more to what my body needs, and be more loving and gentle with myself and in everything I do.
Rachel you live in a way that creates space and that is not at the mercy of time.
To be able to do this is to change how we live – our whole relationship with mornings and getting things done. It’s great to read this again, as I have recently had a baby and my morning rhythm is going through a reshuffle. But to keep it to space – to communicate wit those around me about the mornings, has been so supportive in terms of finding my new rhythm.
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”
What a great recipe for life. So often we think we have to change what we do and we struggle to meet the requirements we set ourselves but by putting the emphasis on ‘how’ rather than’ what’ we bring the possibility of changing the quality we live in and thus we change how we feel, this in turn impacts on what we do so that the quality of our lived life is forever deepening.
As Rachel has found I too have discovered that it is really so simple to bring myself out of long term exhaustion and to bring a sense of well being and more harmony in my life; it truly is about developing self care and nurturing into my ways and into my relationship with myself.
“Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.” Making these simple changes in lifestyle make a huge difference to how we feel day-to-day…it’s so worth taking care to self-nurture.
That lying in bed ‘wishing sleep can all take it away’ behaviour is all too common and something I experienced for years until I realised that living far more true to myself in the day and truly taking deep care and love for myself and others, is actually one of the corner stones of living fuller and hence not seeking to escape life.
What a contrast in lifestyle Rachel Hall! I felt tense and wanted to hold my breath when I read about your old routine! When I take responsibility for myself in any area of life the results are extraordinary! I’m posting this on social media – the world needs to feel the possibility when we learn to appreciate and truly care for ourselves.
Well you can’t argue with that as a complete turn around! Amazing. I am really tired at the moment and have to really look at the way I am living my day to day in order to change my energy levels.
I find that when I am out of rhythm, it has a tremendous effect how my day goes – so getting back into my rhythm and also connecting with my breath through the gentle breath meditation, because mostly breathing will be out too, helps me and supports me to reconnect with myself and get back on track.
I love my morning routine now as it starts naturally early and there is no rush anymore. I have time to read articles, to write what I want to write, to enjoy the quiet of the morning, taking the time my body needs in the bathroom as well as enjoying breakfast in harmony. So by the time I start work I feel in the flow of it all already – absolutely no comparison how it used to be many many years ago.
Everything we do is affected by everything else we have done. The choices of our day affect how we feel at the end of it, the way we prepare to go to bed and at what time and the quality of our sleep which in turn determines how we will fell when we wake up. Making different choices, especially where these are self-loving and our of true self-regard and care, mean that there are very different results – so beautifully illustrated by this blog.
So simple that it can be hard to hear as we may not want to be faced with how much we have made a meal of life up to this point. So the question is, do we continue to choose the struggle and ‘daily grind’ or do we allow ourselves to be inspired by what Rachel has shared and make changes for ourselves? “Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.”
When we love ourselves we can quite literally change not only our world but the world.
Your turn around is highly remarkable and one that I would expect many would envy. But in the knowing that such change is possible inspires a change of living for a different outcome.
An amazing blog – some would even say it is a small miracle in that it is totally bucking the world wide trends of exhaustion and fatigue, evidenced by the sky rocketing consumption of coffee and prescription of sleeping medication.
What you are showing is that being well rested and energised is not a thing of fantasy or left to those with nothing to do in their days, but a very tangible and accessible reality though the choices we make on a daily basis.
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.” So true, and when we embrace this it becomes really obvious very quickly when we have slipped and drop into a bit of disregard.
Rachel, what I love about what you are sharing is how very simple this way of living is, ‘Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day’, it feels like a very straight forward, common sense way of living, thank you for sharing this.
Having time in the morning to appreciate me is something that was completely alien to me, recently I have started to create more space for getting ready in the mornings and every time I do it feels very supportive of me and my day ahead. I have not yet got this in a consistent rhythm but it is coming, the more I commit to it the more I confirm me and in doing so also confirm all women everywhere.
Rachel, I thought I was reading about myself when reading this blog as it was similar to my lifestyle a number of years ago.. What you have written about is so common for most people – going to bed late, feeling exhausted, struggling to get out of bed and being in a racy state to get to work on time. Great way to start a day.!? This appears to be taken for granted that this is the norm and the way to live our lives as for most of us we have not had good role models to show us another way. Bazaar behaviour when I look back at this now knowing it is more important to lovingly take care of myself so then it is possible to feel a sense of vitality and well being throughout life.
What I find is if my morning routine allows plenty of time to prepare myself lovingly for work and I take this energy into my day more space seems to open up and I complete my work earlier than usual. I have come to realise that if I am more still and focussed at work then time does not become an issue.
It is amazing that with some simple changes your morning routine became so supportive and spacious. I found too that going to bed early and waking early creates so much space in the morning and how this is such a self-loving thing to do. We only need to be willing to go there and care for ourselves deeply.
I am finding the more and more I experiment with my morning routine, it becomes clearer as to how I need to be with myself, how I need to feel, my movements, that if I am all scattered and in drive, focusing on time, watching the clock, that I tend to leave the house with my body and mind completely separated. Not together at all and that then radiates into the day. But when I am consciously aware of myself, my movements congruent with my whole working together, the day is totally different.
Many times I remember sleeping through my alarm and literally just getting up, throwing the nearest clothes on and make a head way for the door. Now I get up early and give myself time to get things done and organise the day ahead. Even though I still find sometimes I don’t give myself enough time or spend to long on one thing then find myself rushing again, huge progress has been made, but still a work in progress.
I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.
Our routines and rhythm are the essential foundation for our daily life, and yet how much attention do we give them ; and do we indeed honour them.
Yes Rachel what a difference a healthy lifestyle and self caring choices make.
That is awesome Rachel. So many people get by life with coffee, running from one place to the next, never actually allowing their body to settle. Naturally our bodies are designed to go to bed early and get up early yet when we push to stay up late at night we work against our bodies natural rhythms and as soon as we work against our bodies natural rhythms we tire and exhaust our self.
Your sharing how our choices affect all is great to see here and with the changes you made how awesome your days have become, rippling over to your clients and all you get in contact with, very cool indeed.
And how awesome is this Rachel – “These days I wake up early and naturally, I hardly ever need the alarm to remind me it’s time to get up. I feel refreshed and alert after a good night’s sleep and no longer need coffee to get me started, nor do I dread that it’s a work day and not the weekend.” I am exactly in the same boat and it feels just great, to be waking up by myself, refreshed and ready to go and needing nothing to get a ‘kick start’ into the day, just love this work with Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, awesome all of it.
Often if I am starting to feel frustration with others, in actuality the frustration is first directed toward myself, for not having done something or been a certain way – but rather than be honest and uncover what is truly going on there, it is easier to project that frustration outwards, and blame the world for not being right, in our trying to control situations – – but there is no healing in this, only greater harm towards the others and to oneself, as there is no honesty that allows the space for greater awareness and understanding of all to follow.
I love what has been shared here by the writer of the responsibility of what I have to do for my body to feel health and alive. It is the responsibility that makes the changes and the willingness to step back and have a look at what is not working and start again.
Yes first it is the willingness to truly look and accept our choices as to where we are at, and then taking responsibility for these choices – and then we can look at another way and choose again to reconnect at any time.
Even before Universal Medicine I had been coming to the realisation that coffee can only prop you up so much, and a false crutch at that as it only zaps your adrenals deeper into depletion, continuing the spiral downward into total exhaustion. Until comes the day that no amount of coffee will keep the body moving – as it is sick, shattered, wired and in deep imbalance.. this is not a case of caffeine deficiency, but rather a strong clear message from your body that the way you have been living is not sustainable nor loving, and that there can be another way.
Your blog Rachel showed it very clear that loving choices can change our lives – wonderful.
I love this Rachel, how much can change from making simple loving choices that truly work not only for you – but for all your clients and family and work colleagues who get to feel the flow on effects from you being the real you.
It’s true Ray, if there is something that is going awry, or not feeling so great, the first thing to consider is ‘how am i treating myself’ – often the recklessness, clumsiness, dismissing, recrimination have crept in without realising it so, and the worse we feel, the easier it is to numb out on foods that only spiral the bad feelings… By making that choice to honour, respect and love oneself in the first instance, makes it a natural extension to then be able to hold any other in honour, respect and love.
It’s crazy how we continue with such destructive behaviours and patterns that become so ingrained and cemented that we don’t even have that faintest notion that there could be another way. This was the case for me also, until encountering Serge Benhayon and listening to his presentations on self-care and the importance of rhythms. Now when I attempt to honour the rhythm that my body wishes, I am repaid with renewed strength,health, vitality, alertness and awareness. it’s not rocket science, but it’s a science definitely worth exploring.
Hello Rachel and change this one and so many other things will fall into line, “The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.” So the next time you are wondering why you feel the way you do, take a look at how you are treating yourself, are you looking and taking great care of yourself? or are you just doing what you do.
My morning routine is forever refining as I become more and more sensitive as a woman and how I am in life.
I am normally up at 3:30 am, this morning I had a sleep in until 5:50am as my body needed the rest and this was lovely. In the past I too would struggle to get out of bed and get going. On the days where I have been appreciating myself I find this much easier to do as I have a freshness and spark to carry into the next day as I haven’t taken on so much from the day before.
As we start to assume responsibility for our own life rhythm, we must come to understand that we choose the angst and the push and drive that Rachel mentions, thinking we have to be like this, but actually it is about having an identity no matter what the cost – it seems evident that in most people’s cases that we do believe that we must be in pain to gain. So in my experience, it has been amazing to find an organisation in Universal Medicine that offers support to let go of this need for identity and begin to live from an innate quality within us that is naturally vital and joyful.
A fabulous blog Rachel, sharing how it indeed is very possible to re-turn back to a body of vitality, by taking the steps to self care… brilliant!…”my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am”
I can actually remember as soon as my eyes opening in the morning I would be thinking of where I can my next caffeine or sugar hit. The more I have worked on myself and looked after myself before going to bed and during the day the less likely I am to wake up thinking about food. Now instead on most days I wake up naturally with a bonze and zest for life that can’t wait to get on.
Thanks Rachel- a timely reminder as I have let go of some of these basics and slipped back into a momentum of trying to get through the day. This has led to me feeling exhausted and much of what you express in the earlier part of your blog. It is simple changes to the way I care for myself that brings back that quality to my day.
If we want things to be different we have to be prepared to make changes. Sometimes we might not be confident what those changes could be, what I have learnt is that whatever goes in effects the quality of what comes out. That includes, food, quality of sleep, how i react to things, emotions, exercise. As you have shared Rachel, it is really worthwhile looking at the rat wheel we may find yourself running and giving ourselves permission to step off.
“…falling into bed in a stupor wishing that a good night’s sleep would make it all better again… which of course it never did, because nothing had changed.” – Isn’t interesting how so often you hear the phrase – “just have a good night’s sleep and everything will be better in the morning”. Of course sleep is super important, there’s no denying that, but a single night’s sleep is not going to be a magical salve that scrubs away the dints and dings our bodies cop (not to mention the emotional havoc) when we drive ourselves day in day out.
For many it would seem like a fairytale… And that is just the living without coffee bit… Let alone actually waking up feeling energized! But this is what the world needs to hear… That such a reconfiguring of such an ingrained paradigm is possible to turn around.
The changes you have experienced in your life and sharing with us here Rachael are profound and possible for everyone no matter what walk of life we come from. My experience of self-love has been in baby steps, forever deepening my love and tenderness with myself through coming back to my body feeling and listening to what is going on. I have been able to recognise what my body needs as in rest, slow down, stop or just be more loving and tender in what I am doing. Reading your blog this morning reminds me to reflect and appreciate just how far I have come with learning to love myself deeply and expressing the love that I am to others.
And I have to add that the going to bed early is also a real winner for me in supporting me to handle the next day. It allows enough sleep and so you don’t wake tired and you have less frustration through the day etc. etc. I have always been one to go to bed early, however, these days my focus is to be more caring about it and with this as a purpose you do feel the difference instantly. There are of course times when other commitments mean that I can’t always get myself to bed as early as I would have liked, and the next morning I do feel it with a tiredness and more likely to get overwhelmed or frustrated about things. But when you do this enough many times you know it does not work, and likewise, when you put yourself early to bed and feel how much it supports you, it becomes something you are more and more likely to do only because it feels so great.
There is a huge difference in how we handle the day if we rush the morning preparation versus if we pace ourselves and get up early enough to not have to rush around. It is like that start to the day actually sets the tempo for the rest of the day. And not just that but it sets the tempo for the next few days too because the start of the day as well as the rest of the day will have a huge impact on the quality of your sleep as well and hence also on the quality of the next day too. One choice rolls into another, and each choice we make will have its consequences – to either support us in our day or not. It is amazingly powerful to realise this and then to work with it to improve the day’s quality all the time.
A self caring regime makes all the difference to everyday life
Great blog Rachel as it is this simple. I also have found that looking after and being gentle with myself is a real game changer. The frustration goes, the rushing goes, the internal chatter is put on hold and I glide through the day. I have found that the going to bed early really supports this. If I let slip on one of these things I feel exhausted again.
The common sense is this blog really works, it is funny and detremental how we can run from what is simple and instead choose to make more complicated.
My life has changed big time too since I started really looking after myself with so much more care. My fall down was tea , caffeinated tea whenever I needed a lift and pastries or biscuits to boost me around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and sometimes around 11 in the morning too. It seems inconceivable to me now that I should want to burden my body with these substances but then it seemed quite normal.
I have heard it said that exhaustion is the new epidemic of humanity and it is true, nearly everyone, is living like you were Rachel. Yet we do not generally see this as an illness or a disease, yet it should be because something is so very wrong if we are living this way and not the true vitality we could be.
I love the morning time. I too wake up early. I get a few hours work done which are often the most productive. I exercise, take a walk and lovingly get myself ready for the day. I spend time with my son and he too has a relaxed morning before leaving for school. The other morning we skipped together down the driveway on the way to the bus stop. It was such a moment of joy for us both and I realised that our morning rhythm supports us to live in a way that is full of joy. We are not rushed or hurried getting our the door. We have all the space to be ourselves and let the divine in.
There is no magic pill that makes for a day of steadiness and vitality. It is not rocket science either. It is all about the choices we make and how we care for ourselves. When we are honest with ourselves we know what to do. Coffee is not even a band aid solution to feeling tired – it is damaging and drains you of energy (contrary to popular belief). TV is not relaxing, it also drains you. Staying up late is obvious…there are so many choices within our rhythm that we can make. We are all capable of leading the life that Rachel so beautiful describes and all it takes is our choices.
My morning routine can set me up for the whole day. However I am aware that it is because of the choices that I make to honour myself and what I am feeling from when I wake and then into the rest of the day that determines my quality during the day.
Focusing on our morning routine can be life changing, feeling into how we are when we interact with our house mates, partners, family, feeling into how we have connected with ourselves in the first instance. I can feel a difference in how I am with those in my life, if I haven’t connected with myself first. When I allow function, ‘what I need to get done’ take over true connection. Allowing this to unfold before the work day begins, I have found very supportive.
I am sure your past morning routine would resonate with many people – the exhaustion, the stress and rush and the copious amounts of coffee. Although it is without perfection, I have a similar morning routine as you, where I am able to get up early and prepare for my day with the space to do what is needed – stretch, work, dress myself and leave the house calm, collected and supported. However I still have days where I wake up feeling tired, and for me they are a opportunity to look back over my day before and see where I ate something that is making me tired because my body is expending extra energy to digest it, or because it was sugary. Or maybe I got into a stimulating conversation and left myself behind in the process – or perhaps I took on someone else’s emotions as my own, or did I not wind down fully for sleep – or a combination of these. No longer is exhaustion just a thing I feel, but a marker and opportunity to address an aspect of my life so that it no longer drains me.
One of the biggest changes in our life can be simply going to bed early. It takes care of the morning rush and allows us extra hours of sleep if we are exhausted. It takes a bit of discipline but the rewards are amazing.
What a change Rachel to “honour where I am at” what a powerful statement and honouring of where we are at in life. Thank you for sharing the changes that have made such a shift in the way you live your life.
It is very supportive to live commited to every moment of our day. Not choosing to cope but to truly handle and heal what is there for us to look at. This is deeply supportive for our rhythm, and gives us the opportunity to be truly energised ready to go every day. Not hauling all the unresolved stuff with us through night and day, which is hard work as we are naturally capable of living in a harmonious way, choosing to deal with all that is there.
I am reminded again and again that the simplest way to reduce exhaustion (aside from going to bed early and properly winding down in the evening, i.e., no stimulating entertainment) is to be present with you as much as possible, instead of racing ahead to the next thing.
This is another benefit to self-care and self-nurturing – when I take the time in my day to gently and lovingly wash my face or prepare a meal etc., it is not just the loving act of doing something for me, it’s also the choice to be present with what I’m doing when I’m doing it. When I commit to this, the differences I feel in my day are huge. And equally, when I don’t commit to it, the change in my mood and the drop in my energy level is super obvious.
What you first describe, the rushing, the stress, the pushing/drive, the tiredness is how I would say on some level is pretty much how most of the world lives .. and it is exhausting, literally. It is great you have shared that this can change and how, that it’s about self-love and taking true care of ourselves and our bodies. Your life now feels beautiful compared to what it once was and the quality of how you live sounds so much better; with you still getting a lot of things done! Thank you for sharing.
That is so great Rachel, how beautiful to hear that you have changed your life by your ryhthm and what you include and exclude , as by signs of your body. It is so prevelant to read that by virtue of eating healthy, having a early bed rythm and so much more, that you are more vital and no longer have this day-struggle! That is terrific and for those who look for a vital life an absolute example(inspiration). Many people will read this and consider their lives for themselves and can see that they are able to choose different if they want – they can.
Small changes in our routine where we change the focus from what needs to be done to how can I support my body, make an enormous difference to the outcome. The focus stops being on all we do and more on the body we bring to all we do.
I’m really starting to appreciate how much energy I use in not dealing with my issues and how, when I do, there’s so much more space just to be and do what I need to do in a quality that is simply lovely. So seeing how I have complicated my life to distract myself from the fact I haven’t been living me. Such a work in progress for myself so awesome to read the difference you’ve made in your life from alarm blaring at you to get up and you rising to meet a day where you can be with yourself and be fully present. What an amazing freedom to be so with oneself there’s nothing in ones day to hide from because one knows one’ll always be there for oneself.
I love my early mornings. The space. The purpose. The platform that it builds for the rest of the day. It’s amazing how dramatically I have changed my rhythm. Thank you to Universal Medicine for the inspiration – it’s magical medicine for the day!
I thought my morning routine was pretty solid, but what I have found recently is that a rhythm, of which my morning routine is a part, is not static, it evolves as I evolve. It is time to allow more space in my morning for a morning walk and to make it consistent, I can really feel my body…and the dog…letting me know this is how I would like to start my day.
Hello Rachel and this is a massive change. I was getting tired just reading the first part of your blog but the way you ended it is the road map for us all, thank you, “The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”
In my experience children also respond very quickly to the sort of adjustment you’ve described… the change is profound, far more so than with any other sort of intervention I have seen in all my years of working in complementary and alternative medicine.
Such a simple thing you’ve shared here Rachel and yet the impact is so profound. If parents were just taught this when their children were very young, we would not have half the health issues many children present with, nor half the learning difficulties with concentration, comprehension etc. I know this is casting a wide net, however it is a connection and relationship I see play out everywhere. Tired children who are underslept and exhausted require far more sugar and other forms of stimulation to get through the day. This increased nervous system activity makes them far less able to concentrate and focus. They also get sick far more often as I have observed… and all this so easily remedied by having a solid and supportive wind-down and sleep rhythm at the end of their days.
This is just what I needed to read this morning I have been feeling all week a need to deepen my level of self-love and nurturing as a lot of what I do no longer feels supporting for me. Whenever I feel exhausted at the end of my working day I realise how I have been during the day and I have checked out and gone into the drive of getting things done. To not have been aware of this through the day alerts me to just how checked out and driven I was. This doesn’t happen often these days for the most part I am present most of the time but feel I need to slow down even further and listen to my body more and listen to the messages asking me to slow down and take a rest even if that is as simple as a gentle breath while sitting on the toilet and re-connect with my body deeply. When I am standing talking with someone gently moving my wait from one leg to another with awareness is something I often do just to check in with my body.
It’s truly a wake-up call when we realise that the way we’ve been living our lives – in stress, reaction, checking out, avoidance – is purely down to personal choice at every turn. To then choose to deal with what lies beneath all that as a way of changing the quality of how we feel in and about life, is a courageous and self-loving step as we then have to confront our issues and from there begin to choose differently. Your blog highlights the deep benefits available to us when we can dedicate to this ongoing, unending process.
Thank you Rachel for sharing your awesome tips in how to overcome exhaustion and instead feel more energised in the day, such as choosing to be gentle with yourself, connect to who you TRULY are, being honest with where you are at and what your body is asking of you – and then honour what is needed.
It is amazing to feel how even the simplest of things can make a huge difference in our day to day. I certainly have experienced the difference of going to bed just one hour earlier than normal and then feeling the difference in how I wake up and how I feel the very next day. When you register such simple benefits, it becomes hard to ignore that this could be done more often. And so it then becomes a choice to support the body or not. Sharing our experiences is also very valuable as then we can learn from each other.
You only have to see the cues outside coffee shops like Starbucks to know the whole world is exhausted. A few simple changes and some better choices can change ones life from misery to one of joy and with energy to burn. My story is similar to yours Rachel, my day started with coffee but also nicotine as well, couldn’t do anything before I got my fix can’t imagine how bad I’d feel now being back there.
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”
No magic pills or potions required – just plain and simple connection within ourselves.
Rachel your blog is nothing short of a living miracle. The contrast between your morning routines is absolutely, stop you in your tracks, downright extraordinary to say the very least! Huge congratulations – you are an amazing example of how we can turn our lives around by simply choosing to take better care of ourselves in everything we do.
As I was reading how you used to get up every morning Rachel I could totally relate (except for the coffee bit, never liked the stuff!). I used to set my alarm about 20 minutes early so I could press the snooze button to ease myself out of bed, as getting straight up would have given me a heart attack! Rush, rush, rush, then out the door on my way to work. Wow, what a way to start the day. But this is how the majority of us do it. Until… Universal Medicine. Listening to Serge Benhayon present on self-care and how precious our bodies are changed how I was, not only in the mornings but also during the day and evenings. Now if I wake up feeling a bit sluggish, I stop and reflect on the previous day. Did I overdo it? Was I not looking after myself with what I ate? Did I go to bed when my body wanted to or later when my head thought it was a good idea? Not just take the sluggishness as a given but to investigate where I can support myself more. This feels amazing and deeply nurturing.
As we are living a 24/7 cycle how we wake will reveal the quality of the choices we have been living and sleeping in leading up to that moment.
I like to spend a few moments to connect with how I am feeling before getting out of bed and make sure I am with me before I make any move. It is like magic how the quality of presence with my body creates space.
The power of simple loving choices, what a world of difference it makes to the quality of our lives. Very cool Rachel.
It is always inspiring to read what is possible, when we allow ourselves to feel and honour what we are feeling, knowing who we truly are. Honesty is a first step to enter gentleness and make it part of our daily choices. And Rachel you are an amazing example of what is the future if we choose to be honest about where we are at and change our ways.
Wow Rachel, what a turnaround. What touched me most is where you share that what supported you the most was how you are with you, rather than ‘changing’ the doing. Many people know quite well what they want to change about themselves, but so often there’s little to no understanding to why we do the behaviours that we actually do. This keeps us away from feeling the lovely being that we all in fact are. It’s confirming and inspiring to read how you take the time to appreciate yourself and feel where you’re at. It is quite obvious that this works far better than ignoring what we feel, but this way of living is still not common / much reflected. Thank you Rachel.
WOW that is a huuuugggee difference! The first scene is how many people live and lately I have been aware how I rush or do not give myself the time I need. Forget maths and English, this should be our foundational learning .. how to live in a way that truly supports us.
Such a great transformation and so honestly presented. To go from exhausted to energised by bringing life back to the basics of self love and nurturing.
I just had an experience this past week where I took a phone call later than I should have and out of obligation, feeling like I needed to be there for them, so spoke with them for over half an hour. I then woke up the next morning and I was feeling sooooo lethargic, I didn’t want to bound out of bed, I didn’t want to get to work. It was such a clear by product of my choices from the previous day. It was quite amazing, so getting the basics right in honouring ourselves is incredibly important.
For me I started changing my morning routine when I had kids. I noticed that my day was starting in resentment and tension and rush. They had woken me up and I was ‘on duty’ from the get go. Playing catch up and taking it out on myself and them, that I hadn’t had “my own space”. And invariably, what started bad, just got worse as the day went on. So I started to get up earlier, before they woke up. And was blown away by what this offered. The space and focus and clarity to do things at my speed and in my time. But what was truly amazing was how this then continued into my day. And this is something that I have been refining and refining. It is a circle. Without that tension and stress, I look after myself better, go to bed less exhausted, wake up earlier and do it again. Of course it isn’t always like that and I still slip up aplenty and get thrown out by my day. But changing that rhythm to support myself going in to my day has been game-changing. Truly. I could write for hours about the benefits!!
Making space in my day by rising early is such a gift, a gift that carries throughout the day. Lots gets completed before work and the day flows with greater ease.
I love the fact you’ve included in your list of things you now do to ensure you feel vital, healthy and fresh each day, ‘I have committed to dealing with my issues’. This is something often missed in it’s importance when it comes to sleeping deeply and restoratively. Holding onto reactions or hurts from the day is very draining and debilitating, not at all conducive to feeling truly great as you’ve described.
Awesome work Rachel – real practise and true work is able to come from this living. It totally exposes to us the fact that how we life within our lives ; personal relationship with yourself, body and mind.. Is indeed depending our quality of work we can offer and be living in all of the time. So healing your hurts is benefitical for everyone! So cool.
I absolutely love the simplicity of what you have shared here Rachel – applying some common sense and basic self love and care and wow how that has the power to change things! Thank you for the awesome reminder of these ‘basic’ yet super important and foundational steps to embracing our true vitality!
I have long held a pattern of rushing last minute and being late for appointments, what I am coming to realise is this is just a loveless self sabotaging act that is also disrespectful to those I am going to meet. When I get up early and give myself plenty of time and really appreciate who I am then I am less likely to rush. Rushing is so last season.
I have really come to appreciate the fact that while I fought time continually in my life, what I had not been doing is giving myself space. Then, like you are saying Rachel, through changing my rhythm, through changing how I am with me, I found all this space to do what I need to do, want to do and more.
Thank you Rachel. The way we wake up in the morning sets the tone for the whole day. It is difficult to be enthusiastic and joyful about life when you have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning. I read your blog eager to find out what your secret was and of course it all comes back to simple common sense and is no secret at all. Thank you for reminding me that the answer to my exhaustion lies in addressing my issues and choosing from a place of love rather than irresponsibly choosing to ‘get by’.
“Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day” Those words have made me stop and appreciate that I have also been making very different choices via those same simple changes and enjoying the outcome immensely. Amazing isnt it how much we resist doing the things that are truly good for us.
Rachel a beautiful, honest expression of what many of us can relate to. I also can understand “resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.” When we don’t deal with what’s upsetting us, the coping mechanisms often simply make us feel worse, as burying the truth of how we feel and keeping it down takes a lot of energy. Dealing with our issues means we don’t have those dreadful explosive emotional days which are so very depleting. And what I have learned is dealing with how we feel is often as simple as expressing it to someone who cares.
The way I am choosing to see it now is why would I even want to sleep in when living me in my day is far more enjoyable and vitalising for my body? I used to sleep in, or at least stay in bed a little longer than usual a lot and always found it is actually quite draining and disregarding almost like I was using it as an escape
The key ingredient is shared so honestly in this blog of keeping self care real and making it a point of reference each time we may wobble or feel the exhaustion levels rise again. Thanks for sharing that there is no perfection but always room for looking at how we live in another way.
I love what you wrote in your blog Rachel about designing and adapting your morning routine to what’s needed for YOUR body at the time; in the past I’ve shaped my sleeping, exercise and food routine around what I ‘thought’ was right, or by copying other people and this was never sustainable nor did I enjoy it. Everyone’s bodies are different and thus we require very different rhythms to truly support what is needed.
Rachel, I can feel in how you describe the rush in your life and the pressure it created, that we choose such behaviour thinking at the time that there is no alternative. In my life it has felt locked in, a set course and no way out, which brings such a sadness with it. The great thing about so many blogs including yours on this site is how many people have discovered that there is an alternative and what an amazing quality of life it can lead to. Thank you Universal Medicine for showing the way.
I loved re-reading your blog, you are an inspiration for many who tell themselves there is no way to deal with life, work and family without the constant rush, stimulation and resulting exhaustion.
When I start my day early from a restful nights sleep I feel ordered and on top of things for the rest of the day.
I remember the days when I started my day with breakfast television and a cup of coffee, I then switched that for the radio which I would have on all morning and the duration of my car journey to work. I would arrive exhausted and have more coffee to get me through the day. I now treasure the stillness of the early morning with the sound of the occasional plane going past and find that the way I set up the start of the day makes a huge difference to the way my day unfolds.
