How do you choose to wake up in the morning?  What is your morning routine?  If operating on autopilot, most of us reach for the snooze button or our phones and have a tendency of jolting straight into the rush and bustle of the day, completely missing the opportunity to start the day slowly, mindfully and consciously.  This blog is an invitation to investigate the ways that you enter your day and begin to explore what changes or tweaks you might wish to make to allow for an easier transition from sleep to waking and from waking to working, adventuring or whatever your day entails.  

    When proposed with this concept of starting the day with mindfulness, many people imagine hours of meditation or a tedious routine of yoga and self care when in reality 10-15 minutes of any activity of your choice can be an absolute game changer for your day and ultimately for your life.  What activity is essential to your morning that you can transform into your mindfulness routine?  For some it is making coffee or tea, perhaps a brief meditation… it could be as simple and essential as showering, brushing your teeth and getting dressed.  Ponder what activity you will use to begin to explore this life shift and implement this activity in step 3, below.  

1. Upon waking, RESIST! the urge and tendency to reach for your phone to start scrolling or checking emails. 
2. Turn on your lights and sit up in bed, so as not to fall back asleep. (Hitting snooze multiple times is really bad for your brain.)  Rather than jumping straight up, give yourself a moment here to consciously move into your day, slowly.  This could be a time for breath awareness, gentle stretching, or a time to reflect on your dreams.  
3. Finally, it is time to implement your mindfulness activity of your choice.  This is something that you do every morning but are now choosing to do in a new way.  Whether you are making your morning beverage, moving through some yoga poses, taking a shower or walking your dog… you are doing so with as much awareness and attentiveness as you can.  Notice the tendency for your mind to check out and take this time to consciously check in with yourself.  Notice your breath and the sensations that are happening in your body.  

    Be gentle with yourself, as making changes takes time.  Resistance is normal, as doing things differently is going against the grain and is literally creating new neural pathways as you are creating new ways of living.  The way that you move into your morning sets the tone for your entire day.  You get to choose… What is your morning routine?

    Heidi, one of our massage therapists, shares about her morning routine!  

“My mornings can be fast paced from the second I open your eyes… but I try to make it a point to have at least one or two slow relaxing mornings a week. My slow Sundays are a way to rest and relax after my week. I start my morning off by making a cup of coffee with my espresso machine and either enjoying it out on my back porch if it’s warm enough or in my bed and writing in my gratitude journal or simply sitting in silence and reflecting on my week. Skin care is important to me so taking the time to do a skin care routine in the morning starts my day off feeling good about myself. I normally end my relaxing morning by taking a yoga class or doing some gentle stretching at home to help me move my body in a restorative way. Having some sort of morning routine is something I look forward to and it helps me reset and feel rejuvenated!” 

Author – Lindsay Thomas, LMBT