Morning routines and rituals can be a great anchor for your alignment practice. But here’s a cautionary tale about alignment and routines and rituals.
I have a client who recently wanted to create a new morning routine.
She spent a lot of time thinking about what her routine would consist of and what would be important to include. She talked a lot about wanting to be “disciplined” about her morning routine—and so she had these different activities she committed to doing each morning.
There was a problem
Well, she was very disciplined. Meaning she did the things she planned for a certain amount of time each morning.
But it soon became clear there was a problem: She hated her morning routine.
She didn’t really enjoy the things that made up her morning routine. Or more accurately, she didn’t enjoy all of them all the time.
Some mornings she didn’t feel like journaling. But she was being “disciplined” and journaling was supposed to be part of her morning routine, so she did it anyway.
Alignment is about feeling good
Hopefully you can see how this approach defeats the point and purpose of alignment. Alignment is not about doing things you don’t want to do. Or about doing things that felt great and in flow last week, but don’t feel great and in flow today.
Alignment is doing things that make you happy. If something that used to get you in alignment is no longer making you happy, then switch it up for something else.
For me, some mornings it’s reading and highlighting passages in a book. But other mornings, that’s not what feels in flow to me. I really listen to my intuition about what’s going to get me in alignment.
I don’t have goals or quotas or a checklist of things to do. I go with what feels good in the present moment.
The downside of discipline
Here’s the problem with the disciplined approach my client took. If you’re doing things, especially at the outset of your day—setting the tone, that don’t feel good, that are out of alignment, just consider what that’s doing for the rest of your day.
Remember: Law of Attraction says that which is like unto itself is drawn. Like energy attracts like energy. This means you attract what you’re in vibrational harmony with. Whatever you’re giving—by way of your vibrational offering—you are receiving.
If you’re giving out irritation, as my client was when she was taking an unwavering, rigid approach to her morning routine, you’re attracting more circumstances into your life to be irritated about. If you’re giving out irritation, you’re going to get more irritation.
“What is the use of running if we are not on the right road?” —German proverb
Alignment, then, is not about begrudgingly doing things in the morning for the sake of a routine.
When it comes to your alignment, feeling good is the right road. So be disciplined about getting in alignment, but not sticking to a routine just for the sake of routine.
