The Power of the Morning

Morning choose or morning blues

I want to share an experience I had this morning. I checked my phone when I was still in my bedroom, and was reading it when I went into the kitchen to get coffee. Several minutes later I was sitting in my living room and started to feel a bit depressed. I felt myself begin to spiral down and I was thinking ugh, the day ahead looks dreary.

And then it hit me. I never start my day like that. I normally go right into my living room and pick up the copy of A Course in Miracles that sits on my coffee table. I go directly to the workbook and do my Workbook lesson for the day.

But I had not done that this morning, and experienced a startling demonstration of how it assaults the nervous system to let social media rather than spiritual inspiration determine the beginning of your day. It was such a dramatic example that I feel moved to share it.

I don’t think we can overestimate the emotional consequences of allowing ourselves to get sucked into social media so much that we lose focus on what matters most. It’s an addiction and we know it’s an addiction, but we need to start acting like we know what that can do to our lives. I’m usually happy in the mornings, and today there was a reason why I wasn’t.

In A Course in Miracles it says that five minutes spent with the Holy Spirit in the morning will guarantee He is in charge of our thought forms throughout the day. Whatever your meditation or mindfulness practice, I can’t stress highly enough the power of the morning. That’s when our mind is open to new impressions; I was reminded very dramatically this morning that what I download into my consciousness at the beginning of the day radically affects my emotional state.

So don’t just meditate. Meditate first thing in the morning. It makes a tremendous difference not just in how the day gets started but in how the day unfolds. It can seem so easy to waste an hour scrolling through Instagram, and so hard to give five minutes to God. We’ve got to address that in ourselves if we really want happy lives.

Here’s to taking such things more seriously. And to happiness! Amen 💖

(Also, for those of you interested in downloading my reading of the Workbook of A Course in Miracles lessons into your inbox each morning, they’re available at Mornings with Marianne at Marianne.com)