Morning Routine - Tips to boost your health and motivation
Today I’m going to share with you a good morning routine, so all the little habits that you can do to keep yourself healthy and motivated straight from the beginning of the day. The morning is a very important phase of the day as here you can set your mind towards positive and motivating thoughts. Let me tell you what you can really do as your daily morning routine to boost your health and motivation.
1. Get your regular sleep
First of all, try to get your regular 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Of course everything is individual and there are people who can sleep less and still operate well throughout the day. Then there are others who rather work through the night and sleep during the day. The point here is to be well-rested for your time of activity, and not to cut on sleep in the long term, because it can’t work in the long term. If you want to live a sustainable life with clear habits that let you grow successfully, you need to be rested on a regular basis. Doing overtime and testing your endurance should only happen in an emergency. You can’t underestimate your sleep time for the rest of your life. Let your body rest.
2. Dopamine detox in the morning
Secondly, and here I work on that myself, every time I wake up I grab after my phone and check messages or social media. I realise that it's much better to just be in the moment and enjoy the silence for at least half an hour before you really grab the phone. You can see it in this way: social media and messaging is a certain type of addiction. It lets you experience dopamine in your brain, the chemical of pleasure. However, we want to take control of our lives and be free of addictions, right? In this case it’s a good habit to feel in control right in the morning by not grabbing and checking your phone. And here I repeat: I need to improve that myself too, so welcome to the improvement club.
3. meditation & mindfulness
After I get up, I try to meditate for at least 15 minutes but I admit the exact time of the day varies a lot and often I end up meditating in the evening. But I can’t imagine a better routine for the morning than to just sit still for a few minutes and listen to the sounds and concentrate on your inner life in a deep state of reflection or mindful stillness. There are various ways to meditate and this activity is so much more constructive than just passively watching random videos on your phone for half an hour.
4. Coffee & breakfast boost your motivation
Then, I grab some coffee. Perhaps I like coffee a bit too much. I try to reduce my daily intake, but it’s a great feeling to start a new and fresh day with coffee. I’m not really sure whether caffeine impacts me in any way. I rather drink it because I like the taste and because it gets me ready for work.
Next, I prepare my breakfast. This might vary depending on how I feel, but usually it’s an omelette with rice or oats with berries, peanut butter and cinnamon. After that I always have a shake with banana, protein-heavy yogurt, with milk, peanut butter and spinach or salad leaves. That’s good for you if you work out. Shakes can give you a big amount of calories without you having to eat anything. You just drink it and it can taste really great. It gives you the needed boost for the day.
5. to-do lists to help you keep track
I find it very important to have a daily to-do list. You can have a few to-do lists. Some of them might be goals for long-term, but I always prefer having a workable and practical list for the day, so that I can lose myself in a specific activity without losing the context of the whole day. You can even put trivial things on your list, because mundane tasks such as laundry and meal preparation also take time.
Otherwise, if you don’t have any to-do lists, you can quickly get the feeling that you’re not progressing anywhere, because it’s so easy to get stuck in the complexity of the day. With a to-do list you have a clear structure of where you want to end up by the end of the day. Moreover, crossing out a completed task gives you a rush of dopamine and deeper satisfaction.
6. Pro-active mindset motivates you
Last but not least, I find it very important to start the day with the positive mindset. All those things such as not checking your phone, meditation, affirmations, sitting still, having your coffee etc. are just tricks and hacks to put you in control of your mood. Remember, for the most part of the day it’s your internal thoughts and feelings that will have an impact on how you influence the world. You can really make conscious decisions on how you want to perceive the world and appear to people. You don’t need to just react passively to the circumstances of your life. It might not be easy, but it’s possible. But you need to start with the pro-active mindset. Without caring about your mindset you will really miss the point.
In any case, do whatever the heck you want, just one thing please DO NOT: never ever sit around and think everything is someone else’s fault and you can’t do anything about it! Such a way of thinking is inaccurate. Our decisions might be limited, but there’s always something that can be done, even if it’s just a little. A little is better than zero... always! So please have that mindset.
Small steps might feel like nothing in the present moment, but the little attempts add up over the course of years creating big impacts on you personally, something that you can only realise after a long time. It’s about having patience and persistence, and a good morning routine is supposed to help you with that.
Here we go, people - some tips and tricks for your daily morning routine. Maybe you liked it, maybe not... in any way: drop me a comment and remember to stay active and decisive.
Peace!
BLOGGER: HUBI
