Sunday, January 15, 2012

Owl to Lark in 30 days

(It's been a long time.  Several reasons are compelling me to start writing again.  Mostly it's because there are many new things in my life and I have enough mental space to feel like sharing.  I'm happy.  I'm inspired by life and by others.  It's also because my friend Leanne mentioned it.  And I like her gentle prodding and curiosity about why I stopped writing.)

For reasons I will not share here, I've decided to refashion myself into a morning person.  I have not been a morning person since my undergrad days when I had 8:30 classes.  At that time I'd wake up at 5:30 and head to the gym, come back, groom, go to the cafeteria, and then head to class.  I guess in some ways things haven't changed.  I still need 3 hours to get ready in the morning.  But now I squeeze in meditation too.  I like a slow introverted start.

So I entered into a 30-day challenge that I call Owl to Lark.  Today was day 7.  I was worried about today because it's Sunday and unlike yesterday I didn't have an 8am meeting.  There was nothing to compel me to get up at 6.  But I did.  Actually the getting up part hasn't been too hard.  It's the falling asleep that's not happening as smoothly as I'd like.  I have lights out at 10:30 but end up tossing and turning until 11:30 or later.  It's ok on the weekend when I can take a 20-30 minute nap to catch up but during the week, I end up quite tired by the end of the day...but still can't fall asleep!  Some have suggested reading Derrida ("...and if you don't fall asleep, you learn something!")  Maybe. I'll try 10 minute meditation and see if that changes anything.

A song for this post.
At Night by Jonathan Richman on Grooveshark

2 comments:

  1. I am trying to be a lark too, but the lure of the dark is hard to resist. Ironically, the only time I have heard an owl hooting was at 5:30 in the morning. Go figure!

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    1. It turns out, Rosylady, that your DH was right when he said the trick to waking up earlier is to get up when your alarm goes off. Though it still makes laugh when I think about the way you described him saying it. But yes, I concur with his assessment. The trick is to not rationalize. If you feel yourself starting to think about getting up, stop, and just do it. Otherwise, the rabbit hole will suck you in and pretty soon you're sure you need another half hour of sleep before the conditions are perfect. I've discovered that the conditions are never perfect which is to say that they are always perfect ;)

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