I distinctly remember my first experience of intentionally getting out of bed early. It was at the age of 9 when we were living in an apartment on the north side of Sydney. I walked up a steep hill for about 10 minutes each morning to get to the local primary school I attended. I usually did this at about 8.30am after I'd waved goodbye to my Mum when she boarded the train (I could see the platform from our apartment window); and had a quick dance around to my Roxette tape in the living room - as I hope every 9 year old girl in the 90's would have.
But one morning I woke up early and decided instead of going back to sleep until a reasonable hour I would get up before the sun had risen. I remember hiding out in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal as quietly as I could so that nobody else woke up and thinking to myself. This is amazing. I am going to have so much extra time for activities! I felt like in rising early I'd discovered some sort of magical secret to life; and that I'd be forever better off for it. I made a vow to myself to make it a habit.
The next day I'm reasonably sure I had to be dragged out of bed well after sunrise, still half asleep. The habit never stuck.
Now that I'm older (and one would hope, wiser) I still believe in the magic of being an early riser; but understand that to gain hours in the morning you have to sacrifice some for extra sleep at night. I have spent the last week working to reverse an ingrained habit of staying up too late and missing out on that morning magic.
It has worked.
I'm typing this blog on a Saturday morning at 8am half an hour before I have to leave for work for the day. I have already completed a yoga routine, prepared three healthy meals as well as breakfast, worked on my chemistry assignment and written this blog.
Now I just need to find my Roxette tape so I can really make the best use of this extra activity time!
I loved that CD too!
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