Morning Mastery For Your Nephesh

Around 400BC, a Greek philosopher you may have heard of called Plato formalised the idea that the soul and body are distinct, separate things that belong in different realms, the spiritual and the physical, and that paradigm has remained popular in Western culture to this day. This is actually in conflict with the ancient Hebrew worldview, which didn’t see the soul and body as separate and distinct but as one nephesh. Today, we learn what the word nephesh is and how it can transform our outlook on our mornings. We will look at Sacred Silence and how it helps us look up to the Divine. We'll look at three types of silence. Let's find out what they are.

Yesterday, we learnt about our nephesh, how we are a complete being, not just a body, not just a body with a soul, but the entirety of who we are is what we have to bring to this world. We put in our toolkit Sacred Silence. Your morning routine sets the tone for the rest of the day, so by starting the day in silence, it opens the opportunity for you to define what’s important as opposed to being in reactive mode immediately. We used our Sacred Silence to look up.
 Today, we are looking inward as we add our next tool to build our nephesh based morning routine, the Nephesh Assessment. During your morning routine, instead of simply ploughing on with the first thing on your list, take some time to check in with your nephesh. 
How are you feeling today? What emotions are bubbling up inside? What desires do you have? What is on your heart? How is your physical body feeling? What does it need? Let's do our first Nephesh Assessment together.

Stillness is great, silence is golden, but your nephesh needs more than quiet contemplation and spiritual connection. Your nephesh includes your body, which is built to move. On day 1, we looked up to the divine. We rested and received from above in Sacred Silence. Yesterday, we turned inward and implemented a Nephesh Assessment to see what it is our nephesh is saying to us. Today we add some movement and begin to turn our gaze from looking in, to preparing to look outward by adding Embodied Intention setting to our toolkit. Movement is a nephesh builder. When we move, it brings our whole nephesh together. Yes, we put our physical being to work, getting stronger, faster, more flexible, more balanced, but it is also beneficial for our mental well-being and our productivity and contribution to the world. 
Getting some element of movement into your morning routine is a necessary step towards mastering the morning. It can be anything. A brisk walk, a run, lifting heavy things and putting them down again, a stationary bike, an actual bike, karate, jumping rope, dancing indoors, dancing in the morning sun, some simple stretching, anything that means you’re moving your nephesh.
 Let’s start with some gentle stretching.

After today, you will have your final piece of the puzzle to craft your own morning routine and master your mornings for complete self-nephesh care. Then tomorrow we’ll tie it all together and structure the morning and give you the tools to craft your own version. When I first started my miracle mornings, I had a great routine of silence and affirmations and movement and journaling, but something was missing. That thing was connecting with others. I was connecting to myself, connecting with God, but it was all too easy to become too focused on myself. My days would revolve around me. Am I doing enough? Am I feeling connected enough, content enough? When I started looking outwards to those around me, to those in my community, I felt a completeness to my mornings. Looking out was the final piece of the puzzle.

Congratulations. You made it to the end. Well done. I’m proud of you! You’ve got almost all you need to master your morning, to prime your nephesh not only for the day but for a life well lived. Today, I want to weave all the tools together, create your first complete morning practice, and empower you with the right mindset to customise your practice to ensure that this becomes a lifetime practice that you can refresh, rewrite, and renew for years to come.