Sticking to my morning routine is something I’ve done for about three years now. I created my morning routine out of necessity for my mental health and well-being as well as assisting me as a business owner. First and foremost, my morning routine helps me to take control and prepare myself for whatever the day throws at me. I curated my morning routine to assist with lowering stress, increasing my productivity, boosting my energy, and maintaining healthy habits.
Everything I do as a part of my morning routine pours into my cup and when my cup is full – I can pour into my friends, family, and clients. My morning routine, as corny as it may sound, helps me show up as my best self throughout the day because my morning routine ensures I do all of the self-care practices that I need to do to feel my best. The greatest part about my morning routine is that I can do it regardless of what time I wake up. While I prefer to wake up between 530-6am – sometimes my body needs more sleep, and I don’t wake until 8 or even 9am. Regardless of what time I wake up – I make sure to stick to my morning routine!
As a reminder: I am not a doctor, nor do I claim to be! Any claims in this article are based on my personal experience and research. Please read my full medical disclaimer before engaging with my content, suggestions or anecdotes. Also, as a reminder, this post contains affiliate links to certain products and I may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you!) if you make a purchase based off of my wonderful suggestions.
Wake Up Intentionally
Waking up “intentionally”, for me, means that from the moment I wake up – I set the intention to have a good day. I start my morning routine before I even get out of bed by thanking God for a restful night’s sleep and for being blessed to open my eyes, breathe, and live another day. This practice takes less than a minute and sets me up for success by tapping into a mindset of “gratitude” first thing upon waking.
Breath Work
Before I get out of bed, I spend 5-10 minutes with breath work. There are heaps of science backed-positive benefits of breath work that are so substantial that it just *makes sense* to start my morning routine with a bit of breath work. The best part is that it’s super easy and can be done while still in bed! My typical breathwork routine is to practice a diaphragmatic breath (breathing from the belly) and to place one hand on my heart and one hand on my belly – breathing in for counts of six seconds, holding the breath for a count of 3 seconds and exhaling the breath for a count of nine seconds.
Use the Bathroom + Brush with Coconut Oil
Keeping it 100% real – I typically need to pee in the morning. So, my breathwork length depends on how badly I need to get out of bed and get to the bathroom. While I’m in the bathroom I swish a bit of coconut oil around in my mouth and brush my teeth with coconut oil, as a quick mouth freshener.
Make My Bed
I know there are a ton of studies that say making your bed in the morning sets you up for success, productivity, stress reduction and even better sleep. For example, this site says “A National Sleep Foundation poll found that participants who reported regularly making their bed were 19% more likely to say that they got a good night’s sleep most nights” and Forbes claims that making your bed in the morning is one of nine morning hacks to be more successful. For me, however, making my bed in the morning was out of necessity because I lived in a studio apartment for two years and if my bed wasn’t made – my apartment looked messy. Subsequently, I got in the habit of making my bed every morning and now it’s part of my morning routine! At the very least, it does feel as if the room is cleaner and when it’s time for bed – it’s just nice to get into a bed that had been made.
Make Ginger + Lemon Tea
Especially in the cool weather months – I love starting my day with a hot ginger and lemon tea. Not only is it *literally* warm but the ginger also can be internally warming on the body and can has a bunch of health benefits including increasing digestive enzymes, improving circulation, and aiding in intestinal movements. It doesn’t hurt that ginger tea is delicious – making it the perfect addition to my morning routine.
Meditate
I like to meditate in the morning because I find it easier to turn my mind off when I haven’t absorbed anything from external world. When I sit down to meditate in the morning – I haven’t touched my phone or spoken to anyone meaning I haven’t absorbed any energy from other people or messages, emails, social media, etc. After my meditation I feel ready to take on the day – whatever may be thrown at me. Typically, I stick to a short 10 or 15-minute morning meditation with the theme of taking hold of the day, starting the day on a grateful note or finding positivity in the morning.
