Ten minutes, five segments. Everything else here winds down; this one has to wind up. Watch your voice at the close.
Before the phone
1 min 30[gentle but already awake — think of the voice you'd use making tea for someone, not the one you'd use at bedtime]
Good morning. Ten minutes before the day starts asking you for things.
Sit up rather than staying flat — on the edge of the bed is fine, a chair is fine. Sitting up matters more than usual today, because we're going up, not down. [pause for 15 seconds]
If you've already looked at your phone, that's alright. Put it face down and we'll start from here.
Waking the body
2 min 30[actual movement, not visualisation — this is what separates a morning practice from an evening one]
Roll your shoulders backwards a few times. Properly, so you feel it across the top of your back. [pause for 15 seconds]
Open and close your hands ten or twelve times, and turn your head slowly to each side. [pause for 20 seconds]
Now three breaths, and unlike most breathing you'll be asked to do, make the in-breath the big one. In through the nose, fully. Out easily. [pause for three full breaths]
Feel your feet on the floor. That's the first thing you'll stand on today. [pause for 15 seconds]
The day, without planning it
2 min 30[hold the line here — the listener will start making a to-do list, and the instruction is specifically not to]
Let the day come to mind. Not as a list — we're not planning it, we're just looking at its shape. Where you'll be, roughly, and who's in it. [pause for 20 seconds]
Notice if there's one thing you're already braced against. Most mornings there's one. You don't need to solve it now — just note that it's there and that you spotted it before it ambushed you. [pause for 20 seconds]
And notice if there's something in the day you're actually looking forward to, even a small one. A coffee with someone. A task you like. Fifteen minutes on your own. [pause for 20 seconds]
One thing
2 min[firm and specific — vagueness here means they'll forget it before breakfast]
Now choose one thing. Not a resolution, not an intention for how to be — one concrete thing you will actually do today that you'd be pleased about this evening.
Small is better. Send the message you've been putting off. Walk at lunchtime. Finish the one task rather than starting four. [pause for 25 seconds]
Say it to yourself once, as a plain sentence with a time attached. Not “I should”. “After lunch, I'll…” [pause for 20 seconds]
Up and out
1 min 30[full normal speaking voice from the first line — brisk, warm, done; the listener should want to stand up]
Right. One more full breath in, and this time let it wake you up rather than settle you. [pause for one full breath]
Open your eyes if they were closed. Have a stretch — arms up, all the way, the kind you'd do if nobody was watching.
That's it. You know the one thing. Go and have the day.