5 Morning Rituals to Set Up Your Quarantined Days For Success

For so many of us, this time of social distancing and living in quarantine has our normal routines all out of sorts. Whether you are now working from home, temporarily not working, have become a home-schooling parent or a combination of all these, any routine you once had has most likely been thrown far out the window.

I know the first week I was working solely from home I felt super out of sorts. I like the structure and routine of getting ready for work, my commute time and settling into my office for the day. Now that my commute is from one room to another and my schedule has become quite different, it’s been challenging to create a new normal. I also know that my motivation has been impacted by the uncertainty and anxiety of all that is going on and a resistance to getting used to a new routine that is hopefully just temporary.

Having a daily routine is one of the most effective ways to set yourself up for success. Typically, having a schedule and a plan creates more opportunities for feeling productive. Motivation can be different when you are away from your typical routine as well. Here are five morning rituals you can integrate right away to begin to set yourself up to ease into your day, to establish a mindset of positivity and way to embrace your “new normal.”

1.   START YOUR DAY WITH GRATITUDE

When you begin your day feeling grateful, you set yourself up for feeling positive, calm and with a mindset of abundance. When you are grateful for what you have, focus on what is going well and feel the impact of gratitude, you remain free from anxiety.

Start the day using a gratitude journal and write down two or more things you are grateful for in this moment. They can be super simple, like waking up in a warm bed, feeling grateful for someone you care about, or for your health. Anytime you find yourself anxious or feeling a sense of lack or desperation, reflect on past days from your journal and notice the impact.

If journaling is not your thing, you can wake up and start the day simply by saying “Thank You.” You can express gratitude for your food before you eat or just silently state to yourself what you are grateful for in this moment. Beginning the day with gratitude creates an attitude of receptivity, positivity and hope.

2.   USE A DAILY CENTERING PRACTICE

When you use a centering practice such a meditation, deep breathing, mindfulness, prayer or reading something inspiring, you create an opportunity to release yourself from any anxiety, stress or other mental and emotional discomfort. Whatever practice feels the most comfortable for you, dedicate 5-30 minutes to this. When you feel centered and grounded, you are more likely to feel resilient and focused throughout your day.

Simply connecting to your breath, meditating, praying or reading something inspiring creates a connection to the present moment where you are free from anxious thoughts about the future and feelings of regret about the past. When you can stay grounded, centered and focused in the present moment you create a feeling of true freedom and an opportunity for joy. Don’t we all need that at this time—and really all of the time! This is a powerful way to begin your day.

3.   MOVE YOUR BODY

Dedicating a period of time to move your body in a way that makes you feel good in the morning helps to create energy for the day. This could be something very simple, like a 10-minute full body stretch, or something more complex, like a 45-minute workout. It could also be something in-between, like a 20-minute brisk walk.

Whatever you choose, let it be something that you enjoy, that makes you feel energized and builds momentum to make it through the day. If you are used to exercising at a different time of day, still take a few minutes to stretch or get your blood flowing in the morning. When you are working from home you are less likely to get in the amount of movement you would if you were commuting to work or taking your kids to school. This extra movement first thing in the morning helps to build and grow your energy while burning off stress.

4.   CREATE YOUR ACTION PLAN

When you create a plan of action, you set yourself up for success. When you do not have a plan, you might feel more scattered and disorganized. If you have a plan you will most likely be more productive. More importantly, having a plan creates a feeling of control and mastery. During these uncertain times, many people are feeling out of control due to all of the unknowns. This anxiety is toxic and can cause stagnancy.

When you create an action plan, you provide yourself with structure. This structure allows you to feel in control as you are leading yourself to where you want to go. This plan also creates a focus and a feeling of mastery. It feels really good to check things off of your to-do list! Every time you check off an action that was completed you are sending yourself a feeling of being rewarded. This builds confidence and motivation to keep plugging away at your action plan.

5.   MINDSET VISUALIZATION 

The last ritual is mindset visualization. When you put your action plan onto paper, take a moment and visualize yourself completing each item. When you place something into your mindset you are 90% more likely to get it done. This visualization is like a pre-rehearsal; therefore, your mind will be less resistant to it once the time arrives to get it done.

As you go through each item on your action plan and really see yourself completing it, notice any resistance you experience in that moment. How will you push through and ensure that you get it done? When you tackle any possible resistance early in your day while setting your mindset, you will be astounded by how the resistance dissipates and allows you to get more done.

Try implementing these five morning rituals and see how they help impact your day. These simple tools will become a habit as you practice integrating them daily.

