Your morning routine sets the stage for your whole day. Take your routine from frenzied and rushed to calm and prepared. Become a morning person!
You may be a creature of habit or you may not. Either way, developing some great new habits is absolutely healthy (especially if they are ones that can help to get your day started on the right track). The rush of morning can often feel unstructured for many as they struggle to get out the door on time. If you’re one of those who find it hard to get organized and inspired for the day, you might want to implement a new routine.
If you take control of the situation and don’t let the situation take control of you, it can very well set your day up for success. Trust me, I have tested it myself. A healthy morning routine leads to a healthy day, a healthy evening, and of course a healthy life!
There are many things you can implement without spending a lot of time to make your morning well rounded. Here are just a few of my favorite ones.
Drink Water
Start your day with a tall glass of purified water first thing when you wake up. You’ve likely heard it before but starting your day with water is a great beginning. Since you’ve been fasting all night, this is the time to replenish and re-hydrate your body. Water first thing in the morning can also help to keep things moving in your digestive tract and it helps to get your metabolism started. You can even add a pinch of sea salt, lemon juice, spirulina powder, cayenne, or apple cider vinegar to take this morning essential hydration to the next level. You might also want to try Sunwarrior's Hydration to help you with your hydration goals.
Move your body
Whether you have a gym membership, or you’re a runner, or biker or want to invest in some simple equipment at home like a jump rope, rebounder, kettlebell or some free weights, it’s not too difficult to bring movement into your morning routine. You can even follow a yoga or Pilate’s video on your laptop. The movement doesn’t have to be complicated or long, just something that gets your body in the flow. Morning workouts are always more effective than afternoon or evening workouts, and you will most definitely feel more energized for the rest of the day.
Meditate and Visualize
It’s becoming the norm now to bring mediation practice into one’s daily routine. This doesn’t have to be a complicated or a time-consuming endeavor. If you can just settle yourself down, somewhere cozy to quiet your mind for just a few minutes every day: that is meditation. Or you can use an app or listen to a guided recording. One app that I like to recommend is called Headspace.com. It’s easy to follow, makes daily meditation practice manageable, and it’s not overwhelming. You can also use this time to visualize your day and set some positive intentions of what you want your day to look like.
Keep a Journal
This is a super healthy way to get your thoughts down. It can help you organize your day and clear your head. There is an amazing app called fiveminutejournal.com. This app helps you to organize your thoughts and put down some of your goals for the day, to reflect on things from the past, and even put some ideas down for the future. I also recommend that you create some kind of affirmation or mantra for yourself that is just for you. If you repeat these on a daily basis they eventually start to become a reality.
Brush, everything
Skin brush, dry brush, and brush your teeth and your hair. Your body needs grooming. I would expect that your teeth and hair is well taken care of day in and day out. However, dry skin brushing may be new to you. To begin dry brushing, you need to get yourself a dry brush that does not get wet. Then you start brushing from the base of your body, at your feet using circular motions going upwards toward your heart. This helps with circulation, detoxification and exfoliated your body of dead skin cells. Do this right before your step into the shower and you will feel invigorated and energized.
These are just a few things that you can begin to implement to get your day started on the right foot. If this means you have to wake up 10, 20, or 30 minutes earlier to get some of these practices in, I promise it will be worth it. You also may just find that you evening routine needs to shift a bit to accommodate waking up earlier. Overall you will start to feel better, look better, and slowly but progressively become more efficient and effective at whatever it is you do during the day!
To get more ideas on how you can upgrade your morning routine, I encourage you to download The Ultimate Health Podcast in iTunes and check out episode #39 with Hal Elrod. He is the morning routine expert!
Check out these tips on dry brushing!
