Keeping To My Morning Spiritual Routine No Matter What!

How do you start each day upon waking? I’m sure all of us probably have a morning routine that begins from the very moment we open our eyes. Personally, I have a spiritual routine that I rarely alter because I tend to feel so off kilter any time I do. Unfortunately, not everyone understands that, like a friend of mine didn’t when he attempted to Facetime me one morning just as I was starting it.

The simple fact for me is that I don’t like to carry on any conversation with someone before I complete my morning spiritual practices because I often will say things that come more from my ego than my spirit when I do. And while I may check my phone for any voicemails, text messages, or Facebook messages before I begin those practices, just in case any emergencies arose during the night (given that I turn all sound notifications off while I sleep), I generally won’t communicate with anyone beyond a quick digital response such as “LOL” or “I’ll call you later.”

Sadly, my friend took one of those quick responses that morning as an invitation that I was open for a call and attempted to Facetime me several times. I didn’t answer and instead did everything I could to explain in a nice way through several text messages why I needed to do my morning spiritual routine first before I talked to him or anyone for that matter. He didn’t understand that though and proceeded to get quite angry with me, saying I was full of crap and just lying to myself. Eventually, I had to stop responding, because I knew there was no way I was going to convince him of the importance of completing my spiritual routine first and any further conversation was only going to become more ego-driven. Shortly after that, I started my spiritual routine which includes the following:

  1. Bless the two 1-liter bottles of water I’m going to drink for the day with God’s love. (Yes, I really do this every day.)
  2. Ground myself outside with my bare feet in my backyard and say a quick prayer while I touch Mother Earth with both palms.
  3. Spend about 25 minutes in prayer on my knees in my bedroom, while listening to a song that raises my spiritual vibration.
  4. Read six different daily devotionals, while listening to a second song that’s also geared to raise my spiritual vibration.
  5. Listen and repeat along to an audio attunement that my spiritual teacher personally recorded that helps to align my entire mind, body, and soul to my Higher Calling for the day.

All of this takes approximately an hour and a half to two hours of time and I’ve been doing this spiritual routine now for over five years, just like I did that morning after my brief exchange of messages with my friend.

Occasionally, when I’ve put any of this aside to make a phone call or do an errand or even complete a chore on my list for the day, I’ve had the tendency to cause more drama for myself. That’s why I didn’t speak to my friend on Facetime that morning because I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship by saying something that arose from my ego, given how I didn’t feel connected enough to my spirit by that point. I’m not sure if he’ll ever understand that though and many often don’t. But I know I’m a far more grounded spiritual person when I keep to my spiritual routine, as compared to when I don’t. The fact is, I vividly remember what life was like when I used to wake up and hit the ground running. It was, for the most part, an ego-driven one, and something I don’t wish to ever return to.

So, if you have a spiritual routine that you do upon waking each day, I encourage you to never put it off for anyone or anything no matter what, unless there’s an emergency of course! Because isn’t connecting first to your Higher Self, your Higher Power, your God, or whatever you look to that’s Greater than you, far more important than anything that might come out of your mouth when you choose to let your ego be first instead?

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Spiritual Lessons From A Backyard Forest Of Weeds?

The backyard of my neighbor that’s directly next to my driveway has really bothering me as of late. It hasn’t been cut once this summer and is actually just a huge forest of weeds that grows worse every day. And I do mean forest, as there isn’t a single blade of grass back there. Instead, it’s filled with huge stalks of strange things where some of them are almost as tall as I am, which is 6’5”.

Ironically, I dealt with a similar situation just last summer with my neighbor across the street where I was quite successful in letting that situation go. But given that this time it’s a yard that’s directly next to where I live, and given that I see this forest every time I walk outside onto my driveway and water my hanging baskets, I’m struggling a lot more to let this one go.

In fact, I must have asked my neighbor at least a half of dozen times already when he plans on cutting it and his answer is always the same. He says he’ll be doing it later in the week, but each week he says that, it never gets done. The other day I even went so far as to ask if he wanted me to “Round Up” his entire backyard, which meant killing everything growing there, seeing how it’s only filled with weeds. His response to that was no different in that he planned on taking care of it later this week.

UGH!!!

Of course, I can completely see my control issues flaring here, which is why I’ve been resorting to prayer over this. I’ve asked God many times for my neighbor to find the willingness to clean his backyard up, but so far that prayer hasn’t been answered, which got me wondering, maybe it hasn’t been taken care of yet because God wants me to see a spiritual lesson or two in it?

One spiritual lesson I already know, that being the one about letting go and having acceptance, as the only reason why I want to take control of this overgrown yard is simply due to my lack of control in my ongoing state of health.

But another spiritual lesson came to me today as I pondered why this yard has been getting to me so much and it dealt with what Jesus might think if He was standing directly next to me on my driveway gazing onto it. Somehow, I think He might actually say something like this.

“Look at this magnificent creation! So many vibrant colors. Each all growing out of a yard without any water to depend on except from the sky. A feast for so many of God’s creatures to snack on. Such a beautiful display, don’t you agree Andrew?”

And of course, given the state I’ve been in lately with my health and wanting to take control somewhere, I’d probably say something along the lines like this.

“All I see is a dam pile of weeds that are ugly and invasive and slowly making their way into my yard. Can’t you just wave your hand and get rid of them Jesus?!”

 So yes, I see not one, but two spiritual lessons coming from something as simple as my neighbor’s backyard, as much as I don’t want to admit it.

That’s why I decided I’m going to change my prayers about this situation to one of letting go and acceptance. But I’m also going to pray for something else as well. I’m going to pray that I start seeing the beauty in all things, even in those things that my ego often tends to write off as ugly like my neighbor’s backyard. I’m sure in doing so, I stand a far better chance of walking out onto my driveway one day and experiencing peace and joy, even if my neighbor chooses to never take care of his forest of weeds…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson