The Hour Before Everyone Wakes Up

There is something about the hour before everyone else wakes up that feels completely different from the rest of the day. The house is still, nobody needs anything yet, there are no messages coming in and no questions being shouted from another room. For a short while, the day hasn’t really started and I think that is exactly why I have become so protective of that time. Over the years, this quiet hour has become my morning ritual and one of the simplest ways I’ve found to start my day feeling calmer and more grounded.

I should say that I’m not talking about joining the 5am club or setting an alarm at some ridiculous hour because somebody on Instagram told me successful people wake up before sunrise. I’ve never understood turning peace into another thing we need to shout about. I simply love having a little bit of time before the kids get up and before I become all the different versions of myself I need to be throughout the day.

For me, that hour is less about productivity and more about arriving in the day before everybody else arrives in mine. Sometimes I make my ceremonial cacao and sit outside, sometimes I write or read a few pages of something and sometimes I do very little at all. I might watch the light change in the garden or just sit with my cup and think.

So much of modern life asks us to react from the moment we wake up. We open our eyes and immediately there is information waiting for us. Messages, emails, news, social media, calendar reminders, things we forgot to do yesterday and things we are already worrying about tomorrow. 

Now I try, whenever I can, to leave a little space before all of that begins, and this is where ceremonial cacao has become such an important part of my morning routine. There is something about preparing it that naturally slows me down. I chop it, warm it gently, stir it and wait for it to come together. By the time I sit down with my cup, I have already created a small gap between waking up and launching myself into the day.

I don’t always meditate and I certainly don’t always journal. I don’t have some immaculate mindful morning routine involving twelve different wellness practices before 7am because, quite frankly, who has the time? We’re constantly being told that we should be exercising, meditating, getting morning sunlight, eating protein, writing gratitude lists and cold plunging before most people have even found their slippers. If those things make you feel wonderful then absolutely do them, but for me the benefits of a morning ritual have never been about how much I can squeeze into it.

It’s really just about checking in with myself before I start giving my energy to everybody else. I notice whether I actually feel rested or tired, whether something is sitting heavily on my mind or whether I’m excited about the day ahead. There have been mornings where I’ve woken up anxious about everything and, after sitting quietly for a while, realised that nothing particularly terrible is happening. I’m simply tired, overstimulated or carrying too much. We move through so much of life on autopilot that sometimes we don’t actually know how we feel until we stop long enough to notice.

Making ceremonial cacao in the morning is my ritual, but yours doesn’t have to be. It could be making a coffee and taking it into the garden, walking the dog without headphones, sitting beside an open window for ten minutes or writing down whatever is going around your head. What you do matters far less than the space it creates.

Of course, it doesn’t look like this every morning. Sometimes I oversleep and sometimes I pick up my phone when I promised myself I wouldn’t. This isn’t about creating the perfect morning routine because I think that would completely defeat the point. I’ve simply found that when I give myself that little pocket of time, I’m less reactive, more patient and feel as though I’m meeting the day rather than spending the first few hours trying to catch up with it.

If you would like to experience one of those mornings with me, you can join us at 7am at Tooting Bec Lido for our Cacao & Sound Bath Morning. There is something very special about being at the lido before London has properly woken up. We begin with ceremonial cacao, take some time to slow down and then settle into sound together. It’s an early start, yes, but a rather lovely way to begin the day.

Join us for our next 7am Cacao & Sound Bath Morning on Thursday 24th September 

Love,

Gizelle x