The Morning Rush! – Positive Reflection Of The Week

The Morning Rush: Are Your Early Mornings On Autopilot Mode? – An Article by Shahwana

How often do we get up and run our early mornings on autopilot?
How often do we taste our tea or coffee?
How often do we actually experience getting showered?
How often do we remember anything we did, before leaving the house?

Early mornings can be a whirlwind of stress, tension and rush, which sets the tone for the rest of your day.

Is that what you really want? Instead of rushing, fixating on your ‘to do’ list or worrying and telling yourself stories about things that might never happen, how about using your morning routine as a chance to reconnect with the present moment, cut your stress levels and leave the house with a smile on your face? Here’s a simple mindfulness exercise to get your day off to a great start.

And it doesn’t take up any extra time.

Brushing Your Teeth – Mindfully Brushing teeth is something we do (hopefully!), twice a day. Research shows that the average length of time that people brush their teeth for is just 18 seconds – a long way short of the two minutes that dentists recommend.

Yet, keeping your teeth and gums healthy is about more than time.

If you brush your teeth while you’re thinking about your ‘to do’ list and everything else that is going on in life, the likelihood of you doing a good job is pretty low.

Fortunately, brushing your teeth mindfully not only improves your tooth and gum health, but it also helps you to de-stress, relax and smile. It’s really simple:

Take 3 mindful breaths, to centre yourself and come back to ‘here and now’. Mindfully, pick up your toothbrush and put the toothpaste on it.

Mindfully brush each tooth, one at a time, brushing the whole tooth and gum area (safely!), before moving on to the next tooth. If your mind wanders, bring it back to brushing your teeth.

If your mind needs something to do, how about getting it to say ‘thank you’ to your teeth and your toothbrush? When you are done, mindfully rinse your mouth out, put your toothbrush away and smile.

Notice how different you feel? Imagine how you could apply this type of mindfulness to other aspects of your morning routine, all by using mindful awareness? Washing your hair, having a shower, getting dressed, having breakfast, putting on your coat?

– Clare Josa, From the Book *52 Mindful moments*.

Have a mindful week!

Shahwana Khanam – Pranic Healer