9 Tips to Optimize your Morning Routine!
Ok.. it’s time we take this seriously.
Our Morning Routine!
How we begin each day is crucial for getting momentum flowing for the rest of the day!
The main squeeze..
What we do in the mornings should include things we enjoy and set us up for a healthy, happy day.
There are tons of suggestions to start the day off right, and everyone has their own ways and preferences for making it enjoyable.
I’m interested in what the science says about how to optimize our bodies daily to give us a leg up physically, mentally, and even spiritually. Every. Single. Day.
And of course, if we can do it daily, we can make it a habit where it molds into our subconscious mind becoming easier, and second nature to do the things that set us up for a really great day and a really great life!
Here’s the best outline I’ve gathered so far (and what I try to keep up with for myself):
Drink Water
Rehydrate your body! We lose water through perspiration, breathing, and kidney functions (making urine). Dehydration leads to feeling sleepy, low energy, and even confused. Rehydrating perks up our mood and energy, and makes us feel more alert!Breathwork
This is also referred to as ‘pranayama’ (Prana in Sanskrit = vital energy). Our bodies rely on oxygen to function at the highest potential. Oxygen is brought in through the nose, to the lungs, bloodstream, and then finally, to our cells.Breathing properly (first unblocking the lungs with good posture, deeply inhaling through the nose, bringing the breath down into the belly, then exhaling all the air through your nose) can boost our energy levels, immune system, quality of sleep, attention, recovery from exercise and illness, and can relieve pain, stress, and anxiety.
Meditate
Combined with breathwork or deep breathing, morning meditation can create a sacred connection to our higher self when the day and our minds are nice and fresh. It’s a time to connect to ourselves, become aware of our thoughts - to have the ability to detach from any negative ones and reframe them into positive ones which moves us into a more proactive state of thinking and broadens our perspective. By practicing in the morning, we’re less likely to make an excuse to skip, and our minds aren’t already cluttered with to-do tasks. They’re nice and fresh, and we’ll be more likely to follow through and make it a habit!Since our Morning Routine sets the tone for the rest of the day, by meditating, we can start it off more focused, calm, optimistic, and the benefits will stick with us as the day goes on. Some benefits include: reduced stress, improved concentration, creativity, cognition, quality of sleep, self-connection, and self-reflection.
Get Direct Sunlight
Getting real sun exposure (meaning not through a window) in the morning within 30-60 minutes of waking for about 5-10 minutes triggers the timing of cortisol (related to our alertness) and melatonin release which affects our sleep/wake cycles. Therefore, we feel more alert when we need to while preparing our bodies for a proper wind down later for good sleep!Stretch
When we’re sleeping and our bodies are stagnant, our muscles and joints can become tight and tense. Stretching improves our flexibility, posture, mobility, range of motion, helps prevents injury, and gets our blood pumping to both our body and brain waking us up further.It’s a good idea to get our body a little warmed up before we start “cold” stretching too. We can get warm by doing some dynamic stretches like walking, squats, windmills, etc. Then get in to our stretches and work our way up into more movement for our workout 😉
Workout
The best time to exercise is the time when we’ll actually do it and do it consistently so it becomes a habit. And yes, a daily habit. There are some really great reasons to get it in early though:
Energy boost - increases blood circulation
Mood boost - increases endorphins, the “feel-good” neurotransmitters
Focus boost - increases dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin which affect focus and attention
Consistency - fewer distractions in the morning means we’re more likely to follow through
Regulate hormones - boosting cortisol earlier to keep alertness throughout the day
Cooler - not exercising in the hottest part of the day!
Momentum - sets the tone for a healthy day and more likely to make more healthy choices throughout the day
Cold Shower
Now that we’ve got our workout in and our sweat on, it’s time to wash it off! What better way to do so than with a cold shower that has the benefits of improving mood, immune function, willpower, stress management, and even metabolism.A good way to get started is by starting gradually. We can reduce the water temp and end our shower in “cold” water for the last 30 seconds. Then next time, stay under the cold for 45-60 seconds and so forth. To reap the benefits, we only need about 2-3 minutes of exposure. Phew!
Caffeine
Ok, so we don’t actually need caffeine in the morning, but if we’re going to get it, we should try to opt for our caffeine boost about 1.5 - 2 hours after waking (suggests Andrew Huberman).Why wait? Our cortisol levels peak around 2 hours after waking, so our natural alertness is already kicked on- especially if we’re following this particular Morning Routine. What we want is to consume our caffeine when cortisol levels drop. Then what caffeine does is block the receptors for adenosine(a hormone that builds up throughout the day that makes us sleepy). This means, the caffeine will stave off the build-up of those💤’s.
One thing to watch for though, is that the half-life of caffeine is about 5 hours. That means that after 5 hours, there’s still half of that caffeine level circulating in our system. For better quality sleep, it’s a good idea not to consume caffeine about 6 or more hours before bed.
To ditch the caffeine completely, (and thus help our natural levels and release of cortisol) but still get an energy boost in the morning, we can naturally increase our blood flow and boost cortisol by opting for a workout within the first hour of waking.
Journal
Journaling can really be done any time of the day. It’s a great way to reduce stress, clear the mind, brain dump and organize to-dos, review our plan of action, get intentional, script out your dreams, connect with ourselves, jumpstart creativity, and my new favorite- remember your purpose!This can really help us set the tone for the day, remember who we are and why we do what we do 😊
We can always have fun tweaking our routine to what fits our personal preferences and needs.
It never has to get boring or mundane.
We can always spice up our Morning Routine by changing our ENVIRONMENT!
The sights, sounds, smells, feels..
..any aspect to keep it interesting and evolving, but most importantly to keep us evolving.
For example, just today, I realized that something I can do to both enjoy my mornings more as well as get my sunlight earlier is to journal outside on our balcony/kitty jungle while sip on my cup of joe, and watch the sun rise🌞Doesn’t that sound more lovely than just more of sitting at the same spot at my desk? I think so!
I hope you enjoyed this post!
Keep an eye out for more info and upcoming challenges to build your self-discipline and happy, healthy habits to create and maintain your BEST LIFE 😉
🤔 What would you add to your morning routine to make it more enjoyable!?
Stay FLI!
