5 Things You Didn’t Know About Morning Routines
This blog is here to give you some ideas on how to implement mindfulness into your daily life. And the one thing that I cannot stop recommending enough is developing a morning routine.
Especially, during Corona times and the lockdown, having a routine is absolute key to keep up normality as much as we can and it also just helps us to stay sane.
Having a morning routine is also one of the 13 tips that I give HERE for working from home and how for remaining mindful during such unprecedented times.
It is still dark in the bedroom. You regain something like full consciousness after a solid sleep.
Your thoughts are present again, have left the land of nod and you are trying to remember where you are. Who you are.
Then you grab your alarm clock from your bedside table, notice that it is 5.27 am, and you smile. Three more minutes for dozing before you can get up.
Note that I say can, not have to, because when you have found just the right way to spend your mornings, you will look forward to getting up.
You put down the alarm clock and indulge in those last three minutes of slumber.
When the alarm goes off and you get out of bed, most of your neighbours behind the walls are still in deep sleep, the birds are not yet singing their song, the hallway is crisp and the cold tiles in the bathroom give you a gentle push into the land of the awake.
After you finish in the bathroom you think, what will I do this morning? For me? What do I feel like?
You put on a candle, some forest sounds, perhaps burn an incense. While you sip a glass of warm water with a sprinkle of salt and lemon to rehydrate your body after a good night sleep, you ponder, long yoga session? Meditation? Or both? And then, I want to read the news, or no, rather this article I have been wanting to read all week. After you have drawn your daily card, you dive into a gentle (or hot) yoga session, breathing in, breathing out.
Breathing in, breathing out. You are all there, in the present moment.
You don’t think about work, about yesterday or about what’s for dinner. You are simply there, in your morning, in your moment.
You may or may not add ten minutes of meditation. You know that meditation is an important daily practice but not feeling bad about yourself if you don’t meditate is even more important to maintain sanity.
Tea or coffee? You make every decision based on how exactly you feel this morning. What you, your mind, your spirit want in this moment.
You don’t choose coffee because you have coffee every morning – how much of a choice would that be?
You choose to have coffee because right now the idea of coffee feels good to you.
You open the kitchen cabinet and pick from a range of cups the one that suits the moment the best, you watch the kettle boil the water and pour it gently in the coffee maker. Or over your tea bag.
As you slowly prepare your breakfast – today you feel like warm porridge with apple baked in cinnamon and maple syrup, or eggs and some fresh vegetables – you dance. Your body can’t help it.
You think, might as well, and put on your favourite tune.
Have you ever danced in the morning?
You have already prepared your lunch box the night before and just need to pack it in your bag.
The sun has started kissing the floor of the room as you sit down to arrive at the kitchen table and eat and drink.
The only thing that is left to do is kissing your partner good bye who is still fast asleep and wishing him a lovely day.
The card you drew this morning is in the inside pocket of your hand bag as you leave through the door, ready to embrace the day.
I promise you, it’s magic.
The difficulty with morning routines is that you think that you just have to do what other people do and you have to be, oh, so disciplined to do it every day. But I want to share five secrets with you.
First: What other people do doesn’t matter.
In fact, DON’T do what other people do!
Listen to your own needs, experiment, try out what works and what doesn’t work.
Sometimes we like the idea of something but in reality it is not the right thing for us mentally or physically.
Make it your own. It is not about being able to share your amazing morning on instagram but it is to help you get the best start into your day possible.
And after all, you don’t know what other people do in the first place. For all I know they could be sleeping all the way through 10 am, so don’t compare yourself to anyone except yourself.
You only know what they share online and on social media. Be inspired by it, but take what you see with a grain of salt.
And since we are speaking of food - only pick the raisins.
By that I mean, research a little on what other people do but only pick the best of all to combine your own precious morning glory.
Second: The ultimate secret of a great morning routine is having an evening routine.
Did you notice how in the little scenario above, the lunchbox is already prepared?
That was thanks to a working evening routine that respects your future self enough to help out a little.
Not many people talk about having an evening routine, but it goes hand in hand with a healthy sleep pattern and thus it will influence your morning routine also.
An evening routine can include necessities such as preparing lunches and getting to bed early. But it can also include so many more elements that make you happy, such as reading, a facial evening routine, making love, talking to your partner, or even preparing the breakfast table for the following day.
Add a flower and a candle for an extra treat!
But all of that said, I truly believe that the ultimate secret to a good and successful morning routine is a good and healthy evening routine.
It sets the stage for a deep sleep which is one of our most important and yet undervalued assets.
Third: Discipline is a myth.
People who look oh so disciplined have simply developed a habit that looks good to have to the outside world.
In fact, when you have created a habit like this, you do it automatically.
That is what a habit is in a nutshell. When I don’t do my yoga for a morning or two, I start feeling weird.
Yoga and meditation have become my mental tooth brushing and if I don’t do them I start to feel yuck.
Fourth: Repetitiveness can ruin it for you.
Yes, it is called a routine but doing exactly the same thing every morning is not what you should do.
Doing the same thing over and over again can quickly become boring or make it feel like work.
Also, it quickly leads to feeling remorse when you don’t do a step of your morning routine and it can lead to doing each step automatically and not consciously or mindfully which is the whole idea behind a mindful morning.
Don’t just check off the things on your morning routine list, but really listen to what you need to do this morning, so that your next hour and this day will feel great.
Instead of doing the same thing everyday, create a pool of activities that you can choose from as you go.
Fifth: Seasons matter.
This is related to point four but I want to emphasise it nevertheless.
We are nature. We are nature and adapting to the ever changing daylight hours and the weather can be extremely beneficial for our health.
This may change the time of when you get up.
Or, for example, in summer you will spend some time outside in the morning, go for a walk, a run, a bike ride, a surf, …
And in winter you stay at home, put on a candle while you do yoga or add a candle on your breakfast table.
Celebrate the different times of the year and the feelings and cravings they create in you.
Please, don’t feel like you have to go out for a run when it is dark and you have to wear gloves.
If you love it, great, if you don’t, then don’t do it.
Don’t punish yourself to get through your morning to check off the items but do the things that make you happy.
