Morning is not about an alarm clock. And not about coffee. Although coffee is, of course, important. For me, morning has always been the most chaotic time: you need to get up quickly, have time to get yourself in order, pack your things, check your mail. At some point, I stopped understanding where the night ends and the day begins. Everything merged into one long stream of "need", "quickly", "later".
And one day I did one thing, completely by accident. I just sat at the table and did not turn on the phone. I sat for a few minutes, looked at the window and did nothing. Just sat. Without thinking about being late. Without scrolling through the news. It lasted no more than five minutes. And after that, I got up and went to do ordinary things. But for some reason they no longer seemed so hard.
I decided to repeat this "do nothing" ritual. I added a cup of water with lemon. Then I turned on some quiet music. And just like that, my morning, which goes at its own pace, appeared. It’s not meditation, not a mindfulness practice, and not an attempt to be productive. Just a small space in which nothing demands my attention.
Now, even on the most ordinary days, I take a short break first. Sometimes it’s two minutes, sometimes ten. I can look out onto the street, read a paragraph from my favorite book, or just hold a cup of warm drink in my hands. This ritual doesn’t make the day perfect, but it makes it mine.
And the strangest thing is that when you start the morning slowly, everything else starts moving at the right pace. Without panic, without fuss. I stopped being late, although I didn’t get up earlier. I started getting more done, although I didn’t do more tasks.
It seems that it’s not how many things are on your list, but how you feel when you open your eyes. And if at the beginning of the day no one demands anything from you, then during the day you react more easily even to difficult situations.
So my morning habit is to simply give myself a few minutes of silence. Without plans, without thoughts, without connection with the outside world. This little ritual has become the best reminder for me that any day can be started with ease. Even if there is a long and difficult day ahead.