Want to Reclaim Your Life? Here Are 9 Reasons You Need a Mindful Morning Routine
“Your energy in the morning is a clean slate and you get a chance each day to build it up the way you want” — Mridula Singh
Every morning, we have an opportunity to choose how we will move through the day — to choose the tone and frequency we will be tuned to. We can choose chaos or harmony, stress or peace, to be detached way up in the clouds or connected and grounded to earth.
A mindful morning routine creates an atmosphere that promotes the latter of those choices…harmony, peace, and grounding.
So what is a mindful morning routine and how can it help us to reclaim our lives?
A mindful morning routine includes a handful of practices that inspire mindfulness, grounding, and a deeper relationship with yourself.
Sounds good, right?
These practices often look like meditation, journaling, gratitude, setting intentions, conscious breathing, etc. It sounds like a lot at first, but when you get into a rhythm and a routine, each practice ease-fully flows into the next and truly makes your mornings a little slice of heaven.
Mornings, a slice of heaven? Definitely.
A mindful morning routine makes the morning hours something to look forward to, which is quite the juxtaposing statement in our world, but trust me, creating time in your day to feel good, to hear yourself, and to embody peace is something to look forward to, and doing so can greatly improve the quality of your life.
9 reasons you need a mindful morning routine so YOU can reclaim your life.
You are able to process instead of project!
Having a mindful morning routine gives you the space and time to detect and process any negative energy living in your body instead of, later on in the day, projecting unprocessed negativity onto others.
By writing out your feelings, you create a window of opportunity to do a physical release of any negative energy in your body, which can be tremendously healing. When you’ve already detected, processed, and have released the negativity lingering within you, you are significantly less likely to project negativity onto the people whom you will interact with throughout the day.
You know those times when you have either witnessed someone or you have been that someone who is incredibly rude to the barista or the cashier at the grocery store? In those moments, you, or the person you are observing, are projecting unprocessed emotions onto someone entirely independent of your internal world. This doesn’t feel good for anyone involved.
Creating time in your day to process, feel, and work through what you’re experiencing internally not only creates inner peace, but it also creates outer peace.
I mean, think about it, what if everyone in the world spent 10 minutes every morning in a state of silent self-reflection?? I’m certain I’m not the only one who feels lighter just thinking about that being a possible scenario in our world.Deepen your relationship with yourself!
By implementing a mindful morning routine with self-reflection and centering practices, you are discovering who you are at your core! Through self-discovery comes self-realization and through self-realization comes self-actualization; turning what you’ve realized about your potential, dreams, desires, and hopes for a more beautiful world into a reality.
There are so many gifts within each of us that are meant to be realized, meant to be known and shared with the world, yet we don’t take the time to learn more deeply about ourselves and what gifts we have to offer the world.
These beautiful parts of ourselves stay hidden — buried within us — and that serves absolutely no one!
When you commit to a mindful morning routine you are giving yourself the opportunity to explore your internal world and connect with your soul’s desires. Be willing to discovery yourself, and as you do so, you will learn how to experience this life with more love, more joy, and more peace within you and all around you.You choose self-care instead of self-sabotage!
It’s really easy to get triggered online, right? Most people (who own a cellphone) wake up and starts looking at everyone else. Within five minutes of being awake, we are actively comparing ourselves to others, wishing our bodies looked differently, our home was bigger, our job more fulfilling, our skin, hair, family, relationships, health….and so on.
Within those first five minutes of the morning, we are already in a deep spiral of self-sabotage; it could be 6am and we are in complete and utter denial of all that we are.
It’s so hard to avoid entering a judgmental state of mind when scrolling online. So what do we do? Well, we choose to connect with ourselves first.
When you wake up and look at you first, connect with yourself before anyone else, you are sending a message to your mind, to your heart, and to your body, that you are a priority. That the wellbeing of all your dimensions — physical, emotional, spiritual, mental — is important to you, and that you are going to take care of you today. You are going to love you today. You are going to check in with yourself, ask yourself how you’re doing, and acknowledge how you are and where you are.
You do it for you, and you do it for everyone around you. You come first.
Connecting with yourself first is a much more healing, peaceful, and loving way to start the day.Clarity, clarity, clarity.
There really is something wildly magical about the morning hours.
The world is quiet, and it’s almost as if the mind is more clear because of it. Sometimes it’s hard to think in the mornings, and actually, that’s great!
Less thinking the better.
I don’t know about you, but as soon as I start interacting with the world, my brain starts running a marathon and it’s very difficult for it to slow down. Spending time with yourself, ideally in silence, ideally in the morning, is key for achieving clarity.
