meditation |

Today I am going to share with you why having a morning routine and daily structure is so important. Especially now in our current state.

I have seen tons of posts and talked with my clients about how difficult it is to maintain a routine when we have to stay at home.

First, I want to talk about the fact that it is not that you can’t maintain a routine, it’s that you need to adapt your normal routine to your new normal.

It’s a different perspective for sure. It’s different. And it’s doable.

I will talk about all that in a minute because first, I want to start with the morning routine.

I want you to think about how you handle your mornings. After all, how you handle them will dictate how you handle your entire day.

If you are continuously snoozing your alarm and then jump out of bed, rush around getting ready, and then run out the door, how can you expect your day not to be just like that?

Sure, we have responsibilities. We have kids and husbands and pets that all need tending to and cared for.

But it IS possible to tend and care for yourself also!

The trick is (shocker) to change your mindset first. Instead of thinking “I don’t have time in the morning for me” you need to think “I have all the time I need for me” and then MAKE the time.

If you are “looking” for time, it will never happen.

Let’s take a look at my morning routine.

I wake up at 5am-every day. Except occasionally I will allow myself to sleep in an extra hour on the weekends if I was up later the night before or not feeling well.

This is easy for me because I am a morning person. My body naturally wakes early.

But for those that have trouble waking early, start with 15-minute increments and increase from there.

I read for a minimum of 10 minutes every day. The topics of reading are all personal development, educational, self-help, or inspirational in nature.

I journal my gratitudes-every day. I actually write them out. Then I go back through and read each one slowly and actually FEEL grateful while reading them and say thank you.

I write out my 10 dreams every day. This is a practice I got from the amazing Rachel Hollis and I can do a whole session on this later, but it works just like the gratitudes. As I write them, I say and read them slowly, and say thank you as if they have already happened.

I meditate for 10 minutes every day. I meditate on my business. I meditate on my affirmations. I meditate on the life that I am creating. Whatever it is. I take this quiet time for me.

So, as you can see, I am at about 30 minutes total. Notice what DID NOT HAPPEN…

I did not once say I checked my email, social media, the news, or picked up any electronic device of any kind.

When you are first waking up, your subconscious is still fully engaged so you definitely do not want to infiltrate it with all of the negative or stimulating things that can send you spinning first thing.

Now, I am awake and feeling refreshed and so I get out of bed and get ready for my workout.

My workouts last anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on how I feel and what I am doing. I work out at home so if you have to drive somewhere, be sure to plan your time accordingly.

Now, my workouts aren’t always hard and intense. The goal is to move the body for 30 minutes at an elevated heart rate. That’s it. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Some days, I do what I call a “get ready for work workout” where I start my activity on my Fitbit and start marching in place and then pick up the stepping while I am tending to the dog, packing, my lunch, making my bed, getting my clothes ready.

I incorporate jumping jacks, running in place, high knees, etc. every few minutes to get a little spike in the heart rate.

I do squats and lunges while I am brushing my teeth.

I then do some push-ups and crunches, a little stretching, and then hit the shower.

I am ready to hit the road. Or, in this case with my current situation, hit my dining room table and get to work.

I had to develop this way of working out because I have such a long commute to the office and I am not able to work out at night, so I work in a workout as I get ready.

You can do the same with chores but I add my 80’s music and it becomes a dance party!

That’s the morning routine guys. It’s not glamorous but I LOVE my morning routine because it sets me up for great success for the rest of the day.

And speaking of, now let’s talk about the daily structure. Adapting your normal routine to your “new normal”.

I am going to use my daily “normal” as an example so if you have kids at home, you can adapt their daily normal to your “new normal” as well.

And speaking of…the whole workout thing. I see so many of you saying that you “can’t work out at home because you have kids”. I call BS on that. Here’s why:

They can do what you are doing! And they will love being included AND get their own exercise going!

So, in the example of my “getting ready for work workout”, have them do the same. As they are “getting ready” have them keep their feet moving while making the bed as you are doing the same.

Then yell out “20 jumping jacks” and you stop and all do them together. Keep doing that until everyone has completed the said tasks. SIMPLE GUYS.

Ok, back to the daily structure.

I have two words for you. TIME BLOCKING.

I am not even kidding.

USE YOUR CALENDAR!

Actually block out the time you will be working out.

Block out the time you need to spend “working”.

Now working for you should be as close to the normal time and hours spent you would be working during a regular day.

If you have been furloughed or laid off and have kiddos at home, your working time would be the time you are spending homeschooling or doing activities with them.

But you need to time block this.

I am not blessed to have kiddos at home while also trying to work from home but I do have some thoughts and suggestions as to how to manage both.

