I am a prolific podcast listener and pretty much everyday I learn about some new way of approaching life, diet, health and thinking. Some I try, some stick, many just go into the library of my brain.

Over the last 6+ years of listening to podcasts, I have learned, experimented and become a healthier, happier and more enlightened version of myself. My Fitbit tracker can tell me I get 1.2+ hours more sleep per night than I did 6 years ago and I am within all the benchmarks on that sleep. That change alone is healing my body and mind in significant ways that help me thrive outside of the bedroom. Instead of viewing sleep as a necessary intrusion, it’s now been proven to me that it is absolutely integral to my focus and health.

Often, we just need to try new habits, even reluctantly, until they show us a better way. I know my mornings need to change so, very randomly, I chose today to go an hour without my phone. That blue light can really mess with our circadian rhythms, not to add how easy it is for scrolling to wreck our mood and fresh focus. So, no cell phone for the first hour of wakening!

Today my eyes opened without an alarm at 6:45am. My first thought was to grab my phone and check the time. Alas, I couldn’t grab my phone because part of my ‘sleep better journey’ is I don’t sleep with it beside my bed anymore. I charge my phone in another room so I can’t grab it if I wake in the middle of the night. The reality is, I wear my Fitbit 24/7 so there is no need to use my phone as a clock, it’s just a bad habit.

What should I do for the next hour? Well, there is literally a stack of books beside my bed I haven’t read. I love books and I buy quite a few of them that stay beside my bed until they are read. Well focused reading seems to have left the room. I can no longer last more than a page reading at night before I’m fast asleep. Morning reading could become a great new idea.

On top of the pile is a newly purchased version of Eckhart Tolle’s, ‘A New Earth’. I recently re-purchased this book so I could read it again, I must have given my first copy away. Let this book be the way I wake up during this new experiment.

I opened the brand new pages of the 10 year anniversary version, read Eckhart’s foreward and the first chapter. Impressed, proud of myself. Focused! He talked about the formation of flowers, birds, crystals as he was planting seeds toward my awakening.

Next, I looked out our huge window onto the river. Every morning I am so grateful for this view. It does something to me and today I stopped in my tracks to appreciate the light snow falling slowly, the moody whiteness of the sky just after the golden hour, how the trees are now skeletons where a forest once appeared and the ripples on the river were running against the current. I had to admit I was put into a meditative state just taking it all in. I put my hands in a prayer position and said, “Thank You”.

Then, I grabbed some brand new bee slippers a friend gifted me in the summer, found a fuzzy housecoat and I headed outside to our front walkway where the sun rises. Apparently our circadian rhythms need sun first thing in the morning. No screens, no artificial lighting, just natural sun. I did this with great diligence a couple of years ago, all winter long standing outside for 5 minutes in the early dawn. I’m not sure it reset my clock or focus but it sure was a meditative habit I would be happy to get into again. Why I don’t get motivated to do this in the summer is beyond me!

Outside I watched the squirrels in their frantic endeavour to build nests and climb trees to their new homes. Witnessed 5 Canadian geese fly overhead mysteriously quietly in an unmatched V. These geese are rarely quiet unless they are pooping on your lawn, I wondered what was up? Are they escaping their flock? No sooner did I ponder this then I heard geese in the distance approaching. A line of 10 squacking geese determined to find their leader and make the moving V look more presentable.

All of these thoughts while a light layer of falling wet snow slowly found it’s way to me and the ground. Why do we tend to rush into our days double dosing our bodies with cortisol? Easing into it like this feels pretty darn special.

This first day, Charlie didn’t even get off the bed! He wasn’t wondering where I was or thinking I might feed him early. He might have even thought I was just getting my phone to come back to bed. Nope, not today Charlie, and hopefully not tomorrow!

Outside in my fuzzy housecoat I decided this was worth writing about. No doom scrolling, no emails, no blue light, no Alexa news, not even an educational podcast blaring. My very first day of ignoring my phone had already inspired some new thinking and a great dose of motivation.

I wrote this post then I got dressed and met my Wednesday morning hiking group for my first group hike since returning from Nepal.

Day 1 of no phone for the first hour of my day. I think that was a big win!