How To Be A Morning Person

The Night Before

I am a firm believer that a morning full of serendipity starts with putting any stress and anxiety to bed the night before. Keep reading for the recipe that will set you up to sleep like a baby;

Step 1

Write a to do list for the next day, this will prevent you from waking up and manically

scrolling through emails and checking your diary. Instead, you will wake up with ease, knowing what needs to be done and when.

Step 2

Lay your gym clothes out before you sleep, this will encourage you to get up and move, whether that’s going on a walk or doing a yoga class, get moving as soon as you can.

Step 3

Journal, often when we hit the pillow our minds start racing with thoughts about what we did that day, how we handled situations, what we could have done better and what we have to face the following day. In order to stop your mind from running free, journal your thoughts and feelings out of your system and on to paper so they are not torturing you when you need to rest.

Step 4

Meditate. Meditation really is a natural medication, it goes hand in hand with journaling as it

helps to quiet the mind and calm the rush of thoughts that are ongoing every day, whilst reducing stress hormones ensuring a peaceful night’s sleep. Something that works really well for me is listening to a guided meditation which transitions into peaceful music as you fall asleep, you can access these in many different ways, but my personal favourites are done by Jason Stephenson and can be found on YouTube.

The Morning Routine

The same way that having an evening routine in order to wind down is super beneficial, having a morning routine in place to help you warm up to the day is also essential. Your morning routine needs to be made up of things that make you personally feel good but mine is as follows;

Step 1

I would encourage you to incorporate alternative lighting/sound into your morning routine. Lighting is more important than ever as we are in the winter months and other than the occasional beautiful sunrise, we are generally waking up to dark skies and rainy weather. This kind of dreary wake up leaves us wanting to hide under the covers and go back to sleep. A way of combating this is getting an alarm clock that wakes you up with natural light that gets brighter over a set period of time, simulating a natural sunrise. These often play relaxing music to gradually wake you up in place of that dreaded anxiety inducing iPhone alarm.

Step 2

Meditate. I often do this whilst I’m still in bed, I find that this is the perfect middle ground ensuring I don’t hit snooze, at the same time as not having to jump straight out of bed. Just after we wake up is one of the times that our subconscious mind is at its most effective state, for this reason I love to play a guided meditation that includes empowering affirmations that set me up for the day.

Step 3

Drink 1-2 glasses of water to combat the natural dehydration that occurs overnight, this instantly gives me more life and gets me ready to get my body moving.

Step 4

The next thing I do is around 10 minutes of gentle yoga/ stretching to relieve any tension that’s in my body from being still for so long, this also helps increase the blood flow, making you feel more energised.

Step 5

Next, I say out loud everything that I’m grateful for and my affirmations, instilling me with confidence and readiness for my day. The law of manifestation and the law of vibration is something I will speak about another day; but for now, just know that the more grateful you are for what you have, more blessings will come your way.

Step 6

The last stage of my morning routine is to have a healthy breakfast – if you’re not someone who loves eating in the morning, I would encourage you to still have something to increase your energy levels, even if that’s just a smoothie/juice.

The most important thing to take from this morning routine is that all of the above are done before I even think about looking at my phone. As soon as we open our minds to the never-ending hole of news, emails, Instagram, tik toks of dancing cats and more – our thoughts are taken over with to do lists, endless hours obsessing over other peoples holiday pictures and other unhealthy habits that will instantly ruin our morning. For this reason, it is imperative that we allow time in the morning to set the tone for the day and just be with our own thoughts.

I don’t necessarily think that there is one perfect morning that suits everyone, I believe it is largely down to; what makes an individual feel good, what motivates you and ultimately what makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning. I do, however, think that every morning routine should contain movement of some kind, meditation if possible and hydration. I promise you wont regret making these changes; try them and let me know how you get on; I would love to hear your stories.