9 steps for the perfect morning routine
How you start the day matters. It sets everything into motion and dictates the flow of the day. If you’re looking to maximize your potential for a good and productive day then we’ve got some tips for you. These are the essentials for a good morning routine.
How you start the day matters. It sets everything into motion and dictates the flow of the day. If you’re looking to maximize your potential for a good and productive day then we’ve got some tips for you. These are the essentials for a good morning routine.
1. Give yourself time
This is actually accomplished the day before, but it is absolutely necessary for your routine. You cannot have a peaceful day, if it starts with a spike of adrenaline. You running out the door, eyeing your coffee as it sloshes around, praying to the gods of Monday that it doesn’t slosh onto your favorite pick-me-up high-waisted work slacks. This is already a bad day! Just refuse to partake in that type of chaos, and plan accordingly the night before. You gotta give yourself time. YOU deserve to the first in line for your time. So give yourself some cushion, so when you knock over your makeup brushes, you can actually stop to pick them up. Time is the most generous thing you can give someone, and that certainly includes yourself. So, give yourself time. Start the day with a gift of generosity to yourself.
2. NO PRESSING THE SNOOZE BUTTON
If you’re someone who continuously hits the snooze button, I would seriously challenge you to examine this habit. You’re not getting quality sleep in those extra 10 minutes, and if you *are* you really gotta go to bed earlier, because clearly you are exhausted. Sleep is important, but starting your day with a tap to the snooze button sends signals to your subconscious that you’re not excited about the day. And hey, maybe you legitimately aren’t, but you don’t need to drill it into your head. If anything, the opposite would do a lot of good, which brings us to number 3.
3. Positive Thoughts
There are times in life when you hear that alarm ringing and your very first thought is “fuck” followed by a strong emotional desire to weep. We’ve all been there. You can’t help this thought and I’m not asking you to. But you can make sure the next thought is a counter argument. Even just saying, in your head or out loud, “we’re gonna have a good day” does wonders. Feed yourself positive thoughts. It’s not that you need to avoid the negative ones; it’s that you need to have the positive ones also. Even if it comes quite forced. You can take it a step further by smiling at yourself in the mirror, but let’s start small. Positive thoughts
4. Ignore your phone
That’s it. Ignore your phone. And all your devices. For as long as you can. Don’t go eagerly looking for “good morning sunshine” texts from that special someone. Don’t scrutinize your investment portfolio. And for the love of happiness don’t check the news. These are moments of peace before the chaos.
5. Soft Light
The sun doesn’t just spring into the sky, and neither should your bedroom light. Take it slow. If you have a dimming setting, great. So happy you’ve made it in this life. The rest of us will settle for lamps. Maybe even the closet light. Or opening the blinds, if that’s an option. Give yourself enough light to get around with, but not so much that you have to start the positive thoughts all over again. We’ve collected our favorite ease-into-the-day lamps here.
6. Make your bed
Yes, I’m serious. Make your bed. It signals to your subconscious that you are an organized person, that you respect your living space, and yourself. Also, it just feels so freaking good to pull the sheets back and crawl into bed. So take a moment and make your bed.
7. Meditate/ Breathing Exercises
Meditation is a bit of an intimidating word. Personally, I always refer to it as breathing exercises because that tells me exactly what the focus is: breathing. It doesn’t need to be very long. If all you have is a minute, give yourself a minute, if you have and can do 15, great. Five minutes is an ideal amount of time though.
You don’t need a yoga mat, but if you have one obviously that’s great. Lie on the floor and take a moment to observe the hardness beneath you. The stability of it. Take a deep breaths before you start the timer. Start the timer and relax into the stability of the floor beneath you. Focus on your breathing and do your best to focus only on your breathing. If you’d like a bit more convincing, click here, we’ve turned.
8. Jumping Jacks
Alright, hopefully you aren’t skipping #7 meditation and breathing, because this is a great follow up. You just lowered your heart rate and got your mind right, and now – it’s time to raise your heart rate. On your terms. Time to get your blood flowing. Just 1 minute of jumping jacks, that’s literally all you need. Get that blood flowing. Get that energy buzzing. It doesn’t have to be aggressive, we’re just moving.
9. Yoga/Stretching
Some people do yoga. Some people stretch. Some people stretch and call it yoga. I really don’t care. Just get familiar with your body. We’ve taken a moment to relax and center our existence. Then we took hold of our physical autonomy and increased our blood flow to get us ready for the day, now we’re going to mildly slow things down again, with some active stretching. This part should be very personalized to you, according to your physical needs. We have some basic/common stretches here to get you started though. Stretching is often attempting to touch your toes in various positions, right. So that’s a good place to start. You’ll learn what you need to focus on with time. You’ll start to understand your body better and customize the stretches in accordance to your needs *that* day.
If you like this routine and think it would be of help to you check out our morning routine checklist.
If you’re looking to gain a sense of control over your mind, then a strong morning routine is essential and a good place to start. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the day brings. If you stick to your routine, if you make your bed, then you’re guaranteed a win for the day. Get in the habit of ensuring yourself at least one element of success before you even leave your bedroom, and more success will come throughout the day.