The power of having a morning routine is invaluable. How we start off the day is going to determine how the rest of the day is going to go. It provides you with a sense of normalcy, effectively eliminates wasted days, creates momentum, and an overall better outlook for the day. I’m going to discuss powerful practices to bolster your health, and your mind.

The Power of Habit

When we set out to create new habits, there is a wonderful structure in our brain that allows this to happen. This structure is called myelin. Myelin is a fatty sheath that coats our nerves. It builds up anytime we repeat tasks. Myelin allows for faster signal transduction, making you better, and better at that thing. There is something called the habit loop. It consists of the trigger, routine, and the reward. The trigger is a behavior that let’s a behavior take place, and let the brain go on automatic. The routine is the actual habit that your implementing. The reward is the anchor at the end that let’s you know that the activity you did was worth while. This makes you look forward to the habit.

The Practices

1. Drinking 16- 24 ounces of water is a great way to wake up for various reasons. Water is critical for signal transduction, building DNA, building neurotransmitters, digestion, and much more. When you sleep, you likely haven’t drunk water in about 8 hours, so you are naturally dehydrated. Also, while you sleep, you have a lot of built up metabolic waste products that need to get flushed out. Water is a great way to do this.
2. Movement is very important in the morning to wake up because of something called a cortisol reset. When you wake up cortisol naturally rises to make you more alert. Movement during the morning can help regulate cortisol, and make you more focused throughout the day. Also, when you move, you generate something called piezoelectricity. This is a form of energy that we make within. Humans don’t get energy, we create energy. This doesn’t have to be a lot. You can so something very quick, like 5- 10 minutes of something that is high intensity. I am actually more of a fan of doing some low intensity exercise in the morning like yoga, or walking.
3. Meditation/ visualization is a vital practice to do in the morning. Doing this in the morning will help you keep a still mind, and set your intention for the day. Having clarity throughout the day so you can focus on your mission is what it’s all about. Having lower cortisol levels throughout the day will help you sleep better at night because cortisol is the antithesis of melatonin. During the meditation, you can focus on your grateful for, focus on your goals, or how you want to show up. You also can do a simple mindfulness meditation, where you focus on the breath, and the thoughts that arise. While doing the visualization, focus on what you want as if it’s already happened. Feel like you already have it now. After that, visualize the necessary steps you need to get there, and executing them.
4. Journaling Is a powerful practice to help get you focused during the day. There is something about putting pen to paper that anchors what your writing about in your mind. It’s not the same as typing. There are a variety of ways to do it. You can right down your goals, gratitude, or how you want to serve. Many people have made some done for you journals with a given format to use.
5. Reading, or some form of learning is necessary for success. Most of the worlds most successful people are readers. They feed their mind to get better at their craft, health wealth, relationships, and more. If you don’t want to read, then you can do audiobooks, or podcasts. These are also great. If your not able to do this for an hour, then can you do 30 minutes? Can you do 10 minutes? Do what you can, and you will see great dividends.
6. The first thing you take in during the day is going to have a profound impact on your system because there is nothing quite in your stomach yet. Fortifying your health with powerful beverages, like medicinal mushrooms can be very beneficial. What most people don’t realize is that over 40% of medications utilize mushrooms as an ingredient. They also have thousands of years of documented history. I utilize the medicinal mushrooms from four sigmatic. My favorite one is the chaga because it is been proven to increase your NK cells by over 300%. It’s also a very important source of antioxidants like melanin, and super oxide dismutase. This is an antioxidant that we make from within that is needed for destroying free radicals. The great things with these is that you can mix them up, so you would be getting different benefits. Some others are reishi, cordryceps, and lions mane.

Customizing Your Routine

1. Customize your routine in a way that works for you. Take this practices as you see fit. Whether your routine is 1 hour, or 30 minutes, find what works, and stick to it.
2. Schedule your routine, so you make sure you get it done. If you wake up at 8:00 AM, then that’s when you start.
3. Combine the practices for faster time. This could be working out while listening to a podcast, or drinking tea while journaling.
4. One point I want to make about grabbing your phone the first thing in the morning. For most people, this is going to set you up for a day of distraction. Whether your checking the news first thing, someone needing you to do something, a stressing email. Doing this will put you in a state of stress when you wake up. In the mean while your putting your goals on the back burner. The most important thing is to show up the greatest version of ourselves everyday, so then we can show up for others. To do that, we must focus on our routine first.