Each of us are what we repeatedly do, what we repeatedly say, what we repeatedly believe in. Excellence, positivity, joy, then, are not mere acts but habits. Habits are what we cultivate, repeat, and live. What this means is that we get to choose, to create how we interact and exist within the real world. As you might be knowing, human brain is neuro-plastic in nature ,i.e, it can be rewired. If we practice any act again and again, the brain gets rewired accordingly to make the act/habit stronger. In this blog post, i have detailed upon the practice of morning routine activities in-order to better our lives .

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Nearly all peak performers in any field have a morning routine. How you spend the morning will influence the rest of your day. With a morning routine, you can be more focused, increase your productivity, lower stress, boost your energy levels, maintain better health among others benefits. So, it is good to have a morning routine for your own well being. I started with my morning routine activities a few years back. Started with a few activities initially, and gradually expanded to the final list of activities shown below. I hope this will give you a few ideas to experiment with.

  • Drink Water
  • Yoga
  • Slow Pushups
  • Meditation
  • Good Breakfast

Drink Water

I have been following this morning routine since many years, for which i would like to thank the elders in my family who instructed me on this morning routine. I came to know about all of its actual benefits only recently. After a long period without any water consumption, drinking a glass or two of water right when you wake up in the morning is a quick way to re-hydrate your body. Other benefits as mentioned by doctors are increases your appetite, flushes your bowels, increases your energy, clears any toxins from your body and boosts immune system.

Yoga

I was introduced to yoga during my teenage, but somewhere down the line discontinued the practice. However, i have taken up the practice of yoga seriously from the past couple of years. Regularly practicing yoga, may be one of the best ways to increase your mobility and flexibility. Flexibility, put simply, is how far you can fold, bend, or reach as your muscles stretch to their maximum length. On the other hand, mobility is the ability of your muscles and joints to move actively along its range of motion. Over time, your body may lose flexibility and mobility due to aging, a sedentary lifestyle, stress, or improper posture and movement habits.

I mainly perform the suryanamaskara and the headstand asana. What yoga exercise you choose and the length of the yoga session is upto you.

Slow Pushups

I had the impression that strength training was only for body builders, until i came across a podcast a couple of years back that changed my perception. It is said that, starting from the age of 30, most of the people start losing muscles with a 3 to 8 percent reduction in lean muscle mass every decade thereafter. Strength training exercises are safe and effective for building lean muscle mass and bone density in men and women of all ages. By the way, lean muscle mass is the amount of muscle that makes up your body composition. Strength training is any activity that requires muscular actions of the body to overcome or attempt to overcome an opposing force, that may include free-weights, weight machines, or your own body weight.

Slow push ups forces your body to slowly carry your body into a low position, and to slowly carry your body back up to your regular position. Unlike traditional push ups, it is much more strenuous and painful. To start off with, you can challenge yourself to do 5 slow pushups and gradually increase.

Meditation

I owe my practice of meditation to the numerous podcasts i listened to a couple of years ago, that stressed upon the importance of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the ability to stay in the present moment and to focus your thoughts on what is happening in the here and now. The popularity of mindfulness has been bolstered by a growing body of research showing that it reduces stress and anxiety, improves attention, memory and sleep, and promotes self-regulation and empathy.

There are many different practices that can support the development of mindfulness, including the sitting meditation and focusing on your natural breath or on a word or “mantra” or body scan that you repeat. Allow thoughts to come and go without judgment and return to your focus on breath or mantra or body scan. To start with, 5 minutes of practice would be fine that can be increased gradually.

Good Breakfast

I started with the current breakfast routine a couple of years back. Till then, i had no idea of what a good breakfast was. Health improvement topic being one my areas of interest, made me to go through articles/videos on the importance of having a healthy breakfast. Eating a good breakfast is an essential part of a morning routine. The fuel you consume in the morning has a significant effect on your daily performance at work and thus, it should be the best fuel possible. Fill your plate, bowl, or blender with lean protein, fruit or veggies, and whole grains.

Among other things, pooping and shower before the breakfast was a part of my morning routine since a long time back. Lastly, studies have shown that most of the successful people are notorious early risers. Chances are if you do not have an established morning routine, then you do not have a set time at which you get up. However, in order to attend office on time you will have an alarm set but with no set morning routine. As i gradually developed my above morning routine activities, i made it a point to get up around 5AM to accommodate all the activities. Now i feel more energized all through the day.

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