10 minutes

It’s funny, this morning before braving the harowing commute across Los Angeles to work, I decided to write for 10 minutes about my morning routine. Ironically (if that is the correct usage), I didn’t have enough time to finish that post. So here it is, in my drafts folder. I only got to the title “10 Minutes” before I realized that I only had 0 minutes before I had to leave.

So, now that I’m home on a lovely friday afternoon I suppose I will pick that back up again. This is either going to be the most dull post ever, or interesting. I personally find other people’s morning routine’s interesting. Being the spiritual seeker that I am, I’m really interested in the day to day ways that other spiritual people live their lives, and how and when they incoporate their spirtuality in their hectic lives.  I’m a really busy person, as you’ll see I don’t have much time to set aside, so I attempt to multi-task.

I recently, as in the past few months, became employed. As I live in Los Angeles (which I don’t mind sharing as this city is so ginormous), I of course work in the entertainment industry (which I also don’t mind sharing, since I think everyone here works in the entertainment industry). I won’t tell you what I do, but I will tell you that I work on a relatively popular television show.  Don’t bother asking me which one, since it will inevitably lead to questions regarding things to which I’ve been sworn to secrecy.

Also, work is pretty much as far away from where I live as i think is possible within the city limits. Which means I need to allow about an hour for my 10 mile commute. That being said, I have a very stringent morning routine.

I wake up at about 6:30, or at least I try to. And every morning (or at least the majority of them) I’m greeted by the evil Jillian Michael’s who kicks my ass in her 30 day shred for about 25 minutes. I’m only on level 2 now, and it took me way way longer than the 10 recommended days to get out of level 1. On about day 5 I started noticing that I had actual muscles, and on about day 10 I noticed that my jeans were too big. Oh evil Jillian, thank you for your evil evil wake up calls.

After that I start the coffee (or the teapot, depending on my mood), and let the dog outside into the garden. On the days that I feel the spirit move me I go up there with her and just have a nice quiet moment of reflection while she’s doing her doggy thing. I sincerely wish that I had more time in the morning to spend 20 minutes in meditation, which would be my ideal. It’s quiet, and there’s no one around asking things of me, and after Jilian’s ass kicking I have no desire to drift off to sleep. Someday, I’ll have the motivation to wake up even earlier and start doing just that.

After that I shower, which is where I try to squeeze in my daily self-reiki treatment. Just in the shower, 10 minutes or so, using whatever hand positions/symbols move me. It’s so cleansing and refreshing, and afterwards I really feel like I have taken care of both my body and my soul all in one swoopy hour.  On a sidenote, I also do the same thing while drifiting off to sleep at night, which is the what my reiki master taught me to do, and which is what I will teach my students to do, should I ever happen to aquire any.

After that it’s downstairs to grab a cup of coffee/tea, and I spend a few minutes online catching up with friends and the news, doing research into whatever spiritual thing I’m thinking about at that moment, and sometimes even writing if I managed to take a short enough shower and not hit the snooze button a bunch of times. Then I pour the rest of my coffee in a travel mug, load up my loose leaf tea tumbler with some leaves, throw my laptop and my tea tumbler and my purse and my cord in my bag. I then hike up the block to my car, where it’s inevitably been parked since there is no parking anywhere on my street, and begin my awesome 45 minute commute through rush hour traffic on the notorious los angeles highways.  As I get my car started and start driving down the street I visualize a bright blue protective bubble around my car, and usually say something out loud along the lines of “Please gods, don’t let me die on these stupid highways this morning."  I also play little intuition games in traffic, which I will elaborate on sometime in the future.  I think "How to stay spiritually sane on your morning commute” could be a post all by itself.

In the past couple years I’ve become very conscious of taking care of myself. I’ve quit smoking, and have been reading labels on EVERYTHING I eat. I’ve become extremely conscious of what goes into my food, where it comes from and all that good stuff. I’m not militant about it, but I try to do the best I can. That being said, I normally skip breakfast at home, and just eat something free when I get to work. Usually a banana. Yummy yummy pottasium. I understand that the best time to eat my banana is probably shortly after my workout, which is what I’ve been reading about lately. Unfortunately, the last time I bought bananas at my one a day pace I couldn’t get through them before the last few turned all brown and mushy. So, hopefully I will still get the benefits of a post-workout banana a couple hours after the fact.

And there you go, if you’ve made it this far I salute you. Next post….. what the hell kind of pagan are you anyways?