Mornings can often feel like a chore, it’s that difficult time of the day where you reluctantly roll out of bed, mindlessly shower, brush your teeth, get dressed, maybe grab something to eat quickly if you’re lucky, and then head out to work. However, if you make just a few changes and create a specified morning routine, it can have a positive influence on your whole life.

It’s been proven that if you stick to a healthy morning routine, it can encourage improved mental health, increased energy, better sleep and lower stress levels. It will allow you to control your day-to-day life, rather than have it control you.

We’ve come up with a few suggestions on how to create a life-changing morning routine that works for you.

 

Prepare

Setting up a good morning routine should begin before your head even hits the pillow, if you prepare the evening before, your morning will run a lot smoother.

Create a hierarchy for getting ready. By creating a hierarchy, or even a morning schedule, mundane decisions – such as whether you should eat breakfast before or after you take the dog for a walk are eliminated.

Reduce your choices for the morning. This can be achieved through simple tasks such as picking out your clothes for the next day, getting food in to make a quick and healthy breakfast or setting your alarm to wake you up at the same time every day.

 

Drink a glass of water. Our body loses water during sleep, so if you hydrate before you drift off, you will wake up feeling more rejuvenated from keeping yourself well-hydrated.

Keep your alarm clock out of arm’s reach. If you keep your alarm clock (or mobile phone, as we mentioned in our previous blog) far enough away from you so that you have to physically get out of bed to turn it off, the forced stimulation will snap your body into gear and quickly bring you into the world of the awake.

Set intentions. Create a to-do-list of what you wish to achieve the following day. This will allow you to start your day with clear bite-sized steps towards your overall life goals, rather than letting the hours slip away from you.

Take Action

Stop snoozing. We’ve all heard of the saying ‘you snooze – you lose’, and in the case of a morning routine, this is very true. When you hit ‘snooze’, you are interfering with your body’s natural wake-up routines. Sleep expert, Adam Tishman, explains that ‘when you let yourself fall back asleep, you’re tricking your body into thinking it’s going back into sleep mode, so when your alarm goes off again, your body and brain are confused’. This can leave you feeling groggy when you first wake up and actually set you up for more exhaustion throughout the day.

If you get yourself into the habit of waking up as soon as your alarm rings, you’ll feel much brighter throughout the day.

Make your bed. When our physical space is cluttered, our minds often feel the same way. It has been estimated that we spend a third of lives in our bedrooms, and our bed is the main attraction of the room. It’s hard to feel relaxed, organised and contented if you’re constantly surrounded by disorganisation and untidiness, such as crumpled sheets and a mound of messy blankets and pillows.

 

Simply by making your bed in the morning, a quick and easy practice that looks and feels good to do will create the feeling of organisation and competence. It will also generate a more inviting and comfy space for you to return to at night, making you more inclined to want to jump in and get a good night’s sleep.

Practice purposeful silence or meditation. Avoid tasks such as checking emails or scrolling through social media first thing in the morning, it is a waste of precious energy and time and it can leave you feeling drained before you even get out of bed. Instead, take ten to thirty-minutes to mediate, one of the most powerful practices that can make you feel relaxed and energised at the same time.

But, if meditation isn’t for you, or you’re worried that it might make you fall back to sleep, practising purposeful silence can be just as beneficial. This can come in the form of painting, reading a book, gardening or simply by closing your eyes and bringing your focus onto your breathing for a short while. Creating time to be mindful in the morning can boost your creativity and productivity levels for the rest of the day.

Exercise. Whether it be bed stretches, walking your dog, taking a jog, practising yoga at the foot of your bed to a full-blown cardio routine – exercise is a vital part of a successful morning routine.

 

Exercise fires up our endorphins and gets the blood flowing around our bodies, which is great energy booster. Morning exercise has also been proven to improve focus and mental abilities throughout the day.

Find time for gratitude. Don’t underestimate the power of your thoughts. Your thoughts have control over your emotions and therefore your actions. If you wake up mulling over all the things you are not looking forward to, you are setting a negative tone for the rest of that day. Whilst, if you take just three to five minutes each morning making a physical or mental list of all the things you are grateful for, your focus will be shifted onto the positives in your life, which is a surprisingly powerful tool.

Over time, you will realise the abundance you have in your life and will begin to feel more contented and hopeful.

Repeat

Keeping the routine is key to the success of it. Once you have created a morning routine that works for you, stick to it, and you will reap the benefits. 

Through taking this advice and putting into practice, you will feel your outlook on life positively change. If you wish to make your morning space more uplifting, you can find our full bedroom furniture range here.