Mornings for Non-Morning People

I am not a morning person.  

We all know I'm not divulging any state secrets here.  The only reason I even get UP in the morning is to avoid that horrid caffeine withdrawal headache that rips my skull open if I don't consume mass quantities of coffee.

However, I do have my contrary side.  Shocking!  Yes, I know.  As soon as I say one thing, I immediately counter it with something else.  I'm my very own debate team (which can be more annoying than entertaining, believe me).

So what my contrary side wants to say is this:  I do see the value of doing things in the morning, especially those early hours that have never made the acquaintance of high noon.  Lately I've been doing a 30 minute yoga stretching thing from a DVD, and THEN I get my coffee.  I sit down and do some 10-minute fun writing, or I jot down some notes that have popped into my head when I'm supposed to be meditating while folding my body into an origami crane.  (I still don't know what the yoga instructor means when he says my spine will feel the thrill of confidence and creativity.  My spine seems a lot more emotionally subdued.)

However, I honestly feel like I have a better day when I start out with these activities.  Most days I try to convince myself – okay, let's be brutally honest – I flat out LIE and tell myself I'll start writing "in just a minute".  Do I even need to tell you how many days I don't get started until the sun goes down?  Guess it's a good thing that we're moving to Daylight Savings Time soon, since the sun will be gone earlier in the day, meaning fewer minutes will be waiting around for me to "start writing".

I don't even want to think about how many minutes have died believing I was going to show up soon.

The worst part is that I spend way too much of my time and energy convincing myself I don't want to do these productive things, and then I try to persuade myself I *should* do them.  So what do I ultimately accomplish in this exhausting battle with my selves?  I keep my resistance strong, and then I feel guilty about making myself impervious to industrious activity.

When you resist getting started, the day speeds past you.  You tell yourself you'll get going at the top of the hour, and you dive right back in to your non-productive endeavors.  The next time you check the clock, which you can barely see because night has descended, you exclaim, with genuine heartfelt amazement, "Wow!  Where did the day go?"

Yet when I start out doing the things I typically avoid – exercise, jumping right into the writing – and I get them done and out of the way, it's like I have a whole day to enjoy.  I'm not wasting an hour (or more) lying to myself or feeling guilty or dodging my responsibilities and my inner critic.  I have the whole rest of the day to do what I want.

Somehow there seems to be at least TWICE as much day left.  And it's totally guilt-free enjoyment.  It's like the universe is rewarding you with extra time for getting your chores done.  The same way it takes time away from you when you poke around Twitter and Facebook all day long while "getting ready" to work.

It took me a while to figure this time-stretching thing out, and now that I have, I'm actually more excited about mornings.

Surprisingly, so is my inner contrarian.

Comments

[Melissa]

The older I get, the more of a morning person I become. Or really, it's just less of a night owl. I don't ever see myself getting up at the crack of dawn and being happy about it! LOL

It is a great feeling though to look at the clock at 10 am and say, wow, I did get something done! And when you have the whole rest of the day to do what you want, suddenly what you want might be continuing with what you've been doing...if that makes sense! And the next day...do nothing. LOL I guess I'm more of an "every-other-day" time-stretcher. :)

[Donna Cummings]

Melissa, I had to laugh at the "every-other-day" time-stretcher. That sounds like me. And maybe we don't want to pull a muscle by trying to do this EVERY day. LOL

I don't mind getting up early in the morning, as long as there's not an alarm screeching at me. But I do naturally gravitate towards the night owl thing, and I don't want to lose my status as a night owl. LOL

But there IS something nice about getting things done early and feeling like you've got the rest of the day at your command!

[Maureen]

I am working on building my resistence to the bed. And climbing out it earlier. For one thing, everyone I seem to enjoy blathering with is on east coast time and it I sleep until 10, they've already finished their morning blathering and I miss everything.

But that isn't the only reason why. I just want to get more done in the morning. So, I totally get the need to seperate self from bed.

Though most mornings, my body signals it's had enough and starts to ache if I don't get out of bed.

Yes, my body throws me out of bed.

Yoga sounds good. I need to find something to do! See if I can get the body to stop hurting instead of just getting busy and ignoring the hurt...

[Donna Cummings]

LOL, Maureen -- yes, my bed throws me out too. Which is a good thing in the winter, since it's more fun to stay cozy under the down comforter. LOL Thank God for coffee, or Lord knows I'd never get moving.

I like getting things done in the morning, but if I were to have a chart showing my progress. . .well, it would be kinda flatlined. LOL

It IS good advice, even if I can't seem to always follow it!