A morning ritual?

Who has time for that you say?

I know exactly how you feel because for years and years I thought that having some sort of morning routine was neigh on impossible what with my busy crazy life!

But bear with me because I am about to make a very big and bold claim but I promise I can back it up with facts.

Nowadays I firmly believe that creating your own morning ritual is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself and help to transform your life.

Before I had my own morning ritual in place, I would awake every morning jump out of bed and run around like an idiot from the moment my feet touched the ground. It was usually a case of rush into the shower, get dressed, run downstairs, prepare breakfast for everyone but myself. Shove something down my throat if I was lucky! Then run around for another 20 minutes making sure the kids had everything ready for school. Once I had safely delivered them at school I was in such a frantic state of mind that I had pretty much set the intention for the rest of the day which usually ended up been a similar scenario of rushing around and firefighting through.

Okay so now the kids are a little older and I don’t have the actual school drop-offs to do any more however preparing breakfast and making sure my youngest still has everything he needs for school is still part of my early morning routine.

I first heard about morning rituals through a guy called Stefan Pylarinos who I came across through my amazon business (I would highly recommend him if you are looking to improve any area of your life) my first thoughts were I will never have time in the morning to do any of what he recommends.

No point trying to squeeze in an hour when you only have 10 minutes.

But one thing he does say is making sure your morning ritual is suited to you and your life, no point trying to squeeze in an hour when you only have 10 minutes. This is something that ideally needs to be performed a minimum of 5 days a week to get the best from it so you need to make sure the time you allocate to it is achievable and not stressful.

To help you get started I have detailed below my own morning ritual just basically giving you some ideas of some of the tools I use to help get my day off to the best start.

1. Waking up early – I set my alarm 15 minutes early to allow me to perform my morning ritual because it helps to empower me to be at my best every day. I look forward to waking up in the morning knowing that the 15 minutes to myself is going to help me reach peak levels of joy, fulfillment, and happiness, help to nourish my soul and make the most of every day.
2. Gratitude – Next to my bed I have my daily gratitude list which is simply a piece of paper that I use to write down 3 things I am grateful for every morning when I wake up.

These can be very simple things, for instance, I am grateful for my warm cozy bed and the amazing night’s sleep I have just had or they can be a lot more detailed.

It’s about the wonderful state of mind.

It really doesn’t matter what they are it’s about the wonderful state of mind I start my day in after thinking these thoughts, the joy, and feeling I get from being grateful. Often we wake up and think of problems or worry about certain things in the day ahead that probably won’t happen, by waking up and feeling grateful you are already in a great state of mind for starting your day.

1. Read through my goals – once I’ve completed my gratitude list I like to read through my goals. Not only am I in a great state of mind at this point I am also feeling very positive and because my goals excite me I am now in the perfect state of mind and a great mood to start the day. This is also a great opportunity to plan in at least one thing that day that will move you one step closer to your goals.
2. Eat Right – Before starting a morning ritual breakfast was something that was never on the menu for me. By mid-morning I would be so hungry I would literally eat anything in sight.##

Putting the correct fuel in your body.

Now every morning I enjoy a nutritious breakfast which consists of either porridge which I love to add blueberries flax seeds, protein powder or I make eggs with spinach. Both of these meals can be whipped up in less than three minutes in the microwave.

Putting the correct fuel in your body is a sure way to reap the rewards of a sharper and clearer mind and get your day off to a great start.

1. Exercise – Okay so we all know how important exercise is. It’s one of the most important things you can do to live a happy, healthy and balanced life however this doesn’t have to be just in the gym.

I usually work out 3 times a week in the gym, on the other 4 days I walk with the dog. An exercise program doesn’t need to be elaborate, expensive or even too time consuming simply going out for a walk is a great way to experience the fresh air and a great way to start the day in the best state of mind. I am a big believer that making things simple in life is the way forward. The worst feeling in the world is waking up in the morning with a feeling of overwhelm and thoughts of how on earth am I going to fit all this in in one day! It doesn’t matter what type of workout or exercise that you do, as long as you are doing SOMETHING, my advice makes things simple, a 20-minute walk or a quick HIT session on YouTube is better than doing nothing I promise you, you will definitely feel better for it.

One last tip, I’ve found working out or exercising EARLY to be extremely important, as the later you leave it during your day then there is less of a chance of you doing it. So make it part of your morning ritual!

So remember!

To be consistent with this long-term variety is key so remember to always be flexible and adaptable and change anything that isn’t working for you.

I hope you found this blog to be helpful please let me know your thoughts and any comments are always greatly appreciated.