The Power of Dawn: Morning Puja for the Alternative Entrepreneur
Before the world rushes in with its reminders, invitations, its notifications and goddamn opinions, is a space in the day when we are most in touch with our subconscious selves.
We wake undefeated. We wake uncompromised. We wake, then, with perfect potential...and before reaching for the phone, or forming familiar phrases of self-reproach, or dropping into that deep and lonely well called habit, or orientating ourselves around The Man, we have space for something new.
I write all my posts, pretty much, on waking. My mind feels unpolluted, there is a stillness in the air. The failures, criticisms and compulsions of yesterday are the past. There is a freshness to my mind in the early morning that makes writing feel like transcription of some greater truths than my more diurnal mind could conceieve.
Ah but you have chores! There is the dog to feed. The car windscreen to de-ice.
Things can wait.
It's worth noticing, what happens when other, lesser things, than your own peace of mind - something to cherish for a few minutes or up to an hour - are made to wait?
When I lived in India, I adopted a puja ritual in the morning. It's a cleansing and spiritual ritual that I carried out in the deep days of despair that marked our unending lockdown there during Covid.
If you are looking for change in your life, for new ideas, habits and ways of meaning. Start with the early morning. Start with puja.
Begin with Fire: Morning Rituals for the Alternative Entrepreneur
There’s a reason so many traditions light a flame at dawn. A reason why we step into the new day with ceremony, even if that ceremony is simply sitting still with a cup of something warm. We are creatures who long to reorient, to begin again. And for those of us building lives that go against the grain — stepping away from toxic work, unlearning old notions of success, reaching for art, integrity, or healing — we need rituals more than most.
One of the gentlest and most transformative rituals I’ve found is puja.
Puja is often described as a devotional offering — a moment of reverence for the divine. This matters too, and I encourage you if you are not familiar with the doctries and traditions of traditional Hindu puja,often involving incense, water, flowers, cleansing rituals and mantras, to learn more and participate in a puja ritual, perhaps at a local temple or at a yoga camp.
But for a Western woman or man seeking spiritual re-grounding, puja can become a personal altar of intention. And it is this potential that I wish to explore with you all today.
A Morning Puja for the Alternative Entrepreneur
You don’t need much. A small space that feels safe. A shelf, a table, a windowsill. Place a candle there. Something from nature — a shell, a stone, a handful of rosemary. A photograph of someone you love or someone who inspires you. A handwritten word on a slip of paper — resilience, perhaps. Or softness.
When you wake, light the candle. Offer silence. Or whisper a question:
What do I serve today?
Where will I not betray myself?
Let the moment hold you, just long enough to remember that you have agency. That you are not a cog or a commodity. That you are in the long game of making meaning.
This ritual does not require you to believe in a god, only in the possibility of beauty. And it returns you to your centre, before the noise begins.
The Benefits of Morning Ritual
Puja slows you down. It teaches presence. You begin to relate to your work not as a burden or a list, but as a living practice — a sacred experiment in becoming who you are. This kind of ritual helps integrate the often-invisible work of healing, questioning, starting over.
It dignifies your day.
And once you have marked the beginning, you can move into your morning with clarity. This is where creativity comes in — not just art, but the creativity of choosing how to live.
Here are a few morning ideas, which I have developed to support some of the 12 focus areas of The Society of Alternative Entrepreneurs:
1. Redefining self-care as a life well-lived
Begin with the body. Step outside barefoot, if you can. Feel the temperature, the texture of ground. Let your skin meet air. Stretch without counting. Breathe without fixing.
Early exposure to natural daylight, even just 5–10 minutes, helps regulate cortisol, balance circadian rhythms, and support long-term mental health, according to Dr. Andrew Huberman. Let the light in. Let nature remind you that you're a living thing, not a machine.
How many of us miss out on five minutes of yoga because we do not have time for sixty minutes of yoga?
Enjoy your five minutes of gentle stretching, or powerful resonance in Warrior Two...as the mood of the day and the needs of your own body arise on this particular morning.