I Wake Up Early Every Day to Do These 5 Things, and I've Never Felt Better

I haven’t always been a morning person. I used to roll out of bed 30 minutes before I had to be at class or work, feeling anxious and rushed because I hadn’t given myself enough time to wake up and get mentally ready to squeeze the most out of my day. Waking up late and rushing to get ready, skipping a shower, and missing breakfast left me feeling off balance, so I eventually grew tired of always feeling stressed out and adjusted my routine to make those early hours of my day count.

Now that I know that how I spend my morning will set the tone for the rest of my day, I wake up at least two hours before I have to be anywhere. This allows me to follow a routine to feel refreshed and ready for a productive day. I know that the allure of staying in bed all morning and getting as many extra minutes of sleep as possible can be very persuasive, but I promise that creating a morning routine that gets you up out of bed and feeling good will prepare you to take on the day – follow mine and try it out.

Related: This 5-Step Nighttime Routine Helps Me Fall Asleep Quicker Before a Big Day

1. Stretch. As soon as I wake up, I stretch my body, doing a body scan as I lay in bed and thinking about what parts of my body feel tight or knotted, then focusing on stretching where I’m holding tension.
2. Affirm. While I’m stretching, I practice morning affirmations – my favorite part of the beginning of the day – where I praise myself for all of the things that I accomplished the day before, give myself the pep-talk I need to do all of the things I have planned, and offer appreciation and love in an easy and motivational way. If you’d like to try this, I recommend drafting you affirmations in a journal or notebook and reading them to yourself until you memorize them.
3. Meditate. Once I’ve affirmed myself, I meditate for about 20 minutes. I’m still kind of new to the world of meditation, so my mind wanders a little sometimes, but I think the whole point of the practice is forgiving yourself when that happens and allowing yourself to start over without judgement. (You can use a guided meditation app if you’re a newbie like me.) There are so many health benefits to meditation, like an improvement in stress levels and anxiety (two things I struggle with) and promoting emotional health and self-awareness, which is something that always holds room for improvement.
4. Shower. After my meditation, I take a shower. I used to always shower at night, so I could sleep in longer in the morning, but I realized that by doing that, I was missing out on how refreshing a morning shower can feel. I don’t think there’s a better way to wake up yourself than by splashing some water on your face and washing the previous day off of you. When I was in high school, I grew tired of the frantic “what should I wear?” debacle that plagued my mornings, so I started picking out outfits before I went to sleep. This not only reduces my stress level but also gives me more time for the parts of my morning routine that actually make me feel good.
5. Fuel. The last part of my morning routine is eating breakfast. With a healthy breakfast, which usually consists of a fruit smoothie and some seed bread toast, I take my vitamins and drink a glass of water (or two) to get hydrated. Right after I eat my breakfast, I’ll pack my lunch for the day to take to class or work.