Do you find yourself ever dragging in the morning? While yes, coffee can be a temporary solution to jumpstarting your morning, might I suggest 10 healthy routines to begin your day? These 10 routines don’t take a lot of time and they can be very beneficial for both your mental and physical health.
1. Deep Breathing
Deep breath in. Deep breath out. No, literally! Incorporating a deep breathing technique into your morning routine can help improve your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. All it takes is up to 5 minutes every morning to make your body feel refreshed and energized.
It’s best to practice deep breathing right when you wake up, and it can be done either sitting, standing, or laying down. Here’s an example of a deep breathing exercises you can incorporate into your next morning routine!
4-7-8 Breathing Technique
To begin, take a long deep breath for a duration of 4 seconds through your nose. You want to imagine the oxygen expanding your lungs to their max capacity. Hold this breath in for 7 seconds, not letting an air escape from your lungs. Lastly, slowly exhale your deep breath through your mouth for 8 seconds – visualizing the oxygen emptying out of your lungs. Repeat this entire process up to 4 times.
The goal of this breathing exercise is to help reduce anxiety and stress and to promote relaxation throughout your entire body. This exercise is a form of pranayama, the practice of breath regulation.
2. Meditation
Meditation helps invoke inner peace and balance throughout your entire body by closing your eyes, deep breathing, and allowing your mind to be free. According to healthline.com, “[Meditation] involves aspects of concentration, relaxation, mindfulness, and emotional neutrality” (Gillette). Meditation is meant to be a spiritual experience that your body undergoes in order to promote calmness and mental clarity. You can meditate any time of day, but the morning allows your body to start off the day being centered and relaxed.
There’s no set amount of time you need to meditate for, honestly, it’s up to you to determine however long you think you need to meditate. This can range from a few minutes to an hour. There are many different forms of meditation that you can do such as mindfulness meditation, spiritual meditation, focused meditation, and mantra meditation. Everyone is unique, it’s up to you to find what meditation works best for you.
3. Journal and Gratitude
Journaling in the morning is a great way to jot down any thoughts you might have right when you wake up or to record any dreams you might have had. Clearing your mind of “thought clutter” is a great way to promote mental clarity in the morning and let your mind become centered and focused.
You can journal about anything, whether it’s about a dream you had, what you want to get done for the day, what your grateful for or any imaginative or random thoughts that might pop into your head. Journaling allows you to become reflective and grateful.
Gratitude is the appreciation of positive acts or good things you experience in your daily life. There are many forms of gratitude you can be reflective and thankful for such as people, moments, and things that bring you joy or peace.
You can incorporate gratitude while journaling in the morning by writing three things you are grateful for. By doing this, you will promote positivity within yourself at the start of the day that will help carry through your day ahead.
4. Affirmations
Reciting positive affirmations is beneficial to your mental health by reducing stress and anxiety and allowing yourself to feel more confident and content.
According to acendahealth.org, “[Positive affirmations] are present-tense, empowering, and phrased in a way that affirms your beliefs and values” (acendahealth). Repeating positive phrases allows you to become more positive and it builds up confidence by ridding yourself of negative self-criticism and self-doubt.
There are countless positive affirmations to choose from, you can choose a general affirmation or customize for your own personal use. To start I would recommend choosing three phrases to repeat to yourself or you can repeat them in front of a mirror. Here’s a short list you can pick from to incorporate for your next morning routine.
List of Positive Affirmations
- I am capable of achieving my goals.
- I can overcome any hardship.
- I am worthy of love and respect.
- It’s okay to take things one step at a time.
- My past does not define me.
- Prioritizing myself is productive.
- I will never give up.
Reciting positive affirmations will bring you a strong sense of self-worth that will allow for focus and clarity towards goals and aspirations!
5. Drink Water
Drink water! After you wake up, it’s important to drink a glass of cold water to ensure you’re hydrated at the start of your day.
While a person sleeps, their body becomes dehydrated due to many factors such as not drinking water for a period of time, sweating, and breathing. It shouldn’t be a shock to find yourself craving water first thing in the morning.
Staying hydrated is very beneficial to your health. It supplies your body with energy and a mental performance boost – which is an ideal start to your day. Drinking water helps reduce stress, improve skin and hair conditions, boost your immune system, reduces headaches, and flushes out toxins out of your body.
To put it short and sweet, drinking water has many benefits for your overall health, it’s important to always stay hydrated!
6. Eat a Healthy Breakfast
While some may find eating a nutritional breakfast right away in the morning can be difficult at times (myself included), it’s important to ensure that you find time to eat a healthy breakfast to kickstart the rest of your day. Eating breakfast is very important because you need to replenish energy and nutrients in your body in order to function throughout the day.
The ‘energy’ our body needs refers to glucose, sugar that comes from the foods we eat that enters our bloodstream where cells use it for energy for our bodies. While you sleep, you aren’t resupplying any glucose into your body, which makes your glucose levels low when you wake up. Eating breakfast is like a powerup for your body, without it you’ll find yourself dragging through your day.
