Cultivating a Morning Routine for Wellbeing
Establishing a morning routine and consistently adhering to it can have a big impact on your life.
Routines are composed of daily practices that build & cement themselves into long-term habits from repetition. By making room in life for essential routines, you can take care of yourself better and set the stage for a day filled with intention and purpose.
The Importance of Morning Routines
Morning routines are not merely habits but routines that contribute to one’s overall well-being. They influence the tone of the entire day. When individuals rush through their mornings, trying to accomplish multiple tasks at once, they often end up feeling frazzled and disconnected throughout the day. On such days, feelings of reactivity, emotional overwhelm, and stress are more likely to take over.
Even just five minutes to yourself can count as part of a morning routine, as long as it includes being present and connecting to yourself in the moment.
My Morning Routine
My morning routine changes over time to best suit my needs for that season, but this year has had a new intention that has stuck with me. Truthfully though, my morning routine for this year started the night before by laying out my workout clothes on the bathroom countertop next to my morning medication and my bottle of water. This sits next to my charging station that has my watch on it to charge overnight.
How my morning routine looks:
- Wake up without an alarm clock and proceed to the bathroom to dress, take my medication, weigh myself, and put my watch on.
- Make a cup of coffee and while I make that coffee I unload and load the dishwasher. As I do this, I pray or listen to Christian hip-hop music.
- Sit to drink my coffee and read one chapter in my Bible study. Journal gratitude or prayer in my personal journal and recap yesterday for my 2-year journal (a self-growth project I am working on)
- Write morning pages (from the Artist’s Way), play on Canva, or write here because my intention for the year was to regain my creativity in writing and art.
- Complete one lesson in a current continuing education course.
- After an hour has passed, I take my multivitamin and have something to eat. This changes depending on how I am feeling but generally has been a piece of fruit and a protein shake.
- Open up my email to review and scroll through social media.
- Go for a morning walk outside for 30 minutes. Depending on the rest of my day, I may train or I may wait until later in the day.
- Begin work with a mind, heart, and body set in the intentions of how I want to begin each day.
A Way to Develop a Personal Morning Routine:
- Write down the morning routine you would like to have. This is not a trick question. You can set this up however you’d like. It can be one thing. It can be 15 things. Simply write down your ideal morning routine.
- Now, narrow down what seems the most feasible out of your ideal routine to start first. Maybe your entire routine is feasible for you to start right away but there are some times when we need to build up simply because it’s going to require us to wake up earlier.
- From that list, is there anything that would serve you best if you were set up the night before? If so, begin with your nighttime intention that sets up your morning well. It is an easier way to implement a morning routine. This may look like setting up your coffee machine to be on a timer, setting out your workout clothes, leaving a few books in the spot where you would like to sit the next morning, or making sure to put your electronics on a charger.
- Set an alarm 30 minutes earlier and/or adjust bedtime accordingly. When you first start this intention, it doesn’t have to have a lot of time. You can start as small or as big as you would like to as long as you start this with compassion and know that you may fail.
- Test it out for the first week with a commitment that you will practice this every day of the week. It may not be easy at first but anything that we practice over time does get easier.
- Assess how the week went on the weekend. Were there any overlooked steps that could have helped you be more successful with setting up the morning routine that you wanted to have? Is there anything that you would like to do differently for the coming week?
- Test it out again for week two with the changes that you felt would help from week one and again go in with the commitment to practice this every day. We are building habits and habits are formed from actions that are repeated.
- Reassess one more time over the weekend. Is everything that you are implementing serving you? Are you finding some things don’t necessarily align with what you wanted to originally do with your morning routine? Change it up. You are building something here but if it doesn’t serve you, let it go to give space for something that does.
- Once you have a routine in place that you feel good about, feel free to start adding one new element at a time, if you want. This will help you gradually build up your routine. And remember whatever we repeat and are consistently practicing will eventually become a habit that is a part of this routine.
Takeaway
Cultivating a morning routine tailored to your preferences and needs can be a powerful tool in enhancing overall well-being. By dedicating time to personal routines, you can set a positive tone for the day. You can create space for focus, intention, and self-connection.
This is an act of self-care and self-care is necessary, not selfish.
Finally, be open to creativity and flexibility as life unfolds. A morning routine might need to change to support your life as your life changes.
Be adaptable, my friend!
