Having a morning ritual or routine feels like it’s impossible, right? Especially if you have a child with special needs, and they’re not sleeping through the night. 

But let me first say that if you’re thinking it’s BS, which Tony Robbins describes as belief systems in his book Awaken The Giant Within because that’s all it is.

It’s just a belief system.

It’s simply a mindset.

It’s this idea that if it can’t be perfect then it can’t be done. And oftentimes we go into things like a morning routine and we think, “Oh well,” she’s able to do it because her kids sleep through the night and she’s able to do all those things.

But a morning routine is simply just a routine. 

It doesn’t matter what time you get up. 

You don’t have to get up at five o’clock in the morning. 

And I actually encourage you not to do that, because all those articles that tell you if you want to be super productive, make sure you get up at five o’clock in the morning? That may work for some people, but if you have a child who is struggling with sleep issues then, waking up at five or six in the morning is not going to be productive. 

You’re just going to be exhausted and burned out. 

I don’t want motherhood to be harder than it is for you. And I don’t want it to also stop you from doing things that would bring you so much joy and creativity. And so that’s why having an established morning routine is going to be so helpful for you, friends! 

So what I encourage you to do instead of just quitting rituals and routines altogether because it’s so easy to say, it’s not going to work for me. So why matter? Again, it’s simply a belief system. 

Let’s try modifying your routine. 

Let’s talk about breaking it down. 

If you have only 30 minutes. What’s something that you can do in 30 minutes for a morning routine? You can work out for 10-15 minutes and you can spend some time in Scripture. 

And that’s something I love doing in the morning. I love spending time in prayer, writing, and journaling.

I strongly believe that being able to have a little bit of life-giving activity first thing in the morning sets a positive tone for the rest of your day. No matter what that activity is for you.

Even if all you have is 15 minutes, find something to do.

Why don’t you spend that 15 minutes in silence, where you’re able to maybe brew some coffee and then say a prayer? I like to do prayer walks around my house, when I have a really hard time sitting still. This is energizing for me, especially when I’m really tired and haven’t had much sleep. So I just walk around my house and say a prayer over it. If you’re not of faith, then do a gratitude walk. 

There’s so much power in expressing gratitude and being thankful for the things that you have, instead of focusing on the lack.

It’s important to set your day off right and approach it from a place of abundance, as opposed to lack. Whereas, if you first get up in the morning and you feel super overwhelmed because you didn’t have your perfect morning routine all set to go–then you’re thinking of the things you lack. 

You didn’t get enough sleep, you lack time. You didn’t have a chance to do this and that, there’s still laundry to be done, etc. You’re thinking of all the things that have gone wrong, and all the things you lack.

Instead, start your day from a place of abundance, greet your day with all Thanksgiving in your heart, try inviting God, and His Spirit to dwell in your body. 

Again, if you’re not of faith, just expressing gratitude and having a grateful heart throughout the day is going to set you up for so much success. 

If you only have 10 minutes, because your child didn’t go to bed until two o’clock in the morning. And you have to have the kids out the door or hop on their virtual classes in 10 minutes. Then just spend that 10 minutes brewing your coffee. Don’t worry about anything else. 

Oftentimes we prioritize all the things that feel urgent, but they’re not important. So, urgent things and things that seem like they absolutely have to be done right now are fires. If you’re constantly only putting out fires, you’ll miss the important thing. (This is a concept that Stephen Covey shared in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective people). 

But the most important thing you can do in the morning is to set your mind up right. And the way to do that again is starting off with prayer, or gratitude. Approaching your day from a place of abundance and a grateful heart is going to help make such a difference for you as you carry that with you throughout the day. 

You’ll be more patient and able to parent from a place of calm and peace. 

So, I strongly encourage you to give it a try. 

If you don’t have a morning routine, just come up with ways that you can modify an ideal morning routine and make it work for your situation.

You’re a mom to a child with special needs. Your life is going to look different from moms who don’t have kids with autism or other special needs.

That’s just the reality of it. But I still believe that there is abundance there, and there is so much joy to be had in the chaos that comes with raising a child on the spectrum or other special needs. 

So, I encourage you to find a way to make  a morning ritual or routine work for you. Try implementing some of the life giving activities and finding creative ways to incorporate it into your mornings.

I’ve included a free gratitude log to go along with this video/blog post to help you start your day from a place of gratitude.