The Blog
If you follow many people in the life coaching or self-improvement sphere, you’ll quickly see that a lot of experts focus on the power of mornings.
Headlines like: “Your Miracle Morning” or “How Changing One Thing in the Morning Can Make you 1 Million Dollars” or “The Importance of Morning Rituals”
We get it. The early bird gets the worm.
The way you spend your morning greatly impacts the way you feel all day; we know, but do we really understand why?
Quick. Hold my crystals while I share some of the science behind why this matters.
Now I won’t go into great depth, but bear with me. The theory as to why some morning routines are awesome connects with Albert Einstein’s theory of photoelectric effect. Basically, what he’s saying, is that it isn’t the amount of hustle or hard work that will make energy move, but rather it’s the frequency at which it vibrates that promotes the most movement. And in humans, frequency is very much tied to our emotional state.
But why does this matter when it comes to mornings? Because if we spend some valuable time getting into a high frequency emotional state early in the morning, the rest of the day can feel less effortless. We’re already there, moving.
Kind of the opposite of “getting up on the wrong side of the bed”, am I right?
Now, this doesn’t mean that every morning you need to get up and deny how you’re actually feeling if you do wake up on the proverbial “wrong side of the bed”. But the thing is, we can hold space for sadness and anger, AND get into a higher emotional state. Choosing one doesn’t negate or betray the other. In fact, sometimes it’s important to get into a higher emotional frequency to decide how to move through the harder, stickier feelings.
The truth is, if we spend 30 minutes in the morning moving our emotional frequency up, it will pay dividends for the rest of our day.
What does that look like? If you’ve been hanging around for awhile, you might anticipate this next answer: It Depends.
Your morning routine is yours to decide. There is no one size fits all template for an awesome morning routine. I can provide some advice based on best practices, but what moves your emotional frequency up will largely depend on what inspires you. For some people, it’s sitting in meditation. For others, journaling. For some, a strenuous workout. For others, some light yoga. And still, some might prefer to spend their morning listening to podcasts or reading things that light them up. The bottom line in that for many of us, it’ll take a combination of a variety of things.
This is the key: What gets your mind, body, and soul on the move? What reminds you of your goals + intentions? Your BIG WHY?
To jumpstart the process of getting into a soul-enlivening morning routine, I’ve created this free resource that outlines a quick and simple journaling activity that was designed to get your day started with your heart open + feet fully planted on the ground.
This doesn’t need to take an hour. You don’t need to go on a 5km run. In fact, it’s pretty easy to make time to create a beautiful morning routine – simply mix and match a few different activities that get you in that high vibe space, and you could be smoothie in hand and out the door within 30 minutes.
To learn more about mornings and how to engineer them to make a difference in your every day, grab my free resource below. In the following email, I’ll be telling you more about my morning meditation routine that has me in all smiles under 15 minutes. Be sure to sign up for your free Morning Routine to get the rest of the goodies.
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I’m doing this new thing. I’ve come to the end of the rope with some of my self-destructive habits. I knew it was time to make a change when I slipped from anger to apathy. It happened in the process of trying not to beat myself up for slogging away in the same old ways and attempting to show myself a bit of fucking compassion. It back-fired. Instead of compassion, I absolve myself of my own actions and quickly became apathetic… and pathetic.
This might sound a bit bizarre, because self compassion and understanding is something that I work with clients on. But, it’s also very very human. We all have days in which we just bury our feelings in chips. Or bludgeon ourselves with ridiculous storylines about how immensely and profoundly fucked we are to not be able to JUST. Get. Our. Shit. Together.
In those soul searching nights, I’ve been searching for the secret button. The secret refrain or hack that was going to take me from conscious awareness to my desired next level: Habit Busting Mastery: Level Infinity. This could take me from knowing the places I desire growth, and choosing growth over stuckness every dang time. With ease, preferably on the beach- cocktail in hand.
So I’ve been on this quest and I’ve come to understand, finally and begrudgingly, that there is no secret pill. And perhaps, there is no Habit Busting Mastery: Level Infinity.
But I have learned a couple of things and I’m experimenting with my methods. I invite you to do the same. Here’s what I have up my sleeve:
- Be kind always. this is not a fight or a battle. What does it mean to actual show yourself some compassion? My own coach gave me an excellent analogy. Imagine you were driving with your co-pilot and you miss your exit off the highway. Which gets you back on track faster: ranting and yelling and swearing at the co-pilot? Screaming at them like they’re a fucking failure and complete shit at everything they do? Nah. Breathe, sister. Because…
- This is human. Humans the world over are not doing the things they know are best for them like… always. At least you’re aware. And maybe, just maybe… it’s kinda a funny thing that we do. Maybe we can see this in a more playful light. And with that, don’t simply brush it under the rug as an oopsie daisy moment, but get curious…
- Stop and cop a feeling. When we are faced with making a decision that would lead to growth, or when we’re at the other end of a series of less than stellar decisions, feel all the feelings. A brilliant sister of mine provides this inspired script: I’m sorry, please forgive me, I love you, thank you.
And then I thought to myself, what if I truly accepted that this was hard for me. Not because of me, but because it’s hard. And what if I truly accepted that I cannot do this on my own. Overtime, I’ve seen that I operate well in a container. A container that is designed and held for me, by someone else. A 21 day detox, an exercise program, an external challenge with external accountability, a coach. And what if I decided that not being able to do it alone was okay. And further to that acceptance— what tools can I use to support myself from a place of strength and resilience?
Nom nom treats.
I’ve decided that I’m a puppy and am trained through reward. I’ve done the research, and I know that I am not motivated by fear or consequences. The pain method? Hard pass… I just get angry. So from this knowing, I’m designing my own rewards system. And like a puppy being trained, I am not holding a grudge or making up some story about how if I were a real grown up I could do this on grit and enlightenment alone.
I’ll be implementing my super-science-sophisticated points system around here in a few days so check back in and hold my feet to the fire!
Does any of this ring true to you? Do you reward yourself with gold stars? If so, how? Inspire us all with your brilliance in the comments below.
Do you need a little help with some of your habits? Let’s work together. I’ve got a few free 45minute sessions available. Book yours here.
This blog is a part of the #braveblogging project from Makeness Media who are awesome.