I realised this morning that I actually left the house without the 5 minute rush to get out the door because I made a choice not to be dictated by time and instead to connect and stay with the flow I had built during my morning routine. It felt so joyful leaving the house and such a gorgeous way to start my day.
Rachel this blog is so real in what I have faced with my life. Often looking for perfection in every aspect I would get the routine down pat but the level of overwhelm was always there that I chose to ignore.
Since cutting out most forms of stimulation in the evening I now wake up feeling fresh and joy-full for the day, if in the past for example I would watch the news before going to bed or a drama I could spend the whole night feeling restless this would then impact into the next day. TV before bed is definitely not worth it.
“Back then, coping meant yelling at my staff, reaching for a coffee or a doughnut between patients, pushing myself by going for a gruelling run, collapsing in front of the TV with a couple of beers before falling into bed in a stupor wishing that a good night’s sleep would make it all better again… which of course it never did, because nothing had changed.” I would say this is the norm of how 99.9 % of the worlds population live on some level or extent. We have totally given up on ourselves and humanity, and accepted this is how it is. This is not our normal way to be, it’s merely existing in misery – a far cry from our true natural joy and vitality.
The quality of tomorrow’s morning starts today ~ this is one of the greatest lessons of life we can ever been given.
25 years ago I was wishing I could feel more like me, not this rushed, stressed person, only calm when everything was in its place, and just for that moment because it wouldn’t last long. I knew how I wanted to feel, I just didn’t believe it was a simple process to get there. It felt very elusive. Now, because I understand that everything I need is within me and self care and love are the most important things I can do for myself, everything has changed. Now I have a foundation of stillness, a foundation of love. I understand that rhythm is important and that living true to my own rhythm is the way for me.
Amanda, this was how I felt too. I observed others who were far steadier than myself and I couldn’t understand how they did not seem to get stressed and were constant rather than up one moment and down the next. I was constantly rushing and never able to get everything done. Changing the way I live and removing some of the stimulants which do not support me has made a huge difference to the stillness I now feel in my body.
Rachel it is beautiful how when we honour ourselves and our body with self-love, our body pays us back in many ways, and we are no longer held hostage to the constant feeling of exhaustion.
Wow Rachel, the changes you have implemented in your life feel amazing. It feels like there is a point where the body says ‘I can’t do it anymore‘ and will not continue to lie to the world, to others but most importantly to ourselves. Your daily commitment to being more honest and loving has changed your life and that is to be celebrated – everyone, your family, your clients and you now get all of the very best of you. Thanks for sharing.
I have found one of the greatest differences has come about by not pushing my body to stay up late, and going to bed around 9pm, it gives my body the best opportunity to rejuvenate itself while I sleep, before I was not allowing my body time to truly rest and recover from the way I was living.
Awesome blog Rachel. You make it clear that our choices affect every aspect of our lives. It we choose to look after ourselves we can enjoy a vital body and a rich life.
Life is just so much more joyful these days when I don’t wake up hungover reaching for the coffee and the fags then falling out the door going to a job I do only because it makes me money. Instead I have plenty of time to have a walk with my wife and dog, do a bit of writing and eat some nourishing food if I choose to.
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.” This is HUGE as in life we are sold the idea that we Do is all that matters there is never any talk about the quality we are in when carrying out the task yet I have discovered for myself, since the introduction of Universal Medicine in my life that my quality and thus what I bring to every moment is what counts towards how I will feel in my body and like you Rachel starting with self care was key.
I love this post Rachel. Every time I read it I’m so impressed and inspired by those changes. It’s so relatable, I have lived in that very same way. These days I have more of a morning routine than ever, despite the fact that I’m still working on my exhaustion and can at times find it difficult to wake up. But slowly slowly the level of self care builds up.
Me too. I love this blog and all the comments. It totally confirms me and how I feel about myself and inspires me to go that step further to deepen the quality in which I am living, moment to moment. It reminds me that to be light I am to treat myself lightly in everything. the way I ‘think’ the way I move the way I eat and the way I view myself and others and to know that if heaviness creeps in I can re-connect to the light of the soul at any time, my body being my greatest ally.
It just goes to show how simple it is to change – and that we can all do this.
Just for a moment imagine what the world would be like if people had no need for stimulants of any sort… No alcohol, sugar, no caffeine in any form at all… What on earth would the world be like? Hey … Wait a moment this is exactly how Universal Medicine teaches us to live… Wow !
Initially – it would be a mess, but then we would wake up to reality.
Beautiful Rachel – your words inspire me to see that the quality I choose in every little thing is what defines my day, and feeds into my sleep and my next morning. If we don’t stop to take the care we truly deserve in every moment, the next one quickly gets to feel quite overloaded.
Amazing changes Rachel. Simple and yet profound support we can all give ourselves. “Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.”
What I got so strongly from your blog today Rachel is that how we choose to live effects us so much. And that we have a choice as to whether or not to support ourselves to respond to life. You have now chosen self-care, self-love and self-responsibility and you are now much more open to what comes your way as you have a foundation in which to live that from. Inspiring stuff – thank you.
I do find that when I go to bed early then I wake early and have plenty of time to do stuff before going to work – your list of things you do for you before you leave for work is inspiring, Rachel, thank you
Same goes for me Carmel! And I’m with you, that list of Rachels is amazing! It’s like she’s achieved a full days work and all that before she’s even left for work.
I agree and reading about it I can feel how calm and unrushed it is and how the foundation built supports the rest of the day. I’m inspired too.
The quality of my whole day, in fact my whole life has improved deeply through going to bed earlier (when I am tired) and waking more early. I have space and stillness to nurture myself, it allows for preparation with no rush and it feels like an absolutely sacred part of the day.
Rachel, what you have written here has also been my experience, ‘Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day’, I notice that if i get up late and am rushed then my whole day feels like a rush, I find it so much more supportive to wake early and have a steady start to the day and even though I may have had less sleep I feel much more energized, steady and enjoy my day so much more.
This is a great blog Rachel and I really love your sharing on your daily rhythm’s and routine and that the real change is how you do things in a stillness gentleness and flow . I too have found this really makes the whole difference and brings a responsibility , appreciation and love to our lives.
Our daily choices are so very powerful. Every little one of them.
All as important as each other.
Being responsible for our own lives and appreciating who we are is key.
This is so true Kathryn. I’m reflecting on how I choose to go to bed. The last few nights I have turned the lights out about half an hour after I knew I needed to be asleep. The result of that is that I’ve had difficulty waking up each morning. I know this because when I honour myself and go to sleep when my body tells me its time, I don’t have the difficulty or at least it’s not a struggle.
Great article and comments having me look at what true responsibility is hiding behind temporal versions of the same. Thank you.
I have also made changes in my life rather than finding strategies to check out and escape. Reading your blog reminded me how often I would try and get through the week longing for the weekend and now everyday has purpose and it is the same as the next, and if it is not equally as supportive I have the opportunity to reassess the choices I have made and see what I can do more lovingly for myself in the next day.
Awesome article Rachel- so inspiring. What stands out for me is- ” I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.” Power-full act of true responsibility. It is clearly shown in how your life completely turned around, from dreading life to now embracing it in full.
Stand out line for me here is…..” I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.” This is true responsibility, it isn’t just being aware of what your issues are, it is having awareness of them, feeling them, healing them.
Awesome Raegan – How revealing it is that our coping mechanisms keep us stuck in the cycle of exhaustion and overwhelm when truly loving choice can allow us to turn it all around. For me this shows that I am making a choice to be exhausted and overwhelmed and I must take responsibility for this.
What I am learning and finding what is supporting me, is accepting where I am, being honest with myself and going deeper in being gentle, having a rhythm in nurturing myself. Not be hard on myself if I make a choice that was not so long or supportive, but learn from it. It is a continuous refining and learning.
Amita, I appreciate what you have written here. It sounds like basic stuff but when it is all combined and lived to the best of your ability on a daily basis, the results make an outstanding difference. It has inspired me to be more consistent in making loving choices for myself knowing that it about more than me as an individual; it’s also about the impact on others around me, thank you!
There was an essential time in my life when I was very ill and utterly exhausted and this was felt the most when I woke up in the morning. Eventually and with support, I realised that how I felt when I woke up was determined by how I felt when I went to bed, which was determined by how I had spent the evening which was determined by how I had spent the day, which was determined by how I woke up that morning. seeing this cycle put firmly in place and in to my hands the level of responsibility that I have towards my own well being, and that if I wanted to feel better, I had to start making changes to how I was living at each stage of the day, as each one was feeding in to the next. Eventually things did change. I started by just addressing the one area – going to bed, and slowly built up the will to and the vitality to address the others. A continued work in progress of course, but incredibly well worth the journey.
Thank you Rachel for a great blog, and what an amazing change from how you once lived, learning to look after ourselves in a loving way changes our whole life, it is so simple when we come to see it, and adopt it as part of our daily rhythm.
”So why is my morning routine so different now? Because I have learned that by looking after myself” the simplicity and power in taking care of oneself is something that I used to overlook. The difference now is quite profound. Take care of myself and feel revitalised and ready for the next day or push myself, ignore what my body tells me and I feel like I have to drag my body around
Rachel, this blog was great to read today as I have had a lot going on and honestly feel quite exhausted. I know that I can rest to support myself but also stay connected to my body and make supportive and loving choices for it.
Thank you Rachel, It is amazing how you operate on what appears to be sustainable, and constant renewable energy source, that has an endless supply. Its that ‘constant’ and continuous factor of ‘self care’ and ‘self love’ that’s what is the sustainable fuel for the body, and you are a living example of this. To me, this has to be the cornerstone of preventative medicine and the way forward in health promotion for public health
How we live, contributes to how we sleep, which contributes to how we live….the cycle is unmistakable and the benefits of honouring this fact are huge.
Totally agree Joel.
Great. This shows that we don’t need to change our routine but that by being more gentle with ourselves and looking after our own needs first then the rest follows. Having blogs like yours where you are sharing how lifestyle changes can change everything, especially our vitality and joy for life are very inspiring
It is just remarkable how simple it really is to change the way we live when we allow ourselves to stop and reconsider our priorities. I know from my own experience when I was totally exhausted but there was lots of pressure at work, I used to feel I had no choice. Asking for help would mean that I would have to spend some time on training – then I would choose to push myself. Even when I was deprived of sleep, somehow I always allowed myself to drink enough alcohol to go to sleep drunk. As far as I could see at the time (which was not very much), there was nothing I could do to change the situation. And somehow there was this belief that not asking for help, proving I could complete the task alone (then getting myself ill or injured) equated being a hero. Dying of hard work is a totally ridiculous concept, but I can see how it does happen.
Thank you Rachel Hall. This is so awesome, I mean that must be absolute divine how you have changed your life and are living now. It is so awesome to see and witness that we are able to change our whole morning routines around – and feel vital and energized when waking up! Awesome news, I am going to supply this to my every day morning routine, not that I was drinking coffee but I used a lot of other things to keep me going and make feel tired when I woke up. There we go!
The changes Raclel you have made in your daily life are really amazing, they are so simple by bringing self love and care, taking the time to be with you and what you are feeling and adjusting life accordingly.
I can totally relate to your blog Rachel. I hated mornings and was definitely not a morning – person in any shape or form. I used to physically feel so awful getting out of bed, and would have to have a nap some time during the day because I lacked the energy to get through. Plus actually falling asleep was always a mission for me as my mind would be going round in circles so much of the time. But now, like you Rachel, I have more energy than I have ever done before. I go to bed early, wake up early without an alarm, I get through day work without a nap and having energy in the evening to get on with other things. All down to the quality in which I carry out the day and the constant checking in with my body to see what loving choice I can make next.
Wow Rachel What a difference a new loving Routine can make to our lives! This is such a great sharing and journey. Simple changes based on love and how our life and the world opens up for us thank you ,beautiful.
Great to re-read this blog as it is a great reminder of how important simple everyday choices like the wind down period are. It is the simple things practiced daily that are life changing.
A great article Rachel, when we make simple loving changes we are able to create more space and time for ourselves.
Early nights and early mornings have altered my level of vitality, energy, and feeling well. It did not happen quickly though, I resisted it for a while, for different reasons. One was being caught up in what I ‘should’ do at bed time, late nights are adult, anti being ‘my ‘ time. The other was my own resistance to going deeper into self care. Slowly however, it became obvious that I was tired and that if I am, I should go to bed. And so I began doing so, I woke earlier and I felt great and so I have continued.
What is so amazing about your transformation Rachel is that it is a huge change simply through honouring your body and taking loving care of your self consistently – nothing complicated, dramatic or cathartic…love the simplicity!
I regularly now get up very early and work many hours in the day. I am more enthusiastic, more hard working and more efficient than ever before. Living like this would not have been possible if it was not for Universal Medicine and all that they have inspired in me.
Rachel thanks for the simple and structured way in which you express, you have made it quite clear that by adopting a self caring lifestyle you have far more vitality and commitment to life.
Lovely and inspiring blog Rachel. Thank you.
This is such a crucial topic because pretty much all of society is exhausted. It is even more alarming to link exhaustion with lack of stability people experience in life e.g. your example of how you used to feel at work: ”I was like a time bomb with a short fuse, so exhausted I couldn’t cope, exploding with frustration on a regular basis.” Rachel I love how you so clearly explain that taking care of yourself and your choices was how you turned it all round. Shows what an illusion it is that we blame work, people and responsibility and imagine the way round it would be to be on constant holiday or retire early. Because people like you show how it is possible to work harder, take on more responsibility and be even more energised and vital!
Yes it is true Fiona. It is so empowering to feel this fact because I once lived much like Rachel did and often gave my power away thinking that this is just ‘life’ and just how it is with no power to change it. What a lie this is!
As I read your blog Rachel I realise its high time for me to address and review my own present evening wind down and sleep habits. No one can just arrogantly skid into bed without a formal wind down from your day, close your eyes and expect your sleep will be a quality and rejuvenating one that adequately prepares you for the following day. It’s simple logic. If you wind your body up during any day with emotions and issues that not only laden your body with the after affect of these emotions, but if they remain unresolved they will accumulate. It makes absolute sense to me that what is wound up must wind down and anything unresolved that has accumulated must be let go of to clear. This takes commitment, honesty and an ever deepening level of self care but as you clearly illustrate by your own lived experience it can be done and the flow on effect to your morning routine and how your day unfolds is quite transformational.
Amazing blog, Rachel and as always when I read it. Timely reminder when I slip out of my rhythm. It is simple as this: early bed, nourishing food, self-nurturing and all based on connecting to my body and appreciating what it needs. Thank you.
Well said Sylivia. I wonder how many people go to bed every night ‘wishing that a good night’s sleep would make it all better again’. I know I have. One good nights sleep cannot clear the sleep debt and the effects of the lifestyle choices we have accumulated in the past but building a consistency in how we care for ourselves during the day and how we wind down and settle to sleep definitely goes a long way to breaking this cycle.
I am learning that developing a consistent loving rhythm around going to bed early, and getting up is very important, and supportive for the day ahead, and interactions with others.
And it is the quality that I do things in and how I am with myself that is so important.
Yes Gill, when we can see how much benefit living in rhythm has and the direct results of living this way it is crazy to consider we lived any other way. I know I used to have many a night where I would come home after a night out and go to bed at 6/7 in the morning, this used to completely mess up the next following weeks as my body would be all out of sorts.
I find a morning and evening rhythm supports me immensely, I love going to bed around 9pm and waking up early the next day feeling the spaciousness of the morning. In the morning everything is so fresh and new, this is a great time for me to get things done that I need to and go for my early morning walk. There is so much that can be said for having a consistent rhythm it is extremely supportive and vital for anyone wanting to maximise their day.
I love coming back to this blog as it is one that is a great reminder to refine the morning routine, to allow for continual love, care and adjustment each and every day. Being able to bring a quality to ‘how’ one does things in the morning is something that is an ongoing unfolding for me. To really be with myself what I am doing things, This has made an enormous difference to my day.
The incredible importance of simple daily rhythms cannot be over emphasized, how these rhythms restore balance and harmony, and affects radical and wonderful changes in everyone’s lives who looks to these rhythms for support.
I work in the city. If I am tired for any reason, somebody will suggest I have a coffee or some sugar. When I say, what I really need is a rest because listening to my body is important, they act with surprise as if this is a new thought. When growing up it was always suggested that if you were tired, have a lie down. As an adult I bought into having a coffee instead. Pushing ourselves takes us down a path of stress and ill health as you describe Rachael, in your hectic morning that set you up with an out of control day. Why do so many people cling to this way of living when it is so beautiful to listen to our bodies and have a calm, spacious, lovely day? The calm and lovely day you describe is such a miracle when compared to the other, yet it is achievable with dedication to loving yourself, being present and not being swayed by the world that wants to keep you in a spin.
Yes Amanda, when you are building a foundation of loving dedication to yourself, you are more equipped to not get caught up in the spin of a moment as I found out yesterday at work, where I could feel the energy of nervous tension try to come in and I chose to not feed it and instead breathe and stay with my body. Making that choice to cut the energy, paved the way for a totally different outcome.
True Linda, connecting to our essence of Love allows us to honour it, consistently so. Our vitality as a result can be surprising, and beautiful to feel unfold.
Thank you Rachel, reading this blog this morning really brought my appreciation to my morning and daily routine and how it has been built to now support me. This is an ongoing process and I can feel there is more for me to incorporate to make my days even more self-honouring than they are now. This self-honouring actually allows me to work more, and with more commitment than ever before. Thus self-care is clearly not just for self, but for all.
Thanks Rachel for your amazing sharing. What stands out for me is, that we can empower ourselves by making loving choices, by listening to our body and by letting go of everything what doesn’t feel right any more.
Morning routines as long as I can remember have been a challenging part of my day. As a child I remember the home feeling intense with pressure and stress. Driven by anxiety the mornings felt far from supportive with frustration often leading family members to resort to judgement and yelling.
As a result I have often felt a bit anxious about the morning routine and the pressures placed on me, both by myself and others.
It wasn’t until I started attending universal medicine and applying a more loving rhythm that I began making some loving choices for myself and my family in the morning.
Waking up early and honouring time to be still and in connection with myself has supported me to be more available to others throughout my day.
It feels lovely to take this time and prepares me for the day in a way I would have found hard to believe without the living experience.
My mornings are becoming more supportive and loving as I learn to appreciate and value the essence that lives within.
“To honour what is required” says it all for me Rachel. It’s having those stop moments to reconnect to my breath, to me and my movements that support me to feel what is required. I do a lot of deleting of what I feel driven to do as opposed to what is needed throughout my day. Makes life far less complicated and takes the anxiety and stress out of my body giving me the space to enjoy every moment of what life brings.
This is where consistency and intention can change how we experience life, it is the way we live that makes such a difference not just what we do. How we do something is dictated by our intention, when we offer ourselves the space to complete the day, care for ourselves and be gentle with ourselves it enables us to prepare and be ready for the next.
This sounds all too familiar as it too was the way I used to get up out of bed and start my day only to finish going to bed early partly cause I was exhausted and also because I hoped the nice good nights sleep would make it all better. I now never get up like this any more and go to bed now with a feeling of completion and letting go. It is entirely different and I could not imagine ever choosing to live like I did in the past again!
It is like we have two possible choices the hard way or the easy way. My day used to start with coffee, cigarettes and sometimes even a shot of what I had been drinking the night before. I can’t really imagine how bad I felt as I was too numbed out to feel the full brunt of how I was actually feeling, but on todays marker it must have felt like death slightly warmed up. Completely different these days but it still makes me shudder when I look back on those days and know that without Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I could be still there stuck, without seeing another way, when it really is the only way.
I find the biggest drain on my body for me is going into anxiousness and running on nervous energy if I have decided that I need to get stuck into the doing and tick that box, this then takes over my bodies natural rhythm and impulses. So when I look back several years previous, I must have been absolutely exhausted because my diet choices were also in the mix. Now when I choose to be present with myself when I am doing something and make it about quality, as soon as I move away from that and go into what’s ahead, there goes the quality and I am back on autopilot, and my body goes hard and I feel restricted. This then gives me the feeling of not feeling confident or good enough at times. It is so much more enjoyable, to choose quality over quantity and feel the huge difference in your body. Who knew that spending so much time with ourselves in this way would be so beautiful to feel.
“These days I wake up early and naturally, I hardly ever need the alarm to remind me it’s time to get up. I feel refreshed and alert after a good night’s sleep and no longer need coffee to get me started, nor do I dread that it’s a work day and not the weekend.” – This is a living miracle in itself, from where you were to where you are now.
Thank you Rachel for a beautifully simple blog, it is just so amazing how by simply choosing to take time to be self caring and nurturing with yourself in your morning routine can change your whole day.
What I also love about ‘routine’ is the consistency that comes with it and an almost natural pattern we can adopt. I love my routines and rituals each morning as I feel they set me up for the day. And if I am feeling out, I know my ritual will bring me back. It is also a way I prepare myself for the world and to be a body of service.
It feels very supportive to claim each ritual and do so in a way that honours who I truly am.
I do love the mornings. Reading your blog, I had a flash back to how I used to leave it till the last minute to get out of bed, then rush around like a crazy person to get out the house in sometimes 10 minutes flat. I refuse to do that anymore. Staying in bed longer never works out better than getting up in good time so as not to have to rush.
How wonderful to read how you have changed your morning routine so much. I how no doubt that many people just keep on with their old routine, even when it doesn’t feel right, they are tired and need copious amounts of coffee to just get through the morning. Yet what you are describing feel effortless, more honouring and definitely setting you up for a great day.
I always struggled with mornings until I totally changed my living habits, I now have a much healthier diet, no more alcohol or cigarettes and I’m mostly in bed by nine. This results in me being able to be up between 4 or 5 am feeling refreshed and able to work all day.
Yes Joe, I made lots of changes to how I was living that then impacted positively on me being able to get up in the morning, feeling ready for the day. Similar to you, I gave up alcohol and cut out food from my diet that made me feel bloated and sluggish. Getting to bed earlier was also a big change. This did not happen over night, but each change I made was a step towards looking after myself in a more loving way.
So true Sue….It all comes back to the quality that we are in what we do….simply expressed.
Thank you Rachel…… you have clearly expressed the difference it can make to our daily life and our body, by living self care and nurturing and true connection with our body. I know for me it has made a huge difference to my life, honouring how I feel and committed to lots of self care and nurturing…..my daily loving choices.
We seem to have stopped questioning this and seeing there is something seriously wrong with that picture, as everyone else appears to be in the same boat.
My routine in the mornings is still a work in progress but is a million miles away from the routines I used to have – I have recently also become aware of just how supportive my routine is in the loving foundation it provides to the start of each day.
I love the set up that comes from any big or small choice I make to honor how it is my body feels in any moment. Conversely when I do not the ricochet affect that has on whats next becomes obvious too.
Rachel I couldn’t agree more that those small daily choices are contributors to how I live and therefore how I experience life. Becoming aware of what our bodies need to feel healthy and alive is the guide to living in a way that supports us to feel well, positive, vital and commited. Ignore myself, or not honour what I feel and I soon know about it – the body speaks loud and clear!
Even though I have read this before it was like reading a new blog and what stood out for me was the contrast of how your mornings and days were and how they are now.
I can relate to waking in the morning and very reluctantly getting out of my warm bed, with no enthusiasm for the day ahead, and the great thing is that hasn’t been the case for a very long time now and I put that down to the choices I have been making during the day. It took reading this blog to appreciate this fact and even though yes, I still get exhausted and I work long and unpredictable hours, I am still nowhere near how I used to be when it came to getting up for work and facing the day.
This is really helpful Rachel – at the moment I’ve been feeling super exhausted in the mornings, even though I go to bed on time and have the right amount of sleep! But you raise a great point about evaluating what choices I make during the day, and how I am with myself – rushed, stressed, anxious, protected? Or do I actually take time to look after myself, be gentle etc.
Thank you Susie a great reminder to be gentle with myself during the day. I can remember as a teenager some nights I would actually fall asleep in my school uniform completely exhausted from the day then wake up too late and just have to get up and go on my paper round wearing the same clothes I slept in! Can you imagine if schools encouraged honouring rhythms, what a huge support this would be to all students.
What’s lovely about blogs like this, is the fact it’s not rocket science. Anyone reading who cares to take-in what’s being shared can, very easily: “The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”
“… be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.” – absolute Gold Rachel. And deepening this commitment just brings more and more miracles. Thanks so much for sharing.
I agree – this is so simple and yet reveals so much about how we go against the natural feelings in our bodies rather than honouring it as the true communication we need to guide us in making our choices.
What you have presented Rachel are foundations you can’t avoid and make a great difference in your life- when these are strong nothing touches the sides, when I let these go I get affected by everything.
My morning routine also has changed so much. In the past it was get up and rush and get everything done super fast. Now I am up so much earlier (naturally), and my routine is at a beautiful pace of connecting with me, how my body feels, what it needs just now, checking in with all I do – it feels just awesome, no rush, no stressing, just being in the moment and present to what is.
My routine / rhythm in life felt so unsupportive in the past, I struggled to get up and stayed up late with friends or watching TV, trying to squeeze out the last bit of ‘me’ time there was to the day….I am now much more aware that I can enjoy ‘me’ in any moment and I have stopped ignoring or overriding how I feel, this have meant that I am more connected with myself in the day which has lessened my habitual behaviour of wanting to ‘escape’ at the end of the day. And so, my mornings feel very different, I wake earlier, I enjoy catching up on emails and some writing, and then all the other bits and pieces involved in preparing for the day. These choices have impacted the quality of my life.
I love this sharing Rachel, that its not about needing to change what you do in life but more how you are with yourself when you do it, this is a great learning as I can relate to all of what you have shared and am learning myself how to change the way in which I do things to let go of the stress and pressure and just allow myself to be and enjoy life more while still getting things done but now without the intensity and more with the enjoyment.
Thank you Rachel for expressing the truth about how we can live a day with vitality and joy as a result of listening to what our body is telling us, and honouring ourselves deeply. There is much more we can learn, as humanity, about living this way and the benefits it provides. It is a no-brainer that honouring ourselves would allow us to live with vitality, but what this looks like and entails is yet to be seen and felt on a wide basis. It is through the power of observation and reflection that this happens, and is something I have been learning a lot about in this way. My life has changed considerably as a result, and this I am thankful for.
When I read your sharing Rachel and other comments, what pops up in me is – everything matters. I can always refine my morning routing. I’m learning to become more and more sensitive regarding my choices during the day – if they give me more energy or less.
This is so true Alexander, there is always room for more refinement. My amazing routine two years ago looks different to my routine now and I am sure it will look different again in a couple of years. The one constant is the care I am being asked to take at each step.
I love this sharing Joel – it shows the evolution that unfolds the more we connect and embrace what is on offer. My routines have changed a lot too and like you I am sure they will continue to do so as we continue to unfold our true beingness.
This refinement is the way to go- I find that I often need to make different choices in my rhythm of the day as I feel more into my body and the effects of the day. I could never imagine sleeping late now as I really love the spaciousness of the morning!
Yes I can relate that too – the body will reflect it instantly 🙂
What a huge and awesome change you have made in your whole life and way of being and living, the difference is massive. It is also a gentle and loving reminder that I need to make some more serious self loving choices in my life.
Reading your account of your mornings previous to attending Universal Medicine workshops brought back memories of my own. I would be lucky to arise by 7.00 am or 8.00 am often with a hang over or if not I would be feeling exhausted and depressed and need at least 2 cups of coffee to begin the morning followed by toast and vegemite. I would then drag myself down to the local coffee shop where I would drink more coffee. Now I am up at 3.00 am or at times 4.00 am. Drink some water, work until 5.00 am, when I shower and lovingly prepare myself for the day ahead. My morning routines back then and now are like chalk and cheese all because I now listen to my bod where as before I over rode what I felt and indulged in coffee and sugar to get me through the day.
Being a musician it was as if I was programmed to think that the night time was the time for creating … the later the better. I never would have dreamed that, having stripped back the coffee and the sugar and most of the things that were interfering with my natural rhythm of life, allowed my body to tell me what sort of daily rhythm it wanted to do, rather than me dictating to it, that I would be able to regularly go into the studio at 4:30 AM in the morning, to rehearse with Bands at 5:30 AM and to have choir practice at 6 AM. And it feels amazing.
The difference in your routine is just incredible. The former is what most people would consider normal and the latter hard for them to imagine when that is all they know. It is inspiring to read this level of transformation is possible through committing like you have to honouring yourself and what the body truly needs.
Re-visiting your blog I can completely agree about the great effect this kind of shift makes in all routines throughout a day. I also discovered the effect of how my morning goes, reaches far. When I have a flow in my morning, because of the choices I have made already in the day/night before, it feels different and connected throughout the day. It has a reflection in how I am at work and how I relate to other people. But when I start with rushing etc this effects my whole day, my family how I work and everyone I meet with that same rushed and not being present feeling.
I agree Diana, the effect of my morning routine can be felt through the day and equally the choices I make during the day can be felt before going to bed and in my morning routine the following day. A great way to be in touch with the communication from our bodies in these moments.
