Listening to a NPR news spot this morning I heard a politician say, in response to a comment made about what's important, "People don't think of politics when they first wake in the morning, their first thoughts are; How am I going to feed my family?"
He sounded passionate so I began to wonder, what do we think about when we first wake in the morning? Do we think about feeding our loved ones or is it planning for the day or revisiting dreams or loves lost or thankfulness for ________________?
And where do we do these first thoughts? In bed? On the way to the bathroom? Looking in the mirror? In the shower? During the first cup of coffee?
So, I'm looking for responses. Your first thoughts this morning or maybe some sort of pattern of thoughts. And include where you first encounter these thoughts. No names are necessary and long explanations are optional.
Let's see what we're thinking about when we're roused from sleep.
Today when my alarm went off the first thing I thought was, “Snooze… ten more minutes. Monday I will stop sleeping in and start getting up early.” Back to sleep I went and in the blink of an eye, the beeping started again and I thought, “Do I have time to call out sick? Probably not. Snooze for 10 more minutes. Zac can make his own lunch and I don’t need to eat.” Back to sleep then Beep, Beep, Beep…”Snooze for ten more minutes. I don’t need to shower and I can put makeup on at school. Monday I am definitely going to stop doing this.” Beep, Beep, Beep… “Why do I do this to myself every morning? Monday I am going to get up early and enjoy my morning. Now I have to rush around, I have nothing good to eat for lunch and Zac made himself a lunch full of snacks. I am a terrible role model.”
ReplyDeleteOn the weekends when I wake up I usually think, “coffee”. Then I think, “What will everyone want for breakfast and do I have any eggs left?”
check out this short article from Time Magazine that speaks to our morning rituals and creativity.
Deletehttp://ideas.time.com/2012/02/01/why-morning-routines-are-creativity-killers/?hpt=hp_c2
I read your post last night during one of the all too frequent commercial breaks during my favorite weekly TV show (Jersey Shore). The main reason why I watch the show is the lack of thought processes that are required for its viewing. I can sit there and just laugh and not think about anything else that went on during the week or my day; it's a great start to my weekend. However, when I went to bed I ended up just thinking about an eventful part of my day at work that was stressful and exciting at the same time...normally there is one of these occurrences every day. I thought about what went wrong, how we reacted to it, what my team could have done better, what my boss could have done better, and eventually I just thought myself to sleep like I normally do.
ReplyDeleteWhen I woke up a few hours later to start my day, it wasn't until I reached the shower until any thought was occurring at all in my head. However, the first thoughts that came to mind were the exact ones that had been there as I was going to sleep - those surrounding the latest crisis at work. I began thinking about the same things all over again about what went wrong, why, how, etc. and eventually moved on to just focusing on doing my best work today.
What I came to realize from this is that my mind never really shuts off. I don't sleep nearly as much as others, my mother and girlfriend will swear to you that I have never successfully taken a nap, I'm always the first one up in the morning and the last one down at night. I love being awake and simply just doing something, whether it be fulfilling my one guilty pleasure of watching jersey shore, or reading a book that actually expands my knowledge (and yes I do more of this than the latter). I love to be awake.
So what do I think about when I wake up? Well, I simply pick up where I left off!
So you might want to read this short article about awakening in the morning and creativity.
Deletehttp://ideas.time.com/2012/02/01/why-morning-routines-are-creativity-killers/?hpt=hp_c2