A peek into my morning routine, a Tarot card for mornings, and a tea recommendation
RITUAL rit·u·al /ˈriCH(əw)əl/ A ritual is a ceremony or action performed in a customary way.
Adding a morning ritual can be one of the best self-care things you can do for yourself, aligning all your cells for the day or night. Rituals before work and creative times can create a container for those moments, insulating them from the outside world.
Intuitive Morning Rituals
Mornings are hard for me! I need ritual in the morning more than ever to keep myself focused. Below is what I do to ease into the day and make sure I am taken care of. It’s simple but works. It’s my basic 40 minute morning routine, and might look pretty familiar, but it also includes an intuitive ritual or two somewhere in there.
Routine or Ritual?
Many of the things I do in the morning are routine but not ritual. Routine is how you make sure you get done what needs to get done. Ritual is not based on practical things, like news, weather or coffee. Adding in the intuitive ritual moment changes the vibe of the morning and expands it.
My Morning Routine
Making Coffee (10 minutes)
Right when I wake up, either my husband or I make coffee. I’d rather have it brought to me, so when I do make it, I make it a mindful ritual! (Occasionally, I might make something different: at the top of this post is a tea latte made with Herb Folk tea. Go get some now, Erin’s tea products are rituals in and of themselves! Read my interview with her here.)Hydration and Health (5 minutes)
Fill my water bottle for the day, ensuring hydration! It’s usually just a task for me, but to make this a ritual you could sing or add things like lemon or tinctures to it. Lately I’ve added lemon to the water and I take a probiotic, some vitamins and an herbal immune support tincture.
Prepare for the day (15 minutes)
While the coffee or tea is brewing, check the weather for the entire day and get ready accordingly. (In the SF North Bay, it’s all about layers!)Relax in the busyness (5 minutes)
Scan the news while drinking my hot beverage. I only have about 5 minutes for this but if it’s there, it can expand when I have more time.Schedule and planned Intuitive Ritual (5 minutes)
Go over my schedule for the day (3 minutes). Choose a Tarot or Oracle card for the day to set intentions. (2 minutes) I might even do a mini-reading if I have extra time. Additionally or instead I’ll do a few minutes (like, really, a few minutes) of exercise or yoga.
Go Time!
Take my son to school, and/or go to a meeting or the gym, or simply start work at home or a café.
Intuitive Ritual Extra: At least some of the time (even one weekend day is good) I wake up without an alarm.
See What Works for You
The reality is I don’t actually do the exact above routine every single day. But I make it a goal to do it every day and then it happens most of the time, and I’m good with that!
The intuitive part of the process is including a ritual moment in your routine that you enjoy. You can use any ritual for this moment, cards, making tea, movement, etc. but I love the imagery of a card sitting on my desk to pull me back if I get off track. If at any time during the day I lose focus, it’s there to set me straight.
Tarot card to consult for Mornings: Ace of Wands
A hand magically appears from a cloud in the sky. It holds a living wand that spontaneously generates golden sparks. The magician’s wand, made from the live branch of a tree, brings its life force to a project or creative relationship through the skill, energy, and feelings of the hand that commands it.
Aces announce the very beginning of a new venture, the initial spark of an idea. But also, the Ace also symbolizes a gift from the universe. You have not worked for this inspiration, it has been generously gifted to you, much as waking up in the morning is a gift. Each morning we have the chance to create the day we want. Now it is up to you to make something of it if you wish.
Create Your Intuitive Ritual
To begin with, do something to gently wake up your own energy first thing in the morning, like making a pot of coffee to start the day. Sometimes my husband makes the coffee and brings it to me (a great ritual!) Of course there are family interactions too. In the past, my 16-year old, who is a barista prodigy, has been known to make us both coffee before we get out of bed, a ritual that I could totally get used to but isn’t reliable ;)
The next thing I recommend is to not look at your phone until AFTER at least your first self-care ritual in the morning. Don’t read a little news in bed, don’t check Instagram. It will be there in a half hour, I promise! I know there is lots of turmoil in the world and we think we want to be informed, but we really don’t need it first thing in the morning—we just don’t.
When you are finally awake, that’s a good time to give shape to your day with an intuitive ritual.
You may already have rituals that work for you that you are either doing or used to do or do sometimes. Just do one per morning. More than that is too overwhelming. You can do different ones every day, making the ritual moment itself the habit.
If you don’t have any rituals, try some of mine, or create your own. Make them things that give you joy. I look forward to my coffee, card and/or yoga time in the morning. I probably wouldn’t look forward to doing a full-on workout, but that would light up someone else! If you do a morning rituals for a month, then it will be a habit that can help you long-term.
If you need to tweak the activities or change them, do it, but try having those moments in the morning and enjoy this beautiful time of year.
Reminder: Tarot makes a great gift for yourself or others
Check out the SparkTarot® Deck and my Intuitive Tarot E-Course.