Clear Mornings
Over the last month I kept a new rule in my life. No cellphone access till 8am.
tldr; It been amazing.
This experiment was at first part of my weekly challenges. I would pick up one rule or task for myself and the challenge was to do it every day for the next week. The challenge would start on a Monday and end of a Sunday. Clean and simple. The idea was I would find something that would stick and have a positive change in my life.
One of those were "clear mornings". The idea was simple, wake up whenever you want to do whatever you want to just don't use your cellphone until 8am. Why 8am you ask? Over the last year, I've consistently been waking up at 6:30 - 7am. My day job starts from a meeting that I take from home at 8:30am. The 8am time becomes this sweet spot that forces me to be away from my phone until I almost have to start working.
Before, I used to just get up and start scrolling. Yes, I've had days, just like all of us, where I was scrolling with half an eye open and still in bed. Trying to control that eventually the routine was to wake up and start playing Up-first, a 10 min news podcast. It felt productive to the least. But soon I realized my brain was seemingly jolted awake every day. As if I was almost electrocuting my thoughts and replacing them with random internet noise.
Last month or so, as I've kept up with this habit I've seen an arc. At first my brain really didn't like it. To the point that I was just trying to stay in bed till 8am just so I could use the phone as soon as I woke up. The logical me didn't mind this, cause I was anyways sleeping barely 6 hours when I woke up at 6:30am.
Eventually I moved from forcing myself to sleep though the task to embracing it. I tried to replace it with something else. How about if I go for a walk in the morning hour? I could be fit as well. I tried that and it seemingly didn't scale? Or maybe it did? I'm still figuring this part out. But one of the first days of this go-for-a-walk plan, I ended up going to a local coffee shop, no phones, ordered my usual black cup and just sat there. Looking at everything around me thinking of thoughts that seemed and random at the time. And it felt so good. It just felt amazing just me and the coffee. I greeted a few people 'good-morning', embraced the morning sun and went home feeling amazing. I didn't keep doing this since I like to make my own cup in the morning, it is part of my ritual and that would be too much to trade for.
But all this made me realize the power of silence in the morning. Lately, I just sit with my cup of coffee and think and stare outside. Just as simple as that. It feels almost meditative. Occasionally, I follow it up with some light writing like this or going to the gym for half an hour or so. I don't want to bound my mornings with the walls of discipline. I want the morning to be my space where I can bathe in the sunlight of thought. Free from the mind numbing billion dollar scrolls.
I hope to keep up with the "clear mornings" for the rest of the year and maybe more. If not, I've enjoyed every ounce of it right now.