Lessons I’ve learned from My Miracle Morning!

‘Let today be the day you give up who you’ve been for who you can become.’ Hal Elrod

I’ve not long completed The Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge.

A definite challenge for me as early mornings, well all mornings, have not been the enlightening, re-invigorating time for me that they seem to be for many others!

A Bit of Background!

I’ve always felt, and been, more of a night owl than a morning lark.

More of an evening/night person than a morning one.

I would, more often than not, get a second (and third!) wind as the darkness set in and I would regularly work, study, be awake until the early hours.

The time when many larks would be arising I would be going to bed!

Many a time I’ve had to literally force myself from my morning slumber to get to work, to take my daughters to school, to just get going with the day as our current culture and society expect us to.

We may live in a supposedly all hours world but it is geared more to early rather than later risers. In my opinion!

If I’m awake early it takes me several hours to feel, and be, coherent - perhaps not helped by my not being a coffee drinker which I’ve been led to believe assists with the waking up process!

Fast Forward to Now!

As I’ve stumbled through the years, fighting the urge to succumb to what to my mind and body deemed not natural for me, it has become more difficult to sustain a life of late nights and morning awakenings - awakenings at a time that are deemed appropriate and that need to happen so that I can do the things in my life that I’ve scheduled in to do and … including those that I want to do as well!

Things such as teach classes, look after my grandson, spend time with family and friends, get my own work done!

Because I was becoming unproductive in the evenings as well. I was also experiencing high levels of fatigue. I didn’t seem able to keep up the pace that I could previously, perhaps it was my age catching up on me or … all those late nights!

I knew that I had to do something, I just wasn’t sure what.

And that’s when something pulled me to the book, that I’d purchased a while ago yet had sat on my bookshelf, unread, collecting dust.

Hal Elrod’s, The Miracle Morning

I read it in two days and the following day I started his Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge, on a Saturday morning.

I’m of the belief that if you want to get something started it’s better to do so sooner rather than later. You have less time then to make up excuses or find reasons why you shouldn’t/can’t take action.

Upon completing the book I’d accessed his website, downloaded the resources I needed and joined The Miracle Morning Community on Facebook.

An incredibly supportive community that was great to be able to tap into as I went through the 30-days.

Who is Hal Elrod?

Hal Elrod is a man with a story to tell, well several stories to be correct. These he has told through his speaking and his writing, being an International speaker, podcast host and best selling author.

Having experienced illness and death (his own!) Hal Elrod took what he learned from what he went through, how he re-built himself, both body and mind, and combined with his knowledge acquired from his own research and observing the habits of highly successful people, became one himself and spread the word to help others to do the same.

In order that as many people as possible could benefit from what he himself had benefited from.

Hence the creation of his Miracle Morning!

What is the Miracle Morning?

The Miracle Morning comprises of spending time every morning developing habits to ‘take yourself and your life to the next level … and the level after that … and so on.’

In his book of the same name, Hal introduces his ‘Life SAVERS’ concept - ‘the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual benefits of Silence, Affirmations, Visualisation, Exercise, Reading and Scribing being undertaken at the start of your day.

How beginning your day with these ‘SAVERS’ can revolutionise your life, change its direction, enable you to become the person who you want to be and ensure that you can create the life that you would like to have.

Why a 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge?

They say it takes 21 days to adopt a new habit but then what about the time needed to maintain it?

Hal believes that the extra time included in the Challenge will help to truly ingrain the habits acquired during The Miracle Morning into our lives on a long term basis.

My 30-Days of the Miracle Morning

I seem to like structure, but structure that is flexible and can be moulded to fit myself and my life.

But before I start moulding I tend to do things as they have been laid out, as they have, initially been designed to be followed.

That’s how I started my Miracle Morning Journey.

As Hal Elrod suggested. One hour, six habits, ten minutes for each. This is though flexible, it doesn’t have to be an hour, it’s what is right for you and fits in with your life. There’s even a 6-minute option in the book!

My Miracle Morning would start the night before when, I would read aloud my bedtime affirmations, to prepare me for the next day. (Being transparent and honest here, I did forget a couple of times but I tried not to beat myself up about it!)

Subsequently, I would awaken every day an hour earlier than normal. My alarm (my phone!) was across the other side of my bedside table (not across the room as suggested) as this was my way of easing into it!

I undertook seemingly mindless tasks - brushing my teeth, drinking water, getting casually dressed - to start to ‘up’ what Hal Elrod refers to as the Wake Up Motivation Level (WUML).

