How to get up early in the morning. Cold. Scottish. Wet. Winters…
Tips on getting up in the morning in Scottish winter for your practice...
Here are our best pieces of advice especially for morning/regular practitioners:
The night before is the deal breaker. You need to go to bed early enough that you feel full rested to wake up early for morning practice. (For me, at 9pm all lights are off so I can get up at 4am, I need 7hrs consistently), you can apply the right amount depending on your needs.
The night before, I have all my clothes, bag and food fully prepped so everything is very simple and quick in the morning.
My alarm is across the room! No mobiles or snooze buttons beside the bed. No picking up a phone a scrolling or reading emails.
Hot shower and hot beverage if I can. Even a 1 min dance party to wake myself up before getting on my bike!
Consistency is KING:
I will share with you honestly that doing this day in and day out is hard! It takes work and time and skill and the early mornings took me the best part of 2 years to get really well established in. Different stages of life (or sleep deprivation) have meant that I've had to relearn this again and again and like you it's not a linear thing.
Any amount of practice is VALID. On the days I didn’t go to bed early enough, I accept that I’ve got to either A. Sleep less. B. Practice smaller- aka 45-60mins practice. Smaller practices are ace and support the consistency puzzle point above.
Accountability is important.
Say to your teacher, dog, friend, colleague that you are doing your practice tomorrow. The good people will hold you accountable.
The Whys:
Get 100% clear about why you practice, what it does for you, why you want to keep doing it and what are the key things that keep drawing you back in. You have (yes you!) been practicing long enough now that you've had some excellent moments in practice, whether both physical or mental that you should write down. Real pen and paper write down the whys so when that alarm goes off in the early dark morning and you think "I don't want to" you can go back to that note you wrote yourself. Welcome to share your whys with your teacher if you want some accountability.
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This was inspired by one of my first teachers- Angela Jamison, blog post on this subject: http://www.ashtangaannarbor.com/wordpress/2011/11/02/how-to-wake-up-for-yoga/ and also http://www.ashtangaannarbor.com/wordpress/2012/09/22/how-to-get-up-for-yoga-again/
Listen to a podcast I made with friend Judi: https://merchantcityyoga.com/podcast about why I get up in the early morning and am still excited about the practice 15 years in…