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Good morning. Yesterday In a business newsletter from the Times the entrepreneur Kim Morrish described her daily routine. She starts with This begins with positivity, making time to express gratitude and set her intentions for the day. In the evening she reflects on the day’s highlights, and writes down what she has learnt. The evening time is harder because it means confronting things that went wrong, or as she puts it, ‘looking backward to move forward’. She believes that building ‘regret’ time into her day has made her a more humble and compassionate leader. And what is good for people is good for business.

There’s lots of this kind of advice for people seeking to be successful at the moment. Start the day afresh, end the by learning is lessons. Even my watch is into it, prodding me to remember to wake up and go to sleep, to reflect and breathe in a mindful way. The aim is to find balance and equilibrium. But I have to say sometimes it can come across as nag, nag, nag, not helped by the fact that Siri has somehow misconnected with my watch and insists on addressing me as ‘Potato’.

Of course there is wisdom in trying to build good rhythms into our lives. Chaos is rarely conducive to sanity. Most of us can see the common sense in looking backward to move forward and starting a new day with gratitude.

I have to admit though, that I sometimes find the relentless emphasis on self-improvement that comes from this kind of secular spirituality makes me rather depressed. I simply don’t have infinite resources of well-being within myself. And I do sometimes, forget, get distracted, overwhelmed, ignore the advice.

Clergy in the Anglican tradition are meant to observe a rhythm of prayer by praying every morning and evening and there are many faith traditions which have similar patterns. We sing a hymn if we’re up to it, recite psalms, listen to scripture, pray for the needs of the world and for ourselves. It all takes about twenty minutes. And it is not all upbeat. Today’s psalm speaks of the torrent going over our souls and today’s reading of a fiery ordeal taking place among us. And we are meant to be present to all this, present to ourselves, to one another and if you believe in God, to God. The writer Annie Lamott once described a friend whose morning and evening prayer was extremely minimalist, summing up her practice like this: Morning Prayer….whatever. Evening Prayer…oh well. In Mental Health Awareness Week it’s important to remember that life is hard, and we need realism as well as hope. And we shouldn’t feel guilty if ‘Whatever’ and ‘Oh well’ is the best we can do.

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