I am NOT a morning person.

I used to be. I was always up by 7 at the latest and ready to take on the day. Nowadays, my alarm goes off at 6:15 and I just want to lay there and close my eyes again and sleep until noon. Kind of like how my 14-year-old and 10 year old live currently.

I do notice that how I start my day makes a HUGE difference in how that day goes. Now, I will say this…

There are days that I just wake up in a bad mood or that I feel off. I do my morning routine and sometimes that still just doesn’t help so I have to continue to work through it. Some days it takes days to work through the funk that I am in.

However, this morning routine has helped me take control of my creativity and have better energy all day long. With all the things that I have going on, energy is key to getting me through the day.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A CONSISTENT MORNING ROUTINE

I know! You have heard that having a morning routine is the way to go but you still struggle with it.

How did I know that I needed to change my morning routine?

When I would grab my phone first thing in the morning and catch myself scrolling through Facebook and then Instagram and then Pinterest and then my email.

It would NEVER end. Until I had to drag myself out of bed to wake the kids up, wishing that I was still under my cozy heating blanket.

With all the scrolling that I did, I never felt better. I began to notice that I felt miserable and off and I just couldn’t understand what was causing it.

I love social media BUT it has some serious negativity that it can bring into your life EVEN if you are surrounded by some incredible people. The past two years have shown me that social media can be powerful in ways that change the world for the better and also be powerful in ways that can change the world for the worst.

Waking up every morning and scrolling immediately had brought all of this negativity into my world right after I opened my eyes. I could feel the hate and the divisive that was going on all around me and I soaked it in even though I wanted nothing to do with it.

It affected my mood.

It affected the relationship I had with my husband.

It affected the relationships I had with my kids.

It felt like it was consuming me and with that, it was bringing this blackness into my being that I just couldn’t fight off. I knew that things needed to change and last week I began to implement a new morning routine that has me feeling energized again.

Energized about life, business, and the world.

EMBRACING A ROUTINE THAT SUITS YOUR LIFESTYLE

My morning routine may not work for you and that’s okay. It is just an example of what you can do to start your mornings off in a better way.

I think we are all looking for ways to improve our life. We don’t always feel like making drastic changes (I know I didn’t) but we know deep down that something needs to change because we just can’t keep moving forward in the same way that we currently are.

I also want to note that having a night routine is just as important as having a morning routine. Let’s start small though and work on the morning routine to get your mind in the right space to make the most of your day.

Last night I was having a conversation with Richard about positive thinking. He is listening to a book about it and began to ask me what I thought positive thinking was. Seriously, I love how our conversations get better as the years go on.

You see, Richard and I are complete opposites.

I am a daydreamer.

I am a positive thinker.

I have an outlook on life that sees the best in everything.

He is a planner.

He has more of a negative mindset.

He has an outlook on life that sees the worst outcome before the best.

I love him to death but this can sometimes be a struggle. I tend to jump in with both feet and my eyes closed while he would prefer to have his eyes open and prepare for the worst. It has made our marriage fun at times, stressful at times, and a learning experience for both of us.

During this conversation, I told him that the past few days, having a positive outlook has been harder for me. I am feeling off. I watched a show on Netflix (Sex Life) and it triggered me. Triggered me to the point of crying in bed. I honestly have never connected so much with the main character before. I understood her. I felt her pain, her loneliness, and her doubt. Even though this show triggered me, I have increased the things in my morning routine and doing them throughout the day to help me move through these feelings.

Why am I talking about this?

Well, because I am in the beginning stages of building this morning routine. I have noticed a difference in my overall mental health and the ability to handle all the things that come at me during the day. Expected and unexpected.

Are you ready to build a morning routine to help you become more creative, more energized, and better at handling life?

THE MORNING ROUTINE THAT STRENGTHENS MY MENTAL HEALTH

I still reach for my phone in the morning but now for a different purpose.

I have created a folder on my phone that is called Mindfulness. It includes all of the apps on my phone that help me with my mental wellbeing. The apps that I have in there are…

• Map My Walk
• Presently
• Insight Timer
• FitOn

When I grab my phone in the mornings now, I grab it to open this folder. The first one I open is Insight Timer. There are times that I will use YouTube as well because I have some incredible meditations saved there.

I start with a guided meditation that is anywhere from 10-40 minutes long. I have a list of bookmarked meditations that I love. This morning I did a meditation called Meditation For Quantum Manifestation by Kiki Rae. Oh, it was SO SO SO GOOD!!

After I do a guided meditation, I will turn on music from Insight Timer. I love the Nourish Your Creativity and Intuition by Yuval Ron. I put on my earbuds and listen to this music while I grab my journal.

Yesterday my journal exercise was to create a list of the goals that I have. I created 7 goals that I want to achieve in the next few months. I then needed to rank them from 1-10 on where I thought that I was with these goals. After I did that, I needed to create an affirmation for each goal that I want to achieve.

Once all of that was written out, I repeated the affirmations that I created three times each. I do this multiple times a day to remind myself of the goals that I am working towards. Here is the YouTube video by Mary Kate that explains the list and how you do it. She has GREAT meditations as well and I suggest that you follow her.

I then will shut the music off and wake up my kids before heading downstairs. My morning routine extends beyond the bedroom.

I grab a glass and add ice and water to it. I will then cut up a lemon and place it in the water. I will drink 2 of these glasses of water while I make my smoothie.

My smoothie consists of…

• Honey Greek yogurt
• Honey
• Banana
• Strawberries
• Almond milk or kefir
• Matcha green tea collagen powder
• Hemp hearts

I drink this and take my vitamins for the day. After this, I will either make breakfast for the kids (today was scrambled eggs) or they will eat cereal while I prep their lunches and get them ready for their day.

That is my morning routine. So here it is in a list form.

1. Do a guided meditation on Insight Timer.
2. Listen to meditation music as I journal.
3. Read my affirmations out loud.
4. Drink 2 glasses of lemon water.
5. Drink my smoothie.

It is a simple way for me to start my day off in the right headspace. My energy levels are different. My moods are different. I feel like I am more in control of my days than I have been in the past.

I used to try and read in the morning and workout but trying to fit all of that in right away made me miserable. If it works for you, that is great BUT I just couldn’t do it. I now read in the afternoon and honestly, I am trying to still find the best time for me to have an intentional workout during the day. That I struggle with but it is all a work in progress.

BUILD YOUR OWN MORNING ROUTINE

How do you build your own routine? Especially when you have no idea where to start or what is going to help you.

Start with one thing every morning that is non-negotiable. Whether that is meditating (which I recommend), reading, journaling, or working out. Just make sure that this one thing is not picking up your phone and scrolling.

Do this for about two weeks and then add another thing that is non-negotiable. Choose one more thing that you can easily add to your morning routine that compliments that other piece that you have already implemented.

Keep doing this until your morning routine leaves you feeling content.

Eat a breakfast that makes you happy. I do not like eating immediately after I wake up. I just do not feel hungry. That is why I have added a daily smoothie with enhanced collagen in it. It helps me to get some nutrients in until I can eat. There are days that I get so busy I don’t realize that I haven’t eaten until after lunchtime.

Do you have a morning routine that you absolutely love? What is part of your morning that you just can’t go without? I would love to hear how you start your mornings.