Your fears and resistances, as well as your dreams and desires, come to the surface when you create the space and time for what’s present to be revealed to you.
And then write it all down. Silence speaks, people!! Let yourself get clear.You learn to trust yourself.
Self care is often depicted as baths and candles, face masks and massages, and while all of those things are LOVELY, self-reflection and self-discovery can be even lovelier.
Heck, we put so much time, energy, and love into getting to know people we love and care about, but how many minutes throughout the day are you asking yourself questions and getting to know yourself better??
This also builds your trust muscle. Yes, trusting yourself. You trusting you.
Do you trust yourself to say yes when you mean it and no when you mean it? Do you advocate for yourself? Do you enforce firm boundaries about who and when and where you are giving of yourself?
When you dedicate time in the morning to deepening your relationship with yourself and getting to know yourself better, you are also learning to trust yourself, thus learning how to stand in your power, be your own advocate, and feeling aligned with your yes’s and no’s. Talk about self-care!Minimize stress.
Mornings tend to be stressful for many. So much to do, so little time. And unfortunately, a lot of people are racing the clock to be on time for a job they don’t even want to be working. Ugh. That’s a whole other thing we need to forever address …
Regardless, it can be painfully stressful and distracting and overwhelming and then denial and shame and fear and anger and all of the things set in.
Whew!
The best thing you can do to mitigate ALL OF THIS is get grounded. This means meditating, doing some conscious breathing, and journaling. This means peacefully landing in your mind, heart, and body first thing upon waking.
When you choose to get grounded BEFORE all of the things set in, the way you react to that which may typically trigger you will be significantly less invasive and harmful in your mind and body. It’s much easier to remain grounded after grounding then to get grounded after being triggered.Have more control over your life!
Similar to the preceding point, when a day starts in chaos, it’s hard to regain control. When everything seems to be out of your control it is frustrating, exhausting, and eventually debilitating.
Eckhart Tolle says, “All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.”
Having a mindful morning routine is intended to help you enter the present moment. With enough practice and consistency, your focus eventually shifts from the past and the future to what is — right here, right now.
Incorporating mindfulness practices into your morning routine helps you to feel and BE more in control of your life because you are learning how to live in the present moment.
As written in A Course in Miracles, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.” The present is all that is. No past, no future.Become who you know you are meant to be.
I read a passage recently from one of the most beautiful, most gentle authors, Yung Pueblo, and I would love to share it with you. It speaks for itself …
“The biggest shift in life happens when you go inward.
You step in and observe all that you find with acceptance;
The love you bring lights up your self-awareness;
You start seeing how the past is packed into your mind and heart —
Patience, honesty, and observation start the healing process.With time, intention, and good healing practices, the past loses its power over your life.
You continue the process — stepping in, feeling, understanding, letting go.
And then you start noticing the results; you are not the same anymore.
Your mind feels lighter and develops a new, sharper clarity.
You start arriving into your life and relationships ready for deeper connection."Fill up your own cup.
Say hello to healthy relationships!
It’s quite easy to depend on others to fill up our cups for us. When we jump into the day without addressing our own wants and needs, we spend the rest of the day looking outside of ourselves for insight from others, affirmation from others, love from others, peace from others, support from others, etc.
It’s not only exhausting for us, but it’s exhausting for our people.
Additionally, it’s difficult, not to mention dangerously unhealthy, to give to others what you have yet to give to yourself.
Why is it unhealthy?
Because eventually, you will be running on fumes. When you neglect yourself and your well-being for an extended period of time and only focus on and rely on everyone else, you are scraping the bottom of your own cup.
Your body will let you know when this is happening and chances are it won’t feel good.
To avoid this, you can wake up and make the decision to look at yourself, love yourself, and listen to yourself. And when you do this, are not only helping yourself, but you are equally helping everyone in your world because you already showed up for yourself!
You took the time to fill up your cup — to find balance, to integrate, to process, release, let go, and replenish your energy— and you are now showing up as your whole self.
This is how you take care of you and your people. This is how you create harmony in your relationships. You remain whole.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of more reasons why connecting with yourself in the morning through mindfulness practices will greatly improve the quality of your life, and thus help you to reclaim this life!
It is your life. You get to decide how you will move through the world, and that decision begins right when you wake up. You get to decide where your energy and attention will go.
You are in control!!
If you are interested in committing to a morning routine, but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in luck! I’ve helped create a fully guided 21-day mindful morning routine with all the tools and practices you need to start reclaiming your life! All you have to do is show up every morning (the hardest part) and you will be guided through a healing, grounding, and peaceful morning routine.
Head to embracethespace.podia.com to learn more!
And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out :)
Sending you so much love and gratitude,
Sarah