A 30-Minute Morning Routine that Anyone Can Use for a Successful Day
Phrases like "morning" or "evening routines" seem to be buzzwords in the self-improvement space lately. Everyone appears to have one and if you don't, you may feel like you're missing out. There are many benefits to having a morning routine such as helping you feel in control, increasing your productivity, lowering stress, creating healthy habits, boosting your energy levels, and ultimately setting your day up for success. Morning routines, however, don't need to be a long, drawn out process that takes you hours to complete. If you have the time for a long morning routine and you enjoy that, awesome! But many of us don't have much free time as it is, which is why I've designed a 30-minute morning routine that anyone can do to have a successful start to their day.
How to have a successful morning routine in 30 minutes:
Remain phone-free for the first 30 minutes to one hour of being awake; the time limit is your choice (0 minutes). The cool thing about this step is that it requires zero time on your part. It's become common practice to grab our phones first thing in the morning and for our phones to be the last thing we see before sleeping. The first waking moments you have in the day are precious. When we scroll social media, check the news, or look through our emails first thing in the morning, we're bombarding our mind with external stimuli and those things determine how we start our day and how we feel going into the day. Instead of allowing your phone to set your mood for the day, you can decide how you're going to feel.
Visualize the life you want or a goal you want to achieve (2-5 minutes). In the first few minutes after waking, continue to lay in bed (or sit up if you prefer) and visualize the life you want to have or visualize yourself accomplishing a goal you've set. You're still in your subconscious state of mind in the moments after you wake up, so when you visualize your best life or you already achieving one of your goals, your mind doesn't know the difference between wanting to achieve something and already achieving something. By visualizing these things, you're training your mind that you already have these things, you deserve them, and that you can achieve them.
Drink a big glass of water and open your blinds (2 minutes). After sleeping for 8+ hours, it's important to rehydrate and get some sunshine to tell your circadian rhythm that it's time to wake up. We're basically houseplants with more complicated emotions so water and sunshine are just as important for us.
Set your intentions for the day (1-3 minutes). After visualizing the life you want for yourself, set a couple of intentions for your day that align with that vision. Setting intentions could look like deciding that you are going to have an amazing day no matter what life throws at you today, or your intention can be more quantitative like reading three chapters of the new book you've started. You can set as many intentions as you want. Similar to intentions, you can also set mantras if those are more your thing. Some mantras I'm currently saying to myself are: 1) My success is inevitable and 2) I love money and money loves me.
Give thanks (1-3 minutes). Either mentally or physically write down three things that you're thankful for. The more specific, the better. Starting our day with gratitude will put our heart and mind in a more abundant state. You can take your gratitude practice even further by thanking the Universe, God, or whatever higher power you believe in for the things you want as if you already have them. For example, you could say, "Thank you Universe for providing me with a new job opportunity that I know is on the way to me."
Meditate (10 minutes). Before you dismiss this step, hear me out. I'm sure you've heard that meditation offers a plethora of benefits, but here are some benefits that you might not have known about: 1) Meditation helps preserve the brain as you age. People who meditate actually have more gray matter in their brain when they're older than those who don't meditate. 2) Meditation decreases mind-wandering so that you're more focused throughout the day. 3) In a recent study, meditation reduced anxiety and depression just as well as antidepressants. Pretty amazing stuff. I'm not going to lie, meditation is hard, at first. But meditating just 10 minutes per day is not a huge commitment and you can start seeing the benefits almost immediately.
Eat breakfast or a snack (10 minutes). I'm personally not very hungry first thing in the morning, but I do want to get something in my system before I take on the day so I usually eat a snack like a piece of fruit. If you're hungry right away, eating breakfast is a great way to start your day.
Brush your teeth (2 minutes). No explanation necessary for this step!
There you have it my friends, a simple morning routine that you can do in 30 minutes that I hope will get your day started on the right foot. Is there anything you would add or take away from this routine? Let me know in the comments!