By no means will this be perfect. But keep trying, stay flexible, and you will get to your new normal.

Incorporate their “study” time with time that you are “working”. That way you all are focused at the same time.

Take breaks and get up and move, and start again.

But time block this.

Set a block of time for each task, study/work hour, workout, whatever on your digital calendar and set a reminder to go off when you should be ready for each task.

This will help you stay focused, more efficient, and hopefully less stressed about your day.

I have some people say that they have to time block their showers because they will forget..and that’s ok!

So, I hope this helps. I am available for questions or bouncing ideas. And as always, you can book a call with me to talk about this or any other issue you are having and we can look and see if hiring a coach is the logical next step. Click here for access to my calendar.

There are so many people in my life that struggle every day with anxiety, including myself. I have worked with several clients on how they can manage their anxiety. It almost seems like an epidemic in this world we live in.

When I first learned about my own anxiety, I felt helpless. I felt broken. I felt out of control.

I was, what I thought at the time, in a good relationship. What I didn’t know, was that relationship was going to trigger so many things in my life to cause me to start spinning out of control.

The biggest contributor was his inability to hold down a job and our ever-growing debt.

I was a control freak and I could not MAKE him get a job. I could not MAKE him keep a job. I could not MAKE him stop spending our money as if we had it.

The more I tried to control this and MAKE him do things, the more OUT OF CONTROL I became, and the MORE I tried to control.

I was spiraling deeper and deeper into the “oh my God, how are we going to pay this…how are we going to pay that…” mindset.

I was exhausted. I was scared.

At the time, I had no idea what was causing my anxiety or how I could make it stop.

I also kept my anxiety a secret because of the “mental health stigma”, which caused me even MORE anxiety. My God, what if someone found out!

Now, this was many years ago. Before there was an open awareness of this affliction, so I turned to my doctor for help and she prescribed medication and told me to get a therapist.

I was really hesitant to take the medication. My mom was addicted to pills and I have extreme sensitivity to almost every medication, including Advil, so I was hesitant.

I had already done therapy so I knew how therapy worked. I didn’t need to look at my past anymore and I knew enough about what was going on to know that I needed help with right now so I could stop worrying about the FUTURE.

So I took the meds which helped enough to allow me to research my anxiety.

So, what is anxiety?

Anxiety is your body’s natural response to stress and a feeling of fear or apprehension about what’s to come. The what if’s of the FUTURE.

This can lead to physical things happening within our bodies. Rapid heart rate, fast and shallow breathing, sweating, feelings of nausea, and other things. And, one of the big ones…the fight or flight feeling.

Of course, anxiety can affect everyone differently so you may or may not experience some or all of these physical responses.

Anxiety can be normal in stressful situations such as public speaking or taking a test. But, anxiety can also manifest just from thoughts we have or situations we are in where we feel fear. Real, honest to goodness, fear.

And then, everything can spiral out of control and the anxiety takes over, causing you to literally become debilitated from the fear.

But rest assured, no matter how bad the anxiety gets, it won’t kill you. So out of anything you take away today, I really want you to know this. ANXIETY WILL NOT KILL YOU. Even though it can feel that way sometimes.

When someone suffers from anxiety, it’s not enough to change negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Actually, this is probably the LAST thing they need to hear because it is something that can be literally impossible to do depending on how severe the anxiety is. What needs to be addressed goes a bit deeper than just a positive thought.

It starts with awareness. One thing I can say for sure, is I now KNOW when my anxiety is coming on. People with anxiety tend to be hyper-aware of the feeling once they can identify it. Where there is a lack of awareness is what is CAUSING the anxiety. And THIS is where you can actually stop the anxiety in its tracks!

So, how do you get to the root cause?

Some things that you can do when you feel your anxiety kicking in:

Take some deep breathes

Sit with the anxiety. Remember, it stems from the FEELING of fear or apprehension about something in the FUTURE

Try to identify what that something is

Check-in with your thoughts.

I then recommend writing it down, acknowledge it. This way, it is somewhere that you can refer to and no longer swimming around in your head.

Understand that your mind is playing tricks on you, and in fact, could be lying to you so question it!

And bring yourself back to the present using affirmations, gratitude, and meditation.

Find someone to talk to. Someone you trust that can help bring you back to your present self.

Lastly, Remember, diet and exercise with adequate sleep are great ways to manage anxiety.

You don’t have to suffer!

If you are ready to dive deeper into this or any other subject you are working through, book a call with me here and let’s get you on your way!

Tag: meditation

Morning Routine and Daily Structure

How to Survive Anxiety