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All my life I have been what you call a “Night Owl” - if is one I enjoy is sleeping - once there is an opportunity to sleep you will find me sleeping. If you’re a night owl and that works for you, I think that’s great. But for me, switching from being a night owl to an early riser has been a blessing. It has helped in so many ways, particularly in my daily productivity - that one of the reason why I will never go back being a night owl.

Here are just a few of the benefits:

Greet the day - Give thanks. I love being able to get up every morning and greet a wonderful new day. Whether rainy or sunshine - everyday I wake up is a blessing. I suggest creating a morning ritual, something uplifting that includes a small pray - thanking the lord for blessing you to see yet another day.

Dalai Lama once say,” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ “

Wonderful start. I used to start my day by jumping out of bed frighten, late as usual. I would always find myself rushing into the bathroom, no time to have a descent breakfast and get stuck in the later hour traffic. So I always walk into work late - looking rumpled, grumpy and barely awake. Not a great way to start your day. Now, I have changed my morning ritual completely, nowadays I get a lot more things done by 7 a.m…without all the rushing. I get into work ready for anything challenges that might during the day. There is no better way to start off your day than to wake early, in my experience.

Sunrise.People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereovision each and every day — the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors.

Productivity. Mornings, for me at least, are the most productive time of day. I like to do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions, before I check my email or blog stats. I get so much more done by starting on my work in the morning.

Breakfast. Rise early and you actually have time for breakfast. I’m told it’s one of the most important meals of the day. Without breakfast, your body is running on fumes until you are so hungry at lunchtime that you eat whatever unhealthy thing you can find. For me eating breakfast while reading my book and drinking a cup of herbal tea in the quiet of the morning is eminently more enjoyable than scarfing something down on the way to work, or at your desk.

Beat the rush hour traffic. No one likes rush-hour traffic. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and you get to enjoy the morning, and thus getting to work on time. Or better yet, work from home - use that extra time to read more or have breakfast with your kids before sending them of to school.

Are you early riser? If you’re…what are your early morning rituals.

For many of us, the ultimate goal in life is happiness (well I want to believe so).
Whether we see fulfillment in our work, contentment in our relationships, passion in our hobbies…we strive to find happiness.

And yet, this search for happiness can be a lifelong search, especially if we look at happiness as something that will come once we achieve certain goals or in today’s materialistic world we’re always looking to have the coolest things— a nice home, a perfect spouse, the ultimate promotion … and when we get these goals, instead of being happy, we often are looking forward to being happy when we meet our next goals.

Happiness should be here and now, who we are now, with the people we’re with now, doing the things we’re doing now, and it shouldn’t be something that happens to us in the future, maybe someday, if “things go well”. If we’re not with people who make us happy and doing things that make us happy … then we should take action to make that happen.

Taking action to do the things that make you happy, with the people who make you happy, and to be happy with the person you are now, that’s the simple formula for happiness.

(Disclaimer: this probably doesn’t apply, of course, to those who are clinically depressed or who have other similar medical conditions which I am not qualified to discuss.)

Don’t wait for happiness. Seize it.