The Benefits Of A Consistent Morning Routine And How to Build One

Developing good habits makes health, happiness and well-being so much smoother and easier to choose on a daily bases. There are so many healthy habits out there that it can feel almost impossible to choose and know which habits to incorporate into your morning routine. We are here to help and to make a little more sense of it all. In this article, we take a deep dive into why a morning routine is the way to go, how to set up a long-lasting successful morning routine and how you create the perfect routine sequence for you.

We've included the JPM Morning Routine a complete morning routine that includes activities that are proven keys to longevity and are known to slow down ageing. They are easy and fun to do and feel amazing.

What Are The Benefits Of A Morning Routine? 

Life is a sequence of experiences. These experiences shape us, touch us, change us and stick with us. When we sleep we digest what happened that day. Sleep helps us make sense of the world. An evening routine gives us space to reflect feel grateful, fortify memories and put things in perspective. A morning routine gets us clear on what we desire, what we wish for and what our hopes are, ensuring we are steering towards a life we want to live and remember.

A morning routine is to our mindset what breakfast is to our bodies. When we eat breakfast we break a fast (break-fast). In the night we rest our body and mind and pause the intake of food and experiences. Serving up a nutritious breakfast will get the body resilient for the day. Moving through a high-quality morning routine (5-30 min) to get us feeling vibrant. A morning routine is just an amazing tool to be able to live the life we dream of. A morning routine is a way for you to decide how you want to feel and how you want to live your life that day. A morning routine puts you right in the driver's seat of your life.

It just feels so freaking good that once you are in the habit, you can't even imagine a life without a morning routine. Before you know it you will be inspiring your friends and loved ones to set up a powerful morning routine too. Here are the tools to ensure an all-around delicious morning routine leaving you vibrant! 

10 Benefits Of A Morning Routine 

1. Boosts self-confidence 
2. Boosts energy levels
3. Increases productivity 
4. Improves relationships 
5. Increases sense of well-being 
6. Strengthens mindset 
7. Lowers stress
8. Primes you 
9. Positively influences your day
10. Develops healthy habits

Are Routines Beneficial For All?  

Okay, routines, right? What are your thoughts? Some of us can wake up at the same time every day, do the same routine, eat the same breakfast and even wear the same outfits. It makes us calm and happy. For others, living that routine-based way would do the opposite, leaving us feeling drained and uninspired. Routines are good because it frees up energy and decision-making that we then can use in other areas of our life. But, what you might love most about routines, is breaking them! And that is okay too!

We are all different and have different aspects of our life that need more attention or gives us more joy. Read along to find the great checklist to have for a morning routine, and how you can personalise it to suit just you! And how you can shake things up when needed and create new empowering routines.

Should Morning Routines Be Different For Men And Women?

As a part of approaching life from different angles, as we are all different, it’s perhaps relevant for us to embrace our different needs and beings. Women tend to have a 21-33 (plus and minus) cycle, following the moon. As a part of the cycle, we have our moon cycle and hormone levels flow up and down along our cycle, making each day different to the previous one.

Men, on the other hand, tend to have a 24-hour cycle. Therefore, it makes sense that many men thrive on a 24-hour routine whereas women often do better on a routine based on their moon cycle and hormonal flows.

Being most productive often comes with leaning into the present moment, getting the best out of that moment, mood and mindset. Sometimes we get lots of things ticked off our list, and sometimes we get lots of thinking, dreaming, wandering and relaxing done or maybe we even get to finish an online course, we never got around to finishing. A morning routine is the best way to notice and lean into what serves you that day. A morning routine is to get you feeling amazing, thriving and balanced, with both feet grounded ready for life. 

How Long Should A Morning Routine Take?

There’s no set time for a successful morning routine. 5+ minutes and you are off for a great start. 

What If I Don’t Have Time For My Morning Routine?

If you wake up late or have something else coming up for you, just skip the morning routine. No need to feel disappointed or low because you didn't get a 365 strike, just sing a song you love on your way to work, listen to a chapter in a book, utter incantations when you get a moment or breathe a little deeper. Do a little something just to honour yourself and your well-being. Another day you might get 5 minutes extra. What matters and counts is your overall daily routines and habits, not the one-off or the phase where life looks different for one reason or the other. 

What If I Don’t Have 5 Minutes For A Morning Routine?

There might be phases in your life where you won’t get to have a steady morning routine. It’s okay. It will come. Keep thinking about it. The first place to make space for something new, a habit or a routine is in your mind. Visualise it, crave it, long for it, then the time will come. It might be a long phase, like becoming a parent. Lean into that phase, long or short, and get the best and most out of it. We will never be able to rewind life, so let us remember to soak in the beautiful moments. There might be a day the best thing is knowing you lived and enjoyed, where you were present and attending fully throughout your life.

What Must A Morning Routine Include?

There are so many amazing suggestions out there, some intense (like ice baths), some soothing (like self-massage) some hard (like high-intensity training) some mellow (like restorative yoga). How do we get around it all? Well, in some way or another, we need to find balance in our life, and we must live being joyful (calm and grounded with a smile).

