How a morning ritual can decrease stress, improve health, and create a better, more balanced you!
Do you jump out of bed, excited for all the new opportunities that await you, or do hit the snooze button and drag yourself out of bed? If it’s the latter, it’s time to revitalize your morning routine.
I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t have time to add anything else into my day, especially in the morning.” But did you know that many of the most influential people contribute their success to their morning routine? The late Steve Jobs used to start his morning by asking himself “If today were the last day of my life, what would I want to do and am I about to do it today? And whenever the answer [had] been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, [he] knew [he] needed to change something.”How often do you stop and examine how you want to have your day play out?
Morning routines don’t have to be complicated or take up a lot of time. By tweaking small things you can change your morning from feeling like your hair is on fire to you setting the world on fire and living the inspired life! Taking time to create a morning ritual that works for you can help you reduce stress, be better organized, put yourself in a positive mindset, eat better and best of all, have more time.
Here are a few suggestions to enhance your morning routine.
Mediation:
You can do this even before you open your eyes! Two easy morning time techniques for meditation are to either focus on your breath or on a word. By taking time to focus on breathing, it will settle your brain, help prevent depression and calm your nervous system. Really work on breathing deep enough that it distends your stomach. Many of us throughout the day don’t ever breath past our rib cage.
Thinking about a word also helps with how your emotional state feels. If you wake up and think about a word like ‘joy’ and how it feels, in five minutes your physical state will vibrate with that emotion.
Exercise:
Start the day off right by moving your energy around. Doing some type of exercise in the morning can help reduce pain, clear your head, combat stress and give you energy. Again, this doesn’t have to take a lot of time. There’s lots of 10 minute workouts you can find online ranging from basic stretching to high intensity workouts. Even doing a set of push ups before your shower and wall squats while you brush your teeth will work. Attaching your working out to something that you do daily, creating a tiny habit, is another technique to insure you reach your goal.
Journaling:
Being that we are a journal company we are a big believer in the power of words. Journaling allows you to dream, organize your thoughts, set goals, plan your day. Writing a journal entry as stream of consciousness when you wake up will allow you to clear your head, reduce mental clutter, sharpen your focus and induce creativity!
Eating Healthy:
By planning out what you will be eating in the morning vs just grabbing something quick will insure that you will have the mental clarity, energy and staying power to get you through the day. Make sure your breakfast is filled with complex carbs, healthy fats and protein. Some simple suggestions would be avocado toast with an egg, oatmeal with nuts, greek yogurt with berries. If you take a little time on the weekends you can create your own grab and go for the week like breakfast burritos or a quiche/frittata.