Something which generally is very low for me early in the morning and takes time to increase to a somewhat functional level!

I would then ‘settle’ in for my ‘hour’ of My Miracle Morning.

Yes a whole hour, for me, dedicated to my personal development and to get my mornings off to a good start.

The Life ‘SAVERS’

‘S’ is for Silence

Starting the day in this way aims to ‘reduce stress, while increasing your self-awareness and gaining the clarity that will allow you to maintain your focus on your goals, priorities, and what’s most important for your life, each and every day.’

The five ways Hal suggested for this part were:

• Meditation

• Prayer

• Reflection

• Deep Breathing

• Gratitude

I combined this part with the ‘V’ of the Life Savers so I’ll put my take in with that.

‘A’ is for Affirmations

Anything you read and anything you say will influence your thoughts and affirmations are one of the most powerful ways of doing this.

‘Affirmations are one of the most effective tools for quickly becoming the person you need to be to achieve everything you want in your life.’

Hal suggests 5 steps to creating our own affirmations:

• Identify what you really want

• Identify why you want it

• Who are you committed to being to create it

• What are you committed to doing to attain it

• Add inspiration quotes and philosophies

For the 30 days of the Challenge I used the affirmations provided by Hal that I’d downloaded previously and I adapted them to my own life. I read the affirmations out loud after completing my morning Silence and Visualisation.

‘V’ is for Visualisation

‘Visualisation, also known as creative visualization or mental rehearsal, refers to the practice of seeking to generate positive results in your outer world by using your imagination to create mental pictures of specific behaviours and outcomes occurring in your life.’

Visualisation can be a way to overcome challenges, to perform better, to be more productive, to achieve success and is used by many of the top performing athletes, business people, actors and actresses in the world.

Hal had three steps for visualising during The Miracle Morning:

• To get ready - prepare, breathe, close eyes and visualise.

• Visualise what you really want.

• Visualise who you need to be and what you need to do.

Prior to undertaking The Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge I’d undergone a 4-week meditation (incorporating visualisation) programme. Dr Joe’s Dispenza programme from his book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. Following on from this I’d also incorporated some more of his meditations into my life and I used his Morning Meditation practice for the Silence and Visualisation parts of this Challenge.

Unfortunately for me, having already increased my WUML, prior to meditating, I found that it then decreased and I often felt very sleepy again!

‘E’ is for Exercise

‘If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.’ Robin Sharma

There are numerous benefits to exercising in the morning and having worked in the Health and Fitness industries for a huge part of my working life, I’m fortunately very well aware of them!

Exercise has always been a crucial part of my life but as of late I’ve been neglecting it. Partly due to a shoulder injury and partly due to the fatigue I mentioned earlier, even though ironically exercising ups my energy levels!

Having been sat down meditating, visualising, reading and saying my affirmations, I did feel like I had to use the exercise part to wake myself up again! The first day I used my ten minutes for a mini-yoga practice but found that a mini-aerobic/cardio warm-up for my body was more in tune with waking me up! Plus I incorporated the physio exercises to help heal my shoulder injury so time well spent!

‘R’ is for Reading

Reading ‘is the fast track to transforming any area of your life. It is one of the most immediate methods for acquiring the knowledge, ideas, and strategies you need to achieve Level 10 success in any area of your life.’ Hal Elrod.

I am an avid reader and usually have a minimum of three books on the go at any one time. I have been reading for longer than I remember, I always carry a book with me, and it is, like my exercise, a crucial part of my life and who I am.

The reading part of The Miracle Morning would take part after I’d read my affirmations aloud. I would read a passage from two different ‘Words of Wisdom’ books and then I’d dive into a book. During the Challenge I read Tara Mohr’s, Playing Big, a book that tied in very well with my Miracle Morning!

‘S’ is for Scribing

‘Whatever it is that you write, putting words on the page is a form of therapy that doesn’t cost a dime.’ Diana Raab

As with reading, writing has always been a huge part of my life. I’ve kept a diary since I was 8-years old, despite being a bit sporadic with doing so at times. I’m a big note taker, I’m always writing down quotes, things that mean something to me and I have been known to create written caricatures for friends and family too!

Hal has a few tips for scribing as well:

• Choose a format - digital or traditional

• Get a journal

• Decide what to write

For my Miracle Morning ‘scribing’ I finally got round to putting to use one of a set of journals that a special friend had purchased as a gift for my 50th birthday! I love my stationery that much that sometimes I’m actually reluctant to dip in and use it, I’d rather just look at it in its perfect, unused form!

