A Youtuber uploads her special vlog sharing how she spends her morning time. While other people are sleeping, she wakes up at 4:30 am, to work out. After the workout, she takes a shower and reads the newspaper. Occasionally, she summarizes interesting articles in her journal. Some other vloggers study foreign languages for two to three hours or read a book with a cup of coffee or tea. This has been done by many young people around the world: miracle morning. There are more than 400K posts on social media with the hashtag #miraclemorning. The term came from a book written by Hal Elrod called The Miracle Morning in 2016. “Miracle morning” is a self-improvement habit that one can engage by starting the day in early morning by doing some activity such as reading, studying, or exercising. It has become one of the fastest-growing and most engaging online communities.
The way an individual does their miracle morning can be different from another. People start introducing a “routine” to their morning, by choosing certain activities. These days, many college students and other working young people cannot find their own free time for self-improvement due to the number of daily tasks they have. Miracle morning allows them to have their own free time in the early morning before they go to school or work to develop themselves by doing things that they want to do. Also, they can be continuously motivated to stick to their new morning routine by connecting with the online miracle morning community from all over the world. Elrod, on his website, comments that “together, by waking up every day and dedicating time to elevating our own individual consciousness, we can elevate the collective consciousness of humanity and make the world a better place.” He recommends to create one’s own routine based on the SAVERS method which stands for:
Silence that allows us to orient ourselves.
Affirmations that form the beliefs that improve self-esteem as we repeat with the intention of changing our way of thinking, which will eventually sink into our subconscious.
Visualization that directs our focus and generates images of our future that motivate us to grow.
Exercise that improves our physical and mental health.
Reading, which becomes one of the healthiest habits for our mind. Reading inspires us and helps us to nurture a positive attitude.
Scribing that helps us to evaluate our progress.
One of the biggest effects of miracle morning that participants pointed out was increase in self-esteem and self-trust. The feelings of accomplishment are the factors that keep people motivated. A professor at the University of California as well as a Youtuber, Sunny Jeon shares her review on miracle morning challenge after her three years of miracle morning: “By repeatedly doing things that seemed impossible to do in the early morning, you can trust yourself. With that self-trust, I think we can try a lot more things, given any circumstance, and grow in resilience.”
There is no doubt that these practices will improve our lives by increasing productivity and well-being. In reality, it might be a stressful challenge to fill up the morning time with new habits, especially during this pandemic. However, the important thing to keep in mind is that as we try and persevere, we can enhance our lives by creating positive inertia for the rest of the day.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.