My Morning Wellness Routine

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Fun fact: I’m more of a night owl.

However, for some odd reason I always find myself operating as if I’m an early bird. Which in all reality I’m not. I would so much rather be up all night and sleep all morning, than to be up early in the morning and sleeping during normal hours. Not that there is anything wrong with sleeping during normal hours, because there isn’t. If anything, I applaud the people who prefer to sleep during normal hours, and who actually sleep during those hours. Sleep is a very important part of our health and our mind, bodies, and souls will always thank us when we get a full 8 hours of sleep.

However, my body just doesn’t function like that and if I’m being honest I’m actually really happy that it doesn’t. I’m happy because as I mentioned getting a full 8 hours of sleep is good for our health. With the crazy busy schedule that I have going on currently in my life I need to get at least 6 hours of sleep every night. Most nights I’m able to get a full 8 hours, but at the very least if I’m going to have a busy night with playing catch up with school, I strive for 6 hours.

Even though I am more of a night owl I’m happy that my body prefers to wake up and greet the day early in the morning. I’m happy because as much as I enjoy being awake watching Netflix at 2:00am, the fact of the matter is that it’s a struggle for me to even make it that far into the night these days. I always find myself trying to stay up at night simply because it’s the only time during the “day” when I get to have a little bit of me time. However, every night it always fails because I’m usually in bed well before 1:00am.

Fun fact, I am writing this post at 2:11am! While that’s not necessarily a good thing for my health, it’s definitely a win in my book because I haven’t had anytime in the past two weeks to focus on me. So, I’ll proudly face the consequences for this in the morning.

I use to chop my inability to stay up late at night to the whole idea that I’m getting old, or boredom has completely taken over my life. However, I’ve come to learn better. The main reason why I find myself going to bed no later than 12:00am (on most days anyways) is because I do a whole lot of activity during my day. I’m talking raising kids, cleaning house, doing school work, going grocery shopping, cooking three meals a day, bathing the littles, bathing myself, all while trying to maintain the madness through quick and easy mindfulness practices. Literally guys for a young woman who has no children and no “responsibilities” of her own what so ever, my life is chaotic!

Stay at home moms know exactly what I’m talking about.

In spite of that like I said I try to maintain and manage it all through quick and easy mindfulness practices. If you are not familiar with what mindfulness is, to put it simply it’s the state of being aware of something. Getting to this point in my day, where I have to attend to the needs of everyone else, is a very quick and rapid buildup from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed. That rapid speed of chaos only becomes more demanding and more hectic as the hours pass by. So, in order to make sure that I’m in tip top shape to be able to dive deep into the beautiful chaos that awaits me every day, I engage in a morning wellness routine.

Today I’m going to share that with you! My morning wellness routine is pretty simple and straightforward. I don’t go above and beyond (which isn’t the point of a wellness routine) by forcing my mind and body to engage in things that I am not rightfully prepared for. Instead I keep it very simple by engaging in things that I know my mind and body can actively participate in very early in the morning. And my morning wellness routine is as followed…

1. Positive affirmations

As I mentioned earlier I’m more of a night owl but tend to operate as though I’m an early bird. My typical day (on most days) starts around 6:00am. I don’t immediately jump out of bed, brush my teeth, shower and get my day rolling. Oh no, that would literally be impossible because it takes me a while to fully wake up. Also, it would just set the whole tone for my day and I doubt it would be a positive one since I would be pretty much rushing myself to start my day. In other words that would be doing way too much way too early.

What I usually do when I wake up in the morning is just lie in bed and do a quick mental check of everything that needs to get done for the day. This usually only takes me about two minutes, and I do it very quickly because I don’t want my to-do list to be the main focus on my day. Once I’ve prepared myself mentally for the busy day ahead, I begin to prepare myself energetically for the day ahead. I do this by repeating three positive affirmations to myself every morning before I roll out of bed.

I switch my affirmations from time to time, depending on my activities for the day and the kind of energy I believe I am going to need. However, for the most part I repeat the three same affirmations to myself every day simply because they are the most meaningful words to me at my current place in life. The three affirmations I repeat to myself are:

• I am enough
• I am right where I’m supposed to be
• My dreams will become my reality because I have the power to make it happen, the dedication to see them through, and the motivation to make a successful career out of my passions

I repeat these three affirmations to myself every morning before I roll out of bed. I say them to myself in my head simply because I live in a house with 7 other people (I’m not kidding), and I don’t have a room of my own. So, I’d rather be as quiet as a mouse at 6:00am than as loud as a bear. Something that I do, do is write down all of my positive affirmations in a journal. This helps me keep track of the things that I am doing mentally to build upon my confidence. It also serves as a great resource to turn to on days when I don’t feel motivated about anything at all (I’m only human and we all have those days).