An awesomely inspiring blog Rachel and the best recipe ever for ‘having a good day’. How often do we hear these words expressed automatically from others and quite often say them ourselves with the emphasis being on ‘good’ more as a wish rather than a true understanding and appreciation of what ‘having a good day’ really is. Maybe we can possibly start a different conversation by saying “choose to have a good day – the choice is yours”.
I like what you’ve shared here Tamara. I know I used to feel at the mercy of what the day would bring. My day was good or bad depending on what happened ‘to me.’ Now having chosen to live my differently I can categorically say that most of my day and how I experience it is under my control. I can’t control what happens, but I can control how I look after myself and that has an impact on how I then react or respond to what happens around me. We really do have more choice than we realise or choose to exercise.
Rachel, I love your honesty, and your sense of humour. It is lovely to read how your morning routine has changed. If I don’t allow enough time in the morning and have to rush, I am rushing most of the day. However when I give myself plenty of time, first thing in the morning, I feel that there is plenty of time throughout the day.
In highschool, I learnt to be a nightowl, staying up as late as I wanted, to finish work or simply do projects that I was busy with. As early as then I began the morning rush because I never wanted to get out of bed. This way of living continued throughout my twenties and looking back I can see how through this I sabotaged myself in many ways. I got into yoga and started getting up early but changing the pattern felt impossible. I just kept falling back into the late nights and so the early mornings meant very little sleep and hence a lot of frustration, resentment and fatigue. Having a baby showed me that I had no rhythm and I needed one! It has taken consistent effort to uncover the layers of resistance but now I am in bed early, up early and have time in the morning to be with me, to be still and connect with myself before the day begins. It is the foundation I have always needed and allows me to bring me to my day. I deeply appreciate the support I have received in being able to turn this around.
I much prefer to not rush in the mornings and feel so much more steady through my day when I have made time to connect with myself in the mornings.
Me too, and I take that time. As I now go much earlier to bed, my sleep is restful and regenerating and hence I also am up early too, so plenty of time to get my self ready in a loving nurturing way and spending quality time doing the things I am committed to doing before I start my days work.
Yes indeed, and everything becomes a bit disjointed and lethargic too in the end, is my experience. It feels so more solid to take the time that is needed – to make space for that as that in turn will create more space troughout the day.
Wow Rachel, you really have been from the extremes of Exhausted to living fully energized; we could all do with some of that. Most of the things that you have described I could easily do also, like dealing with my issues and resolving situations. Life is about learning to live, it should not be a drag, it just takes a refreshing change of attitude.
From ‘These days..’ reading your blog Rachel, my smile began to get bigger and bigger, it felt and feels so delightful to connect to what and how it is we support and nurture ourselves, a very clear and distinct contrast, from struggle to truly living. Beautifully inspiring thank you!
An awesome blog Rachel and what an amazing transformation from existing in life – just managing getting through the day , to now feeling vital and truly energised, looking forward to what the day brings. Very inspiring how you have done this through allowing more time in the morning for your own needs before attending to others.
So inspiring Rachel. My days have definitely been much easier since I have adopted a new attitude toward how I care for myself. My morning routine is a work in progress, but what is interesting is that I can no longer allow the short 15 minutes to get ready like I used to in the past. I love waking up early and being productive in the mornings before work. It feels great and really supportive for the day ahead. I’m definitely inspired to keep looking at ways to improve my vitality, as what I do find is that I tend to slip into old patterns from time to time.
I can totally vouch for making the space in my day to stop and connect to me being transformative. Along with space in the morning, I find that making time at the end of the day to check in with me, to actually wind down and let go of anything that might still be there from what can sometimes be an extremely busy day – I am already preparing for the next day by doing this, setting up the way my next day will be at the end of this one. Something I hadn’t considered before hearing Serge and Natalie Benhayon present on rhythms and the cycles of each day. The difference is extraordinary!
I so agree Helen, it is imperative for us to stop and check in with our self during the course of the day. This way we take responsibility for what is going on with in and it does not build up over the day or even days and weeks etc.. If we allow this we loose connection with what we are actually feeling and we can tend to bury this due to the busyness of live. This can then later come out as illness and /or a disease of some type.
Rachel, your sharing of your morning routine is pure medicine for me. I was always exhausted and to read how you turned your life around by nurturing yourself and love yourself more, is amazing. Very inspiring.
Exhaustion – the perpetual illness that humanity is suffering from day in day out. How we kick exhaustion as a race of beings is beautifully expressed by Rachel. Taking care of ourselves deeply, nurturing, nourishing who we are.
Love this – “Taking care of ourselves deeply, nurturing, nourishing who we are.” Feels so yummy when taken on board and practised as the norm rather than a ‘ special treat’ .
I know without a doubt that if I am looking after myself with my food choices and my daily rhythm of gentleness then I will sleep better and therefore not wake up exhausted and want to stay in bed. It is a snowball effect. The loving choices ripple out to not feeling totally exhausted when I wake up.
This is an awesome description of what can change when one is committed to self caring and self loving. The previous way pictures what millions of people live and wonder why things don´t work. The second scenario, the present way gives a feeling of space and lightness, such a difference. The days of exhaustion are over, dragging oneself to work is over, wishing you were somewhere else is over, the body as a receiver of our abuse is over. And has given way to truly caring, taking time to appreciate and prepare oneself to be of service in a big way, 100 %. I am also loving my mornings before work, everything I do and the feeling I have, especially making order and tidyness a priority as I know whatever I leave behind I am going to find when I get back from work.
I too have changed the way I am in the mornings, from getting up late, rushing, with my mind already working through all that had to be done for the day. Now I am so much more with myself, appreciating within myself what I bring to myself and also those I will interact with throughout the day. Your sharing was just such a great reflection and reminder to myself to deeply appreciate all that I have changed in my life, which feels really great.
After being reminded to by Serge Benhayon through Universal Medicine that early to bed, early to rise is natural, universal medicine for the body it makes me wonder why I strayed so far from this common sense in the first place. It seems crazy now to think I had to be reminded to listen to my body if I wanted to be well! Listen to it and I’ll know how I feel, what to eat, what to say, when to sleep and how to move.
Wow ! Just had a flash back to my mornings of the past… How different to wake naturally without the shrill of the alarm, to place my feet on the floor and feel the connection as opposed to the whirlwind rush to get everyone ready and out the door. You get the picture… Now each simple movement and task has a quality that builds a body that feels so vital and purposeful,ready for the unfolding day.
I love what you have said here Rachel about honouring what is required. Our body knows what it needs, it communicates it to us so we can choose to listen. We also then have the choice to honour this feeling, or to discount it and thus after that we can have the amazing or not so amazing consequences. These are just the facts of our life, and our choices. We can govern how our body is each day and our experience of life simply through our choices. Learning more about how to listen to our bodies, and the messages it sends is therefore crucial in order to make the next choice that will honour and support the most.
Re my morning routine, I now choose to wake up with enough time to lie in bed, connect and feel my body, the loveliness I went to sleep with and feel from it what is needed for the day. Often an activity will come to mind and a clarity about how to go about it with care and attention drops in to my body. So when I actually get up, I have a zest and vitality in my body already in the purpose of the activity.
Rachel the way you have expressed this is so light and playful, those dreaded mornings of wishing it was the weekend I am sure everyone can resonate with. The difference it makes when you allow more time in the morning truly sets you up for a great day ahead, and supports the body find the natural rhythm we all have within us.
From living with exhaustion to waking up full of energy through making simple changes in my life is something I have experienced too. Reading this blog has reminded me just how big the change has been for me as the change was gradual. This blog has reminded me to appreciate just how much my life has changed through early to bed early to rise, dietary changes, the biggest change for me has been really feeling and listening and re-connecting to my body. This has led to me respecting the gentle quality of movement my body now demands. There are still plenty of times when I am not connected to my body and I need to breathe gently and re-connect and be guided by my body.
What a transformation Rachael from struggling to get through your days to waking up early naturally and feeling, refreshed and alert and not needing coffee to get through your day. All as a result of your choice to be gentle with yourself and to be truly connected to who you are and listen to what your body needs. This is something to celebrate and appreciate.
I can relate to this very well, what you are writing Michael – I also used to stay up late, because I couldn’t stop my drive of the day – to gain more knowledge, to do more. Today I know now as well, when I live in my true rhythm and I go to bed early, hence rise up early, then I have even more time during the day than before. Amazing.
A simple and practical blog Rachel, highlighting the importance of self care and self nurturing…and the powerful effect such choices can have on our day….”rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my (our) day and actually devitalise and deplete me (us) of energy.” It is simply a choice…
I love re-reading your blog Rachel as it does remind me and I need to appreciate how far I have come from those busy racy mornings trying to get out the door to work to now gracing myself with more time,love and care. Makes for a great day.
I agree Anne, it’s a lovely reminder to appreciate the changes we make in our lives, as they make such a difference and sometimes we forget what used to be normal.
Thank you for sharing Rachel. What stands out for me is that your story is not about ‘improvement’ or finding ‘solutions’. This is how we can approach our health – in linear way that if we just ‘do’ these things, we will get our desired result. The important point that you offer is that you made a choice to connect deeply to your essence and through this honour your body. What comes up for all of us when we choose this is our hurts – basically what we hold onto as an excuse to not let the world in. We simply cannot hold onto our hurts and at the same time expect our lives to change – it is like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. In hurt we are a constant ‘sinking ship’ – pun intended. Your commitment here to deal with whatever reactions come up within yourself or in your relationships is the true path to well-being. This is because when we have hurts and spend our lives trying to avoid them – we are not in fact present to our essence or the wisdom of our body. As we become aware of, feel and let go of our hurts, there is more space in our body, awareness and day to then make simple choices which honour ourselves.
Rachel I laughed as I read your old morning routine as it was so similar to mine, especially the 3 cups of coffee to just get into the shower and ready! Add to that making a coffee as soon as I arrived at work. Irritability was part of my daily life. So different now that I, with the inspiration of Universal Medicine, have learned to respect and nurture myself, starting with going to bed early!
Yes I was a 6 cups of coffee per day person. I was addicted, but it was because I needed it because I was so exhausted. I can relate to being very grumpy before my morning coffee hit. It was easy to stop the coffee once I started looking after myself better and going to bed earlier.
Very well summed up, Monica. It is about the ‘how’ we do things and not so much what and how much we do. Another important point which Rachel shared is the fact that she started to deal with her issues and unresolved things in her life. Getting real with what hinders you to enjoy yourself helps enormously to get a harmonious flow in your life.
Very inspiring Rachel. i am always amazed that some mornings are rushed and busy and I don’t seem to have Enough time to do everything that needs to be done, and other days I seem to have all the time in the world, everything goes smoothly and everything plus more gets done in the time. I can notice that on the mornings that it goes smoothly it is because I have made better choices the day before In what I have eaten, what time I have put myself to sleep and how I have been in my day that makes the difference.
I agree Katie. The simplicity in this blog is palpable and profound. It is inspiring. Thank you Rachel Hall for sharing.
One of the biggest changes I have made is being in bed by 9pm and I cannot underestimate the impact this has had and is having on me. I now love preparing myself for bed and find the next day I am much more energised. I am committed and therefore I am consistent with what may seem a small change in my day but it is these small changes which I am constantly refining that when come together make a huge difference to my well being and how I am in my day.
What is really bizarre is that people can drink so much coffee, and not have a direct relationship with the understanding that they are ingesting so much caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant of the methylxanthine class of psychoactive drugs that is the world’s most used psychoactive drug, and that this has woven into our society where it is totally acceptable. Imagine a world where coffee was removed overnight… And people had to just face where they have come to by such ongoing abuse of their own bodies.
i agree with you Chris- how bizarre it is that people can drink so much coffee without feeling the harmful effects on them, and it is so acceptable.
Whilst holidaying in Greece I have observed coffee as being the main staple for many to get through the day.
I just happened to pass a shop keeper who was offered a cup of coffee and said to the other lady that this was her 4th cup of coffee for the day, and it was only 1000.
What would it be like if coffee was removed overnight?
Rachel, I remember the coffee percolating through the morning at work, and we would all be queuing up first thing to give ourselves a kick start. It is amazing what we can pour into our body, and ask it to deal with, and somehow it copes. I love the way you have chosen to lovingly and tenderly look after yourself which is reflected in how you now choose to live.
Rachel, as someone who has also experienced this kind of change in routine, it can be hard to express just how significant the change is. I would have never thought what I did was not normal, had I not started doing the work with Universal Medicine. The change was not immediate or instantaneous, but as you say a steady commitment to listening to and working with the rhythms of the body.
Not using coping mechanisms as a way of living life, is the path to true health and vitally. Looking after and feeding the body provides the platform for ease of living. Emotions are not actively controlling the way, with sugar and stimulants
the focus of getting the body though it all. How amazing to change your life by these simple daily changes. Same activity just being and looking different.
There is so much wisdom in your sharing Rachel, and I am amazed at how much you achieve in relative ease, family and all. You are an inspiration and I realise it doesn’t just happen, that it takes commitment and choice!
I so enjoyed what you share with us here Rachel. Prior to listening to my body’s natural rhythms I could not wait for Fridays to arrive, it brought about a sense of yippee!! the weekend is here feeling. Now that Monday morning feeling was a different ball game altogether. There was always a feeling of resistance – and ‘do I have too’moments. Not anymore. Now it comes so natural to wake up early and go to bed early when my body is telling me too rest. Every day feels like the weekend. To celebrate each and every day and what it may bring.
Sometimes I wake an hour or two before my regular time and I feel alive and vital and want to get into the day. If I trust this feeling, and start my day then, I find that my day flows and although I may need a little rest somewhere along the way I feel generally good and on track. Like you Jane, when I choose to say no to this natural impulse in my body, and I go back to sleep I usually feel much less alive when I do wake up and often can have a mild headache too.
Wow thats quite some transformation you have described, by making simple choices to be gentle and tender with yourself. Its these and other self loving choices that myself and many others are choosing, inspired by the presentations of Serge Benhayon, transforming our lives to a joyful, healthier way of living.
This morning I decided, despite waking early, that since it was Saturday I would treat myself to a lie in and so turned over and fell back to sleep for another hour. I woke feeling a bit groggy and less vital than I had done earlier and as I got up to start my day I realised that lying in is no longer a treat for me, in fact my body does not like it at all. My body responds when it naturally wakes early and I can enjoy a gentle rhythm which I can take into the rest of the day. Great to read your very confirming blog this morning Rachel.
I can really relate to that Jane, trying to sleep in as a treat when my body is already vitalised and ready for the day, because my sleep was so restorative. Maybe I can enjoy and celebrate that more and move into the day without looking to reward myself so much in the future because it just does not work like that anymore.
This has happened to me Jane when I woke up at an hour that I wouldn’t normally get up, felt good but decided to go back to sleep because I held a belief that if I got up at that time I would feel tired somewhat in my day. When I woke up an hour or so later I felt much worse! I then realised that if I had got up at the hour I originally woke and prepared myself for the day it would have been much more supportive for me. I have held a lot of ideals and beliefs around sleep especially in thinking I needed to have a certain amount of sleep to function but I am finding this is so not true.
Rachel I love how you describe that you work in a ‘gentle rhythm’ with yourself in your mornings now and it’s amazing how much you can do when you do it this way. It felt lovely to read about your morning routine and I could even feel how the start of your day would ripple into your day ahead bringing so much love into your workplace.
It seems important to keep breaking down what it means to look after ourselves, for as Rachel shared in this blog, it was not changing what she was doing that changed her life but it was changing her understanding and appreciation of who she was. If we have a divine spark within us, then it stands to reason our bodies can begin to align to that spark. So caring for ourselves has a deeper meaning for me, where simply being more present and aware of my body offers a way to allow that spark, which is a loving impulse, to be expressed through my body into life. The presence and awareness naturally brings a gentle quality to the body – of not rushing, not being hard or tense. Naturally this opens up to my surrounds, where the sensitivity inside, allows sensitivity of others and thus the living spark is able to be with others in a way which inspires the same within them. In this way of being, there is no separation in how I am with my body and how I am with others in life and this feels energy giving. So I relate very much to what Rachel states about how drained and tiring is living with constant tension and anxiety and how living with more understanding of who we are, brings more vitality into life.
This is inspiring for all of us Rachel, and, knowing the harmony I have felt when visiting your dental practice recently, I can’t imagine how you could have been before. It is lovely that you now make time to nurture you because that reflects on how well you can nurture your family, staff, clients, friends, even how you post on Social Media – everything is affected by they way you start your day.
Rachel I felt tired and exhausted with you reading the way you used to live. It felt like you were the receiving end of a bad deal with disaster around the corner for you and others. The way you live now feels so beautiful. Just reading your words felt calming and soothing. A blessing onto yourself and others.
At the moment I am really paying attention to what supports me to have a great morning rhythm. One of the things I am noticing most is that how I eat the night before has a great effect. If I over eat, eat foods that don’t REALLY support me, or especially if I eat late I fond it really hard to wake up i the morning. It tends to leave me feeling heavy and groggy.
It’s been really great to observe this and then also notice how even though I am aware of this – there is still a tendency to do it anyway. This is something great to observe – that even though I know there is a choice I can make to support myself t feel so much better – I still have a tendency to do the opposite.
That is massive.
Yes. I can certainly relate to over eating at night and feel heavy and groggy in the morning. The over eating at night is usually to push down and not feel how my day has been which then sets me up for the next day…
That is true Lucia, when I eat foods that are not supporting but trying to push down what I don’t want to feel or when I am tired but think I need to finish things before going to bed it sets me up for the next day to fall for that same cycle. And it is all about not appreciating myself in full at that time that makes me choose this even though I actually know the effect it will have.
I agree Simon that what I eat the night before effects how I feel the next morning and I am also noticing if I haven’t stopped the day before and clocked how I feel, if there is anything unresolved from the day before it will have an impact on how I sleep that night and how I feel the following morning.
Yes I feel this too. I do my best to resolve all I can in the day and reflect in the evening, using the Our Cycles App by Natalie Benhayon can be very supportive in this regard.
I have been experimenting with lighter meals in the evening. This morning I went to the gym before breakfast. I anticipated feeling weak and possibly not being able to do my normal workout because of the light meal I had the night before. To my surprise I felt more energetic and was able to complete my exercise without any problems. What we eat and how we eat has such a huge impact on the way we feel and operate.
It can be challenging to give up all the props like caffeine, sugar and other stimulants, as we are left to feel the actual state our body is in. I remember when I gave up coffee it took a while before my body came back into rhythm where it didn’t need the kick-start. It was so worth giving up though as now I feel more at ease and harmonious in my body and my energy is sustained throughout out my day.
Great article Rachel. It is good to appreciate where we came from and where we are now just by making these loving choices. They seem difficult at first but the positive effects on your life and your state of being are magical. I love it!
Wow this is a monumental difference Rachel, it seems obvious that making choices that support our body will reflect in our life being more harmonious, but often we can miss the obvious and get stuck in a very unsupportive cycle.
I have also found that when I stay connected to what I feel from my body, not my head that it guides me well and I know what will best support me. Simple yes, but very powerful.
And how liberating is it when we can truly say like you say Rachel: “I have plenty of time to prepare for my day and mornings are steady, not rushed or stressful.” I am so grateful that the presentations given by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have for me also resulted, among many other awesome lifestyle changes, in a beautiful morning routine with no rush, just presence.
Rachel, this is a very inspiring blog as this wisdom what you describe here, changed my whole life as well and starts to change the life of many with whom I have contact. To spread this in the world supports many in their life.
What a difference Rachel. Amazing how something as simple as taking care can have such a dramatic change in how you live, look, feel and interact with other people. There really is a ‘before’ and ‘after’ self care way of living way here, and it just goes to show how, the way we live our lives really does have an impact on ourselves and the people around us. This is a great example of how taking responsibility for our health and well being, well, quite honestly, has to be the next way forward in the realm of public health. We can fix and patch up the external environment, make it all appear to work and be supportive, but our responsibility to our internal health is what actually makes the biggest impact personally and publicly.
Well said Johanne. The choices we make with our inner health is what makes the outer come alive. The changes you had made Rachel shows how self care promotes levels of vitality you never felt before.
Chalk and Cheese.
The difference is HUGE and I can so relate to the ” before section” of this blog. What its like to live dragging myself around. Why would I ever choose to keep living like that.
This is really inspirational.
Thanks Rachel
Reading your blog again Rachel, I can so relate when you say: “Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.” It is so liberating when we embrace this simple way of being with ourselves, and the impact this has is so awesome.
Rachel, I love the simplicity of your loving daily choices, and how when we truly listen to what our body needs in each moment it responds with more vitality, clarity of thoughts and spaciousness. This is awesome and natural.
Honoring the body, what it needs and how it feels is so important Eating and the way and quality how I eat affects the whole day. As I still find myself being stressed sometimes, it is a big learning to totally listen to my body.
All explanation for a recreative sleep in the last two paragraphs delivered, that’s amazing! Rachel thank you of making it so simple and accessible.
We all must go with what our bodies tell us, and our morning routines. A good way is draw up a pattern and see what works for you. Some things will work and others may not. It will not take long to hit the right feeling in the body.
Daily choices can be further broken into hourly or even by the minute choices. This is really great, because then there are even more opportunities for me to choose lovingly and caringly, as I stop and feel what I need to be honouring me right then and there.
Great reminder Suzanne – thank you.
When I look back at how I was living before Universal Medicine I too was living in an exhausting way, and not fully aware unaware of why – I knew I was stressed, but, despite being a fully trained counsellor, couldn’t quite de-stress – my home office was a mess, nothing was every truly dealt with and put away, I was busy with so many activities I never made time for myself to rest, apart from slumping in front of the TV with a glass of red wine and falling into bed at 11pm. Now with greater awareness of the impact of our lifestyle on our bodies, when I feel exhausted, I can look back and find what caused it, and can choose to live differently. Instead of crawling out of bed at 7am, like you said, Rachel, resentful with the alarm for going off, most days I happily wake up hours earlier and have plenty of time to prepare for my day, and that calmness follows on into whatever I am doing that day.
Beautiful to read Rachel of such an amazing transformation of how every aspect of your every day changed when you made self-loving choices to be with yourself and truly nurture yourself as part of your morning routine and how this offered a gentle rhythm to all your day and relationships with family, patients and everyone you met.
This quote sums up so much ” I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.” based on my observations this is where most people are at. For me until I found Universal Medicine and its healing modalities I could not do much more than use coping mechanisms. I did the best I could to resolve my issues but true and very powerful lasting healing began to happen when I found the Sacred Esoteric Healing modalities. This is after trying pretty much everything else! Now my life is returning to one of vitality and connection to self, including mornings!
Reading your story is like revisiting an old horror movie – it is amazing to feel how much my life has changed since I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I too used to always be exhausted and in survival mode which is a huge contrast to how I live now. Yesterday for example I got up and started working at 2:30am and had a gorgeous enjoyable productive day all the way through to 8:30pm when I went to bed still feeling vital and joyful. No caffeine, sugar, emotions, gluten or other stimulants. This morning I had a lie in and did not get up to 3:30am. I am eternally grateful to Serge Benhayon for so lovingly showing me that there is another way to live and such a fun way too!
This so resonates with me Rachel -“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”
It is truly a lovely way to start the day in connection with self and especially in ‘honouring what is needed’ , I feel this too and am much more in harmony with myself and my body.
What all of you have shared here on this blog, I can relate to it very well. Especially that my evening routine or the day before is influencing my morning routine – the truth of it, I can feel every day. Thanks Rachel for this amazing blog.
I love the appreciation you hold for yourself and the empowering changes that you have made in your life. Who you are now and how you live the commitment to honouring you and what supports your connection to who you truly are is inspirational.
I agree Carola, and it is very inspiring. Appreciating yourself is one key to building a foundation within to make choices that support ourselves.
Rachel on rereading your blog I can feel your absolute commitment to the consistency of your morning routine that supports you in your day!
Reading the responses to your blog Rachel is another tome of support in itself! See what you have started! Self responsibility is the take home message from this time’s read! Thank you!
Perfect Bernadette – great summary of blog and comments.
Rachel what a great before and after example made up of many loving choices in between each point.
When we live preparing for what comes next (e.g., sleeping) life acquires a different dimension. Things get much easier. There is more time. We create moments that reflect to us the stillness of God.
Very true Eduardo! The days I am present and simply feeling in every moment what is next, I find time does not have a hold on me and I surrender to this natural and divine rhythm that reflects the stillness of God, the stillness I am.
Yes I love this Eduardo – “When we live preparing for what comes next (e.g., sleeping) life acquires a different dimension.” It sure does and one that is very welcome 🙂
All the comments from everone are so inspirational combining the best of each one, getting out of bed in the morning is like walking on air for the rest of the day.
Yes, the way we get our of bed does set the pace for the next steps we take.. I have really enjoyed reading the comments also Mike.
Rachel, your morning routine is so awesome now! Who wouldn’t want that for themselves? I do! I’m totally inspired by that!
I like in this article how you describe your resting time as a continuation of your active life, so one leads to and and is influenced by the other. Nothing is compartmentalised or seen as distinct. It is all one life.
That all made so much sense. I loved that what you had to do in the morning didn’t actually change but you built a steadiness in your day that sleep wasn’t a shut down but a genuine recharge. I have found the same, the less tired I am the more the time in the morning expands which means I am less stressed! Who would have thought how stressed we are could affect how fast time moves!
You are a very inspirational person, and we can all learn from you, by learning how to make real changes to our own lives.
How lovely to read about such a profound transformation, and to know that this amazing ‘turn-around’ is possible for everyone. You don’t have to be special in any way, its not a genetic lottery, this is possible for everyone.
So true Chris – available to everybody, no rocket science, almost too simple to be true.
We need to be honouring ourselves on a daily basis with out fail, not putting it off for a later time.
The inspiration is there from reading other students comments.
Awesome Rachel, you make it sound like something that is easy, achievable, valuable and desirable, why wouldn’t anyone do it! I am certainly inspired.
Rachel, your morning regime from quite a long time ago sounds light a nightmare, not just for you but also for those around you. And the changes you have put in place are a world apart from the former scenario – hard to believe it is the same person and the same time of day. Just goes to show how much can change when we take responsibility and look a bit more closely, or very closely, at our daily choices.
Connecting to and Honouring the body – seems so obvious to me now but without the wisdom presented by Universal Medicine I would still be searching and disregarding my body.
Yes, I’m pretty sure I would be too Judy. I never had any relationship with my body before I started attending Universal Medicine workshops and presentations. Now I love to start my day spending half an hour of just feeling and observing my body, before gently getting up and then finishing the day with the same. This supports everything in between during my work day and then my sleep at night.
For me as well Judy – without Universal Medicine I would be still completely lost in my emotions, in my driven state – very far away from stillness, love and joy.
Just reading how you were living before feels really stressful and reminds me of how I used to start my day before I found Universal Medicine. These days I have more than enough time to do what I need to do and leave the house feeling ready for the day and then arrive at work 45 minutes earlier than I need to, in order to set my self up ready for what needs to be done. This I find really supports me.
Julie, what if everyone were that committed to their work as you are! Truly awesome.
Well done Jaime. We have all been there in the morning, running around like headless chickens, wondering what we have done with our car keys, and other items we grab in the morning running out of the door.
You then start to wonder, there must be something better in life, than starting the day as you had been doing.
Suddenly there in front of you is the answer, and you grab it with both hands, realising what you have missed all these years. Well done. Just keep up the real you.
Wow Rachel, I can really feel the difference in the before and after wake-up times, there is definitely the feeling of spaciousness when we treat ourselves with this too. It means our day is infused with this same quality, because we’re already in that quality in the first place. I know that when I’m feeling rushed or had a stressful day at work, then it’s easy to approach my sleep time in this same quality such that my sleep and wake-up time is affected. Becoming aware of the quality we are in, in the first place, prompts and supports the choice to change, making choices that support the body back to a position or quality of care.
So true Zofia, it is the quality of life that is felt in our body that is the marker for everything that we do in our day’s activities. I can feel a quality of care and loveliness in me and when I allow myself to stay connected with that my whole day will be affected by this quality and brings me the space and time that supports me through the day and into the other day’s to maintain and even deepen this quality continuously.
Oh the days of waking up half hour before having to leave for work, running around looking for your keys and everything else you dump somewhere because your so tired all you want to do is collapse on couch after a days work.. And I don’t even have kids!! I thought this was it “life” and really resented it thought there has to be more then this endless cycle…
Never in my wildest dreams I thought it was possible to take care of myself
A. I don’t know how to
B.Wouldn’t be possible who has the time
turns out I did know and by doing this I had more time, funny little cycle this one but seriously so true.
It’s so true Jaime, when we are in the exhaustion of the disregarding way of living, it is easy to think we don’t have time to make any changes to support us. But it can be changed dramatically with a few simple and easy choices, it is so worth it.
Lisa, as you and Jaime say, we need to take time out to make changes that will support our bodies and the way we live. If we burnout, it could take a long period to get back to were we should be.
As you say Rachel it’s not about what we do but how we go about it and how nurturing of ourselves we are in the process.
