NotesLife · 5 min
Life

Morning Practice

A note on the first hour — what to keep, what to drop, and the small decisions that make returning easier tomorrow.

The first hour of the day sets a tone the rest of it tends to follow. A morning practice does not need to be long to do this. It needs to be reliable, which is a different and harder thing.

What to keep, what to drop.

Keep it short enough that you will do it on a bad morning. The practice you can manage when you slept badly and woke late is the real one; the hour-long session you do twice a month is not. Drop the idea that it has to be complete. A few rounds of breath and three or four poses, done every day, beats a full practice done rarely.

Drop the phone until afterwards. The morning is the one hour the day has not yet claimed; handing it to a screen gives it away before you have begun.

And make tomorrow easier tonight. Leave the mat unrolled. Set out what you need. The single biggest decision in a morning practice is unrolling the mat, and you can make most of that decision the night before.