I have made some huge changes in my personal life over the past decade and some of those changes have come from doing those insignificant things that no-one else sees. Those seemingly trivial things that you wander if they will ever be effective, but eventually they build momentum and before you know it, you are responding to life differently. You then know that those small daily habits have had a significant impact!
My journey with personal development has been ongoing now for some 14 years and I am highly motivated to do this kind of thing. It’s what lights me up, what I get excited about, but it hasn’t always been like that. Noooo….at some early point in my journey, PAIN was the great motivator! Pain will do that; it will motivate us to do whatever it takes to move away from the discomfort and the hurt.
Fast forward to today and I now understand the wonderful benefits that come from taking action and making changes to my daily routine. So, from my personal journey and experience I know these habits work. They bring about beneficial changes, happy vibes, and positive outcomes!
Here are just some of the incredible benefits I have received from introducing morning habits:
Increased positivity
Feeling lighter and happier
Decreased stress and worry
Increased energy
Shifted thinking patterns
More confident, centred, and focused
Steers me to achieve my goals
Feel empowered by my choices
Take control of my mental health and wellbeing
Now, if you want 2022 to be different, it makes sense to try out something different. If nothing changes, then nothing changes. (One of my favourite sayings!) What I genuinely love about morning habits is that they don’t have to take up a huge amount of time. This means it is easier to stay motivated and feel good about the effort and energy you are putting into your wellbeing routine.
A morning routine can support you in boosting your happiness, increasing your productivity, and reducing stress. It also helps to influence your day by starting it in the right way, which helps you to feel more in control instead of letting the day run away with you.
So, in this blog post, I will be sharing with you some of the most powerful daily habits you can introduce to your morning routine to support you in making 2022 your best year!
Now, I am not saying you need to do all of these because that would take up a lot of time right! And trust me…I know…. we all want a quick and easy fix! And whilst these are not quick fixes, spending a few minutes in the morning nurturing your inner wellbeing and happiness is going to produce some fab benefits! If you remain consistent of course. 😉
And I totally get it…for some of you, it may be difficult to muster up any motivation right now depending on where you are on your journey but know that focusing on even ONE of these daily habits can bring about positive change. YOU are the BEST project you can ever work on!
Those first few moments after waking can set the tone for your entire day, so it’s important to start the day off productively if you are wanting 2022 to be a year where you feel better, achieve your goals and be the best version of you!
1. Setting intention
Setting an intention before you even get out of bed can be a wonderful way to start your day. How do you want your day to go? How would you like to support yourself during the day? How do you want your mood to be? What is important to you? Think about how you want your day to go and transfer that into a powerful intention.
Here are a couple of examples to get you going:
“I welcome the energy of peace and calm in all that I do today. I release all anxiety and stress from my being. I intend to remain present and centred knowing that I am quite capable of handling everything and anything that comes my way.”
“My intention today is to see the positive in all that comes my way. With each exhale I let go of negative thoughts and choose to feel grateful for all that I have. I intend to practice seeing the good in everything and everyone, knowing that I am in control of the direction of my thoughts and feelings.”
Spend some time crafting your intention and then read it out aloud to yourself a few times when you very first wake up. I recommend sticking with the same one for a while until you intuitively feel it is time to change to a new one. Make it your morning mantra and then allow your intention to guide your day.
2. Power statement
This is an exciting one that I have been using more recently. If you think about your goals for 2022, then wrap it all up in a power statement and read this to yourself aloud every morning as you start your day.
A power statement keeps you on track and reminds you of what is important to you about the coming year.
Below is an example to give you an idea of what this might look like. However, do find your own words and write it in a way that is personal to you, so you can connect to it on a deeper level.
I have the power to thrive, achieve and be successful in all that I do. I have the knowledge and inner wisdom to create the life of my dreams. I know and feel that my goal is to lead a life filled with happiness, love, abundance, and success. I can easily tap into all that I need to know to support myself into healing, growth, and wellness. I easily attract the right people, opportunities, resources, and knowledge I need to thrive and succeed.
Imagine saying this to yourself first thing every morning. Powerful stuff right! This will help to set an empowering tone for your day and influence your attitude as you step out into the day ahead.
3. Connect to your inner world
Take just a few minutes to either sit in silence, listen to some gentle music, focus on breathing or do a guided meditation. Again, this is important in helping you to start your day feeling grounded and centred. This only takes a few minutes, but just give yourself some space to connect with your inner world instead of starting off your day in a rush to tend to chores and tasks.
This helps to create the right mode in which to start your day. Starting your day feeling that inner connection can change the essence of your entire day.
There are plenty of resources online if you are looking for a guided mediation or you can just listen to some music of even just spend a few moments following your breath and using your breath as your anchor. Don’t worry if thoughts come in as that is natural and just return your attention to your inner world. The more you practice, the easier this gets, and I just love spending a few minutes in the morning, just feeling connected and centered.
4. Move your body
Emotions can get stuck in the body… yep, they really can! Especially when it comes to stress and tension. Stress stores in the body and causes us discomfort or pain.
Take a few minutes in the morning to just get the body moving. This could be as simple as a few minutes of morning stretching.
Exercise, yoga or stretching can decrease stress levels and increase serotonin. This does not have to be intense but just a gentle stretch to wake up the body and release and tightness or tension could provide a beneficial start to your day.
If you are not sure what to do, here are some morning stretches to get you started:
5. Take a cold shower
Now, this is something I have recently introduced to my own routine. I was not too keen at first, I have to say, but it has certainly gotten easier and there is something really refreshing about it as it really awakens the mind, body, and spirit!
