my brain will not stop.

As you know, I often become fixated on listing things in my life; one being "Good Feelings". One of the best feelings for me is being productive. Even better is when I can be productive but stress free at the same time. I tend to be a high strung, stress case.  This is simply because there are so many things that I want to do, feel that I need to do, actually do NEED to do and I want to do them perfectly and in a timely fashion. I know that I am capable of such and so when I begin to feel myself veering towards the lazy, less productive side of life, I get very frustrated with myself and the world in general.

In order to have a bit more peace in my life, I have been trying to relax. This is much easier said than done for someone like me. I must always be doing something. Not in the ADD sense, but more because my mind is just constantly going and I need to distract myself somehow so that I can focus (doesn't make sense now that I write that, but it's true). So I realized that the best thing for me is to just organize my time more appropriately so that I may accomplish everything that I need and want to, with ease. 

And the best way for me to do this: waking up early.

Some people think that I am deranged for wanting to be up at the crack of dawn six days a week (I do sleep in on Saturdays...sometimes). I have always been an early riser and I credit this to my dad. There is something so rewarding about being the first to awake, to hear the birds, to see the sunrise, and to just envelop yourself in the peace of the early morning. I love that time of day. Sometimes it is more difficult than others, but waking up at 5:30 AM, taking time to have some sincere chat time with my Heavenly Father, a nice shower, some Shredded Mini Wheats with scriptures, and out the door by 6:45- that is a great morning. And when I have those mornings the rest of my day just falls into place. I get everything accomplished at work, a heart pumping workout after, maybe a little nap, other day to day tasks, a cuddle session with the boy and off to bed. I go to sleep exhausted, fulfilled and at peace.  This has been the best remedy so far. Perhaps I have written this in  defense of my cracked out REM cycles, but I really do highly recommend the early mornings.