3 Way to Start your Morning Better
My morning routine (or total lack of it!) used to look somewhat like a mini-tornado every morning:
- Hitting snooze on the alarm clock a few times
- Flying out of Bed at the last minute possible
- Rushing to make sure the kids were up and getting ready
- Wildly gathering up everything I needed for the day
- Slamming my travel mug in the coffee maker
- Breathlessly flying out the door
My day would always progress on in the exact same way — a flurry of running from thing to thing, here to there — and ending the day wondering just exactly what I had accomplished.
I was stretched to the limit with stress, feeling overwhelmed and frazzled. Then I had a wake-up call that something needed to change. One evening I lost sight in my left eye. It returned — but the doctors said it was stress-induced. I needed to make a change and quick so I began with my morning routine.
I started with a commitment to 15 extra minutes in the morning for me. It took me probably the better part of 6 months to get this down consistently. Then I noticed those days that started intentionally flowed better! I was more efficient, calmer, and more prepared — even though I still had just as many tasks to accomplish and people to see. My stress was reducing.
Fifteen minutes flowed into drinking my entire cup of morning coffee in intentional quiet with my new morning routine. As I started my morning better, I became clearer on how to be more effective at work, my confidence in myself, and what I wanted out of life.
This quiet morning planted the seeds of eventually leaving behind my very stable corporate job to embracing my dream of entrepreneurship. As that dream grew it became clear to me that my passion and skill would be better used working in my zone of strength 100% of the time as a full-time life and business coach.
Today, having made that transition, I embrace my mornings as the most important part of my day where my mindset and connection to my own wisdom is affirmed each day.
If you are like I used to be — frantically racing out the door each morning — I encourage you to begin with just 15 minutes for you each day.
Here are 3 habits to develop to start your day strong:
Silence
Five Minutes of mindful silence where you are just listening to your breath acts as a cleansing reset for the mind. If you are not used to silence even five minutes can seem like a long time. You can use an app like Headspace which is a great tool to begin a mindfulness practice or just listen and count your own breaths.
Affirmations
Five minutes of positive affirmations get us focused on the right things from the beginning of the day. These statements can include every aspect of how you want your life to be from parenting, relationships, job, money. They should be positive powerful statements that draw you forward to what you want. Affirmations are key in helping you create new habits and establish new neural networks to support those habits.
Journaling
Five minutes of writing down your thoughts and feelings is a powerful way to re-connect with your own inner flame. You can begin by listing a few things that you are grateful for. Other ideas for journaling are re-writing your affirmations; asking questions like — What do I need to know today to be the best that I can be? Or logging emotions and feelings about events in your life.
I challenge you to explore the possibilities of how your day can unfold in a new way. Commit to consistently starting your day different and see what outcomes shift.
When I was going through life-coach training one of the concepts I learned was a perfect today makes a perfect tomorrow. I did not understand what that meant at first. Now I understand that for something to duplicate it first needs an example to duplicate from. By creating your ideal 15 minutes in the morning you send a new signal to the rest of your day that there is a new pattern to duplicate. You too can begin to create a perfect day from a perfect start to your day.
