I’ve had a somewhat consistent practice of a morning routine since I learned about the concept a few years ago.  It’s a much more intentional and happy way to start my day than hustling out of the door and rushing off to work.

I noticed a something about my routine the last few weeks that I found interesting.  My practice generally involves having a cup of tea, reading,  writing a bit, and listening to music while burning a stick of incense (my preferred scent is Nag Champa).

A few weeks ago, I ran out of sticks.  Channeling my inner minimalist tendencies, I wondered if I really needed to buy more or if I could do without.  It was an interesting experiment because I found that something about the scent of burning incense is calming and I missed it.  Since this is something that adds value to my life, I placed another package on order and am looking forward to its arrival this week! 🙂

Do you have a morning routine or are you interested in starting one?  If so, what do you think you would include as part of your practice?

I have been reading a lot about simplifying and decluttering in this book by Marie Kondo. She talks about how things that you are discarding are not the focus but rather the intent is to focus on things that you want to keep and that bring you joy.

I started sifting through the the mounds of stuff in my garage to get ready for an upcoming move and realized how many books I had, tons and tons of books, and many of them were just there, not sparking joy, just there. I got to thinking about Marie’s philosophy of getting rid of stuff and Tammy’s post about getting rid of books. Their way of decluttering or what they decide to keep may not be the right way for me.  Things that bring others joy don’t necessarily bring me joy, and so my method of discarding things or the items I choose to discard is going to be different than someone else’s.  My way may mean keeping some things that other people don’t value but that spark joy for me.  Realizing this made the process of decluttering easier somehow.  I wasn’t trying to do it by using someone else’s yard stick of how much to rid myself of but by listening to my own intuition and what felt ready to let go of and what felt right to keep.

Did you ever hear about a book that someone had read or a new tool of some sort that had a special impact on someone you knew (either in real life or in virtual online life)?  Of course, i’m sure this is the case – there is so much information out there and most of the time we get a lot of it through blogs, personal references, etc.

Anyway, this happened to me, I won’t say recently because it has been going on for a while.  I heard about the desire map book a while ago and everyone seemed to be singing its praises.  For the life of me, I don’t know why, but it just wasn’t working for me.  I read the book once, and I thought, hmmm, this doesn’t make sense…I don’t get it.  Well, instead of thinking that this book wasn’t for me, I thought it just wasn’t the correct time for me to read it and maybe if I read it again, I would relate better.

Well, I read it again.

Then I got the journal.

And the planner.

And wouldn’t you know, none of them worked for me.  I can’t tell you why, but they didn’t.  I know Danielle’s content is great, and provides immense value for others.  I loved reading this post from  Tammy and how it impacted her life…so inspiring!

But for me, it didn’t, and that’s ok.  I gotta tell you though, it took me forever to get there.  Isn’t that funny?  Sometimes we hear something that’s really interesting, see other people benefitting from it, and we want to have the same benefit, but it’s just not meant for us.  And, life is short…too short to spend time forcing yourself on ideas that just don’t work…so on to bigger and brighter ideas, at least for me. 🙂