How Does Your Morning Ritual Affect Your Mind Set for the Day?

February 20, 2017 by Ed Becker

Are you usually feeling like you can never catch up? Or, that your day is always rushed and bad things constantly happen throughout your day, like you just have bad luck?

It could all stem from your start to the day.

If you start your day hitting your snooze button, once…twice, maybe even three times, your day has already begun as if you are running late. Those who use their snooze button are programming their brain to believe waking up is negative and that your day is not worthwhile. Studies have shown that these people tend to be less productive and are more prone to being negative, tired, and moody.

Do you get out of bed at the very last minute and rush around to make your first appointment, or to be on time to work? Again, this is training or programming your brain to believe that life doesn’t have enough time, that you are always rushing and cannot slow down. You never get everything done and are always stressed about having enough time.

Retrain-Reprogram your brain and your day!

I know very few of us want to get up earlier than necessary in the morning. But did you know that is a mindset that you have trained your brain to believe, “I am not a morning person” is a mindset, it can be altered and/or changed to be more positive. No, it won’t happen overnight, or in a couple of days. You spent much of life setting these mindsets into place, it takes a bit of time to change them. It is possible to do just that in a few short weeks. The optimal time to create a new habit is said to be 21 days. Most people believe that to change a bad habit into a good habit takes about 30 days. Either way, it is not a huge amount of time to change your brain!

Morning Rituals

It is not a wise idea to suddenly decide that you are going to begin this 90-minute morning ritual tomorrow and believe that it will last. It is a much more productive plan to start smal,l and work your way into a morning ritual that fits you and works for your lifestyle and personality.

If you are not a morning person, or you are a snooze button person, don’t try to get up 2 hours earlier than normal. Try 5 or 15 minutes earlier for a few days or a week, then add increments until you reach your goal time.

Stacking means you add new things every few days or each week, until you find a ritual that is perfect for you. For example, tomorrow you plan to wake up 15 minutes early, without hitting the snooze button, you say or think a gratitude statement before you get out of bed. You brush your teeth while thinking positive thoughts, or more gratitude statements. Drink a full glass of water/lemon water to rehydrate your body. Do a 5-minute stretch. Journal for 5 minutes. Plan your 3 top goals for the day.

You have woken up early, set your mindset to positive, rehydrated your body, stretched your muscles, got your thoughts out of your head onto paper, and set your priorities for the day. Next week, you add another 15 minutes; you can either increase the time spent on what you were doing, or you can add new ritual items, like meditation for 5-10 minutes, writing a gratitude note to someone, etc. You keep adding increments weekly or until you reach your goal time; if your goal was 1 hour in the morning, by the 4th week you have created the habit and hit your goal time.

This one practice totally changes the way your day and life work. You reduce stress, become more positive, learn to change your mindset even throughout your day when you have a negative thought, and you will feel better! Try it for 30 days and see what happens.