Step FIVE to Creating a Life You Love: Monitor Your Process and Respond to Obstacles Along the Way

Step five to creating a life that you love covers the need to monitor your process and progress and respond to obstacles that will inevitably arise in order to create the change you desire. Here’s a quick review to see how these steps are flowing together. In step one, you created self-awareness through self-reflection and looking deeply inward. Step two was about aligning with your sense of purpose through creating a vision for what you want. Step three allowed you to create a plan of action in order to create the possibility for the changes to occur through goals and action steps executed consistently. Step four encouraged evaluating your current life and lifestyle to assess and assure that you are keeping your body and mind well. That leads us to step five, monitoring your process and progress and responding to obstacles as the arise. We all know that it’s one thing to create a plan, it’s another to execute it consistently over time! Step five allows you to explore your inner resistance to change and learn how to build your resilience to ensure that the change you desire shifts from a wish into reality-based action.

Resistance to change is generally the number one reason we don’t follow through consistently. Resistance dampens motivation, zaps inspiration and keeps us stuck in the discomfort of our comfort zone. Resistance convinces us that we are better off in the discomfort of our comfort zones and creates fear to stretching into change. This step will help you build resilience as an anecdote to resistance and offer some serious reality checks to keep you moving forward.

In order to overcome resistance and create the change you desire; you need to build resilience. Resilience is only created through difficulty, struggle and the need to get up, dust yourself off, and begin again…sometimes, but not always, right back at the beginning. This can be frustrating and sad and allows the resistance to settle in strong. Resilience is the ability to recover and the ability to feel your fear and persevere anyway. There is no way to hack the process of becoming resilient. The only way is to grow your resilience is through experience. People who are resilient have been through a lot, have developed grit, learned from their struggles and have the desire to create change that is stronger than the fear of failure, rejection and disappointment.

When you review your vision, goals and the action steps that will allow it to happen, are you executing your plan of action consistently? If not, what are the excuses that you are telling yourself? Where is your primary resistance to making the changes you desire? Resistance can look like a lot like procrastination, and uses pretty much any excuse, for example, “I don’t have enough time, I’ll do it tomorrow, I’ll start tomorrow, I’m too tired, I don’t know where to start, I forgot, I’m worried it’ll be too hard, I got pulled away by something else, if only, I want to but…” and on and on. If this sounds like what might be churning in your head, take a moment and challenge the resistance that is showing up for you. Ask yourself the following questions if you find you are resisting getting started on or sticking with your goals and actions steps consistently:

-Why am I avoiding this?

-What am I most afraid of, and why?

-Is there something small I can do to test it out and see how it feels to take action?

-Am I ready for this change?

-How badly do I want to live my vision?

-What am I choosing over my vision?

-What is the cost to me to not live my vision and make this change?

-Where can I find inspiration to make this change?

We all have an inner need to grow, to pursue, to create and to evolve. If we are not, that is where true stress, discomfort and challenge will show up in our lives. The trouble is that we are usually the ones that get in our own way of creating the change we say we want. Fear is self-doubt and an inner belief of either we aren’t worthy or deserving of this change, or on the other side of that, that we will be successful and worry how will that will impact our current lives, relationships and way of living. I can tell you that you are deserving and worthy of what you want, however, it is up to you to create this inner belief. I can also tell you that as you create change in your life, it may impact and disrupt your life, but those that support you and care about you will be there for you, and if they don’t, maybe they’re not your people.

Self-sabotage can show up easily and it can feel like an increase of excuses that may hum in the background of your mind. Change requires that you stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone and this process is uncomfortable. No one likes to be uncomfortable. When you persevere, the discomfort is temporary—just while you are in the stretching process—yet the payoff will create feelings of accomplishment, hope, determination, worthiness and joy.

Approaching change will benefit from some solid problem-solving through monitoring your process. If this is a change you’ve attempted in the past, where do you usually bail out? Where do you foresee self-sabotage to occur? If you can manage to preempt some foreseeable struggles, you create a plan for managing those struggles. I recommend that you create your plan of action weekly and check in with your plan of action daily. Where did you execute and where did you not execute? Why did you or did you not complete your action steps? How can you keep it going (if you did!) or make some shifts to motivate yourself if you didn’t. Get deeply curious about why you did execute or why you didn’t. You might be able to borrow from where you did execute to help support the areas where you did not.

