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I have never been a morning person. For the first thirty years of my life, I was a roll-out-of-bed-with-just-barely-enough-time-to-get-ready-and-grab-breakfast-to-go kind of person. Once I challenged myself to establish a solid morning routine, that all changed. I now get up hours before I need to be at work and feel ready to take on the day by the time I sit at my desk. You can start the day with confidence and energy as well – I’ll show you how!
Meditate
The first thing I do when I roll out of bed is head to my meditation pillow. I find that meditation helps to ground me, which is a great way to kick off the day! Meditation focuses on the breath which carries prana – the Hindu word for life-giving energy – throughout every cell of your body. What a great way to wake up, eh??
Now, you don’t have to have a dedicated pillow to sit on to make this effective. You can sit on the floor, in a chair, on the couch, out on your deck, in the yard, wherever! But I do suggest sitting upright rather than lying down. I’ve attempted the lie-down method many times. While it may seem like a good way to ease yourself out of sleep and into the day, I can guarantee you’ll just feel ready to climb back in bed (if you aren’t already lying there). So, sit up straight and alert to encourage energizing yourself!
I've never meditated before – help!
If you’re new to meditation and have no idea what to do past closing your eyes, don’t stress! Meditation can be as simple as taking several deep breaths through your nose. Just focus your awareness on the air flowing in and out of your body.
Guided meditations are also incredibly helpful for both the new and seasoned meditators! I use an app on my phone called Insight Timer. Not only does this app have guided meditations, but it also has – you guessed it – a timer! You can set the timer for however long you want to meditate and get to it! When I first started out, I set interval bells to chime every minute or two. When my mind would wander off, the bells would gently bring me back to the present moment.
If Insight Timer isn’t for you, there are other similar apps you could try. Or, simply find a guided meditation, or soothing music, on Spotify or YouTube!
“It is about anchoring your consciousness to the present moment, being fully awake in your body, aware of your thoughts, and surrendering to stillness. The purpose of meditation is simply to cultivate a quiet consciousness from which your emotions and intellect can flow.”
Baron Baptiste – Journey Into Power
Gratitude
After sitting in the stillness of meditation, I reflect on things I am grateful for. I mentally review the previous 24 hours and write down at least 5 things in my journal. It could be something small like “A good cup of coffee” or “A pleasant conversation with my mail carrier,” or it could be something more large scale like, “I paid off my car loan!”
I try to avoid general statements like “My health”. If I happen to be feeling particularly grateful for my health that day I dig into why. Be specific. “I am grateful for my habit of moving my body every day, because it boosted my immune system and I was able to kick this cold really quickly!”
Write your gratitude down in a journal. There is something really powerful about seeing it on paper – like it gets solidified as more than just a fleeting thought. Also, I’ve found that when I open my journal and see my list from the day before, it accelerates me into that gratitude mindset immediately.
I challenge you to come up with at least 5 things, but by all means, add as many as you can possibly think of!
Intention
Take some time during your morning routine to set your intentions for the day. Every single morning I write down the dreams I have for my future and the goal(s) I am working on at the moment. I write the same list every single day until I reach one of those goals. Then, I replace the completed goal with a new one!
This may sound ridiculous, but it is like making a written vision board every morning. Reminding myself every morning of the direction I’m headed helps me set my intention for how I need to show up throughout my day to get me closer to my dreams.
By this time, I am pretty fired up and feel solid in my intention for the day. With this motivation, I fill out my daily planner. I write down the most important tasks I need to accomplish that day and plan out when they will get done. Very often something will interfere with my plans and I’ll have to re-arrange my schedule. That's not a problem though! Having a plan laid out helps me to get right back on track after the distraction!
Move your body
Move. Your. Body. If you were only going to choose one thing to incorporate into your day, this would be what I recommend. I can’t stress enough how important this is.
You don’t necessarily have to go to a gym or fitness studio to get a workout in – although those are great options! Throw on some shoes and go for a run or walk in your neighborhood, log in to Beachbody On Demand and pick a workout out of the hundreds they have on file, find something on YouTube, or just roll out a mat and do some sun salutations (that’s a yoga term if you’re not familiar ;))
You are your own power plant.
I’ve heard my homegirl, Rachel Hollis, talk about our body being like a power plant (she didn’t originate this idea, but I can’t remember who she said she heard it from). Basically, the idea is that a power plant doesn’t just have energy, it makes energy. And so does your body.
