During the past years I have increasingly felt the need to build a morning routine. I’ve read many articles about tips to create your morning routine, and there is really a lot of different ideas on what makes the perfect morning routine. Many focus on precise rules, that are often difficult to follow, and maybe not right for us. As an example, waking up at 5 in the morning, is not my cup of tea, no matter how many things then I can fit into my day, my body does not react well to such an early awake. I finally realised that I needed to adapt the best advice to my needs, not the other way round.
The rush of our day to day can really take the life out of our mornings, and often I’ve found myself simply on autopilot, repeating the same gestures every morning in an unconscious and bored way. Feeling the burden of the never changing routine, instead of waking up purposefully to live my day. That’s a recipe for disaster, and on the long term it contributes to make you feel drained and without motivation.
Every time you are on autopilot you simply miss everything that’s around you, even yourself.
Bringing some awareness and mindfulness back into your day, starting with a routine tailored on your unique needs is very good way to start a positive change in your life. Whether it is to find your balance, to improve something specific in your life, or simply to tune yourself on the right length wave, setting up your morning routine is the first step in the right direction.
Deep dive on the 7 feel good tips to create your morning routine
Breathing
As soon as you wake up, stir yourself gently, get in a comfortable seated position, and start breathing. If you are going to answer that you were already breathing in the first place… Well, sot of. Let’s say you are probably already doing an automatic sort of breath in and breath out, that barely cater to your normal functioning.
When was the last time you take a conscious deep breath and inhaled profoundly, feeling the air filling up your lungs? Yes, that’s the kind of breathing I am talking about. You need to focus on your breath, and on that only, for a set period of time. Bring your awareness to your breathing while doing it, and inhale to the count of six, and exhale to the count of twelve. The video below gives you the right rhythm, and is perfect if you want to give try it out.
Breathing is helpful to take a few moments to just be, and let the mind awaken herself gently, without letting random thoughts take the better of your mind.
Focusing on your breath is a way to tune with yourself, and start your day from a place of calm and presence. I try to do 5 to 10 minutes of breathing, just adjust it to your needs (even 3 minutes are precious!) keeping all the thoughts at bay for the length of my focused exercise.
Start with gratitude
This might seem a trite concept, but is really important if you want to start your day with the right attitude. No matter what is going on in your life, no matter how much pressure you are under, no matter how long you have to do it, take a few minutes to be grateful. Is not easy because you feel depressed and can’t find a reason to feel grateful for? Do it precisely for that. Found your happy thoughts, count your blessings, and allow the feeling of gratitude to invade your core, feel it growing up inside you, until you are completely full of it, and let it spread out of you, into the world. At first it might be difficult to focus and maintain the intensity of the sentiment whenever you try, but practice is your best friend, and you’ll discover that the simple exercise of consciously focusing on what you are grateful for, makes it increasingly easier to recall the feeling. Make a list of the thing you are most grateful for, and keep it handy, so that you can just choose what you want to be grateful that particular morning.
Focus on gratitude before you formulate any other conscious thought, let the gratitude be what prompts all your following actions, smile to yourself and be ready to start your day. If I have time, after this I focus on the purpose I feel for my day, on what I want to achieve, be it practical or not.
Listen to some relaxing or empowering music
Despite the fact that you realise it or not, what you listen to when you wake up has a powerful effect on you. Don’t simply turn on the radio or the telly, and let what other choose fill your first awake hour. Unless it is something you truly love of course, but otherwise create a playlist of your favourite songs, or waking up songs, or empowering song, or classical music (whatever works for you!) and just listen to that while you prepare and have your breakfast. Create different list for each day of the week if you fancy, or different list according to different moods, be creative. I love Spotify and how customisable it is, here you’ll find 3 months free premium trial.This will help you hugely in enjoying your morning and will highlight the sense of awareness and presence in the start of your day.
