Oh my goodness, hello there.
I turn 40 this summer. And as a present to myself, I’m devoted to finishing a book I’ve been working on for the last … 6 years that happens to be called 40 Early Mornings.
My own inner script starts to shout, “why are you so behind?!? why is writing this book taking forever for you? why are you so scared?!” (yikes, she’s an intense & blunt one, that self-critic!).
So instead, I choose to soften a bit. And open up instead of armor up and say to myself, “Wow. Things take the time they take. Like fine wine, baby — you’re neither a late bloomer nor an overnight success. You’re right on time, sweetie.”
And truly, the alignment of right time, right place, right version of me is all there: 40 Early Mornings published in my 40th year!
NOW, I am devotedly working to finish this manuscript. And WILDY grateful to all the amazing, talented women friends emerging in my life to say: “I’m cheering you on, this is how I can help.” (GOLLY what an abundance loop to be suspended in and I’m excited to pay all that goodness forward!).
So here’s where the Substack comes in!
This little sweet space I can’t seem to figure out because I want it to be a fancy-free writing hobby here without a business plan. But sometimes it just feels like an attractive distraction to writing my book instead.
And when I close my eyes and think deeply about what I want out of this year, it is CLEAR. It is birthing this book.
So here’s the plan for the Substack. It’s kinda brilliant, if I do say so myself.
But first let me tell you about 40 Early Mornings.
At the heart of 40 Early Mornings is the creation of your own daily practice.
I define practice as any solo, single-tasking, sacred time that you set for yourself to come back to yourself.
In 40 Early Mornings, I teach you my three-part framework for everyday practice so you can arrive into the present moment, increase your capacity for self-reflection and understanding, and move from THAT centered and grounded place into the rest of your day. And also, like, actually meditate for 40 days in a row! BOOM!
This is stress-management and burnout recovery meets a daily choice of presence and grace rather than than perfection and hustle. It’s realigning your time, attention, and energy with the truest sense of your own inner knowing.
And it doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. It can be simple! As simple as the breath that you are breathing right now.
40 Early Mornings is your tool kit, your wise counsel, your most encouraging friend of consistent accountability partner. A guidebook to yourself that you create yourself, every single day.
The opposite of a self-improvement plan, 40 Early Mornings is about becoming more of who you already are.
So the new non-plan plan for the Substack is to MIRROR the framework in 40 Early Mornings and share it with you here!
In the hope that you’ll both experience some immediate deep exhale / sigh of relief / amplification of grace and self-compassion in the moment you engage with the post AND (maybe?) … join the waitlist for the book! (See what I did there? The non-plan plan!).
Here’s the new framework for “Let’s Sit Together” — and these will land in your inbox every Monday morning. Really short and sweet. No-pressure, low-stakes invitations to just take a peak (from bed! in your parked car before work! on your walk!) into what a daily practice might mean and feel like for your life too.
Part 1: a teeny tiny essay that grounds you, plants a seed of shift and change and opening. Sometime to inspire and perhaps quiet the noise around you so you can start to listen inwards. For the Substack, these will be shorty short short essays I write IN REAL TIME. Not edited or polished (saving those for the book) but sparked from my own daily practice, the work I’m doing for the book, the state of the world around us, heck even the weather!
Part 2: I Socratic Method the heck out of you (can’t take the lawyer out of the meditation teacher it turns out!) — which means a reflection prompt, a QUESTION guided toward your own self-understanding, self-awareness, and self-sovereignty. You can journal about it. Take it for a walk. Text it to your bestie. Leave a response in the comments. Talk about it with your dog, whatever! Just noodle on it, babies!
Part 3: A guided meditation practice. This part is going beyond behind the paywall, chickens! It’s really simple, low-tech iPhone video form (see above). The tech will likely not improve… ever. Because the whole premise of 40 Early Mornings is that you can show up exactly as you are, you can start today, and not have to wait till “one day, when…” So I’m going to do the same ;)) THEY WILL BE 5-7 MINUTES LONG. If I can do it, you can do it. Promise. You’re going to go from “I can’t sit still!” to “I can’t imagine my Monday mornings without this!” Right? I think so ;)
I hope that “Let’s Sit Together” will become a simple, gentle “note to self” that you can rely on each Monday and perhaps set the tone for the week ahead.
Oh, and I hope you’ll share it with your people too if it turns out meaning something to you!
Ah, you’re the best.
Thank you SO much for simply BEING here!
SEE YOU MONDAY,
Cath xo
P.S. Here’s the 40 Early Mornings waitlist, if you’d like to be the first to know when it’s ready! thank you, thank you, thank you!
P.S.S. Consider me your meditation DJ. I love taking requests and creating real practices that meet real people’s needs. Leave a question, a curiosity, and theme in the comments to spark an upcoming post!
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