My (Realistic) Morning Routine

Scenic morning shots with cats.

There's a tendency for internet influencers to depict the perfect side of a morning routine - a world where children, schedule changes, and inconsistency never exist. So, I wanted to take a moment to share a realistic narrative of my own (realistic) morning routine.

Random hour in the morning that's never the same ever day
The alarm sounds. A sharp inhalation of air before my eyes either dart open in panic or escape under several folds of protective facial cringing/implosion.  Having PTSD, this is [sarcasm]the perfect way to start your day off! With a highly irritating trigger sure to set off anxiety or a low-grade panic attack after several hours of nightmares.

Exercise
[sarcasm cont.]Oops, I slept in because I actually had horrible sleep the night before, and I'm up earlier than my medication wears off, so I like to exercise by autopiloting through my house until I remember what I'm actually doing.  Bonus: Fitbit steps![/sarcasm]

Breakfast
I hoard eggs and oatmeal for the impending doom that is "The grocery store is packed with people who are so close they can touch butts, and I'm going back home."  Plus, eggs carry a lot of dense vitamins and nutrients and oatmeal is a great source of carbs and fiber.  If I have some of the green stuff (spinach, not money) even better.

Bonus tip: Eggs do eventually go bad. Submerge it in water; if the eggs rises to the surface, that's one bad egg.

Water
My body depends on this the same way a plant who has gone one day too long without water. There's no rhyme or reason for when I'll  remember it except that I plan to have water first thing.  -sips water-

Caffeine
[sarcasm]I can't quite feel awake yet, so I dose my anxiety up to be a productive citizen.  [/sarcasm]

Read
I really am typically doing this simultaneous to eating, drinking water, and sipping coffee that's too hot.

Brush Teeth
Almost forgot.

And I'm late
Oh good, I missed the bus so I can be somewhere at an hour of the day where I barely exist and would be better off recovering from poor sleep/nightmare disorder. Aaaaaand I left my wallet at home.


So, It's a work in progress. Dialing back loads of sarcasm from the post, this is why I seek education and speak a lot about habit-building science.  I can talk about an entire morning and frame it as a failure and feel sorry about it, or I can take one part of the morning and say "I drank water this morning so I don't have to feel nauseated" instead of rescripting everything at once. That's one controllable habit out of several.  

So, the point of this post is to express 1) perfectionism isn't the goal 2) habit-building takes time 3) trying to assess a real and lived experience with some neutrality.