Eat a healthy breakfast
Breakfast is one of the essential tips to create your morning routine and make it effective. Eating breakfast is paramount for our health, after the night fast, our body needs the energy to restart and take care of all the physical and mental activities required in our day. Therefore, when I say healthy breakfast, I mean a breakfast that provides energy, together with vitamins and minerals and packed with fibre. Wholegrain cereal with dried fruit, nuts and seed, or wholemeal bread, fresh fruit, are the wiser choices that will give you the right energy boost, without the down that follows when you eat too many sugars, and will keep you full for longer. Fresh fruit will provide vitamins and minerals, as well as scoring one of your five a day straight on!
I usually add a fresh orange juice as well, (NOT FROM CONCENTRATE!) in this way I’ve already bagged two of my five a day, and I’m more likely to be ok even if the lunch needs to be on the go.
The important thing when you prepare and have your breakfast, is to prepare it mindfully as well, focus on the fact that you are taking care of yourself while choosing what to eat, use your favourite mug, do it with purpose!
Move
Even if you have only 15 or 20 minutes, try to reserve them to your favourite type of movement, and allow your body to warm up and move naturally. I like to do yoga, even a short session enables me to align myself with the day ahead, and be present while I simply exercise. If you have the possibility to be outside, in a garden, a park, or slightly natural area even better. Quite often I decide to go for a walk instead, when I feel that being outdoors is more relevant. If you have the opportunity to walk to work that’s great too, but focus on the activity, not on what will follow it.
You can simply dance by yourself to the tune of your favourite songs, it really does not matter what you do. Make it a meditative type of exercise, be in the moment, feel your body moving, concentrate your attention on what you are doing, on the single movements. Movement has a direct impact both on your body and on your mind, releasing endorphins, that are the hormones with painkilling and mood elevation properties. Exercising reduces the levels of adrenaline and cortisol, hormones produced by our body under stressful conditions.
Transform your self-care routine in an indulgent ritual
Instead of rushing to the toilet and brushing your teeth while you go over the plans for the day ahead, or wash yourself in a hurry, take the time to build a mini indulgent ritual just for yourself. Even here, being present is crucial. If you have your shower in the morning, make it an invigorating experience, let the water wash away any negative feeling you might have, and focus on your body being purified and energised by the running water.
Choose a stimulating and awakening fragrance, something like citrus or rosemary that can give you a boost and help increase your focus. Or choose one of the wonderful fragrances of Weleda shower gels .
You can create your own body oil, using the essential oils you love, or your custom face oil, to create an experience that is more meaningful for you. (Want an idea on how to proceed? Take a look at my article on the DIY Rose Oil).
You might want to upgrade your face care routine, ensuring you make it a pampering and self-love moment. Choose a product that you love, that has a pleasurable scent, and apply it with care, with a gentle self-massage that will nurture your skin and your soul as well. Think that you are worth it, and you deserve that care. Self-love first is a real important concept: because if you do not take good care of yourself in the first place, you won’t be able to care for others. You won’t be able to show them how you want them to treat you. If you do not show love for yourself, how can you expect others to do it?
Adapt the 6 tips above to create your perfect morning routine
Finally, the seventh tip: these are my personal 6 feel good tips to create a morning routine, by all means do twist them, change the order, modify the timing to create the routine that better suits you. I don’t believe that one should get up at a specific time to do that, I believe that this is really a matter of personal preferences and circumstances, find what work for yourself!
Someone might find that waking up earlier is a good idea, for some others earlier might mean an additional distress, so just experiment for a bit until you are able to understand what works best for you according to your schedule and attitude. Some might want to meditate, and maybe can replace the first two phases of breathing and gratitude with a guided meditation. Maybe you prefer to write some gratitude pages in your journal, and you should go ahead with that, there are no rules. I simply believe that these are the most important points to start from in order to create your morning routine.
Your willingness to start in a more calm and conscious way, and the focused attention that goes with it, will bring incredibly positive changes to your day, and will make you start your day blissfully.
Let me know in the comments what is your morning routine! Are there other aspects that you beleive are fundamental for you to start your morning well?