Your Ultimate Guide to Morning Rituals
You Know Best
This is your ultimate guide to creating the best morning routine. The truth is that creating a morning ritual is going to take some time to get right. Ultimately, it must fulfil your needs so that you are taking care of yourself in a way that only you know best.
Hopefully after reading my last post about the benefits of a morning routine you are ready to dive a little deeper and turn this knowledge in to action. The question is “How do you actually go about creating a morning routine that’s right for you?”
There is a lot of information out there on the world wide web about the best things to practice when you wake up so I’m going to break it down for you. You can pick and choose what feels right and maybe even add your own little gems in there.
It may feel a little daunting from here. I know, you love your bed a LOT, you don’t want to give up any extra sleep but I’m going to ask you to trust me here. From someone who has been where you are and is now living the benefits of having a solid morning ritual, stay with me and we’ll do this together.
“The willingness to show up changes us, it makes us a little braver each time.”
Brene Brown
Magic Morning Moments
Meditation
Breathwork
Affirmations
Writing / Journalling
Visualisations
Healthy Breakfast
Yoga
Meditation
So we have all heard the many benefits of meditating and if you haven’t, what planet have you been on? Only kidding, if this is completely new to you, you’re exactly where you need to be. There is a lot of research to back up the benefits of meditation. Essentially mediation is about training the mind, practicing awareness and increasing our focus. It can reduce anxiety , manage stress, improve memory and allow us to become more compassionate. These are just a few of the benefits.
How to: A simple beginners meditation is to follow and count the natural rhythm of your breath. First, sit quietly and observe your natural breath, try not to control it, just let it be. Next, as you observe the inhale, count one. As you observe your exhale, count two, inhale three, exhale four and so on up to ten. Then begin again at one. If you lose count or notice your mind wonders off, please notice with kindness and simple come back to the beginning. You can begin by dedicating just five minutes each morning to practicing this simple counting meditation.
Tip: think of the mind like a cheeky puppy. It takes time to train a puppy and it takes time to train your mind. Treat your mind with the same kindness you would a baby.
Breathwork
Where do I begin with this powerful practice? The breath is life. It’s our life force, our energy. Many of us are stuck in a chronic shallow breathing pattern, which confuses the body and increases feelings of stress. Simply by including a deep breathing practice when you wake can set you up to win each day. I always include breathwork in my yoga classes as it’s so centring and calming.
How to: A great practice to begin with is equal breathing. Breath in for four, breath our for four. Slow and steady. Do this around ten times. Slowly extending the length of the exhale.
Affirmations
This is one of my favourite morning practices. It’s a wonderful way to start recognising and shifting the internal dialogue you have with yourself. If you are highly self-critical then please include this in your practice.
Try this. Take a negative narrative that you tell yourself and then turn it around. It’s an exercise for your mind and your self-esteem. Just like you go to the gym and train your physical fitness, here you are training your mental fitness to be strong and to support you in a positive way.
How to: For example, maybe I tell myself over and over “I’m shy”. Maybe I am shy and that’s ok, but maybe I want to overcome it. So, I think of a positive way to rephrase it. I counter it with something like “I am a good listener and I have interesting things to say.” I then begin to identify with the positive version of myself.
Another way would be to create a powerful sentence around a goal or something you want to achieve.
Use your affirmation as a mantra. Sit quietly with your eyes closed, say your affirmation over and over again in your head until you really feel its power, then shout it from the rooftops. Who cares if anyone hears you, it’s your life and its yours for the taking!
Tip: Your affirmation is most powerful when you speak it aloud.
Writing or Journalling
This is a great time you can use to write your to-do list, a gratitude list or my favourite is “morning pages”. The idea of morning pages was developed by a lady called Julia Cameron for artists with writers block. I personally use it all the time not just in the morning but every time I feel blocked, creatively or emotionally, to be honest I find it works to shift any sort of emotional block.
How to: Start with an A4 notebook. Do not think about what you are writing. Just write. Whatever pops into your conscious mind, write the words on the paper. You will find that you don’t even finish sentences and you may be writing random words but go with it. You’ll be surprised how incredibly clearing this is.
Tip: after morning pages I often make little notes in the margin about things that jumped out to me in case I want to explore that further at a later date.
Reading
If you are not reading every day, please start. Read whatever brings you joy. Two years ago, I was barley reading one book each year, now I read at least twelve books a year just by following a very simple rule.
How to: Read ten pages per day. No more, no less. But make that daily commitment and notice how good it feels to accomplish that small practice every day.
Visualisation
The mind is a very complex matter, but visualisation is a very simple and powerful technique to creative powerful changes and almost trick your mind and body in to believing something is happening. It’s a rehearsal.
Some of the biggest adopters of visualisation are athletes. By playing the image over and over again in your mind you are rehearsing what you want to achieve so when it comes to that big game or for us, that big meeting you are halfway there.
How to: Try implementing it for something in your life that is challenging you or that you are preparing for. Play it repeatedly in your mind. Notice the points you become distracted and go back to make sure you play the whole story clearly in your head.
Fact: I did this when I ran a 10k last year, my first time running after six years out the game because of my back and knee pain. All I’m going to say is I smashed it! My effort yes but my visualisation gave me the confidence and belief I needed to get out there and train every day.
Healthy breakfast
A healthy breakfast is such a beautiful way to start your day. It’s nourishing and it is taking care of yourself. One of the things I’ve learned recently from Ayurvedic medicine is to consider these things when eating. Quality, quantity and time.
Try your best to ensure the best and freshest quality of food. Prepare your breakfast from scratch. Food is our fuel. How long could you put diesel in a petrol car before it breaks down? Our body is no different.
Check the quantity of food you’re eating and be aware of what is driving any cravings. As a guide, one to two fistfuls of food each morning is plenty to keep you fuelled and not too much to overwork your digestive system.
And finally, time. Let’s not graze and pick at bits of food throughout the morning. Try to eat everything you want to eat for breakfast withing a 20-30 minute window, allowing your digestion to do its stuff and clean up nicely ready for your next meal.
Tip: I love a little snack of fruit between lunch and dinner to keep me going but for me nothing more than a handful. Be your own guide.
Yoga
Of course, finally, my favourite. Yoga. Yoga ticks all the boxes. It’s a moving meditation, connecting your body and mind with breathwork and allows you time to set an intention for your practice and your day.
When we practice yoga in the morning, you can feel complete. Yoga releases all the happy hormones, so it brings feelings of joy and helps to manage stress for the day ahead.
Yoga is the first step into wellness. It’s the first step in connecting to yourself, to your higher energy and to the energy of the universe. When you practice yoga, you come home to yourself. If you aren’t practicing yoga but are curious, please drop a note.
“Everything is difficult until it is easy.”
Make it Happen
And now over to you. Get creative with some of the ideas above, take little steps at a time so that you give yourself the best chance to succeed. Try just one or two options to begin and build up.
And if it’s all too overwhelming (because let’s face it, life is crazy enough!) perhaps you thrive with the support of a coach and community then come on over and join Healthy Habits Club. We rise together each morning for 20 minutes, raise our energy and our smiles and support each other start the day in the most beautiful way.
Good luck creating your empowered morning ritual. Drop me an email to tell me all about it!
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” –John C. Maxwell
SIGN UP TO ‘THE SUNSHINE TIMES’ for all my news and posts.