There is no such thing as a quick fix, as it will eventually fall apart. We definitely are in continual learning curve, in developing our daily lives for the betterment of all mankind.
A remarkable turn around Rachel. When you look back over the stress you were living with on a day to day basis it just goes to show how we get stuck in our own routines and momentums of ill behaviour. By introducing simple techniques and taking the time to honour yourself has made the world of difference to your whole life – and your patients would also be reaping the benefits of an unstressed, relaxed and self-honouring practitioner. I can’t wait for an appointment with you!
Thank you Rachel, I really appreciated coming back to this article and the reminder that being gentle with yourself is a daily choice – not a fix to reach for when something is wrong – but an ever-developing way of being.
I wonder were we would all be today, if Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine had not come along to show us the true way of livingness. Would we still be following the same old patterns that used to drive us, and think we were in a good place.
Yes Mike, I thought I was in a good place even though I had anxiety, poor relationships, insomnia, exhaustion. I just compared myself to what I saw around me and figured I was doing alright so didn’t need to change anything. Compared to how I feel and live today, that was a disaster.
I can very much relate to how you have explained life Rachel. My life was not too dissimilar, and I remember well the exhaustion and the push to get on with life. I too was living in a way that was not sustainable. The irony is that we are actually designed to work hard without destroying ourselves. It has taken me many years to understand this, for originally I thought the answer to my exhaustion was to slow down, do less, find a less stressful job, get rich, find a job that I loved etc etc etc. But the fact is that none of those things on their own truly work. These days I still live the life I have always lived. Sure, I have made some huge changes in the detail – looking at my sleeping patterns, what I eat, removing alcohol, sugar, gluten and dairy – foods that I have found deplete my energy reserves. But this on its own has not made the biggest change. What has made the biggest change to my energy levels – that now allows me to get up at 4.00am every morning without feeling tired and still work a solid 12 hour day – is connection to the Fire of my Soul. That is it, and everything I do, what I eat, how I sleep, how I walk, is devoted to strengthening that connection.
And Claiming it Adam!
I love what you have written here Adam- making everything we do contribute to strengthening the fire in our soul. This feels so empowering for me and the purpose for us being here.
Wow Adam! What a pin up role model!! This, the world needs to hear!
Going to bed early is great, but waking up in the morning to the sound of the birds singing, a gentle breeze blowing through the trees, and slipping out of bed, thinking another great day a head, what more could one want.
Thank you Rachel. Reading your great blog this morning I had a moment of self appreciation as I realised how far I too had come. I love the spaciousness of my mornings and the time I have to really feel my connection to myself and the world before I even slip my feet out of the bed.
I know exactly what you mean Jane, how awesome is it to create extra space in the morning – everything in the day then seems to flow better.
So powerful and clearly said “I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy” Changing one part or issue might bring a bit of relief but working little by little consistently on all areas can literally change your life.
Thank you for adding this Nicole “working little by little consistently on all areas can literally change your life”. The consistency is for me what makes all the difference.
Wow Kevin, you must feel on top of the world since giving up the Cigarettes, coffee and the booze. Now leading a more healthy life style. Bet you look forward to your extra time in bed at the weekend to recharge your batteries.
What a radical turn-a-round Rachel mine was just as or even more extreme. I used to fall out of bed light a fag (cigarette), drink black coffee and drive to work either still drunk or very hung over. Now I wake naturally between 2.30am and 3. get up do some sit ups light weights, have a beautiful walk taking in the sun rise, have breakfast if I feel to and drive to work rested and alert. I do have sleep ins on the weekend if I am not working which is a lie in till 5am if I feel I need it. I still can get pretty tired by the end of the day as my job can be pretty physical so sometimes I’m asleep by 8pm which just feels lovely to do what my body feels and not override it with what my brain is trying to tell me.
It’s no small thing what you slipped in here Rachel about dealing with, healing and resolving issues instead of resorting to coping mechanisms to take the edge off. The correlation with your spacious morning routine is noted!
“I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.” Such simple life changing words Rachel -Thank you
Wow Rachel, what a blog! I’m inspired to continue to create more space in my morning routine by being even more gentle with myself and making connection a priority. thank you!
Rachael your morning routine sounds awesome- a lot different to your previous one. You fit a lot in in the morning but the way you have explained that you do it seems easy, not rushing and flowing. Loved reading, makes me want to look at my morning routine.
I wonder how many people in the world have a morning routine, that they stick to, ensuring their day goes well, without any real stress or tension? When you drive to work or take the train, bus or even walk, observe the re-actions of people. Can you see the irritation on their faces if they are in a traffic jam or if the trains run late etc. What if they knew how to be in their bodies and to breath gently, would this change how they would feel in a traffic jam for example. Maybe they would be less anxious and feel so good no matter what is going on around them.
Surely this needs to be part of the dental curriculum…
I definitely would not want to see a dentist like the one you first described… However the second (you!) are a dream come true – and offer such profound care and healing for your patients because of the love you now have for yourself.
How I am with me is the foundation for my night and my day, the level of care and appreciation I have for myself gives me a quality during the day or not. I love the space I create for me before I go to my work, what is work in progress is to honour to go out of the house in time, I still tend to come up with something I need to do right before leaving, it is crazy but true. When this happens it makes my body anxious and I feel the consequences of this all day and this affects the way I am with my work. Your blog Rachel is inspiring me to create space all the way.
Hello Rachel, just reading the first part of your article made me tired. I read this and wondered who wouldn’t want to go and see a dentist like yourself compared to how you were a few years ago. It would have to be a pleasure to be treated by someone that takes such a deep care for themselves first and that would have to be felt by everyone including your patients. I have found this as well by taking a deep care to how I live in my day it has not only changed my days but changed my life. I can really relate to crying in the car on the way to work or having a holiday and never wanting to return to work. I don’t live like that any longer, yes I enjoy my weekends but equally I enjoy my work. To me the days are the same it’s just that I choose to do different things in those days. So I don’t ‘save’ something for just the weekend or ‘have’ to do something in the working week, it’s all just time with me and feeling what’s around me. This article alone if understood and studied would change so much, thank you Rachel.
There are many times that I want to stay in bed, especially when it is cold outside or I feel unwell. I no longer drink coffee but still catch myself using something sweet like an apple to wake myself up when I don’t feel rested.
This blog asks me to go deeper and see the way I wake up as a reflection of how I am living all the time. Thank you Rachel – I feel really inspired by this.
Leonne. I agree there are morning when we would love to have an extra half hour in bed. I sometimes fight with my self,
but stick to my routine, as I know I could fall back into old ways, especially in the winter months.
I agree Leonne, I can slip into old patterns and get exhausted and this is then reflected in my morning routine. A work in progress for me.
Very true Leonne, the occasional mornings I feel ‘hangover’ (not from alcohol), I can always relate it to the choices I made the days before.
I like your last paragraph, “having a different rhythm is not about changing the time I come out of bed, it is about having more care for myself throughout the days”. And there is a huge support in that, making it possible to have a relaxed morning routine with all the time in the world.
Just keep on doing what you are doing with your body. When things need to change the body will let you know.
So you can adjust accordingly.
Rachel, I can somewhat relate to the ‘before’ picture you have presented and am steadily working on the ‘after’ picture. I have found that the most important aspects for me have been taking responsibility for my issues and working on the quality of how I go about my day. The change has been immense and I am definitely committed to my new way of approaching life, thanks to what I have learned through Universal Medicine.
“I was like a time bomb with a short fuse, so exhausted I couldn’t cope, exploding with frustration on a regular basis.” I’ve lived like this too Rachel and it is so not the way to live – constantly in agony trying to get to the day off – like swimming desperately for the life raft every single day even after the weekend on a Monday morning. I have observed similar changes in me by getting a more supportive rhythm in place I am operating each morning with more purpose and this flows through my day.
Yes, I sometimes still have a short fuse when multiple things go wrong in sequence (or even all at once 🙁 ) but now I can choose at any time to come back to myself, feel my body and the fuse lengthens considerably or even disappears altogether.
What I have been noticing with myself, is the deeper I go with the quality of my routines and how i am doing things the more supportive it has been with my body. I have felt to eat foods that don’t feel so heavy,, this overal has left my body feeling lighter and not so tired,
The morning routine you described as your past way of waking up and getting going for the day is one that so many can relate to. We seem to have stopped questioning this and seeing there is something seriously wrong with that picture, as everyone else appears to be in the same boat. Chronic tiredness or exhaustion aren’t normal and there is a way to change it, no matter what you do for work, how many kids you have etc. As Rachel has beautifully shared, it is not so much what you do as the way you do it.
So true Fiona, “it is not so much what you do as the way you do it” – when you focus on the way (the quality) in which you do things, it is incredible how what you do can begin to change. It seems much harder, quite a battle even, when you come at things from the other way, trying to change the action without considering the way you are in all you are doing.
Rachel, it’s inspiring to read how you have made such a change in your life and how it came not from changing what you do but from how you are being with yourself so you bring your quality to everything you do.
Thats such a drastic change Rachel. There must come a day, when we have got up resenting the day ahead, and feeling exhausted already that we say “there must be something different” I don’t see how the first way in which you describe is true living, although it was what many people in the world live every day, it is considered normal.
Yes Harrison, it seems that if something is done repeatedly, by a large enough number of people, it is considered normal. The dictionary definition of normal is “conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.” but could it be time to start reviewing what these standards are that humanity is conforming to under the guise of sticking with the pack, keeping the status quo? Is living the current “normals” living a life of fulfillment, love and connection?
What a transformation Rachel! Wow – the honesty of sharing your old lifestyle is an inspiration in itself. Then to read the obvious ease and joy you currently live with is delightful. Thank you for highlighting that all this is absolutely achievable by beginning to be prepared to deal with our issues and have a willingness to self-care. I too am deepening continuously with the awareness that it is not what I do but the QUALITY I am with myself as I go about our daily lives. If the quality of how I am with myself drops, (that is, how I feel towards myself), then the exhaustion creeps back in. Awesome blog, thanks.
It is great that you took the time to stop and appreciate how much your days have changed as a result of doing things in a much more present and gentle way. The way you describe how you were before in the morning seems to be so common, and I have observed that some people do not like getting up, and going to work. It makes such a difference to wake up not grumpy and exhausted but lively and energized.
A lovely blog Rachel. How gorgeous it is not to rush in the mornings, just a steady pace of doing what needs to be done in honour of ourselves instead of panic with one eye on the clock and an exhausted body to go with it.
Great to include in this blog the link between being gentle and body aware and how this provides space in the busy-ness of the day, while at the same time, allows us to deal with our issues as they arise, rather than bottle them up. It feels like these links really bring that vitality and fullness to daily life and I love not needing to sleep in at weekends – a great reflection of true vitality! It really resonates with me how all of this does link in and how a great drain on our energy reserves occurs from not dealing with issues – a point very little understood to the degree that it has been explained in a very practical way, including how physical self care is the foundation of dealing with issues, by Serge Benhayon in Universal Medicine presentations.
My routine is a little out of kilter after having major surgery in the past month. Now on the mend and feeling a lot better. The whole thing was a real wake up call, on how I let my head rule my body, eating the wrong food etc.
Two things that have bought me back to where I feel my body needs to be are Esoteric Healing and reading the books written by Serge Benhayon. Esoteric Healing sessions support the body to come back to its natural rhythm and reading any of Serge Benhayon’s books allows me to feel the power of his writing and this washes through my entire body. Both offer a great healing. I am amazed how energised I feel by supporting myself in this way after surgery.
Thank you Rachel for reveling that there is no one to blame for the ‘state’ we can find ourselves in. It all comes down to self responsibility for the choices we make on a daily basis. What turns it around is the willingness to be honest with what we are choosing and to develop love for the self.
Yes, once we face honestly how things really are, it’s amazing how quickly we can turn our life around if we are willing to take responsibility and make more self-loving choices. Rachel, your blog is proof that this can be done.
So true what you write. Taking care of self changes it all.
Exactly, very simple really – taking care of our selves makes all the difference in all we do and are.
“Because I have learned that by looking after myself, caring for me and nurturing my body with the right food, style of exercise, rest and going to bed early that I feel much more at ease and able to deal with my day.” There is so much power and comon in this simple statement everyone would benefit from taking on your words of wisdom.
Thank you Rachel for the honesty in your blog. I have only known you since you have made the changes in your life that have made such a true and positive impact on you. The person who drank so much coffee and numbed with beer is not the gorgeous and vital Rachel I have seen in the clinic. I can also feel how if we stay present, in the moment we can deal with anything (such as the filling that took longer than expected), without frustration and therefore without the drain on ourselves.
Rachel it’s so clear to feel how you have transformed yourself and therefore your life. How we are with ourselves sets the stage for what will happen during the day and yet so many people think that life is random and what happens just happens. But we set the whole thing in motion by the way that we are with ourselves.
So great Rachel! What a relief it would have been for your staff when you started looking after yourself. This is such an awesome example of how our choices impact everyone around us. It’s truly amazing what effect a little self responsibility can have on our life and those we share our lives with. Winning!!!
Yes it is so true Rachel, that the very routines and rituals that we do in the day can actually be adding to our exhaustion. When you describe looking at your morning routine and doing it in a quality of honouring yourself I can feel how it is so much more supportive and re-energising.
Thank you Rachel for an inspiring article. I know I used to be ‘a night owl’ but then I would struggle to get out of bed in the morning. I would start the day exhausted and I would drag myself through the rest of the day. Since changing how I live and how I practice the rhythm of my day, it has changed how I am when I go to bed at night. I still have a long way to go but I am working on refining my rhythms and listening more lovingly to my body.
Amazing what a change you have made to your energy levels with some really simple choices to look after you and reconnect to truth.
It is great to beware that it takes only simple changes to change the energy levels in our body.
What a transformation! Living how you used to live Rachel is how I see most people live. It is completely exhausting.
“I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.” Such a great statement Rachel most of society are using coping mechanisms to get them through the day hence why energy drinks and coffee sales have gone through the roof. To meet someone who is doing it differently is very inspiring.
Your last line “and to honour what is required” spoke volumes to me this morning. Generally speaking we know what is right for us and what is not and because we don’t want to see/do what is right for us, we switch off – numb out -we start the day with all of our versions of our previous morning routines. One of the greatest gifts I have learnt is the honouring….I have lived your previous morning routine and while not quite at the non-alarm stage, my mornings are now also vastly different and much more easier and simpler. And that is because I started to learn what it is to honour who I am and to honour what is required. Not see it as a chore, another thing to do etc… but to see that I am – as we all are – deeply amazing and awesome human beings – and that we need to take great care & love for ourselves and bring in a deep honouring of this. And from that, changes are quite simple because of course you want to do the right thing about something you honour. Thanks for the great blog Rachel and the reminder about honouring.
I love what your saying Sarah. Today I feel quite tired. I have a choice – I can push myself and force my way through what needs to be done, or I can honour what I am feeling and do things in a way that support me to rebuild, and nurture. What this then also offers me – as opposed to pushing through and just getting it done – is to honour what I am feeling and get an understanding about WHY i am feeling this way. How I have been taking care of myself that I would end up feeling like this. Then I have the opportunity to look at making the changes that Rachel is talking about.
Thats really beautiful too.
It is the willingness to work through the unresolved issues that allow us to keep living with the levels of exhaustion that have become a world wide epidemic. This weekend I have had major work projects due. I have chosen to rest and take rest breaks through the day rather than push through and dishonour the body. This honouring has allowed me to build the trust that there will be enough space to complete what is needed and not in a way that has left me feeling less than the quality I can deliver all the time.
I know the feeling. I too have begun to enjoy mornings because of self-care choices. Sleep-ins have become something of the past. There is no need for it anymore. I wake up energized. Why should I stay longer in bed, when my body wants me to get up? Even when it is the weekend. I found out that weekend sleep ins were for me like a reward, but now it is not necessary anymore. I love to wake up early and do everything at a gentle pace.
Thank you Rachel. Reading your blog allowed me to appreciate how much my own daily rhythm has changed in recent years and how my mornings feel so spacious and yummy now. Talking to people at work recently I realised how many of us still rush to get the basic things done in the morning – teeth brushed, washed, dressed, breakfast eaten and out the door and we take that rush into our working day. Sharing with, or reflecting to others that there is another way of being with our morning routine that can support our whole day feels lovely too.
It is great to feel energised in the mornings after a deeply restful sleep, rather than going to bed late and resenting the alarm going off in the morning. And all because of a gentle honouring of the body. Thank you Rachel, a very timely reminder not to over ride what my body wants.
I love reading this Rachel it always inspires me to look a little deeper at the way I am being in my days and mornings. Checking in regularly supports the healing process of the ways of old.
It does make sense Fiona. I lived much of my life trying to pretend that how I lived one day had no affect on the next day or anything else. This compartmentalising and irresponsibility that I chose had me becoming more and more exhausted in a way that I could easily ignore and ‘fix’ (or so I thought) with coffee and sugar. Now that I truly understand how every day affects the next day and so on, I can no longer ignore what my body is telling me and there is no fix, so now there is only room for the honesty and responsibility of how I choose to live each day.
I find it so refreshing to have a reason for why I am likely feeling under par; it’s simply because every day affects the next and the next. I find this empowering and I love the added responsibility.
Just yesterday, I lay in bed noticing how I feel in the mornings when waking has changed so much, not only in the last few years but even in the last couple of months! From waking up instantly groaning and moaning about the aches and pains in my body to actually being willing to just lay there with whatever may be there – the quality of my body and mind. It’s like you shared Rachel the more we actually are willing to stop and be with ourselves the more we feel to care for ourselves and when we do that quality of our day follows us back around into the morning. Thank you.
What a huge change Rachel, thank you for sharing the importance of a self-loving rhythm and the massive difference that it can make not just to your morning, but to your entire day and life! This of course also affects everyone you come into contact with, your patients, your family, friends even your dogs (I’m sure they loved being walked by you now in your lovely gentle way). What a testament to the choices you now make and the quality that you choose to live in and from.
Ah doctor Rachel Hall, with such elegance and grace you write this piece and I feel the flow of love from your fingertips. Thank you for allowing me to feel how much self love and self care make it EFFORTLESS to do all these things and more within our days, without coffee and sugary snacks.
Thats an amazing turnaround Rachael, I am in the process of making such a change in my own life and you inspire me to continue, thank you.
‘I’d languish in bed watching early morning TV whilst drinking a strong coffee to get me going.’ Such a strong image Rachel, and in knowing you as the vital, solid and deeply loving powerhouse of a woman that you are today, it’s almost incomprehensible to imagine the you that you were only a few years prior. The transformation is nothing short of phenomenal and all down to your ‘daily choices to be gentle’ with yourself.
Rachel, to me you summed it up perfectly with your words ‘… how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself …’. Such a simple yet profound philosophy. Thank you.
This is a wonderful nugget of wisdom and experience lived to share with the world “The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself…” How we approach, how we prepare, how live each moment can alter our experience of life.
Always love reading your blogs Rachel! This one is very very inspiring! The difference is just phenomenal!
How could it have been so simple, yet I looked for the complicated or hard answer. Just a matter of supporting ourselves. Something I was not taught or saw around me growing up. Like you Rachel, today it is about going to bed earlier, hardly ever watching tv these days (nothing worth watching anyway), feeling what drinks and foods to eat that support me throughout the day to continue to feel vibrant and alive, not drained, sluggish, heavy, racy or stimulated, gentle enjoyable exercise, appreciating the people around me and how much love is there in connecting with them. I never feel bored or like I’m missing out, just a contentment and a joy of being in life and simply being me. Meanwhile all the exhausted, anxious people out there are looking for the BIG answer.
So thank you for sharing Rachel, I relate very much to what you have shared and find it inspiring that there is another way to truly live that you have shared here with everyone.
It’s amazing that we CAN actually change that much – some years ago I was a night owl, choosing to start study at 10pm when the house was finally quiet, I would sleep in until the last minute leaving just enough time to shower, dress and jump on my push bike to uni. I was renowned for my ability to sleep through alarms until 10 am and then snooze some more. What changed? like you say – self-loving choices, starting with getting bed earlier and actually making time for breakfast – and as my body and mental clarity responded to these changes I just kept going deeper and nowadays find myself as a true ‘morning person’ much to people’s surprise but for me it feels so good it’s hard to believe I lived any other way not so long ago.
Yes Gemma I can relate very much to having a totally different sleep and daily routine, which involved leaving everything to the last five minutes so I always was in a rush and using nervous energy to get me through things and feel depleted and drained later in the day. By changing the quality of how I do things now, means I can feel me in what I do, not just the raciness.
It is a choice that we can or do not make and it is up to me in every moment whether I choose for me or not as in your example here Rachel. So simple and yet as you well know Rachel it takes a serious commitment to honour ourselves deeply to make these changes last and establish a supportive and consistent routine. Inspiring.
I love rereading your blog Rachel
It is such a lovely reminder to honour what your body needs and what is required
Beautiful Rachel Hall for sharing how you have changed your life in becoming vital and harmonious just by looking after yourself in all aspects of life. You show me how simple and joyful life can be if we choose it to be as such, to take the responsibility for this and to not allow the old ways of behaviour or coping mechanisms to enter which are withholding us from being true with ourselves.
Simply awesome blog and I can say this simply works for me as well. Although there is still some refinement with my uni lifestyle…
Rachel, your rhythm now feels like heaven in comparison to what you described earlier. I can certainly relate to the enormous difference and impact of making very simple choices to support myself.
Rachel, I love that your morning rhythm is based on a foundation of appreciating who you are and checking in with how you are feeling. I am able to see then how this would set you up for feeling an ease with yourself and enjoyment throughout your day. An inspiring example of giving yourself the love that you deserve and not cutting corners. Something we all deserve.
So true Rachel, your days were rather more extreme than mine, but I can definitely relate… dealing with issues was a key part of being able to make choices that are now much more supportive. I have a similar ‘before and after’ thanks to the influence of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
I love the simplicity of this blog Rachel and the huge difference between your old pattern and the new rhythm you have chosen to have. I too love my new way of being in the mornings with plenty of time to make tea, do blogs, exercise, enjoy breakfast and attend to all the things I need to do to prepare for work. I find the connective tissue exercises a great start to connect to my body to allow me to do all this in a gentle way. What we then take out into the world is so different from the old stressed out, coffee filled people we used to be.
Yes Irene, I too love how even though my mornings start earlier now and I do more, the quality and enjoyment of doing things in gentleness is something I can carry with me during the day.
Self-love has more power than we may care to realise
It is just SO delightful reading about a loving morning rhythm. And it is SO different from most of humanity. I get to ask a lot of people about their morning rhythms and the overwhelming consensus is that mornings are a relentless unforgiving pressure filled event that just keeps happening. But as Rachel so beautifully writes, it can be transformed. Now that IS a miracle.
Thank you Rachel, this made me smile and makes so much sense, it is great to read how you have changed how you have lived and the knock on effect this has had not only on your health, but your work, life and everybody else. What I find is the exhaustion can often catch up with me during the day, when I am not listening to my body and being gentle with myself, be it watching the clock in the sense of stress and will I get everything done or feeling I have to do everything and have a responsibility for everyone else. As you say this can have a knock on effect in the way I speak to people, the quality of my work, and also my health. I may not sleep so well, not rest properly during the day, then wake up resenting / feeling stressed about the day ahead. Whereas when I am gentle, caring and honouring of myself, my choices and my body, listening to everything it shares with me, it creates so much more joy and space in my body and the day. There may be a tiredness but it is natural tiredness, whereby I still feel lovely and I am not being short with everyone else.
I use to have the same feeling when waking up in the morning (feeling super tired all the time), now I don’t! It’s amazing what taking care of myself does.
It’s amazing the difference a little self-care and self-responsibility can make. And that’s just the beginning! Imagine if we all lived this way, with a consistent commitment to living responsibly with the love and care we all deserve. Somehow life seems like it would be way less complicated…
This is a beautiful blog Rachel. What stood out for me the most was how natural and flowing the second morning routine feels. There is no push, no forcing or driving to get through it. It feels like an honouring, and a celebration of who you truly are. You have inspired me to consider a morning bath… something I usually do in the evenings when I feel to. Thank you for sharing that there is another way to live, one that is self-loving, nurturing, supportive and enjoyable.
Rachel -just felt to read this again this morning as a beautiful reminder of how we do mornings so they can harmoniously feed into the rest of our day.
The difference between the two lifestyles is enormous, and yet – it’s the same person, just making different and self-loving choices. And I have to say: I don’t think I would have liked your old self drilling my teeth, there would not have been the slightest interest, whereas now I am actually looking forward to my dental visits.
How we choose to start and end our day has a huge effect on our whole day and those that are a part of our day, so it makes sense to commit to bringing in more self loving choices and give ourselves space to do what needs to be done, then everybody benefits.
I have just reread your blog Rachel
The transformation and the choices you have made are truly inspiring
Thank you for sharing your experiences and expression, so beautiful.
What a difference now ! WOW , how you live your live now feels so lovely and caring !
Very inspiring.
Dear Rachel what a gorgeous blog. I found it very inspiring to read. I always used to go to bed late and wonder why it was difficult to get going in the morning 🙂 now i’m going to bed earlier and waking earlier feels so much more satisfying and natural. Every self-loving choice we make makes a difference to our whole rhythm and i’m appreciating the changes. The transformation in your morning routine is amazing and a beautiful reflection of your own self-loving choices enabling it to be so spacious for you now.
What a difference between then and now Rachel, and what I love about your blog is that the only thing you did was making different choices that support you. What I also feel is that you have so much more appreciation for yourself and that you truly enjoy to take good care of yourself. Beautiful inspiration.
Rachel, I can tell that you have done a lot of changes in your life, and this is great to see how you are now. Thanks for sharing your story with everyone.
I love nothing more than having the time to have a bath BEFORE work! This is very different to how it used to be for me, when I was allowing the bare minimum of time needed to wake, dress, eat, pack and be out the door in 15 minutes. I don’t know how I did that. But I do know how special and wonderful I feel now having decided I’m worth spending time on, and not actually needing or wanting so much sleep.
This is a great article showing so clearly that the way we live has an affect not only on us but on everyone around us. Coffee crazed stress and exhaustion leads to frustration and anger with others at work but choosing to live in a gentle rhythm of self-care brings harmony to the workplace.
Awesome Rachel, I love this, so simple and so true. I love this line “my day and mornings are steady, not rushed or stressful.” this makes all the difference, and allows for so much joy, stillness and space. What I am learning is when I am exhausted or stressed is to not make it a big deal as this makes it worse but the best way to be is more gentle, loving and tender with myself and say okay what choices did I make or … not make 🙂 that allowed for me to become exhausted in the first place and learn from there.
Rachel, I can deeply feel the transformation you have made from a stressed out person into the gentle and loving person that you are just by listening to the rhythm of your body and applying this every day. Thank you for your sharing.
Wow what a difference between the two ways you were with yourself in the mornings. I know I choose the second version, spacious, loving and nurturing. Inspiring to read and to take this deep care for myself by choosing to live in this quality of love even more too.
I like how you have made the point that you went to bed hoping to feel better in the morning, but you never did as nothing had changed. It really goes to show just how much our choices – all of them – affect us.
So true Brooke, we cant just change one thing and hope for some miraculous result, we have to look at the whole of our day, and also why we are making the change. Do we just want to wake up feeling better, or do we want our whole day to be one of vitality, clarity and truth?
Isn’t it fantastic how by making some simple changes and by being aware in the way we do things, like not eating or drinking stimulating foods, slowing down at the end of the day and going to bed early, which then leads to being ready to get up lovely and early in the morning totally refreshed with plenty of time to care for ourselves, go for a walk and do what needs to be done in a gentle manner before we start our working day. And how that can then make a difference to how our whole day flows. I just love that.
Thank you Rachel for sharing the simplicity of how you so lovingly prepare for your day which causes a ripple effect for others to feel. A truly inspiring blog.
Like chalk and cheese you describing your before and after mornings. I could so feel the difference in reading your blog and can only imagine how many people are now blessed by you in your new state of honouring your rhythm and yourself. Be the changes you want to see in the world is the words that come to me after reading your blog. If you want to meet more people who are loving, open and kind and gentle – then you have to become one. Very inspiring.
I love my new morning routine – it has made such a difference to how I feel going to work or day time events. It is such a simple adjustment to my life but the results are enormous. Allowing the time to do what needs to be done and choosing to not let other things creep in to distract you and then make you want to race time. It’s a loving commitment to me and everyone.
I could so relate to this blog Rachel, I remember sleeping in until 11.30! I couldn’t imagine that now. I use to push my body to its limit and at times beyond for work. I was always exhausted and forcing my body to do more. Now my life has changed to a point where I wake up before the birds and am fully clear and present through out my day. Always listening and checking in to whats happening to my body.
The satisfaction of living a full day – resting deeply and waking up early to serve in another full day – Absolute Gold.
