Do Something for Yourself at The Start of Every Day

You've heard it before. Taking time out for yourself is a necessary component to cope with life's everyday hurdles thrown in your path. Plenty of self-help books and gurus will tell you it's important to begin your day with some of that time. Meditate for 5 minutes every morning; write in a gratitude journal; wake up 1/2 an hour earlier to sit and enjoy the sunrise with a cup of coffee; whatever. Those things are brilliant and they actually really do work--but they're f***ing hard habits to start when you're writhing in the depths of despair and can barely get out of bed to check your email (a note on checking your email: NOT a good way to begin your day. Whether it's professional or personal, being bombarded by other people's requests and chatter does not start one's day off on the right foot. Pretty much never. Don't do it. Resist the iPhone.), let alone get out paper and pen and start writing about all the things for which you're thankful.

For me it began by taking a shower.  My never-ending work week, with multiple requests to have me there at a client's home in the morning had gotten me in such a habit of getting straight out of bed-- sometimes still in my pajamas (only when I'd be driving, of course)-- hair unwashed, sleep in my eyes, no makeup and out the door to start knocking the appointments out so I could be done with it and it would be over. But it is never over. Every day, it's the same thing. Getting up without getting ready to get the work over with apparently doesn't make it go away. It comes back every day. All it accomplishes is making me feel like poo.  

And then, it dawned on me. If my job has gotten so crazy and demanding that I don't even feel I have the time--but more importantly-- the reason to TAKE A SHOWER IN THE MORNING, something is terribly wrong. 

So my small way to make sure my day sucks a little bit less is to make sure I do that. I also know I feel great when I exercise in the morning, or do yoga, make a nice breakfast, or even write (it was in fact a huge motivator for starting this blog), but if I can stick with at least getting myself in that shower every day, it's one more simple step away from killing myself.