There is something particularly unappealing about beginning the day by immediately rushing. The alarm goes off, your phone is already demanding attention, breakfast is eaten standing up and suddenly you are running out of the door wondering where the morning went.
A slower morning doesn’t necessarily require getting up at dawn or having an hour to spare. It is more about changing the feeling of those first few moments and resisting the temptation to launch straight into everything that needs doing.
Even a small amount of breathing space can make the rest of the day feel different.
Don’t Start With Your Phone
For many of us, the phone has quietly become the first thing we reach for in the morning. Before we’ve even got out of bed, we’re checking messages, reading headlines and scrolling through social media.
The problem isn’t necessarily the phone itself. It’s the amount of information we introduce into our minds before the day has properly begun.
If you can, leave your phone alone for the first 20 or 30 minutes. Open the curtains instead. Make a cup of tea. Listen to the radio. Sit somewhere comfortable and simply wake up.
It is a remarkably small change, but it can stop the day from beginning with everyone else’s priorities.
Give Breakfast a Little More Time
Breakfast doesn’t need to become an elaborate affair. In fact, slow living is often about appreciating simple things rather than creating more work for yourself.
Toast with good butter. Porridge with fruit. Eggs and a cup of coffee. Whatever you normally enjoy, try eating it at a table rather than at your desk or while walking out of the door.
Notice the taste. Sit down. Give yourself ten minutes in which you aren’t simultaneously replying to messages or making a mental list of everything you need to accomplish.
A meal doesn’t have to be impressive to be enjoyable.
Build in One Small Ritual
Morning rituals can provide a pleasant sense of continuity.
Perhaps you always open the curtains as soon as you get up, water the plants, make a particular type of coffee or spend five minutes reading a few pages of a book.
The ritual doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, the simpler it is, the easier it will be to maintain.
The idea is to create something that belongs to you rather than something dictated by work, appointments or notifications.
Don’t Try to Have a Perfect Morning
The danger with slow living is turning it into another thing to get right.
You don’t need a beautiful kitchen, matching crockery and a freshly baked loaf of sourdough waiting on the table. You don’t need to meditate for 30 minutes while sunlight streams through linen curtains.
Some mornings will be chaotic. You’ll oversleep, burn the toast and discover that you’ve run out of coffee.
That’s life.
A slower morning is not about creating a picture-perfect routine. It is simply about making a little more room between waking up and rushing into the rest of the day.
Start Small
If your mornings are currently hectic, don’t attempt a complete transformation overnight.
Choose one thing. Put your phone down for the first 15 minutes. Sit down for breakfast. Open a window and take a few breaths before getting dressed.
Once you’ve experienced the difference, you may naturally want to make more space.
Sometimes a slower life begins with nothing more complicated than refusing to hurry through the first cup of tea.
Photo by Olivia Anne Snyder.
