Today I want to talk about morning routine and how having a simple morning routine can help you to feel better and get started on the right foot. 

My morning routine helped keep me sane during the lockdown. Knowing without having to think about it, what I will do every morning just after waking up, gives me a sense of certainty and grounds me up. 

First of all there is some myths about morning routine that I want to talk about : 

• No, you don’t need to wake up at 5am to do your morning routine : it’s not the time you wake up which is important, but what you do first when waking up. 

• It doesn’t have to be long : A morning routine is to connect with yourself, to have some me-time before starting a busy day. 15 mn can be enough.

• There is no one-size-fits-all perfect morning routine, find what’s best for you, find the routine that makes you feel happy and productive.

For example, mine is now : 

• Meditation with Insight Timer app ( Timer or a choice of thousands of guided meditations). Check it out here : Insight Timer, it has been the best way for me to develop a daily meditation habit.

• Guided Breathwork with the Wim Hof app. Breathwork is life changing (and cold showers too). You can check here the Wim Hof Method.

• Mindset work : I mean by this gratitude log, thoughts download and reframing my thoughts. I wrote a post on Instagram explaining how to do a Daily Mindset Check-in , you can check it here.

I choose to do my workout later in the day so I’m not sitting at my desk all day. But you can choose to do it first thing in the morning. 

Some other activities that you can add to your morning routine are:

• Visualization

• Reading something that feeds your mind

• Planning your day

• Journaling

• Drink lemon water

• etc…

Keep it simple. Pick 3 things maximum to start, the ones that you think will work for you, so you start with a quick win and work your way up from there. Try this routine for a few days, before deciding if it works for you or not. 

How to stick with it?

• Plan it in details : write down all the steps and the time you will do them. To plan, we use our pre frontal cortex. If you don’t plan ahead of time, your primitive brain which always want immediate gratification will kick in and will convince you that it’s better to check your emails, or stay in bed.

• Listen every day to the same music during your morning routine ( your brain will associate this music with your morning routine, in NLP we call this an anchor.)

• Have an accountability partner : I did the 40 days breathing challenge by Wim Hof with a friend. We check with each other every morning and it motivates us to do it even when we don’t feel like it. 

• Use a habit tracker: it makes you feel accomplished and our brain loves rewards! 

• Know your why: when you know your big vision, it’s much easier to stick to all the small steps that are moving you to this big vision. 

Do you have a morning routine? Do you have more tips to stick with it? Let me know in the comments. If you want me to send you my habit tracker, message me here.