This is why the JPM Morning Routine is a great way to go when it comes to a morning routine. Joy, Purpose and Muscle (JPM) are all keys to longevity and are known to slow down ageing.

The JPM Morning Routine 

Joy: Do something that makes you smile (think sunlight and nature here too).

Purpose: Live in a way that gives you purpose (community).

Muscle: Train your muscles so you maintain muscle mass (At least 30 minutes three times a week). 

What Does The JPM Morning Routine Look Like In Practice?

Here's an easy checklist and ideas so that you can create a successful morning routine tailor-made for you. You will see on the three lists below that some practices tick more than one box.

JOY

Give a smile a go here, allow yourself to smile now, do you notice how it shifts your whole body response? Read this sentence out loud while looking angry: "Life is full of uncertainty". Now read it one more time with a big smile on your face. Notice the difference? The tone of voice, body posture, breath and thoughts. The first time you read with your angry face, the sentence seems bleak and dark. But when reading it while smiling, the sentence just seems less intimidating, right?

So imagine that in all other areas of your life too. It's not to be positive thinking or naive and jolly, it is just to be joyful. When we are joyful we feel calm and grounded, and we become skilled at managing stress (a very important skill).

Situations and events that cause us stress and destress will always be there and we can not remove stress factors, but we can manage how we respond and move onwards and the level of stress we allow ourselves to experience and feel. In every morning routine, we must take time to manage stress and create joy. Joy is the light that shines through your eyes. Being in nature, feeling the sunlight on our skin, and breathing fresh air also sparks our internal light. Try some from the following list. You are welcome to add more:

• Yoga
• Chanting
• Journaling 
• Oil-massage
• Self-care
• Hot bath
• Steamy shower
• Ice-bath
• Cold shower
• Breath work 
• Mantra meditation
• Walking with incantations 

Get outside, nature, and sun (the first 3 hours of sunlight is particularly good for your mitochondria and can boost joy immensely relieving seasonal depression, which counts for any time of the year). 

PURPOSE

Want to live longer? Look for, and conceptualise your life purpose. It sounds so big, but it is just simple. What gives meaning and adds great pleasure to your life? What does it mean to you to be alive? These are some of the things you can add to your morning routine to help you live a purposeful life. You can also use your purpose to give fuel to your desire to do your morning routine (e.g I want to do my morning routine so I can share the best version of myself with the people I love, my family, friends and colleagues). 

• Meditation
• Gratitude
• Journaling
• Breath work
• Reading or listening to a talk, podcast or book
• Learning something new
• Practising something you are learning
• Art and creativity

MUSCLE

Our mind and spiritual body are hundreds of times bigger than our physical body, though without a physical body, it's hard (perhaps impossible) to express joy and live with purpose, so taking care of your physical self is a pretty solid idea. Studies also show, that along with diet and lifestyle, the way we train can play a big role in the length of our life. Muscle-mass has been directly linked to longevity. Move your body, to gain full motion of your joints, and get strong and flexible. Your body is your home, with exercise we can keep it young and free. Try these things: 

• HIIT
• Yoga
• Running
• Swimming
• Walking
• Rebounding 
• Resistant band training
• Weight lifting

If You Only Have 5 Minutes DO THIS 

Go for a walk and say hello and smile to everyone you meet (human as well as birds). With this practice you have, in just five minutes, accomplished a lot: You moved your body, breathed fresh air, been in natural light, connected to living beings and switched on both hemispheres of your brain (through the act of walking), aiding emotions healing.

Chose one or more things from each of the 3 categories. Spend 5 minutes on each category and you have yourself a 15-minute practice. 

How To Succeed With Your Morning Routine? 

A great way to ensure a steady morning routine is by preparing the day before. Before you go to bed, decide how your morning routine will look from the moment you wake up. Think about how you will feel during and after the practice and see yourself walking out of the door after your morning routine, how you will hold your body, how you will breathe and approach the day.

If you need any yoga props for the practice, get it ready, roll out your yoga mat or get the speaker and playlist ready. Put the book you wish to read on the table or get your running shoes ready by the door. Making it as easy for yourself to wake up as possible. It is often when the alarm clock rings that we choose to skip the practice.

When you wake up, if you feel like you want to skip the practice that day, allow yourself to do that tomorrow and stick to the plan you made for yourself the day before. When you go to bed that day, if you still want to have a rest and a lay in the next morning, go for it. But decide in the evening and carry through in the morning. Every time you follow through you are building your willpower muscle, so remember to celebrate each day you get up, out of bed and do your morning routine. Thank yourself! You are freaking awesome!

Put an inspiring quote or image by your bed or on the ceiling. A place where it is the first thing you see when you wake up, and something that moves you and gets you to remember the importance of your health. Add your morning routine to your calendar as you would with a date with a friend. You are your best friend. honour the time you get to spend with you.

Loved The Benefits Of A Consistent Morning Routine And How to Build One? 

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