Right.

When I began this adventure my plan was to get up early in the morning every morning and give myself personal time to meditate, dance, and write.  My plan was 0500.

My success has been…lets just say…variable.

The key it turns out is I can’t weaken at night.  I must be in bed by 9pm and asleep by 10 for this to be viable.

I have been giving myself the time that I want to explore as I planned but the early mornings are a gift that I have to give myself the night before.  This even came out in my last mandala drawing after my Sacral Chakra dance.  The things that most lead me to health tend to bubble up during these dances.   The picture below is what came out of my dance yesterday.

Enter the siren call of Craig, footrubs, and Blacksails.   We don’t have TV reception but we are able to watch series.  Currently we are watching Blacksails and I am a chronic binge watcher.  Just like I was a chronic binge reader as a child/adult.

So I have banned myself from night time telly if I have a client the next day so that I can get my morning meditation fix on first.

Now a few things I have learned about nights and will power, as the hours increase the willpower drops.  It is actually like a muscle and will run down over time and a good night sleep refreshes it.  Which is why it is so much easier for me to meditate and exercise in the morning…two things that help with will power.   I also find that my eating falls to shit at night if i am not careful.   A full day of green smoothies, salads, and veggie dinners and be trashed by a 10pm decision to make a tray of rice crispy treats and eat chai chocolate balls.  It makes no freaking sense.  I call it my gobble monster and it seems to wake up around 10.  (which also corresponds with a change in doshas in Aruvedic medicine)   The Pitta dosha is kicked in which is the metabolizer the action taker…the ass sweller in my case.

“As 10:00 pm rolls around, hopefully you are snug in bed, sound asleep. This is important, because PITTA rules activity, and during your sleep is no exception. The pitta time of night is from 10:00 pm to 2:00 am, and it is important to be sleeping during this time, because the activity that now takes place is inside you; this is the time of internal cleansing. If you remain awake during this important time, you miss out on the benefit of this cleansing time of day. In fact, if you are still awake, you may find that the munchies kick in, and you find yourself at the refrigerator, reaching for ice cream or leftover pizza, since the digestive force will go looking for something to digest. Your body will thank you for skipping this, and being asleep instead! ” – See more at: http://www.ayurvedacollege.com/blog/ayurveda-and-cycles-time-how-doshas-rule-day#sthash.04ZV7Xnh.dpuf”

So with that bit of esoteric motivation my habit hack is to unravel what is getting in the way of me consistently getting up by 5:00.

Here is the list of blocks keeping me from sleep by 10:

• TV watching during the work week
• Not stopping work at a reasonable hour.
• Facebook/Pinterest marathons
• Eating later than 7

So the trick is to unravel each one.

• My first rule is TV only if there are no clients the next day.  This ends at 9pm
• Stop and eat a big lunch midday and then have a small meal at 5:30pm.   Which means in the morning I need to pick the salad and prepare the meal before my client arrives at 10.
• Whomever is cooking gets started by 4:30…no exceptions…which means I can’t cook usually when I have a client…so this will have to be Craig or I will need to make something for dinner in the morning.
• And make sure my phone is charging and downstairs so that I have to get up and turn it off and it is fully charged for the day ahead as well.

Right so I will try these for the next week and see if my success rate at early morning meditations improves.