I loved your blog Rachel. I used to wake up exhausted just thinking about the day ahead and all the things I would try and squeeze into the day. Like Dianne I lived on nervous energy, fuelled with sugar hits in the form of sweets biscuits and cakes. Learning to listen to my body and it’s natural rhythm has changed the way I get up in the morning and go to bed at night
I just love my early mornings too…and always have. I never liked sleeping in, even as a teenager I wanted to be up early but often it was hard and I would be frustrated that I was so tired and couldn’t get up as early as I wanted to. I knew the natural pull and rhythm of my body but it wasn’t until I started making more loving choices on the whole with the support of Universal Medicine, was I able to actually put that into a true practice. Now I feel my rhythm developing and refining every day.
Rachel, reading your old morning routine reminded me that at one time in my life I had 3 or 4 different alarm clocks going off in different places in my room to ensure that I didn’t over sleep and actually got up on time. Despite this there was still a mad rush to get to work and of course a desperate need for a coffee. It seems bizarre to think that I now often wake up naturally and have plenty of time to do what I need to before leaving the house.
Rachel what a big shift in your life – to come from exhaustion and stimulant-dependence to steady wellbeing and self-nourishing. I can relate to the ‘alarm clock bashing’ start to each morning, in my case often with a migraine. Although instead of substances I got going on nervous energy; this was just as addictive and draining!
This was such a great blog to read Rachel, as you show the changes to your morning routine so humorously and clearly. My mornings now are different too, I wake early without an alarm, give myself a moment to feel how my body feels, and usually I am feeling clear and willing to get out of bed and I enjoy my morning rituals. I amaze myself with what I can do in the early quiet hours, I now love this time of day, when before I would often have to will myself out of bed. Putting myself to bed in a loving and gentle way without any more distractions, and talking lovingly to my body, feeling where it might be sore or stiff, has definitely contributed to the way I can now wake up so refreshed.
Rachel what a big turnaround in the mornings! I think that a lot of us can probably relate to this but to actually feel the beautiful rhythm you are in now is so awesome and inspirational.
What an amazing transformation in how you are and live today Rachael . Very inspiring, as so many people in society can relate to how you once lived. I myself lived in the constant busyiness,; needed coffee and sugar to keep my going.
In nervous energy , very reactive and chronically exhausted.
Today , thankfully it has changed. I have now made more loving choices re food choice, exercise, when I go to sleep, and am starting to stop, connect with me & feel my body , honour what I next feel to do- in doing this a gentle natural rhythm is evolving to support me in my day.
Hi Rachel – I really appreciated reading your blog this morning – it took me back to quite some time ago when I recall I used to live like that too and I was reminded what that was like and could feel again that sense of exhaustion that I used to experience, just by you expressing your own unfolding. Amazing isn’t it, how ridiculous of us to have allowed ourselves to be hooked into believing we have to live like that to tick of the list and to get the job done. What a choice that was. Thank goodness we managed to remember there is another way, and that Way has been presented to us this time by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine via The Way of the Livingness. I know I still slip back into ‘trying’ but my body soon let’s me know that that is not the way.
Oh the exhaustion and coffee days, just an awful way to exist. I used to go to bed thinking about my morning coffee!
Your mornings feel so beautiful and spacious Rachel. I could feel the Joy in your mornings from Victoria. I too have made the changes to caring in a way that supports me to have more time for me in the mornings, although I still cannot quite always manage the last part before walking out the door very well. It often seems to catch up with me and I rush that last 20 mins. Time has been an ongoing issue for me and although there is no comparison to how I used to be, it is still a work in progress.
It’s so funny – this before and after piece! And most interestingly I can relate to all the ‘befores’ that are presented on these sites so well. No matter living on this or the other side of the planet – everywhere you see the same mass! It’s a heavenly miracle for me to then also witness TRUE ways of expression like yours, Rachel.
Wow Racheal – Super cool blog – I love the way you describe waking up in exhaustion – made me laugh, I think we all know how that feels! I also love how open you are to see if there was another way and the love you have to choose it. I so appreciate you sharing your awesome choice of change and the reminder of the simpleness of just listening and staying with how your body wants to do things.
Rachel what you present makes so much sense – that the way we live one day affects the way we feel the next day. So incredibly obvious that taking care of ourselves, being gentle, nurturing ourselves and making choices that support us means the quality of our next hours and days is of a higher quality. And the more we do this the more energy and joy we have in our lives.
This is so true and inspired from reading this blog yesterday and the comments that follow I have just taken a bath in the middle of the day. Why not? I felt I needed the rest as I have a long evening ahead and my body was feeling anxious and racy from all the pushing to get things done. Already I can feel a shift in the quality of how the next hours will now be and I expect I will be more productive too.
I find it remarkable how we can be completely exhausted in the morning and, at times, feel better in the afternoon – as if it is not just sleep that can restore us. I was really surprised when I found that out.
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself,” So lovely that you end this blog with this nugget of wisdom to share, your routine sounds delightful and something to enjoy, but great that it is not about what you do but how you are in life.
Awesome blog Rachel – I love the simplicity that you write with and present stuff with! And what a turn around in the way that you wake up and start your day – whatever you are doing is definitely working! Personally, I still feel like I am chasing time in the mornings but I have come an incredibly long way in how I am already today compared to how I was 1 year ago or let alone how I was 5 years ago! That is to be appreciated, and then to keep working on my rhythm, morning and all day rhythm…Thank you Rachel!
I have read this before and have just read it again, it is just such a reminder to take responsibility and know that it is up to me and only me to be able to change my rhythm and the power of knowing i can. To know there is always a deeper level to go to, to be more gentle, loving and self caring each and every day.
Set your alarm clock for 30 mins ahead of when you normally arise in the morning. Take a few deep breaths before getting out of bed. When ready swing your legs out gently. Once out of bed, do what ever you do with good grace. No rushing about, just be gentle with yourself, and your day will go with you feeling wonderful, and not stressful or full of woe.
Thank you Rachel for sharing this article …simple loving choices, certainly do make a huge difference, not only within our own lives….but it can also be an inspiration, to many other people around us too.
My day used to start with a cigarette and a cup of coffee. But through the support of Universal Medicine and wonderful esoteric practitioners, I no longer need anything to stimulate me anymore. I so enjoy my days heaps more than I ever have in my whole life and it feels so great to not have to rely on anything to get you through the day…except choosing lots of loving choices and nurturing ways with me.
I love what you have said about how now you choose to deal with your issues, heal and take deep care of yourself instead of coping mechanisims such as coffee etc. It makes so much sense. How different our world would be if we all listened to our bodies.
What a difference from years ago! It is not only what we do (or don’t do) that makes the difference it is also the QUALITY in which we do what we do that defines how we feel during our day.
This is so true Monika, when I feel things are not right, if I simply bring awareness to the quality that I am doing them in then a turnaround can be incredible.
Totally inspirational Rachel thankyou, to find our natural rhythm and honour that, is forever on the pulse of life, vital, joyful and ready.
Absolutely Beautiful Rachel, your new rhythm feels and sounds like it has lots of space, no time rush. Inspirational and gorgeous.
So awesome Rachel – I could so relate to what you shared about your morning routine. Mine has changed substantially also! Gone is the monster that used to growl or be non-verbal before caffeine had kicked in to wake me from my stupor, and give me some form of energy to even begin to contemplate the day. Days were hard, life was hard.
These days there are still challenging times, but like you I have begun to develop a steady relationship with myself that allows me to not rush, sleep when I feel to and enjoy my day in a whole new way. If there is exhaustion on any level, I know something is not right. Thank you Rachel for sharing your experience!
An amazing transformation Rachel. Your blog shows that this transformation is possible for everyone if we tune into how our body feels and make new choices from here rather than just changing what we Do without changing the quality of how we do it.
This is great to re-read Rachel, ‘I have plenty of time to prepare for my day and mornings are steady, not rushed or stressful.’ I had a similar experience going from rushed, stressful mornings with 30 minutes to get up and ready to go to making changes so that my morning are now gentle and steady, this has had such a huge impact on my life, I now have a couple of hours to get ready in the morning and really enjoy this nurturing time with myself to prepare for my day.
Wow what a difference!
I was struck in reading this how your experience, along with many others that I have read on this website share simple and practical ways we can empower ourselves to make changes that support us to live lives where we are happy to get out of bed in the morning.
Thank you
You seem to get so much done in the morning Rachel, I could really feel how much of a routine you had created. I have come to love the mornings as the times I am most productive, this is something I could never have imagined just a few years ago, but I now find there is such clarity in the early day and tasks are easier to achieve first thing, all from going to bed earlier and not pushing through when I am tired.
I can relate to these morning routines and I wouldn’t go back to how I used to live even if you paid me!
Hear hear – yes, me neither!! So much better taking my time, staying present with me and having a different experience of my day because of that.
It is a great gift to ourselves and society that we find our ways back onto our path’s of return, returning to the beautiful people we innately are. While it seems so simple and frivolous to change the way we go about ourselves in our morning routines, the impact it has on our lives and that of others is huge.
What a difference taking care of ourselves can make! I have always woken easily in the mornings but always needed caffeine to get me started in the day and always needed wine to relax me so I could go to bed. The way that I ran my days was so crazy and pushed that I could not stop or put myself to sleep at night even though I was exhausted. Thanks to support from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I have developed a loving, caring and nurturing relationship with myself. I no longer need caffeine or alcohol to manage my days and I am no longer exhausted. I too look forward to my days instead of waiting for the weekend to party to have fun. Every day is fun for me as I now bring all of me to every day.
Love it Rachel, and i used to be this way to, dragging myself out of bed and then going into immediate anxiousness and stress rushing to work not eating while getting dressed or in my car. When I share with people how my routine is now, with going to bed early and waking up early so I have all this time and space to gently start my day and really take care of myself they all sigh deeply thinking how amainzg this would be for them too. And then all the reasons of why this would not be possible kick in, one of them being the social factor of having an early bedtime.
But I always say that we all would want to live this way, and most agree, and that someone needs to start changing and then others may follow. So if this blog appeals to you, give it a try 🙂
What a joy to feel the transformation Rachel – thanks. Carolien I agree that people get stuck on the part about going to bed early. I find it curious that they defend staying up late but without any real purpose to it.
Something is deeply wrong with us as human race if our days are lived with such exhaustion and push to get through. So inspiring that you have found another way Rachel. Thank you for sharing
Rachel, thank you for your amazing blog. I had to laugh out loud because when I am at my work place my colleagues are in the morning like you describe yourself in your former times . They are sometimes nerved and sometimes making jokes about me, because I am so alive and joyful in the morning. This is their way to deal with me. They did ask me once why I am so awake and why I don’t need any coffee in the morning, and then decide that this is not what they want to do – so we still have this little joyful game in the morning.
Thank you Rachel, this blog is very inspiring and encouraging as I still can find myself rushing in the morning.
I was always proud how perfect I could calculate how many minutes I need to leave my place for work , so that I could sleep as much as possible. I almost always made it in time, but was never aware how hard my body was and how less nurturing my whole morning routine was. After changing this my whole day immensely changed and I can totally relate to what you say. It gave me a foundation for the whole day to have the chance to decide differently how I treat and care for myself.
When we don’t listen to our body and override the signals it gives us we can end up in such a mess. Every choice counts and makes a difference to our vitality.
So true Rachel, everything we do – every single choice we make – has an impact on our well-being.
Awesome Rachel, a great blog that shows that if we start to make choices according to what our body is telling us, our lives can completely turn around. I have the same experience myself, it is simple when I am willing to honour my body.
Yes me too, when we are willing to honour what the body tells us, life becomes so much more joy-full inside and outside too. Every choice has an effect inside as well as outside, and listening to the body before making these choices is the best tool we have, I find.
Such a great sharing about the little difference that self-care makes. It turns your life around and you live energized and joyful 24/7!
I too used to begin my day this way, often joining my coffee with cigarettes. All those numbing and disconnecting choices couldn’t sustain themselves and the body began to break down, leaving me with very little choice but to change my ways. The choice to connect to self love won out in the end and these simple loving choices have created the most amazing transformations. Before I even leave the house for work I have had the best morning with walking my dog, exercising, relaxing, eating beautiful food and the drive to work is no longer a checked out experience but a joyful ride listening to amazing music. Waking up energised and ready to commit to the day in full sure beats being exhausted and depleted.
Very inspirational blog about true self-care. To allow time to prepare ourselves for the day is enormously supportive and I find it interesting, that this does not just mean get up early, so there is enough time to get all that is necessary, done without rushing. This preparation encompasses the ALL. What we eat, when we go to bed, the quality in which we go about our daily tasks, how we feel as we go through the day, etc, etc. It is the WHOLE package that prepares us for each day. This is a huge revelation and a deeply nurturing one too.
Just so glad I read this blog and remembering it again, as this morning I woke up feeling a bit racy. So I took my time in bed, connecting, breathing, stretching and reminded myself to slow down, be gentle and after a while the raciness left and I just started my morning routine taking extra care to be present to myself and my body. Thank you Rachel.
Wow, what a contrast. It is so encouraging to read this for so many people showing that the change is possible and it is not difficult to do. As presented in this blog, the most important thing is to “look after myself, care for me and nurture my body” and then “honour what is required”. Thank you Rachel for writing this.
Above all it definitely is in the QUALITY that we choose and care for ourselves that makes the major difference, much more than in doing what is supposed to be right or good for us, as it is from the quality that we naturally feel and know what to do.
Rachel, you expressed a very common way of living in abuse and disregard for the body. What you share is a wonderful turnaround, that is not only in your attitude to life but also I’m sure avoided an inevitable chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease…a simple miracle in a way.
Rachel Hall if I had not come across Universal Medicine yet, after reading your blog I sure would be looking for it. Your old morning routine is how so many people start the day and I know that if I have just one element of it like rushing to get ready or feeling tired before the day has even started it feels awful – I have also woken with the first thought ‘is it Saturday yet?’ or ‘what day is it?’ followed by a feeling of dread during the week and relief at the weekend. There must be so much giving up and resignation about life to accept the tiredness, the coffee kick start, rushing out the door and living for the weekend. Living for the weekend is like saying life is only good less than 1/3 of the time- and is it really a good weekend or is it just the needed relief before the week starts again? Rachel how you describe your morning routine is inspirational, even more so is that you did not focus on just your morning routine. I also found living with gentleness and the earlier bedtime that is explored at Universal Medicine courses are enormously supportive to the outplay of my morning routine and not surprisingly how I feel throughout the rest of my day.
The picture you paint of your mornings prior to making your lifestyle changes is pretty scary. What’s more scary is to think about the millions of people out there who know no different and are turning up to their respective jobs frazzled and burnt out before the day has begun. I appreciate your honesty in revealing the depth of your previous situation and celebrate with you the wonderful transition you have made.
Thank you for this powerful blog. As I read the first paragraph I was laughing at how well you described the waking up routine for many. I too can relate to this and thankfully now I mostly get up with ease, compared to dragging myself up and out like I used to. It is great to be reminded of how making choices to change our daily routine can allow each day to flow with ease.
I am truly appreciating Rachel, just how much self responsibility and commitment to yourself you have undertaken to make the significant changes to your life. They are certainly life changing and the impact on others is immense. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Hi Rachel, You have given us an example of two polar opposites of how to prepare ourselves for the day, and I can relate to both on some level. I too am giving myself the time to appreciate me at the beginning of the day and allow the time so I am not rushed. It is a lot more supportive. Thank you.
Thank you Rachel for another awesome blog. It is amazing how a simple caring routine that you have described gives us so much more energy and aliveness.
Again thank you for delivering your blog with so much humour and honesty.
Thanks Rachel, seems your journey is one all can relate to. Thanks for confirming that another way exists from the past drive and exhaustion. The alarm clock is now redundant and my morning routine is one of gentle activity that reaffirms my connection to ‘being’ with me.
Such a far cry from the 10 cups of coffee and misery I was previously ‘driven’ with.
Simple things, a little bit at a time, and I look behind me and my life has totally changed. I love it.
Times are a changing, and when we make those changes and stick with them, the body is definitely reborn.
Thanks for Sharing Rachel. While at times change can seam over whelming but when we chose to make a true change that nurtures and supports our body then the change is not so difficult.
Honouring my rhythm and what works for me has been a key learning and support for how much more vital and engaged with life I am.
Rhythm is tuning in with my body to feel what goes on in my body that might upset the natural flow and harmony : typically things like foods that make me feel tired because of the burden on my digestive system, mental busy-ness that ends up with racy feeling in my body that often leads to heightened emotions taking over, the list is long and we each have our own unique attributes. But what is common is that we all have the ability to listen to our bodies if we so choose.
An amazing transformation Rachel, wow. I can relate in so many ways… Though the details may differ, the level of tension and stress was there in the past for me also. It was not until I came to the work of Universal Medicine that I started to comprehend that such a change was not only possible, but found myself living it. What is truly amazing, is the fact that so many are now finding such a way of being to be their ‘normal’.
This needs to be broadcast far and wide! Having more vitality in one’s mid-forties, as I am, compared to one’s mid-twenties – surely that breaks all the moulds!
Thanks for this blog Rachel. I can relate to a lot of what you have said in regard to how my morning routine has changed. What has been most remarkable to me is that in choosing to do things in a more gentle loving rhythm without rushing, I actually get things done more quickly and seem to have more time!
People make movies with the first part of your story and call it a comedy !
Only it’s not really that funny. Too many people live in stress like that, and it’s incredibly unintelligent to accept it as a norm and the coffee industry has a great time.
I hope many people read this and get inspired.
I can relate to this constant exhausted feeling –
On the weekend I started my new job only worked for 4 short hours, drove home and felt quite tired so I went to bed at around 3 pm and didn’t wake up until the next morning… This doesn’t happen to me often but what was interesting to add is around 2-3 pm each day I feel a little tired and so this is around the time that I reach for something sweet or sugary to give me the energy to get through till bedtime.. On this particular day I decided not to eat these foods to see what would happen.. So wow what an interesting observation was the fact that physically once I laid down that I just could not get up again and slept for over 12 hours.. It’s crazy how we can use food to keep giving us a boost throughout the day so we actually don’t have to feel how tired we are..
From this I have decided to make some changes, purely for the fact that I do not like feeling that way and I know there is another way. Thank you for the inspiration.
Wow what a change Rachel, definitely something to celebrate how you choose to live now! I could so relate to the waking up exhausted and not knowing how I was going to get through the day… mine was a bit different, where I would hit the ground running… not at all from feeing vital but running off nervous energy, and nurturing and caring for my body meant making sure I gave it food and water to keep on going. Now there are still things that need doing and that has doubled or tripled since that time, but like you – “I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.”
I can definitely relate to what you have shared Rachel…it cannot be underestimated how powerful our choices are and when we start to bring more care and nurturing the body responds so well. I too have found there is so much healing in the way that I choose to live.
It is quite incredible the transformation in our health and wellbeing that comes about by nurturing and taking time for ourselves. Thank you for sharing Rachel.
…… and so the change is the same for so many of us who have learnt about loving and caring for ourselves. Many thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for presenting what is now, so obvious. The truth of who we are and how to be more of who we are, all of which we know already. Knowing how far I have come and that there is more..
Yes, an awesome blog Rachel, one that we can all relate. Sharing how its not about what we do but in fact how we are doing it, as in the quality, is so important for the body that is doing all of that. It’s the difference between a depleted stressed body, to a body that is more vital, aware and lovely. A body that is a joy to be in.
It sounds like what has changed the most for you Rachel, is the choice to come back to love. It’s exhausting being anything that runs counter to our true self.
So true Liane!
I can totally relate to your blog, what a difference a bit of self nurturing does
This is such a powerful, inspiring article Rachel, ‘All this is done in a gentle rhythm that supports me to feel who I am and where I am at. There is time for a soak in the bath, to do my hair, moisturise my body, dress myself, care for me and appreciate who I am. I check in with how I’m feeling and adjust my morning routine to suit and support me for my day ahead.’ What a difference between how you used to get out of bed, and how you now lovingly get out of bed and prepare for the day – truly inspiring!
Great blog, I like that its not about changing what you do in your morning but how you live. That’s something I am very much experiencing right now, the way I live and go to bed is supporting how i am in the mornings.
I can relate to so much that you shared here, Rachel. Reading your blog supports me to refine my morning routine to be even more loving and gentle, and at the same moment it helped, reminding me to deeply appreciate how I now live in such a way that I am up, feeling joyful and ready to rise and shine at around 4am. I would never have believed you in the past if you had said I would love to get up and start my day that early – but it feels amazing!
Wow what a stark contrast Rachel, from how you used to live to how you do now. I love the simplicity that you have shared here, when we are self-nurturing in all aspects of our lives and as we deal with ‘our stuff’ what a world of difference this makes to not only how we feel in the morning, but throughout the whole day.
Your morning routine sounds exquisite Rachel, so spacious and allowing of yourself to do all the things you need to do in a gentle and loving manner. It shows how making some simple and loving choices can have a profound effect on our lives.
Thank you Rachel for sharing about your morning routine and about the amazing changes you have made.
I still am stunned what a difference caring for myself does make and that it is as well about the big things as about the seemingly small things like keeping yourself warm when you get out of bed.
Suddenly I can start the day refreshed whilst before it has always been a struggle to get out of bed. This is really taking life to a new level.
I love how you also mention the little things that make a difference Michael, I found that too .To keep the same body temperature the same when getting up, to hydrate a bit and for me to also take my time, not rushing, and my start in the day is so much gentler these days.
Wow Rachel! You could have been describing how most of us wake up each day. What a huge difference you have made just by being gentle and honest with yourself. How great to know this is possible
Rachel, I love reading your blogs! They’re so very real and there is so much to be inspired by. I love the before and after of every story, so relatable and on the money. Thanks!!
Thank you for sharing this Rachel. When I read about your amazing morning routine I must admit I felt a bit jealous as this is not what my mornings look like right now (albeit they are world better than what they were a few years ago). Even when I get up early I often feel tired or anxious about the day ahead and all I need to do. Your blog shows me that there is another way and it starts with how I am with myself in each moment. I am very much looking forward to seeing changes in my morning routine as I learn to reconnect to me.
Your honesty is beautiful and hugely supportive to all others who are not yet allowing themselves the same level of love and joyfull connection as Rachel does.
when I read your blog Rachel, what comes up is how have we been fooled to believe that living in the way you describe; exhausted, dragging yourself into the workday and waking with the idea can I stay in bed, is this a Saturday and not to forget this one; I need holidays is what life is. Instead of this taking care of ourselves all day and night in a rhythm that supports us to do what is needed. When we choose this love and care we experience this spacious and joyful life like you describe too.
What an awesome read Rachel, I felt like I was with you every step of the way and could relate to your exhausted walk through life. And as much as I could relate to all you where sharing, it actually hit me that although the exhausted routine sounds awful and was awful, it suited me because I didn’t need to look at my choices and what hurts I was avoiding dealing with. Who knew not taking care of yourself was a way to numb and dull the body so as not to be aware of all that I did not want to know about and deal with. I have to say, no matter the hurt, your new way sounds like a preferable option.
What an amazing transformation Rachel. And it is possible for all of us if we choose to make self loving choices. Thank you for sharing.
I loved reading your blog Rachel. It reminds me of how I was feeling in the mornings a bit over a year ago. I used to wake up feeling tired, heavy and moody not really knowing why until I learnt about being gentle, self-care, self love and living in a rhythm that supports me. I started to listen, I now go to bed early and wow what an amazing difference? I could not have imagined myself getting up at 4am and feeling energised throughout the day. By changing my daily choices to connect to me and live daily with self- care and Love. I am feeling more energised.
Rachel what you say makes so much sense especially, ‘I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.’
Recently I had a day of anxiety. I was a mess! I couldn’t concentrate or focus and did so little in my day but avoid what was truly going on. I realised how much time resorting to coping mechanisms and basic procrastination takes. I could feel my energy was being zapped but as soon I brought honesty and a spot light onto what I was avoiding I was back, feeling the effects of being wayward in my body, but back.
I love reading this blog because you remind me of what is possible when I choose to deal with my issues. Thank you for living a different way. I can feel the spaciousness you have given yourself to be when you resolve to never shy away from yourself or what is presented to you in your day. Awesome.
This is so true for me too, Karin, how you reflect on what Rachel says in that you can “feel the spaciousness you have given yourself to be when you resolve to never shy away from yourself or what is presented to you in your day. Awesome.” It is totally awesome. Even in your blog, Rachel, I can feel the anxiety and raciness in the first part of your writing in how you used to live and then feeling the lovely, still, breath of fresh air as you start talking about how these days you wake up early and naturally. I too live each day with the intention to “be committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself” and I do so in the daily choices I make to “be gentle with myself and to connect to who I truly am” moment by moment.
What sort of person can function without coffee, morning TV or doughnuts?!? One who is willing to look at a different way of living, just in case it turns out that this freedom from emotional outbursts, sugar lows and time stress is worth trying something different!
There is no book in any library or scientific study that highlights what you have achieved Rachel. It defies logic in some way. How can being gentle and self loving and reducing and stopping coffee, and all you have done, give you more energy? Is less really more! The human body has the capacity for vitality and is bursting with energy if we allow it to establish its own rhythm. Once that is reached, there is so much more available than just having more energy in your day.
Thanks Rachel for sharing how you “have come to live based on daily choices”. It’s amazing how much can get done in a day after a good refreshing night’s sleep and how good it feels. I noticed that my fatigue came from the marathon effort of contracting and hardening my muscles in protection against my perceived world. I can laugh and sleep on it now.
Beautiful simplicity Rachel. I really enjoyed reading your blog as it resonated with me and the life I too used to live before learning that there is another more loving way to live. It starts with some really simple choices and can develop at a pace and depth that you feel comfortable setting and continually unfolds and refines.
Making changes for myself to the way I lived and my rhythm, I just started by going to bed earlier and cutting out stimulants like coffee or sugar in the afternoon. I couldn’t believe believe the energy I had and still have in the morning. This burst of energy gives me the courage to take on more changes over time.
I can truly relate to this story, as I am sure is the case for many others.
Every morning when the alarm went off at 6:30am, it always felt that I had only just lay down and I could not believe that the alarm was going off already!
My exhausted and depleted body often refused to move as my back had locked up, so I had to literally drag myself into a hot shower to try to gain enough movement to be able to get dressed and tie up my shoes. This only lasted for about 20 years!
When I finally met Serge Benhayon and asked him about my back, he simply presented that it was the way that I had been living that had resulted in the way my body was, and the way that I was feeling. I did not know if this was 100% right, but it felt true.
It is now 8 years since that first meeting with Serge and, I can without any hesitation or doubt say that everything that he presented to me was true, and my body can confirm this fact.
I have just turned 50 and feel better than I did when I was 20. I have not had a back spasm for over 5 years and my flexibility has returned. I wake up early, have lots of energy and love going to work.
SO, there really is a magic pill, it is called THE WAY WE CHOOSE TO LIVE EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY.
I love your magic pill Rob “THE WAY WE CHOOSE TO LIVE EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY”, which is what Rachel has so beautifully described. I am making up a new supply of those pills today.
Rachel, I really had to laugh! The way you described how you used to start your days – I could copy-paste! Looking at how simple it is to change to a powerful, vital and fresh start, only by how you make choices! Self responsible and self loving – if anyone would have told me 5 years ago – I would have laughed the same. But not by knowing better, but by thinking “never ever is that possible”. What a change!
Yay, thank you Rachel, a true inspiration. I too have had times where I drag myself out of bed, feeling absolutely exhausted. My children would come bounding in with amazing energy and I would just want to roll over and go back to sleep. I could not believe that the night had gone that fast. As I make changes to my life I find that I am more easily getting out of bed. I am inspired by your morning routine. I am working on improving mine. I still seem to be running out the door, even though we get up early.
Thank you Rachel, as I read your blog I realised that I still do that thing – where I try and make changes outside of myself to get the result I want – like a rule I will make for myself to try a force a routine – you undid me with
“… not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”
That is totally going up on the bathroom mirror for a bit – thank you.
Thank you, Rachel, for this reminder. I too am learning the difference it makes when my priority is how I feel, and how I choose to look after myself based on that. It feels like when that becomes challenging for me, the ‘nurturing’ choices have already become chore and ‘how I am’ is left out of equation.
This blog has really highlighted for me the incredible support I have received through Universal Medicine. Your story seems remarkable considering how normal the daily grind of life is, yet you have turned it on its head! I have also turned my life around in many ways, and continue to do so, but I can understand why so many accept and give up on living another way. Yet, the support is truly there via Serge Benhayon, his wonderful presentations, and many supportive practitioners trained and inspired by him. I’ve really enjoyed reading about your turn-around.
You are a great writer Rachel!
I met you when you were already in your gentle, loving routine and found you an amazing dentist that is so much fun and so funny. It’s very cool for me to get a taste of what you used to be like and appreciate how far you have come from living like that.
Great blog Rachel, I too was in a terrible cycle before but mine included copious amounts of alcohol and regular terrible hangovers. By making a few different choices like giving up alcohol, gluten and dairy I too have turned my life around, it really is so worth it!
Rachel, I love how you expose that relying on a good night sleep to fix the problems does not work. We wake in the same energy we go to sleep in. So how are we living and preparing ourselves for sleep?
Thank you for your sharing Rachel. I too enjoy so much the time in the morning to do things gently and in absolute presence. I feel that, by doing so, the day ahead of me flows easily as I more able to bring the same quality into everything I do until the end of the day and not feel exhausted.