Check in with any internal resistance daily as well. Notice any fear that is there and get curious about that. Why is it here? What happened to create this fear? Does it relate to the past? What is worst that can really happen? Resistance usually shows up in the form of internal (not true and certainly not useful) stories we create and we believe those stories. This is not an effective game plan! It can be helpful to sit with the opposites, if that potential fear-based story is true, couldn’t the opposite be true as well? For example, if you find you are resistant because you don’t trust yourself to follow through for the long term, couldn’t it also be true that you have made changes and now have the support to follow through for the long term? Both are not yet reality, however if a negative belief is true couldn’t a neutral or positive belief also be true? The only person we all have any control over in the world is our future self.

Today, attempt to do your future self a favor and commit, stick with your goals and take action. Practice taking action to cure your fears and allow your vision to become your life. A helpful mantra to remind yourself in any moments of resistance is, feel the fear and do it anyway! When you do, notice how you feel about yourself, notice your self-worth increasing. That is how you will continue to manage obstacles, build resilience, determination and a new way to focus on you!

Step FOUR to Creating a Life You Love: Evaluating Your Current Life & Lifestyle

“The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being. And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally but also physically and spiritually.”
--Greg Anderson

Step 4 to creating a life you love is all about evaluating how well you currently care for yourself in mind, body and spirit. Through this step you will learn about the foundations of wellbeing. You will have opportunities to evaluate how you are currently functioning in each of these foundations in order to assess how you feel you are doing in terms of living well, feeling well and being well. Through self-evaluation you can determine if there are any shifts and changes you would like to create. There will be opportunities to reflect and notice where you can create more fluidity in your lifestyle that will help lead you to the changes you desire.

No matter what your vision for your life may be, when you are taking care of yourself in mind, body and spirit, you will be more likely to have the energy, mental clarity and the necessary inner spark and desire to work towards your goals. If your goals fall within the foundations of wellbeing, then you will really enjoy this step. If they don’t, this step will be important for you too as this foundation creates more freedom for you to create whatever you desire within your life. The foundations of wellbeing are movement, nutrition, sleep and intentional relaxation. When your foundation is strong and your wellbeing becomes a priority, you will be unstoppable as you propel towards pursuit of your life’s vision.

Take a moment and assess your current state of wellbeing. Ask yourself the following questions.

-Do you move your body regularly in a way that keeps it feeling mobile, strong and healthy?

-Do you eat vegetables daily and pay attention to how what you eat makes you feel?

-Do you eat mindfully, meaning pay attention to the process of eating without distraction?

-Do you get adequate and quality sleep?

-Do you take time to relax in an intentional way? Meaning, do you give yourself space to calm and center yourself in mind, body and spirit?

-Is your current lifestyle reflective of your vision and purpose?

-Does your current lifestyle reflect your personal values?

Any wellness routine and way of integrating wellbeing practices into your life will look and feel different from person to person as we all have individual preferences, needs and ways of being. One person might find that within the movement foundation, gentle yoga is what suits their body best while someone else might find that preparing for a half marathon is more fulfilling. With nutrition, we all have different needs. When you assess if you get adequate vegetables, what does that look like for you? No matter what you are eating, paying attention and noticing how what you eat makes you feel is one of the most important elements of being nourished by food. The same is true for sleep, although this tends to be something many people let slide out of focus easily. Intentional relaxation is different than Netflix and chill. While this might be how you unwind or have fun, it is not a true state of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual relaxation. Examples of intentional relaxation include meditation, creating art, reading, taking a bath, having lunch with friends, praying, spending time in nature… Intentional relaxation provides fulfillment, rejuvenation, vitality and pleasure in your life that feels good to you and creates inner peace.

Creating a strong state of true wellness is a journey. Most of us are stressed, tired and live in an overall imbalanced way. When the foundations of wellbeing become a priority, your ability to cope with stress, solve problems and feel mentally and physically well enough to take on much of what life delivers will be far more available. When you create a strong foundation for your physical body, your mental and emotional world can become more available to explore and you can continue to grow and expand mentally and spiritually.

The process of focusing on your own wellbeing requires commitment. When you have a vision for your life and a sense of purpose—and a plan to make it happen—your focus can shift to your wellbeing. When you create true mind, body, spirit wellness within your life, you set the groundwork to live your best life. Begin by choosing ONE area that may be out of balance for you and start with ONE element that you can incorporate in a positive way. Continue building slowly. Once your body is vital and healthy you can dive deeper into mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. This is where personal growth becomes a daily process and daily opportunity. As you move through these steps to leading yourself to living your best life, be sure to offer yourself ample time to creating a solid foundation for wellness and overall wellbeing.