My Morning Routine
(5 minute read)
Why start a morning routine?
I remember when I was in my teens my parents would always harp on about routines. The importance of structure in your life and I would always roll my eyes and say whatever!
Because who wants to listen to their parents right?
Well, it turns out my parents were actually onto something pretty smart. When I left my job last year in February I was ready to travel the world and live my best life as a 27 year old, young and free. Turned out the world had different plans for me. I was left without a job and without the ability to get a job as the Covid-19 pandemic hit Sydney locking us all into our homes.
During that time, I found structure, routine and habits to be my salvation and key to keeping my sanity.
Routines help create automation into your life, which the brain absolutely loves! Why? Because automation means the brain uses less resources. Habits, means there is no internal struggle at 6am about whether you should get up and go exercise or whether you should keep snoozing for the next hour.
This internal struggle is always going to happen if you don’t take action to do something about it. Our bodies are hardwired to take the easy route as back in cave man days resources were scarce so as a survival mechanism humans would always seek out the easiest path.
So, instead of waking up each day without a purpose or reason to get out of bed I created one. This doesn’t mean that everyday I jumped out of bed energetic, smiling and ready to go. No unfortunately, even with a routine some days are just going to suck.
I had two choices, I could either complain about my situation, wallow in self-misery (don’t worry I definitely did this for a bit) and let life pass me by or I could put some structure and foundations in place and make my life that little bit easier, taking baby steps each day to work towards something better.
Begrudgingly, I chose the latter and it has definitely served me well ever since.
Below, I will outline my morning routine to maybe inspire or give you ideas for how to create yours. Your routine will most likely be different to mine. We all have different needs, most people aren’t going to want to get up at 5am everyday like me. So don’t! The most important thing in creating a routine is creating something that suits YOUR lifestyle, not some influencers on Instagram, your mums or your best friends life. But YOUR life.
If it doesn’t suit you and your lifestyle its not sustainable and you won’t stick to it.
So let’s dive in.
What’s my morning routine?
Each day is not the exact same but I have created a foundation which I practice dependent on the day. As much as I love consistency we must also be flexible as life is not stagnant but fluid. My routine has also changed since going into lockdown as opposed to the office as I have more time.
Get up around 5am
brush teeth
exercise/ move my body
walk my dog
have a hot beverage and do 10 minutes of journaling
eat breakfast
(insert meditation if time allows otherwise I meditate mid morning or after lunch)
get stuck into work
Why these activities?
Sleep Routine
Sleep is one of the most important and beneficial acts of self-care you can do for yourself. When you are sleeping your body processes information and works to heal your body. It’s benefits are definitely underestimated. The first place I always start with clients isn’t on changing your diet, increasing exercise or taking more supplements its on creating a sleep routine. You would be surprised how big of an impact getting a regular 8 hours of sleep can have on your immune system, energy levels, mood and general ability to function.
For me, it is extremely important and my number one priority. Since last year, I have been going to bed about 8.30pm and getting up around 5am and generally don’t need an alarm clock to wake up.
You do not need to be this strict in your sleep routine, I recommend just starting to become aware of your sleep habits. When you go to bed late and get 5 hours sleep notice how you feel. When you do get 8 hours sleep notice how you feel. Do you feel better? Do you have more energy and less food cravings? Or is there no difference at all?
Maybe start writing about this in your journal.
Movement
Personally, I have found if I don’t start my day with movement I find my mood is lower and I have less energy or vigor for the day. For me movement may look like a swim, yoga, cross fit or weight lifting. On rest days, yes I said rest days, rest days are extremely important and I always try and include two days off from weight training to allow my muscles and my body to recover.
As I was saying, on rest days I will usually merge exercise and dog walking and do a longer and gentle walk. I enjoy coupling my walk with a podcast. It was actually Dr Chatterjee’s Podcast that inspired me to start journaling for 10 minutes each morning. I will add more about this below.
Movement doesn’t have to be a HIIT workout where you’re sweating, huffing and puffing. It can be a gentle walk, a swim or even dancing in the living room. It’s whatever movement makes you feel good. I love taking the opportunity to get out in nature or surround myself with like minded people and participate in group exercise.
Find what makes you feel good. Experiment, explore and discover what movement you enjoy and can complete consistently.
Journaling
Journaling is a fantastic tool for many different purposes. I recommend journaling to clients for anxiety and ruminations. When you are obsessing over something in your head just by writing it down on paper and getting it out can be cathartic.
I like morning journaling as a way to get out what I am feeling, improve my creativity and get the brain juices flowing. Somedays, I write about utter nonsense because the purpose of my 10 minute journaling is just to write whatever pops into my head or on a particular topic I have chosen. It doesn’t need to be a master piece. I can guarantee most of the time it definitely is not! Journaling helps train my mind to be creative and to problem solve. Instead of focusing on the negative I can search for solutions and train my brain to ask the right questions.
Meditation
I have struggled with meditation for a long time. I never enjoyed sitting and trying to clear my brain. I always had so many thoughts and so much brain chatter it was never fun. Recently however, I have found a different meaning for meditation, for me it isn’t just sitting down and clearing my head but bringing presence to the here and now in any activity I am doing.
Sometimes this looks like walking in nature, listening to music and noticing my picturesque surroundings, other times it’s putting any distractions away and sitting down to do some watercolour painting.
As of late, I have been focusing less on what my mind is doing but more on my breath. Learning to focus on my inhale and extend my exhale for as long as possible.
If you struggle with sitting down and clearing your head why not start with trying to bring more presence into the here and now. This might look like putting your phone away for 5 minutes each morning or evening before bed. It could look like listening to music without distraction. There are no rules, find what works for you.
If you are looking for guided meditations head over to Headspace I think their app is brilliant.
How to Create a Morning Routine
Keep it simple
Keep it realistic - ask yourself is this something you have time for and can maintain consistently?
Personalise it - you do not need to follow someone’s else’s routine. On Instagram it may work for them or appear to work for them but that doesn’t mean it will suit you and your lifestyle. We are all individuals with different needs.
Have fun - create something that you will enjoy, that makes you feel good, energises you and makes you excited to get out of bed. Granted you may not feel excited to get out of bed everyday but that is just life. As humans our emotions will fluctuate and that’s ok. That’s kind of the point of creating a routine. Creating a plan when you feel good to keep you supported and automated for the days when you don’t feel so good.
Leave a comment below, tag me on Instagram or send me a message to let me know how you go. I would love to hear about your morning routine.
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