What I love about what you have written Rachel is that I don’t feel a sense of effort, but rather a series of new choices that you have made (and continue to make) that bring more and more to your day and your life – and everyone benefits…
Simple and beautifully expressed Rachel, thank you. I fully relate. I used to wake up from the alarm, bleary eyed and not refreshed and rush around the day. Since I have implemented much more loving choices and most of all, listen to my body, treating it much more tenderly, and by allowing myself the time I need in the morning, I find I am so much more at peace, my body feels so much better and I still am able to do what previously I thought I could not do without rushing.
Karina, I have found for me that introducing a more loving routine, one that does not involve rushing, sets me up for the day ahead so beautifully and supportively. When I do not make that time, i can feel it throughout the entire day. Which again provides me with the impulse to give myself the time and space the evening before, which sets things up for when I do wake up and organise my morning to be self honouring. This is I have found for me, such a self loving thing to do.
I agree Rachel, it makes a huge difference how I start my day and it is so supportive to keep it spacious and not rush. I love attention to detail and taking my time, not just with my morning routine but that is when I set the rhythm for the day – so if I get this right the rest of the day follows in the same pace. And I have observed that when I allow the rush into my morning routine it follows me throughout the day and as you are saying that is exhausting.
I know this as well Judith, that the way our day flows is based on the rhythm I have built the days before, especially by how I was with myself and in relation with others.
I agree Judith – When I allow time and space in my morning, I can connect to myself and my day will be completely different compared to when I rush into the day – and I’m only in the Doing.
Thank you Rachel, I agree with you and like to add, what I have found is a nice completing of the day. My partner and I reflect the passing day and feel into our relationship with us and with ourselves. If there is the smallest tension, we talk about with each other, until there is harmony in our bodies. Sometimes this takes a while, but we always found it worthy. This is a gentle round-up and beginning of the night with having a deep and calm sleep.
I love your addition Ingo, to reflect on the day, feel into the relationship with yourself and others and feel where there is tension in your body. That works great for me (without a partner) as well. It is an awesome preparation for a restful sleep and a joyful and feeling vital wakening the next day.
Ingo, that is great to read. It is true, if I don’t complete the day in harmony with myself and my partner, the quality of my sleep is not so good, I have intense dreams and the next day I wake up with anxiousness and depressed feelings.
What a transformation Rachel…that needs to be celebrated. I can relate in FULL as I too used to drag myself out of bed in the mornings and struggle through my day, only to collapse at the end of it. Coffee, sweets and alcohol kept me going until one day 10 years ago, my body said ‘no more’…it was exhausted. Since then, I’ve made, and continue to make choices in how I live each day that supports me. I take care of myself so that I can do what needs doing…and yes, I still get tired, but it’s from having a full day, rather than from rushing, stressing and pushing myself.
I too lived a similar life style. Always going at top speed and wondering why I was exhausted. I couldn’t even stop to feel the cause of the exhaustion. After coming into contact with Universal Medicine workshops I was able to make changes to live a more loving way which has benefited everyone around me.
I too lived a similar life style. Always going at top speed and wondering why I was exhausted. I couldn’t even stop to feel the cause of this exhaustion. After seeing practitioners and completing Sacred Esoteric Healing workshops I have been able to make changes to live in a more loving way which has also benefited everyone around me.
I can so relate to the description in this blog of coffee in the morning, the exhausted collapse on the couch at the end of the day (not beer but more coffee, for me!)… I was an avid coffee drinker ( I even had a favourite coffee cup that travelled with me everywhere which read “Don’t ask me till I’ve had my coffee!”… and often during the day, if somebody would ask me a question, I would just point at my cup!) and looking back now, I can see it was my main prop to cover the exhaustion I really felt and overrode. Since making more self-loving choices for myself, in what I eat or drink, when I go to bed, and in dealing with my hurts and issues etc, I no longer drink coffee, or use sugary foods to prop me up, and I’m not exhausted at the end of the day – and I wake up early the next morning without an alarm clock jolting me awake too. My relationships with people are also more loving, it’s pretty amazing really! I really appreciate how much more vital I feel.
Wow Rachael…What a transformation….relaxed, on top of your game, calming, healthy and totally honest. I look forward to visiting your practice and we’re talking about a dental surgery! Your very honest blog makes me wonder how much I am holding back? … how am I being to myself and others?… what else could I offer my self and others?… I wonder….thanks for sharing.
This blog really shows the extent of the illusion we live in. How looking back we can see how obvious it was to why we are so tired, even to shake our heads and say “I can’t believe I was living like that”. The deceitful trap of going and going without stopping to feel what we are stuck in is thick. This blog gave me great moments of appreciation of where I’m at and reading the comments has given me inspiration to keep growing and observing my daily movements to find my rhythm.
Great reflection Kim. I too have been inspired here to go deeper and honor my rhythms based on where I am at.
A great re-read and the message is so clear and simple – that we release our natural vitality when we respect and honour the body and the rhythms it naturally runs by. When we don’t, we’re so much less than who we truly are. In which case, we’re the true directors of our very own daily movie. We choose the shots. It’s simply down to choice.
Rachel – you bring purpose to your whole day now by the changes you have committed.
These are simple, practical choices that anyone can live.
Why has ‘Monday morning’ been turned into such a hateful day? Is it possible that it is our attitude towards it that is not great, not the day itself?
This really does show us, how our days are and how we are, is down to us.
I like what you say Hannah, Monday mornings can be full of joy and vitality once we have found our daily rhythm and creating the next moment with how we are at the present moment. Always up to us, and no one we can blame for a bad day.
What a joy re-reading this blog is. It always feels like it comes back around at just the right time as well…it’s such a lovely way to check in with yourself and ask the tricky questions around “how am I living”. In truth it is actually not that easy to remain consistent as I am experiencing. There are plenty of times when I get complacent and let go of this commitment to myself, or my commitment in truth to loving and looking after myself, such as this blog so beautifully describes. Take this weekend for example, I was moving house and just found myself strapping on my “man” suit and lifting heavy things, flexing my guns and generally disregarding sleep, diet and gentleness in life. As such I am now sorely paying for it… So to re-discover this blog, to read the beautiful process of deepening that relationship with self and to enjoy knowing the benefits as described within the details here is a great way of saying “now now, time to come back to what you know is right for you”. Thank you Rachel for the eternal support this blog brings.
I loved re-reading this blog too Phil and I could also relate to what you say about “time to come back to know what is right for you”. I used to get very frustrated with myself when I realised (after the event) that I pushed myself too far and like you sorely paid for it. I had stopped listening to the little signs and in doing so got out of my natural rhythm. Going to bed early and waking up early so that I have enough space in my day for everything has made a huge difference to my life, everything in my day flows, I don’t get frustrated or tense and I enjoy the day. When this rhythm goes I am less likely now to get annoyed with myself and gently bring myself back to what I know is right for me.
Phil I love your comment and the “now now, time to come back to what you know is right for you” line. It is very supportive to know and fully take on board that the way I live during one day sets up the following day. My morning can be full of space and time to complete what is needed, provided I’ve taken care of myself the day before.
I agree Sue, early mornings are so still and quiet and it is such a pleasure to be up at that time. I used to be so desperate to sleep in thinking that would give me more energy in the day, but by turning it around and going to bed earlier coupled with taking care of food and exercise has made a big difference. The real tipping point though in terms of having more energy and vibrancy in life has been to focus on the quality of energy I am in, in any given time. Living rushed, stressed and pushed was the real energy zapper! To the best of my ability I focus on remaining calm and staying present with what I am doing and feeling in my body. If I tense up or go into nervous tension I choose to focus on my breath and body and in a moment the energy I am in changes. I am then able to look at what caused me to react and go into nervous tension in the first place.
Rachel, this sentence you wrote says it all for me, “I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms that take the edge off my day and actually devitalise and deplete me of energy.” The funny thing is that all those coping mechanisms only prove to drag the misery out even longer. I know, as I had used many of them myself, and never truly felt complete, energized, or joyful. I have found that it is actually easier to just deal with my issues directly and honestly, and get to the root of an issue, even if at first I may not want to own up to my responsibility in it. That way, it won’t just be yet another thing to come up later in a different form, only to be suppressed again via over-eating, caffeine, drugs, alcohol, etc. as I had done in the past, but no longer need. There always seems to be an energetic boost too when I have truly gotten to the bottom of some issue for myself, as well as a giant weight lifted, as these emotional issues can be really burdensome.
Well said Michael. It’s so true that the way we deal with our issues during the day has an impact on how we are the next morning. If there are unresolved issues from the day before I know I feel heavier and less vital in the morning. A great reminder here that this is an important part of looking after ourselves.
Loved your reply Michael. Carrying the burden of issues is exhausting and dealing with them is freeing. I can feel how much this plays a large role in my day to day vitality.
I agree Michael, what Rachel has pointed out here about dealing with hurts instead of running around trying to cover them up and use work and busy-ness to distract from dealing with them, is pivotal in the changes that can be made back to a life of tenderness, harmony and true wellbeing. It has been my experience studying with Universal Medicine, that has broken that vicious cycle of running away from myself in the activity of life, by offering that those deeper hurts and issues are not such a big deal and not so painful when faced. Then, the support from Universal Medicine practitioners who like all of us have dealt with their own issues and the understanding and compassion they offer, has been so important.
Very true Michael – it makes so much sense to look at the root cause of an issue. In the past I pretended very often, that I don’t have an issue, but underneath I could feel it and to ignore it, it is very harming and exhausting.
I remember when morning routines used to be a sluggish affair that looked like a documentary on sloths. The only thing missing was the branch to be hanging off. My routine these days is very different. I get up earlier and have more energy. How does that work? It’s the magic of caring for myself. First I start by playing some music or doing some writing then after an exercise sessions at home or a swim at the pool, my day at work is set and I feel ready and prepared to face what the day may bring.
I am realising more and more the way I am during my day effects my sleep and then the next day. It’s a roll on effect, and if I don’t stop it, it just rolls on and on and on and on. My day seems to be a bit back to front at the moment and feels as though I am chasing my tail. I am slowly changing this pattern.
It is great to re-read this blog. What stands out for me from Rachel’s account is the sad reality that many of us live or have lived in – “some days I would even cry on my way to work because I was so exhausted before my long day even began”. Why do we allow ourselves to get to this point of exhaustion? I too observe people slogging it out to the point of exhaustion without questioning if there is something that could be done differently. Thank you Rachel, for sharing with us how you were able to turn things around.
I agree with Rachel’s blog and it is my own experience that every day is a 24 cycle and basically how we live during one part of the day affects the other. For example I have discovered that if I am not too anxious or stressed during the day at work then I feel less tired in the evening and how I prepare for sleep affects the quality of sleep and then the ease or levels of vitality the next morning. I have found that if I see my day in this way, a bit like a mini-ecosystem where it all has to be in balance and homeostasis with each other then everything flows easier and with much less exhasustion and everything still gets done.
My daily routine today was an exhausting one, why, because I let it get to me. I came off the ferry from Ireland, and then drove the 250 miles to home. That would normally be a fairly relaxed drive. why was today so different. seeing the way people had no consideration for other motorist I let in infuriate me, then there were long traffic delays on the motorways. The next thing was a police chase, pursuing someone who had broken the law. I then took the decision to pull off the motorway, take a break, and sit quietly doing my gentle breath for a few minutes, which changed my outlook.
Rachel it’s a great point to raise that the reasons why your morning routine is so very different now is because you have learned to look after yourself. Instead of resenting what you have to do each morning it sounds like it is now a pleasure – I can relate to having always avoided mornings when I grew up to now enjoying the time I have to be with myself.
Rachel, you mentioned being gentle with yourself and I feel that this is key for me as well. I have driven myself hard in my past because I mistakenly felt it to be necessary to ‘crack the whip’. Now, thanks to Universal Medicine and livingness, I know that being gentle is far, far more effective.
I have just read your amazing blog. What a transformation, from an extremely exhausting way of life to a life you enjoy moment after moment looking after yourself. I too have found, that looking after my body and how I feel and living more in the present moment is a great support for a more enjoyable way to live my life. An what’s more, I have discovered that in this caring rhythm I am fitting more tasks in during my day – it feels like I make more space for me to do the things I do.
This is an awesome blog Rachel, to read the two polar opposites of how you lived and felt. The only thing between the two were the daily choices you started to make around how to be with yourself – that’s so simple, it’s powerful to read because the changes are striking.
To live every day in our own inner harmonious rhythm is our potential for everyday living.
What an incredible transformation Rachel. I’m sure the belief that the body has an almost infinite capacity for punishment is widespread, especially among professional people who drive themselves hard. Everyone should read this, it’s really inspiring.
Jonathan, I used to live the “Work Hard, Play Hard” or more appropriate “Be Frantic looking busy and then go and party hard”. The only way I found to sustain this was caffeine, sugar and all kinds of substances. It’s quite a difference as I start to learn what truly working actually is, combining taking care of myself with doing what is needed. I’ve also noticed how much of the day gets taken up with driving myself to prove I’m working.
So I just re-read this… and it pretty much sums up my life not too long ago. I spotted a few elements that are still present today – for example the other day I found myself getting frustrated at an elevator because the doors were too slow to close for my liking. (Sounds quite silly when I say it back to myself!) A great reminder Rachel for me to look at my night/morning routines to see if I can make any changes.
Cheryl. Know how you feel, as we all can sometimes get frustrated at the slightest thing, and then we realise we are wasting our energy, when we can use that energy elsewhere.
Being truly ‘honest with where I am at’ is something that is challenging and unfolding for me at present – and it is so wonderful to at last have an opportunity to change the patterns that have held me back and to truly connect to the truth within. In the past I have always used my version of ‘honest’ which I am slowly realising is not honesty at all but an honesty that is dependent on my agenda and the outcome that I have already decided upon (I have only recently realised that the ‘outcome’ was a very powerful influence of how honest I was). As I learn to become more familiar with honesty and how it feels in my body the more honesty is becoming the true way to live my life. My daily routines begin with a connection to that place within where honesty is known incontrovertibly.
I can relate to what you say Susan, being honest with ‘where I am at’ can depend on the agenda that I have set or the outcome I am looking for. It is as if I have blinkers on and I can’t see anything but what is in front of me. It is only usually in hind-sight when something goes wrong that I am able to see (and not always then) that I have not been totally honest with myself and what is truly going on at that moment.
Thank you Rachel, I found it really interesting at the end of your blog how you described the shift in your mornings as coming “not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself” – I have found so much over the years thinking ‘if I could only do this a little faster” or ‘do that a bit different’ to make my mornings easier, instead of seeing it as part of how I am living during the day as well.
I agree Jess, I was always trying to find the fastest way to do things, to find a short cut, but usually, by rushing, I would make a mistake and find myself with more work and end up getting more frustrated. I find that making choices to be more gentle and be ‘with’ myself allows the day to flow and that I am able to complete more work in a quicker time.
I too live a totally different morning routine, rhythm than I did 10 years ago. I was the master of getting out the door in 15mins flat. I actually prided myself on how little time I needed and how little care I took of myself, I wore it like a badge of honour. Funny use of words really as there was no honouring of me or my body in this rushing and doing things at a crazy fast pace! Now I really do love taking my time in the morning, not going slowly but in preparing and connecting for my day and working on projects. It makes a big difference to how I feel for the rest of the day.
Yes, Vanessa, I feel that gives me more vitality overall, the preparing and connecting for my day. If I rush I override my body, if I go slow I become lethargic. Quiet consistency is key, just a beautiful pace that is mine. Not that I manage to choose this every day, but I learn from the other two extremes, and it feels so good when I do make the loving choice for myself, and then the day flows.
Agree Vanessa, I find that the first few hours in my day set me up for what the day may hold ahead. It’s such a gorgeous time of the day too, to just be with yourself, getting ready, working on projects, organising and quietly getting things done. If I rush in the mornings I can feel it can lead to me feeling ‘out of sorts’ which can then affect the rest of my day.
I too was the master of getting out the door in 15 mins flat Vanessa, which set up my day to be in this continuous rush which was my daily pattern, always rushing from one place to the next. Now I cannot do rushing, as it feels horrible in my body, and like you my morning routine is completely different… I go to bed early, thus I am up early before the alarm, giving me plenty of time for me in the morning.
I love this blog Rachel I can so relate to this. My mornings were the same I couldn’t function without my coffee fix and the way I would rush getting ready and running to the bus stop last minute. My day would continue like that even when going to bed. Roll on present day, like you my mornings are now full of quality minus the coffee and the massive drive and rush.
I saw some guys yesterday that I used to drink with years ago and I remembered the level of self abuse I used to live in. I was then over weight and looked very puffy in the face and at that time would marvel at how the body could keep on functioning and putting up with such an unhealthy lifestyle. Although there was still a part of me that was fully aware that it was only a matter of time before something would give. I remember how I was so used to waking up with a hangover, it was my normal and I just got on with it and got on with my day. I am now getting up at a time that I was quite often going to bed in the past and now feeling great is my norm. When the choice is to do something that makes us feel great or something that is abusive there should not be any question, but there are still areas of my life that I can be more self-caring with. Things change and what used to be ok now feels to me abusive and I continue to look at what I am choosing on a daily basis. It’s now time for my morning walk, 5am and feeling great, part of my morning routine.
What’s great about this is it gives us such a clear marker, something that we cannot deny. We wake up and we feel tired, lethargic, rested, vital, what ever it may be – no argument, just a simple fact. From there we can look back at what led to this feeling and clearly see the choices we made the day or days before that led us to feel as we do. Some may have been supportive or others less so, but whatever they were they can be instrumental in guiding us in our next choices should we wish to look that way.
Yes Jenny, I think this sums it up really well.
A great article on your morning routine as it was and as it is now. An inspirational read for anyone who has a sense that there could be another way to start the day as well, living life. Thank you Rachel.
Beautifully said Julie, I agree what an inspiration to read and look at for my own life choices.
Thank you Rachel, I love reading this and have found my morning routine so important and supportive to my day and my life and all the more true for my body choices, to be with me gently in nurturing and caring for myself.
Living and making choices more lovingly really does make for an energised, purposeful and joyful way of life.
Rachel, I can completely relate to what you have shared. I was the woman who struggled to get out of bed by 7, the longer I could sleep in, the better I thought it was. This has completety changed with embracing listening to my body and going to bed when I was tired and then naturally waking earlier. There are days when I do wake early but still feel tired (and wanting to stay put). As you shared, this is about how I have lived the day before and invites me to reflect on my choices that impacted the quality of my sleep. For me supportive daily choices = great sleep = great energy the next day – simple!
I love this blog Rachel, I too find it quite hard to get out of the warmth of my bed in the mornings – thank you for sharing that it is not about just looking forward to days where there is the opportunity to sleep in (which if I’m honest usually make me feel more lethargic), but it is about making changes to how we are living in the day that affects the quality of our sleep and vitality in the mornings.
Yes Jess I too have experienced this and had to be really honest with myself about the ‘sleeping in’. Whilst it is quite a rarity for me these days as I too would feel exhausted, lethargic and a feeling of trying to catch up all day when I chose to stay in bed much longer than I needed.
On reading this blog again it reminds me of how far I’ve come. My mornings were chaotic to say the least Rush, rush, rush. It seems ridiculous now, as I have more time in the mornings due to getting to bed early and waking up early refreshed after a proper nights sleep.
I concur with that Kevin – often not sleeping until 2am then struggling to raise myself from an exhausted state. Without a cafe latte my day certainly would not have started! The mornings are so different now, when I take the time to go to sleep the night before when my body feels tired.
Absolutely Fiona!
Beautiful Rachel. I don’t have kids – but I remember falling asleep on the way to work each morning, always craving more time for sleep. I abused sleep by using it as a way to ‘relieve exhaustion’. But what’s so clear for me now, is that sleep is just one small part of the process. It’s how we are over 24hrs. Taking time, care and love in what we do. And like you – it’s incredible to just appreciate where we are with our mornings – let alone our days. I know it is something to keep deepening and building on but that’s also the beauty of it. An ever evolving way we can care for ourselves and therefore be much more loving to those around us.
I too have absolutely felt how much smoother my day is when I support myself by starting out slowly, taking care to give myself time to wake up and have some tea before I start thinking of my to-do-list… and when I get thinking too fast too quick I can easily have a very rough day!
That is a great suggestion Jo, as those to do thoughts can click in almost immediately after waking. I find if I lie there and feel my body lying in the bed and how good that feels, then I stay with me and am more likely to stop the doing thoughts.
As well as changing the way I am in the morning and making sure I get plenty of sleep the night before to support my energy levels, I am also realising more and more that I get energy boosted in the day or depleted in the day depending on how I speak with people. When I open my heart and speak to people from there I get an energy burst, when I close down and communicate with a closed heart I get drained. Its been fascinating feeling this in my body and something I am observing and changing.
This is something I am observing too Rachel. It is energising to speak from my heart, and if I shut down I get drained. Holding up a wall between me and others takes a lot of energy! I notice a huge difference at the end of the day if I stay open. I don’t feel exhausted at all.
Yes Rachel, I too have this experience and find if I speak with a closed heart, I just feel cut off from the world.
It’s great to be able to work hard during the week and not get depleted. It’s good to not have to lay in on the weekend and still have a sufficient amount of energy to do things.
Amazing blog Rachel. I have gone through something very similar; a few years ago I wasn’t showering regularly, woke up minutes before school and would always be in a rush to get out the door. Now it is completely different, I always wake up with enough time for a walk, exercise, spending time in the shower and making sure that I am 100% ready for the day ahead. This has made the biggest difference imaginable to how I am in my day, and has taken my self responsibility to a whole new level whereby I make sure I go to bed early each night so I can have a spacious morning to support the rest of my day… this cycle has consistently been my life ethic for some time now, and feels amazing!
As a mother of young girls, and, as a person who also operated in that same rushed way, it is super inspiring to read stories of people who have changed these patterns.
Such a super simple article to read on how our mornings affect our days ahead!
Great blog and comments, I quite often forget to appreciate the little things during the day when I am with myself or choosing to be gentle and focus too much on the parts of the day which have not gone too smoothly. Reading the comments and blog have been a great reminder for me to change my focus.
I agree Julie, too often there can be the pull to focus on the ‘bad’ or the ‘not so great’ parts of a day – what you didn’t get done rather than what you did, or what you didn’t say rather than what you did express. I have found it so helpful to be more caring of myself by just appreciating something about the day, the way I was and slowly I have found it building a confidence in myself.
Coming back to this blog I feel to share what has been a redevelopment for me – is in my preparation the day before for the following day. As an early riser now I fell under the belief that my previous routine of setting myself up for the next day needn’t be as I would have time the next morning. But I’ve come to realise through the experience of still feeling rushed in the mornings is that it is a lovely ritual putting clothes out for the next day, packing my bag for work ensuring I have everything I need and only leaving things like taking lunch till the next day, unless it is leftovers, which I pack ready to go. This understanding has then taken me to consider that whole putting things off till later “there will be time” and through that I’ve realised leaving things till later gave me something to do, to be busy, to be ‘something’. Oh so not true!
This portrays perfectly how actually the way you live and are with yourself in the day affects you the next day, not just what you did.
As the season starts to change with less light and cooler temperatures, it’s great to be reminded to constantly review how I nurture myself to bring me back to the one constant, the all encompassing love from which I come.
Thanks Rachel for letting us into your life and morning routine – very inspiring and simple. I can relate to the exhaustion and frustration and not wanting to be at work and generally feeling down that I was in only a couple of years ago. Through simple changes to our daily routine this can be turned around as you have very clearly shown.
I love re-reading this blog, so simple a way to nurture ourselves with a consistent morning rhythm, and to get up at the same time each day regardless of what day it is – creating a solid foundation for our week/month/year/life.
Hi Rachel, I really love the way you have described your life before, and all the changes you have made, which sound simple and easy to do. Thank you for this.
Waking up without an alarm and ready for the day feeling refreshed, it really is an amazing feeling, I would say it is well worth investing in looking after ourselves so we can feel this way everyday. From my experience the other way of being isn’t so much living but more existing.
Rachel I love how your blog describes what mornings were like and how they are today. I love, ‘I check in with how I’m feeling and adjust my morning routine to suit and support me for my day ahead,’ because it is so practical and simple. Feeling this sentence and the depth of your transformation inspires me to continue to let go of what gets in the way of honouring what I feel in my body. I know that, as I begin to honour myself more, the more I feel able to be myself in the world without props.
These days for me getting out of bed at 4am is a sleep in. I more or less get up when I wake up and start preparing for the day. Even when I was a child before I started smoking and drinking and having late nights etc. I can never remember feeling this good in the mornings now that I have started really caring for myself. And the good news for me on that front is that I still can improve my diet and exercise and the way I care for myself so it’s only going to get better.
Thanks again Rachel
I was so exhausted for so long without even knowing it! I called it “tired”… I love how Gabriele confirms what so many of you are saying, that it is so simply about being honest and taking responsibility to develop a gentle way with yourself and how you live each day. All I can say is anyone can do it and it’s worth it!
This old morning routine as described sounds absolutely exhausting; I wasn’t such a mad coffee nut but couldn’t wait to light my first cigarette which then set the tone for the rest of the day, meaning more of the same. Looking back it is hard to believe how I found the time for all these crazy things when the answer to being rushed, hating what I do and being exhausted was simply being honest, taking responsibility and developing a gentle and nurturing rhythm (with lots of room for further development).
Thank you Rachel for your great article. Like you, as soon as I changed my old ways ie: being more careful with what I was eating/drinking, taking off the sugar, lactose and gluten away from my diet, it just made a huge difference. I can now go to bed early and wake up early. Some weeks, I need to stay up later because of work, however, even if I feel my body a bit more tired, I don’t feel exhausted like I use to and as soon as I have a day off, I make sure that day I go to bed before 9 pm or even earlier.
Thank you Rachel for this beautiful blog sharing the vast differences in your morning routine. I really enjoy the difference when there is no rushing or stress in trying to get somewhere ‘on time’. The simple changes of going to bed earlier, getting up earlier and bringing more conscious presence to my way of living on a daily basis is so supportive and has made a huge difference to my wellbeing and outlook on life.
Hi Rachel, I used to be very similar, my morning would be sleep as late as I could, as I’d stayed up late, probably drinking alcohol, rushing to get to work on time, grabbing breaky on the way, and reaching my desk in a state of stress before I’d even really started the day. Once I began making simple changes like going to bed early and eating healthy my mornings have become the most productive time of day, I really enjoy it, and by the time I reach my desk I feel fab, and already feel as though I’m half way through the day.
A super blog Rachel. This really resonates. I still have an alarm clock ‘just in case’ but when I wake up before it goes off I’m set up for the day in a completely different way. Everything works in a way it never does after a sudden alarm call jolting me out of bed. Not too long ago I used to have an anxiousness about ‘missing out’ if I went to bed too early – so I stayed up late and got more and more tired, with a glass of whisky to help. Then I realised I was ‘missing out’ on something far more important and that was the morning. Quite simply it’s fun getting up now and like you I’ve turned things round – inspiring – thank you.
Rachel, what a wonderful article you have written, it brings back memories of my life, rushing here, rushing there, mind rushing to do things at a given time. In other words my life was one almighty rush job. Now early to bed and early to rise, waking up refreshed and rejuvenated. One great thing that has helped is doing the ‘Gentle Breath Meditation’, and being aware of what I put into my body during the day.
Great article, Rachel.
I too have experienced a changed relationship with sleep: I used to joke with people that I was addicted to sleep – a light-hearted jest, but not far from the truth. I lived my life in constant tiredness, and sleeping was in many ways the best part of my day. I would go to bed, sleep for 10 hours, and wake up little more refreshed and energised than the condition in which I fell asleep.
The important thing here is that I was sleeping to escape.
Since making the self-loving adjustments to my life that you detail above, such as working on the quality in which I live my life and committing to a regular, earlier bedtime, I have found that I go to bed – not to escape – but to truly rest and rejuvenate, so as to support me for the day ahead.
It is still a work in progress, and I have by no means mastered my relationship with sleep, but the distinction is clear: before, I slept to postpone the ensuing day; now, I sleep to embrace it.
I love how relatable this article is. I remember the shock of the alarm, an hour or 45 minutes before I had to be out the door. Rushing through showers, dressing, bolting out the door to grab breakfast on the way to eat at my desk, arriving routinely 10 minutes late, because I could get away with it… It was all so exhausting! But as you so rightly point out, the change happened because of making small choices in my everyday living which brought me to the point where I was able to create a cumulative change. It is the little things that make the big ones!
I too remember those days Naren and I can recall how proud of myself I used to be for ‘winning the race’ each time I got to work. I am so, so glad I do not choose to prepare my day like that any more.
I agree Naren, I think most of us have been there with the manic morning routine. Even on the mornings when I used to wake up early I would create delay and lack purpose and make myself late, just to put myself into that rushed panic state. Crazy! I still do that now from time to time so for me it is one to be aware of. It is so much more enjoyable to get things done in our own time and space and not be in a mad rush.
