Here is a glimpse into my morning ritual – aka – my daily artistic practice.
⏰5:55AM – Alarm goes off.
🌄6:00AM – Meditation and breathwork.
🧘6:05AM – Yoga and movement.
📕6:25AM – Journaling – setting the intention and specific (achievable) goals for my practice session.
🎶6:30AM – Vocal warm-up and practice session.
✍️7:00AM – Journaling – a short reflection on my practice session and review of my goals and intentions.
💪7:05AM – Boil the kettle for some tea and start the day.
I’m a busy mom, wife, and entrepreneur who LOVES structure.
For me, my artistic practice needs to be the first moments of my day and it must follow a specific routine.
It’s lovely to start the day with a few quiet moments doing what I love.
I am also a voice teacher and arts educator who needs to be in good vocal health for my teaching day.
As I’m sure you noticed, my artistic practice is not simply “singing”. There is so much more to it and it goes much DEEPER than a few vocal warm-ups.
Here are a few core components…
➡️ Connecting with my breath and focusing my mind is paramount (cue: meditation and breathwork).
➡️ Moving, stretching, and bringing awareness to the entire body is extremely important. As artists, our entire being – the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual – is involved in the artistic process (cue: yoga).
➡️ Stating THOUGHTFUL and SPECIFIC goals and objectives is the key to success and forward momentum (cue: journaling).
➡️With this level of focus and awareness, I’m ready for a productive and fully engaged practice session (cue: singing).
➡️I end my practice session with a short reflection in my journal. This reflection allows me to document any feelings, frustrations, challenges, or “aha” moments. I can also check-in and see if I reached my specific goals and suggest goals for the next day.
There are days when my artistic practice may look a little different (we are human after all, consistently evolving and adapting), but this is the ritual that I love and have learned to crave each morning.
It brings me great joy and satisfaction to start my day in this way. I start each day feeling calm, focused, and accomplished.
Action PRECEDES motivation, so creating a daily ritual or routine that is meaningful to you can be really powerful and transformative.
What does your artistic practice look like? I’m curious to know!
If you need help creating a daily artistic practice that you love, I may be able to help. Send me a message.
Keep singing,
~Andrea “focused and determined” Donais