This Three-Minute Morning Mindfulness practice is one of three Renegade Rituals for holistic well-being as described by Pilar Gerasimo in her book, The Healthy Deviant: A Rule-Breaker’s Guide to Being Healthy In an Unhealthy World (2020, North Atlantic Books).
I developed my Morning Minutes ritual by co-opting an idea from my younger sister, Andrea, a yoga teacher. Many years ago, having recently gotten her five-hundred-hour yoga-instructor certification from Kripalu, she had committed herself to doing thirty minutes of yoga each morning. It was an ambitious goal, so within a week or two, she found she was struggling (and often failing) to make that commitment work in the context of her daily life.
So instead of continuing to struggle or simply giving up, she radically redesigned the scope of her commitment. Her new plan was to simply unroll her mat, light some incense, kneel, and calmly taking three deep breaths. From there, she had the option of doing as much or as little yoga as she chose.
Of course, once she got to her mat, smelled the incense, settled in, and took her first breath, she often felt like stretching into a few asanas. From there, she might feel inspired to spend significantly more time on the mat, sometimes exceeding her original thirty-minute goal.
For me, the central appeal and core value of the practice lay in simply taking the first few minutes of the day for myself. So I expanded the range of potential practice activities to include anything calm, peaceful and pleasurable.
Envying both the beautiful experience my sister was giving herself, and the results she was getting, I tried copying her technique for a while. Over time, though, I realized that on some mornings, I didn’t really want to do yoga. I was called to journal or meditate or play my guitar instead.
For me, the central appeal and core value of the practice lay in simply taking the first few minutes of the day for myself. So I expanded the range of potential practice activities to include anything calm, peaceful and pleasurable that happened to appeal to me on that particular day.
I decided my minimum daily commitment would be three minutes, and I’ve been doing it ever since—sometimes for an hour or longer. On the rare days when I miss my Morning Minutes practice, I feel the difference, and I’m inspired to return to it, pronto. So, don’t be shy about improvising with your own three-minute ritual.
Waking Up to a Better Day
Do you know how most Americans wake up? They jolt awake to an alarm, flip on bright lights, reach for their electronic devices, then dive directly into their day’s activities and responsibilities. They check email and texts, scan social feeds and news headlines to see what they might have missed while they slept. Seconds after their feet hit the floor, they switch on the television or radio to hear the familiar prattle of morning-show hosts or the dire pronouncements of news anchors; they turn on loud, hyper-intense music or hop on treadmills to get their blood pumping. Others jump into productive tasks, returning emails and calls, responding to requests for information, finishing up last minute assignments before they have to go to work.
For your sanity, for your health, and for the benefit of everything you hold dear, you are going to consciously reclaim the first few moments of your day—for you. Rather than abruptly throwing some big industrial on-off lever into the on position, you’re going to turn your delicate dials at a pace your body and brain can handle. And for that, you will be richly rewarded, because from here on out, every single part of your day is going to go better.
The Three-Minute Morning Ritual
Waking more gently lets you take advantage of important theta-brainwave states and ramp up more gradually toward demanding tasks. Regularly adhering to a simple morning ritual also helps you build self-efficacy, develop mindfulness and equanimity, and prepare for a successful day. It lets you start the day on your own terms. So let’s do this thing!
How to Start:
- First thing on rising, before you do anything else (especially looking at your phone), choose any feel-good activity and just enjoy it for at least three minutes, or for as long as you find it rewarding and doable.
- Before and during your Morning Minutes practice, avoid all exposure to electronics, media, and other sensory distractions or stressors. No email, texts, social media, or news until your body and mind have had a chance to come gradually and peacefully into their relaxed waking state.
- Some good Morning Minutes practice options include meditation, yoga, stretching, reading poetry or wisdom literature, journaling, stepping outside to see the sunrise, listening to birds through an open window, or playing a musical instrument.
- Consider using the last few moments of your practice to set your intentions for the day and visualize how you want it to go or to reflect on the things you are most grateful for.
- Close your practice with three deep, energizing breaths. Then move on to the active part of your day, noticing how the three mi