Before the World wakes ~ no. 1

Why I wake up at 5:30am - and why I never want to stop

My paper republic journal (grand voyageur in cognac), cup of Every State coffee and mushroom blend, and the book I’m currently reading!

It’s early. The house is quiet. I’ve made myself a cup of coffee, climbed back into bed, and the world hasn’t woken up yet, it feels. No notifications, no information overload, no demands, no rushing. Just me, a journal, and the stillness of a morning that belongs entirely to me. This is my favourite hour of the day - and honestly, it’s what I look forward to every single night when I go to sleep.

If that sounds a little indulgent, I get it. When I tell people I wake up at 5:30am by choice, I usually get one of two reactions: either wide eyes and disbelief, or a slightly wistful “that sounds lovely” - quickly followed by “God I could never do that.” I used to feel the same way. This was never how my morning’s used to start.

A few years ago, my life coach at the time recommended a book called The Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits That Will Transform Your Life Before 8am by Hal Elrod. I bought it, read it, and something quietly shifted in me. The idea at the heart of it is beautifully simple: the first hour of your day, before the world expects anything of you, can completely transform how you feel - mentally, physically, emotionally - before the day has even begun. It introduced the six Life S.A.V.E.R.S (Silence, Affirmations, Visualisation, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing) and made a case for why the morning is the most powerful window of time we have…

I underlined almost every page. I recommended it to friends, to my mum. I felt this urge, this need, to share it. That book was the catalyst that started everything - though I had no idea at the time just how much my mornings would eventually become.

Fast forward five years of experimenting, adjusting, abandoning things that didn’t resonate, coming back to the ones that did - and my morning routine has settled into something that feels genuinely mine. On a typical weekday, I do three things.

First, I write morning pages. For those who haven’t come across Julia Cameron’s concept, it’s simply this: first thing in the morning, before you do anything else, you write three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing. No agenda, no editing, no expectation that any of it will be good or “right”. Sometimes I start with a prompt from The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad to encourage me to engage a little more creatively and outside-the-box. But most of the time I begin with whatever thoughts float to the surface. Or it turns into a dream journal. And sometimes, I start by writing “I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write” until something comes up. And something always does.

My handwriting in these pages is terrible too, by the way. That’s the point. It’s scruffy, it’s not trying to be perfect. It’s the one place I’m allowed to be completely messy - and there’s something so freeing and fun and real about that.

After that, I move. My yoga practice in the morning is slow and intuitive - I’m not trying to achieve anything or do anything impressive or reach a certain level of intensity. I’m just checking in with my body, moving in whatever way feels right that day. And then, at the end, I sit in meditation for a few quiet moments. I turn inward, get quiet, and let the noise of everything settle before I step into my day.

Cosying up with a book in bed is one of lifes simple pleasures <3

I want to be honest with you about what this has changed - because I don’t want this blog to be the kind of place where everything is polished and perfect and “look how well I have it together” kind of thing. I really, really don’t have it all together. Right now, I’m at a bit of a crossroads - in my career, in what I want my life to look like - and some mornings the pages are full of that uncertainty - that loud, neverending, swirling, restless feeling of not knowing what comes next and not having any of the answers. Just sitting in that stillness, sitting in those thoughts, and just giving myself the time and space to process and work through them, one by one.

But here’s what my morning routine has given me that I didn’t have before: a place to put it all down. Thoughts that used to live rent-free in my head - catastrophising, circling, keeping me up and awake and trapped in my head - now have somewhere to go. Somewhere to live. They’re in the journal, not in my mind. And that shift, as simple as it sounds, has changed how I move through the world.

People at work often tell me I’m calm in chaos. I go inward under pressure, hyper-focused mode is switched on, and I tune out the noise. I genuinely believe that capacity came from here - from years of starting each day by choosing, intentionally, how I want to feel. Before anyone, or anything else, gets a say.

So - why a blog? And why now?

I’ve always been fascinated by how other people begin their days. Not in a nosy way - in a genuinely curious, tell-me-everything kinda way. Especially creatives. Writers, artists, filmmamkers, musicians, painters. The people who show up to make things, to create, day after day, without anyone telling them to. How do they do it? What rituals help them find their way in? What does the first hour look like for someone whose life is built around creating and nurturing their craft?

I’ve had so many conversations with people - friends, clients, people in my community - where they say my morning sounds lovely, and I can hear the longing in it. Not necessarily to wake up at 5:30am (that part is genuinely optional), but to have something that’s theirs. A quiet corner of the day that belongs to them before the rest of it takes over.

This blog is my attempt to explore that - through my own experience, and through conversations with people who inspire me. Over the coming months, I’ll be interviewing creatives and people in my community about their daily morning routines: how they started, what they’ve changed, what they protect. And I want to share those conversations here, as a place for all of us to feel a little more inspired and a little less alone in trying to carve out intentional time for ourselves. A morning routine is not a productivity hack - it’s an act of self-authorship. A small, daily declaration that your inner life matters before the world makes its demands.

It won’t be perfect. It’ll be honest. And I hope it feels a little like meeting a friend for coffee and talking about the things that actually matter :)

Thank you for being here at the beginning. It means more than you know.

With love,

Ellie x