Morning Routines and Rituals

I’m in love with mornings.

I love waking up to a quiet world, where meditating outside feels like your in a chorus of birdsong, when reading with a cup of tea feels simultaneously energising and restorative and finally making that cup of coffee after moving my body, feels like a reunion.

My mornings weren’t always like this. There was a time in my life (even though it feels like a distant memory) when mornings felt… stressful. The alarm going off felt like a rude awakening, my mood seemed cloudy and it felt like I was always rushing, somehow behind even though the day had just started. It took me awhile to warm up to the day… to people and their conversations.

Now, years later, mornings are my most sacred time of day.

When you’re asleep your brain is processing your day, filtering and sorting, taking inventory or clearing what it can. As part of this systematic process, your brain separates the emotions from the day to what happened. When we wake up, there is an element of having spent the night in remembrance to the past day and it’s emotions. After all of this brain activity, mornings are for resetting. It’s for engaging with the fresh energy of the morning to connect in - into the new day and into ourselves.

We can use our mornings to connect to all parts of you, not just the body, but the emotional, mental and spiritual bodies as well. For me, ‘connecting in’ means connecting to my True Self, cultivating an early sense of calm, truth and grounding. My morning routine makes me feel like I have lived before my work day starts, it makes me feel like I am connected in before I connect with others and it makes me feel energised so that I have a full cup to carry me through the day. I told you, I was in love with mornings!

Morning routines can alter and shift the mood I wake up with and other days, part of my morning practise is softening into the slower energy. That’s the beauty of creating a morning routine that serves you, it can serve you whereever you find yourself. No matter what mood, what happened the day before, whats ahead… morning routines as a medium of self-service.

As you can tell, I can talk about the feeling of mornings all day. So, let’s go straight into creating your own. Morning rituals are what we do with our time and a morning routine is how we make the time.

How to create your own morning routine

Below are some suggestions on how you can create your morning routine:

— Set your alarm to wake up earlier. You can ease into a new routine e.g. by waking up 15 minutes earlier and gradually increasing.
— Select morning rituals that light you up (see below) and create a morning collection that suits you - this is your time to fill your own cup.
— Prioritise your rituals over snoozing for another 20 minutes, you’ll thank yourself for it (eventually)
— Set timers for each ritual so you can fit them into the time you have available e.g. meditating for 10 minutes and reading for 5 minutes
— If part of your morning routine is going out to an exercise class, walk with a friend/partner or anything of the like, create some time beforehand to connect in with yourself (even if it’s going outside in the crisp air and breathing it in for 5 rounds)

And then, once this is all done, enjoy your day with the new found energy you’ve created!

Morning rituals

Whatever time we can carve out for our morning rituals, whether it be 5 minutes or 2 hours, do what you can with the time you have - even if it's one thing for yourself. Below are some rituals that can connect you in with yourself:

— Meditation, this can be for however long, in whatever form of meditation whether it be guided, ambient music, mantra, chanting or in silence
—Journalling, otherwise known as free writing, where you start writing and let it flow for a few pages (or more)
— Listening to a podcast
— Indulging in your favourite cup of tea or coffee
— Giving yourself twice as long for breakfast, so you can leisurely make your meal and sit down to take it in
— Reading, a few pages, a chapter, read anything of interest that adds to your day
— Going outside and breathing in the crisp air (there is something about it)
— Movement, in anyway that your body l-o-v-e-s
— Creative time, writing, drawing, any form of creation for you
— Morning play time with your children before you go to work
— Self massage, connecting with your body through touch (Ayurvedic ritual)

What my morning routine looks like:

1. After waking around 5:30am (I start back at 5am next week) I’ll go outside for meditation. My meditation is made up of 1 minute of intention or prayer, 5 minutes of breath-work and 20 minutes of mantra meditation (Sat Nam repeated silently)

2. Following meditation, I’ll read the days Stoicism mediation from “Daily Stoic, Stoic Wisdom For Everyday Life” by Ryan Holiday

3. I’ll have a cup of herbal tea and read a Spiritual text for around 15 to 20 minutes, I’ve just finished “Be Here Now” by Ram Dass

4. At this stage, I’ll go to a class at Sala (Resistance weights class, Yoga or HIT pilates). Or on my rest days I’ll go straight to…

5. COFFEE. My coffee in the morning brings me a lot of joy…. it’s the simple things in life right? Enjoying my coffee goes hand in hand with journalling, where I free write for 20 to 30 minutes about anything that comes to paper, as well as checking in with Tarot pulls.

6. Once I’ve finished, I’ll turn on my phone from airplane mode and respond to any messages or check e-mails.

7. Now I’m ready to get ready.

Author: Jess Crowhurst from J And The Light

Jess is a well-being and spirituality coach, diving into connection to self, aligned living and soul communication

Website: https://www.jandthelight.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j_andthelight/