Inspiring familiarity in the unknown with creative time
Good Mornings to Good Nights is a set of activities created to inspire positive experiences of being surprised into unsurprising moments of the day. Combining familiarity with the unknown, by adding small joys to daily routines, activates our inner strength and energy. This vitality sustains our personal momentum throughout unfamiliar, inflexible, and inconsistent lifestyles. To find the meaning in creative time, visit the source.
Before you begin…
To animate this set of activities, read one through then take a deep breath. Take your time to imagine how you would do it differently. Try it out! Then try another!
As we continue adding small, joyful surprises to our ready-made routines, we naturally begin to look forward. What surprise will this time of day bring? We begin to expect and enjoy the unknown while creating new possibilities we can turn to in our everyday lives. Balancing duty of care with dignity in risk is an art, just like wisdom. It’s a creative being that uses time and space in new, exciting, and rewarding ways.
There’s no right or wrong way and there’s no one way to do it. Please feel free to send your reflections to the creative co-pilot below for personalized possibilities moving forward.
Stephanie Butchart
TEM Founder and Inspiration Lead
stephanie@theellismethod.com
Good Mornings
Inspire a good morning by having a good morning.
Rise and Surprise! Beginning each day with a smile, a warm hello, and sweet conversation over a hot drink inspires a good morning, whether alone or with care. Interactions that support optimistic choices for the day ahead reassure us that the pace is ours to set. Looking at the calendar sparks positive expressions about the future and enhances a natural morning resiliency with something to look forward to in the day ahead.
Possibilities for small joys to bring surprise during morning routines could be…
- Adding music to create the mood you’re searching for
- Maybe uplifting sounds for happiness ahead?
- How about energizing tunes for movement ahead?
- Could it be soothng music for difficulty ahead?
- Add morning surprises with music styles that suit who you are, and how you’d like to feel
- Adding special meaning to create a focus for the day
- Is it a time for celebration?
- Is there a curiosity we’d like to uncover?
- What theme could we give today?
- Add morning surprises by highlighting a single purpose throughout the day
- Adding gratitude to create a blissful beginning to the day’s events
- Add morning surprises by finding a reason to smile each new day
Sparking creativity in the ordinary starts our day off on the right foot, no matter what side of the bed we started on. Note down what small, surprising joys inspire the desire to get-up-and-go each new day. We can turn to these on difficult and uninspiring mornings.
Good Days
Inspire a good day by having a good day.
Keep it up! Enhancing the way we eat is different for us all. Uplift a natural relationship with lunchtime by supporting the role of the guest, the host, the help or a combo. Setting a table for one, participating in meal preparation and cleaning up the area after brings a full experience when eating alone and supports complete enjoyment no matter the number.
Possibilities for small joys to bring surprise during daytime routines could be…
- Adding a new gesture to create enjoyment in the eating experience
- Change up what we use; tablecloths, dishes, napkins
- Change up the scenery; add a candle, the radio, or pictures
- Change up the atmosphere; new locations, people, or style of food
- Add daytime surprises in making small but noticeable differences
- Adding our senses to create an influential mid-day experience
- Add daytime surprises with new feelings and emotions
- Adding pick-me-ups to create afternoon momentum
- Give and receive compliments
- Add a pop of colour to the afternoon
- Learn something new
- Add daytime surprises by stimulating a sense of refreshment
Sparking creativity in the ordinary keeps our day on the right track, no matter how it started. Note down what small, surprising joys inspire the spring in your step throughout the day. We can turn to these on difficult and uninspiring days.
Good Nights
Inspire a good night by having a good night.
Call it a day! When dinner is done and the dishes are away, we ease into a good night to end a good day. Good nights inspire sweet dreams, restful sleeps, and resilient mornings. As the day goes on and eyes grow tired, a nightly expression brings us into a dream-like state to mimic the release of falling asleep. We find relaxation in connecting to wonder.
Possibilities for small joys to bring surprise during evening routines could be…
- Adding reflection to create a rewarding day’s end
- Add evening surprises with new ways to end the day in a positive frame of mind
- Adding beauty to create pleasure in the sleeping experience
- Play instrumental music or natural sounds
- Find something to please the senses
- Daydream for dreams to come
- Add evening surprises by bringing a light into the night with pleasing aesthetics
- Adding imagination to create an ease into bedtime
- Add evening surprises when gently transitioning from being awake to falling asleep
Sparking creativity in the ordinary keeps our day ending on a high note, no matter how the rest went. Note down what small, surprising joys inspire the desire to keep the zest in your life as another day ends and the next begins. We can turn to these on difficult and uninspiring nights.
