Getting your day off to a good start is vital and it all starts with developing a morning ritual!
We have all done it, woke up with no real aim or ritual to get us going, our days just kind of spiral from the there, low productivity, low energy and low mood tends to follow us throughout the day.
Developing a good morning ritual that you stick to is not only the best foundation for a successful day, it can help you with anxiety and depression. By following your morning ritual, you start your day off with a sense of achievement and focus, it really is powerful stuff, try it for 30 days and you will find its actually life changing.
Below is my morning ritual, now you may need to tweak it, include other things specific to your lifestyle, but the idea is to make sure you get momentum going early in the day, you will be surprized how much more productive the rest of the day will be if you get your morning ritual down pat.
For the first 2 to 4 weeks you may find it hard going, this is due to resistance. Resistance is natural when we make changes, even though we are aware we need to make changes, resistance will try to hold us back, its at this point you need to just push through and do your morning ritual no matter how you feel about it.
I find putting on some quite but positive, uplifting music helps set the tone for the below tasks, this may or may not be something that works for you.
1. Gratitude and set your intention for the day.
First thing in the morning, when you wake up, while still lying in bed, practice gratitude.
Think of 3 to 5 things you are grateful for, dont just go through the motion of coming up with things, really feel how grateful you are for, this will get you in a good mood and good feelings.
Think about achievements or happy moments of the previous day or past events in your life.
Express gratitude for another getting to live another day!
Sometimes it can be difficult to find major thing to be grateful for but you can still focus on smaller things, such as the bed you slept in etc, no matter how bad things are you can find things to be grateful for and in turn lift your mood.
The secret to good gratitude practice is to “feel” the emotions attached to the the things you are grateful for, by the end of your session you should be in an uplifted positive mood. So be sure to not just list of a few things without taking the time to really feel the good emotions around the event or things you are grateful for.
Once you mood is primed its time to set your intention for the day. Think about the one thing that will make the most difference to you life, bring you closer to your goals etc
This is perhaps the most powerful thing you can do any time of the day, but doing it first thing in the morning (and last thing at night) sets you up for a much more enjoyable, productive day and life.
Benefits of practicing Gratitude
- Gratitude can instantly lift your mood.
- Gratitude creates confidence by recalling achievements.
- Gratitude improves relationships by focusing on the good aspects.
- Gratitude makes a person more hopeful and optimistic.
- Gratitude can help in working through depression and anxiety.
- Gratitude improves self-esteem.
- Gratitude leads to increased Happiness.
2. Make your Bed
Yep you heard me! just like your mother used to tell you, make your bed!
Making your bed is a simple task that is perfect to get your day started right!
As soon as you get out of bed, turn around and make it, its a little positive achievement that gets you in a state of doing, even if you only have a doona, quilt or duvet.
Once you have made your bed, be sure to look back, smile and feel satisfied at this little accomplishment!
Every evening when you get into bed you will be reminded of this small accomplishment even if u didn’t have the most productive day.
Benefits of making your bed each day
- It Gets Your Day of to a Great Start!.
- It Leads to Improved Productivity.
- It Leads to Clearer Thinking.
- It Helps Reduce Anxiety and Depression.
- It Encourages You to Keep the Rest of Your Room Tidy.
- It Lowers Your Stress and Improves Your Mood.
- It Has a Flow on Effect, You Will Find Maintaining this Practice Over Time, Leads to More Organisation in Other Parts of Your Life.
3. Hydrate
Sleeping 6 – 8 hours a night is a long stretch to go without water.
Drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning after waking up is an important way to re hydrate your body.
Staying hydrated by drinking enough water is a vital component of maintaining good physical, emotional and mental health.
Benefits of hydration
- It Keeps Your Joints Lubricated.
- It Balances Blood Sugar.
- It Promotes Healthy Skin.
- It Improves Brain Function.
- It Improves Alertness.
- It Eliminates Toxins From the Body.
- It helps Regulate Blood Pressure.
4. Yoga or Other Exercise
I recommend yoga as your morning exercise, some people prefer walking, running or some other form of exercise, but i find Yoga has two benefits the others don’t.
Firstly it takes little effort, you don’t even have to move out of your bedroom and a daily session of as little as 10 minutes will make a world of difference to your mind and your body.
Secondly Yoga stretches the entire body and keeps you flexible, its also a has meditative properties that allow you to be in the moment, which is amazing for stress reduction and centering yourself before the days work.
Some more benefits of Yoga
- Improved Flexibility.
- Increased Strength.
- Reduces Stress.
- Increased libido.
- Lose Weight.
- Mental Health.
- Increased Energy.
- Protects You From Injury.
5. Mediation
After your Yoga session wind down with a meditation session.
The benefits of mediation are now widely known and the practice is recommended more and more by doctors.
Meditation will help you clear your mind every day and this will lead to increased mental clarity and focus powers.
Mediation also increase a large number of willpower skills, skills like concentration, stress management, emotional impulse control. It provides the practitioner with increased self control by strengthening and improving the brain (Regular meditation practitioners often have a sizeable increase in grey matter).
Mediation can seriously change your life for the better. If you only chose one thing to do in your morning routine this is by far the most impactful, you will have to stick with it on a daily basis for 30 days or more before you get the full benefits, initially you may notice no or very little effect.
Start with 5 -1 0 mins a day and work your way up to 30 minutes per session.
Clear and prime your mind for the day ahead
Benefits of Meditation Include
- Stress Reduction
- Lessens Anxiety
- Effective in Helping Treat Depression
- Stabilises Emotions and Emotional Responses
- Increased Self Awareness
- Increased Concentration and Attention Spans
- May be Effective in Mitigating Alzheimer’s and Dementia
6. Affirmations
Another powerful routine you will want to add to your morning ritual is the practice of repeating positive affirmations.
Practicing positive affirmations before you get started on your day is a very powerful tool if done correctly.
Positive Affirmations have the effect of making you focus on the positive, so negative thoughts, fears, worry’s and anxiety became far less prevalent and when combined with meditation and gratitude gives you a powerful anti stress, anti worry / anxiety and anti depression tool.
This is a practice that needs to be repeated daily, over and over again, if you can anchor positive emotions and energy to them, they become far more powerful.
It’s an accumulative effect, constantly repeating affirmations will reprogram your mind and slowly over time a new belief and confidence emerges.
Benefits of Daily Positive Affirmations Include
- Become More and More Positive as the Days go Bye.
- Daily Reminder of Your Goals and Your Purpose.
- Keeps You Focused on What You are Trying to Achieve.
- You Become More Optimistic.
- Keep you in a state of Gratitude.
- Attract the Things, People and Life you want.
- Become more Confident.
- Be Happier.
7. Visualisation
Visualisation is a very powerful tool, especially if you combine it with affirmations in your morning rituals.
Remember to attach good feelings and vibes to your visualization, the last thing you want to do is visualize while feeling negative, you need to keep it positive and imagine you already have what you are visualizing and just how that would feel.
A good practice is to try to visualise the day ahead and exactly what you want to achieve and how you will feel achieving all the tasks you’re focusing on.
Imagine being surrounded by a helping positive force, this force is so strong that no matter what difficulties may come your way, you will be able to handle them with ease.
There you have it my morning routine, its such a powerful ritual for me, I couldn’t function without it. I believe it is responsible for a lot of the success I have achieved in the last 12 months.
Try it for yourself with your own modifications!
Do you have a morning ritual that works for you? let us know what it is in the comments area below 🙂
