Carpe Diem--How i got my morning back.

Carpe diem: I did not realize the value and meaning of the word when I read it, but I did when I gained it. Procrastrination From my college days to my late 40s, I always had the idea that people who wake up early in the morning are real goons. They cannot enjoy life like a human being — no late night Netflix or thriller story books — like the birds and the animals — they go to bed as the sun sets — to rise early with its first rays — little did I realise that this routine was an elixir of life. It puts life into a different perspective and fills the day with abundant energy. Initial struggle — my routine was to delay getting up from my bed — as long as I could — but make sure I was on my desk on time — bleary-eyed and still recuperating from the previous night’s dreams and heavy meal. I needed a cupful of caffeine to kickstart the day. The motivation came from Twitter, self help books, and watching people age gracefully without suffering from lifestyle diseases. Then you realise you were the real goonk, but it is never too late to start. Getting to sleep on time Initialy, it was too hard to fall asleep early. I tried warm baths, switching off the screen, no evening caffeine, relaxing music, books, and meditation, but nothing worked. Years of rust took a long time to peel off. Finally, what worked for me was taking deep, long breaths, relaxing, and suddenly finding yourself in deep sleep. Still, I made my compromise: 1100 to 1130 p.m. was my bedtime. Morning: Never hit the snooze button; you have lost the game if you did it. Try setting the alarm 5 minutes early every week until you get at least 2 hours in the morning to seize the day. Do not get into social media for the initial two hours. This draws you into a vortex of negativity, and it takes time to come back to your groove after worldly matters. The previous night, make sure your walking attire is ready and within easy reach. The next morning, take the day slowly. Disconnect I had the habit of reaching for my smart phone to update my social feeds as soon as I opened my eyes, and eventually I realised that was the worst thing to do. Before you realise it, you are sucked into the outside world, and you lose track of time by constant scrolling, so I just turned off all notifications for the first two hours of getting up. Such peace of mind — I realised that it is the thoughts that play a major role in designing your whole day. The morning walk — initially I felt so sleepy — that sometimes I thought of abandoning the walk midway and cozying up back into the bed — it took a lot of effort not to do so. About a month passed; the routine became a habit, and now the whole day is lost if I miss my morning walk. The first 20 minutes of my walk — generally, I do not put my earphones on — I listen to the birds,feel the wind on my face, watch the sky change colour, and concentrate on my breathing rhythm . Then I put on my noise cancellation headphones. Initially, I started listening to my favourite peppy songs, then tried to listen to Spotify podcasts on the Mahabharata, and ultimately gravitated towards the wonderful life changing forecasts of Tim Ferris, Sadhguru, and history like Empire or wonderful books on Audible. and the next 20 minutes passed in a jiffy. Adding Muscles I realised that as I am ageing, the muscles need some strength, balance, and mobility training. I started lifting lightweights, doing some foot and shoulder exercises, and now I am planning to inculcate yoga in my morning routine, especially for my back. Penning down: Morning, I found, was the best time to write down your thoughts. The ideas are clear, and your mind is not cluttered with a few people to disturb you. So once I would come back from the walk, I would hit the write button, dumping down my thoughts and ideas with no one to interrupt me. After a month, it was time to ramp up the morning exercises after the morning walk and introduce yoga into my routine for developing balance and mobility. Breathing Meditation was too tough for me — I could never concentrate on breathing; the wandering mind always went on a different sphere after 10 breaths — so I now only use deep breathing exercises just to calm myself down or to go to sleep. The morning meal After the walk and jotting down my thoughts, I made the morning breakfast, which I also enjoyed: coffee, water, fruits, yoghurt with muesli, and you have all the energy you need till lunchtime. Two more habits I would like to develop are thought dumping and journaling. Thought dumping would help me plan the next day at ease , while the journaling habit is an awesome habit that I used to love during childhood but grew out of. The problem is that if I had swapped the snooze button for an early morning walk when my body was young, we would not have to fight the lifestyle diseases at a stage when they become irreversible because the magical youth -has a tendency to believe in their immortality.