Morning Routine

Would you like to be more clear and focused, and have more mental energy?

I recently read an article about the morning routines of some top professionals around the country.  It was interesting to note the patterns that I began to see as I ready through how they spend their mornings.  I started to make a list of the patterns I saw.  What I learned was that  nearly all get up early. For many, though not all, their mornings include exercise, eating a healthy breakfast, meditating and spending time with family.  Everyone's routine was a little different, but they all had similar patterns.  One of the most inspiring was a man named Jase Wilson, CEO of Neighborly, who makes a list of things he is grateful for every morning, as well as a list of things he wants to have happen that day.  He also says declarations (sometimes also known as affirmations), which are positive statements that train your brain in the direction you want your brain to think.

Surprisingly, I also noticed that many of these professionals also spend time on social medial and news in the morning, which I would not have expected.

I learned about having an intentional morning routine less than a year ago, though I had done some form of this for years.  Because I am a religious person, mine includes prayer, scripture study, focusing on goals and exercise.  Though this routine only takes a small part of my day, I feel more clear and focused throughout my day.

Though everyone is in a different place in life, some with little children who wake before they do in the morning, some who are night owls and not morning people AT ALL, some who run so fast they cannot imagine doing one more thing, I would like to suggest that having an intentional morning routine really does set the tone for the whole day and makes a big difference in having increased mental energy, and feeling more clear and focused throughout the day.  A morning routine can be as short as one to five minutes, or as long as you want it to be, but making that incremental improvement is so worth it to gain the great benefits available to you!

Adapting a morning routine to fit your life is key.  If you have little ones who wake up early, you may need to do your routine during nap time.  If you are a night person, morning might be at 11:30 a.m.  Adapt it to you.  As one who has practiced the morning schedule for almost a year now, I am here to tell you that an intentional morning makes a big difference in how you feel and what you can accomplish!  Give it a try!