Refreshingly simple Stoic morning routines delivered to you daily Monday to Friday
The principles of Stoicism can help you do many things. For example:
- Quell your anger
- Discard your anxiety
- Overcome your fears
- Be a better friend to yourself
- Increase your peace of mind
- Improve your resilience in the face of life’s challenges
But these benefits only come with repeated practice of the lessons that ancient Stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus handed down to us.
Getting through each day’s responsibilities is tough enough, however, without thinking about self-improvement.
It can be difficult to find the time to work on your own growth.
And the wealth of information at your disposal often becomes more of a curse than a gift by over-complicating things and making it difficult to know where to start.
That’s where The Micro Morning Meditations can help.
These done-for-you morning routines will allow you to effortlessly build Stoic principles into your day, improving your character a little at a time, with no planning required on your part.
Why Morning Routines?
I used to get hung up on crafting the perfect morning routine.
Inspired by books like Daily Rituals and podcasters like Tim Ferriss, who asks his high-achieving guests how they kick-start their day, I would plan in detail the sequence of pursuits that would take place immediately after I awoke.
I would proceed to swap a long list of activities in and out periodically and rotate them to try to keep things fresh.
Unsurprisingly, having a packed schedule to cycle through before it was even time to start work for the day meant the routines never stuck.
Now when I find myself going too far down the rabbit hole of productivity and self-optimization, I return to these words by John O’Donohue:
“Part of the difficulty of our times is that we have reduced the magnificent adventure of being a human being to endless, wearisome projects of self-improvement and self-analysis according to the flattest and most boring maps that could be made.
It’d be lovely to hear someone talk about themselves as if they’re standing on a threshold to a new world, & to engage & embrace themselves with the sense of adventure, urgency, danger, & excitement that you would as if you were exploring a completely new kind of territory.”
I love how these words are somehow gentle and energizing at the same time, which is exactly what I want you to get from The Micro Morning Meditations.
These days, I fetishize a lot less about crafting morning routines and trying to squeeze out every last drop of efficiency. I’d rather stand each day, as John O’Donohue puts it, on a threshold to a new world.
I still like to regularly get some things (like exercising and reading) done early, but I now take a gentler approach to the morning activities I do every single day.
That’s because I now believe that to be effective, a morning routine must be sustainable.
In other words, to become habitual, your regimen must be flexible enough that it can be performed regardless of external circumstances like time constraints, unavoidable responsibilities, or travel.
Not everyone wakes up with a blank canvas they can fill with an elaborate and time-consuming program. (Though simply waking up earlier can often provide a chunk of free time you wouldn’t otherwise have had.)
That’s why I created The Micro Morning Meditations.
What exactly are they?
Put simply, they’re Stoic morning routines you can complete in under 10 minutes.
They are composed of exercises whose power lies in their simplicity and that are specific to preparing for the day ahead. They are gentle, yet energizing.
It shouldn’t matter where you are or how many other things you need to get done before the day begins, these routines should always be manageable.
The Difficulty Of Discipline
You may have heard that Stoicism can help you realize the mindset benefits of living a simpler, more considered life that builds your character and brings you joy.
But if you’ve never tried it or are struggling to stick to it, it may seem like a daunting task to implement it as your own personal philosophy of life.
That’s why I designed the format of The Micro Morning Meditations specifically to address the following difficulties:
- “Routines are too restrictive.”
- A little practice will prove that discipline is actually your biggest source of freedom. Consistently good mornings are key to better days.
- “It won’t work for me specifically.”
- Through small steps, philosophy allows you to discover capabilities you didn’t know you had. It allows you to know yourself.
- “It will take too long to see results.”
- Progress begins the instant you make the decision to demand the best for yourself. You’ll feel the benefits of getting a little better each day.
- “I’m too busy to make time for myself.”
- Not only do the meditations take less than 10 minutes to complete, the content will actually help you prioritize what matters in life so you can claim back your time.
- “My family and friends will think my interest in philosophy is strange.”
- There’s no need to make a show of your efforts to improve. The meditations allow you to work on yourself in private so you can put your best self forward in public.
- “Philosophy is too hard for me to understand.”
- Stoicism is a practical, no-fluff philosophy that uses straightforward language to change your way of thinking. There’s no grandstanding or attempts to be abstract here.
- “I’m not disciplined, so I won’t be able to stick with it.”
- These are gentle yet energizing practices that you’ll actually look forward to doing every day.
- “What makes you think Stoicism has all the answers?”
- Stoicism doesn’t have all the answers! But it does help us ask better questions that enable us to come up with the best answers specific to ourselves.
- How are these morning routines better than just watching the news and checking social media when I wake up?
- Seneca’s words may help here: “Whenever you are surrounded by people trying to convince you that you are unhappy, consider not what you hear them say but what you yourself feel. Take counsel with your feelings and question yourself independently, because you know your own affairs better than anyone else does.” The Micro Morning Meditations will ensure you start your days on your own terms, no one else’s.
”If you seek tranquillity, do less,” wrote Marcus Aurelius. “More accurately, do what’s essential…and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better.”
The Micro Morning Meditations are about doing less, better.
So what do you actually get?
The Micro Morning Meditations
First, the only prerequisite for these routines is waking early. (Although you can of course adapt as needed if being up early is impractical for whatever reason.)
If the sound of the alarm clock is a daily difficulty for you, keep this advice from Marcus Aurelius close by:
At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.1
And if you’re underestimating the potential value of your mornings, consider these words from Schopenhauer:
For the morning is the youth of the day, when everything is bright, fresh, and easy of attainment; we feel strong then, and all our faculties are completely at our disposal. Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred.
Schopenhauer, Our Relation to Ourselves
Now that you’re awake, out of bed, and alive to the sacred power of the morning, here’s what you’ll get to ensure you’re ready to stand each day on the threshold to a new world.
From Monday – Friday you’ll receive a daily email delivering a 3-part morning routine that can be completed in under 10 minutes.
The 3 parts are:
1. 🧘 Morning Contemplation
A short audio meditation with accompanying text and summary illustration that will instill your Stoic mindset for the day ahead. The topic of focus will vary from day-to-day to cover the wide range of benefits that can be realized by practicing Stoic principles.
2. 🪧 Morning Reminder
Next, there will be a summary reminder to reinforce the theme of the contemplation that is short enough to put on a post-it or add as an alert on your phone to reference later in the day.
3. ✍️ Morning Journaling
Finally, you’ll have the opportunity to harness the power of Marcus Aurelius’s favorite exercise and briefly journal about the day ahead with a writing prompt specific to the theme of the day.
In summary, each Micro Morning Meditation is your bite-sized blueprint to make every day a good day,
your evergreen Stoic routine to make daily practice a pleasure,
your warming shot of philosophical espresso.
Remember, tiny efforts compound.
A little improvement now leads to a big improvement later—attend to each day and the future takes care of itself.
After all, what’s the alternative? If you don’t start today, you might look back in a year and wish you had.
If you’re ready for people to see a change in you,
If you’re ready to cement your principles and stick to them with confidence,
If you’re ready to welcome each day, ready to keep stretching toward a better you,
then I’d love you to join me on this gentle yet energizing journey.
Just click below to start your new morning routine:
