How much time, energy, and money would the proper morning routine save you?
This morning routine is designed to keep you slim, give you energy, and make you feel young.
You can read my favorite morning rituals now, save the image to Pinterest, or download them at the bottom of the post.
35 Micro Habits to Transform Your Life
1. Smile when the alarm goes off in the morning
When the alarm goes off, smile. Today is a gift and another chance to start over.
If you don’t feel like smiling, think of three things that make you grateful.
For example:
1. I’m not in a concentration camp
2. I have access to clean water
3. I’m not starving
Why smile?
Smiling triggers the release of the hormones dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine improves mood, boosts your immune system, and serotonin helps reduce stress. Smiling tricks your brain into believing you are happy and promotes happiness.
2. Meditation
Make it meditation if you only have time for one thing in your morning routine.
The many benefits of meditation include stress reduction, controlling anxiety, relieving depression, promoting feelings of compassion, improving sleep, helping with addictions, and relieving pain.
All these benefits can help you have more energy, feel younger, and lose weight.
For example:
Your body stores belly fat as a natural adaptation to stress. This stress adaption is why the last few pounds are the hardest to lose.
You can practice meditation anywhere for free by focusing on your breathing, a mantra, or an object.
Two breathing techniques that are easy to remember are the 4-7-8 breathing technique and alternate nostril breathing.
For the alternate nostril breathing, focus on breathing in and out through one nostril at a time while holding the other nostril closed. This method feeds oxygen to both sides of your brain.
For the 4-7-8 breathing technique, focus on inhaling through your nose for four seconds, holding your breath for seven seconds, then exhaling through your mouth for eight seconds.
I use both methods, either focusing on my breathing or a positive thought.
Start with a few minutes at a time. Then meditate for ten minutes first thing in the morning to make meditation a daily habit.
3. Make Your Bed
Making your bed is a quick win that gives you the confidence, willpower, and momentum to take on the day’s challenges. It also helps you feel organized and in control.
4. Drink Water
When you wake up, you are the most dehydrated. While you sleep, you lose water through sweating and breathing. Drink one to two glasses of water immediately, especially before you eat or drink coffee.
While you sleep, your body rebuilds and cleanses itself. When you wake up, your blood is thin and needs fresh water. Water improves your circulation, which feeds nutrients and water to your whole body and removes toxins.
How much water should I drink a day?
5. Take a contrast shower
A contrast shower involves switching from cold to hot water. Cold exposure rushes blood to your internal organs feeding nutrients and clearing waste. Hot water forces blood to the surface to cool your body. This increase in circulation helps your body heal and cleanse itself.
Cold showers may promote weight loss by activating beneficial brown fat. Brown fat promotes energy production and weight loss by burning white fat for energy and warmth.
White fat is the unhealthy fat that stores around your belly and organs. It promotes heart disease, diabetes, and many other metabolic diseases.
Coldwater also helps relieve depression and increase alertness by stimulating nerve endings in your skin. Like exercise, these nerves signal your brain to release feel-good hormones such as endorphins.
Further Reading
How To Lower Blood Sugar Naturally
6. Brush Your Teeth with your opposite hand
Brushing your teeth every day with your dominant hand is a habit you don’t give any thought.
Brushing with your opposite hand helps strengthen and regrow neural connections in your brain. Using your non-dominant hand helps activate the non-dominant hemisphere early in the morning. Now both hemispheres are working together, allowing you to plan your day creatively.
7. Write This In Your Journal
Gratitude
Write the top ten things you are grateful for to reread every morning.
Write the things you are grateful for every morning. Include both important and small things. You need to prove that you are thankful for even the small things. Plus, what you give your focus will grow.
Values
Knowing your values helps you plan and make better choices. Remember your values whenever you need to make a decision, and you will know what to do in every situation.
Examples: health, success, love, integrity, happiness, contribution, gratitude, faith, money,
Before you make goals or plan the day:
Write down and rank your top ten values and reread them every morning.
Write down and rank the top ten values you want to avoid.
Personal Mission Statement
Describe your purpose, or why, in a sentence, a paragraph, or a set of principles.
Affirmations
Affirmations help you grow into the person you want to become. If your subconscious mind believes it, it will search for and develop the qualities you desire.
The best affirmations must:
Be believable, not overly positive
Be specific
Be acted upon
Be consistent
Examples of good affirmations:
The confidence I need to succeed is within me
I will be more confident, intelligent, and energetic today than yesterday
I will persist until I succeed
Goals
First, handwrite your top goal for all areas of your life every morning. Second, write down a goal for the day for each category.
Questions and Ideas
Instead of worrying about reaching your goals, write down questions asking how you can reach your goals.
Then write down the first ten ideas that come to your mind rapidly. Without time to think, you tap into your powerful subconscious mind.
1,000+ Positive Words to Write the Life You Want
8. Plan the Day
Before you work, you need to list your priorities for the day.
