Structure your day the Natural Way
Earlier this week, the governor of Virginia closed schools for the rest of the academic year. As soon as I heard the news, the first thing I did was get rid of all of the “suggested schedules” and set up our family with a routine guided by nature’s rhythms.
One of the best ways to take care of yourself during unusual times is to give yourself some sort of schedule or routine. I’m sure you’ve seen the sample schedules online. You probably know what the school day usually looks like for your children. And you know how your work day is generally structured. It seems pretty simple to just replicate those schedules and go on with life.
But I can guess that trying to run your home like a school or office is probably not going so well. By this time, you may be feeling stressed about it, and you may be telling yourself you can’t do this, it’s too hard, that you’re a failure at it. If you follow those thoughts they’ll tell you that your children are going to grow up to be idiots or that you are going to lose your job because you can’t get the work done.
The problem isn’t that your kids are maniacs who can’t follow the rules. And the problem isn’t that you have no willpower without your boss standing over your shoulder telling you to get things done.
The problem is that the regular school day / work day schedule just aren’t the right fit for life that is now based at home.
And that’s a GOOD thing!
Remember, our school and work schedules are basically set up for early 20th century factory shift workers. And you are not a 20th century factory shift worker.
You are a 21st Century multi-layered person trying to navigate a very fluid environment. Which, actually is much closer to what our early ancestors were doing - minus all of the technology and social media.
So, It’s not your fault that you can’t turn your home into an office or school. It’s not your fault that you can’t become a worker bee or a teacher overnight. It’s really hard to keep to that kind of rigorous schedule when there isn’t the support or mandate of the larger system holding it in place (think, entire school faculty or office full of co-workers).
Our early human ancestors were tied to the land. Which means their lives were tied to the rhythms of the natural world. Without electricity to see in the dark or power machinery they lived by the cycles of daylight and darkness. They relied on animal power and growing seasons. They felt the power of the natural world as a presence in their lives - not an inconvenience.
That is the way most of humanity lived until only a few 100 years ago. So that means for thousands of years, our bodies evolved to be more and more in sync with nature. And that means, when you let your schedule follow nature’s patterns you feel better. You are more energetic because you’re not staying up way later than the sun. And you feel more at ease because you’re using your energy skillfully, not trying to push yourself when the time isn’t right.
I’m going to guess that you probably didn’t feel so great living on the school/work schedule. You were probably exhausted by it, like most of us are.
Now you have more freedom to set up your day however you want. What if you settled into a routine that didn’t take your energy away from you? What if you could set it up in a way that felt aligned with your body’s natural capacities and with the energy of nature? My hunch is that you would feel a lot more effective and at ease as you go through your day. That’s why I’m doing my best to move my family more and more onto a naturally aligned schedule.
It’s pretty easy to set yourself up on a natural rhythm, you just follow the sun. When the sun is rising and strongest there is more energy in the natural environment. Animals are hunting and foraging. Then in the middle of the day there is a dip in energy. It comes back up in the late afternoon before settling back in with sunset and night.
If you’re trying to organize your life around it here’s a broad general sweep. In the pre-dawn hours there is a lot of potential energy because the sun is just about to rise. So early morning is a great time for reflection or meditation. Then when the sun rises, the energy of the natural world starts to lift too. The energy of the day is fresh your brain and body are more fresh too. It’s a good time to do the most activity, exercise, schoolwork, or work work. Around noon, when the sun is at its height and just beyond there is a natural lull in energy. In many places it’s too hot for animals to be out foraging or hunting so they take cover. It’s a good time for digesting and resting after the morning activity. Then as the sun starts to descend, the day starts to cool. Energetically there is a little upswing of energy in the late afternoon, but not as much as in the morning. It’s a good time for more activity - community gathering, making dinner, playing together. Once the sun goes down, it’s time to settle and rest again.
if you’ve ever been on a restful vacation, been without power for a few days, or lived with a small infant or very old person you probably fell into this kind of rhythm without even trying. That’s because when you let go of culturally mandated routines and follow your natural energy you come into alignment with nature. You can’t help it, it’s built into your DNA.
I thought I’d share what a naturally aligned daily routine could be like. You can grab it in .pdf form right here and print it out for yourself. I share more details and reflections below.
The main key is to stay flexible with it. Notice, there are NO TIMES listed. This routine is meant to be very fluid. It can adjust to meet your energy and your needs on any given day.
