BayouHealth: Ditch the Morning Rush

Change your Morning to Change your Life | By Shannon Dalhum

Our lives have been looking vastly different over the past few months. With kids out of school for so long and many adults working from home, the daily schedules and routines that we did maintain have all gone out the window. As I’m writing this, we don’t know exactly what the beginning of the school year will look like, but whether we continue to stay home or are venturing back into schools and offices, we’ll have to start getting our daily routines back in order. A successful, productive daily routine always begins with a successful, productive morning.

“How you start your day is how you live your day. How you live your day is how you live your life.” -Louise Hay

If you want to have a joyful, productive, low-stress life, then prioritize starting every day with joy, productivity, and low-stress. It’s tempting to stay in bed as long as possible to seek out a few extra minutes of sleep, but the effects of jumping out of bed and rushing out the door will be far more detrimental throughout the day than losing those extra minutes of sleep. Take a look at some of the most successful people in the world and you’ll find this one thing in common: they all prioritize a morning routine that puts their own well-being first.

If you’ve ever flown on an airplane before, you’ve heard the flight attendants explain all the safety rules before take-off. You were told that if the cabin loses air pressure, oxygen masks drop from the ceiling and adults flying with children are instructed to put on their own masks before assisting their kids. After all, if you can’t breathe, you won’t be of much help to anyone else, right? Likewise, if you start your day frazzled, frantic, and in a rush, how can you show up in a productive way for all the people and things that require your attention throughout the day?

Author Robin Sharma says, “The way you start your day powerfully shapes how productively you live it.” In his book, “The 5am Club,” he explains what he calls the 20/20/20 formula. He recommends waking up at 5am every morning to spend an hour focusing on yourself. The routine includes spending twenty minutes on each of three different activities that enhance the health of your body, mind and spirit. The first 20 minutes are to be spent on movement. He encourages you to begin your day with intense exercise which will increase dopamine (a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of motivation) and serotonin (a neurotransmitter that provides feelings of happiness), while decreasing stress. In addition, working up a sweat releases BDNF, a brain chemical that promotes the growth of new neural connections.

The next twenty minutes of the routine are for fostering a healthy mindset through reflection and contemplation. It’s important to avoid social media, news, or other forms of information that can get your mind moving down a negative spiral. Instead, spend this time reading something inspirational, journaling, praying, or meditating. Get in touch with your emotions and make sure you’re allowing yourself to express them in healthy ways. As Sigmund Freud said, “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and they will come forth later in uglier ways.” Find an activity that allows you to deal with the uncomfortable emotions you may have and foster the ones that make you feel good.

Finally, the last twenty minutes of the 20/ 20/ 20 formula are dedicated to growth. Use this time to learn something new or to plan out your day. Read something that interests you or listen to a podcast. It’s been said that when you stop learning you stop growing, and when you stop growing you start dying.

This formula sounds pretty fabulous and I’m sure we’d all be happier, more productive humans if we lived by it consistently. Even if your schedule doesn’t allow you to dedicate a full hour to yourself at 5:00 every morning, though, you can still start your day in a positive, yet less time consuming way. Another popular morning routine, called, “The Miracle Morning,” by Hal Elrod includes spending time in silence, repeating an affirmation, visualizing yourself accomplishing a goal, moving your body, reading or listening to something inspirational or motivational, and writing in a journal. It sounds like a lot, but even if you only spend five minutes on each of those items, you’ll be reaping the benefits of the positive momentum they provide.

The most important element to implementing a new morning routine is that you start small. Make sure your goal is something you can stick with even when your motivation wears off. Rather than getting out of bed one hour earlier, just get up ten minutes earlier and pick one self care activity that appeals to you the most. Sometimes, even just setting guidelines for yourself on what not to do can be the best place to start. For example, no hitting snooze, and no social media during the first hour of your day.

As you start to move back into the busy work and school day hustle, make a commitment to prioritize yourself first. However you choose to start your day, just be sure you’re taking time to do something that helps you feel nourished, calm, and empowered. How you show up for yourself every morning sets the tone for how you show up for everything and everyone else for the rest of the day. You may not be able to control all the people, activities, and challenges you encounter every day, but you can control how you show up to them by putting yourself first.