For my ten minutes of scribing every morning I’d cover a couple of pages with my thoughts and musings! Such a great to unravel what has been clogging up my mind and a chance to think clearly and with clarity.

The Lessons I’ve Learned

Be prepared! I live with my husband and I look after my youngest grandson in the mornings. I therefore had to make sure that I had enough time to fit in my extra hour and also discuss it with my husband. Our home has not got the thickest walls, I needed peace and quiet for my mornings, so we had to achieve a balance for the 30 days and accommodate each others’ needs! You’ve got to find what works for you but take other people’s needs into consideration as well.

When I set my mind to something I am perfectly capable of achieving it, as are we all. You just have to want to do something enough and want the benefits of what it offers. I wanted more energy, to be more productive, to think more clearly and to use my time more effectively and efficiently. I am now on my way to having all of this and more back in my life.

Even if something is a struggle you can still draw from your inner strength and navigate your way through it. All of the habits you are developing in The Miracle Morning will help towards this. There were many days when it was a huge herculean struggle to get myself up and go through with the hour BUT … I’d made the commitment, the time was going to go whether I did something with it or not, and it didn’t have to be forever. It was a tiny sliver of my total life journey to give to something that could potentially have a huge beneficial impact in it.

Meditation in the morning is not for me, not at this time in my life, but I won’t dismiss it entirely. Just for me, at my current stage on my journey, evening meditation works better for me. I was tired already when I woke up and meditating in the morning meant I still struggled to fully awaken and be a fully functioning, alert, on the ball human being by the time my hour was over!

Life needs to be fluid and we need to tune into ourselves more. I’ve spent much of my life listening to others and their opinions and views as to how I should live my life. Through further developing these six habits I’m continuing to listen to myself more, taking the time to really tune in to what I like to call my Inner Mentor (thank you Tara Mohr for introducing me to her!) and to my future self. I’m managing to block out the noise from others more so I’m paying more attention and doing ‘me’ not others.

I need to write my own affirmations so that I have more feeling and intent behind them. I loved the affirmations that Hal provides and it was great that he did so as it meant I could get started quickly with The Miracle Morning. They cover a lot and by reading them every day I did start to feel like they were believable and applicable. To take it up a notch though I do need to create my own that truly reflect my own path and future direction in life.

To be a Master (or Mistress!) of your own life you have to put in the time, the effort, the energy and yes the money to achieve this. So many people wish, dream, hope for better lives. These same people envy others who have achieved, and are achieving, their visions. They think they’re just lucky, super fortunate, were born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Yes maybe some were but … the majority weren’t and there’s a huge amount of work, time, energy, effort that has gone into creating lives that they love. If you want the same then you have to stop just dreaming, wishing and hoping and start the doing by taking action and making things happen.

Sometimes you have to let things go that aren’t helping you to get to where you want to get to, or allowing you to be the person you want to be. This will then free up space, time, energy for all those things and people who will enable you to live the life that you want to live whilst being who you’re meant to be.

My On-Going Miracle Morning Journey

As with everything different things suit different people and with our own unique and special lives we have to make sure that what we include in them, and how we live them, is what works for us.

I will be continuing on my Miracle Morning journey but I will be adapting it to work for me.

• I now feel more inclined to arise earlier than I had been doing previously but I won’t feel guilt if I ever feel the need to have a ‘lie-in!’

• My silence and visualisation, whilst I incorporate this into my day in other ways, will have its main focus in the evenings, before I sleep.

• Journaling will also be an evening job, to tie in with my diary writing and gratitude book.

• Affirmations, reading and exercise are what I intend to start my mornings with.

We all know that the best intentions don’t always work out as planned so I won’t be hard on myself if there are times when I can’t fulfil my self-imposed ‘ways’ of getting my Life Savers done.

I do know though that they will be integral part of my life in whichever way, shape or form that takes. I also know that what works for me now might not do so at other times in my life and I will have to adapt accordingly.

And that’s the beauty of life and of having undertaken this Miracle Morning 30-Day Life Transformation Challenge.

Nothing is set in stone, change will always happen, and by being provided with tools and strategies, such as those in The Miracle Morning we are already ahead of the game. We are now much better equipped to navigate any changes that occur and even embrace and enjoy them as well!

If my experience of The Miracle Morning has intrigued you and you want to find out more then make sure you grab your own copy, and get started on your own Miracle Morning journey.

To purchase The Miracle Morning book please click the following link, or copy and paste it into your browser.

https://amzn.to/2Tz1NMr

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