Morning Rituals to Boost Your Daily Happiness
Do you wake up feeling energetic and excited about the day ahead, or with your finger glued to the snooze button? For many, it’s the latter, but maximizing your mornings can make a huge difference on your health and happiness.
An intentional morning routine has the power to supercharge your work, deepen your relationships, boost your productivity, skyrocket your creativity, lower your stress levels, and set you up for a successful day.
Science-Backed Benefits of a Morning Routine
According to the latest research on habits and productivity, a morning routine may help to:
- Foster career success and better job performance
- Lower stress levels
- Establish stability and groundedness
- Enhance feelings of calm
- Promote healthy habits
- Support positive mood
- Boost cognitive functioning and mental performance
- Increase productivity
- Encourage direction and focus
- Maximize energy levels
- Instill discipline
Conversely, many people who don’t follow any sort of morning routine tend to suffer from:
- Frazzled thoughts
- Higher levels of stress
- Poor sleep
- Feelings of overwhelm
- Ineffective use of time
- Restlessness
- Procrastination
Set Your Day Up for Success with a Morning Routine
You don’t have to be a morning person to benefit from a morning routine; you just have to be thoughtful about how you spend your time when you wake up. You also don’t need a laundry list of things to accomplish every morning. Even setting aside five mindful minutes can propel you to daily success. The key to an effective morning routine is that it works for you and your unique needs. It has to excite you, motivate you, and fit seamlessly into your life.
Looking for some inspiration? Below, we’ve compiled 6 simple morning rituals to help you craft the perfect morning routine. Experiment with these activities to establish a morning routine that works for you.
6 Morning Rituals to Boost Daily Happiness
1. Make Your Bed
Making your bed is a simple task that often gets overlooked – especially if you’re living on your own. However, research shows that people who make their beds in the mornings are happier and more productive. As Naval Admiral William McRaven describes in his commencement speech at the University of Texas, Austin:
If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.
A good morning starts the night before with a good night’s sleep. Experts recommend 7 – 8 hours of restful sleep each night for optimal health. Anything less has been shown to have adverse effects on your mental and physical well-being.
3. Morning Pages
Morning pages are a stream-of-consciousness journaling practice done first thing every morning. The idea is to wake up, open your journal, and write three pages of whatever comes to mind. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, developed this free-write approach to journaling as a way for people to clear their head, process emotion, silence their inner critic, and unleash their creativity before tackling their to-do list.
4. Practice Gratitude
Research suggests that focusing on gratitude helps to calm the deep limbic areas and enhance the other judgment centers of your brain. People who express gratitude on a regular basis are healthier, more optimistic, make better progress toward their goals, have a greater sense of well-being, and are more helpful to others. Practicing gratitude first thing improves your mood and promotes feelings of content throughout your day.
5. Move Your Body
Waking up with movement sets you up for success. Growing evidence suggests that exercise may be responsible for enhanced thinking and mental performance, healthy weight management, improved mood and quality of life, and lower levels of unhealthy LDL cholesterol. This doesn’t have to be a full 60-minute workout, instead, opt for yoga, a brisk walk, or even a few simple stretches.
6. Skip the Coffee
Instead of starting your day with a cup of coffee or sugar-laden, nutrient-void breakfast on the run, add BrainMD’s new Smart Mushrooms to your morning mix. This functional, full-spectrum superfood blend features six USA grown organic mushrooms – turkey tail, cordyceps, reishi, shiitake, agaricus, and lion’s mane – scientifically formulated to promote energy, vitality, stress resistance, mental performance, and immune support.
Leading all other mushrooms in brain benefits, the lion’s mane mushroom contains unique hericenones and erinacines, which can increase nerve growth factor (NGF) in the brain. NGF supports acetylcholine circuits, which are required for focus, memory, and other cognitive functions.
Lion’s mane has shown promise in several clinical trials for improving cognition and mood. Its glucans also help boost immunity and support healthy bacterial balance in the gut. Try adding one scoop of Smart Mushrooms to your favorite smoothie recipe for the perfect blend of daily wellness, peak brain performance, and clean, focused energy.
How you spend your morning sets the tone for your entire day, and how you spend your days sets the tone for your entire life. What does your morning look like?
At BrainMD, we’re dedicated to providing the highest purity nutrients to support your brain health and overall well-being. For more information about our full list of supplements, please visit us at BrainMD.
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