Good Morning Shelly Early Morning Personal Development Routine

(VERY detailed (my middle name) version) Main Resources: • The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod • The Latter-day Morning by Mark Bacera I am not an expert at any of this. But I have learned a lot over the past few years and experimented with that knowledge. I have found success applying this morning routine to my daily life for the past 2 years. The more effort I put into doing ALL of the elements of this routine, the more I get out of it. Why Mornings? “If you are to be successful... you will need to be inspired. You will need to receive revelation. I will give you one piece of advice: Go to bed early and get up early. If you do, your body and mind will become rested and then in the quiet of those early morning hours, you will receive more flashes of inspiration and insight than at any other time of the day.” (Harold B. Lee) “Cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated” (D&C 88:124; emphasis added). Invigorate means “to fill with life and energy.” “To those who feel defeated and downtrodden, look to the early hours of the day for your rescue.” (Russell M. Nelson) A couple of things that I have learned from my Life Coach, Jody Moore: • Cognitive Dissonance:

◦ “Cognitive dissonance means that our brains want to see our behaviors line up with what we believe is right or true or good. If our behaviors don't line up with our beliefs, then we are going to experience cognitive dissonance, and that is going to be uncomfortable. So human nature is that we will either change our behaviors, or we will change our beliefs until the two align.” (Automated Blessings from God Podcast)

▪ The elements of this morning routine helps us to spend more time strengthening our beliefs, and the more we reinforce those beliefs in our minds and hearts, the more our behaviors and our beliefs align.

• CTFAR Model (Bold New Mom: Be Bold Membership)

◦ Circumstances trigger Thoughts which create Feelings which create Actions which create Results ▪ The elements of this morning routine helps us to strengthen and reinforce positive/productive thoughts,

and to change negative/unproductive thoughts Change and growth takes time. We are just striving to be better than yesterday. Wake Up Formula 1. Don't hit the snooze button. Get up when your alarm goes off. 2. Take a few deep breaths. 3. Clean yourself up (wash your hands, splash some water on your face, brush your teeth, etc.) 4. Drink a big glass of water. You are breaking your fast and hydrating the cells in your body. 5. Go outside. Get some fresh air. Offer a prayer of gratitude for a new day. 6. Do a few light stretches, jumping jacks, etc. Just get your body warmed up and your blood flowing. Latter-day Morning Routine order: Miracle Morning Routine: 1. Prayer S: Silence 2. Meditation A: Affirmation 3. Journaling V: Visualization

4. Affirmation E: Exercise 5. Visualization R: Reading 6. Scripture Study S: Scribing 7. Success Study 8. Exercise Silence: • Prayer

◦ Resources ▪ Praying out loud https://www.tofw.com/blogs/the-surprising-truth-about-praying-out-loud ▪ Automated Blessings from God (or Love and Hate) Podcasts (Bold New Mom)

◦ Ask for the Spirit to be present and for the Holy Ghost to guide you in your morning routine, asking Him to bless you with inspiration, enlightenment, and alignment with His will.

• Meditation ◦ Resources

▪ Calm App • This app is great for everyone, especially for beginners. There are so many different meditations

to choose from, ranging from 1-30 minutes in length. The app even keeps track of your daily streak (and if you do a meditation that is outside of the app, you can add that in so it's counted as part of your daily streak.)

▪ Christ-Centered Meditation (Book and Mormon Channel episodes) ◦ Teaches:

▪ compassion (if you get off track or distracted, just return to the breath) ▪ focus ▪ detachment from our thoughts. Observe your thoughts like clouds passing by. You are not my thoughts

or emotions. Rather, you are the eternal, calm, intelligent Center that wisely, dispassionately observes those ever morphing thoughts and emotions.” (Pam Blackwell)

▪ Impermanence / Change / “this too shall pass” (Things come and go, ebb and flow, ride the wave, like the breath)

▪ connect with yourself / body / mind / spirit ▪ become more mindful so that you can act (consciously respond) instead of being acted upon (react) ▪ will sometimes be the space where you receive answers to prayer / inspiration because you are quiet and

your mind is clear Affirmations

• Resources o 5 Minute Journal

§ Great way to record gratitude, be intentional about creating your day (in the morning), and then (at night) recording what went well during your day and what you could have done better.

o Why Affirmations have Failed You and 4 Steps to Change That ( https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246869)

o Recorder App • Affirmations can help you to practice new thoughts over and over again and make new neuro pathways in your

brain, so that you can then change your results. • Affirmations can help remind you of who you REALLY are • Patriarchal blessing affirmations (I took my Patriarchal blessing, and put the statements into affirmation format.

i.e. “You are a daughter of God”, I would change to “I am a daughter of God.” “You have been blessed with choice qualities of mind and body” I would change to “I have been blessed with choice qualities of mind and body.” I then recorded myself saying these affirmations from my Patriarchal Blessing and then I try to listen to this recording during my morning routine (not always every morning, but as often as I want to). Listening to this, especially in my own voice, is really special. It helps me to see myself the way that God sees me. It helps me to see who I REALLY am deep inside (even if I don't always act in accordance with those qualities), and it also gives me so much excitement to see who I am going to be someday (as long as I do my part to strengthen those qualities within me). It is also a reminder of the things that I should be working on in my own personal life.

• We learn from the scriptures about the power of words and of thinking.

o “Sometimes all that is needed to change a life is a change in vocabulary. If the right words are used, perspective changes, and that is enough to create a small miracle.” “A great example of this was how the Prophet Joseph Smith could change things through the use of words, as described by William E. Berrett: “Characteristic of the Prophet, he renamed [the mosquito-infested swamp] to meet his desires. Not what it was, but what, with the faith and work of man, the region might become – 'Nauvoo, the City Beautiful.'” “With just one word, people changed their thoughts about the land. It wasn't disgusting anymore; it was something beautiful that just hadn't reached its maturity. If you have been seeing your life as a swamp, yielding no fruit, then it is time to change your perspective. You can do this by changing the words you use to describe yourself and your life. The use of affirmations will help you make this change, and day after day, you will see the power of words more fully in your life.” (LDM)

• Sometimes we use affirmations just to change a thought from negative to positive (or at least to less negative or neutral)

• Sometimes we use affirmations to help with changing our weaknesses into strengths, in this case, be specific, write about how you will do that. For example “I will strengthen my faith... by reading my scriptures everyday.”

• I used the following affirmation when I was working through my driving fears/anxiety. If you are interested, you can read the full story about this fear of mine here (http://lo-dawn.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gift-of-dawn.html).

o Driving Affirmation: I am committed to becoming a courageous and confident driver by the end of 2015 so that I can take myself, my kids, and others where we need and want to go. To guarantee that I become a confident driver, I am committed to getting in the car and driving somewhere at least 3 times a week. I will keep moving forward even if it means taking baby steps. I will crawl, then walk, then run, then fly. Whatever I do, I will not allow myself to stop moving forward. What I want: -be able to feel comfortable driving anywhere -be able to feel peaceful before/during driving Why do I want it? -I want to be able to go shopping on my own -I want to take my kids around to see the things around us -I want to be able to serve others -I want to take a load off of Jershon -I want to be able to feel confident and comfortable driving if there was an emergency -I want to conquer my fear and find more faith and testimony through that process What goodness will it bring to my life? -more peace -more trust in Heavenly Father -more experience with the atonement -more adventure for me and the kids -more flexibility to go where I want, when I want to How will I feel when it happens? -accomplished -peaceful -joyful -free -strong

• Don't confuse affirmation with action. Jim Rohn said “affirmation without discipline is the beginning of

delusion.” (LDM) • Read daily (or multiple times a day) • Read it out loud or record it and listen to it

Visualization • “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18) • “Visualization is using your imagination, seeing in your mind's eye the things that you want most in your life. …

When you visualize, you give life to your goals, not just by giving them shape on paper like affirmations, but you are also able to clearly see your goals being accomplished and see the end result.” (LDM)

• Visualization is the process of imagining exactly what you want to achieve or attain, and then mentally rehearsing what you'll need to do to achieve or attain it. (TMM)

• Directly after reading your affirmations – where you took the time to articulate and focus on your goals and who you need to be to take your life to the next level – is the prime time to visualize yourself living in alignment with your affirmations. (TMM)

• The greatest gift we can give to the people we love is to live to our full potential. What does that look like for you? What do you really want? Forget about logic, limits, and being practical. If you could have anything you wanted, do anything you wanted, and be anything you wanted – what would you have? What would you do? What would you be? (TMM)

• When you visualize daily, you align your thoughts and feelings with your vision. This makes it easier to maintain the motivation you need to continue taking the necessary actions. Visualization can be a powerful aid to overcoming self-limiting habits such as procrastination, and to taking the actions necessary to achieve your goals. (TMM)

• Think of a habit or reaction that you would like to change. Visualize the situation and how you would like to act and respond. Change the tone of your voice, change your expression, change your thinking – change it until you are satisfied. Play this new scene through in your mind a few times to practice. (LDM)

• Remember that nothing changes without action. • When I was working through my driving fears, I would read my driving affirmation and then I would do a guided

visualization (just found it online) and I would visualize myself driving and being confident and courageous.

Exercise • When you exercise for even a few minutes every morning, it significantly boosts your energy, enhances your

health, improves self-confidence, and emotional well-being, and enables you to think better and concentrate longer. (TMM)

• Aim to become stronger and healthier than you were yesterday • Anything is better than nothing • Exercise (and eat well) because you love your body and want to take care of it and strengthen it, not because you

hate it and just want it to change. • This is the area that I need to work on the most, personally. I am not an expert when it comes to exercise. I tend

to get stuck in the “I don't know what the perfect exercise routine is, so I'm just paralyzed and don't do any (official exercise that is, I do move around through the day.)” I feel like there are so many options and opinions out there and I've always felt like my ideal form of exercise (milder, slower paced, etc.) wasn't “good enough” so it doesn't count. But I've been feeling recently that I shouldn't let this keep me from exercising. It doesn't have to be perfect. I don't have to sweat like crazy every time, or be worn out and exhausted by the end every time. Anything is better than nothing.

• Exercise is an important part of the morning routine, but don't feel like you have to fit all of your day's exercising into this routine. If you're like me, trying to fit 30+ minutes of exercise into the morning routine would just make you not want to exercise at all...because then you have hardly any time left to spend on the other elements of the routine. You can do some exercise during the morning routine, and then more later at a different time of day as well. Personally, I am striving to do 10-15 minutes during the routine and then more (going on a walk, riding my bike, doing a yoga video with my kids, etc.) at a different time of the day as well.

Reading • Scripture Study

o Resources § Scripture Journals by The Red Headed Hostess § Automated Blessings from God Podcast (Bold New Mom)

o “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior...that is why we stress so forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel.” (Boyd K. Packer)

o “Scriptures can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope, and a restoration of confidence in one's ability

to overcome the challenges of life. They have potent power to heal emotional challenges when there is faith in the Savior. They can accelerate physical healing.” (Richard G. Scott)

• Success Study o Resources (my own personal favorites at the moment)

§ Wife for Life: Your Power to Succeed in Marriage by Ramona Zabriskie • I love this book. It is so inspiring and empowering and I have learned so much about how to

be a better wife and how to create a grand marriage. I love this books so much that I am taking a class (Wife for Life University) from the author, Ramona. I'm currently taking the class for the second time (10 weeks long, live weekly classes with a sisterhood of other women, and Ramona) of the class. I would HIGHLY recommend both the book and the class. :)

§ Bold New Mom (boldnewmom.com) • Jody Moore is a life coach. I love her podcasts and I am also enrolled in her Be Bold

Membership. I have been learning so much from Jody about the power of our thoughts and I love the community of women in that are with me in the membership.

o “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning even by study and also by faith.” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:7)

o “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and prayer to the soul. We become the books we read.” (Matthew Kelly)

o “Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them.” (Russell M. Nelson)

o Whether you'd like to transform your relationships, increase your self-confidence, improve your communication or persuasion skills, learn how to become wealthy, or improve any area of your life, you'll find a plethora of books. (TMM)

o Evaluate your life to see which areas need the most growth and improvement. Is there a place that's lacking for you? If so, then that's what you should be studying. (LDM)

o Re-read good personal development books. Achieving mastery in any area requires repetition – being exposed to certain ideas, strategies, or techniques over and over again, until they become engrained in your subconscious mind. (TMM)

Scribing • Journaling

o Resources § The 5 Minute Journal § JRNL.com

• I have been keeping my journal online for 7 years now, through this company/website. I do love a handwritten journal, but I just find that I don’t write as often or as much if I write by hand vs. typing. I can type a lot faster than I write. Also, JRNL.com will print your journals into books, if you want, and its so easy.

§ JRNL App • The JRNL app makes it so easy for me to journal wherever I am, whenever I want. I like

to journal when I’m nursing my baby, or when I’m waiting to pick up my son from school, or any other time that I have a thought that I want to write down.

§ Scripture Journals from The Red Headed Hostess o Gratitude Journal o Accelerated growth

§ “I began to tap into the highest point of value I would gain from reviewing my journals. I pulled out a sheet of blank paper, drew a line down the middle, and wrote two headings at the top: Lessons Learned and New Commitments. As I read through my hundreds of journal entries, I found myself recapturing dozens of valuable lessons. This process of recapturing Lessons Learned and making New Commitments to implement those lessons aided my personal growth and development more than almost anything else.” (TMM)

o Gain Clarity o Journal Therapy o Capture Ideas o Review Lessons o Acknowledge Your Progress

o Self Reflection o Record Spiritual Experiences o Record Spiritual promptings – this is a great way to recognize promptings (we have way more promptings

that we realize, just like we actually experience way more earthquakes than we realize). It’s also a great way to “report back” to yourself about following through on a prompting.

o If I have something that I want to record in my journal, but I can't do it right that moment, I just quickly jot down a note about it and put it in my reminders app on my phone. And then I try to journal about it later that day so that I don't forget the details.

Sunday Routine

• Some suggestions for adjusting your routine for the Sabbath: • This can be your day of rest, when it comes to exercise. If you still want to exercise, consider keeping your

routine light – like taking a walk, or doing some stretches. • Focus your affirmation time on your Patriarchal Blessing • Focus your success study on church books, general conference talks, etc. • Consider doing a “Sacrament Inventory”

o My friend, Celeste, came up with this idea and shared it with me. Here are the questions to pray and ponder about and write about in your journal:

§ What am I sorry about this week? What are my regrets? (ie what do I need to repent of?) Pray and repent.

§ How did I feel Christ's redeeming and enabling power last week? § How did I keep my covenants to always remember Christ this week? To take His name upon me? § How will I remember Christ and my covenants this week?

Nightly Preparations:

• gather supplies (journal, books, scriptures, exercise items, water, pen, paper, music, headphones, exercise clothes, etc.)

• set up supplies in designated location for your morning routine • clear the area of distractions and clutter • turn off notifications or put in airplane mode if you are using your phone • set your alarm • Consider writing/reading a night time affirmation • Be intentional about going to bed early enough to get a good night's rest.

Tips for Success:

• Start Small. You don't have to do a 2 hour routine the first day. Maybe try 30 minutes. • Don't push yourself too much at first. • Commit to do the routine for 30 days and establish a habit.

o You may find the first ten or so days extremely easy because of your high level of motivation; the next ten days may be a battle; and then the last ten may present you with the temptation to celebrate early. At least for these first thirty days, don't give up, don't take a break, continue it day after day, even if you have to do a ten-minute routine on one (or more) of those days. (LDM)

• Get a calendar and mark off the days that you complete the routine • Get an accountability partner • Create a reward system for yourself • Prayer – ask for God's help with helping you to go to bed on time, wake up early, and to have an uplifting

experience with your routine. Ask for help to stay motivated and focused. • Don't give up, and Don't get distracted

o “On my mission, we often warned our investigators that once they committed to starting something good, they would immediately begin to see temptations and other problems thrown their way.” (LDM)

o “It seems that Satan will test your resolve and do everything in his power to stop you from making the routine a habit: you may feel more tired than usual, more thirsty, hungry, distracted, or bored. At times, Satan doesn't even need to influence us – as humans, we have a tendency to get distracted from the task at hand.” (LDM)

• Be strict about going to bed on time – especially for the first 30 days while you are trying to establish the habit of doing your morning routine.

• Remember that this routine is life changing – but it is still line upon line. You will still have moments of weakness (sometimes a lot of them) throughout your day. Just keep trying. Just keep practicing. Treat these experiences as moments to practice what you are learning. And when you fail, pick yourself back up, dust yourself off, and try again the next time.

• It can be hard to come back to reality after your routine is over. You will probably feel so peaceful and on top of the world. ...and then your kids start demanding things and you have to go through the morning rush, and on and on and on. But I know from experience that it is even harder to be woken up by the kids, and not have had any moments of peace and clarity beforehand.

• If necessary on certain mornings, you can shorten the length of time that you spend doing routine. Just spend one or two minutes on each of the elements. Try to keep these shorter routines to a minimum though. You will get much better results from a longer routine. My personal preference is about 1 ½ – 2 hours. I like to take my time with each of the elements. But for most people, I think that 1 hour or so would work well for most days.

• Getting a good night's rest is still important. If you're getting up earlier, you should be adjusting your bedtime so you go to bed earlier. I personally go to bed between 10 and 10:30 most nights and get up at 6:00 am. When my daughter starts sleeping through the night more consistently, I plan to start waking up at 5:30 ish.

Even though I am still far from perfect, this morning routine, has really given me the motivation and desire to keep moving forward and to keep improving. I feel a sense of direction and a strong passion for personal growth and development. I still fail everyday.... lots of times everyday. But I get up the next day, filled with hope and excitement for my future. I love my mornings. If I could, I would spend like 5 hours doing my morning routine. In fact, I have to set an alarm for myself to end my routine so I can make myself start the rest of my day when the kids wake up. Your routine is a vehicle to drive you to your personal goals. Customize it and make it your own; parts can be added or switched depending on your mood or the day’s goals or events.” (LDM) “If you have done the whole morning routine, you should notice that every part of you has been affected – your spirituality, emotions, mind, and body. You are a better you than yesterday.” (LDM) “Rise up and become the person you were meant to be.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf) *The Miracle Morning – TMM *The Latter-day Morning - LDM