My morning routine

I cannot put into words how important it is to take the first hour or so after you wake up to yourself to put you on the right path for the day… How you spend your morning will literally set the tone for the rest of your day. I know this is harder for some people than others as we all lead very different lives but, if possible, try to get up a little bit earlier than you usually would to make the most out of your mornings. Generally speaking, we find it a lot easier to get up on a morning when it’s light outside, so hopefully now we’re coming into Spring we can all start building a strong morning routine. I’ve listed some of my favourite things to do first thing in the morning below; things that I feel make my day a lot more productive and positive, and hopefully they can do the same for you!

I absolutely love planning my day out so I know exactly what I need to do and how to organise my time that day. I make a ‘to do’ list first thing every morning which has my main priorities (usually admin related for work) and then less important things (I always include little acts of self-care, such as going for a walk and having a relaxing bath, because if they’re on the list I’m far more likely to do them) and I try to get as much of it done as I can throughout the day. It’s important not to over-plan your day and put an unrealistic amount of things on the list, or it will just look daunting and will probably have the opposite effect on how productive you are, but I generally find myself working harder throughout the day to get everything ticked off the list. If I don’t manage to do everything on the list that’s okay… the things I missed off are simply put at the top of the list the following day. I write my to do list down in a nice notebook as I love having a list in front of me that I can physically tick things off as I go, but you could always just pop it in a note on your phone if that’s easier (this is probably easier if you’re out of the house a lot during the day so that you can tick things off as you go!). On the opposite side of my notebook, I write a ‘grateful for’ list of 5 things per day; these things can be as little or big as you like and you should try to pick different and new things every day. I don’t complete the list first thing in the morning, I add to it as the day goes on or on an evening to sit and reflect on the positives of my day, but I find starting the day with at least one point lifts my mood (and the fact I know I need to finish the list I’ve started has me looking for the positives throughout my day).

Another thing I love doing first thing in the morning is getting my body moving. When we wake up, we’re all stiff and holding onto a lot of tension physically, so I take 5-10 minutes to do some dynamic stretches and get the blood flowing. Stretching creates a sense of awareness between our thoughts/feelings and our physical state; this mind to body awareness is important because our bodies register feelings of stress and anxiety so much faster than our minds (for example, our muscles tensing is an early sign of stress before our minds have even processed it), so it makes us more aware and likely to notice the early signs of mental tension throughout the day. I like to put some calming music on to make my morning stretches more relaxing and to stop my mind wandering off to anything else so I can just focus on the stretches and how they feel. You should also try meditating to create this mind to body awareness as it will help to clear your mind and make your day more focused. I personally don’t meditate in the morning as I still struggle to properly get into it and I find I’m better able to on an evening when I’m unwinding (of course, the goal is to be able to switch off anytime anywhere, but I’m still working on it!).

Getting your body moving can be done in other ways too, such as exercising or going for a walk (both are good ways of releasing endorphins). If you workout in the morning you’ll start your day with high adrenaline, so you are more likely to be active and make healthier decisions throughout the rest of the day. It doesn’t have to be a long or intense workout, just get your body moving. Of course, there is no right or wrong time to exercise but in terms of starting your day feeling your best, working on physically improving yourself is definitely up there for me! Going for a walk means getting some steps in, but also getting some fresh air which really helps to create mental clarity; if you happen to see a beautiful sunrise that morning, then it’s just an extra positive to add to your day. There is no ‘right’ way of doing things and getting your body moving, pick whichever you enjoy the most because you’ll be more likely to make a habit of it if you actually enjoy it!

The final thing I love to do on a morning is get myself ready for the day (literally). You need to start picturing your best self, and then start showing up as her/him. If you’re feeling down, get up, get showered and get yourself ready; you will feel 100000x better for it! When you feel good physically you will start to feel better mentally, and vice versa. If you enjoy getting yourself ready and you want to spend a little bit of extra time doing your hair and make-up on a morning, get up a little bit earlier so you have the time to do this without feeling rushed and stressed (I find getting ready is actually quite therapeutic if I can do it in my own time without a sense of urgency). The only thing that really matters is how you feel about yourself; do whatever it is that makes you feel good about yourself, so you can begin your day looking and feeling confident.

There are so many different things you could add to your morning routine, so I strongly recommend finding a few different things which work for you as opposed to just picking one thing, so that you don’t become too reliant on a single thing to get you up and going for the day. For example, I used to heavily rely on exercise first thing in the morning; this was the only way I knew how to release endorphins and put me in a good mood for the day because it’s all I knew, so I thought I needed it to make me happy. This led to me having a very toxic and obsessive mentality towards exercising; I was over-training and physically exhausting myself so I wasn’t even seeing the results I was working so hard for. When I finally realised the importance of rest days for making progress, I had to search for other things I could do on a morning that would have a similar effect on my mind (things that would get me up and moving, feeling productive and put me in a happy mood for the day) and then came the morning routine!

I’ve tried a few different things but I find that the things listed above make me feel my absolute best, so I can’t think of a better time to do them than as soon as I wake up (the way I see it is that I don’t want to waste any of my day feeling low, so I want to do these things as soon as I wake up to make the most of that day). Obviously we ALL have days where we can’t be bothered to do anything at all and I’m definitely not saying I do all of these things every single day, but try to do your morning routine more often than not so you build habits and your days will be more productive and optimistic, I promise you!

Jasmine :)