Morning Habits That Make You Healthier And Happier
Having a very solid morning routine will help you much more than you initially imagine. This is especially the case when you deal with problems like anxiety and depression. Your mental health will simply be much stronger when you start the day right.
The best mornings for us should be free of stress and set the tone for what will happen during the day. But it is quite difficult to do that if every single morning is different. Routine is helpful for us, especially during some key moments, like mornings.
Before we talk about some interesting morning habits you can consider, it is important to highlight that your ideal morning routine will surely be different than that of someone else. As a result, make sure to take these options as simple suggestions. They can be your starting point so you can create your own perfect morning routine to start the day right.
Consistency is always key!
Make Your Bed
This is a simple thing you can do that can actually make you feel great. Your space and your mind will become less cluttered and good sleep hygiene is encouraged. This relatively simple task can be done in just a minute or so and it means that you just successfully accomplished the very first task of your day.
As you get used to making your bed in the morning, you also naturally get more and more used to keep your room clean. This is great for your mental health and the practice is quite grounding. After a few weeks of practicing this, it will become completely natural and you will see the difference.
Stick To An Order For Your Morning Routine Tasks
We have to talk about this because there are many that have a list of morning routine tasks but they fail in reaping in the benefits because they do everything in a very chaotic manner.
There are surely some things you want to do or you need to do in the morning. For instance, you want to brush your teeth, wash your face, get dressed, drink some coffee, and so on. Do you have an order in which you do all these things?
Sometimes, you might go take a shower and then do your hair. In other mornings, you take that shower and then you pick up your phone to check your social media profiles, and you do your hair later.
The problem when you do not have an order is that you often end up thinking what you need to do next. This is not something you need to do since micro-decisions can easily and up. The trick to a great morning routine is to be able to do it on autopilot.
Check Your Phone Later
What happens when you check your phone after a long time since you checked it last? Like when you sleep?
You are flooded with a lot of mental stimulation, several things that you waste time seeing, and things that you want to respond to.
The truth is your smartphone helps a lot but it also has so many potential stressors. It is enough to say “news notifications” and “Facebook notifications” to highlight all the things that will catch your attention. Also, after you check your phone, you will most likely stay stuck and keep doing it all throughout the day.
After you wake up, you are relaxed. You want to maintain that calmness. It is simply a lot better for your emotional system and your body to feel stress for longer throughout the day. So why start with something stressful? In addition, if you first reach for the phone, your entire morning routine will be derailed. How many times did you lose yourself scrolling Twitter or Instagram?
Stretch
Some people love working out in the morning and others hate it. So, the advice of always working out in the morning is not necessarily a great one. One that is though is to stretch in the morning. A great stretch can do wonders when it comes to starting the day right.
You do not need to go through a full yoga routine. And you do not have to do something that you would regularly do before your daily workout. You just need to get some of your blood flowing and take advantage of how great it feels to have that perfect stretch. Just make sure that you know how to stretch since you do not want to get injured because you do not know how to since we are talking about being stiff since it is the morning.
Drink Water
Hopefully, you know how beneficial it is to drink water. And what better time than the morning to start the day right when it comes to staying hydrated?
Drinking water in the morning brings in the obvious physiological benefits and also improves your mental. It thus makes a lot of sense to drink a glass of water as soon as you can early in the morning. You can have a glass on your bedside table or a jug of fresh cold water in the fridge. It does not matter what you like as long as you do it.
Start The Day With Something Creative Or Fun
Why not start the day with something that you really love doing? You can drink your coffee as you play a fun or silly game. This can actually help you to wake up happier and even faster since you are looking forward to something you really enjoy.
Obviously, not everyone enjoys video games. But, there are so many fun or creative things you can enjoy in the morning. For instance, you can watch an episode of your favorite TV show, dance, read, play with your dog, or literally whatever you enjoy but you usually do another time.
Write Your To-Do List For The Day
Knowing what you want to do during the day is very powerful in keeping you organized and getting things done, which in turn helps you to sleep better at night. This is why to-do lists are so good. And the morning is the perfect time to draft it or to review it if you are the type of person that writes a to-do list a day before. While this is a tip that is more helpful when it comes to creativity than a great morning routine, it is still something that will help you much more than you initially think.
