Leaving Shacharit after Borchu is nonsense. If you're davening anyway, it's not so much longer with an efficient Minyan.
I wasn't. I meant it about a barebones shacharis: ברכות השחר at home, then a minimal פזוקי דזמרא at shul: ברוך שאמר, then because AIUI there is a מחלוקת about whether the one psalm one needs to say so פזוקי דזמרא is אשרי or Psalm 150, both; followed by ישתבח. Then the שמע and its ברכות, then the עמידה with הביננו and עלינו. This is the minimum that can go into a halachically valid shacharis; it's a little more than I ever said daily in the morning before I went into mourning, and also than I've said since I came out of it.
Being in mourning did not turn me into a frummer; if anything, the need to need to attend services three times a day every day without fail had the opposite effect. As for your "saying Kaddish is not a box ticking exercise", reaction to bereavement is a highly individual thing. For me saying kaddish was important, and it's not for you or anyone else to tell me how to lead my religious life.
Re: Kaddish
I wasn't. I meant it about a barebones shacharis: ברכות השחר at home, then a minimal פזוקי דזמרא at shul: ברוך שאמר, then because AIUI there is a מחלוקת about whether the one psalm one needs to say so פזוקי דזמרא is אשרי or Psalm 150, both; followed by ישתבח. Then the שמע and its ברכות, then the עמידה with הביננו and עלינו. This is the minimum that can go into a halachically valid shacharis; it's a little more than I ever said daily in the morning before I went into mourning, and also than I've said since I came out of it.
Being in mourning did not turn me into a frummer; if anything, the need to need to attend services three times a day every day without fail had the opposite effect. As for your "saying Kaddish is not a box ticking exercise", reaction to bereavement is a highly individual thing. For me saying kaddish was important, and it's not for you or anyone else to tell me how to lead my religious life.