You may recall that at the beginning of this month, I dared to imagine a different way to start the new year. My first New Year’s reVolution might have seemed simple, but this 50-year-old woman who has felt defined by the words “not a morning person” since the age of 12 considered it a genuine challenge.  Saying ”I am an early riser” felt like the abandonment of self, when the only thing I would really accomplish is a change in my Story.

In The Work of Byron Katie, I have been introduced to the idea that most of what I believe to be absolutely true about me is only a story I tell myself. Who would I be without these stories I tell: That I am fat, that I am lazy, that I am a procrastinator, that I hate mornings? The first question in the inquiry Katie teaches is simple, yet profound: Is it true? Was it ever true that I am not a morning person? Of course not! I arise at different times every morning, some earlier, some later. When I tell myself that I am not a morning person, all I do is make mornings more difficult for myself (and my poor husband).

And so I daily remind myself that I am an early riser. I set my alarm clock. And an interesting thing has started to happen. I now wake up on my own an hour before my alarm goes off. I still treat myself very gently in the  morning; I make sure my body is well fed, I take time to greet the day. As part of my preparation to rise, I have begun using my friend Jan Lundy’s wonderfully peaceful practice of morning gratitude (shared in the November ”Pocket of Peace” she wrote for Michigan Women’s Forum).

Most importantly, I do not wonder every day whether I will oversleep or sleep in, or how I will be able to stand getting up early one more day. Most importantly, I think differently about myself. I have a new Story.