Journal Gratitude
Daily gratitude is something I’m a huge fan of. Taking five-ten minutes to focus on the things I’m grateful for, even if they’re small, helps me to maintain an abundant mindset. So many of us are *so blessed* and instead of being grateful for the blessings in our lives – we focus on the things we don’t have or the things that are going wrong. Keeping up with daily gratitude keeps my mind focused on how much I have to be grateful for, which often produces more things to be grateful for!
Journal Affirmations
In my article, What Are Affirmations and How to Use Them, I go into detail about the heaps of benefits of affirmations. For the same reasons I mediate and journal gratitude in the morning – I do my affirmation practice in the morning. I like to do this practice in the morning because it helps me to ground myself into my truth, into the things I know about myself. This way, I’m prepared for whatever is thrown at me during the day and am less likely to be thrown off if something comes to me that might try to take me out of myself.
10-15 Minute Yoga Flow
I practice asana (the physical practice of yoga) nearly every day – either tuning into my body for what sort of flow it needs to move through some energy, going to the gym to take a vinyasa or restorative practice or putting on a YouTube video to target specific body parts that might be tight or tense. However, my morning yoga practice is a quick 10-minute flow that just helps my body to wake up and soften some of the stiffness I fell into during sleep. Most of my morning routine caters to my mind and soul and this practice is necessary to make my morning routine complete – catering, also, to my body.
Breakfast
In my article, “Things I’m Doing this Autumn to Support my Mind, Body and Soul” I wrote about how for nearly a decade I would wake up, make a cup of coffee, and then only consume coffee for nearly 6-8 hours. I also spoke about how in that time frame I also had gut health issues, sleeping troubles, weight struggles, depressive episodes and fluctuating moods.
Eating breakfast within an hour of waking up has really changed my life for the better. I feel more energized than ever (I don’t even drink coffee anymore!) and my metabolism is working better, which I know because I wake up hungry.
I make sure to have a delicious, nutritious breakfast every morning – ensuring that my breakfast has all the macros: a protein, a carbohydrate, and a fat.
Shower Intentionally
I like to take an intentional, mindful shower in the morning. Bringing intention into anything can take an ordinary practice and make it extraordinary. My intentional shower practice is to allow myself to feel any negative thoughts, beliefs or energies and then imagine that the water cleanses me of them and pulls them away and down the drain. It’s a simple practice that always helps me feel lighter.
Read Something Productive
I like to read fiction novels before bed but in the morning, I use my time to read something productive. From a self-help book to an entrepreneur magazine or an article that may help me learn new strategies for business – I use my mornings to read something helpful and productive for my life or my business.
Sun-Time (if the weather permits)
I’m of the belief that the sun is medicine for the mind, body, and soul. It doesn’t hurt that there’s heaps of science, like this study, that backs the healing powers of the sun. If the weather permits – I like to get at least 20 minutes of sun time in during the morning. During the summer it’s typically sometime between 9 and 10AM but in the colder weather months I typically go into the sun between 11am and noon.
Red Light Therapy (if the weather doesn’t permit)
If the weather doesn’t permit me catching some rays in the morning, then I choose to complete my entire morning routine with my red-light therapy device on. I wrote about the benefits of red-light therapy in my article, “Things I’m Doing this Autumn to Support my Mind, Body and Soul”. This is the red-light therapy device that I use but you can check out some other red light therapy devices below!
Remain Screen Free
Last, but certainly not least, is remaining screen free for my morning. I notice a direct correlation between my mental health and my screen time. The more my screen time goes up, the more my mental health suffers. Because of this correlation, I don’t touch my phone until I’ve completed all the self-care items that are a part of my morning routine – and then some. I remain off my phone for at least four hours after waking up.
My morning routine is vital for my overall well-being. I notice that if I fall off from my morning routine, I get irritable and negative and start to overall just not feel good. Do you have a morning routine you stick to? I’d love to know what some of the things you do in the morning are!
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