Having a cold shower first thing seems to have many health benefits. Firstly, it is said to give your immune system a boost and improve circulation.
The main reason I introduced cold showers was to raise my vibration. A cold shower can help to cleanse you of those lower vibrations which we can associate with sadness, stress and depression and subsequently raise your vibration.
Now, personally I don’t do freezing water (brrr…) and it took me some time to adjust the temperature until my body knew what to expect but find what works best for you. I start off with around a minute of cold water and just focus on breathing and surrendering to the process. I then turn the temperature up and shower as normal.
6. Morning Playlist
There is nothing like some upbeat music to lift the spirits! Put together a playlist of your favourite songs, the ones you find most uplifting. Music can be a powerful source when it comes to increasing our energy. Choose songs or music that lift you up, make you happy or make you want to dance and sing!
You can be as creative as you like with your playlist and your body and mind will soon learn to associate the music with feeling good. Try it out and see for yourself!
If you tend to feel stressed or anxious in the morning, you might want to try out a more relaxing playlist.
Something that is bound to soothe the soul and help you to avoid starting the day in a more heightened state. Do what work best for you and if you are not sure, then try out some different types of music and choose what feels right.
7. Future Letter to Self
I love this practice and it is something that has been part of my regular practice over the years. Write yourself a letter from your future self. Date it 12 months into the future and then spend time crafting the letter telling yourself of all the changes you have made in 2022. Talk about how you have implemented changes and how this has benefitted you and those around you. Spend some time writing about how you reached your dreams and goals and what this has meant to you.
Be sure to cover all the different areas that are important to you such as career, relationships, health, family, finances, and personal development. This is a creative tool which can help you to identify what is important to you and how you want life to look by the end of 2022. Once you have completed the letter, place it by your bedside so you can read it every morning. This helps you to remain focused on your dreams and supports you in taking action towards what you want to achieve in 2022.
It is extremely easy isn’t it for us to have all good intentions at the start of the year, but life gets in the way, and it is soon forgotten! This tool is a fantastic way of keeping you on track and acts as a reminder of what you are striving for. Plus, you are putting it out there to The Universe everyday saying, this is what I want for myself!
8. Positive Affirmations
Affirmations are another fantastic addition to your morning habits. Again, these serve as a good reminder of what you want to cultivate in your year ahead. So let’s say you want to be more confident, then you start your day by stating this aloud to yourself by keeping it in the present tense as if it were already true. “I am confident.”
I love to put these on post it notes and place them somewhere where I will see them first thing so perhaps on the bathroom mirror.
Repeat to yourself a few times and it does not matter in the beginning if you believe it or not. Just keep repeating until you eventually start to believe it. If you can, remind yourself of your affirmation throughout your day. You might want to put a reminder on your phone. You can repeat silently or aloud depending on where you are and what you are doing.
Affirmations can be extremely empowering when you want to change a belief about yourself or want to improve your mindset.
9. Therapeutic Journaling
Now, journaling is one of my favourites and you will hear me banging on about it all the time! I have been journaling for years now and wouldn’t do without it. Therapeutic journaling is about writing down your thoughts and feelings instead of events and what you have got to do. It’s a wonderful way to find out where you are at now, where you want to go and what you need to do to get there. Below I have written some reflective questions that might help you start your day, but you are welcome to choose your own.
How do I feel today?
What action can I take today to improve on yesterday?
How would I like my day to go?
What do I need to focus on to today to achieve my wellness goals?
What do I need to watch out for? (Negative thoughts, stress, anxiety, feeling not good enough)
What could I tell myself if I feel negative/anxious/stressed/not good enough?
What is my mantra/affirmation for today?
Journaling helps me to makes sense of my thoughts, gain clarity and helps me to get things out of my head. When I am disturbed by something, it tends to swim around in my mind and journaling helps me to release those thoughts on to paper giving me more peace of mind.
10. Phone Boundaries
So, how often have you woken up and immediately looked at your phone? You are either looking at what has come in overnight or looking at your phone hoping that in some way it will validate your existence. Think about that for a moment…yep, we all do it!
How about giving yourself a period of grace before peering at that little device? Because that too, has the power to change your entire day and not always in a positive way. Whether it be just a half hour or a full hour. Give yourself some time to ease into your day and turn those notifications off until you are ready.
Getting yourself in the right headspace can make all the difference in how you manage those 20 emails that have magically appeared overnight. It might be that you feel you are constantly doing work outside of your contracted hours or that you are just scrolling social media mindlessly but whatever it is to try to give yourself some breathing space before spending time on your phone. Try it out and see how it works for you. You may be pleasantly surprised!
“Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn
Okay, so I hope that this has given you a good range of ideas in how to build some positive morning habits so you can become the best version of yourself in 2022. As I mentioned, don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to do all of these but choose which ones you feel drawn to or the habits that you feel might be most beneficial to you.
These are simply ideas that I know have been instrumental to my own journey and I wanted to share these with you in the hope that you may benefit from them too. I certainly don’t stick to them all the time and often change things up as and when needed.
Introducing a morning routine is an empowering way to ensure that you are not remaining stuck in your current reality. If you do something different then life has no option but to present you with something different. I absolutely love working on myself and improving myself because there are ALWAYS rewards on the other side which lead to a new and improved version of YOU… so you can find freedom, happiness, and peace within. So, enjoy and learn to love your mornings!
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