Every wellness guru touts that having a great morning routine is the best way to start the day with your best foot forward. For many people, a morning routine is just getting up, dressing, having breakfast, and going to school or work or running errands. However, a specialised wellness routine for each day can help you establish habits that help you reduce stress and become more productive.
Lifestyle: The Importance Of Daily Rituals And Routines
Why you should set up a morning routine
If you’re someone who struggles to wake up, ends up spending too much time scrolling social media before going to shower, or you’re always running late, this is a great idea for you. Trying to force yourself to change your habits to become more productive is difficult. Studies show that you can’t run on willpower alone. Doing this makes it easier to eventually succumb to mood preferences. Instead of doing something meaningful or productive, you end up hitting the snooze button or scrolling online.
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A good morning routine helps you establish helpful habits that you can run on auto mode. Having a specialised routine with healthy habits supports self-care and well-being, even when just getting ready for work. Routines are also malleable. They don’t need to be strict. They can change depending on your day, such as accommodating a work-from-home day.
Having a habitual routine removes the stress of having goals you need to meet every morning. If you’re always in a rush, falling behind, running late, or overwhelmed by tasks, your body will suffer from stress. When you design a morning routine that works for you, it makes a pattern of healthy habits. This increases mental peace and positive emotional health for the rest of the day.
What to avoid when designing a morning routine
It’s understandable to feel eager to set up a morning routine. But without the proper guidelines, you can easily just try to mimic an influencer’s routine. Many wellness influencers have relaxed schedules or easily splice together multiple events from different days to make the routine seem like something they did in one day. There’s also the possibility that they are curating their routines to add as many product placements as they can.
Copying other people’s morning routines makes it difficult to design a program that suits you. Other routines may also include activities that are irrelevant to you. If you’re looking at an athlete’s routine, they may have a routine that includes high-intensity training and this is impractical on a day before work. Copying others can also increase anxiety because it may feel like you’re not meeting their standards.
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How to design the best routine for yourself
You need to consider your schedule, how much time you have in the morning, or what major duties you have. For example, if you are a parent of children who need assistance, you’ll have less time to yourself than the parent of self-sufficient teenagers. To create a suitable routine that you can remain consistent with, ask yourself a few questions:
- What are the things that help you feel best in the morning?
- What brings you the most joy?
- How can you add it to your routine the following morning?
- If you can’t do it, what can you do instead?
It’s important not to get bogged down with over-researching. Studies show that overdoing research and coming up with too many goals sets you up to fail. It’s best to start with adding one habit to your routine. This can be a face routine, yoga, meditation, exercise, or journaling. Prioritizing one goal makes it easier to also see how much time you can dedicate to other healthy habits you can add to the morning routine.
You don’t need to change all your habits at once. It’s not easy to do a complete 180°. This puts undue pressure on you. If you have unhealthy habits in the morning, replace them with something meaningful that you enjoy. Instead of scrolling social media, you can do a crossword, read or meditate. Tips On How To Change Your Habits And Enforce Them As Well
Be kind to yourself. If you’re struggling to break the habit, work with yourself. For example, if you snooze a lot, you can try placing your phone in another room to get up. You can also use tailored apps to help you. Apps like My Morning Routine assign a timetable to your routine. Calm helps with meditation. It’s also important to make sure you don’t lose track of the rest of your day. Don’t add something to your morning routine that will derail your schedule. If you plan to work out, save time by setting up your workout clothes and equipment the night before.
Remember to remain consistent. Once you start with the most joyful activity, you can slowly add others until you have a healthy routine that becomes the perfect way to start the day.
Check out:
Lifestyle: The Importance Of Daily Rituals And Routines
8 Ways To Make Your Mornings Easier If You Are Not A Morning Person
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