A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 27 – Beautiful Mornings
November 29, 2020
“Luxurious mornings” is what Fiona Ferris calls Day 27 in her book, 30 Chic Days at Home. She details how a lovely morning routine starts her out on her day feeling pampered and refreshed. An interesting detail she adds is that she has a shower squeegee hanging on a hook in the shower. After she turns the water off, she can give the walls and doors a quick swipe and the shower looks (almost) effortlessly pristine. So, not only does she have a beautiful morning routine that gets her up and moving and feeing motivated and pampered, but she also has a very quick step in her routine that sets up the next morning’s great feeling.
My morning routine does not include showering and lotions – I’m a “nighttime shower” girl. In the mornngs, I get up with the alarm (tug up the duvet). I do a quick face wash followed by serum and moisturizer, then I do a few stretches and get dressed. After dressing, I make a cup of coffee, pour it in my travel mug, grab a scarf & coat and head out the door for my morning coffee&gratitude walk. The walk is the part of my morning routine that helps me feel pampered and ready to face the day.
It feels luxurious to wander about the neighborhood when all is quiet and still. I can point my mind at noticing all the beauty around me and all the things for which I feel gratitude. I find that my mind tends to stay in the mood of however I start my day so I make sure to start the day out in a positive and serene way!
Several years ago, I read Hal Elrod’s book, The Miracle Morning. I tried his one-hour, 6-step process each morning for a month (I wrote about it here.) Elrod and Fiona both present the very perceptive point that how we start our morning is basically laying the ground work for how we experience the rest of our day. Fiona gives us some ideas on how to up-scale our morning shower/dressing routine to help us feel pampered and luxurious. I use her touches of pampering idea with my skin care lotions. I’ve found that incorporating Elrods S,A,V &E (Silence, Affirmations, Visualization and Exercise) into my morning walk elevated the whole walk to something pretty magical (and a morning walk with a good cup of coffee is pretty magical in and of itself.)
Happily, the actual number of minutes that I spend with my morning routine doesn’t seem to matter. I still feel collected and ready for the day even if I have a short 15-min walk rather than my usual 35-45-minute walk. The main thing seems to be that the routine of walking and sipping my coffee first thing in the day puts my mind onto a grateful and calm setting. Fional writes that she experiences the same sense of getting prepared for her day in luxurious manner even if her morning routine is shorter than usual. What a treat that we can direct how we experience our day with our morning routine!
