We are thrilled to have Business & Life Coach Michelle Ryan as a regular contributor to The TASK Times. Michelle works to help Business Owners, Leaders and Entrepreneurs to grow personally and professionally in an emotionally connected and mindful way.

**Good morning Lovely Leaders,**
How did your day begin? Maybe with a couple of snooze buttons slams? Or did a “roll-over”accidentally becoming a ‘scroll-over’ as you stopped your alarm... then found yourself 7 minutes deep in the news or instagram...stepping into everyone else’s world before you have even checked in on your own inner world?
If this sounds familiar... please know that you are not alone...
Perfect morning rituals are a rare thing, so we won’t chat perfection here but we will look at why we should explore bringing them into or back into our lives. With everything thats happening globally and us now entering the darker winter months, it is more important than ever to come back to our centre: this starts from the moment we open our eyes each day. The Holistic Leader is one that sustains themselves: body, mind and soulful energy so that we can then take care of ourselves, our businesses, our relationships and beyond. We cannot do all this from a depleted or stressed state.
After years of operating in fight or flight, both my clients and I are embracing a new way of Holistic Leadership.

Devotion > Discipline

Flow > Force

Heal > Hustle

Ground > Grind

Feel > Fight

Receive > Achieve

Attract > Chase

Be > Do

**We create Rituals over Rules.**
I invite you to explore this idea now too. It’s a subtle shift but the feminine energy will be gently noticed as we stop pushing ourselves through our days with unrealistic expectations and little inner reserves.
**Why do we need morning rituals anyway?**
Well, we don’t. We can ignore all of this, get through our days and be grand: for a while. But as we all know, life and business can be unpredictable. We can’t control everything, but we can support ourselves to navigate it all from a grounded, joyful place. We deserve that much as business leaders. Long term sustainable energy, without the burnout.
**Starting our days with Intention.**
When we start our days with intention, we feel prepared, reduce our stress and increase our chances of working from a flow state instead of force.

How does your Favourite Self wake up and spend their mornings?

Take a moment to think about this.

I spent years in London thinking about work before I had even brushed my teeth. Eyes open- brain on. Checking emails first thing and making notes on my phone of my never-ending tasks. NOT my Favourite Self. God love her, I gave her very little support to climb those mountains. Now that I have my own business and it’s the very LAST thing I think about each morning, my business only gets attention AFTER I have explored how I am in body, in mind and in soul.

Holistic Morning Rituals begin the night before.

Avoid decision fatigue each day. It’s so much easier to honour our pre-planned process than to create one from scratch each morning. When we plan our weeks and mornings each Sunday evening, we set our intentions and create our commitments to ourselves.

Remember, Devotion > Discipline. Create rituals that are based on loving yourself. Ask, how would I treat my body, my mind and my soul If I just adored them? Tune in and then move from this place.

Create a morning routine that inspires and motivates you as opposed to something that activates your “Sunday Fear” like the Glenroe theme tune. Your rituals, your way. You get to love the week you design, the life you design and the business you design. Please always remember this.

**Be realistic.**
Don’t make promises you have no interest in keeping.
The 5am Club is not the only path to success. Getting enough sleep is crucial so check in as to what is true for you. (Are you really a night owl or do you just enjoy some “Revenge-Sleep-Procrastination?). Decide on what wake-up time allows you to commit to your Holistic Morning Rituals so as to support your day. This can be anything from 10 mins to 2 hours. Find your own rhythm. If your wake up is normally 8am, try 7.30am and put that 30 mins to intentional use.

**Holistic Morning Rituals that have changed our days...**
Gentle Suggestions ;)
Leaving your phone in another room overnight. Buy an old school alarm and thank me later.
Also, try phone-free for first hour in the morning. See this as deserving a good nights sleep and allowing for a peaceful start to the day.
Getting some sunlight on your eyes as soon as you can when you wake.
Cold water on your face first thing.
Drinking a pint of water before your morning tea/coffee.

Holistic Morning Pick N Mix

Decide how much time you are committing and then choose to create ONE commitment to each pillar. You can always add more as you build on your rituals. Start small.

You decide what forms part of your morning...some suggestions below to get you started...