Are you struggling with keeping a consistent morning routine or thought of starting one but haven’t committed to it just yet?
Well, let me tell you, I began my morning routine and have been consistently doing it for months now and this small routine has helped me reduce stress before beginning my day. It takes discipline, dedication, and, of course, SELF-LOVE.
In this post I’ll be providing you with some tips that have helped me stay grounded, calm, and live a stress-free start to my day. Whether you’re just getting into mindfulness and wellness or looking to improve your own journey, these tips make it easy to vibrate higher in life.
Now, I know when we first wake up, we just rush out of our beds without even saying a Thank you for another day of life, because I did this. Yes, it may sound like something silly, but gratitude is everything and the more you are grateful for life, the more you’ll receive from life. When I say the more life will give you, this is where your morning routine comes into play and what your first thoughts are in the morning. Many of us wake up and we instantly check social media, our emails, text messages….
While there are others who wake up with their problems on their mind about what happened yesterday, what bills need to be paid, what you need to take care of at work, what am I making for breakfast, and so on…. YOU GET THE POINT!
These PROBLEMS are just memories of certain people, objects, and places, so the moment you start remembering your problems you are thinking about in the past, every one of those problems has an emotion associated with them. But this is something I’ll discuss in a later post.
When I say this routine has changed my life dramatically, I mean it. If you do this for 21 days, you will change your subconscious mind to your conscious mind, which will do this automatically without even having to think about it. You will create a new habit. What many of us don’t realize or know is that when you first wake up in the morning, your brain switches from delta waves, which occur in a deep sleep state, to theta waves, which occur during a sort of daydreamy state. The brain then moves to produce alpha waves when you are awake but are relaxed and not processing much information.
OK, enough about our brain and how we wake up because, like I said, I can speak about this in another blog post when the time comes, let’s get to those tips that I use for my morning routine that I believe may or may not help others.
FIRST THING….
Say something about GRATITUDE – it could be something as simple as a Thank you for another day of life, for your breath, for your vision, for your smell, etc..
Write three things you are grateful for in a journal. The power of gratitude is a great way to balance the mind, body, and soul. Mentally, you gain higher levels of positive emotions throughout your day.
Physically, you feel more refreshed when waking up. Socially, you become more helpful and compassionate when you remind yourself how great things really are.
SECONDLY:
This is what I do and you can do this if you like, is drink a glass of water or drink a water bottle. (I have one next to my bed already, it’s something I began incorporating at night). By drinking water immediately after waking up, your body is releasing toxins and replenishes the lost liquid, including (the liquids) you might have lost during the night. Your body absorbs water faster when your stomach is empty. Which, of course, who doesn’t want to release any unwanted toxins that are in your body.
Now let’s get to the next tips that I know will be helpful to begin a stress-free MORNING.
- Meditation
- Stretching and walking
- Visualize your day (or write down your goals)
MEDITATION:
For this, I recommend finding a quiet place in your home or if you live alone (no kids, no husband, significant other, you have no distractions in your bedroom), then by all means you can even do this in your bed.
I also recommend using headphones or AirPods, whatever you have to help reprogram your subconscious mind.
- Find a spot wherever you may be and sit cross-legged on the floor or your bed. You could even sit upright on the edge of a seat with your ankles crossed, whatever is comfortable for you.
- Set a timer for 10-15 minutes for a mediation of your choosing: below are some examples.
1. Mindfulness Meditation – repeat a mantra, count your in-inbreaths and out-breaths, or focus on the moment between each breath. This also falls as a guided meditation which you can find so many on YouTube (Some channels I usually listen to Abraham Hicks, Louise Hay or Boho Beautiful Yoga).
2. Iam Affirmation Meditation – a terminology that refers primarily to the practice of positive thinking and self-empowerment. There is a variety of IAM affirmations that are good for your mental health, for success, for happiness, self-love etc. I tend to do these twice a week in the mornings. For this I use some that I have saved on my Spotify and, of course, Youtube. Some channels that I use are Jason Stephenson https://www.youtube.com/c/JasonStephensonSleepMeditationMusic
You will find a variety of IAM Affirmations on this channel. I also listen to Louise Hay. This woman has become my favorite and an inspiration. Here is one of my favorite audio of hers. Her voice is so soothing and relaxing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj-1wF3muco
3. Gratitude Meditation – An affirmation of gratitude is a way for you to start and or end every day on a positive note. For this, I usually use Youtube (as you can see, Youtube is my best friend for meditation). Here is one I use more than any other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRnbKWapfEM
YOU CAN FIND WHATEVER MEDITATION YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO ON YOUTUBE. This platform is the best.
STRETCH OR GO FOR A WALK:
Now for this, it’s as simple as stretching your body in your own bedroom, living room, outdoors, wherever you want to do this, do this! It is very important to get your body moving in the mornings to remove any tension you may have from your sleep. I tend to walk my dog in the mornings after mediation to breathe in some natural fresh air (& plus he needs to do his business, of course, it’s a routine we’ve developed and share together).
VISUALIZE OR WRITE DOWN YOUR DAY:
I CAN NOT STRESS HOW IMPORTANT THIS SMALL ROUTINE IS!!!
Like I mentioned before, we tend to wake up and rush out of bed with all of our problems already on our mind.
Take at least 3-5 mins to visualize your day – if you don’t know how or what I mean by visualization, I recommend watching this video by Mel Robbins – The Most Powerful Visualization Technique to Manifest Anything You Want in Life (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxzMSH0bthM)
This technique has helped me visualize what I want my morning to be like from what my drive to work will be like, visualizing any meetings that I may have at work that day. I visualize that meeting and the people in it, how it will go, what I will say and so on. If you start your morning by complaining and thinking about the ultimate worst, then that’s exactly what you’ll experience. I know to many this sounds silly, but honestly, it is up to you if you want to give this a try. Your subconscious mind needs about 18-21 days to develop a new habit, it won’t happen overnight and you’ll want to give up. But like I said, this is something that if you put into work you’ll see results. I’m sure you’ve heard of manifestations and blah blah blah, some believe this and some don’t, but I can say that everything I visualized I manifested.
Side Note: The subconscious is highly influenced by both internal and external pictures, which is where visualization comes in. By taking the time each morning to visualize how you would like your day to go, you are building a memory bank that your subconscious will try to make a reality.
Summary:
Now this is my morning routine, but if you find something better that works for you, please do it on your terms and way, as well as drop me an email or message. I would love to hear what you have been trying and what has worked for you! Do NOT get discouraged if you miss a day or two on doing a morning routine when you start. What matters is that you continue to do it when you remember. I’m not here to tell anyone what works best or what doesn’t work best for a morning routine, but this is what has worked for me and if I could provide you with some of my experiences and tips, then why not share it with the world.
Please feel free to reach out. I would love to hear your morning routine or any feedback on what I’m doing is greatly appreciated.
Namaste.
Just for GP 