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Dreading that morning alarm? Feeling exhausted? Pulling your cement-like body out of bed to do it all again, day in and day out? For us we were notorious for sleeping into the last minute possible, hitting the snooze alarm a few times. Can anyone relate?
For many of us, especially those currently experiencing burnout, this is the reality. We feel drained, powerless, and many aspects of our lives feel unmanageable.
In this blog, we provide ideas of effective morning routines and how they can help boost your health and productivity throughout the day.
A study conducted in 2018 examined over 300 successful individuals and their morning routines. The study depicted that having a morning routine is one of the most important parts of the day- in what you do during the first hour of waking is crucial in setting the tone of your day.
If you wake up feeling crummy, in a place of negativity, but do not take the steps to improve your state, the rest of your day will most likely proceed in this negative tone. There are many things in our lives that we do not have control over such as, colleague/boss behaviour, work environment, getting kids ready and out the door to school, etc. However, it is important to realize that we indeed can improve our lives by making good choices over things that we can control. One of those things is how we set ourselves up for the day.
- Making your bed
This one sounds simple but trust us, this small gesture goes far. Many of us can find it difficult to get out of bed and start our day with motivation when we are experiencing that emotional and physical exhaustion. The last thing we want to do is go to our job that is often the main source of our problems.
By fixing your bed first thing, it creates a sense of accomplishment, the first one of the day in fact. This small sense of pride can be an encouraging factor in motivating you to keep on chugging forward. When we started doing this we were surprised how much it impacted us in a positive way.
Tim Ferris speaks about the idea of how external messiness can play a role in causing external distraction that leads to feelings of internal distraction. It is kind of the same when you think about cleaning your apartment or house. After everything is neat and tidy, this can translate to a sense of internal organization. You can end up feeling super good, organized, accomplished, and productive.
You don’t need to fix your bed to perfection, the idea lies in performing the act and the end results of visual tidiness.
- Meditation
As soon as we wake up the subconscious mind floods us with 1,000 thoughts. If we are experiencing anxiety and high levels of stress, our first thoughts are usually all the things we need to do, get done, perform, and deadlines we need to meet. It has not even been 30 seconds since we awoke and are already feeling overwhelmed. All too familiar of a feeling? Ya, we hear you!
Meditation is a great way to ground and bring a sense of calm into the mind and body. It gives us the ability to gain control over the noise and nonsense chatter that is happening in our minds on a constant.
There is research to show that mediation can cause our brain to release endorphins (‘feel good’ hormones) that can make us feel physically and emotionally better.
There are so many things that happen within our day that are unpredictable or out of our control. Meditation can help to anchor you, like the thick roots of a tree into the ground. Therefore, no matter what happens in your day, your internal roots become so strong that you are swayed less by the external (like an angry boss, or high-stress levels at work, etc). When we take this control in calming our minds we can move into a place of clarity and manage our work/personal lives in a more skillful manner. This is an important practice in becoming resilient and taking our power back.
We recommend 10-20min, however, as little as 5 minutes can go a long way.
- Drink a Glass of Water With Lemon
So many of us roll out of bed and what is the drink we jump to? You know it, a nice hot yummy cup of coffee. I am not saying coffee is bad, heck, we both live for the enjoyment of that cup each morning! That being said, starting your day with a cup of lemon water has several benefits.
- Promotes Hydration
Starting your day with a cup of water helps to hydrate your body. Good hydration is needed for many bodily functions, some including; body temperature, joint lubrication, preventing infections, delivering nutrients to cells, and overall organ function.
Especially for those struggling with burnout symptoms that affect your mood and cognition (brain fog, difficulty focusing, etc), water can help to boost these aspects.
- Boost your Immune System
Lemon is a citrus fruit that is a source of Vitamin C, which plays a key role in supporting a healthy immune system. It helps to protect the immune cells from damage, increases the body production of white blood cells (cells need to fight off infection), and lastly, it helps the immune cells function optimally against little invaders (virus, bacteria, etc). Our bodies do not make Vitamin C so it is important that we ingest it from our diet.
When we are experiencing burnout symptoms on the daily, we expose our systems to a chronic state of stress, this over time lowers the immune system. Thus, supporting our immune systems during these times is so key to keeping us feeling good and healthy.
- Aids in Digestion
Lemon water can help to wake up your liver to secrete bile which is necessary for healthy bowel movements (aka poops) and removal of toxins that build up in our body. Some of you may be experiencing irritable bowels or constipation from the chronic stress your bodies are under, this is a great way to get things moving along.
After you have started your day with a nice cup of lemon water then you can move on to drinking that delicious cup of coffee 🙂
Recipe for lemon water: squeeze half a lemon into 8 ounces of warm or cold water (ideally use filtered water and organic lemons).
By showing up for yourself every morning, you take a step into reclaiming your power through taking control and setting up positive momentum for your day. These simple techniques can help give a boost to physical, emotional and mental health, helping you feel better. This will also put you in a position that will allow you to move through your day with a bit more ease, as well as enhance your motivation and productivity. Don’t stress about making all these changes at once. Try and incorporate one aspect at a time and then build as the weeks go on.
As Tim Ferris beautifully puts it “If you have won the morning, you have won the day”.
Let us know if you have a morning routine and what works for you.
Resources
https://www.health.harvard.edu/cold-and-flu/can-vitamin-c-prevent-a-cold
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/benefits-of-lemon-water#improves-skin
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/meditation/in-depth/meditation/art-2004585