People set morning routines as a way to accomplish goals.
A morning routine can help you effectively get ready for work,
Or guide you in reaching a health and fitness goal,
Or ready yourself or your family for the day ahead.
It's excellent to have ambitions and accomplishments under your belt.
Setting and attaining goals are an important part of organizing your life.
But there's another reason you may want to create a morning routine.
Setting and sticking to certain rituals at the start of each day is a simple and elegant way to give you a sense of meaning and purpose each day.
Here's an analogy that will help you see the difference between morning goal-setting routines and those that exist to effortlessly enrich your life.
Imagine two different kind of morning walks.
One you do to get from point A to point B.
You're walking to arrive someplace particular and at a certain time,
Like from your home to work.
The other is a morning walk through a beautiful landscape,
Maybe a meadow.
During that walk,
You have no agenda or schedule.
You can just take your time,
Feel the weather around you,
Notice the flowers and the birds and how they've changed each day.
And at the end of the walk,
You just know more about the place you've been.
After many of these leisurely walks,
You get to know the place better and it feels a little bit more like home.
Maybe it's someplace that you just want to return to every morning because you enjoyed yourself.
So instead of engaging in morning rituals as a goal-setting device,
A way to check off another box on your to-do list,
You can engage in morning ritual to align yourself with your highest self before you start to interact with all the things and people each day.
So what does a good morning routine look like?
Well,
Meditation is of course a good way to get started.
And meditation can look like many things.
You may be working towards a daily habit of meditation already.
Many experts agree that about 20 minutes is the right amount of time for meditation to improve brain function.
However,
There's nothing wrong with just waking up and sitting quietly upon your awakening and simply being with yourself,
Mindful,
Quiet,
And calm.
It may be a commitment to no phone and no computer,
Which I know many of us instinctively reach for upon awakening.
Instead,
You commit to a few minutes of taking inventory of your emotions and your thoughts just by sitting still.
Knowing yourself in this way upon awakening helps you to navigate your inner world with more clarity,
Not only in the moment,
But later on during the day.
Another idea for a good start to the day is jotting down a few notes upon awakening.
You can keep a pen and a notebook by your bed,
Either after meditation or your quiet time.
You could write down the thoughts or emotions that you noticed that were prevalent.
In this way,
You have a record of what's on your mind many days.
You may be surprised to know that the average person has about 12,
000 to 60,
000 thoughts a day,
And 95% are exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before.
Maybe in seeing your thought patterns written down,
You'll naturally start to shift your perspective on your thoughts and what is really important to be thinking about for the quality of your life.
Some people keep a daily gratitude practice as a morning routine.
You can wake up and jot down three things that you're thankful for.
It can be big things like family and friends,
A work promotion,
Or maybe a cherished pet,
Or little things like beautiful weather or a delicious meal that you're grateful for.
You could even journal your gratitude practice each day.
Even the smallest,
Easiest changes in your morning habits can have big impact on your health and your success in building routines.
Let me explain.
One personal habit that I've had for many,
Many years is to drink a glass of lemon water each day upon awakening.
Lemon water aids in digestion.
It helps you stay hydrated.
It gives you a boost of vitamin C.
It helps your kidneys function.
It has all sorts of practical reasons for me to drink it first thing in the morning.
But beyond that,
It helps me with what is called habit linking.
Habit linking is the practice of connecting small habits over time to form a seamless routine.
So I first built in a regular habit of drinking lemon water.
It's easy enough.
Then I added short meditations.
These two habits became strongly linked over time,
And they formed my routine.
When I do one,
I want to do the other because I'm used to doing it that way.
Habit linking just makes a healthy morning routine easier to build and maintain over time.
If drinking lemon water isn't your thing,
You could find something even simpler to start with.
Light a candle in the morning.
Say an affirmation.
Smile at yourself in the mirror.
Something really simple can be your go-to habit that helps spark your ability to do the next linked habit without really thinking about it much.
So with all these different ideas,
Maybe just pick one or two habits that you'd like to focus on and try to commit to doing them every day in the morning for a month.
It may mean setting your alarm a little bit earlier or cutting out a different habit that isn't serving you,
Like scrolling through your phone first thing in the morning.
But the reward will be that feeling of accomplishment each day,
And maybe even more important,
You'll naturally find a sense of meaning and peace as you find the comfort in waking up each day.
Let's do a short meditation,
Just five minutes.
It will be an easy way to set a little bit of silent space for yourself to see your thoughts and feel your emotions.
You can bookmark this spot in the recording if you'd like,
So you can skip over the talk and come back to this simple meditation or reflection on any given morning,
And it may help you build a strong routine.
Let your body come to a natural stillness.
It might start to shuffle and move as you anticipate being still and quiet,
But eventually it feels very natural in finding comfort.
And when your body is in that comfortable space,
Just take in a deep breath and release an open mouth sigh.
If you haven't done so already,
Let the lids of the eyes come together.
And once they're closed,
You might notice a natural shift in your awareness.
Perhaps you become tuned in to the sounds around you,
Distant sounds,
And those that are a little bit closer.
You might start to take in the feeling of the air around you,
The temperature,
Or any airflow.
Perhaps you start to feel yourself in your body,
Places of support underneath you,
Like the pressure of the seat beneath you,
Or if you have something behind your back supporting you.
Your awareness could turn to your breathing.
Just observing the breath as it moves in and out of your body naturally is a wonderful anchor point.
It's a place that keeps you present and allows you to feel just that soothing sensation like ocean waves as you inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale.
In the silence of our quiet seated meditation,
Thoughts might naturally occur,
And that's okay.
Simply note the type of thoughts that you're having and review them later.
But for now,
Don't get attached to any one thought.
Just let the thoughts drift in and say,
Oh look,
There I'm thinking,
And let the thought drift out.
I'm breathing in,
I'm breathing out.
During the last few moments of your seated meditation,
You might notice any muscles that are persistently tense,
That won't release.
That's okay,
That they're like that.
They're there to protect you.
But sometimes in noticing these muscles,
They will release.
Move away from our meditation in the same way we started.
Take in a deep breath and then release.
I'd like to blink your eyes open now.
Starting a morning routine doesn't have to be a big commitment.
You can begin with something simple like five minutes of quiet seated reflection.
After a week or so,
It becomes easier.
Then you can work towards longer meditation periods if you'd like.
Or perhaps you start to habit link a short five minute reflection to another habit,
Like chatting down a few things you're grateful for in life,
Or saying a positive affirmation.
You can habit link more than two healthy habits,
Maybe add on drinking lemon water,
Or just smiling at yourself in the mirror.
In this way,
We aren't checking something off a box in the morning.
Instead,
We're creating a life affirming routine that will help us feel good first thing in the morning,
Get us on track,
And help us be our best selves each day.
