{"id":18225,"date":"2012-06-19T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T17:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=18225"},"modified":"2012-06-19T10:47:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T15:47:32","slug":"the-value-of-being-a-morning-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/the-value-of-being-a-morning-person\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value of Being a Morning Person"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There used to be a time when I would see mass schedules for various parishes and gawk at the 6:30 AM daily mass times. “6:30?? That would mean I would have to wake up at 5, maybe earlier! That’s still nighttime!” (I wish I could say I said that when I was a kid, but honestly, it was last month.)<\/p>\n

Morning people are an enigma to me. I have never been a morning person. When I was in elementary school, I couldn’t wait to get to middle school because they started an hour later than us. That extra hour seemed like such a luxury. And in college, the people who actually preferred 8 AM classes were very few and far between. Sure I might be able to get to class in time, but I never was able to wake up early enough to prepare myself a decent breakfast or do some homework.<\/p>\n

Every one has probably heard at some point the health benefits that a good night’s sleep provides<\/a>, but now there’s even word out that making smart use of early mornings is the key to success <\/a>for some people. I’m beginning to see why. I’ve experienced better overall alertness and energy the more I stick with getting up early. I’m still not a morning person, but now my morning routine is a habit drilled into my brain so well, that I don’t need to be entirely awake for the first half of it or so. Pleasantly, I’ve been able to realize that even weekends have benefited from early mornings, especially this time of year when the daylight hours are longer.<\/p>\n

But best of all is the effect it has had on my prayer life. Being able to have the time to stop and focus solely on God first thing in the morning before I let other worldly things distract me, even if it was for only 5 minutes, really helped me to stay focused on Him all day long. Traffic didn’t irritate me as much, I was nicer to strangers, and I had a smile on my face more often than not.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m not saying that you <\/em><\/strong>have to change your routine into that of a morning person’s, but I would ask that you consider reflecting on your habits and seeing if there isn’t some prayertime allotted in there somewhere. And if not, seriously consider what you would need to change in order for there to be some. Then, the most important step is to pray<\/strong> – pray for the grace you will need to change your habits, and ultimately yourself, into one that is more Christ-centered.<\/p>\n

Photo via Flickr<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There used to be a time when I would see mass schedules for various parishes and gawk at the 6:30 AM daily mass times. “6:30?? That would mean I would have to wake up at 5, maybe earlier! That’s still nighttime!” (I wish I could say I said that when I was a kid, but… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blog","category-faith-blog","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":185388,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/185388\/","url_meta":{"origin":18225,"position":0},"title":"The Prayers – 3rd Sunday of Advent","author":"William Rooney","date":"December 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Since we can learn much from what we pray day in and day out in our Liturgy it would be profitable for us to reflect more profoundly upon the prayers of each day. We should especially do this over the season of Advent which marks the end of one liturgical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Column"","block_context":{"text":"Column","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/column\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"photo by Lauren Gulde","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/advent-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":124952,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/parish-spotlight-st-peter-catholic-student-center-at-baylor-university\/","url_meta":{"origin":18225,"position":1},"title":"Parish Spotlight: St. Peter Catholic Student Center at Baylor University","author":"Elizabeth","date":"October 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another installment in the series called Parish Spotlight, which is dedicated to featuring the different parishes in the Austin Diocese. Today we will be featuring St. Peter Catholic Student Center at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. 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In a world that seeks to blur the lines of gender, we men seek to discover the wonderful gift and identity of our masculinity. God has blessed us with a unique and intentional role as men in world and Church. 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In this series, we hope to bring not just facts to your attention, but a sense of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Parish Spotlight"","block_context":{"text":"Parish Spotlight","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/series\/parish-spotlight\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_1009","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_1009-550x550.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_1009-550x550.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_1009-550x550.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":146944,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/sunday-says-podcast-september-6-2015-mass-readings-and-reflections\/","url_meta":{"origin":18225,"position":4},"title":"Sunday Says Podcast \u2013 September 6, 2015 Mass Readings and Reflections","author":"Steve Scott","date":"September 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday September 6, 2015 Lectionary: 128 \u00a023rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (NAB Translation) Welcome to the Sunday Says podcast for September 6, 2015, the twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time.\u00a0 Thank you for joining us as we break open the Word of God to prepare our hearts and minds for this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sunday Says"","block_context":{"text":"Sunday Says","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/podcast\/sundaysays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":186756,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/sunrise-dark-faith-advent-brightness-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":18225,"position":5},"title":"Sunrise: through the dark faith of Advent to the brightness of Christmas","author":"Shawn Rain Chapman","date":"December 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Traveling through Advent with grief this year has led to me to soul search about what Christmas is, and, in the process, to notice similarities between the journey of Advent into Christmas and the stages of the soul's progression into the heart of God. \u00a0According to Carmelite spirituality, \u00a0the soul\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"photo by Renee Bork","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/12016594_10205918857824426_849206572_n-550x413.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/12016594_10205918857824426_849206572_n-550x413.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/12016594_10205918857824426_849206572_n-550x413.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}