All right, so I wanted to explain the morning and evening routine practices.
I didn't really call them practices in here, but they are very special and I very intentionally
put them in.
I'm excited about them.
You'll see up here, it says, enjoy my morning routine or enjoy my bedtime routine.
So the purpose of those is actually to really intentionally focus on yourself.
What brings you joy to allow you to connect with a deep part of yourself and it will it's
in the point is, is you experiencing you and your experience of the thing that you're doing.
It's not about the getting through it.
It's about something.
So what you'll do is you'll pick elements in the routine that give you particular pleasure
that make you feel a particular measure of life and of excitement or of joy.
So that's the purpose of them.
It's also, it's basically to honor yourself by catering to your enjoyment.
It will feel self-indulgent.
It will feel it will feel frivolous sometimes a lot of these things are going to be things
that we have that we don't allow ourselves to either do often, or we don't allow ourselves
to, we kind of dry, try to fit it in by multitasking on it and something else.
We try to fit it into our life while we're focusing on something else that we think we're
supposed to.
And what we're going to be doing these morning and evening routines is specifically to enjoy
the thing for itself, to honor and enjoy your enjoyment in the thing.
So the, what these routines are, and that you're going to build into these routines,
they don't have to take long.
They could take five minutes.
They could take 15.
They could take longer if you want, but they need to basically be always doing the same
thing in the same order with the same elements, with the same motions.
So for instance, my morning routine that I pick for myself is I have tea every morning
and there is a ritual to doing tea.
If you want to call it a ritual, basically you do the same, you go through the exact
same process.
And sometimes this is what I suggest for y'all as well, that whatever elements are part of
your routine, that you make sure that they are always in the same place and that you
go to the same place, interacting with the elements in the same way every day.
So you got the one routine that you'll have for the morning and then you'll have a different
one for bedtime.
So say for instance, for me, when I first get up, first thing I do is I get up and I
make the bed and then I go get ready for the day.
And so that I just do, I don't consider that even though technically it is my morning routine,
it's not my favorite part.
It's just something I do to just, because I feel better about my day when I just get
that out of the way.
And I'm like, okay, now I'm ready to face the day.
I'm all ready.
The bed's made.
I'm ready to go.
Now that I'm starting my day, how do I want to start it?
Because that's what it always feels like to me, me starting my day is like right after
I get ready.
And I'm like, okay, so how am I going to start it?
And for me, my favorite thing is to make, is to prepare my tea.
And I always do it in the same way every single day.
And all of the tea elements are in the same place every day.
And then I go through the routine of making the tea and steeping the tea and whatever.
And then I take the tea and I go outside on the balcony and I sit with the Lord or I read
a book or, or whatever.
But the thing is I, that I consider that a routine that is almost like it's a, like
I mentioned, it's like this honoring of something that I, of, of something that of myself, because
I'm giving time and intention to something I personally enjoy that doesn't feel like
it's really accomplishing much.
Like I don't feel like it's like marking a really big, you know, check on, on my checklist
or on my to-do list, or I don't feel really accomplished after I do it.
I just feel more centered.
I feel more anchored.
I feel more at peace because it allowed me to purposefully choose that I am important.
And there are particular elements that I allow to be part of that process that helped me
be intentional of, about.
who it is about remembering who it is that I am and how special that I am because of who God made
me to be, you know, et cetera. And then it sets me up for a really good rest of the day. And it,
the purpose of this and for the bedtime routine is basically activating or bringing to life
areas of yourself in which you've become numb. And it will allow you to connect with yourself
in places and in areas, and maybe even areas of enjoyment that maybe feel like so much of a
luxury. You don't give time to them. Now, again, these are not supposed to be heavy time consuming
They can, you can, if you have the luxury of doing this for like 30 minutes every morning,
absolutely do it. If you can structure a morning routine that is filled with all kinds of things,
it is filled, but it needs to be filled with things you enjoy, like getting your breakfast
ready and getting your coffee ready and then sitting down and eating it. And while you do
that, you read a specific book or you, I don't know, you have a specific journal or devotional
or Bible passage that you read, you know if you enjoy it, make it part of your routine.
