Create a Morning Ritual

In order to have your best day, where you feel happier and more calm even amongst a stressful day ahead, commit yourself to a mindful morning routine. Depending on how much time you have, you can adjust the activities you do daily but it would be best to follow the same ones everyday for best results.

Meditation

Meditation showed a noticeable improvement in my life when I made the intention to add it into a morning routine for myself. I decided to wake up and follow a 20 minute guided meditation (Deepak & Oprah’s, see below). When I have been regularly following my commitment to this, I am more in alignment, which basically means the way my life is going feels better and I notice signs and synchronicities.

Black female and male meditating in their bedroom

Gratitude Journal

A Gratitude Journal is one of the things that made a difference for me in feeling happier with my life. I started doing it at the start of Winter depression setting in and I haven’t had much depression since I began doing it regularly.

Writing out what you’re grateful for motivates you to focus on the things that you are thankful for instead of thinking about all the to-dos or negative things coming up in your day. When you’re able to give your attention to the things going well in your life, the universe (God, Source, Universal Intelligence) takes note so it sends you more. ~Law of Attraction in action!

Oprah has a meditation on gratitude that said it was the single most important thing that made a difference in her life, and now after prioritizing this the last few years, I completely agree with her. I notice when things in my life aren’t going fantastically, I realize I have not been writing out my gratitudes (and likely haven’t been keeping up with my meditation either).

Even when life seems difficult, you can find things to be glad about. If you can only think about the negative, try to turn it around and find a positive aspect about it. It’s kind of crazy, but it seems to improve the situation over time if you keep saying things you like about your life or finding the positives within certain situations.

Please, try this (especially if you have depression, are super stressed or unhappy)! Make it a goal to write out 5 gratitudes every morning into a journal. Some examples are:

    • I’m grateful for a warm bed to sleep in
    • I’m grateful my coffee warms me and gets me going in the morning.
    • I’m grateful that even though my partner and I fought last night, that we are committed to making it work.
    • I’m grateful to have a supportive family
    • I’m grateful for the ability to drive myself to work everyday in my awesome car

 

Journaling

Journaling what’s on your mind, like worries or concerns, as a way to get out thoughts so you don’t think about them all day.

white mug closeup of matcha teaMindfully Make a Morning Elixir

Be mindful as you make your morning elixir, like your fave coffee or matcha tea. As you’re preparing your drink:

  • Listen to a song to get you excited for your day as your water is warming up.
  • Set the intention for your day so it gets infused into your drink. Think about how you want to feel and think about the best version of you that you want to show up today. And as you drink, your intention will impart these aspects into you!
  • My morning drink of choice is Matcha Green Tea
A Yoga Sequence

You can do a quick 15 minute wake up routine or a full hour. You can choose poses you like or follow someone on YouTube or Gaia TV. This wakes up your body, and gets you moving and ready for your day!

** To get aligned, in tune and into a positive mindset for the day, I would highly recommend at minimum, do meditation for 5 minutes and write out 3 gratitudes. Boom. Done in 10 minutes but set up for the day with a positive mindset.