The Three Keys to A Morning Ritual
The THREE most important aspects of the Morning Ritual ARE:
It is done within the first hour after you awaken.. If at all possible, you aim at doing all your critical work by One PM. "Done by One". The Ritual is designed to support this, or at the least to get you off on a good start for the day.
You are MOVING. The "perfect" exercise for many people (assuming y0ou aren't in the FIREDANCETAICHI.COM program) is probably walking. The "Five Tibetans" are a great choice, if you think it through carefull. Choose an exercise you can do for 10-20 minutes, something where you can raise or lower the intensity as you wish is great.
WHILE MOVING, you chant affirmations, visualize role models, visualize the "time line" to your long term goals, the short-term activities you must do today, etc. FLOOD yourself with positive emotions.
If all you did was power-walk while chanting "every day in every way I’m getting better and better" or some such, you would create a powerful effect. When you add elements of the M.A.G.I.C. formula, shamanism, Chi Gung, NLP and so forth you are in new and powerful territory.
VERY few people bring all aspects of their body-mind together. They meditate OR exercise. They exercise OR journal. They practice gratitude OR they strategize and goal-set.
Its almost as if the ego slows you down by creating an aversion to twining the whole human body-mind together. Perhaps because you cannot fake this. If you do all three, you WILL change.
The long term notion is to have your 3-year goals, your 1-year goals, your 6-month, 1-month, and weekly goals. Then you ask the question: "what would I need to do every day such that, having a joyful life, I am on track to meet my benchmarks?"
When you figure this out, you can keep a calendar. If you have calculated your desired path and results ("If I write two pages a day, six days a week, I'll finish a book in a year") simply by marking the days when you do those pages, you can quickly see: are you on track? Yes? No? Being able to MEASURE your results is powerful: "what gets measured gets managed."
If you have goals in all three areas: body, mind, and emotions, all I have to do is give myself a score daily or weekly: on a scale of 0-9, how did I do in each arena? If the Morning Ritual itself represents at least a "1" in each arena, then simply doing this gets you in the game.
WHEN you forget or neglect it (and you probably will) you will have the chance to ask "why?" What got in your way? How did you cheat yourself? What beliefs, emotions, values, etc. got you to neglect the most valuable 10-20 minutes of your day?
Whatever you see, you are looking at, precisely, the same things that have stopped you from reaching your dreams.
In my life, I also find the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM ("atomic goals") necessary to accomplish my goals in each major area.
Body might be Tai Chi and Five Tibetans (slightly modified for greater intensity)
Emotions is the Morning Ritual, Ancient Child work, Blessing Dance and family meeting
Career is a single sentence every day.
Identifying the minimum, the absolute minimum that protects my body and my family allows me to do those things FIRST. Before I eat. In fact, because I use Intermittent Fasting I ALWAYS do my basic work before eating, and that means full work out and daily pages. "Done by One" is the goal, so my Morning Ritual also visualizes role models who would totally CRUSH my obstacles.
Body? Steve Muhammad and Danny Inosanto, Chen Man Ching and BKS Iyengar laugh at my lack of discipline, or clarity.
Family? Dawn Callan and Tim Piering and Steve Muhammad (again!) have the wisdom about family, spirit, and maintaining your passion throughout life.
Career? Larry Niven, Octavia Butler and William Shakespeare can kinda whip any story problem I could imagine.
So start. Just get started. Walk and chant an affirmation. Then tomorrow refine your process. There is much to learn, but the most important thing is JUST GET STARTED. Do it six times a week, minimum. Move. Feel. Focus. ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
Any day you do this can be considered a victorious day. You are on the Path of Mastery, even if taking baby steps.
There are other paths, of course. But this one is real, and you can start today.
Namaste
Steve