And it can be as short as five minutes. It needs to be at least five minutes, or it can be, you
know, much longer than that. But the point is again, to honor who it is that you are and be
intentional about activating and, and connecting with those parts of you that, that bring that,
so that you recognize the parts of yourself that bring God joy and you, and you honoring that
by enjoying it yourself. That's basically how to sum all of this up. So pick things that express
you, like I said, they might feel frivolous. And what you're also doing is you, by doing
these routines is you're practicing designing and creating your own life.
And we'll be talking more about that. And a few weeks about the importance of like knowing who it
is that you are so that you know who that, who God is also owning yourself and what all goes into
that. So the last thing I want to talk about is the bedtime routine. So the bedtime routine,
just like the morning routine it needs to be things that you enjoy and things that you are
being intentional about. I recommend, especially because it's bedtime that you make it particular.
I mean, the morning's important for this as well, but bedtime particularly needs to be cozy.
For instance it's something that slows you down. You could, it might, it might be something like
making a, I don't know if you like a warm cup of milk when you go to bed, or if you like a warm
cup of like chamomile tea or something like that. And you don't usually think about doing that
before bed, because that seems like this splurge, or it just seems like this frivolous thing that
you're like, oh my word, who has time for that? Or, you know, I I've got so many things that are
filling my day. I don't need to add one more thing to it. If you really enjoy it, if it makes
the moment feel luxurious and that you are splurging on yourself, do it. The bedtime routine
more than the morning, as odd as this sounds, the bedtime routine it's, it's, it's especially
important. I believe to be, to be at least 10 minutes, the shortest, preferably at least 15
minutes. And that is partly because you're using this to, to really connect with yourself to the
point that you begin to wind down. You become it all again, it'll help you center yourself.
You'll become more at peace with yourself, which will set you up for a really good night's sleep.
Because remember that a good day starts the evening before. So you're already setting
yourself up for the next day by how you go to bed that night. These, the morning and the evening
routines do not need to be filled with a, like a journaling in here or anything else. This needs
to be separate. And the reason for that is I want to make sure, hopefully you'll enjoy every time
that you enter, that you journal in here, that you spend time in here, but the whole point of the,
of the morning and the bedtime routines needs to be something that feels just extra luxurious.
Just feels like, I don't know, I keep using this word, but it just feels like frivolity.
It just feels extra, a bit extra. That's a good way to put it. So that, so I wanted to explain
what those two things are and what that's going to do is it's going to begin to put into your day,
a way for you to connect with you and to.
Connect with like parts of you that, like I said, become numb so that you can remember who it is that you are that maybe.
That maybe you've forgotten when, uh, in the.
In all of the heaviness or all of a busy schedule, whether that be with and the responsibilities of children or a job and.
We get so used to what people refer to these days as adulting.
That we forget who it is that we are, what God placed in us, what our dreams were, et cetera. And we need to recapture.
We need to recapture those things we need to reconnect with that part of ourselves that needs to be seen and that needs to be let out.
Um, and so these quite honestly, the morning and the evening routines are quite honestly, baby steps towards that.
And so hopefully that's helpful. Hopefully you will look forward to it.
Every day, you know, the morning and the evening routine again, that can be as short as 5 minutes. Um, I really recommend the evening routine routine being at least 10, because otherwise 5 minutes I've noticed for the bedtime routine.
Doesn't seem to be long enough to actually be a routine. I think it's because it's at bedtime and it needs to be like literally the last thing close to the last thing.
If not the last thing before you go to sleep, it shouldn't be obviously Netflix or any fun, like show that you like to watch that can be before then this needs to be something that allows you to connect with you as opposed to disassociate and disconnect with you by watching a TV show.
Um, but anyway, it being the last thing that you go that you do before you go to sleep. Usually, um, uh, it's for whatever reason, I've just noticed that it needs a little bit more time at least at least 10 minutes.
But, um, so hopefully you'll look forward to that. That's why I put enjoy my morning routine. Enjoy my bedtime routine.
Uh, I hope that that during this breakthrough program, not only will you come to enjoy God, but you will come to love yourself like you never have before. So hope that you thoroughly enjoy this.