Yes! I love how simple Rachel has made it, it makes so much sense – everything we do in our day effects how we feel tomorrow.
I agree Monica that it is inspiring to read how Rachel’s approach has changed and how important honesty is as well as gentleness. For me starting to make simple changes like going to bed earlier has supported me to feel less rushed in the morning but taking the time to reflect on how I lived the day before has allowed me to see where I can make further changes to improve the quality of my sleep which has a huge impact on how I wake up and live my day.
So simply and easily expressed. Because it is so simple and easy. It’s normal. At least it can be. Versus – 3 coffees each morning, a screeching alarm, shouting at the kids, jumping in the car, driving too fast and leading the rest of your day in that ever increasing state of anxiety. Which to chose. It’s a no-brainer. And it is just a choice. Beautifully lived Rachel.
Beautiful Rachel and an inspiration to read each day as it really helps with appreciating the loving consistency building in my mornings and the whole day reflected from this. Thank you.
Not only is the blog itself a really interesting read, but it is also amazing to read all the comments. What a testimony to Universal Medicine and the inspiration it has offered so many people to change their lives, about how they feel about their morning, their day and themselves!
I agree Rachel, it’s amazing to read all of the comments to this blog and the many changes people have made to ‘their lives, about how they feel about their morning, their day and themselves’.
Beautiful Rachel, if only all the world could read this, I’m sure they’d be lining up to make such choices. We tend to take this first routine of a morning as you’ve described as the norm – it is portrayed as such in film, on the radio, between friends. Little, if ever, do we hear, or are we shown there is a much simpler and way more loving and supportive way to begin our days. It is amazing that Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have stepped out to show us that there is another way, and that we too are free to make these choices.
Amazing Rachel. I can relate to the mad rush in the morning which I would then take out on other people. Thank you for sharing.
Yes Heather I too feel this – that building consistency is key.
To have this article available for us to read is so important at this time, where most of us do feel exhausted upon waking up in the morning. I too used to get up in a rush and actually prided myself on being able to get ready in just 30 minutes. Now I take much more time, preparing myself for my day before I leave home – giving myself enough time to leave my home in a way that will be supportive for me when I come home from work. For example washing my dishes in the morning. Small things like that make it much easier when I come home from work after a long day. Instead of needing to clean up, as I have done it already when I come home I can focus more on winding down and preparing for a good night’ sleep.
It is a fact and so true Fiona, the days I feel really with myself, honouring what I feel and connected, I wake up the next day feeling the same, tender, gentle, lovely and a joy to be here and to be me – and the days I feel stressed, exhausted and overwhelmed and drop into bed, I wake up feeling tired and a sense of dread – I know which I would rather – simple choice 🙂
Hi Gill, appreciation definitely is the key. When we choose to appreciate so many things in our lives it allows for true freedom and joy, and realisation of how amazing life can actually be, in the most simple and wondrous ways. Rather than this constant judgement, never good enough and always trying to achieve, which just squashes and controls our natural light and playfulness.
Great conversations, thank you Rachel and everyone. Lots of nodding going on here – yes to appreciation, letting go of judgement, never good enough and all those things that squash light and playfulness, especially letting go of old beliefs and patterns. Its a process and one I am enjoying as I discover more of the real me.
Yes thank you Rachel for sharing this. It’s truly lovely to hear and feel how simple it is to adopt more nurturing ways which are going to support us through the day. It makes such sense and the beauty is that we can then build a momentum creating a wonderful foundation on which we can enjoy life rather than struggle through it. I’m gradually learning to make more supportive choices in my routine. I find that some days feel easier than others but this reflects my previous choices which are great to see. Building consistency for me is key.
Beautiful to read Rachael thank you. I love feeling how your morning and whole day and life have changed by being gentle and loving with yourself and your choices in such an honouring way.
I find this inspiring to take it further in my life in appreciating all the changes I am making and the more deeply that I can go with them also .
Thank you Rachel for reminding me how simple and beautiful it is to live a life that is honouring of all that we are. As you say it changes our perspective totally when we begin the process of being more self-caring and self-loving.
Thank you Rachel for your reflections on the changes to your routine. It has allowed me to reflect on those simple however supportive changes I have made also and to appreicate that. Earlier nights are much more supportive to me than TV, enabling me to be more refreshed in the morning and perpare nutritious food.
Thank you, Rachel, for sharing the awesome impact of simple changes in your rhythm, your relationship with yourself and the power of appreciating that.
Thank you Rachel, this is a beautiful blog, very inspiring how you have turned your life around. I am still working on my rhythm as there are times my working hours changes the rhythm and I tend to loose my flow. I defiantly need to look at everything and see what I need to work on further, as I know once I get a strong rhythm the flow will come beautifully. You blog has come at a great time for me.
Hi Jane, I totally agree this blog would be excellent inspiration for people if found in a doctors, dentists and hairdressers while waiting. These simply but practical steps Rachel has discussed really do make a significant impact in ones life. By creating less stress in the mornings and preparing for our day we are setting a foundation that supports us to embrace lovingly all that comes to us.
Very true Samantha, building that foundation is definitely key in helping to reduce stress in the mornings or anytime really. Having a strong foundation allows us to manage any situation we find ourselves in without reacting or getting flustered or most importantly having that feeling of overwhelm.
That is exactly what I am experiencing as well. A strong foundation allows me to manage many situations I find myself in. As I am with myself, I don’t have to hide, check out, rush or react. I am with me and can just relate to what is in front of me. So much easier than my past where I was all over the place, but far from being with me. Whilst being with me makes such a difference. I am my foundation.
[…] My Morning Routine: From Exhaustion to Truly Energised | Everyday Livingness. […]
Thanks Rachel, I love getting up early and giving myself plenty of time so as not to rush; it’s going to bed early enough to support the early mornings that I struggle with. I know the more present I am in my day, the more time I seem to have and the earlier night I get… So beautifully simple!
Beautifully inspiring blog Rachel. Thank you.
I agree, Rachel. Honouring the body we’re in and that we take with us everywhere we go, has to be our fundamental starting point in the way we live life. It takes real commitment and honesty, gentleness and acceptance. So it’s great to read how you have combined all these to deal with the issues that were preventing you from living this way and to feel the enhancement in the quality of life you have achieved as a result. Inspiring.
Great point Cathy and a very supportive and inspiring article – amazing to read the change in quality of life by loving choices.
Great sharing, thank you Rachel. It is amazing how small changes can make a big difference.
Very often we feel powerless in the face of what life presents to us and we can’t implement change because everything is on the ‘too big pile’. However, as you so beautifully illustrate, the small practical things we do on a daily basis can either support us to enjoy life or drain our energy and leave us feeling exhausted, and that is what makes the big difference. It is so clear in your before and after descriptions that our individual choices create our experience of life. Truly Powerful.
I’ve noticed that getting up early can give me that sort of vibrant feeling of being able to do more things in the morning whereas waking up late like after 7am can create all sorts of headaches and laziness and that not wanting to get out of bed feeling. It makes a huge difference to me the time that I wake up.
Thank you Rachel, you are an inspiration as to how you have turned your life around and it shows that by taking responsibility, being honest with ourselves, and then taking action to deeply care for ourselves does make a difference. We seem to have accepted the state of exhaustion as being normal when you, and many others, have proved that it doesn’t have to be that way! I have also found that by giving myself more time in the mornings to prepare makes a huge difference to my day.
This morning is one of those mornings Jane, rising early and moving gently into the day is giving me time and space to do everything I need to do in a very present way. It makes it very possible to listen to my body in a deeper way and let it lead and my mind follow, instead of the other way round. The pressure I can often give myself by “being in a rush” just isn’t there. I love the way the blog and comments support each other in this.
The amazing foundation that a spacious, attentive morning gives our whole day is super huge. Thank you Jane and Rachel.
So true Matilda – it sets the tone for the whole day. And yet at the same time we have to continue choosing this for ourselves otherwise at any moment we can be back into the pressure, stress and rush of life.
Great point Sandra and Jane. We have accepted being tired and exhausted as normal and in so doing accept a level of vitality and health that does not support our daily living. Rachel’s blog and all of the comments here present that their is indeed another way.
Wow what a revelatory blog, I agree it is definitely true that deep self care and making simple choices like being gentle with yourself, being honest and refining what we eat can really change a whole life around.
So true Meg, I totally agree
I feel that Rachel’s blog is very inspiring for anyone who is struggling with their daily routines to understand that simple choices can make huge differences. Thank Rachel.
Yes I completely agree Gustavo.
Gustavo it certainly has inspired me and confirmed that every single choice I make has an impact on my vitality. I have loved the process of getting to know my body on a more intimate level and listening to every thing it wants to tell me. Food and drinks has been a massive learning on what works and what doesn’t for me along with how I am in relationships. There is so much on a daily basis that we can look at it is an endless process that can always be refined.
Very true Gustavo, the seemingly little and simple choices have great impact as not one thing is more important than another.
Having read this, it reminded me a lot of how I used to act with my own sleep patterns – and how I don’t ever see myself returning to that. Thank you Rachel for the simple blog – it was a great reminder of how far I’ve come from my old behaviours and attitudes around sleep.
Rachel this is a huge turnaround in how you now start your days. How great to reflect on the choices you have made and the impact it’s had on your life. This is inspiring and worth celebrating.
I couldn’t stop smiling when I read this blog. I love the lightness with which you write and for that stop moment appreciation that it brings for me. One of the truly awesome things I find in getting up naturally and early is that sense of gentleness, like water lapping on the shore before the wind picks up, or the lighter whistle before the commuter traffic hum, a gorgeous stillness. Thank you for sharing this Rachel, it’s lovely to read.
Beautifully put Phil – I too love the feeling of stillness and space that Rachel describes around her morning. There are all these gorgeous things to do and having the space to do them makes all the difference… otherwise I’m rushing things, turning them into a chore and just adding to the ‘to do’ list and the overwhelm!
Rachael, this is beautiful and a true inspiration to hear how your waking day has been transformed by honouring and taking good care of yourself. I am realising that when I lovingly prepare myself and give myself plenty of time to get ready in the morning how much more the day flows I feel connected and on top of everything. This can be opposed to me rushing and feeling I have not enough time when this happens I am more susceptible to the outside influences and more likely to react. I am learning it is a simple choice and that it is far more healthier to choose loving gentleness over hardness and harshness.
Samantha, you make a great point about being susceptible when rushing, something that I am so aware of these days. And as you say, all it takes is a simple choice to give yourself more time.
I agree Samantha, I’m definitely more ‘susceptible to the outside influences and more likely to react’ if I’m rushing and feeling like I don’t have enough time.
…’when I lovingly prepare myself and give myself plenty of time to get ready in the morning how much more the day flows I feel connected and on top of everything’ – I can completely relate to this Sam.
I totally agree with you Samantha. By making yourself space in the morning sets up your whole day. Even when unexpected things pop up that in the past stressed you out, now just slot in and you carry on.
Wow what a powerful blog, a great inspiration to what is possible, I find I am refining my mornings and like you have changed beyond recognition but are inspired to look deepening it to be as loving as I can feel yours is!
Rachel, thank you for another simple and inspiring blog, and for showing how simple loving choices can make such a huge difference to our lives.
So true. The power of simplicity is a continual source of wonder to me. The ordinary changes that people have made to their lives with such extraordinary results. Amazing.
Yes truly awesome and that goes for me too.
Thank you for this stunning blog, Rachel. It is a beautiful example of the miracles that are taking place all the time, in the lives of those who have been inspired by Universal Medicine to make more loving everyday choices to support themselves. Who would not want to wake up and embrace the day as you have described?
Wow, Rachel, what a transformation! I love that, in making time to nurture you, you now have more time for your family and colleagues at work as well. The commitment to a morning self-nurturing session makes such a difference to how we are during the day, which in turn leads to better sleep, and the cycle continues.
‘Snap’ Rachel…the alarm clock wake up was the only way forward in the past…and setting it for as late as possible so I would already wake up in a rush. There have been so many subtle changes that taking more care has delivered to my life…. now its up earlier than ever before, no alarms just my body ready for the day.
That is such a transformation, it’s AMAZING. I was reflecting the other day whilst in the kitchen how I no longer have that ‘can’t wait for it to be Friday again’ feeling by Wednesday or even Tuesday in the week because I needed a rest or have ‘time out’. What is beautiful with this is how lovely it feels to evolve, to make choices that are really loving. It is not a burden or a drag because you feel the benefits, and the benefits rock 🙂 For me this is an ongoing process and I still have loads more to learn and change. Thank you for sharing.
Great little blog Rachel, I shudder when I look back at my morning routine of rolling out of bed hungover reaching for a coffee and a cigarette then stumbling out the door to work not being able to face food until about 11 o’clock. This was normal for me at the time and I didn’t think anything of it. How different things are now after adding a bit of self love and nurturing to the mix.
Great blue print to start every day Rachel. Kevin you have described most of my life. I don’t even own an alarm clock these days. The only thing better than waking up refreshed is preparing myself for bed the night before.
Great blog that has certainly given me an opportunity to reflect on how my life has changed in the last 10 years. Early mornings are certainly a lot earlier than they used to be and this gives me so much more space to do lots of things, from reading a book, exercising, meditation, soaking in a bath, preparing dinner, enjoying a cup of tea, assisting my daughter with her homework and getting some extra work in. As Rachel has shared all because I have made choices to be much more honouring and gentle with myself.
Thank you Rachel, it feels a very supportive morning rhythm that you have and amazing to see the contrast to how it was before. For me there would be many days of waking up tired and worried about what is ahead. It’s lovely to feel a different wake up depending on how I’ve cared for myself the day before and inspiring to read the depth you’ve taken this.
This is a beautiful blog Rachel and what is so wonderful about it is that the choice to wake each day with energy and vitality is there for us all to choose if we so wish. It isn’t exclusive to certain people, it just takes a level of self care and discipline and I can attest that it is so worth it. I have also experienced that feeling of being so exhausted at work, to the point where I have gone to the toilets just to rest my head. How wonderful to not have that feeling and to wake up refreshed and looking forward to the challenges that each day brings.
This is great Rachel. I used to always rush around in the mornings and actually create a huge amount of stress for myself by not allowing time for me. Now, after making a few simple and obvious changes, such as going to bed earlier and getting up earlier I have plenty of time and therefore less stress. This has brought with it a true honouring of me as I prepare for the day which of course has a knock on effect on all those I encounter in my day. I have time to prepare a lunch that will support me rather than having to grab a quick snack that may not be as nutritionally supportive. The thing is the more I take care of me the more energy I have and therefore more is achieved without creating exhaustion. Simple yet effective.
Rachael I love what you have said, that the way you have lived your day has a major impact on how you feel, particularly dealing with issues, situations and what ever is presented during your day then and there. Not pushing things aside and pretending they didn’t happen. This is something I am working on and yes noticing a big difference with how I feel.
I also relate to what Rachel has written about here. Very inspiring read.
Top article Rachel and very inspiring how you have transformed your life. It brought back a lot of memories of how I used to live. Going back to that way of life is unthinkable now and, as you say, it is about connecting to who we truly are and being honest about what we need.
‘Going back to that way of life is unthinkable now’; my feelings exactly Tim.
A great honest and open blog. When I read this and how your mornings and life used to be I completely related to it especially the morning routine. However what was shocking was how normal I thought this used to be and never stopped to consider that it could be any other way, simply because I had absolutely no regard for my body. Reading this and reflecting it is shocking how irresponsible this was on many levels. Since making the choice though to look after myself in how I eat, sleep, run my body and deal with issues in how I approach my day naturally changed. I have also witnessed this happen with many other people. So thank you Rachel for sharing and allowing a moment of appreciation of the choices made and the impact this has had on my life and for others in simply choosing to stop and take responsibility to self care.
This is great Rachel, thank you. I can relate to a lot of what you have written. I have also changed my morning routine for me, from one of rushing, feeling stressed and watching the clock to a morning routine of self-nurturing and spaciousness. I love getting up earlier so that I have a couple of hours before the rest of my family wake up, this gives me time for a long gentle shower, to apply moisturizing cream, to dress myself lovingly and often prepare food for the day for myself and my family. And I have found that when my family do wake up instead of being grumpy and wanting time alone, it is lovely to see them and I can enjoy being with them.
When the changes in morning patterns are written so clearly as you have done here, there has to be a stop moment to deeply appreciate the power of what it means to take care of yourself. You could have written about me and my morning’s, Rachel. I used to dread the day ahead and get a big knot in my stomach and get down before the day even started. Now, like you I have chosen to look at my daily choices, the right food, sleep and exercise, be gentle with myself and deal with my issues. It’s so worth taking the time and care with all of these things because the end result of vitality, joy and a love of life makes it so worth it!
Very true Rachel. It feels to me that I have broken a habit I’ve been in which is living in on nervous energy. I find the key to breaking this habit for me, is by going back to my body, as someone has said on this blog, a barometer. I can then now also look after my daily choices very carefully moment after moment.
I can so relate to what you have expressed here Rachel. I am finding that since taking the time in the mornings, taking care of myself in presence with myself, my day somehow has more time and the feeling of ‘rushed’ is not the ‘norm’ anymore.
Great article Rachel. So inspiring to have it so clearly shown that it is simple adjustments to the way we live that can make an amazing difference to how we feel and interact with all around us.
Hi Rachel, I loved your blog, it’s a real inspiration to read how life changes when you truly begin to care for yourself and how that change shows others it is possible. Thank you.
Wow Rachel what beautiful sharing, I really loved how you said:
“The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself, to connect to who I TRULY am, be honest with where I am at and what my body really needs to feel healthy and alive – and to honour what is required.”
Thank you and so very inspiring, love it, what a turnaround, amazing to read.
After reading your article, I wondered “where is the tipping point where someone who is experiencing life – in the way you used to – can make one step towards the new way?” Maybe it is in recognising that what they are doing is using coping mechanisms to take the edge off AND that those mechanisms, whatever they may be, are actually consuming huge amounts of energy that actually leave them further behind instead of further ahead. It’s likely that this awareness must come first and then they can start to make the healthy choices. And with each choice, the next choice becomes easier. Thanks for shining a light on what is possible and thanks, Rachel, for writing about a BIG change in such a small , easy to read way.
Yes, it is so inspiring to read how someone’s attention to detail and care for themselves can change the foundation of every day so hugely. Thank you Rachel and Gayle.
Yes Gayle, I totally agree. So many mechanisms we have to cope with stress or exhaustion actually make us more stressed or more exhausted. There comes a moment, like you have said, where we have to be honest and start to arrest this continuos circle. It is beautiful that Rachel has shared such a simple but profound change, one that can be made by anyone.
Well said Gayle, thank you for sharing.
Well said Gayle. Bizarre how the coping mechanism causes the very thing we are trying to avoid and so we get stuck in a vicious cycle. Awareness is the key, one self loving choice leads to another and the cycle can be broken.
I agree Gayle, first must come the awareness that we actually see that there is a problem with our way of life. Making the right choices after that will follow naturally as long as we are being honest.
I agree Tim, awareness and honesty is the key
I can totally relate to this blog. I used to stay up late in an effort to have “me time” as a reward for making it through a day; then wake up feeling ill-equipped for the day ahead… an endless cycle of struggle and reward!For me taking time at the end of each day to truly unwind and let go of the day (not filling it with entertainment and distraction) and employing similar simple techniques as Rachel, has been a catalyst for quality sleep and rejuvenation and mornings like the ones described here. I enjoy each day – week or weekend – with the same enthusiasm, I rest when I need to, wake up without an alarm and can truthfully say I absolutely LOVE my work.
The highs and lows of life have been replaced with a lovely consistent harmony. This is the real freedom I used to search for and strive to achieve – stemming from simply committing to the way I start and end my day. This is what I call a miracle.
Thank you Rachel and Helen and I can so relate to staying up late to have ‘me time’ which just compounded the vicious cycle of being constantly exhausted. Committing to looking at the rhythm of my life and how I choose to get up each morning and go to bed has brought an amazing consistency to my life. I now wake up feeling truly energised most days and on the occasions when I wake up feeling a little off, then I look at the choices I made the day before and make adjustments I feel to.
I so enjoyed your comment and the simplicity of committing to the way you start and end your day.
I remember that one Helen staying up late as reward for the day I have had, and mot surprisingly it never felt like a reward the next day when I struggled to get out of bed and go to work. It is crazy how we have accepted this as being ok and all the time the body is struggling to keep up.
Such a a lovely blog Rachel. I have also experienced a huge turnaround in my mornings from dread to joy and ease. I now love my early mornings. The stillness that is felt in my body from rising early sets such a supportive foundation to my day.
I can confirm that for me too – the stillness and being able to do things in that stillness do set the pace for the day, everything feels much smoother and more in the flow, offering a great foundation how the day will be
You have really reminded me of how life used to be all the time, Rachel. Sometimes, even now it feels like that again when I override my body and forget the new beautiful way of living each day, but there is a great incentive to get back on track quickly, as I have now experienced the two different ways that you describe so well. I used to be exhausted all the time, but now I have more vitality than I have ever had in my life, and the old one feels horrible. It has taken me a long time to build this, and there is plenty more to do, but already I feel healthier and more at home in myself. Mornings and evenings are so important to be aware of my choices depending on my what my body is showing me.
I agree Joan, It has taken me a while to build my early morning routine too, but with steady commitment I am loving the benefits that a spacious and unstressful morning can bring. It is fantastic to hear you feel more vital then ever before, it shows how listening and making true choices can support ourselves to live in a more healthy way and one that does not exhausts but leaves us feeling renewed and fresh.
Yes Samantha, I am recently discovering more about this morning routine. It doesn’t have to be rigid! It is more about the internal rhythm my body is developing that informs me, depending on how I feel and what the day ahead holds. The routine seems to be a guideline for an internal freedom of choice within it as to what feels more loving at that moment, and appropriate. In other words, not every day is the same! Shower first or walk first today? And so on. The most important thing is on waking to feel how my body is and spend some time saying hello.
Same here Samantha, its a very different way of starting the day and means there is so much more time. What I notice is if I have times where I fall out of that rhythm the chaos can come back. It’s something I’m exploring at the moment but it seems to be when I override the feeling to go to bed when by body is tired, overeat or take on and then try to complete too much stuff – stuff that does not truly need doing!
I agree Ariana, I too can recall those days of exhaustion. Once one has had the realisation that it is our responsibility, and ours alone to change these patterns that have held us back, we are able to change and make new supportive choices. It feels so beautiful once we start to connect to our own innate rhythm and feel the power from within rather than being on a constant search outside of ourselves. At last a way to step off the treadmill of life which for me has come through attending workshops and courses presented by Serge Benhayon.
So true Ariana, I remember those days waking up and feeling not great at all and the thought of getting up and doing it all over again was a chore.. Today, like Rachel, it’s completely different, wake up early alive and ready to go for another day full of whatever it may bring and with a true sense of looking forward to it.
Yes I agree Joan, the routine I feel to have with my mornings and evenings may change a little from day to day but if I let it slip too far away and don’t listen to the messages my body gives me then exhaustion is my reflection!
Hi Rachel, I too have found that making time for a simple morning routine can have an amazing effect on the quality of my day and the experiences you share seem so similar to my own. In the past there were many mornings when I would wake with an almost instant regret of the choices of the day before, only to compound these with overriding what I was feeling and carrying on regardless making similar choices again. Now my morning routine provides a great time for reflection upon how I am feeling and the possibilities to why so that I can make small (or large!) changes where necessary.
Jane I love what you share here, ‘By simply feeling this, with no judgement, and learning, I get the opportunity to make new choices that following day, ‘.. I can see how so many times when I go into self-judgement my next morning is completely out, however when I stay with myself, recognise choices I made and know that I can make different choices the next day without any judgement, my day flows beautifully.
Beautiful Rachel, that is a simply stunning turn around and one that I can fully identify with. Its quite shocking to recall this type of behaviour in my life and your post reminds me of it very well – how unkind and stressed I was and the way I used to treat my body in order to “cope with it all.” Your re-claimed gentleness and tenderness can be truly felt in the way you describe how you care for yourself before going to work, the love, care and appreciation with which you prepare yourself for your day is very inspiring. Thank you for your honesty and openness, a true gift for us all.
Hi Rachel. What a difference between before and after! It is beautiful to read how your mornings are now. I love getting up early for the same reasons. Thank you for sharing.
Same here Rebecca a stark difference!
Me too Rebecca, it sets such a different tone for the day.
I love how you relate to the difference as ‘before and after’ Rebecca. It is an awesome ‘before and after’ story.
I can relate absolutely to not wanting to get out of bed in the morning, and in that time between sleep and waking really being able to feel all the previous days choices. I have to say waking up to an alarm is the worst feeling because it gives me a heart attack! But when I change the way I am in my day, the way I go to bed etc, it all adds up to a far better and deeper sleep. And my days are the best when I have long and calm morning, in which I really take my time, it sets up my day. Thank you for sharing Rachel.
I totally relate to this Rebecca, long calm mornings are the best! I feel so good when I am able to get out of the door with plenty of time it really sets the whole day up and I feel better equipped to deal with anything that comes my way as opposed to the rush that an unprepared momentum can bring. I love being up at the crack of dawn it so fresh and there is a stillness that is exquisite.
Samantha, I too feel the same. When I have more time in the morning, my day ahead goes so smoothly and I get so much done. When I feel rushed the day becomes hard as I am just playing catch.
I agree Fiona, when I rush and stress I can feel how this affects the rest of the day and how I am with other people, which is that I am often not really with them as I’m stressing about stuff in my head, whereas when I allow myself the space and time to get ready and honour how I feel my whole day opens up, I feel far more connected to myself and everyone else.
Yes it does feel amazing to come from stillness rather than frazzled, rush energy.
Hi Rachel that’s the key, it is not about changing what we do but being honest with why we feel tired and exhausted. It is easy to dismiss it or blame it on something that we think is out of our control…work load, stress etc, but we forget it starts with us and how we are with ourselves. I never used to stop, I was always ‘doing’ something and so my body never had time to catch up, so when I was tired I would have to harden my body to ignore the signs and push through to get things done. Since listening to my body and it’s little nudges and signs I have become much more gentle with myself and I don’t push through like I used to and it has made such difference to how I feel at the end of the day.
That’s so true Alison, it’s the honesty that makes all the difference, taking a moment to feel how my body is and then making a choice. I too am learning to stop over-riding my body when it tells me its had enough. My level of self care has gone through amazing changes with some astonishing results. Rachel Hall is a real live example of what happens when we take a moment to re-consider our way of living and decide to make some different choices – it’s incredible.
Ouch Ariana, I so know what you mean by this one, something I still catch myself doing – blaming others, be it work, people, situations – instead of looking at the way I am living my life and the stress and exhaustion I am creating – which often if not always stems from me being in my head and worrying about lots of things, living ‘should do’s or to do lists. This only then creates more stress, the merry go round of judging criticising myself, never mind the actual physical state of my body which aches.
But when I do choose to stop, come back to me, connect, be more gentle, and tender and loving and then live from there, then life, my body, the way I feel, move and think begins to change. What seems a stress or a priority is either much much less or not even there. But most importantly when I am with me and my body whatever there is to deal with I do so from a completely different place, feeling centred, present and knowing, not the stress and the to do list in my head. This leaves me feeling energised, much more vital, enjoying me and my life, much more caring and loving to other people and doesn’t leave me literally dropping into bed and then waking up exhausted and overwhelmed the next day.
So true, Alison, I can really relate to ‘pushing through’ – it feels akin to what athletes do when they are training. When we become honest with ourselves and allow ourselves to see the patterns that we attach ourselves to and perpetuate, we give space for our bodies and then we can connect to our awareness and begin to break down the patterns that have held us back for so long..
Very true Alison and Ariana, the blame game is a go to when something goes wrong, and when we get tired or exhausted it is easy to say it was x, y, and z reasons, rather than look at how you have been when doing x,y and z. I find I will never have time to stop, and maybe have a nap or just a break, unless I make a time to do so. It is very easy to say, ‘I will rest when this is done, or when thats finished’ but when we live like that, we could be going for weeks straight until we find a gap in our busy lives. I have found on days when I feel to, that I just stop and give myself an hour, to just rest. It feels great, because it gives me a chance to check in, sometimes have a nap, and not get carried away on a tide of stuff to do.
Some great points Ariana.
Alison that is really well explained and sooooo true. I have to constantly keep an eye on the override and pushing through. What I have come to realise is that it is not about not doing things… it is the quality in which you do everything in. As you say this has a major impact on how my vitality levels are and overall being.
Making a point of being gentle with and connected to our self, makes it easier and more natural to make loving choices. And when we end up in a situation where something does not feel right, we are more able to feel how we ended up there. So everyday become an opportunity to learn and go deeper.
Very well said Alison, I have found that the mornings often give the opportunity to take stock and look at the choices I made the previous day as when I wake up tired, late, or sometimes exhausted, inconvenient as it maybe it is actually giving me a stop moment and an opportunity to understand that the choices I made yesterday were unsupportive for my body
I find it makes a huge difference to the rest of my day by how I start it. By caring for myself, giving myself enough time in the morning I have time for everything I need, arrive at work refreshed and ready to start the day. Lately, as I have chosen to take an even deeper care, I wake up even earlier. I would go back to sleep then feel like I was catching up with myself for the rest of the day. I have learned that if my body wakes up I can get up and attend to all that I need. I no longer listen to the belief in my mind that I need XXX hours of sleep. I feel it is preparing me for the hours I will need for some upcoming studies I am embarking upon.
