Why is a morning routine so powerful? 💪
Imagine this if you will: Your alarm goes off and you reach over to turn it off. Do a quick stretch and hop out of bed. You take a few steps and bend over to grab your workout clothes. You pop your headphones in and head out for a quick walk taking in the morning air and maybe even the first rays of sunlight. ☀️
During your post exercise stretch you take some deep calming breaths to bring yourself to present. Your journal is nearby so you set a timer for 5 minutes to give yourself a good brain dump and set some goals for the day.
You take a quick shower with the final few seconds of cold water to really wake your brain. And get started on putting together your high fiber breakfast. About then you hear the faint sounds of alarms going in your kids’ rooms and you smile. Because you are ready. ✅
Isn’t that just…calming? You are so prepared before your children even open their little eyes.
Think right now of how your morning typically goes. Do you hit the snooze button over and over? Do you ditch the workout for a time wasting scroll on social media while yelling at your kids to get up. Maybe you grab a coffee and a snack bar on the way out the door stressing about getting to school/work on time? 🥴
Which space are you in?
Let’s start with answering the question, “why is a morning routine so important?”
Morning routines can lead to:
Increased Productivity: Starting your day with a plan helps you get more things done. It makes you feel good about what you’ve achieved and keeps you working hard all day.
Improved Mental Health: Having the same morning routine every day can make you feel less worried, happier, calm and clear-headed.
Better Physical Health: Exercising or stretching in the morning can give you more energy and keep you healthy. It’s a good way to start a day full of good choices for your body.
Increased Focus and Concentration: Doing activities that wake up your brain gets you ready to solve problems and think clearly.
Greater Sense of Control: Having a morning routine makes you feel in charge of your day. This makes you feel more confident and ready to take on challenges.
If you’ve decided you could up your game in the morning routine department - decide what elements of a morning routine speak to you. Make a list and decide how much time you’ll devote to each item. In order for a morning routine to stick it needs to be pretty simple. And you should really start with one step at a time. Maybe your first step is to just get out of bed when the alarm goes off. Or maybe you want to hit the trail right away and get in a 20 minute invigorating walk. (Or 20 minutes of dancing to your favorite songs - I used to do that a lot while my kids were young and I couldn’t just LEAVE the house.)
Maybe you are having resistance to this whole article. You think, “I’m not a morning person, I never have been so I can’t do this.” You can change your mornings. You really can. You can become a morning person - but here’s the trick - a lot of it starts the night before.
👊Start by doing these things the night before in order to set up your morning:
Dim the lights about an hour before bedtime.
PUT AWAY YOUR PHONE about an hour before bed
Set out clothes for tomorrow's workout (if you workout later in the day - just put out the clothes you will wear for the day to remove one layer of morning decision.)
Set an alarm and put it across the room so you are forced up and out of bed
Write 5 gratitudes in a journal next to your bed
Read and actual book
If you wake in the night with your mind spinning - write those thoughts down in your journal so you can stop thinking about them.
If you lay the foundation for your morning the night before it’s so much easier to follow through. (You can do these same things with your children. It’s powerful! ❤️)
Setting up a morning routine that works for you and speaks to your soul and what you need from the day should be pretty easy from here.
We often think a morning routine is simply what we do from the moment we wake up - but setting yourself up the night before is truly key to a successful routine that you’ll stick with. 👍
You got this!!! 🫶
