Mastering mornings does more than boast some serious benefits; it can be life-changing. Here’s how to live your best life in the morning without sacrificing your best life at night.
By Leslie K. Hughes
I feel bad for mornings. Even if you have no problem waking up when your clock is still in the triple-digit hours, chances are good you are up this early against your will.
Sure, there are those outliers who thrive from rising when the rooster crows, but for the most part, mornings are not well-loved. Nights get all the glam and glory; they are where the fun happens, where the excitement awaits, and where adventures come to play.
And mornings bring the hangovers, the responsibilities, and the realization that you didn’t get even close to enough sleep to function like a normal human for the day.
It’s no wonder people aren’t living their best lives in the morning.
But what if we told you you could live your best life in the morning? Even better yet, that you could do this while still living your best life at night? Visceral’s approach to thriving in the morning doesn’t mean you have to give up your fun nights. Rather than the two being mutually exclusive, they can coexist.
Just a few tweaks here and there, a little bippity boppity boo, and you’re on your way to being your best you, courtesy of your current arch nemesis: mornings.
Mastering mornings does more than boost some serious benefits; it can be life-changing. Here’s how to do it.
1. Mornings set the tone for your day
If you’re used to starting your day with:
- an alarm screaming in your face, followed by
- you fumbling to hit “snooze” with your eyes still closed, and
- falling back into dreamland, only to
- wake up in a panic when you realize you have 5 minutes to prep for your first Zoom meeting, there’s no denying that is far from your first choice of how to welcome the day.
This all-too familiar morning is a killer for your cortisol levels that launches your body into a fight-or-flight mode that could take hours to recover from, if you’re able to recover at all.
In short, a rushed and stressful morning means a rushed and stressful (read: hellish) day.
HOW TO CHANGE IT: SWAP THIS FOR THAT
Instead of dealing with this panicky feeling, change your bad habits and make waking up a more peaceful and slow experience.
Doing so starts with changing your alarm. Rather than hearing that dreaded beeping sound from your phone that is enough to make even the biggest morning person crazy, use an app such as Sleep Cycle that brings you back to life in a more gentle and pleasant way. A small change like this will go a long way. If you wake up at your own pace instead of in a panic, your chances of finding that inner zen and approaching the rest of your day in a more thoughtful and intentional way are much higher.
2. Mornings provide the opportunity to get motivated
While we can’t promise becoming a morning person means you’ll jump out of bed with an ear-to-ear grin on your face, we do know that, more often than not, you’ll wake up with less of a desire to hate the day before it’s really even had a chance to start.
Those who wake up groaning and wanting nothing more than to stay in bed are *newsflash* not going to feel especially motivated to greet the day and make the most out of it. That lack of positivity will make working out, tackling emails, running errands, or checking that annoying, lingering item off your to-do list a near impossibility.
HOW TO CHANGE IT: SWAP THIS FOR THAT
Rather than starting your morning off with a frown and instead closer to something that resembles a smile (thanks to revamping the fashion in which you awake from your beauty sleep), you’ll find your motivation levels skyrocketing.
Think about this: if you rise and start your day with a workout, you come out feeling those endorphins and ready to attack tasks that have been a dark cloud over your head for who knows how long.
Make a choice to wake up with the intention of getting the most out of this day. Even if you aren’t feeling it, trick your brain — fake-it-till-you-make-it-style. In no time, you’ll find seeking this motivation becomes a habit.
3. Mornings are the best time to get shit done
Aren’t those days when it seems like your phone won’t stop ringing and the emails won’t stop filling your inbox annoying as hell?
That’s because it makes getting shit done impossible. Interruption after interruption kills your train of thought and your workflow, and you find yourself simply trying to stay on top of the emails and unable to get any actual work done.
HOW TO CHANGE IT: SWAP THIS FOR THAT
Why not opt instead to make your mornings a time for serious focus, where you can get some work done that requires your undivided attention? Take advantage of the time when people are still waking up and haven’t begun hitting “send” on their emails to hit send on your emails, or do some other tasks.
And before you start worrying, no — it doesn’t require waking up at 5 a.m. to get shit done. By waking up just 30-45 minutes before you absolutely need to be up, you get a great jump-start on your day and will find later inevitable interruptions far less annoying.
4. Mornings may be the only time you have to yourself
Whether you’re single and living solo, or hitched up with kids in tow, alone time is a precious gem that you need to harness and cherish.
Throughout the day, you likely find that “alone time” gets further and further out of reach as people start texting you, as work starts piling up, etc.
And when you don’t get that alone time, you are seriously putting your sanity on the line.
HOW TO CHANGE IT: SWAP THIS FOR THAT
Self-care is absolutely integral to your mental health, and that self-care can look as simple as spending 20 minutes making yourself a nice breakfast. Or spending 20 minutes doing sit-ups. Or spending 20 minutes with some self-love in the bedroom.
Whatever will make you feel better after doing it alone, morning is the best time to do it. Why? Because you have less of a chance of being interrupted, and fewer temptations to cut your solo time short for a quick Facetime or morning coffee with a friend.
photos by @mariussperlich | @kamasutra | @dinabroadhurst | @sarashakeel