It’s also interesting what you mentioned about having a few beers at the end of the day. The omission of alcohol from my lifestyle I feel too is such an important factor. No longer do I wake up feeling drained or dehydrated.
I fully agree Rachel. Connecting to who we TRULY are does pay off.
I agree Michelle. It is the time I have in the morning that is the most important time of my day. However, I often put pressure on myself to be up at a certain time and get a certain amount done, and so if I have a lie in, it can cause me to feel stressed because I haven’t done my “to-do list”. My morning routine is something I am always refining, but I find the best place to start that refinement is in my day. Thank you for sharing
So true Rebecca that preparation for our morning routine comes from our previous day. One too which I am refining.
Me too Michelle and Rebecca.
Agreed Michelle – I find that if I have a rough day, the next morning I can wake up tired and my morning has a very different quality to it.
Yes Jess. And what I am now learning is that it is really important on those ‘rough’ days to take even more care of ourselves especially by going to bed earlier.
Totally agree Michelle – and then this makes the next day so much simpler; instead of having to battle through the mess I left for myself from the day before of tiredness and lethargy, I am not carrying that mess when I start the next day, and I feel more vital
I agree Jessica, I often end up rushing on these kind of mornings too, which just adds to that feeling of not really being with myself. If I don’t catch it, it can often spread into the day.
Agreed Jess. I am learning that every action or way of being effects the next, and how my wind down in the evening(or not) absolutely effects the quality I wake up in the next morning,
I agree Anne-Marie, having just completed an Esoteric Yoga repose program I am learning how my wind down choices effects the quality of my mornings which in turn effects the quality of my day. It’s all connected. Every part effects the whole. Inspiring blog Rachel, great to return to.
I experience this as well Jessica, unless I really nurture myself in my evening rhythm.
Very true Michelle and Rebecca, the day we live depends on the quality in which we lived the previous day and night, so for me it has been important to establish a routine and rhythm that is constant. Thank you for your great comments.
I love the possibility you present here Jane. What if self care and self responsibility was encouraged in the work place – starting with the gem that Rachel offers, that the way we are with ourselves today has an impact on the way we feel tomorrow. I can personally attest to the improved focus and productivity I bring to my work day, as a result of the loving disciplines and quality of rhythm I have introduced and constantly refining with my morning routine. In the organisation I work we have access to a wellbeing program which includes a monthly newsletter. I’m now feeling to offer a contribution on ‘self care’ for a future edition.
What I’m realising is that me not feeling ready for the day is actually me recognising I’m not connected to me. Re-connecting is everything else I am lost.
That’s it Karin. We have so many signs that we aren’t connected to ourselves. The moment we recognise this, the very next moment offers us another opportunity to make a loving choice.
Rebecca I can completely relate to what you share, I have gone through a similar experience and have got caught up with putting pressure on myself to get up at a certain time to get my to do list done. What I recently have been experiencing is if I prepare how I unwind the night before, this supports me the next morning, I wake up fresh and often my body just wakes me up before the alarm goes. I no longer put pressure on myself to get through a to do list, but just trust I will complete as much as I able to in the day. This is taking away the stress in my body and creates a completely different feeling. I have noticed I also end up achieving more this way then I did if I was ticking off a to do list. Small changes like this have started to support me.
The to do list has always been a big one for me. This is not only at work, but also at home. What I need to get done, or achieve instead of just allowing things to unfold. Not in an ‘i don’t care’ way, but allowing for all who are involved to contribute to what is there to unfold. This I do struggle with, especially in the workplace. Knowing and trusting what it is I am there to bring, and then allowing for those temporal skills to come to the fore, but also allowing for what needs to unfold for all.
Rebecca, I too relate very closely to what you have mentioned here, I love your honesty. With me I actually feel it come over me as I get out of bed… a feeling of overwhelm and stress, seems to ooze over me as I am in the shower and seems to set me back by 10 minutes as I rush around trying to complete the tasks I put pressure on myself to fulfil. Its hilarious, as then I end up being late, hitting traffic, missing the train and on and on until I stop. Remembering that everything I do comes from a place within me, really allows me to check in with where I am at and say “am I doing this in a frantic, stressed out energy”? When I take the time to realise that my whole day can change shape, its amazing. Knowing that it can all start with just how I go to bed is also amazing, as it allows me to feel the responsibility I have for my routine and my rhythm. Awareness and appreciation… just awesome.
Hi Phil, I laughed as I read your comment, thinking to myself “I think the whole world has experienced this at least once in their life” – relating to the stressed out, running late feeling. I’ve found it’s amazing the difference that is possible through waking up half an hour earlier and not buying into needing “x” hours of sleep per night. I don’t always get it right, but I do everything I can in the morning to make sure I don’t run late, because that ‘stressed, running late’ feeling, feels horrible.
I love those moments too when I accept and appreciate the joy of responsibility (the fact that I choose) over an idea that the world is happening to me and I am an unwitting victim of circumstance.
Thanks Matilda – who would have thought that accepting full responsibility for everything that you choose and how your life is could be so joyful? In the end, the victim/blame game becomes very tiresome and it is clear that it gets you nowhere. I really love Rachel’s description of her morning bounciness and sense of freedom from the miserable old way of perceiving life.
Phil I love the way you look at yourself with great humour and observe how you live at times ! Great honesty from your part.
Yes Rebecca I too am constantly refining my morning routine and finding what works for me and my own rhythm.
I have been working on refining my day and am finding it is really supporting my morning routine. If my day is rushed or stressed it is clearly reflected in my morning routine. This allows me to reflect back at how I was in my day and what I need to be aware off.
Hear hear! Michelle and Rachel
It definitely makes a huge difference Michelle, what I have also realised is that if I do rush in the last five minutes in getting myself and my daughter to school to appreciate the parts of the morning that went well and were without the rushing. Often I would only focus on what went wrong and that would also set my day up with criticism and judgement! The most supportive thing is being connected like you say, and being loving and accepting of all of me.
Yes Vanessa I know what you mean very well. How well have we mastered self criticism? Time now to master self love me thinks! And I too am finding that the appreciation of our caring and loving choices is such a gateway to making the next open and loving step. It then offers me the opportunity to see clearly how I lost my focus or rhythm.
Yes, Vanessa and Michelle, it is so true that we are masters of self criticism. I can easily relate to judging myself by focusing entirely on how my morning has morphed into rushing without any appreciation of what may have gone before or how in the broader sense I fail to appreciate that I no longer need 3 cups of earl grey tea and a coffee to get me going. I can truly sense how building on this appreciation will support me in my everyday.
Thanks everybody for your contributions and Rachel for an honest and open article reminding us “The biggest shift in my morning routine came not from changing what I do, but in how I have come to live based on my daily choices to be gentle with myself”. This I am discovering for myself is an ever unfolding path.
What a clear(ing) blog again Rachel. Beautiful how you write: “I have committed to dealing with my issues, resolving situations and truly healing myself, rather than resorting to coping mechanisms”.
I realise there is still some ‘doing’ in adjusting my morning routine. But thank you Michelle and Fiona, for bringing up the appreciation; honouring ourselves and the choices we make.
That makes a lot of sense Michelle.
I’m so with you on that one Vanessa, I too wake up have an amazing morning, lots of time to prepare, make lunch, walk, then not always, but often, something to refine here, I create stress in the last 5 minutes, I focus on the stress, what went wrong and criticise, which I then take into the day – rather than, as you say stopping, appreciate all the parts of the morning that went well, staying connected, accepting and loving all of me, and allowing this to be and flow into my day.
Such a great point Gyl and Vanessa about not being self-critical
Vanessa, I too can relate, at getting caught up with self criticism. It is about being connected, loving and accepting, not too hard on the self.
Thanks Amita, yes absolutely this is spot on, everything can look and feel better if we add self love to it. This is something we are ultimately in charge off. I have found that when I add love and self acceptance to any situation a greater healing can take place. It really is so simple yet I forget to make this consistent! Thank you for the reminder
Thanks, Samantha, this is a great line – “everything can look and feel better if we add self love to it”. This is a great reminder to make sure I add a healthy serving of self love and acceptance in every situation, no matter how challenging.
Yes great comment Samantha. To be loving and accepting in every situation . I can feel the healing and the ease that this brings to life. Letting go of the ingrained self judgement and self criticism and remembering that their is always a choice to live and appreciate ourselves.
Agree Samantha, for me self-love is about learning to be super easy with myself as opposed to the otherwise straight jacket and former criticism for ‘getting something wrong again’. Then it becomes easier to accept – myself, and also others too. Healing.
Those words just make me smile Amita, “it’s about loving and accepting”, and yes, not being hard on ourselves, taking such deep tender care with and of ourselves, as we would a small child.
Yes, self-criticism is a sure way to keep an ill-momentum going. Just another trick for us to look out for and choose otherwise.
Great conversation about dropping the criticism and judgement and instead being loving and accepting of all of me. Can’t be reminded about this enough.
I agree entirely Golnaz
I agree Golnaz, so true.
Absolutely Golnaz. Letting go of that critical voice and accepting all of me and where I am at and appreciating the choices I am making without the drive for perfection.
Golnaz, I am not sure I have ever appreciated that I could be loving and accepting of ALL of me. This is a gem I will definitely start reminding myself of.
Good point Vanessa, thanks for the reminder.
This is lovely Vanessa, ‘to appreciate the parts of the morning that went well and were without the rushing.’ I have often focussed on the parts of the day that didn’t go well and been self-critical about these, so its lovely to read how ‘the most supportive thing for you is being connected and being loving and accepting of all of me.’
It’s so true, we jump on everything we get wrong and don’t celebrate all the wonderful things in between. I too am learning to self appreciate and what I have noticed is that it rubs off onto other people. Instead of criticising them, I find myself appreciating all the wonderful things they do too, in between the other stuff that didn’t go so well. It’s much more fun!
Dear Rowena, thank you for sharing that, I can relate to what you have shared, perfect timing too 🙂 I can feel how gorgeous and lovely it is to appreciate ourselves and all others. It allows us to feel how tender and lovely we really are.
I agree Rowena – it is so easy to focus only on the things which we do wrong and forget all the many reasons to celebrate ourselves. Appreciation of myself is still a topic I can work on.
Vanessa I really get this about setting up my day by appreciating, not judging. First thing today I got a parking ticket – the obvious lesson to me was to not procrastinate – I thought to do the permit at night just in case I forgot first thing but I thought I’ll do it in the morning.
As I stood by my car I knew I had a choice – to go into self-bashing/ world is against me (which it so isn’t!) and think why didn’t i do it, i could have spent the money on x and x that was worth 6 hours of work time – etc etc. Or I could go ok, what’s the lesson here, great lesson on procrastination and well worth the money.
Writing this I’m appreciating what a beautiful marker it is from when I would have instantly gone down the hole of self-criticism and judgement to feeling that my day is inclusive of everyone and how important it is that my money is given with no resentment but love. I can see it is a choice too – the little oh darn it thoughts do come in (thinking just about how this has affected poor old me) but I’m not choosing them. I can actually feel how this money, when paid with no resentment at all can bring something to the community where it helps fill out a pothole for example. I am part of a bigger picture and I can choose to contribute to it lovingly or I can choose to believe it’s just about me (when it never is) and contribute resentment.
Thanks Vanessa for the reminder – it is all to easy to focus on everything that went wrong rather than appreciating all the things we do manage. I know that nothing constructive ever comes from being constantly self-critical – so it has to be asked why it is so easy to fall into.
I agree with you as well Michelle, I too love my morning time and find that it helps set me up for the rest of the day. I often get caught in the it’s too early to be getting up and then go back to sleep, to subsequently wake up more tired and in a little bit of a rush to get everything done.
I love giving myself time and space to do everything that is needed to be done and then everything seems to flow like magic; without any struggle or major effort. I also find that by giving myself the time to do some exercise in the morning, a walk, some stretching and or weights helps support my body during the day as well – I then have more clarity, focus and presence with what I am doing.
I agree James, our morning rhythm is so important to set up the day. “A gentle rhythm that supports me to feel who I am and where I am at.” As Rachel states a supportive rhythm is essential to being gentle with our-self and when are not at least gentle then that natural rhythm is noticeable for its absence.
I so know what you mean James, i too have felt that when i have woken up, especially as its winter here. If its cold and feel to fall asleep again. Then if i do and wake up later, i can feel tired. But when i do make time and space for the self honouring, it feels really amazing.
I can relate to what you’re saying here Michelle in getting caught up in a belief of needing ‘x’ hours sleep. Sometimes I go to bed later than usual due to my work / job etc. and I still end up waking early, and what I sometimes notice is that I then tell myself that I ‘must’ go back to sleep because I haven’t had ‘x’ hours and on the assumption that surely I’ll be tired if I don’t – when the truth is I’ve often naturally woken up and my body has said that’s the amount of sleep it needs for that night. So what I’m learning to do is to trust my body more and more as to the amount of sleep ‘it’ needs on any particular day or during any particular period, rather than having this determined by a set number of hours etc. I’m enjoying experimenting with this and listening to my body in preference to my head!
Yes Angela, that is my experience too – going to bed later than I would normally choose to because of work, and I still wake up at the same early hour. For me it is blowing the lid of the notion that we need XXX hours of sleep. It shows me that our bodies need different things at different times so it is such a reminder to consistently listen and adjust accordingly, rather than do things daily as a routine.
I agree Michelle, great add to the conversation
I completely agree Michelle, the quality of which I wake up in and my actions in the morning very much so set me up for how my day is going to go. I have found this even goes beyond the morning of waking up, it actually begins with the way in which I go to bed and set myself up for the morning. There is no one moment in isolation, every moment has an affect on the next
“then feel like I was catching up with myself for the rest of the day” I can definitely relate to the feeling of ‘catching up’ with my day, Michelle. I have found that by allowing myself time and space in the morning not be rushed but rather to begin my day efficiently sets me up in a way that I am ready to deal with what lies ahead
I find it so amazing the difference in how my day unfolds when I have not set up the morning to care for myself. I so agree that if I stay in bed longer than I should, or even not have gone to bed the night before when I felt to, it impacts how I wake up, which then impacts the morning and flow. Listening to what our body needs is an ongoing enfolding and one that I listen to, then when I don’t, I really can feel it.
How we start our day sure does make a huge difference Michelle and how we prepare for bedtime as well – the ‘full’ cycle.
Dear Rachel, what another awesomely simple blog about your morning routine, and what a shift… from daily exhaustion to feeling energised… simply by introducing self care. I too have experienced this and have found that the more I am actually aware of my body and looking after myself, not only do I feel less stressed / exhausted etc., but the more in fact, I am actually able to do throughout the day… And the roll on effect of this has been that the things I ‘am’ doing, or that need to be done throughout my day, are done in a different quality (i.e. without the drive and pushing energy (which only led to more stress, frustration and complication!) that I used to do things in). Of course, I still slip into this at times, but I am much more aware when this happens, simply because I can feel it in my body (tense shoulders, sore back, feeling racy / anxious etc.), and what supports me in these instances, is coming back to my body, feeling and being honest with what’s going on and what I’m feeling, and connecting back to being gentle with myself. Once I connect back to, and listen to my body, it’s much easier to recognise what my body needs at that moment (i.e. taking a rest / break, being gentle etc.). Awesome blog!
Thank you Rachel for your blog – it was so lovely to read something of such simplicity and wisdom and was just what I needed to read this morning! Your comment Angela, reminded me that, like you, I slip back into old patterns at times, but now I have this amazing marker in my body of how it feels when I commit to connecting and maintaining that relationship with my body and truly connecting within.
True Susan. I too have old patterns of rushing and living on nervous energy. The more I connect to my body and how it feels, the more I find I can commit to living in the present moment.
I totally agree Susan. Having an amazing marker that lets me know if I am with myself, or not, has been life changing. The more I love and respect my body the clearer that marker is, making those occasional slips back into old and harming patterns, fewer and fewer. I love this new relationship with my body – it talks, I listen!
I love your response Ingrid, I love this new relationship with my body – it talks, I listen, as it seems to make so much sense that the very thing that does everything that we ask of it, is a living thing and does matter, and actually speaks to us all of the time. This amazing body that can do such amazing things for us, a lot of it behind the scenes so to speak, the least we could do is listen to it from time to time.
Getting to know what my body is actually telling me has become a lot of fun. Simple little things like dropping food when I need not be eating makes me laugh now. Especially when I know that if I listen to and honor this message I will receive even more communication.
I love Ingrid’s simple way of describing her relationship with her body. As you suggested Julie when we listen to our body we do get to appreciate how amazing it is and what it does for us. This has been the way I have appreciated me more and more by staying connected and listening to my body as underneath any tension or aches I can feel the loveliness of me . So it is my body that lets me feel the real me, why would I ever shut down or deny that ?
To begin to truly listen to my body has been revolutionary to my life. I am now a whole person. Living a so much more full filled life.
I like Vicky Geary’s little comment about dropping food – when we become aware that EVERYTHING is a reflection of how we are living, we can pay so much more attention to how we feel in our bodies, what’s happening in our surroundings, our relationships and Nature, because so much wisdom is available in every moment.
As I started to listen to my body I have had so much amazing things happen to me, the healing that has taken place has been great, but also as a person I have changed, through my communication and my whole being.
Oh yes Ingrid! ‘ it talks , I listen!
I have finally learnt to obey the wisdom my body delivers as it definitely knows what is needed … together we have changed my body shape, the way I eat, sleep and generally feel about life. How strange I haven’t stopped to listen in the past … would have saved me a long journey away from me and my natural rhythm.
” Together we have changed…” I like the way you express the changes in your life Merrilee. I do feel that way too. My body and I are learning to reconnect, and I am definitely the student in this relationship with a master.
It was a great reminder for me to read this blog this morning, that I have made those choices too. Only sometimes I slip, like Susan says, but I do have a clear marker, so I know I can choose to be loving with myself again at any moment, and my body thanks me for it and feeds me back that love.
Absolutely Esther, our marker we know now – and we can choose anytime, when we notice that we have drifted away from this marker from our body, a loving way.
Yes, Esther, that is very important. Instead of judging ourselves or giving up we can just choose to be loving with ourselves again after we made some choices that did not support us.
I agree Ilja, the choice to judge ourselves keeps us in the same cycle. Once we realise we have stepped away from a marker we know is true, our next choice is the most important one to focus on.
One of the biggest markers for me is how much less sleep I need when I have a purpose and there is something that feels beneficial to do.
Agreed Christoph. This in itself energizes us and provides us with the energy needed for the day.
I can relate to that Christoph, my body is very willing to support me, also with less sleep, when I am focussed on doing what I feel needs to be done.
Great point Christoph, and so true as how tiring it is when we just ‘bimble’ along without true focus or service…
Well said Christoph, and this is especially considering the fact that most crave more sleep or are told that’s what is needed when in truth it is a bandaid covering up the reality of a lack of commitment and purpose in life.
Isn’t it amazing how much more time is available to us in the early hours of the morning to be thoroughly prepared for our day, in an unrushed manner, when we go to bed early and sleep well – and how much better can that day be enjoyed when we start from this healthy position.
It sure is Deborah. I don’t think I could ever go back to late nights and waking up late feeling tired. My own experience is almost word for word as described in this blog. The difference between how I once lived and felt and how I now live and feel is nothing short of miraculous. Our capacity to switch from self-abusive choices to loving choices and to truly nurture ourselves results in a most amazing transformation. And more and more people are experiencing this truly profound healing for themselves.
Yes, so true David- whilst travelling overseas and staying with relatives I have found eating late in the evenings and then going to bed late not nurturing for my body at all.
I wake up feeling ‘hung over’, and tired, even though I have not drunk any alcohol.
This blog is a loving reminder to be more committed to honouring my body, and it’s needs.
Yes Debra, it is so loving in the morning to nurture ourselves so the day runs as smoothly as possible. I have always loved mornings, when everything is fresh and new, but I now bring a special attention, a care and presence that makes each day special.
Yes Debra it is wonderful, isn’t it? When I think back to how I lived pre Universal Medicine I shudder. I now know why I am in the health position that I am in and I have tangible proof of the differences in myself that early to bed, self care and well paced days have made for me.
Gwen, other people shudder when I tell them how early I get up, but that time in the morning is such a special way to start my day, as is putting myself to bed early at the end of my day. On the (very) odd occasion when the pattern changes I feel out of balance, and odd in myself, the only way i can do it now is to plan ahead and put things in place that will support me.
Absolutely Debra, I used to dread getting up early, now I feel it such a beautiful time to prepare for the day.
I used to groan at early mornings too now I live in a similar way to Rachel and its natural to me to get up and enjoy that still quiet time of the day and gently prepare myself for a full and purposeful day. I love how clear and simple Rachel’s blog is , it just comes back to us being gentle – which we are naturally and listening to what feels good for our bodies.
I love it too. Early morning is my golden hour. So still, harmonious, gentle and quiet.
I too love getting up early. I get so much done and it feels lovely not to feel rushed during the day. I feel I have so much more space and time.
Where would we prepare ourselves better for the day than at home in the mornings. We just have to honour some things as Rachel described. No rush, lovingly preparing everything what we need for the day ahead. If we are early awake we also have time to go do some housework or cooking and other things. Have done this, I know that in the evening I can relax and go with ease to bed.
I have noticed this Debra S. Rushing doesn’t get you anywhere quicker and when I rush I always feel underprepared on arrival.
This is so true Abby the feeling that stays with the body can be overwhelming and this can be carried throughout the day if we don’t take the responsibility to register when this all started.
I absolutely agree Debra.
Its sure is Debra and when we make a commitment to do this the decision to make changes is made without hesitation as the benefits are felt immediately.
Very true, and the way in which we choose to attend to ourselves is the key difference that makes all the difference. Including ourselves into the equation whole-heartedly rather than following a mental check-list of jobs to complete and checking them off, one by one. This is full of effort yet signifying nothing.
The absolute gold that is offered when we go to bed early is paid in bucket loads with the quality in which one can work at the following day. No ‘pick me ups’ are needed as the body rewards us with a core ingredient called vitality.
i feel the same Susan, we have such an amazing marker in our body and it actually takes effort to move away from this. When i have a busy day i find that i can get ahead of myself by giving energy to everything that is still in front of me but as you say i can then feel my body going into a rush and tense up and this is like a little warning sign telling me to take a step back and come back to the present.
Yes Susan connecting to our bodies and being honest with how we are feeling has helped me so much in terms of my day to day routine. I find when I do get up earlier I feel really clear and have much more energy. I would always be running around in the morning to get things done. It feels so much more expansive allowing ourselves the time and care in the morning to start our days in this way.
Yes Susan, the key for me is not that I have to try and be perfect (which is what puts me in drive & self doubt / criticism etc.) but simply to work on developing this awareness in my body so that when I do slip up, it simply becomes an ‘oops’ moment and an opportunity to feel what might be really going on for me in that day /moment and to reflect on my choices that led to the rush, stress etc.
Angela, I can completely resonate with what you say, how the body tells us when we are slipping. I recently just had that experience, my body hardened, I could feel the tension in my shoulders and my back started to ache. I had to just listen and reconnect back to what my body was saying and it was about giving myself some small breaks in my busy day. I started with a few minutes of walking and a few minutes just sitting with myself – what a difference it made. Beautiful article Rachel, I love reading it, as each time I read it I get another depth of awareness.
Amita, I can resonate too with what you said. I feel it as well in my body and then am reminded to take time to connect again, stretch and move a bit, taking those lovely walks again I used to do. Having put these things as part of my rhythm again feels so good, and I am grateful when the body reminds me to do it more often. And thank you Rachel, for sharing your great article.
How simple life is, when living in our rhythm. I am very thankful to Serge Benhayon introducing me to this way of the livingness. I know now what I have to do when I feel a bit out of control to return back to my healing inner stillness.
This is a great point to make – “how simple life is, when living in our rhythm.” What I’ve also found is that the more simple I make life and the more stillness I bring to my body, the more in fact I am able to get done.
I didn’t even know there was such a thing a rhythm before being first introduced to this awareness by Serge Benahyon. Now it is something I know from my own body, and most of all I can feel when I am out of rhythm. This in itself is a huge turn around.
I know this too and like you I am also very grateful to Serge Benhayon and the presentations of Universal Medicine to have shown and offered me a way of living that honours so much more who I truly am. And there is still more to connect to and to go deeper and enhance my livingness too.
Yes Amita I have been adding walking to my daily routine before work and it really energises me. Even if it is just for 10 minutes it can really bring about a beautiful clarity and connection with myself.
So true, I have just started that again to build it into my routine, and I am finding by walking consciously and present to my self and my breath like you, clarity just re-establishes itself, movements become much more fluid and things get done quicker and better in the end.
Amazing Amita, you knew exactly the support your body was calling for as soon as you listened to it.
Amita, just reading your comment I was able to recognise within myself how I have just this past week, ignored the signs, body hardening, feeling the tension, going to foods I wouldn’t usually eat or just eating when not hungry, all to not feel. I love how you stopped, listened, and reconnected….thank you, great for me to read and apply next time.
I do too Amita, re-reading I get another depth of awareness, but also love your example. I know for me when I feel myself not only harden, but when I speak in a way that doesn’t feel loving, I get this fuzzy feeling in my head, in my chest and my body just lets me know immediately that I have gone into a space that is not truly me. It is quite amazing just how our body is forever sharing with us what is going on.
Join the club ladies. This feeling is awful and the body is a great marker to show us that this is not true and does not support the harmony that is known deep inside.
Great point Angela. Bringing our awareness back to the quality of how we are throughout the day, are we pushing to get something done, rushing to catch train etc. I know that when I override how my body is feeling in these moments that a momentum sets in and the knock on effect from one action to the next is huge, the quality of one action indeed leads to the quality of the next. Catching ourselves in these moments and connecting back to the body is a great support.
I know these momentums as well. In the past I was not even aware that I was creating them. Now I can tell by the little out-of-line choices, a little push, getting a bit annoyed, rushing. I know that I can stop that and these days I do, very consciously. I choose not to go for a momentum. Now that’s a choice as well … apart from the other choice to ask myself: why was I on a trail of building a momentum?
This is such a familar one for me too. Bringing awareness to the quality in which I am doing things throughout the day, am i rushing, not taking the time to go to the toilet when I need to, overriding what my body is feeling to do. I can feel at the end of the day, the momentum if I do go into the rushing. So it is such a great support, I agree, to catch ourselves during the day, build in markers to connect back to your body. I can feel the difference on days when connect back to my body and those days when i don’t.
Ragean, know the feelings you go through, have been there on numerous occasions.
Just need to just take one step at a time, and gradually everything will fall into place.
When it does how great you get to feel in your body.
Mike I like how you bring it back to one step at a time. It is so easy to get ahead of ourselves ‘literally’ with the mind, but that then puts us completely out of sync with what our body is actually needing.
I agree Angela. Starting the day in rhythm and connection to the body is such a great support for the rest of the day. It sets the foundation of awareness and presence of the body and is a great marker to work from.I also feel quite quickly when I am out of connection due to a committing to a rhythm that starts the evening before. It has really shown me how every action or way of being effects the next and that their is a choice in every moment to come back to tenderness.
I agree, Anne-Marie, how every action affects what we do next – it was a revelation to me to learn that our whole day is preparation for our sleep – how I am the day before, every choice I made led to the next choice, because of the energy I chose to align with, which then fed me the thoughts and it is always a choice which energy I choose. Sometimes I feel it come into my body and I know I am making a choice to eat something that is not what my body needs, or to stay up later than I need to, it comes with a kind of rebellious belligerence that I know is not honouring my body. This then highlights the importance of not making how I live a set of rules, because I’ll only break them. Honouring how we feel means the self-care comes naturally, and waking up early leaving plenty of time to prepare for the day is one way to honour what our bodies need.
Yes Angela, I agree with you, when I switch into pushing and drive my body shouts loudly to me with similar ailments aching shoulders, anxiety, raciness and I am utterly exhausted by the end of the day. In these instances, I find the gentle breath meditation hugely supportive to bring me back to an equilibrium.
I agree with all of the above Angela. I have found that the more I support my body throughout the day, the more the quality of my sleep improves and going to bed early and getting up early has become the norm. I have more energy on less sleep! I have also found that if I hold back or something makes me anxious during the day this disrupts my sleep pattern, so it is my responsibility to care for myself during the day in more ways than one, and the more I do this the better my sleep. It’s like a circle, the better my day the better my sleep, and so it goes round.
Agree Ariana, so simple! I find the gold always seems to lie in the simplicity of things…
Yes pure gold and so simple, all we have to do is listen.
Very true Ariana, simplicity in Gold.
Yes Ariana a change can be made in any single moment. The power lies is our choice.
A great line – ‘Once I connect back to, and listen to my body, it’s much easier to recognise what my body needs at that moment.’ That really keeps things very simple.