It’s important to eat breakfast foods that are rich in nutrients that your body needs:
- Folate (B vitamin that is essential for the creation of DNA in your body)
- Calcium (mineral, key component in the structure of bones and teeth)
- Iron (mineral, makes hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells, and myoglobin, a protein that provides oxygen to muscles)
- B vitamins (aides in energy production, red blood cell growth, brain function)
- Fiber (promotes healthy weight loss and control and aides in heart health)
By ensuring that your breakfast meal consists of these key nutrients, you will notice your mental performance improve positively. Your attention will become more focused and your concentration and memory will become sharper.
7. Sunshine
Find a sunny spot in your home and let your body spend time in the sun. Allowing yourself an hour of exposure to sunlight will release serotonin, a “happy hormone”, within your body, this helps keeps your body focused and emotionally stable. A safe duration of sunlight would be 20 to 30 minutes anytime in the morning, before noon.
Daily expose to sunlight can aide your body in many healthy ways, such as setting your biological clock which regulates our circadian rhythms, the human body’s natural 24-hour cycle that causes you to wake and sleep, and increases Vitamin D levels in the body.
According to amerisleep.com, “. . . if you have low levels of vitamin D, it can lead to fatigue, depression, and a weakened immune system” (amerisleep). Maintaining a healthy vitamin D is essential because it builds and maintains healthy bones, assists in immune health, muscle function, and brain cell activity.
8. Exercise and Yoga
Start off your morning with yoga or exercise to help wake up and get your body moving for the day. There are many beneficial factors that yoga and exercising can contribute to you overall health by incorporating them into your morning routine.
- Your body gains additional energy to use throughout the rest of the day. By moving your body, your body pumps more blood which increases oxygen flow throughout your body – this invigorates your body!
- You’ll improve and boost your focus and concentration due to increased oxygen to the brain. This will prepare you for the day ahead.
- Working out or yoga can improve your mood because the brain releases endorphins, chemicals released during pain or stress that make you feel happy. Your stress and anxiety levels will go down, distracting yourself from any negative thoughts.
You might find yourself to be more motivated to work out or perform yoga in the mornings, this will help you feel accomplished and allow you to start your day off positively!
9. Read
Fiction or nonfiction, whichever genre suits you best, reading a chapter or few pages of a book will help give you clarity and focus on the start of your day. Personally, I enjoy reading in the mornings – especially if I can find a spot to sit in the morning sunlight.
According to onbookstreet.com, “You’re more likely to approach the text with a clear, open, and focused mind, which can lead to a deeper understanding and connection with the material” (onbookstreet). I find I can focus much better after waking up from a night’s rest – ready to jump into the world of my book!
Mornings are quieter, therefore, I’m able to digest the material of my book without being disturbed by any distractions. Reading in the mornings can prepare you for the rest of your day by making you feel inspired by the fictional story or informative text you read!
10. Setting Intentions
Begin each day by setting intentions, daily reminders, of the goals you want to achieve. By doing so, this will motivate and inspire you to continue working hard towards your goals for yourself and your future.
Achieving goals can feel overwhelming and may lead to limitations due to a lack of confidence. In order to avoid feelings of doubt and prevent self-sabotaging, it’s important to remind yourself of what your goals are and how you intend to accomplish them. You will be rewarded with a sense of hope and determination that will promote positivity in your journey.
To get started, you want to set intentions that deeply resonate within yourself. Here’s a list of intentions you can use as inspiration:
- To love yourself
- Be open-minded and understanding of differing perspectives
- Focus on one task at a time
- To recognize and celebrate small victories
- To not worry about perfectionism
Live a life of intent and don’t deny yourself the reality of achieving your goals!
Final Thoughts…
I hope now that you’ve read this article, you’ll be more inclined to start incorporating these 10 healthy routines into your next morning! You’ll soon notice improvements in your overall health and mood!
Thank you as always for the support in reading my blog post,
Jessica Mohan
Works Cited
https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-meditation-in-the-morning#duration
https://www.crisistextline.org/blog/2024/01/08/100-positive-affirmations-for-betterself-care/
https://www.acendahealth.org/the-power-of-positive-affirmations/
https://www.medicinenet.com/why_is_drinking_water_in_the_morning_so_important/article.htm
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/vitamin-b-complex#benefits
https://www.eatingwell.com/article/287742/10-amazing-health-benefits-of-eating-more-fiber/
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/breakfast
https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-vitamin-d/art-20363792
https:amerisleep.com/blog/benefits-of-morning-sunlight-for-sleep/#:~:text=Getting%20morning%20sunlight%20can%20be,improve%20sleep%20quality%20at%20night
https://theyogaconnectionnc.com/blog/benefits-of-morning-yoga/
https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/working-out-in-the-morning
https://lifepurposeinstitute.com/the-benefits-of-setting-daily-intentions/
The Emerald Butterfly 
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