I was getting up for work at the start of this week and it was cold, I really didn’t want to get out of bed. I’d actually slept later than usual so there wouldn’t be time for my usual morning meditation which I was grumpy about. I got dressed and went downstairs, turned on my work laptop and went into the kitchen to make myself a coffee, not especially looking forward to my inbox and tasks.
I thought about the day before - it hadn’t been my most productive Sunday. I hadn’t got some important things done and I felt disappointed in myself. I was in the process of accepting it and letting it go when I realised I hadn’t finished any of the things I was planning to do. Hmm, that was a pretty relaxed day I had. What had I done with it? I couldn’t actually think of anything, a single thing I’d done yesterday, it was a grey blank. Now I have quite a poor memory but that was unusual even for me. I pulled out my phone to check what day it was and as you probably have guessed by now, it was actually Sunday.
I cannot tell you how happy I was. I like my job in the Civil Service but the ecstatic feeling of realising I didn’t have to work today had me dancing around the kitchen, punching the air and laughing. What a great day, what a glorious day! 24 beautiful hours of joy.
And I realised something - that when I thought it was a work day, I was jumping forward to all the things I was anxious about and was unhappy but when it was Sunday I was focused on how happy the day was going to be. There was nothing stopping me from bringing that joy, that gratitude, that focus on what I was looking forward to doing to any day, every day.
Thich Nhat Hanh provides us with a plan for a mindful start to your day in many of his books, including Miracle of Mindfulness and Happiness. He advises us to take ten mindful breaths when we wake and recite the following verse:
Waking up this morning I smile
knowing there are 24 brand new hours before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment,
and look at beings with eyes of compassion.
24 precious hours that we can do anything with, that we can seize (mindfully). Even if its a busy work day we can get up 15 minutes earlier, start mindfully with gratitude and do a morning sit either with this podcast or the Plum Village app. We can set the intention to carry out our day in mindfulness, to show compassion to ourselves and others and help those in need. Your mornings are more important that you realise - they set the tone for the rest of the day and create the lens that you view it through. Doing some mindful movement, stretching or yoga also sets your body up for the day - don’t forget to do your most important stretch though - which is to smile. Smile to the new day, smile to your joys, smile to your difficulties, smile to your mind, smile to your body.
The discipline of starting your day in this way every morning is transformative, it changes the path that your day is on to one of peace, happiness and compassion. Its so important to realise that mindfulness is a training, its a habit, it is a discipline. When you put the work in and get into that groove every day, the rewards to your happiness are enormous. Remember that the most important thing that you can do to make the world a better place is to devote yourself to your peace, your joy, your mental health. Because when you allow your peaceful and loving nature to shine it is an example, a beacon of hope to everyone for a kinder world - and the world smiles back at you.
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