It’s a new dawn,
It’s a new day,
It’s a new life for me
and I’m feeling good

Nina Simone

A new day

These last few days of beautiful late spring weather have brought sunlight to our early mornings. We awake to clear, light blue skies - perhaps with an invitation to pause, and bring the same clear, open and boundless quality to our days.

I often ask leaders I am working with to reflect on their early morning routine.
‘How many of your senior team were in the shower, with you this morning?’, I ask. This often brings a laugh but a realisation, if it’s not the senior team, then it’s the Chair of Governors, or parents, or the bursar, or someone we will encounter in our day.

Our minds, even early in the morning, will often drift to something we are worried about and before we know it we are lost in thought, having the meeting or the conversation in the shower and almost always - it’s not going well.

Instead we can start the morning in a way that’s more likely to set us up well for the day open to whatever the day might bring, strong in our resolve to show up wisely as best we can.

We can reclaim those first few moments of the day for ourselves.

How Mindfulness can help.

Here’s three reasons why reclaiming the morning with a mindful routine can benefit the rest of the day:

Your awareness will be enhanced
You will become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions and will be better placed to notice when you are becoming tangled in them, and can start to ‘step back’ or detach from them. This greater self-awareness you will cultivate from a morning practice will help you move through the day with a little more clarity and ease.

You will be less likely fall into rumination and worry
A morning practice can help you become aware of ruminative negative thoughts that can arise in the morning and become habitual throughout the day. When you begin your day with a slightly clearer mind, your thoughts are less likely to overwhelm you during the day.

Your focus will be improved
Starting with a morning practice can help you have greater mastery over how you respond to distractions and emotional impulses during the day. You will notice when you are ‘speeding up’ and are more likely to give yourself moments when you can pause and re - focus your attention.

Why not start a simple morning routine that becomes as natural and regular as brushing your teeth, packing your bag, or making that first cup of tea or coffee.

Here’s how…

Do one action, fully present

Choose a regular morning action - perhaps taking a shower, brushing your teeth or making a cup of tea. Use these few moments as an opportunity to practice full awareness. Open up your sense of sound, sight and smell to this one simple action - fully attentive, curious and aware - as if undertaking this action for the very first time. Notice even for the time it takes to boil the kettle how much the mind wanders, and each time it does, breathe and come back to resting the attention on this one early morning task.

Sit and check in

You may want to find a place where you wont be disturbed and simply sit for 4/5 minutes checking in:
- on the body noting where we might be holding any tension and softening it.
- on the heart noting what emotions are present, noticing where in the body we feel the emotion and what thoughts may have triggered it.
- Noticing what ‘the weather’ is like in the mind - is it busy or quiet, steady or skittering, calm or agitated?
Whatever you decide to focus on, use the simple rhythm of the in and out breath to help you settle the body, the heart or the mind.

Re-set your intention

The morning is a good time to re-set your intention for the day.
Perhaps as you get into the car to drive to work, or just as you arrive at your place of work - pause for a moment.
Sit and feel your body held by the car seat, your feet on the floor of the car, hands in your lap. Let your breath settle then ask yourself:
- What really matters to me today - what’s my deepest intention as I enter this new day?
- So where will I place my attention today - where will I focus my awareness?
- And when I am attentive, what will I be modelling today - curiosity, open to learning, kindness and compassion?

These morning moment are brief, but with a few simple practices, they can really count.

If you have just one minute to go further then try this one minute mindfulness morning routine from HeadSpace