5 Tips For Starting Your Morning Off Right

Good morning!

How many times has someone said that to you and all you can think is “what’s so good about it?”

It may sound cliché and corny but, how you start your day can really make an impact on how you end your day.

The first thing you need to start your day off right is a good night’s sleep!  It’s hard to wake up in the morning if you haven’t slept well the night before.  This may be a problem once in a while for you but, if it is a chronic problem, you may want to speak to your health care provider about sleep hygiene and other potential sleep problems.

The next thing is as simple as getting out of bed and not hitting the snooze button repeatedly.  Keep a set bed time and a set waking time.  Hitting the snooze button isn’t really providing you any additional sleep benefit.  In fact, you’re likely to get more benefit from getting up and doing something productive.

Take a minute to “check in” with your body.  How are you feeling?  Does anything hurt?  Are you feeling anxious for some reason?  A lot of us tend to go through the day without ever doing this.  Self reflection is hard and scary and we tend to do all we can to avoid it.  Even a few minutes in the morning to make this a priority can provide benefit throughout the day as it helps prepare you for managing what’s ahead.

Be thankful.  You might not feel like you have a lot to be thankful for.  Find one or two things that you might not have thought of before.  For example, when I go out in the morning for a walk or a run, I am thankful for my eyesight to see the beauty of the sunrise and for the ability to move.

Brush your teeth… and use those pearly whites to smile at the first person you see.  On average, children smile over 400 times a day, women smile more than men at over 60 times a day and most men only smile about 8 times a day.  Smiling not only makes someone else feel better, it actually changes how your brain works to help reduce stress.