Starting Your Day with Shine
Do you have a morning routine? Starting each day off on the right foot is arguably the most important thing you can do. We’ve put together this blog as a guideline for you as you set up your new morning routine or make adjustments to your existing one.
Make your bed
Make your coffee or tea
Take medications & fill up a water bottle
Read your daily readings
Journal
Exercise
Meditate
Chores
Practice Affirmations
Let’s break it down!
Making your bed is one of the most beneficial things to start your morning. You’re setting yourself up for the evening and when you can look forward to undoing the bed and hopping in! Looking at a bed thats made up will make your space look more organized and help your thoughts to feel less cluttered.
Making your favorite morning drink is a lovely indulgence you can treat yourself with every morning. Whether it’s choosing your favorite mug or using a new creamer, having this be the next step in your routine is a great treat to waking up.
Don’t forget to take your vitamins! Having this as a bullet point item to cross off every morning is crucial so you don’t forget or skip a day. Also, preparing a full water bottle is a great measure to make sure you don’t forget to drink some water throughout the day.
Daily quote calendars or other readings are a great way to set your mindset for the day. There are some great “Daily Positive” quote calendars as well as amazing books such as The Daily Stoic that provide great nuggets of information to snack on as you prepare yourself for the day and challenges to come.
Journaling is one that is easily skipped or overlooked but it is so important to check in with yourself! Journaling in your Shine Journal every morning is a great way to check in with yourself and get your cognitive skills working.
Get your body moving! Any form of exercise from walking to working out, for 15-30 mins every morning will get your blood flowing and release some much-needed endorphins. Even if it is a short walk, get outside in the sunshine, leave your phone at home and just enjoy yourself!
Meditation is one morning task that we recommend but understand it is not a part of everyone’s practice. Doing mindful breathing and meditation for even 5 minutes every morning can really help your brain from getting overwhelmed throughout the day. If you need guided meditations, use Youtube or Headspace as a resource! There is no better time to start than now.
Knocking out the dishes from the previous night or sweeping the floor quickly in the morning is a great way to just get it out of the way and not have it on your mind all day long. We recommend doing chores after your bit of exercise so that you can cool down before moving onto your next task. Word to the wise, don't get caught up cleaning all day! Choose one task per morning and just crank it out.
Lastly and most importantly, practice some positive affirmations with yourself, in the mirror or aloud to yourself so you can set the tone for just how capable you are and how accomplished you should feel after completing your amazing morning routine! Pinterest is a great resource to look up affirmations if you are not aware of one's to use in practice.
We hope this is a helpful guide for you to set yourself up for success everyday, little by little, starting with your morning routine. If you have any suggestions of things we can add to this list, please email or DM us, we would love to hear from you!