Morning routines are all the rage in the world of health and personal development. From starting your day with a Power Yoga sequence or a journal meditation, there are many opinions on how to have a killer morning routine.
Unfortunately not everyone has the time for a 45 minute yoga practice or to write in their journal. In fact, if you’re like most people then your mornings are likely crazed between kids, getting ready for work and trying to beat rush hour traffic.
But the truth still remains that how we spend our mornings determines how the rest of the day will go. So how do we supercharge our morning routine when we just don’t have time?
Meditate for only two minutes.
When many people hear about meditation they assume you need to be in lotus position chanting “om” for a long period of time. Fortunately, meditation doesn’t require yoga positions and it turns out you don’t really need that much time in order for meditation to start taking effect.
Even if you meditate for just two minutes it’s enough for your sympathetic nervous system – which regulates our fight or flight response – to calm down. Not to mention, it’s more beneficial to meditate for just a few minutes daily than it is to meditate for longer amounts of time occasionally.
Drink lemon water.
Before you reach for that coffee – which can be a shock to the system first thing in the morning – consider having some lemon water. Drinking lemon water first thing in the morning jumpstarts your metabolism, cleanses your palate and gives you energy.
Avoid screens for at least ten minutes.
Okay, so many of us use our phones as alarms and that’s fine. The problem is when we move from turning off the alarm to checking our email, then Facebook and then our Twitter feed.
This only sets us up to be enslaved to technology for the rest of the day. You know, like when your phone has a notification and you must stop everything you’re doing to check it or it will drive you nuts.
Being enslaved to technology is a bad habit to take on because we lose our focus. Additionally constantly being connected has been linked to more stress and anxiety, especially if you’re jumping out of bed to immediately start answering work emails.
Use some time in the morning to avoid screen time and decrease the amount of information overload your brain has become so accustomed to.
Move your body for seven minutes.
While not everyone can do an hour long workout before heading to their jobs, you can still move your body for just a few minutes.
In fact, you may only need seven minutes of interval training in order to get some major health benefits. It’s less time consuming and some research suggests it may even be more effective than traditional hour long workouts.
The concept has become so popular that everyone from fitness trainers to The New York Times have released phone apps to encourage people to do a seven minute workout. The workout consists of standard exercises, like the ones below, for 30 seconds each. Between each exercise, rest for 10 seconds.
- Jumping Jacks
- Wall sits
- Push-ups
- Crunches
- Planks
- Side planks
- Push-ups
- Lunges
- Squats
- Running in-place
If you have a chair around you, you can add a step-up routine and tricep dips.
By squeezing in some of these quick and easy fixes you’ll be able to supercharge your morning routine and take on the rest of your day with more energy and ease.
Source: Amanda Abella, care2.com
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