The Importance of a Morning Routine
Each morning we are given the opportunity to set our day up for success and show up as our best selves.
It’s 6:30 am, your cellphone is playing some stressful chime for the second time now as you’ve slept through another snooze cycle. Reaching for your phone, you see notifications pop up from last night through this morning. 5 instagram notifications, a few texts from friends (including one long paragraph about a date gone wrong), and some work emails. Which route to take to start the day? You can either slide down the rabbit hole of memes and body comparisons on instagram, live vicariously through your friend’s experience probably leaving you feeling empathetic or comparing your not so active dating life, or you can enter office-mode before you even left your bed.
Stop. Right. There.
Does anyone else see what is wrong with this picture? Is your blood pressure already elevated thinking about how relevant this is to your high-stress morning? Let’s back track. The morning is a sacred time, the bedroom is your sacred space. Iphones came into the picture and it’s like we put the love-blinded goggles on for this device that is taking over our lives. I’m not here to rip apart cell phones though (although we really do need to establish some space in that relationship), but I am going to preach about the importance of a morning routine.
Each morning we wake up, we are given the opportunity to set our day up for success and show up as our best selves. Think about it. Each and every morning is another blank canvas, a reset that is given to us as a gift each and every day. In one minute, this gift can be hijacked by reading the news, texting friends, or seeing a full inbox before the clock reaches 7 am. Here is where your unique routine comes into play. YOU are able to choose a different path where you can decide the productivity pace of the day, which in turn will keep your mindset balanced and happy.
Creating habits that contribute to balance will start us off on the right foot.
The issue here is that many people feel they do not have time for a self-care morning routine. Instead, the routine consists of jumping out of bed after 3 alarms, half reading emails while you brush your teeth, then running through the door to have enough time to grab a cup of coffee before you get into the office. This is a fast-paced, brain scrambling way to start off on a stressful foot.
(For those of you that wake up for a workout before your day, more power to you- this is a start!)
The importance of a morning routine is so beneficial that it should be something uncompromisable. It sets the tone for the entire day, allowing you to tap into yourself and make healthy, confident decisions. As most living organisms run on cycles, our 24-hour cycle is called the Circadian Rhythm and is responsible for balancing out our eating, sleeping, and psychological processes. Within this balance, our will power is at it’s highest after our sleeping cycle is over. We use this willpower throughout the day and by the evening it is at it’s lowest level, which is why many people are inclined to make less healthy and rational decisions in the night. Knowing this, we can take advantage of our strong awakened willpower to make change for the better throughout the day.
Let’s discuss some suggested ways to change your morning routine:
Do not Disturb is your best friend. Starting our day sifting through notifications is the number 1 way for us to shift focus from ourselves and look at every external factor as more important. Try switching the phone to do not disturb while you sleep, this way you can still have your alarm but you are not bombarded with notifications on your screen.
What is your Why? Ask yourself “why do I wake up?” What is the motivation behind each start of your day and what you plan to do within it. This can be to provide for your family, to pursue your passions that are finally forming into a reality, or you’re striving for a change in your current situation. Identifying why you do or think certain things in your morning will automatically allow you to see how you feel about what you do, and can either motivate you to move forward or motivate you to change it.
Practice Gratitude. Whether you write down a list of 5 things you are grateful for or envision some people or experiences in your life that bring you joy. Starting your day with this practice is extremely powerful and will force you to focus on the positive energy in your life that contributes to your happiness. It also will motivate you to continuously strive towards attaining these things/people/experiences.
Get Moving. **You don’t need to haul ass to the gym at 5:30 am for this!!** The American College of Sports Medicine Health and Fitness Journal came out with a study in 2013 about a 7 minute HITT workout reaping extremely healthy benefits. This small burst of exercise improves cardiovascular health, lowers levels of anxiety and depression, increases circulation, and jump starts digestion. You are also essentially moving stagnant energy out and circulating new energy into your body and mind.
My Morning Routine:
7:00 am Wake up/ Morning stretches in bed and on floor
7:20 am Make a cup of lemon ginger water
7:30 am 7 minute workout
7:40 am Meditate and read a passage of Oneness with All Life by Eckhardt Tolle and reflect
8 am Shower (preferably cold or end with cold)
8:10 am Finish getting ready/ make breakfast/ head out for some yoga and start day
You can start off small and just set your alarm 20 minutes earlier than usual to meditate or journal, do 7 minutes of movement (can include dancing!), and start the day :)
The healthy decisions to start your day off right does not stop there! Accommodate these mindful practices with some mindful eating/drinking as well. A cup of lemon ginger hot water is beneficial for digestion and rehydration (insert link here). Tea or coffee can be sipped slowly as you read 5 pages of a book or journal 5 things you are grateful for. Breakfast (if you do not practice intermittent fasting then it’s lunch) should be full of fiber, healthy fats, and wholesome ingredients to start you off with long lasting, slow releasing energy.