Getting your heart pumping and your blood circulating builds momentum and propels you into the day at full speed! I’ve always been someone who worked out most days, but always in the evenings. I thought I was better off working out later in the day because my body was already warmed up a little from being awake all day.
I was right. And wrong. Sometimes my morning workouts do feel a bit sluggish to start, but the benefits I feel for the rest of the day far outweigh those few minutes of doing jumping jacks while still half asleep.
When you move your body, you change your mind. It is so easy to wake up and feel overwhelmed by everything that needs doing that day. But I promise you that moving your body for 30 quick minutes will help you to get out of your head and ground yourself back into your body. You’ll start the day feeling strong both physically and mentally!
Go to bed earlier
But I thought this was a morning routine? You might be asking. Yes. It is. And I suppose that technically this is part of my evening routine, but going to bed early is essential for setting me up for morning routine success. You see, to get all of these things in before I dive into the rush of the day, I have to get up early. But getting up early doesn’t mean I am sacrificing sleep to get everything in.
Since I’ve instated this morning routine, I’ve started getting in bed by 9:00pm and sleeping by 10:00pm. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out, but that's what I shoot for anyway. I’m sure you’ve heard that sleep is one of the most important factors to ensure you’re energized throughout the day a million times before, but it took me thirty years of hearing that for me to actually take it seriously. So please consider this your gentle reminder to get your booty to bed at a decent hour!
If you want to give going to bed early a try but are used to being a night owl, you may struggle a bit at first. Don’t be discouraged! I have some tips on falling asleep too! I only do a couple of these almost every night, but each has proven to help me fall asleep.
Tips For Falling Asleep
- Diffuse essential oils – lavender oil, frankincense oil & cedarwood oil is my favorite blend.
- Sip herbal tea – chamomile, lemon balm
- Listen to soft instrumental music – insight timer sleep music, have Alexa play soft classical (Christmas Peaceful Piano Spotify playlist is my go-to!)
- Put a pillow under my knees
- Read before bed – a physical book, not on a phone or computer
- Weighted blanket – it is like a big giant hug
- Journal to help empty your mind of whatever thoughts are keeping you awake.
Space
Have a designated “sacred space.” It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just somewhere that invokes peace. Preferably minimal clutter. This could be a comfy chair in the living room, a seat at the kitchen table looking into the backyard, a rocking chair on your porch, etc.
My sacred space is a corner of the spare bedroom. I have a little tabletop zen water fountain, a Himalayan salt lamp, crystals, my meditation pillow, pens, and my journal set up in this area. I’ve also put my vision board low on the wall so when I open my eyes after meditating it is the first thing I see!
Ease into it
If you’ve gotten this far, you may be completely overwhelmed and feel like you need to get up at 3:00 am and start implementing this whole checklist of techniques. Please don’t be! Like I mentioned at the beginning, I was the opposite of a morning person for a very long time. It took me years and years just to make morning workouts part of my regular routine.
If you want to start the day off with a bang, set your clock 15 minutes earlier than usual. Pick one of the above items and do it for 3 weeks. Whichever one speaks to you! It has been said that it takes 3 weeks to create a habit. Check-in after those first few weeks and make tweaks as you need to. Once you have made that a habit, add a little more time and maybe another option! Work up to an hour or more!
Give yourself grace
I started with working out in the morning. It took me months before I started getting up regularly to workout. In the first 6 weeks, I only was successful once or twice a week. Changing your habits is not an easy feat! Give yourself grace on the days when you just can’t seem to get it together or you oversleep and can only manage 1 minute of meditation. Don’t beat yourself up, just show up tomorrow and try again.
Show up for yourself
And lastly, just show up for yourself. The more promises you keep to yourself first thing in the morning, the more likely that routine will continue throughout the day. If none of these options work for you, that’s fine! Find something true for you – something that lights you up – and follow through.
By establishing a solid morning routine, you are creating a foundation for you to stand on. The more you practice showing up for yourself on the days when life is easy, the better prepared you will be to keep showing up for yourself on the days when it feels like the whole world is against you.
So, use one of my tips, or come up with something else that works for you, and start crushing your mornings so you can crush your days, weeks, months, years – LIFE!!!
I want to hear how you're doing!
Have you added any of these activities to your morning routine? How is it working for you? I want to know! Leave me a comment or send me an email!