Episode 34: How to Build a Morning Reading Habit
- Tina Boogren
- 4 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Description: Most of us start our mornings the same way — phone in hand, scrolling before we've even gotten out of bed. But what if those first few minutes looked completely different? Adding just a little bit of reading to your morning routine, before the emails, before the news, before social media, can be one of the simplest ways to start your day feeling grounded and in control.
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Resources: Keep Moving by Maggie Smith. Brawler by Lauren Groff.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Everyday Wellness with Dr. Tina H. Boogren. I am your host, Dr. Tina Boogren. I hope that you are doing well. I hope that you have been able to implement some of these recent invitations and you feel like you've got some tools to help your nervous system and tap into creativity and maybe consume a little bit less and create a little bit more. As we move into this week's invitation, go ahead and just do that kind of check in with your body. Do a quick little body scan. See where you're holding tension. See if maybe you can relax your shoulders, relax your jaw, take a nice deep breath. Remember, inhale through your nose and take a nice long exhale. I'll give you a second to do that now. Get yourself fully present.
Oh, feels so good. Good. This week's invitation is I want you to play around was something I've been playing around with. You know, I like to just offer up things that I've been doing myself and that is to read a little bit in the morning, maybe even before you get out of bed. I have shared on here that I have been doing, gosh, for months now, this pretty regular, not pretty, every single day, I have been doing this regular practice of getting up and journaling in the morning. I started off doing three full pages and I've gotten down to, it's at least one full page, sometimes it's more, but at the very least, one full page, just long handwriting. I do different things. I respond to different prompts. Things like, how do I wanna feel today? How do I wanna show up today? Things I'm grateful for. All sorts of different avenues that I go down in those morning pages. And then what I've been doing- one of the reasons that I went from three pages to one page- is to take that 15 minutes that I allow myself before I even get out of bed to do some reading.
I got to go see one of my favorite writers and poets, Maggie Smith a couple weeks ago at our. Local independent bookstore. And it was just pure delight. And while I was there, I picked up one of her books called Keep Moving. I've wanted this book for a while. And so I have it in my hands and it's just these short little snippets , and then she's got kind of longer text in between setting up each of the sections. And so I just read a section, which is just a few pages. It's not very long. And I do that every single morning before I get outta bed even. So I do my morning pages, I read a little bit. Sometimes what I read sparks me to come back into my journal and write a little bit more or something that I thought of or something that I want to record. I love to record different quotes in my journal, and that has just been an addition to that morning practice that I absolutely love.
There's so many advantages to this. So again, as always, take this invitation and make it your own. The main thing that's happening here is I am not grabbing my phone right away. So the minute that I wake up, I have my glasses and that book, the Maggie Smith book right now, and my journal right by my bed. And so I grab my glasses, I grab my journal, I do the writing, I do some reading. I might go back to my journal and this is all done before I do any sort of consumption. So I'm not checking email, not checking the news. I haven't jumped on social media, none of that. This is my own time, and I am telling you it has made such a difference in how I enter into the day.
Just that ability to take control of my own thoughts to get really clear of my intentions for the day, to think about how exactly I want to feel, how I'm going to make that happen, what my hope is for the day, what I'm hoping to bring into the day. All of those pieces, to be able to have that time in the morning, that sacred time before any of the world hits me at all. It's just a game changer. I'll tell you that. I have just felt more calm and steady and at peace during the day. And, I carry around my journal with me kinda like a security blanket, if you will. And so at various times I will open that up and kind of look at some of the reminders that I had or jot some other things down. It just has become kind of my grounding.
So what I want to offer up specifically in thinking about the morning routine, that is a new piece that I haven't talked about before, is reading in the morning. And think about all the different things you could read, like a poem a day would be great. Just one page in a book. It could be a fiction book, nonfiction. Maybe you are more into audio books and you wanna listen in the morning,. Just that idea of being really careful of your consumption because I guess it is still consuming, but consuming something that feels really good to you.
Something that you maybe just feel like you don't have dedicated time to sit down and read, or you want more time to read. Just allow yourself just a few minutes in the morning so you could do it, you know, one page or if you've got a little more time, one chapter, or it could be by the clock that you're just gonna take three minutes, five minutes, one minute. It's amazing. If you take one minute, day after day after day, you can get through that book or whatever it is that you've been working on. This can also be really great for if you've got a little time, short stories. I love short stories.
Lauren has a new collection out called Brawler, and the stories are so good. Now, they take a little bit longer to read, but you wouldn't have to read the whole thing in the morning. But I love the idea of doing that in the morning because it's different from the fiction novel that I like to read at night. So kind of keeping space between them helps my brain not mix up the characters and the storyline. So, that might be a great way to get through a collection of short stories or something that you've been meaning to read or some sort of educational book that has been on your list. This is a great time, now that I'm thinking of this, to pick up one of my 180 Days books, because they're done each week, right? An invitation so you could revisit that and think about how you want to put that invitation into place that day. Think about jumping over. I know this is getting into social media. This is getting a little murky here, but if you go directly to the Everyday Wellness educator page and go right to the prompt, the prompt remember, for each day of the week matches that week's podcast invitation. So maybe you go right there and we know that that is a safe, really thoughtful group where you can read other people's responses, add your own response, or just read other people's. But that kind of gets you in the mindset of taking this invitation and implementing it into your own life. Because that's the key, right? How do we take this piece that we've heard and fully, fully implement it?
So that's what I want you to play around with- reading in the morning. I would love, I can't wait to go over to the Facebook group and read about the things that you might be reading in the morning. Many of you, um, I know, probably will be reading a Bible verse in the morning and I love that. Or some sort of spiritual practice or guidance. So many possibilities here to take this idea and really run with it. So that's what I love is the creativity and the diversity of our group, of how we will take this and put it into practice. So that's what we're gonna play around with this week. I'm gonna keep reading my Maggie Smith book, but I'm excited to get inspired by what you all are reading as well, so I can add to my little pile next to my bed for my morning reading.
As always, we're so grateful for you Adrienne. We're so grateful to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources that allow me to do this work and it's work that I love so much. And to you, this incredible, badass, Everyday Wellness squad. I'm cheering so hard for you. I hope you're able to take this invitation and put it to use in a way that really works for you. Feel my hand on your back as you move through the week. I love you.
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