By Katie D’Onofrio
Breakfast may have a reputation as the most important meal of the day, but what’s even more significant than what you eat is what you do when you first wake up.
If setting - and sticking to - a morning routine sounds daunting, overwhelming, or downright impossible, fear not. Here are a few things to get you well on your way to cultivating a morning ritual - and why they deserve a spot there.
Read to the end to join the challenge!
Break up with snoozing
Think of your snooze button as a toxic ex that keeps coming back into your life. No matter how many times you intend to start anew, it just won’t take no for an answer. It’ll be different this time…then morning rolls around, and you’ve slept in yet again.
Hey, we’ve all been there. Your snooze time may be sacred to you. Many people set their alarms a full hour before they need to get up to enjoy those half-awake, half-asleep moments.
But it’s time to let it go.
Consider this: your morning doesn’t start when you get out of bed - it begins as soon as you wake up. So make the most of that time right away!
If immediately getting out of bed sounds impossible, try Mel Robbins’s The 5 Second Rule: “The moment you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must push yourself to move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it.”
As soon as your alarm goes off, count down from five. Five, four, three, two,…and on the one, get right out of bed. No hesitation - just do it.
Stretch it out
You don’t have to do a full-on yoga practice here (if you do, that’s great!). But taking just a few minutes to stretch in the morning can still be beneficial physically and mentally.
This is especially helpful if you work a sedentary job and won’t be able to get much movement in until after work. Your body has been still all night while you were sleeping, so your muscles are looking to move a little bit!
If you exercise, stretching is a great way to help relieve sore muscles; it can also help increase flexibility. Mentally, stretching can help promote calmness and relieve stress and anxiety. Here are five perfect stretches for the morning that can all be done lying down (whether you’re on a mat, on the rug, or if you didn’t quite make it out of bed yet!).
If a morning yoga practice is something you’ve been trying to add to your routine, this is a great way to ease into it. It doesn’t have to be structured, specific, or even long. Just roll out your mat and see what happens - you’ll be surprised that your body will quickly take the lead and guide you into the poses it needs. With time you’ll start looking forward to starting your day this way - and you may start to feel the difference when you don’t take the time to stretch.
Set an intention
Establishing a mantra for yourself early on will help carry your positive morning energy throughout the rest of your day, because it gives you something to keep coming back to.
Write your intention down in a place you can access it later: a notebook, your planner, or even the Notes app on your phone. At the end of the day, revisit your mantra and reflect on how this served you throughout your day (and if it didn’t quite go as planned, reflect and acknowledge why that was - then take a breath and let it go). Take a few minutes to write down your thoughts about your experiences and how your intention connected to the events of your day. Or, allow yourself a few private moments to reflect quietly in your mind.
This could be a wonderful gateway to a regular journal practice if that’s something you’d like to add to your routine.
If you know you’ll be facing a particularly difficult challenge during the day, you may set an intention related to this - without even identifying it specifically.
When setting an intention, speak it as though it were already true. For instance, rather than “I will be present today,” try, “I am present.”
Here are a few mantras to get you started:
“I am grace. Grace lives within me. Everything I do is with grace.”
“I am present. In each of my interactions and experiences, I am here, only here, in mind and body.”
“I am kind to all those who I encounter. I give the same kindness to everyone, regardless of what I receive in return.”
“I surrender to that which I have no power to change. I accept what is and live in each moment.”
“I am optimistic. I enter each situation with a clean slate and positive mind.”
“I let go of that which does not serve me. I do not carry things that are heavy and weigh me down.”
“I am enough. I am not more, or less. All I need lives within me. I do not need to seek outside of myself.”
“I am patient. I remain calm in situations that are challenging. My patience is not dependent on the actions or reactions of others. Patience resides within me.
Meditate
Meditation doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t need candles, incense, a meditation room, or any special props (but if you have them, cool - use them!); in fact, all you really need is yourself and to show up. Your meditation practice may start out by just sitting in quiet and stillness for a few minutes, observing your breath and your thoughts as they come and go.
The benefits of a morning meditation are twofold. Not only are you preparing yourself mentally to handle whatever challenges you will be faced with that day, but you are also spending time with yourself. Once the day begins, you may have a laundry list of responsibilities and tasks - whether it’s work, kids, household duties, or anything else - that others are relying on you to complete. These precious few moments guarantee that you had some quality time with yourself before you have to give your time and energy to everyone else.
Guided meditations are a wonderful tool for beginners and seasoned meditators alike. Try using an app like Insight Timer or Calm to get started. If you really want to keep it simple, try this:
Find a comfortable seat where you can sit up tall with a long spine. This may be in a chair, on the edge of your couch, or on a pillow on the floor.
Take a few natural rounds of breath, in and out through the nose.
Once you’ve established a smooth, steady pattern of breath, begin to count your inhales and exhales. As you breathe in, count one, two, three, four; pause for two seconds; and as you exhale, count four, three, two, one.
When this four-count breath becomes comfortable, increase your count to five, six, etc. - depending on how much time you have allowed for your meditation.
If your mind wanders away from you (and it will - do not be discouraged by this), simply take a breath and start over from one.
This breathwork is safe for anyone - feel free to practice it as long as you like.
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude
A staple in Yogi Bryan’s morning routine - and with good reason! Start each day with a list of 10 things you’re grateful for. It may sound like a lot initially, but you’ll be surprised by how quickly you fill the list.
There will likely be repeated items that appear on your list almost every day - that’s okay. The more you practice gratitude, the more it will turn up in everything you do, and you will soon begin to realize you hold gratitude for things you may not have considered before.
Here are a few examples to get started (tweak these to suit your gratitude practice!):
Today, I am grateful for…
My family who is supportive in all of my endeavors
My friends who never hesitate to provide a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on
My partner who shows me unconditional love in all situations
My body that, no matter what it has been through, has always remained resilient and strong and continues to physically carry me through my journey
My job that allows me to support myself, my partner, my family, etc.
My health
Having shelter
To have food to eat and water to drink
My yoga practice that is always there for me no matter how much time I may spend away from it
My children who are a beacon of light and fill my heart with pride
My pets who bring unique character and the fondest of memories to my family
Living somewhere filled with opportunities and adventures
YOGI SHOW COMMUNITY CHALLENGE: Now it’s your turn!
Take at least one of these ideas and add it to your morning routine for 30 days. You can choose the same one for 30 days or mix and match with a few! Let us know how it’s going and what changes you notice in your day - share it in the Facebook community group. (Not yet a member? Join today! Stay up-to-date on the latest challenges and connect with Pedro and Bryan as well as other like-minded Yogi Show community members.)
But before you take off, remember…
The first few times will be the hardest. Picking which meditation app is best for you, what time you should wake up, and where to record your daily intention may take some trial and error. Try different things. See what works for you! What resonates with your friend or your favorite yoga teacher may not be best for you.
It won’t go perfectly every time. Maybe you try to meditate and your kid is suddenly in crisis. Or you set an intention to control your emotions and you have a fight with your partner. It’s not about creating perfect conditions - it’s about what you can do with the conditions you’re given. Some days, that will be more than others - it’s okay.
Consistency is better than perfection. Whether you are traveling, have an early work commitment, are sick, or feel just plain tired - there will be days where you miss your morning ritual. Remember, this is a practice, not a perfection. If you miss a day, or even a week, it doesn’t matter - what matters is getting right back into it as soon as possible.
Katie is a Jersey-based yoga instructor and writer. She believes that yoga is for everybody and every body and loves to bring a sense of lightness, play, and self-discovery to her classes. When she’s not on the mat, she probably has her nose in a book. Follow her on Instagram at @KatieDonof