The Miracle Morning Routine: How to Hack Your Brain to Have a Great Mood
“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before.”
—Maya Angelou
It all starts with a sentence, “I do better when…”
When you are doing and feeling better, what does your morning consist of? What do you need in your life that is a positive investment into your mood?
Firstly, sometimes we need to challenge the shoulds and need to’s of the world in order to apply this. I know when I am having a perfectionist fantasy (learn more about that here), I make a list of ALL the things I need to have in my life, and when I look at it, it ends up being pretty ridiculous. If I do a quick google search on “Morning Routines”, I see headlines that talk about 50+ ideas, top 10 must-haves, the ‘ultimates', and sure, I can imagine there are some great ideas but are those things realistic in your life?
My mornings currently exist of sleeping in more times than waking up early, having my little humans drag their feet through their own routines, having emails pinging first thing, and racing around because we might be late…again. So whenever I read those lists of ‘shoulds’, ‘must-haves’, or ‘ultimates’, I feel so shitty, because I compare it to the stressful mornings where those ‘must-have’ practices are non-existent. My brain will then happily forget the times where my mornings rocked, which is convenient for the cycle I get into. The cycle continues from feeling shitty to add in self-criticism and self-blame, then leads to Anxiety telling me about All The Things That Are Terrible About Myself that I Have Done in My Life, perfectionist fantasies, and tomorrow thinking. Helpful? Yeah, no.
When I started asking myself, “When do I do better?”, a new picture began to emerge:
I do better when I have just a few minutes of quiet in the mornings
I do better when I do 5 minutes of thought work per day
I do better when I have a few minutes of meditating each day
I do better when I eat the way my body needs
I do better when I speak kindly to myself
I do better when I “just do it” rather than waiting for ‘later”
I do better when I drink lots of water
I do better when I laugh
The word ‘morning’ was only in that list once. So what turns into my morning priority? You guessed it. A few minutes of quiet. So what is the secret of applying this one priority?
The Secret
You see, the secret is that a morning routine is about the thoughts that we have about ourselves within that time. Our brains will search for whatever we ask it to, and will do it habitually even if we are not conscious asking it to look for something in particular. For example, if you wake up groaning saying that you are exhausted and not wanting to get out of bed, what is what your brain is looking for? Exhaustion and reasons why we shouldn’t get out of bed.
If our morning routines consist of us thinking about all the things we should be doing, rather than what we are doing, how will you feel about yourself?
Alternatively, if our morning consists of us thinking about what we are doing, have done, and intention to do, how will that feel?
Our healing starts with our thoughts. Here are a few questions to ponder to help you get started:
Think about today, what was the very first thought you had?
How have you felt throughout the day?
Might there be a connection between how you woke up and where you are now?
To improve your mood through your morning routine, just start by finishing the sentence without the noise of the world telling you what to include.
I do better when …
I would love to hear from you! When do you do better in the mornings?
Hi, I’m Sharla.
I’m a Registered Social Worker who specializes in working with women to heal anxiety and all the fun it brings to the party, ADHD struggles, disordered eating, shame, and trauma.
I founded Bloom Narratives, a private practice that provides holistic wellness services.
Why? So you can be a game changer in your life. Because healing people heal people.