The pain of early mornings

I am most definitely a night owl. Trying to get up early in the morning is one of the hardest things for me to do. This is even more of a challenge during the cold winter months when there aren't even little rays of sunlight shining through your curtains to drag you out of slumber. But thankfully it is now coming up to Spring and the mornings are not as harsh as they have been of late. But like most people I still find early starts a challenge. However I have now decided this needs to change, and I need to find a way to make crawling out a bed a pleasure rather than a curse.

I recently read an entry on a blog called ZenHabits, which is about 'finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives'. This particular blog entry talks about exactly the same problems that I and many others face - how to make early mornings a blessing not a chore.

So in light of this article, here are some of the ways in which I will be changing my early morning wake-up ritual in order to sample the life of the early bird:


1. Keep your alarm clock well out of reach of your bed

In doing so, you will have to get out of bed to turn the alarm off, and by that point you'll already be up - just don't get back in bed!


2. Go to bed earlier than normal

Going to bed just 15 minutes earlier than normal may not make that much difference at first, however if continually practiced, those late nights will slowly turn into early ones, making the early morning hours seem a
lot more bareable!


3. Have a good reason to get up early.

Having a reason to get up will give you more inclination to follow through with waking up and starting the day earlier. Making this reason like an added reward might even make the morning more appealing!


4. Do not rationalise!

Don't give yourself time to rationalise why it will be ok to go back to sleep for just 5 more minutes - theyll soon turn into an hour!


These are the 4 things that I am going to be doing to make my mornings easier, but there are many other pointers on ZenHabits that I will definitely be incorporating into my daily routine in future, and hopefully I will be far more appreciative of the time I have.

Link to the ZenHabits blog entry:

10 Benefits of rising early and how to do it!

Image: Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Blogs, Websites and more!

It's been a while since I set this blog up, and until now I haven't had any real use for it. It was intended for me to use as a basis to put my art work out on to the Internet, and that still is a plan for the future, but at the time I had no idea how to start the process of doing this.

Since then I have focused my art work on creating pieces that portray marine life using a variety of mediums, and I intend to use this blog partly as a journal for myself, but also where I can update you on the progress of any pieces I am working on, and integrate the blog with my website (which is currently still a work in progress) and other social media platforms.

It's going to take a while to get everything set up as I would like, but fingers crossed I can work everything out in the next few weeks.