The Wild

Daily writing prompt

What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?

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For the last two years I have more or less lived the life of a digital nomad. At present I’m in Colombia, but things are always changing. Such is the nature of life, the universe and everything.

Here are the tasks that I try to do every morning.

• Make the bed. I have a whole philosophy about this 🙂
• Hygiene – brush my teeth, shave, shower if necessary etc.
• 350ml of water
• Stretching
• Breakfast (if not fasting)
• Walk/exercise + sunlight (15 minutes min)
• Coffee

The above are pretty easy to achieve. Below are a couple of extras that I try to work into my routine. They are more specific to the nomadic life I am currently engaged in.

• Practice my Spanish – I have been using Spanish transfer and Duolingo. I think this is best done in the morning when I am fresh.
• Social interaction – this one is difficult when you are not fluent in the local language. I believe that interacting with another human being in the morning is healthy and good. This becomes more apparent when you are solo traveling and can easily go days without having a conversation.

Below are a couple of things that I would like incorporate or be more consistent with.

• Meditate for 30-60 minutes
• Read for 15 – 30 minutes.

That is the basics.

I DO love it when I can adapt the routine to the place I am currently at.

For example: About two blocks away from where I live there is an elderly man who gets up every morning and squeezes fresh orange juice, which he sells from the front of his home. At one time I imagine he had a very nice front yard. That is until the overpass was put through it. Now his front porch is encased in an iron cage (for his protection) and his view has been replaced with a wall of concrete, and persistent vehicle exhaust. On the upside he gets allot of foot traffic as the overpass has no pedestrian walkway on it.

The juice is great, he is friendly, and we have a good arrangement.

I get up, complete my normal tasks, but then instead of breakfast I walk down to see my juice dealer. He is always happy to see the gringo coming to buy his goods, and we have a short and pleasant exchange. I pay about $0.75 for a cup of juice that would cost me $8.00 in Canada. After the cash is in hand he passes me the juice through the bars.

Its great. We are both happy with the exchange, and I manage to get 1)My 15 minutes of exercise + sunlight 2)Breakfast 3)Spanish practice 4)A little bit of social activity. Talk about efficiency 🙂

Stay Wild!