Create your Morning Routine
Each human develops a circadian rhythm based on their sleep routine. Aligning our lifestyle and habits with the circadian rhythm of nature is shown to have beneficial impact on many different areas of our life, including weight management, sleep improvement, hormone regulation, and more.
One of the best ways improve your circadian rhythm is to align it with the natural day/night cycle. A good goal is to get to sleep by 10pm and rise by 6am. Your body naturally moves through restoration and rejuvenation during sleep. It does these things best between the hours of 9pm-4am. By getting more sleep in between these hours, you will be maximizing the regenerative potential inherent in your body.
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Based on the work by Hal Elrod, author of Miracle Morning, there are 6 practices that can be seen throughout time as important parts of a morning ritual for your mind. During this experience, select at least one or two from this list and incorporate it into a morning routine.​​​
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​​Meditation. Gift your mind with freedom from processing. Just like children need unstructured play, our minds need space to just be in silence. It wasn’t too long ago that we each experienced this on a daily basis. As little as 10 minutes a day has been shown to decrease stress and anxiety and increase creativity and clarity. A 10 minute daily audio meditation is included with this program. This is a wonderful way to begin your day.
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Affirmations. The thoughts and stories that regularly move through the mind have great power in forming the realities that play out in life. You have more power than you think over what happens by simply being selective about what you choose to think. Write down a handful of affirming statements about things you want for yourself in life. Be specific! Write them as though they have already happened. Repeat each of them (out loud is ideal!) 3-5 times each day.
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​ Example: I want to be more creative.
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Example restated: I am creative and use this creative energy to write poetry that is
inspiring to many.
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Visualizations. This is a “brain-training” technique in which the brain practices seeing and processing what you want. Most of us regularly mentally scroll through the negative situations and relationships in life. We play out what possibly could happen and prepare for the worst. Instead, flip that to visualize exactly what you want from life.
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Spend 5 minutes envisioning your ideal life, all of the details playing out with ease and
joy.
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Exercise. It is important to get your blood moving in the morning. This can be anything from a long run to a few simple yoga poses. The goal really is to simply get the blood flowing and wake up your brain! Find a way to move for 10 minutes. A short yoga routine or some jumping jacks and push-ups. Move in a way that makes you happy!
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Reading. Always have a book going that inspires you to become a better version of yourself. For some this might be the latest spiritual book, for others it could be a book of poetry. Read 10 pages of something each day that brings you inspiration and opens your mind to something more.
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Writing. Whether you free flow with your thoughts for a few pages in the morning or make a gratitude list, the idea is to move thoughts from head to paper. Flow the internal to the external in a way that allows for a greater amount of circulation. Just like the breath, energy is not meant to be stagnant. By performing this mental circulation, you make space for the new. Spend 5 minutes each day writing. Again, go with what feels right to write! Just move that pen across the paper!
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