The Miracle Morning

I'd heard about The Miracle Morning but never actually knew what it was, other than a hashtag I saw frequently. I finally decided to look into it, and was pleasantly surprised with what I found.

How do you do it?

There are 6 components of the Miracle Morning, which Hal (that's what I call him because we're friends) refers to as life S.A.V.E.R.S. Here's a quick breakdown of each component:

Silence - Pretty self-explanatory, no? It's got to be quiet.

Affirmations - Positive statements that you say out loud (one of my favs is "My family and I live in abundance."
Visualization - Actually picturing your goals, either through a vision board or shutting your eyes and daydreaming.
Exercise - Any type of movement for your body
Reading - This should be a personal development book, something enriching like a biography, a self-help book, or your version of the Bible.
Scribe - This one made me laugh because "scribe" is a synonym for "write," but Hal said he needed a word that started with an S so he turned to the thesaurus. This can take the form of journaling, writing out what you're grateful for,  or writing out your affirmations. It's meant to help you connect with and reflect on everything you did during your Miracle Morning routine. 

So, you set your alarm to wake up an hour before you normally would, whatever time that is for you (an hour and 15 minutes if you're a coffee-lover and don't want your brewing time to cut into your personal development time). The idea is to sit in silence and spend a little bit of time doing each of the 5 things in any order that flows naturally for you.

My personal experience

I was doing doing the Miracle Morning long before I read the book and even before I knew that this routine had a name. When I joined Beachbody in 2016, personal development was one of the first things that the coaches I met recommended. I had never, ever read a self-help-y book before, but I was determined to make a major lifestyle change so I bought You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero (mostly for the F-bombs) and have been hooked ever since.

Here are some things I've learned and that you should know before you start your own version of the Miracle Morning:

You can complete the steps in whatever order feels natural to you

The Silence part is absolutely necessary if you're going to get the most out of this time but other than that, you can read first, then exercise and journal, or you can journal and say your affirmations and then exercise last. Do whatever works for you, because personal development is exactly that: personal. I do them in this order: Read, Visualize, Affirmations, Scribe, Exercise.

Spend as much time as you need on each step

My workouts are a minimum of 30  minutes long, so that leaves about 5-10 minutes for affirmations and visualization, 10-15 minutes for reading and journaling, and then 30 minutes for exercise. For me, the reading and exercising are the most important components, so there are mornings when the other steps are a minute long, if that. The hour doesn't have to be divided evenly, and it also doesn't have to be a full hour. If you're pressed for time, you can shorten it, and if you need extra love on some days, you can stretch it out. 

Saying affirmations will make you feel ridiculous...at first 

I felt very, very silly speaking out loud in the beginning. In fact, the entire idea of affirmations seemed ridiculous to me, until I read Girl Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis and she said something that made so much sense: "your affirmations are either working for you or against you, depending on how you use them." Basically, whatever you think or say out loud about yourself is an affirmation. You think it and say it enough and it will become second nature. We use affirmations everyday, we just don't always use them intentionally. This part of the Miracle Morning is just meant to make it a more intentional habit, and it will become second nature eventually!

Does it work?

The short answer is, absolutely! The lengthier, more gag-inducing answer is that it will only work if you want it to. You can't just go through the motions and expect actual miracles. You have to wake up early consistently, say your affirmations with conviction, envision every detail of the life you want for yourself, and have a mindset of success. If you aren't going to do that, well then, no, it doesn't work. 

If you knew me 6 years ago, you would be SHOCKED at how much I have changed. The old me would roll her eyes at the me of today...but she was also unhealthy in so many ways, and projecting her own insecurities onto everyone who staked a claim on fulfillment and happiness. I wouldn't say that just The Miracle Morning changed my life, but the willingness to try new things and the open-mindedness to do them with conviction definitely did.