Saturday 12th October
When we think about the morning, we typically think of two types of people. There are people who jump right out of bed raring to go bright and early, and there are those who continuously snooze their alarm until finally they drag themselves out of bed. And the truth is, most of us are the habit of being second type.
According to recent research, we are spending 173 days of our life hitting the snooze button! The study reveals we spend 14 minutes a day snoozing which equates to one hour and 38 minutes each week, or 84 hours and 56 minutes snoozing per year.
It’s not surprising that as more of us confess to snoozing the morning alarm, more of us are complaining of fatigue and low energy throughout the day. The thing about mornings, is that if you start your day right, not only can it help your sleep pattern and sleep quality, but also energy through the day.
So the question follows: how do I give myself the best start in the morning?
The way you wake up in the morning can really set the tone for the entire day. The first thing that most of us wake up to, is the sound of an alarm. As much as this can feel so tempting to get a few more minutes sleep in, the 9 minutes until the alarm goes off again is not long enough for you to fall into a deep sleep again. While these 9 minutes may feel good in the moment, they usually end up making you more groggy.
Instead, force yourself to sit up, swing your legs around and plant your feet on the floor. These things can help you feel more alert and ready for the day.
The right morning ritual can really help start your day. It provides you with good momentum and direction for your morning. Once you’ve got out of been as soon as your alarm goes off, you need to own the morning!
In our sedentary world, movement needs to become a priority in our morning.
Our psychology is heavily influenced by our physiology. In other words, your brain is affected by what your body does. Help your brain out and get a good start to the morning, and get moving. Even for 5 minutes! We would highly recommend starting your morning with some stretches and mobility work for your body.
We are all aware of the benefits of water, but we all seem to forget this when we head straight for coffee or tea in the morning.
Water is the gold standard fluid for our body. As humans, our bodies are 50-60% water, so maintaining a good intake is vital. At night, you spend several hours without taking a sip of water – a lot longer than you normally would of throughout the day. So when you get up, drinking a glass of water hydrates your whole body and can really aid your digestion and metabolism.
Your mindset has to been worked on too, if you’re going to start your day right. How your mental attitude is set up in the morning, affects how your day pans out. If you wake up stressed and agitated, your responses to the day’s events are likely to be short, snappy and reactive.
Our mindset not only has a huge impact on how we deal with life’s challenges, but also on our ability to show greater resilience!
The way we work this into our morning, is to use the app Calm – they have a “Daily Calm” audio which is usually no longer than 10 minutes. In a world where we seem to be chasing our tail around our to do list, prioritising your mindset in the morning can be more powerful than you’d imagine.
