5 Easy Steps to Transform Your Day with a Healthy Morning Routine

Whether you realize it or not, you have a morning routine. The question is whether it is setting you up for incredible success or just a tedious chore to start the day. Are you ready to have an important conversation soon after waking up or does it take until afternoon to get things going? Do you feel like you are going to dominate the day or are you just happy to make it through? Remember, everyone dies, it’s a choice to live…

Fact: Every day is the most important one of your life and ABSOLUTELY could be your last!

That being said, we have to embrace the idea of our limited time here and “carpe the crap out of the day!”

It is an extreme privilege to have a functional body and mind that can even read this article. Entirely too often we can forget how much we truly have. Water, food, shelter, relationships, opportunities; being born into this, is a complete miracle and we best not take it for granted! So pick your chin up and let’s leverage that attitude it into our day dominating morning ritual.

1) Move with purpose!

Move like a bad ass, puff your chest up, be a lion stalking prey (the prey being the day, breakfast, your partner, whatever you’re into…). Find your feet strongly planted into the ground and an integrated stable stack from your head to feet. As I’ve mentioned in past posts, your biology at every level is listening to the information you provide it with your posture. If you stand in a hunched over “defeated or defensive” position our bodies have integrated this pattern to be stressed. Hence, cortisol (stress hormone) levels increase and testosterone levels decrease just from the way you stand! The opposite effect takes place by standing up tall, strong and proud. Don’t forget this, it will literally change your whole life…

2) Drink a glasses of water

You jump in the shower to clean/wake your body up after sleeping (if you don’t already, start and always finish with cold water), do the same internally. Give yourself an internal shower first thing out of bed with a big glass of spring water. Trust me on this, your internal body is hard at work all night and can use an internal cleansing. I suggest adding a pinch of pink Himalayan salt for electrolytes, vital minerals and to assist in assimilation in your body. Ditch tap water and if that is not an option get an effective filter. Remember, your water will soon be your blood. Do you want chlorine and random sterilizing chemicals floating around your blood? Me either…

3) Crank the music up (headphones are an option too) and dance!

Wake your body up on every level with sound, movement and the tactile interaction of contacting various surfaces in dynamic ways with your funky moves. This includes exercise of your choice. Go for a “freestyle” jog where you explore random running speeds, directions, styles, hop, skip, jump, climb, play during your jog. I promise this will change your outlook on everything faster than any supplement you will find. The key is letting loose; be proud to be ridiculous and know you are making the world a better place by expressing yourself more completely with movement. Our computer lifestyles are robbing us of this necessary piece of humanity and you are better than that!

4) Meditation…

Oooohhhhhhhmmmmmmmm, you may be skeptical about this and I promise it is completely worth it and likely not what you expect. First of all, meditation has been misunderstood in our culture. You do not need to be levitating atop a lotus lily to calm and focus your mind. You can do a moving meditation, where you simply move with intention and awareness of breath and overall experience of self. I suggest sitting in a comfortable position with strong neutral spine and to start, this will only take 6 minutes.

First, for 2 minutes, focus your mind on all you are grateful for in your life.

Second, for 2 minutes, focus your mind on generating power and strength in your whole system

Third, for 2 minutes, focus your mind on what you are creating in your life. Visualize what you want to happen as though it already has. Feel it, smell it, taste it, touch it and completely be it. This will prepare your neurology for this experience so that when the opportunity arises, you are prepared to capitalize. Everyone is lucky, it is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity…

5) Ditch the sugar first thing in the morning

Somehow our breakfast has turned into dessert over the years with the advent of sweet cereal, pancakes and syrup, glazed pastries, etc. How did this ever become a good idea? This sugar inundated food will lead to a drop in energy and likely a crash which will need to be rescued by more coffee in a couple hours. Then begins the cycle of ups and downs regulated by various stimulants and eventually an alcoholic beverage to come down at the end of the day. First of all, think of your digestive system like a fire. You want to stoke the fire with movement, water, tea and a little bit of time before throwing a log (breakfast) onto it. Give yourself at least 30 minutes or so before eating breakfast and of course play with all this. Each body is different and it is best to get know your own. Give protein and fat a try in the morning and see if this helps with consistency of energy. I would suggest nuts, seeds, eggs, raw butter/milk ideally from a happy, healthy goat on a trusted farm. You will almost never eat too much kale, spinach or dark leafy greens, so have at it. Throw some coconut oil, raw butter or a store bought MCT oil into your tea or coffee and notice an apparent mental/physical clarity with your morning beverage.

Remember to not get distracted by emails and social media first thing in the morning. Make your time sacred and all about personal development without the distraction of the outside world.

Then, and only then can you check your email…