NOTE: Today’s blog is a bit interactive.
Help!
One of my best girl friends told me a few months ago that I’m my “best” when I’m regularly doing something creative: blogging, music, theater. Anything, as long as it’s habitual.
And I find now that I’ve begun blogging again on the regular since my return from summer break, I have to agree. I tend to see the world differently when I know I’ll be commenting on and making connections to my own daily experience; I see with writer’s eyes. And I love it. It’s fun to think in a different manner, to connect to my daily ins and outs with a more meta-view.
But. I wake up at 4:30 in the morning to accomplish this.
I wake up, journal for 20-30 minutes, meditate for 20-30 minutes, then blog for 30-40 minutes, including the time to proofread and post (there’s not much copyediting; you get it raw, folks!).
So, pad with a few minutes for a coffee refill or bathroom break, and I’ve got close to 2 hours of “morning practice” without having eaten breakfast or gotten ready for the day.
To streamline those latter “get out of the house” bits, I already am in the habit of hard-boiling eggs for the week and nuking 2 pieces of bread to take on the road, and washing my hair every few days instead of daily. I generally try to pack my lunch the night before (like all grown-ups helping their little ones get ready for school since time immemorial!).
So — let’s just say that getting ready take 30 minutes, with a shower. That’s 2 to 2.5 hours just to get in the car.
My commute is such that the later I leave, even by one or two minutes, it can add 10 minutes to my commute, aggregating all the time. I am generally aiming to leave my house between 6 and 6:30, but the earlier the best. When I leave then, I can arrive at work around 715, which is still not optimal (I’d love to be there at 7am to prep and settle in for my work day in relative peace, which starts at 7:45am).
So, my question to you all is: Is there something I’m not seeing?
Frankly, waking up at 4:30 in the morning is absolutely insane to me. It also makes it imperative that I’m at lights out by 9pm the latest.
I’m opening this up because I feel I’ve tried all the permutations I can imagine (including looking at living closer to my work; though rents are much higher there, I’m holding it as an option). I’ve tried meditating and/or blogging at night, but that habit ends up badly for me because I like/feel I need the morning space to unpack my brain for the day so I’m not a d*ck. When I blog in the evening, I also tend to push my bedtime out farther, since the evenings are less predictable, time-wise. And when I meditate at night, it kind of feels like eating my appetizer after the meal, like it’s a little late to get the day’s benefit from it.
So, friends, I need more input, different angles. Different Angels.
What would you do?
(P.S. I was out at a school retreat yesterday, so we were blogless.)
Owning Voice 