5 Minute Morning Balance Ritual

"3 Questions, 5 Minutes a Day: Make leaps towards greater balance in one single week with the Shicka Boom 5 Minute Morning Balance Ritual" By Laura Lallone, Certified Life Coach

This article is dedicated to a woman that I've never met and probably never will. Tall with dark, dark hair, she was perfectly manicured in a tailored suit with high-heeled pumps. We shared a subway car in Manhattan two years ago. She was standing, holding onto the subway car strap and meticulously applying three coats of mascara as the train bumped and shifted. With my jaw dropped in reverence of her talent, I imagined this to be her morning routine because she was REALLY good at it. (I can barely put on clear lip gloss in a moving vehicle.)

We all have morning routines and daily repetition makes us experts at them. What's your morning routine? Does it help to balance and center you for the day ? or leave you feeling scattered?

I invite you to try a powerful five minute morning ritual to set your day off with awareness and consciousness, moving daily towards the balance and fulfillment you desire. The ritual is very simple, consisting only of three simple questions. The secret is to be honest, give yourself the 5 minutes? and to ask the questions.

Question 1: What am I grateful for?

This question holds astonishing power. If you only remember one thing from this ritual, please remember this question! Write it down and put it in at least three very visible places. Maybe you will choose your bedroom dresser, your desk or the dashboard of your car. This question has the capacity to change a mood and soften a heart in seconds. What are you grateful for? WHO are you grateful for? What are the gifts you've been given in your life that you sometimes take for granted? What are some gifts that are so obvious that you may never even notice them?

Question 2: What are my intentions for today?

Where are you now and where do you want to be at the end of the day? Meaning, what do you want to accomplish today? Beyond the "doing", how do you want to feel? How do you want to be or conduct yourself during the day? Close your eyes and imagine your day is set on a theatrical stage. How do you want the audience to feel about you as they watch you "play"? What do you want them to notice about how you are being? How do you want to be if things don't go as planned? Asking yourself this one question may be the most powerful way to achieve what you want in life. After all you can't get to where you want to be if you don't know where that is.

Question 3: What's most important today?

Keeping in mind your gratitude and intentions for the day, consider again all the aspects of your life: personal development, your intimate relationships, your family, friends, finances, career, health, recreation and spirituality. Now, close your eyes and imagine yourself 10 years from now. What does the future you say is most important for you today? It's really easy to come up with what SHOULD BE most important (as defined by society) but resist the urge to give into that voice. Take a deep breath and listen deeper. Trust that you have all the answers inside.

Some find that it helps to ask this follow-up question: What ONE THING can I do today to significantly improve the quality of my life? Don't concern yourself with the size or magnitude of your answer. It changes. Some days it might be "apply to graduate school" and other days it might be "organize my office".

________________________________________

Helpful Tips to Make It Stick

To make this ritual "stick", create a fertile "habit-forming" environment:

1. Fly solo. Use the five minutes as valuable alone time to ground yourself. Once this ritual is second nature, then I invite you to use these three questions in conversation with your family, significant other, and even work teams.

2. Be consistent. Select a specific time and location to perform your morning ritual. For example, lying in bed from 7:30-7:35am or on your morning commute from 8:30-8:35am.

3. Take it lightly. Have fun. Unpleasant tasks don't become habits. The morning ritual isn't a task. It's a way of consciously looking out at your day. Set the intention to create a daily ritual; to create a habit. But don't sweat it if you miss a day.

4. Start small. Stick to five minutes in the beginning. Perhaps you'll expand to 10, 15 or 30 minutes. Maybe not. A new program quickly gets abandoned when if feels like a burden, especially in the morning!

5. Keep no secrets. Tell someone about your morning ritual and ask the friend, coach, significant other or whomever to support you in keeping on track. This might sound like, "Terry, I've started a morning practice to keep myself balanced and focused on what's important during the day. It would be really helpful if you asked me how it's going every now and then. It just really helps to have you know what I'm up to."

________________________________________

Experiment and have fun. I'd love to hear how you've experienced the ritual and any other morning ritual ideas that work for you!

Cheers!
Laura

© Copyright Shicka Boom Inc. 2004 unless otherwise indicated

Laura Lallone is the creator of the 5-point Shicka Boom coaching system proven effective for those who deal with high personal risk, daily pressure and uphill battles. For more information on coaching and workshops, email contact@shickaboom.com or go to http://www.shickaboom.com. Don't forget to sign up for Sheer Balance, the ezine dedicated to greater balance for women!

