Morning Rise: Begin the Day Outside in Nature, in Connection and Creation

What happens when we begin the day outside in nature, in connection and creation?

The main anchor in my own evolution has been how I start my day.

Stepping outside in nature first thing, to ground, move, be still and create space before the day begins, has been my most profound practice.

More than that, it has become a pathway to the divine and a lifelong contemplation and sacred morning ritual I cherish so much.

From this personal exploration emerged a deep longing to share the practice and creation: the 7-day email journey Start of Day Connection + Creation, and more recently Morning Rise Club, a morning practice that I’ve started sharing with others.

Let me share the journey of how it all began.

I experienced a series of initiations for my morning adventures.

I remember facing that first stream of light as the sun rose through the clouds.
It felt like one of Earth’s greatest shows.

It was 2019.

I was living by Bondi Beach, sitting on the south side, watching the sun rise. I wasn’t alone. The beach was full of runners, movers, artists, contemplators.

Each of us there, waking up and witnessing the day come to life.

As I was going through some life changes and challenges, this made so much sense.

Most mornings I’d come, even if just for 30 minutes before work. I started recognising familiar faces.

I don’t blame us.

What better way to wake up?

About 5 years ago, I chose to exchange the city life of Sydney for simpler living in the countryside of Western Australia.

Back in the city, I was caught in a cycle of constant busyness, stress, and consumption. My mornings were led by the demands of modern life, leaving little room for a deeper connection with myself.

Where I was now, everything was new: a new place, a new environment, new people and a new job. Since absolutely everything around me had changed, I decided to change up my mornings too.

I started dedicating 1–3 hours each morning to myself, with no ‘consumption’ whatsoever in those first hours. No phone, no news, no external input.

Instead, I prioritised creating space to connect deeply with nature, myself, and my creative energy. I explored different elements to support me.

This is where I discovered barefoot walking, natural movement and morning pages journaling, and incorporated these into my morning practice.

With changes in habits, new sides of me emerged. I started experiencing more of:

🪷 closeness to my heart, my body, the earth and something bigger than myself.

🪷 a clearer connection with intuition and the subtle whispers within.

🪷 a creative energy and stream-of-consciousness writing.

🪷 being more in touch with my body’s needs.

🪷 less pushing, forcing and stressing at work.

When I moved back to Sweden in 2022 and into my apartment in Stockholm, everything had changed once again. I had left behind a life, or what felt like several lifetimes.

What supported me through this transition was what I came to call my morning temple.

Through the changing seasons, I kept returning there. Sometimes at sunrise, sometimes before, and sometimes after, depending on the time of year.

It became my anchor, as I took one step at a time, slowly finding my way back into life and discovering a new path forward.

I also made some stops in Madeira, where I continued the morning practice and met a soul connection that became a dear friend.

And then, one day, I came across a 1-year course in ecopsychology.

As I moved through the 1-year ecopsychology course The Earth is the Home of the Soul and its 5 phases over the last 12 months, I began to recognise many of the same movements that had already been unfolding through my own morning practice.

The language was new, but the experience felt deeply familiar.

Looking back, I can see how my morning ritual has become a simple, everyday way of exploring many of the same themes and our ecological self.

1. Into the wild: Stepping outside and reconnecting with the wild self through nature awareness, the senses, and the living world around us.

2. A psyche as vast as the Earth: As the senses awaken, so too can a feeling of belonging to something greater than ourselves, a sense of being part of life rather than separate from it.

3. Active Hope: Creating space for life to move through us and express itself, joy, grief, frustration, gratitude. Moving from forgetting, losing ourselves, and withdrawing, towards remembering, returning, and reconnecting with our own vitality.

4. The inner dimension of activism: Change that grows from relationship rather than obligation. Small steps forward, sideways, and forward again. Living the very qualities we long to see more of in the world.

5. Into Dreamtime (living our calling): Listening for what wants to emerge through us. Making space for creativity, intuition, and the quiet whispers that help us discover our own path.

I ended up choosing Morning Rise Club as my research project as part of the course.

I went once again to Madeira, and shared this practice as a twice a week communal activity with the digital nomad community in Ponta do Sol during my two months there.

This was the first time I was bringing the practice I had explored so deeply on my own into a shared space with others.

🎨 And now, I’ve brought the 7-day email adventure, Start of Day Connection + Creation, back.

It has been simplified and reshaped through what I’ve learned along the way, including my last year studying ecopsychology.

This journey is designed to help create moments of deeper connection with ourselves, nature, and our playful spirit and creativity. Join me here.

And as for Morning Rise Club...

It’s still evolving. I’m curious to see where this practice wants to go next, and there’s more to come. Follow along on the new Morning Rise Club Instagram account here.