As Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander mention in their book, My Morning Routine, “The first few choices you make each morning determine whether you’ll be productive and mindful all day, or whether the world will clobber you over the head.”
When you mindlessly scroll through YouTube looking at videos depicting morning mindfulness routines of people, you might fight them as unrealistic and flashy. “How does someone even wake up at 5 AM and stay productive throughout the day?” “I would likely fall asleep by 12 PM again.”
While you are nitpicking a perfectly healthy and mind you, realistic, mindful morning routine, did you stop and think that it is your morning habits that need a little ‘pick me up’?
Often, we fall prey to the bundle of overworking, giving in to the burden of spending our days and forgetting to live our lives. To ensure that your mornings aren’t a thoughtless drag anymore, we have sorted out some of the best yet 6 simple morning mindfulness habits that will churn maximum productivity throughout the day.
6 Simple Morning Mindfulness Habits For a Productive Day
1. Avoid Electronic Devices First Thing in the Morning
Electronics and technology have, no doubt, transformed our lives. They have streamlined communication and made it easier for us to tackle workflow like a professional.
However, electronic devices like our smartphones and laptops are also part of our digital addiction. You likely have an unfinished conversation from last night that you want to get back to. Your emails are probably brimming with new pingbacks. Your WhatsApp is likely flooded with new messages.
Or, they are not.
Instead of rolling over the expanse of your bed to grab your phone first thing in the morning, step out of the bedroom and sit down beside your window with a glass of water.
You never know what might be waiting on your phone when you turn on the internet and all the messages come rushing in. It could be a heavy workload that will likely keep you occupied for the coming few weeks. Why do you want to burden yourself with that stress first thing in the morning?
2. Channelize Ways to be Mindful in the Morning
So, we are suggesting you ditch the usage of your smartphone first thing in the morning.
You might be sitting here thinking, “What should I do then?” Irrespective of whether you wake up at 5 AM or 8 AM, you should spare at least 20-30 minutes to practice mindfulness exercises.
Even recent studies highlight that practicing mindfulness in the morning allows a person to be more creative, have better mental clarity, and have a peaceful and productive rest of the day.
Dr. Paras, who is a trained and highly experienced Mindfulness Practitioner, prioritizes and highlights the importance of open-monitoring meditation. It is a highly conducive mindfulness exercise and allows you to calm down your racing thoughts that generally plague your mind first thing in the morning.
3. Prioritize Self-Care
Our lives are constantly moving at a fast pace, one that leaves us with very little time to spare for ourselves. This is why you have to change that habit. Instead of succumbing to a mindless and unproductive morning routine, you need to prioritize self-care.
As Audre Lorde once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
We often have a very misconstrued understanding of self-care. Self-care doesn’t just mean you have to indulge in a rigorous skincare routine, eat a fancy breakfast, read a book or get a special spa day for yourself. Instead, self-care is a very subjective experience. Self-care means carving out time for yourself first thing in the morning, even with the ongoing chaos on the side.
Sometimes, self-care is about a 30-minutes yoga session to keep yourself in your best health.
4. Be Intentional About the Choices you Make
Being intentional about your choices doesn’t have to be earth-shattering or groundbreaking. Sometimes, a simple choice of sticking to your to-do list can make a lot of difference to your day.
When you stick to what you planned, without letting procrastination take over, it allows you to contribute to your productivity throughout the day.
However, when you wake up and let your choices jumble, they will eventually topple over and put down your entire day’s planning and progress like a stack of dominoes.
If you don’t live your life intentionally, there are higher chances that you’d end up moving through your day-to-day life and not living through it. Intentionality means understanding every choice you take in your day and introducing changes if you are dissatisfied with something in your morning mindfulness habits.
5. Feed your Mind, Soul, and Body
How often do you skip breakfast?
If you do that quite often, ask yourself why?
Is it because you always wake up late and have to rush through things after that? Is it because you feel overburdened by everything that you have planned for the day that you end up procrastinating? Or, is it because you don’t feel like eating first thing in the morning?
Whatever your answer was, we’d recommend you reconsider skipping the first meal of the day.
Our body needs food to generate energy. If you want to get yourself through the day mindfully, you need to stay alert, and your mind needs to be in the present.
How do you think you’d be able to concentrate on a task when you hear your stomach rumbling loudly in the middle of the day? How will you stay productive if you can’t even muster the energy to stay alert and awake two hours after you’ve woken up?
Eating a healthy and filling breakfast first thing in the morning allows you to fuel your mind, body, and soul throughout the day. You will also be less likely to binge on unhealthy snacks, which can later contribute to poor health.
Even when you are in a rush to get to your school or your office, take 10 minutes out of it to make yourself something to eat before you take on the day headstrong.
6. Practice some Gratitude
As Roy T. Bennett mentions in The Light in the Heart, “Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart.”
One of the building pillars of Mindfulness is gratitude. When you are genuinely thankful for the small and big things in your life, it helps you “reconnect with your purpose in life.”
None of our lives are 100% happy like we expect it to be. Everyone, in some way or the other, is experiencing struggles that we aren’t aware of. Gratitude allows you to appreciate the good things in your life. It doesn’t forego or omit the struggles but it allows you to focus on the good.
When you wake up, sit down and think about the top three things that you are grateful for today. It doesn’t have to be something big like “having a roof over your head” or “being able to afford a luxurious life in the urban town.” It could be simple gratitude notes to “getting to eat your favorite breakfast” or “being thankful for having people that support you.”
The meaning of gratitude is different for every person. So, always be thankful for small and big things that bring purpose and meaning to your life.
Conclusion
Mindfulness is a journey that allows you to indulge in your best form. It enables you to tap into your true potential and find your purpose in life. The good thing about adhering to mindful morning habits is that it allows you to plan and execute the rest of your day productively.
Considering learning more about Mindfulness? Matrrix’s Mindfulness Coach Certification could be your calling. Not only do you get to explore the fundamentals of mindfulness, but you can also leverage the training to make a tangible career shift.
Learn with an experienced Mindfulness Practitioner, Dr. Paras, and unfurl your true potential. You can register via https://www.matrrix.in/mindfulness-practitioner.
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