Naturally Aligned Daily Routine
Wake up - Gentle Morning Rituals & Set Day’s Intention
Wake up with or slightly before the sun and receive a few minutes of quiet. Take time for reflection, connecting with yourself and with your Heart. Early morning time could include: yoga practice, sit spot, meditation, Morning pages, other types of journaling, other mindful movement, art making, anything really. The point is to make a connection to the deeper part of yourself so that you are moving with that part for the rest of the day. Set an intention for how you want to be on this new day (do not make a to-do list, that comes later!)
Breakfast
We eat. If your’e always in a rush to get to the school bus or the office, how about taking a few minutes to sit down and be with your coffee or your food before you start the next thing
Get Inspired and Decide on Morning Tasks - Gather Materials
This is the: What’s on the agenda today? moment. Now you can make your To-Do list if you absolutely must. The more freedom you have from work restrictions, the more you can play with this. But decide what needs to get done. Start with one thing. Get what you need to do that thing. You might need actual materials or you might need more information or you might not need anything. Great you’re ready to start.
Work on Morning Tasks
Do your work. Don’t get on social media, don’t clean the house. Set a timer if you have a hard time staying on task and work for 10 minutes then take a break then work again. But do your work. If you finish one task. Take a mini-break, then go back to the To-Do list, gather more materials, and get back to work.
Some days this is exercise for me, today it is blogging, some days it is helping my children with their distance learning (Dad’s got it today)
Wrap up Morning Tasks - Note questions and where to start next time
STOP doing your work! Seriously, STOP. Even stop thinking about it. Wrap it up at a natural point. Make notes to yourself so it’s easy to start up again
Lunch
Eating again. YES!
Rest - Quiet time
This is the hardest one for a lot of people. Give yourself a few minutes to REST after lunch. Depending on your world right now, you could take 10 minutes to put your legs up the wall, or you could take a 3 hour nap. If you’ve been over-working lately, a long nap might be just what you need to help you regain your health.
With kids, this can be tricky. My 7yo is energetic and not very interested in napping. But he loves a timer so I give him the job of watching the time and letting us know when rest time is over. He can handle about 20 minutes (we’ve been working on this) but if you have younger kids or haven’t done this much yet try 5 or 10 to start. Give them a bell to ring - they love that!
Get Inspired and Decide on Afternoon Experiences - Gather Materials
Much the same as the morning only even more fluid if possible. If you need to rest and you can skip the whole Afternoon Experience part and just take a nap. When you’ve gotten caught up on rest, you’ll start back into this.
In my house Afternoon Experience is Creative Time. The kids and grown ups have worked all morning, now it’s time for art, music, cooking, or building something. No video games - it’s time to make. If you’re working a job from home and have more work to do then do work as the afternoon experience.
Work on Afternoon Experiences
Work (if you must) or Create or Walk in the Park
Wrap up Afternoon Experiences - Note questions and where to start next time
Notice when your energy starts lagging, or you start making mistakes. It’s time to stop. Make some notes for yourself. Clean up your creative environment. You’re done “being productive” for the day. Clean it up. Take a mini-rest if you can.
Gather - Community Idleness - Connect with Others
Now everyone in the house will start hanging around the kitchen. They might be cranky - but hopefully, as they get into this kind of natural routine, they’re not so much cranky as looking for easeful connection. This is the time when my kids can watch a little tv, or play a video game. I’m cooking dinner and connecting with them if they want to connect with me. I like to listen to podcasts while I cook too - it’s like a visit with a new person. If you live alone, (or if you’re tired of the people you live with) now would be a good time to FaceTime with someone.
Dinner - Share stories of your day
Eat again! YES! - this is the time to tell what happened today. What was surprising? What failed? What was interesting or amazing? If you live alone you could try a dinner date with a friend over the phone.
Slow down - Quiet Reflection
Now it’s time to slow things down, not rev them up. Maybe it’s a gentle walk around the neighborhood. Maybe you read to your children. Maybe you watch a great show (but remember, mindlessness is not the same as slowing down). I often journal and/or read before bed.
Sleep and Integrate your day via Dreams and Deep Sleep
This is really important. Sleep is one of the best ways to support your physical and mental health. And your brain sifts through the material of your day and makes sense of it while you sleep. If your sleep rhythms have been irregular, being on this more natural routine may help your body remember how to sleep well. None of the rest of the day has a time attached, but lights out at 10pm is really recommended - otherwise your body will start to turn back on again.
You may be surprised to find you’re already partially on this routine. And it may sound like a lot if you’re no where near it. If you want to head in this direction, try adding one thing at a time - the mid day rest, or the afternoon creative time. As the weeks of being at home go on you’ll find you can bring in more and more of it. And my bet is you’ll feel more and more at ease as you go through your day.
I wanna hear from you? What are you doing? What’s working? What isn’t working? Where are you stuck and how can I help?