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2. Drink water

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge advocate for drinking water. I understand that it may not taste as delicious as a soda or some grape juice, but you guys, water does the body good! I have a one-gallon water bottle that I fill up every night and keep by my bed to drink throughout the night and first thing in the morning. I’m personally making it a goal of mines to drink a gallon of water a day. So far, I have yet to achieve it (I always get halfway before I tap out and resort to my smaller cups and water bottles) but one day I will. I drink out of this bottle every morning and how much I drink varies from time to time.

Sometimes I’ll drink what’s left in the bottle from the previous day/night, other times I’ll just take 10 natural gulps of water (I’m not the only one who gulps water, right?). Don’t worry these aren’t significantly huge gulps that are hurting my throat, they’re gulps that are simply filling my mouth and smoothly making its way to my stomach. Afterwards I lie in bed for a little bit longer because I’m still not ready to greet the day. I’m also secretly hoping that I’ll fall back to sleep but that rarely happens.

3. Hygiene

At around 7:00am when my mind and body have made it very clear that I’m not going back to sleep, I get up and do my hygiene routine. That means I shower, brush my teeth, wash my face, and do whatever else I need to do for myself during this hour.

4. Breakfast

By time I’m done with my hygiene it’s usually around 8:00am. I’m not really big on breakfast but these past couple of months I have been making an effort to eat breakfast every day. Since I’m not really a breakfast person I try to keep my breakfast meals as small but filling as possible. So sometimes I’ll stick with some oat meal and chia seeds, other times I’ll eat a bowl of cereal with some almond milk. Or maybe I’ll make myself a good ol’ smoothie because you can never go wrong with a smoothie for breakfast. Either way I try to fill my stomach with something in the morning that will hold me over until lunchtime.

5. 10-minute meditation

Breakfast doesn’t take long for me at all so I’m usually done within 10-15minutes of eating it. After breakfast I head back to my bed to engage in a 10-minute meditation practice. I go to my bed because it’s where I’m most comfortable and I feel safest in my house. It’s also my personal space and I feel like I gather more energy in my room than I do anywhere else around the house, which I think is extremely important for meditation.

My meditation practice is pretty simple. I engage in a deep breathing exercise every morning where I breathe in and out for 10 five minutes. In the beginning I take very deep and intentional breaths, and slowly let my breathing find a natural rhythm so that by the end of my meditation my breathing is strong, steady, and calm.

If you would like to learn more about my 10-minute meditation practice or any other mindfulness practices I participate in, check out my free health and wellness course at the end of this post .

6. Start the day

By time I’m done meditating I’m ready to start the day. I mean like actually start the day. you might be thinking that if I’m up and doing hygiene stuff at 7:00am my day has already started. Yes, there is a little bit of truth to this but no, my day has not started. I do not consider my day actually starting until I literally either begin to actively work on my to-do list, or the kids have woken up.

Usually when I’m ready to start my day it’s around 9:00am and the kids are up by then. If they are up I’m attending to their needs. This includes having them do hygiene and eat breakfast. If they have yet to wake up I just begin to slowly check off things on my to-do list until they do. The rest of my day is pretty much just going with the flow. I do as much as I possibly can on my to-do list, I make sure that the kids are alright, and I take care of myself during necessary times throughout the day.

That’s pretty much it! My morning wellness routine changes from time to time dependent upon how I’m feeling or what I’ve got going on in my life. Sometimes I’ll replace my 10-minute meditation session for a 15-minute workout session in the morning right before I do my hygiene. Or like I mentioned earlier, I’ll replace eating breakfast with having a smoothie breakfast. Usually when this happens it’s almost a guarantee that I’m going to have a workout session early in the morning, and when I choose to work out in the morning it’s usually because I know I may not be as physically active during the day.

So, you see it just depends, but for the most part this is it.

Do you have a wellness routine? If so share it with me! I’d love to adopt some new practices.

Until next time love bug!

Xo

Kimora