I stumble in and sit down.

Through my sleepiness, I do my best to find that posture that takes on a life of its own.

For minutes, I wiggle and chase thoughts.  Then I settle.

I feel the delicious weight of stillness pressing into my back.

I drop my shoulders even further.  Rest.

Then her voice wafts in like the ephemeral scent of an exotic flower.

"Good morning , sweetheart.  Thank you for making space to be with me.  You’ve got two clients today.  Three hours to play with Mira after you drop Cooper off at school.  It’s Money Monday, so this evening you’ll talk with Kurt and the kids about where your money is going (and coming from!) and update your financials.

"Today, I shall be twinkling warmth.  You seem a little tired.  Let’s see how walking through the day with divine softness toward yourself and others… but with that little twinkle, that little sensual edge you love to carry… Let’s see how that works with what you've got going on."

Starting and ending the day deliberately, with all the tenderness I show my children, all the deliberation I would give to an appearance on Oprah's show, and all the soulfulness I feel on a yoga retreat.

It's been crucial for me for two decades, and I've been teaching it to other women for more than ten years.  When I sit in meditation, the self inside I call The Queen:  my divine feminine, my Wise Self, steps forward to guide me with her desires, her centeredness, her long view.

Clients tell me one of the most powerful things they take from our work is this devotion to starting the day by building its foundation.  

They start to see how grabbing the phone or waking up the computer before they've brushed teeth, drunk hot liquid, come back to their center, declared their desires... It's a mistake.  It's holding life backward.  It turns 'frantic' into the foundation of the day.  They tell me...

“I’ve stopped checking my email before 10 am.  It’s amazing how much more I get written when I’m not starting by reading."

"You know the weekday sacred morning time has created amazing things in my business… I didn’t think I needed it on the weekend, but I’m seeing I do, there, too.  Can’t wait to see what it will create!"

"I mediate better after I get the kids to school, but I make sure now that my practice is the first priority when I come back, not email or client calls... I can feel the difference in how I show up with them."

It's hard to take that time, to pull inward, but it's so crucial.  I have so many selves who come into play throughout the day.  The inner critic.  The hyper-ambitious shucker, jiver.  The collapsed Eeyore:  "It's sooo haaaaaaarrddd.... It'll neeevvver work!"  It helps so much, in corralling the whole herd, to re-throne the Queen first thing and hand her the keys.     If my wisest, most grounded self is driving, the presence of the committee of monkeys has a better chance of being amusing and less chance of running me off the road.

Who runs your day? What would the ritual look like that would center and ground you, establishing your day in the way you really want to feel and think?