Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.

yoko ono

For a long time in my life I had a rather boring morning ritual.

Here it is:

1. Snooze alarm at least 3 to 4 times
2. Wake up with pain in my body and joints
3. Open my mobile and see my FB, IG, Twitter newsfeed
4. Lazily go to the washroom
5. Ponder on life choices with toothpaste on the toothbrush for 10 minutes
6. Rush to the dining table to see what was there for breakfast
7. Regret it was the same breakfast like the last week’s
8. Eat it anyway
9. Read newspaper

It literally sucked to say the least. And throughout the day I would lack energy.

I did not know that my morning ritual was responsible for the entire day. I did not know the root cause of the misery I was going through in my life. That anxiousness, stress….it had to show somewhere!

But as at the time of this writing, my old self has left me completely and I have transformed my morning rituals.

Thanks to the network of people who are energetic, thanks to the books I have read, thanks to the YouTube channels I watched.

In this post, I will explain how I keep my morning rituals strong which helped me maintain high dopamine throughout the day:

My Morning Rituals:

#1. Wake Up and Smile

Most of us are grumpy during the initial minutes of our waking times. Our bodies lack enthusiasm. We lack the feel-good Endorphins early in the morning. Smiling is the easiest way to create feel-good endorphins in your brain. These endorphins remain in your body for at least 3 hours thereafter.

My main motive is to make my brain feel good in the morning and add a touch of positivity to the start of the day. Smiling is good to raise the level of enthusiasm. Even if you are not naturally able to smile, do fake smile.

Here is how I do it:

• stand in front of the mirror
• smile as wide as possible so your face looks funny

That’s it and hold for 2 minutes. You will see a sea change in your start to the day.

#2. Have Glass of Warm Water

This has literally changed my mood. The toxins in your body are processed overnight including various gut functions. I had difficulties relieving myself in the morning. Having a warm cup of water (on a higher temperature) has changed all this. For a long time my mom used to tell me to do this. I ignored her anyway.

I have started this practice only recently and I have seen visible changes and improvements in my morning mood.

Drinking warm cup of water has following benefits:

• Helps relieve constipation
• Reduces stress level
• Helps in digestion
• Improves circulation of blood
• Reduces toxins

#3. Soak the Sun

Once I have done with my warm cup of water, I take a 5-minute break to view outside my home onto nature. I go to the balcony and try to soak the sun for at least 5 minutes to intake Vitamin D. It’s free and effortless.

#4. Exercise, Stretching and Yoga

For the next 15 to 20 minutes I involve deeply in my exercise. My exercise routine is quite simple yet effective.

I do:

• 2 sets of Jumping Jacks – 50 each
• 2 sets of Push-ups – 25 each
• 2 sets Plank – 1 minute each (increasing gradually 1:30 minutes)
• Yoga:
  • 2 sets Surrender Pose of Yoga – 1 minute each
  • 2 sets Upward-facing Dog Yoga – 1 minute each

I am gradually increasing the number and time involved in each of the exercises.

Doing this completely relaxes my body and mind. I feel refreshed and active after I have done these stretches and exercises.

#5. Morning Meditation

If there is one thing that has brought visible clarity to my life is the meditation practice that I do. I have always known that meditation helped us. But I always had a reason not to do meditation.

After learning and reading great achievers I delved into meditation practice. I use various apps like Headspace, Insight Time and YouTube for my meditation practice. Mindfulness is very important. Due to the stacking of stress over a period of time, our minds get numb with no feelings. We pile up a lot of anxiety over and over that it becomes mentally impossible to live a normal life.

Meditation is a way to give up all this. Doing meditation helps me in:

• Better Focus
• Better Concentration
• Improves my self awareness
• Improves my self esteem
• Reduces stress
• Reduce my anxiety level
• Helps me control negative emotions
• Fills me with gratitude

#6. Journaling

If I have written more than 100 posts this year, it is because of my journaling practice. Right after I do my meditation practice in the morning, I jump into to read my daily affirmations. Immediately after that I start writing my journal. I specifically write 3 main categories in my morning journaling practice:

1. My Goals
2. My Affirmations
3. My Intentions

Journaling helps me:

• Get clarity of thought
• Keep in touch with my goals (big and small goals)
• Reminds me of my daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, 3 year goals, 5 year goals, 10 years and beyond goals
• Keeps me happy
• Lets me know my status of my life and how far do I have to reach
• Boosts my memory
• Increases my creativity
• Keeps record of my history and main events
• Keeps me grounded to the reality

I have a stack of my journals from the past 2 years and I am happy seeing them and reading from them at regular intervals.

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Conclusion

All these activities take up to one hour every day. And I feel great after this. This morning ritual sets up my entire day.

Don’t think I have been very successful at this. Some days I am quite lazy and just give up this morning ritual. Don’t be hard on yourself. I try to do this at least 6 days a week. But there are days when I have done it lesser days of the week because I was lazy. But those days are rare.

To get the full benefit of a great morning ritual is to be consistent at this. If you do this once a week you will not find success. Be consistent and do this on a regular basis to get maximum benefits.

Keep it simple. Make it work.

Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

buddha

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