Building A Better Morning Routine To Have a Better Day

Pay Yourself First to Foster a Mindset of Waking up Well.

Sheila Larocque - Student Clinician, RPQ

For the past couple of years, I have been practicing a morning routine that I now consider a credit in my well-being account.

Morning self-care prepares me mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually for the debits in caring that I will endeavour in my day. Early mornings were never really my thing. Any number of my current and previous housemates can attest to my uniquely long snooze routines. But when life started feeling really hard and too busy with a partner, school, work, and children. The competing demands on my attention quickly wore me down. It became clear that much of my focus was outwardly directed. I was feeling it, and so were the people around me. This hurt! The decision to pay myself first and create a morning routine has transformed how I feel entirely. Mornings are now my favourite time of day. It’s heartwarming to say that I rarely miss my morning routine. I look forward to time by myself. I wake around 5:30am and have two hours to do whatever I want. Mornings are perfect because, let’s be honest, everyone else is still asleep. Waking up earlier than everyone else guarantees me uninterrupted time by myself. That is something I have tested and have proved that I cannot guarantee myself at any other time in my day.

How to Create a Morning Routine

Make commitment to make time for yourself. Start small. Give yourself 20-30 minutes of alone time daily. Gradually increase the time as you desire. I started with an hour. I found after some time that I had a desire to add to my routine, and I needed more time. I am now spending two hours alone each morning and can see how this too may continue to grow.

Know Your "What"

What is going to get you out of bed? Is it a warm drink? Is it exercise? Is it a pet? When I started, I had advice from a coach. Her suggestion, and what got me out of bed was not wanting to wake up my youngest child. Therefore, I had to set an alarm in their bedroom and set one in mine. My alarm went off 1 minute before theirs. Every morning, I hopped out of bed to get to their room before their alarm. It’s humorous now, but it worked!

Make the Morning Easy - Setting Yourself Up For Success

Set up your space and anything you need the night before. For me, this involved picking out my yoga clothes, filling a bottle of water, charging my earbuds, tidying up and laying out my yoga mat in the space I was going to use, setting my journal and a pen nearby. With everything ready, it was inviting. There were no barriers for me to encounter and send me back to bed.

Know Your "Why"

My why is deeply personal, and I believe this will be true for everyone. We are all unique and have different needs, wants, and values. The simple why was to stop the hurt. What I have found over time is that I am curious to develop a relationship with myself. This includes the idea that I can cultivate an internal sensation of safety. Research suggests that the nervous system functions as the superhighway to the brain. A calm nervous system and an embodied sense of safety provide me with an optimal ability to use the higher functioning areas of my brain that make me unique as a human. My creativity, my ability to think bigger than myself, my ability to challenge my perceptions, my capacity to make decisions, to dream, to plan, and to have a deeper experience of my present moments.

My morning routine includes any number of the following things:

Make a fire in the wood burning stove and fire gaze
Listen to music with binaural beats
Somatic exercises & experiences that includes gentle and slow movement which might resemble dancing, yoga, weights, and breath work
Observation of my thoughts with self-reflection
Massage including hands, feet, arms, legs, low back, neck, and face for lymphatic drainage
Meditation which often includes mirror meditation
Journaling with an aim to free write for 3 pages

I have added to the elements of my morning routine over time, and I know it will continue to evolve and change.

My morning routine has been a transformative healing gift to myself. The results I have noticed are that I have become more caring and compassionate with myself and others. I understand how my body communicates with me better. I am understanding my emotions better. I am able to recognize my thoughts with greater ease. I have an energy of curiosity to wake and check in with myself on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level each the day. The outcome of my morning routine is waking up with a mindset of wellness.