I was introduced to the Miracle Morning in 2014 when I heard Hal Elrod speak at the 1 Life Fully Lived conference. At the time, I had already been practicing meditation, journaling and exercising, but I was not consistent.
After hearing Hal, I fully committed to waking up earlier to fit in the full Life SAVERS- silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and scribing.
Up to this point I was using my children’s unpredictable wake times as an excuse not to start my day on my terms. As Hal says, “The moment you accept total responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you claim the power to change anything in your life.”
I was finally ready to take responsibility and change how I started my day.
I started waking up at 6:30 AM, which would give me 30-60 minutes before my kids got up. However, as I started getting up earlier, so did my kids! After some trial and error, I discovered that my kids wanted their own Miracle Morning, so I started teaching them how to do the pieces of the SAVERS.
About a month or so into our family Miracle Morning, my seven year old turned to me and said, “Mommy, I don’t get it. Why do I need to save my life?”
He was having trouble connecting with the acronym, so we decided to change it. We started playing with the words. Since my kids were young (7 and 3), scribing was not easy for them, so we changed that to creativity. We decided to add eating a healthy breakfast to their Miracle Morning so instead of just exercise we called it health. Affirmations we kept the same as well as reading.
My son was just starting to read, so many days I would read aloud to them. We combined silence and visualization into a category called meditation.
One thing I really wanted to instill in my kids is compassion, so we added service to create the acronym, CHARMS- creativity, health, affirmations, reading, meditation and service.
Now the kids and the grown-ups had a framework to start our days, we just had to follow it. Once the kids got over the excitement of starting something new, they went back to their more typical (although still unpredictable) wake time. I continued to get up around 6:30-6:45, which gave me enough time to get my silence and visualization in and start on the other SAVERS before my kids were up.
Once they wake, they start on a creative project. In our kitchen, we have an art table set up equipped with makers, crayons, colored pencils, painting supplies, coloring books and paper. This way the kids are free to create on their own. They also have access to additional supplies in my office. We have a rule that if you make a mess you clean it up, so the kids are free to get messy as long as they are willing to clean up after themselves (usually later in the day).
When I finish with my reading and journaling, we turn on some music and have a dance party in the kitchen while I make the kids breakfast (or supervise them making their own) and pack their lunches. Sometimes we will do more formal exercises during our dancing sessions- jumping jacks, push-ups, planks, squats, lunges or any other body weight exercise. We typically say our affirmations as we are exercising too.
The kids both have homemade affirmation books that follow the alphabet that they recite. Our son has his memorized, but our daughter still needs help, so I will say them and she repeats.While they are eating breakfast, I will read to them or we will listen to an audiobook.
After breakfast is typically when they help with service. Often this is a small task like feeding the dogs, picking up after someone else, or separating laundry. We don’t like to call these chores, but family contributions. They are acts of kindness that will help the family as a whole.
Since we started practicing the Miracle Morning as a family, my kids will actively seek out opportunities to serve each other to fulfill their service for the day. My oldest will sometimes help his sister get her shoes on, read to her, or make her breakfast as his service.
Our youngest feels valuable and important when I ask her to help with simple tasks that she can do and is always eager to contribute.In total their Miracle Morning takes about 30 minutes. Some mornings run more smoothly than others and we are not perfect.
To me the Miracle Morning is about creating good habits and a healthy mindset for myself, and my kids, than it is about waking up early or being perfect. When things do not go as planned we also do a lot on the ride to school. The kids can meditate, listen to an audiobook and say their affirmations all in the car. We’ve also created new car games as our creativity some mornings and had breakfast on the go.
I want them to be mindful of how they start their day and not beat themselves up if they don’t get it all in before they walk out the door. I also want them to understand that their parents value personal development and see us practicing what we’re telling them to do. Our kids learn so much just by watching us!I’d love to hear about your morning routine and how you’ve adapted to make it work for your family. You can reach me through my blog www.gratefulparent.com.
In Gratitude,
Lindsay McCarthy
Lindsay is the co-author of The Miracle Morning for Parents and Families. She is a blogger and the creator of GratefulParent.com. She is a homeschool mom of two amazing young people and living wife of 10 years to her husband Mike. Lindsay has a love of field hockey, travel, and family.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий