Three questions I ask myself every morning

Three minutes is all it takes to approach the day with intention.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

As a mom of two not-quite-independent kids who keep me up way too late at night, I’ve had to pare down my morning routine to the basics:

• Instead of going for a 2-hour bike ride, I spend 50 minutes at my OrangeTheory Fitness gym, where I get streamlined but intense cardio and resistance workouts.
• Instead of 20 minutes of unguided meditation, I sit for 10 — and sometimes 5 — minutes with Headspace’s daily meditation, prefaced by Andy’s calming thought of the day.
• And instead of writing three “morning pages,” I ask myself just three questions.

Those questions anchor my attention, deliberately setting an intention that will carry me from the moment I rise until bedtime.

Here they are:

1. What am I grateful for?

Expressing appreciation for someone or something sets the tone for the day. It can be as simple as the convenience of clean water on tap, as specific as the neighbor who held the door for me when I was entering our building with heavy bags, or as deep as the realization that every day that I am alive is a miracle.