“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin

Isn’t that a great quote?

I only truly understood what rising early meant after I had my son Jasper. He’s up everyday at 5am and makes sure everyone in the house is up too. At first I was so tired, I couldn’t believe how early I was waking up everyday, even on the weekends. 

It got some getting used to but instead of resisting the changes, I decided to work my schedule around it. I now go to bed early too. I’m often in bed by 8pm since I need 8-9 hours of sleep. There are no more late dinners, or going out during the week and I actually feel great this way.

Waking up and seeing the sunrise brings me so much energy. Instead of getting caught up in the wild world out there by checking my newsfeed first thing in the morning, I pick up my phone and write my Morning Pages while my 13 month-old son Jasper is walking around the room looking for something to do.

We then go to the living room, my husband makes us all lemon water and I put some kid friendly music that speaks about gratitude, glorious days, love and all that is uplifting and beautiful. There is a song called “Dance with the Sun” that I like to play everyday. The song is lovely and it teaches kids how to do sun salutations. I take the opportunity to do the sun salutations myself and when my husband is around, I ask him to do them too while our little boy watches us. We all dance for a bit. Jasper is now learning his own groove. It’s wonderful to see it all unfolding. 

The beauty about rituals, or healthy routines, is that they can go with you wherever you are. They keep you grounded through the changes of life. I never thought I would be the one signing up to the 5am club but I didn’t get to pick that, our son did.  

Motherhood is full of wonderful surprises and more often than not, these surprises aren’t linear or at first they aren’t welcoming. There are transformations happening on many levels. Self-agency becomes a must have, instead of a nice to have. I could wake up complaining about how tired I am. I could wake up and choose not to do uplifting activities. I could go to bed late or choose to drink alcohol during the week. There are endless habitual thoughts or traps I could fall into, and sometimes I do. 

I’ve done enough mind-body work to understand that there are only two ways of living life, one is being on the constructive lane and the other one on the non-constructive one. Being constructive means making good choices, one after the other. By choice, I also mean the choice of thoughts, as that dictates everything else.  

Just like anyone else, I sometimes find myself on the non-constructive lane. I then pause and notice what’s going on. I do what I have to do to go back to being constructive. Sometimes that means taking a long shower, making a smoothie, meditating or simple looking at myself in the mirror and smiling. 

I believe in all you, mamas. If you think you aren’t in control of your thoughts and feelings, think again because you are. See what life throws at you as opportunities for growth and transformation. I wouldn’t be writing this if I wasn’t waking up everyday at 5am and making sure my day started well and beautiful. It’s a deliberate choice. We have the power to create our own reality at every waking moment. 

Today is a wonderful day to practice self-agency. As you go about your day, pause and be curious about what’s happening in your mind and in your emotions. Don’t judge yourself, just observe. If you catch yourself in the non-constructive lane, pause and realize you are the driver and you can choose which lane you want to be on. 

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Edited by: Lily Zara