Hi everybody!
First of all, thanks to Leo for giving us the opportunity to interact trough this forum!
I have my morning ritual written down in the form of a checklist on my smartphone. I try to review and update this morning-ritual checklist every time I get new ideas. So it may be a ever-changing ritual or maybe I will stop changing it at some point.
My daily routine list looks like this:
1. Waking-up. Before getting out of bed, when I am still sleepy-dreamy state, I try to think of how I love life just the way it is or some other positive thing that I want. (I don't always get to do this step because sometimes I just get out of the bed immediately) - If I remember correct, I think that it is Eben Pagan, who said that in this state of sleepiness you get your message straight to your subconscious mind and so you get the best results.
2.Taking a 10-15 minute shower and brushing my teeth . During this 10 minute shower I try to become present in the moment- It is a kind of a mindfulness exercise. I hold a warm smile on my face while trying to get in touch with all the sensations that I feel: the sound of the water, the light, the warmth of the water,the movement of the water on my body, the smell of the shampoo etc. Also, before getting this step done, I prepare for the next step by mentally saying to myself that I will be having a deep meditation in the next 20 minutes.
3. 20 minutes Isha Kriya guided meditation by Shadguru. I have downloaded this youtube guided-meditation practice into my smartphone and I listen to it as a I meditate.
4. I take all my supplements with a full glass of water, I prepare a fruits shake which I will be consuming on my way to work.
5. I do 20 minutes of visualizing. Here, depending on what I want to change in my life, I visualize myself in different situations in which I am acting the way I want myself to. I visualize myself in control of every possible situation. For example, before I had a substantially salary-raise negotiation with my boss, I prepared by visualizing myself being in control of my emotions and thoughts as I convince him that I deserve the raise (I started doing visualization with 2-3 weeks before the negotiation takes place). This technique has made a big change in my life and it still helps me a lot. For better understanding on this topic, I recommend you read "The new psycho-cybernetics" book by dr. Maxwell Maltz.
6. 10 minutes of mentally going trough all the things that I did the day before. For example, I try to remember what I discussed with people that I have interacted the day before, what I have done at work or with my other projects etc. This exercise helps me very much with my memory and also for really keeping in touch and have a clear vision over all the aspects of my life ( friends, projects, work) and it further helps me with the next step.
7. Updating an prioritizing my to-do list for the upcoming day. I have an app on my smartphone/computer in which a write throughout the day all the tasks that I need to do. For example if today I receive an invitation for a birthday party next Friday, I would pull out my phone and add into my Wednesday check-list a new line "buy birthday present for x-friend" and on Friday "birthday party x-friend". Then, the next morning, I would probably move the buying activity to another day according to my already scheduled activities.
8. 5-10 minutes Incantations. Till now, I have tried Incantations such as: " I love life" or " I love being in control of myself"
I followed this routine for two month and the results were outstanding. I have never been in touch with life the way I was during those two months. I felt that I am on top of the world. Then I went trough some radical changes in my life and I think that threw me out of balance and I kind of dropped this rigorous routine in the last month. I was doing only some of the steps in my routine. I kind of lost that high-conscious state but kept myself quite productive. Now I am working to fully get back on track with this routine.
It is a very powerful routine, I really got big results out of it. I would like some feedback on my routine, what do you self-actualizers think about this routine? How would you enhance it?