Cultivating Solitude | How to Heal Part Three
Welcome to part three of my How to Heal series.
You can find parts one and two here.
Throughout this series, I’ve maintained that healing is solo work, so today’s topic shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s all about cultivating solitude.
Purposeful solitude isn’t something that just happens.
It’s something you create. (My fellow moms know what I’m talking about.)
If you’re going to make progress on healing, you need to check in regularly with yourself. Healing is self-awareness, self-love. It’s just you and you. So you need to cultivate solitude.
I find my solitude in the mornings, and make it ceremonial. I want to look forward to it, and when I make it a beautiful experience, it makes me look forward to waking up every morning.
My favorite way to intentionally create a routine is to involve all the senses.
I like to awaken all of them gently, beautifully, and alone.
Here’s how I invoke hearing into my routine:
I wake up gently with the Hatch alarm.
The very first thing I do is put on my headphones and turn on one of my personalized Spotify playlists. I keep my headphones on throughout my entire morning routine.
Here’s how I connect to touch during my morning routine:
I am not someone who rolls out of bed and gets dressed in a whole ensemble. I want to be comfy! But there is something about when you physically wear something nice, you feel better. So don’t just wear yesterday’s athleisure. Intentionally choose clothes that help you comfortably transition into the day!
Get yourself some nice pajamas. Here are a couple of my favorite cozy clothes:
Alright, taste. Who doesn’t love taste?
Here’s how I incorporate taste into my morning routine.
My espresso maker! I’d rather have one cup of excellent espresso compared to a whole pot of just so-so coffee, so this espresso maker is perfect for me.
This is my favorite espresso and for my favorite espresso cup, I love using a glass espresso cup (I’m all about aesthetic— this is supposed to be a cultivated time, right?) But I also love ceramic ones like this black one or this more modern cup.
Now, let’s talk about sight. I said that aesthetics matter to me. Even before the sun rises, I care about how things look. It’s just who I am.
So my entire morning routine setup has to be visually appealing.
So what I did is I found a spot in my home. Keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be big. For me, its my smaller couch and glass coffee table. I keep my favorite lamp next to it. I’ve got my favorite cozy blanket nearby. I have my incense on the coffee table.
Even my journal is aesthetically pleasing, so it stays on the coffee table with my favorite pen and doubles as a coffee table book. What I love about this journal is you can buy these refills. When you’re done with one journal/refill, it just has a pretty black spine so you can display it on a bookshelf and no-one would know its’s your journal.
Finally, smell.
Palo Santo is an essential component to my morning routine, because of how it makes me feel but also for how it smells. Here are all of my Palo Santo ingredients.
Incense:
Not everyone is into incense, I get it…here’s my favorite candle as an alternative.
Finally, the secret to successful curated time alone is preparation. My morning routine actually starts with the night before. I find if I have everything ready the night before - my journal and pen ready, my fresh incense in place ready to burn, my espresso machine filled with water, my cup sitting beside it ready to be filled, the house clean, I start my day with no clutter. It’s visually welcoming to walk into, and it’s mentally clarifying.
Create the space to heal and cultivate a morning routine that clarifies and fills all your senses.
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Find all of the How to Heal series blog posts here.