Best Habit Ideas For A Mindful Morning Routine

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Are you tired of rushing through your mornings? Tired of being anxious before the day even begins because your mind is already with that disturbing event you need to face later on?

In this post, I share with you 16 habit ideas that will help you to add more mindfulness to your morning routine to have a slow and peaceful start in the day.

Our mornings set the tone for the whole day, so we better want to be intentional about how we start it.

Prepare

A calm morning routine starts with the night before.

To have a smooth start in the day, it’s helpful to have certain things prepared, so that you don’t have to bother about small stuff in the morning.

Like the struggle to find the right outfit, pack your bag, or prepare your lunch.

All of these things can cause a lot of stressful moments right after waking up.

To not set a negative tone for the day by just rushing through your mornings, I would recommend to do these things the night before:

Choose your outfit
Set the table
Pack your bag
Prepare your lunch and fill it in a transportable container
Have a glass of water on your nightstand -> to not forget to hydrate right when you wake up

Wake up and visualize

Before you get up take a few minutes to visualize your dream reality or goals.

Right after waking up the mind is still very receptive to visions and it just sets a positive outlook for the day.

You are more likely to make decisions that are aligned with your dream life and you attract more opportunities to make it a reality.

Make use of your brain not being able to distinguish between your visions and your reality.

The result is that it wants to end the confusion and match the reality that makes you feel fulfilled.

Drink a glass of water

After many hours without any water, the body needs to re-hydrate right after getting up.

This supports your kidneys transferring toxins out of your body.

Get outside / fresh air

Open all the windows and let in some fresh air.

If you got the possibility of a balcony or some outside space, use it to catch your first sunrays of the day (in case the sun is even out).

Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. This one lifts your mood for sure and brings some relaxation to your morning.

Whenever you feel stressed throughout the day think back to some relaxing moments you had in your mornings.

Stretch / mini workout / slow yoga

Get your body out of the tired mode with your favorite type of movement in the morning.

This can be a short stretching routine, a mini-workout, or if you got some more time even a yoga session.

Do whatever works for you. And if that means dancing around with a toothbrush in your mouth. Then feel free to do just that.

Breathe

Sit down and become aware of your breath. Where does it go? Are you breathing flat or does your breathing rhythm reach your stomach?

Try to take a few deep breaths into your belly before you go back to your normal breathing.

Has the depth of your breathing changed?

It’s one of the simplest but at the same time hardest way to become relaxed.

Sitting still in the morning isn’t easy for everyone. Thoughts about events that will happen that day cross our mind and we can’t just find the ease to BE with ourselves.

But give it at least a try. Deep breathing and having the mind focused on the now is exactly what helps with anxiety.

A mantra that helps me with morning anxiety is: “Right now I am safe.”

Breakfast

That’s the one that many skip exactly why they feel so rushed.

Creating a calm space to have an undisturbed breakfast is truly an art.

Rather we bombard our brain with the latest (very terrifying) news, social media or our head is already in the meeting we have later that day.

No presence at all.

But if we already set the table in the evening before and decide to trade the morning news and social media for a breakfast in peace, it’s definitely possible. Also, without the rush.

A simple and healthy breakfast idea is muesli with yogurt and some frozen or fresh fruit.

Nothing is easier prepared than that. Once every two weeks you mix all the ingredients of your muesli so that you don’t have to do that every morning.

Skincare

Just make sure that you don’t forget the SPF with UV protection. Every day! No matter how cloudy it is or which season we have. Even when you are only inside.

UVA rays are going through your clothes and glass.

Please never forget to protect your skin to help prevent skin cancer and premature skin aging.

Also, make sure to reapply every two hours.

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from: Ash and Rose

Journal / Speak your intentions

Think about how your day would look like if it’s unfolding in the best way possible.

What can you do to make that outcome more likely?

Having our ideal day in mind we are more focused on making decisions that are aligned with our vision for the day.

You can journal about your ideal day or just visualize it.

Get clear about your intentions for your day. Reread your goals and decide what you can do today or every day to make them real.

Planner

As you become clear about your intentions and what tangible things you can do, you could write them down in your planner.

When we write something down, we are far more likely to take action on it. We want to cross it off.

Make sure to only write things on your to-do list that are truly important that day.

Choose what’s the most meaningful task you can do.

Don’t go with five major things you want to accomplish besides having a full day of work, cleaning your apartment, and cooking a healthy dinner.

Don’t overburden yourself. You only end up being harsh on yourself for not doing “enough”.

Small tarot reading

You can bring some extra depth to your morning by using a tarot deck or oracle cards.

Of course, you don’t have to do a 12 card in-depth reading.

Just ask simple questions like:

What do I need to keep in mind today?
What’s important for me to know today?
How can I keep my joy in stressful situations?
How can I show up for my dream life today?

You don’t have to pull more than three cards and still get some valuable insight.

Something to keep in mind throughout the day.

Read

Some motivation before work or class. You can also make that a part of your commute. Or listen to an audiobook or podcast.

The insight of books can have a positive impact on how we go about our day.

If we refresh a concept from a book by reading it in the morning, we can use the day to implement what we have learned.

Meditation

Just like simple deep breathes, mediation in the morning can be challenging for most of us.

Our head is already ten steps ahead of where we are now and we tell ourselves that we just don’t have time for that.

Set a timer starting with just 3 minutes. Sit down, close your eyes, and bring your focus back to the present moment.

You can also focus on the point between your eyebrows to get some insights from your third eye or think about what you are grateful for.

It truly doesn’t have to take long to feel the powerful effects of meditation.

Just to name a few:

Less stress and anxiety
Increased immunity
A deep state of peace
Increased optimism
Increased self-awareness

Background music

If you like some calm background music you can make a playlist dedicated to how you want to feel in the morning.

Look at your vision board

Keeps the motivation and inspiration high, especially when looking at it at the beginning of the day.

Besides having pictures of what you’d like to manifest, also have pictures on there of what you are grateful for having in your life already.

Moments that are meaningful to you, Souls that you feel connected to, the beauty of your life.

The vibration of gratitude attracts more things to be grateful for. Which is exactly what a vision board is about, right?

Another way to use your dream board is to pick just one scene – the one you would like to be in most at the moment. And then visualize yourself in that scene.

Choose crystals for the day

Based on the intentions you set for the day you can choose a crystal that helps you attain them.

There’s a crystal for every need. For calmness throughout the day, I use Shungite as it helps to reduce anxious thoughts as well as blocking EMF radiation.

Another go-to crystal is Black Tourmaline – helps to protect you from negative energy and makes you feel more grounded.