First, write down the results that you want to achieve for the day. Then write down the reasons why you want to achieve them. Lastly, please write down the six most important things you need to do today and prioritize them.
Include reading books/blogs or listening to podcasts related to your field. For the best results, plan to learn about the problems you are trying to solve in your work, life, or business.
Make a daily checklist to ensure you take care of all your responsibilities. Don’t forget to plan some form of exercise, eat something healthy, and do something fun.
A plan gives you confidence. You have a purpose, and you are relentlessly moving toward your goals. As long as you give your best one day at a time, you are ahead of 95% of the population.
9. Exercise For Energy
Morning exercise helps improve your mood, boost energy, increase alertness, and sharpen your focus. Motion biochemically changes how you feel. So you can start the day motivated and full of energy.
Morning exercise is as easy as walking, running, yoga, tai chi, or dancing for 10 to 15 minutes. The best weight loss exercises involve using your legs, such as squats, running, biking, or jumping.
If you only have a few minutes, rebounding for a few minutes equals a longer, less intense workout.
Rebounding (jumping on a mini-trampoline) increases blood and oxygen flow and stimulates your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic system is a network of tissues and organs that helps your body eliminate waste and toxins.
Now that you’ve exercised your body, it’s time to feed your mind.
How to Have More Energy All Day
10. Read For Learning
The person who doesn’t read is no better than the person who can’t.
Plan at least thirty minutes a day to read about your field. If you don’t have thirty minutes to spare, compare reading to everything on your schedule. If you still can’t find the time, you can listen to audiobooks while commuting, preparing food, or cleaning.
When you come across a word you don’t know, look it up with the curiosity of a child. At first, you will read slower, but eventually, you will read and learn faster every day.
You think in words, so growing your vocabulary expands your mind. Your vocabulary of that information limits the knowledge you have on any topic.
An extensive vocabulary helps you recognize opportunities, avoid mistakes, and communicate your ideas.
11. Eat A Healthy Smoothie
The best smoothie for energy and weight loss has greens, vegan protein, and berries.
My energy smoothie:
- Two ounces (60 g) of greens (arugula, kale, spinach, swiss chard, collard greens)
- Three ounces (90 g) of berries (amla berries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries)
- One ounce (30 g) vegan protein powder
- One tbsp (15g) carob powder, ts (5 g) of cocoa powder
- One tbsp of nut butter (peanut, almond, sunflower seed)
- One-half ounce (15 g) of chia seeds
- A few pinches of spices (cinnamon, fenugreek, ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper)
- One and a half to two cups of filtered water
If your goal is energy and weight loss, use a higher ratio of greens.
This smoothie is rich in protein, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and antioxidants.
For the best results, review your goals and your “why” before eating. Otherwise, if you feel empty, you will try to fill the void with comfort food.
12. Find Your Inspiration
Read inspirational quotes, stories, or Bible verses.
Stimulate your senses with essential oils, uplifting music, green tea, or a brisk walk in the morning sun.
Get in a confident posture. Sit up straight with your shoulders back, and legs apart, and smile confidently. Not only will everyone else think you are confident, but you will start to feel confident as well.
Free yourself by forgiving yourself and others for past mistakes.
13. Start Your Most Important Task of the Day
Now you are alert and motivated. It’s time to tackle your most important task of the day before you lose focus.
If you feel overwhelmed with too many things to do, focus on one thing. If you still can’t get started, set a timer, and work on it for twenty minutes.
Not only do twenty minutes sound painless, but it’s also long enough to get in the flow. In the flow, you are in the moment and lose track of time. I bet when the timer goes off, you will ignore it and keep working.
Don’t worry about yesterday or tomorrow. The only thing you can control is this moment.
Take breaks when you need them, and fulfill your obligations, but don’t move on until it’s finished. If all you accomplish for the day is your most important task, then today is a success.
After number one, move on to item number two, three, etc.
Today you will be more productive in all areas of your life than 95% of people.
14. Go to Bed By 10 PM
Do you want to wake up feeling rested and full of energy?
Your body cleanses itself and releases healing hormones between 10 PM and 2 AM. But these hormones give you energy at night if you are still awake. Then In the morning, you wake up tired and unmotivated, no matter how long you sleep.
Lack of sleep or poor sleep quality can disrupt the hormones related to hunger, satiety, and fat storage. So getting quality sleep is one of the simplest ways to maintain a healthy weight.
If you can’t shut off your mind, read a real paper book before bed. Fiction books free your mind from thinking about your problems of the day. Reading comics like Calvin and Hobbes makes me laugh. And within minutes, my mind is relaxed for sleep.
When you are tempted to stay up late to work or watch TV, remember the values you choose. Is this activity better for me than the benefits of getting to bed by 10 PM?
If you want to stay young, slim, and healthy, getting to sleep by 10 PM should be your top priority.
Further Reading: How to Fall Asleep Instantly
What Are Your Favorite Morning routines or rituals?
Do you follow any of these rituals, or do you have something better that we can all learn?
