If you’ve followed me on Instagram for awhile, you probably can hear me waking my babies up in the morning..”gooooood morning!!!!!!” I have gotten so many messages over the years about how people love the way I wake my babies up in a good mood. It is super important to me! It’s the first thing they see or hear and I want to start them off on a positive note and good vibe. I have really grown to love mornings. I like to get up early and make the most of my day. I LOVE to get a good workout sesh in first thing if I can. The way you treat your mornings can really set the tone for the day. I saw my friend Taylor, post on her IG the other day about helpful tips for becoming a morning person and it really resonated with me. Taylor is a Mental Wellness Counselor and I asked her if she would expand on her morning tips and share those with us in this blog.
Taylor Klump MA, LPC
Taylor works internationally providing virtual Mental Wellness Consulting and trauma informed trainings for medical professionals, health coaches, and mindset coaches. Taylor is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), specialized in the treatment of trauma providing ground breaking evidenced based treatment with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) for the treatment of diagnoses such as PTSD, Anxiety, Depression and for the use of Performance Enhancement.
Becoming A Morning Person
Are you a morning person!? If not, no worries! I’m not by nature either! Controlling how we start our day is one of the easiest ways to boost our mood and set the tone for our entire day and even increase the quality of our life!
The quality of our life is the sum of our daily thoughts and words we speak! There’s no better way or time to mindfully shape the quality of our lives than with a morning routine!
Mornings hold access to a special key in changing our patterns through the subconscious mind… and that is through theta brain waves, which is basically a state of hypnosis! When our brains are functionally in a state of hypnosis they are extremely mailable, which is a great time to insert what you want in your brain and remove what you don’t! This is why we want to be very intentional about how we start our days, especially the first 20 minutes!
I’ve listed some of my favorite evidenced based tips and personal tricks I implement into my morning routine and share with my clients to increase bliss and replace old predictable thoughts and patterns with new adaptable ones! Give some or all of them a go and let me know what you think, I’ll be excited to hear how you make them your own!
1. Start with your first thought of the day!
Create a mantra for yourself to say the moment you open your eyes! Maybe it’s something like, “THANK YOU! Yay! I have another day to get to do this! I’m excited to be alive!”
– I like to connect mine to my goals, regardless of the time of day when I think of my goals, my “why”, my purpose it elicits a strong physical and emotional response which is extremely helpful for enhancing experiences!
2. The simplest way to target your first thought in the morning: tell yourself right before you go to sleep the first thought you want to enter your brain when you open your eyes!
3. Fake it until you make it!
Even if you feel groggy, sore… say it like you mean it!!!! Our minds are so powerful, yet so simple. Your brain does not know the difference between an imagined experience and a real one, we can leverage this! Your brain even releases endorphins when you smile, even if you’re faking it!
4. Protect your peace!
Go phone free for the first 30 minutes, even better if you can go an hour! Not only do we want to control what goes on between our ears (thoughts), but also what we allow into it! Whatever happened the night before can wait until you’ve had time to get your mind right! Take your time to get yourself oriented before you let the rest of the world in! I promise whatever happened in the world or in your personal life the night before will be better served after you’ve centered and grounded yourself!
Tip: I set the alarm on my phone to play my favorite song and one minute after that I have an old fashion alarm clock set to go off on the other side of the room. I told you, I’m not a morning person by nature so for me personally I keep that old obnoxious alarm clock set so I sprint over to turn it off before it goes off, works like a charm! I then let my song play on repeat while I make my bed and connect to my why and purpose in life.
5. Tune into the frequency you want to live your life!
You can pair it to a particular song or whatever works best for you, just say your affirmations OUT LOUD! You can do this as you’re making your bed, changing, or brushing your teeth. We are plugging them into your brain! I recommend saying them out loud because when you think it your thoughts can start to trail (at least for me they do lol) and speaking it allows you to fully commit!
6. Change your state + elevate your frequency!
Get your happy jams going while you’re making your bed, coffee, changing and play something that changes your state! Get your theme song going! I know you got one! 😉
7. Now that you’ve primed yourself, sit and enjoy that coffee or tea and meditate or do a gratitude list!
Commit yourself to your purpose, no matter what your present life looks like! Set your intention for the day.
Morning Meditations
Most mornings for the past few years I meditate and ask myself a series of gratitude questions (I use Tony Robbins 7 morning questions, they pop right up when you Google it!) Take your time to ask yourself these questions i.e. what am I most happy about in my life right now? Notice what comes up first and notice your physical reaction. Do you smile when you think about it or get a little flutter in your heart or goose bumps? When you focus on connecting your thoughts to your physical sensations you are enhancing your experiences, thus making you even happier! If your feeling is neutral or not pleasant, pick something else! If you say something like “I’m most happy about not being at my old job I hated” you will more than likely feel the sensations associated with “the job I hated” because your brain processes in commands and does not recognize the words “no, not, can’t”. Isn’t that amazing? Your brain and body are always listening!
Tip: If you’re new to meditating, there are many free guided mediations on YouTube or apps like Insight Timer. As always, be mindful and give yourself grace for how you feel. If there’s one you listen to and you don’t find it relaxing, try another one! Its whatever works best for you! This is your routine and practice, edit it how you choose!
Control what you can, but sometimes life happens, and that’s life! At any point you can choose to “restart” your day, intentionally add in positive thoughts, smile at a stranger, do the right thing, take a pause to create space for your to respond differently, or ask yourself powerful questions like, “who do I want to be in this situation” or perhaps you decide to take an adult time out to get your mind right! -Adult time outs are always a solid option. Especially if you have kids, imagine how powerful it would be to model that regulation to them. You might just find them asking for their own time out to cool down too!
Everyday may not feel the same, still show up! It may take time to fully feel it and that’s ok! There is beauty in every sunrise as each day holds the opportunity for something new, unseen and even magical to occur! This is your time to tune into the frequency you want to live your life! Happy creating!
If you are wanting to connect with Taylor you can here:
Taylorklump.com
Instagram: @Taylorklump_
Email: Taylor@taylorklump.com
