I am on a continuous journey to becoming a morning person. Last year, I posted about my morning routine when I had a really good consistent one, but so much has changed over time. I am going to be honest – I have not been doing too great on this goal I set for myself early this year. This is a very on and off habit for me (spoiler: right now, it’s on). I have done a ton of research on how to be a morning person. I read a book about having a morning routine, The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod (it’s a really good, motivating book if you’re looking for something along the lines of personal development). I’ve watched countless (so many hours!) of morning routines on youtube and an article here and there from pinterest. I even wrote down what my ideal morning routine should look like in my bullet journal (which is actually not the one I am going to share in this post).
Nothing is more important than having a relaxing or productive (or both) morning to be able to set the tone for the rest of the day. You don’t have to LOVE the waking up early part (I got over the fact that I will never be that person who springs out of bed as soon as the birds start chirping), but you can love the morning once you are awake and make it suck less. I am definitely more productive in the morning; I went on for a while thinking I was a night owl and I am not. My brain stops working after 7PM – I just want to relax, sit on the couch and watch the least intelligent thing on TV. So, the only way I can really accomplish my goals is if I do them in the morning before the demands of the day creep in.
I’ve settled into a morning routine that is more on the relaxing side and makes me feel really positive. The goal is to definitely keep up with this for the next few weeks, especially with working from home – it’s more crucial now than before because I try to incorporate self care to get me through the stress of the state of the world. Even though my morning routine is still a work in progress, I’m hoping this post will encourage you to incorporate a morning routine in your life to have a better start to your day.
Rise and… walk Lilo
Since working from home, Lilo has been waking up earlier than she did during the normal times. I do have several alarms set between 7:25-7:40am, but Lilo has been waking up a few minutes before that so she’s become my alarm. And a really annoying alarm too, like crying by the bedroom door annoying. But, it’s effective and gets me out of bed. Before I do anything though, I chug water that I have on my nightstand from the night before to help with waking up. It’s a good habit to start if you want to incorporate drinking more water in your day. Once I’m dressed, we’ll head out to go on a short walk. Since the weather has been decent, this has been surprisingly enjoyable and NO ONE is outside yet!
Meditate
After walking Lilo and feeding her, I take my tablet, sit on the couch and set a timer for 5 minutes. During this time, I like to meditate. The type of meditation I do is complete silence; just clearing my head of all thoughts and allowing whatever thoughts to float through and then brush them away. I take this time to notice how my body is feeling to know which areas I’d like to stretch out. The past few times I’ve done this morning routine during quarantine, I have been using this time to pray as well – I’m not a super religious person, but when I’m especially stressed or anxious about what’s going on in the world, I turn to prayer as a form of gratitude and to think of my loved ones.
Stretch or Yoga
Once I’m done meditating, I will take 10 mins to stretch or do yoga. This definitely depends on what mood I’m in, but this past week I’ve been doing more yoga. I will go on Yoga with Kassandra’s youtube channel and follow one of her many 10 minute morning yoga routines. She currently has a 30-day 10 minute morning yoga challenge that I’m following. Since I gave up exercising in the morning, this is a great way to still move my body to wake it up more.
Creativity (journal/read/write)
After giving my body and mind the attention that it needs, I spend 30-45 mins for creativity. Within this time, I will journal, read or write. I usually won’t do all three, so I try to do two of these activities. Lately, I’ve been consistent with journaling because… coronavirus stress… and reading. I was reading a lot in the normal times because I was commuting into work, but once we started WFH, I stopped reading as much. This is a way for me to make sure I stick to my 2020 reading goal. I don’t write for my blog every morning, which is okay because there’s more pockets of free time to prioritize writing throughout the week to post by the weekend.
“Get Ready”
Around 9am, I will begin to “get ready for work”. These days getting ready means changing out of my PJs into a t-shirt and flowy pants, then fixing my hair. Once I’m ready, I’ll make myself breakfast and coffee and then head to my desk to start work for the day.
My morning routine in general takes about an hour. You’ll notice throughout my whole morning routine, I don’t mention my cell phone or the TV. The only time I consume video content is when I am doing yoga using my tablet. I think it’s important to use the time in the morning to be with yourself and not consume content on your phone, especially with the amount of negativity that is probably on there. Also, since there might be more people in your house, this really is the only time to have that peaceful moment to yourself. I know this routine will change slightly once we go back into the office, but for now, this morning routine has been making a difference in my mental health and productivity throughout the day.
What does your morning routine look like? Leave in the comments below how you’ve been utilizing your mornings to start the day on the right foot.