---

Top Ten Tips for Living Authentically

1. Know your purposeAre you wandering through life with little direction ? hoping that you'll find happiness, health and prosperity? Identify your life purpose or mission statement... Read More

Top Ten Things to Build a Bridge and Get Over

God must love Top Ten lists because she made so many of them. They crowd my Inbox daily. They're right up there in popularity with offers to... Read More

Is Coaching For You?

More and more people have less and less time, but have greater demands both personally and professionally. This situation has resulted in the emergence of personal coaching... Read More

Run to Win

I was never much of an athlete growing up. Notoriously clumsy, I was ostracized by our school volleyball and basketball teams. Nevertheless, there was one sport in... Read More

Good, Good, Good, Good Intentions

I always do a lot of thinking about good intentions in December.It's not because I'm inspired by the holidays. I'm simply observing the anniversary of the Universal... Read More

Boost Your Self-Esteem

What Is Self-Esteem?Self-esteem literally means to esteem, or respect, yourself. Having high self-esteem means that you have a positive image of yourself. Let's look at where such... Read More

D.I.S.C.I.P.L.I.N.E.

What does this word really mean anyway? According to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition, discipline, as a noun, is defined primarily as punishment. My, but that has... Read More

Do You Make Less Money Than Your Taller Peers?

A recent study at the University of Florida found that over the span of their careers short people earn less money than their taller counterparts. In terms... Read More

Coaching Skills and Positive Motivation

There is one important point that is often missed in the discussion of Coaching Skills: Effective coaching is a great deal more than just problem solving. Many... Read More

Coaching for Results

He's a very successful sales manger who craves results. He can't be bothered with people who don't produce. They are losers. He always produces the numbers year... Read More

Tripping On Mindfulness

One of the ironies of mindfulness is that it's still possible to be forgetful, klutzy, or even distracted while doing our best to pay attention.Why? We are... Read More

Mailey?s Introspections [Monday, December 6th 2005]

As I work with clients as their introspective Inner Peace/Relationship coach, an issue that has come to my awareness is the tendency we have as human beings... Read More

Getting What You Need: Ask For Help!

"Fortune befriends the bold." - John DrydenI regularly work with clients on making major life changes in line with a new definition of personal success. There are... Read More

Do You Want to Impress Others? Then Don?t Talk ?Listen

Recently my friend Michelle was concerned about a professional conference she was planning to attend with her husband, a veterinarian. She has no background in veterinary science,... Read More

How to be Your Authentic Self

Most of us play many different roles in the course of any given day. We could be Mom, Boss, Employee, Student or Friend, to name just a... Read More

Personal Power

All of us would love to have personal power ? the power to manifest our dreams, the power to remain calm and loving in the face of... Read More

Dont Be Jealous - Be Inspired

When we see people do things we cannot do, or have things we don't have, it might be tempting to be a little jealous. But, jealousy doesn't... Read More

Skills for Change

The name of the game is CHANGE -- that's true at work, and it's also true in life. In both situations there are FOUR skills you can... Read More

Two Leadership Strategies: Don?t Lose Your Mind & Be a Coach

Are you feeling overwhelmed, a lack of confidence or under a ton of pressure? Are you trying too hard to make something work and focusing too much... Read More

Corporate Coaching - Why Coach? C(5)+ED

Is it possible to make a strong "business case for corporate coaching?" Why is coaching vital to organizations? Why should leaders invest time developing their coaching skills?... Read More

Are You A Work Addict?

Work addiction is very common in our society today, yet it is not one that is not highly recognised.An interesting article in the March edition of The... Read More

Are You Controlling or Loving Yourself?

How often do you hear a parental voice in your head that says things like, "You've got to lose weight," or "You should get up earlier every... Read More

Self-contentment Leads to Confidence

Being self-content means accepting and acknowledging who you are at your core and becoming satisfied -- maybe not perfect, but satisfied -- in all areas of your... Read More

Going Beyond Life Coaching

In Corrogue the air is chill and the frost is on the ground.On these autumn mornings the spider's webs are glistening like each was arrayed with diamonds.... Read More

Are YOU a Dreamer?

This morning I watched a news article about a young woman who had just set a world record for sailing across the English Channel. What was special... Read More

Are You Too Critical?

First of all, criticalness breaks up more relationships, than anything else. And that criticalness is usually over the children or money!Criticalness can be seen in eyes that... Read More