Force, flow & 5am
Robin Sharma talks about the benefits of waking up at 5am in his book, The 5AM Club. Image from Unsplash.
I've been wanting to join the 5am Club for ages now.
It was Robin Sharma who made getting up at 5am a ‘thing’ in his book, The 5AM Club.
There are all kinds of benefits to getting up at 5am. This early, your brain is in theta mode; that calm, receptive Zen state between dreaming and active-brain mode. The results can last all day: better performance at work and in life, greater proactivity and productivity, better circadian rhythm.
Sharma's version involves kicking off your day at 5am with 20 minutes of intense exercise, 20 minutes of reflecting on your goals, and 20 minutes of learning a new skill.
During covid, I was an honorary member of the 5am Club. While my version looked a little different from Sharma's (more on that another time), it was still a beautiful start to my day. My days felt longer, I felt like I'd achieved a lot and it was only 7am, and I was primed to spend time with my kids before school.
Then it changed
But after covid, my 5am wake-ups lost steam.
I tried using a few different coaching tools and shamanic energy practices to help me get back there.
I failed abysmally. Not only did I NOT get up at 5am, I started getting up progressively later.
It was almost as if a part of me was… rebelling. But against who? Myself?
Reality check
Regardless of who I was rebelling against, several things became abundantly clear:
A part of me does not want to get up at 5am.
What we resist persists.
Resistance is futile.
As I saw it, I had two choices. One: keep setting my alarm for 5am, keep hitting snooze and annoying my husband. Or two: stop banging my head against a brick wall and yield instead.
The art of yielding
Yielding is a skill I learnt when (briefly) practicing tai chi. It's a concept that infuses many different martial arts, and it's based on the idea of non-resistance.
Instead of resisting our opponent, we move with them. So if they make a move to punch us with their right hand, we move in the same direction as their right hand, ultimately moving out of the way. There's nothing for them to punch against, and they end up off-balance, potentially even falling over.
I also learnt a similar skill when I trained as a life coach with Gigi and Makena Sage.
Yielding isn't weak. In fact, it can take a lot of courage to admit that something isn't working – and to be willing to scrap it and start over.
When we yield to ourselves, we're accepting our current situation. We're going with the flow instead of fighting it.
We stop tightening, and space opens up. From here, new solutions and possibilities can drop in.
The view so far
In my case, the results so far involve disappointment, which I'm allowing myself to feel, and a sense of massive relief in my nervous system. I hadn't realised how much pressure I was putting on myself to make this work.
That's where I'm at. I'm curious to see what unfolds from here. I'll keep you posted!
How about you? Where in your life could you drop the resistance? Where in your life could you stop forcing… and start flowing?
3 takeaways from this post
There are a multitude of benefits to getting up at 5am and using the next hour of our time intentionally.
What we resist persists. When is it time to realise that you’re forcing it and that how you did it before doesn’t work now? How can you evolve what you do? Where do you need to interrupt the pattern.
There’s a lot of power in applying the martial arts skill of yielding to our lives and choosing to flow instead of forcing.
Are you ready for flow and ease in your life? I can help you find what’s blocking you and start magnetically attracting what you want in your life. Drop me a line if you’d like support, or book a transformational coaching or elemental energy session here.