Does this sound familiar?

You have a busy workday tomorrow and are planning out how the day will go. Where is the first place you take away attention from?

Does it look something like this…

Wake-up
Order coffee from the Starbucks app Run out the door

In a total of seven minutes, you have broken your brain into a dead sprint after being in a coma for eight hours.

This doesn’t sound relaxing, does it? I promise you, if it doesn’t sound relaxing to you, your brain and mental health also don’t vibe with this morning routine.

Allowing yourself to wake up 45-60 minutes before you need to leave the house will give your brain the time to function fully by the time you step out the door. Positively helping anxiety, depression, stress or any other mental health struggles you might be struggling with.

Here are 10 tips to creating your morning routine

1. Alarm

Buying a stand-alone alarm clock will allow you to put your phone to charge in another room at night, or at least more than an arm’s length away. Wake up 60 minutes before you need to leave your place of living.

2. Don’t look at your phone

Leaving your phone on the charger until your whole routine is complete is one of the main goals for your morning routine. It may only be 15 minutes or last a full 60 minutes, but the idea is not

to allow the stress of social media, emails or anything else to spike your angst or derail your focus.

3. Make Your Bed

Starting each morning off with an easy win like making your bed will give you positive re- enforcement the first 3 minutes of being awake. It should take no longer than 30 seconds to make your bed, so why not give it a try?

4. Cold Shower

There are a few ways to add a cold shower to your routine.

• The entire shower is streaming cold water (you are part of the 1% club)
• In your last 30 seconds of a hot shower, you throw the tap too cold and ride it out till the

  end.
  There are multiple benefits to adding this to your routine, ranging from a for sure wakeup to mental and physiological benefits.

  5. Drink Hot Lemon Water

  Drinking hot lemon water as the first thing you digest in the day helps regulate natural bowel movements. Our gut’s health status can correlate with our mental health happiness.

  Make sure you put the lemon juice in a short glass of water and shoot it, or add it to a large glass of medium to hot water. The acidity of the lemon in concentrated doses will harm the enamel around your teeth.

  6. Meditate

  Being a newbie, the act of meditating can be overwhelming. You will spend a lot of time wondering if you are doing it right and thinking about not trying to think.

  For the first year of meditating during my morning routine, I would sit in the quiet of the morning with my eyes closed (sometimes open) and allow myself to take in the sounds around me while focusing on the moment.

Take this addition to your morning routine with a bit of humility. If you can sit still for a few minutes without having the desire to check your phone, I call that a win.

7. Coffee or tea
You have made it 60% of the way; that’s a big win!

This is when you can add in the comfort area of what a morning routine meant to you in the past… make a strong cup of coffee. Go through the process slowly and methodically. The act can be very pleasing and a form of meditation.

8. Journal

Now that you have your cup of coffee ready bring out your dedicated morning journal. Buy yourself a journal you enjoy the look and feel of, and this will be dedicated to writing only in the mornings. A few tips to what to write about if you get stuck are…

• Positive things that happened the day before
• Negative things that I can change that happened the day before
• What is on my schedule today
• A particular emotional event that occurred the day before

  9. Breathing

  It’s best if I let Whim Hoff describe this. All I will say is that this has been a welcomed new addition of 10 minutes of my morning routine during the pandemic. Breath in deep, exhale even deeper and don’t rush yourself through the breathing routine.

  10. Affirmations

  The morning solitude has come to an end. To break the silence, say a few gratitudes out loud. Affirmations are a great way to re-enforce positive thoughts and visions in your life. A few examples of what affirmations can be…

• I will not stress over things I cannot control.
• I lovingly do everything I can to assist my body in maintaining health.
• My life is full of amazing opportunities that are ready for me to step into.
• I’m free to create the life I desire.
• I have been given endless talents which I will begin to utilize today.

Take these ten steps and craft your routine, perhaps moving some of them around or adding some other additions that speak to you.

There is no wrong way to do a morning routine. As long as you are allowing your brain to adapt to its functioning form slowly, then you are winning.

*I have created a free 10 step email course helping you craft yours and work through the tough areas in starting your morning routine