Set Yourself Up For Success With A Morning Ritual

Do you start your day by checking your emails, social media or the news and then end up rushing to get things ready for the day? Or do you hit the snooze button several times and then struggle to get going? 

How you start your day really matters.

Research is increasingly showing that how you start your day can heavily influence how you feel for the rest of that day. If you start feeling rushed then you can probably expect that sensation to stay with you. It’s the same if you start feeling grumpy or anxious. 

An intentional morning ritual, however, can positively influence your mood for the entire day.

There are countless 'successful' people who swear by the power of this practice. Muhammad Ali started his day by repeating affirmations, Oprah Winfrey starts her day with meditation, Richard Branson starts his day with exercise, Benjamin Franklin asked himself “what good should I do today?”, and the list goes on… 

Stacked up over time, the simple practice of a positive and empowering morning ritual can make a huge impact on all areas of your life, including your health and weight management after WLS. 

“How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of succes in every single area of your life. Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive successful days – which inevitably create a successful life – in the same way that unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre mornings generate unfocused, unproductive and mediocre days, and ultimately a mediocre quality of life. By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you every thought possible”

– Hal Elrod (author of 'The Miracle Morning', which is well worth reading!)

So how do we go about tapping into this powerful habit?

The good news is that the morning ritual doesn’t need to be complicated or long - even 15 minutes of a simple practice can profoundly improve your mental state.

There are also many different ways to do it.  The most important aspect is that you find something that works for you.

Here are a number of suggested actions that you could enjoy for 15 minutes or more:

• Movement / Stretching (rhythmical movement such as easy walking, bike riding or swimming is especially powerful at combatting stress and lifting your mood);
• Meditation (headspace.com is a great place to find out more with many free resources);
• Focused breathing (here’s an 11-minute breathwork audio from our resources library);
• Visualising your goals (here’s a 10-minute health vision audio to help you create an inspiring health goal);
• Practising gratitude (for example, writing down 5 things to be grateful for in your life);
• Planning your day;
• Journaling your thoughts and feelings; and
• Repeating affirmations (google ‘positive health affirmations’ and find some that resonate with you).

If you combine a number of these actions together then it can make them even more powerful.

For example, life coach Tony Robbins recommends the following 15-minute ritual:

Step 1 - Ideally, when you wake up, you go outside for a walk. You’re training your mind and your body to start your day with movement and this will help to increase your metabolism. As you’re walking you breathe in through the nose for 4 steps and then breathe out through pursed lips for 4 steps, and you repeat this energising practice for 5 minutes. 

Step 2 - Practice gratitude and then visualise success.  Gratitude is a powerful antidote to fear and worry, however you have to cultivate it daily. As you continue to walk, think about everything that you feel grateful for in your life. Start with yourself, for example, your health, your home, and your achievements and then extend this to the people you love; your family members, your close friends and colleagues, and then reflect on special moments that you’re grateful for.  Next, focus on things that you really want in your life - but focus on them as though they’re already achieved.  Your brain can’t tell the difference between something you vividly imagine and something that’s real. So see it and feel it and think about it. The more you can do this, the faster you will start to move towards your goals. 

Step 3 - The final step is to say affirmations. Find some positive phrases that resonate with you (Google ‘positive affirmations’ and you will find thousands). For example, you could say “I’m getting healthier and healthier every day”,  “Every day, in every way, I’m getting stronger and stronger”, or “All I need is within me now”. Use affirmations that resonate with you and say them with passion and enthusiasm.  If you do it over and over again, then it can have a dramatic effect on your emotional state and really boost your confidence and sense of self worth. 

If this exact routine doesn’t work for you then you can easily adapt it using our list above. Find a routine that works for you (this may take some time as you experiment). If you’re time-poor then you can still do something on the commute to work, or say affirmations to music whilst you’re in the shower. 

The most important part is that you do it regularly.

Remember, we actually have a significant amount of influence over how we feel in every moment, and whatever feelings we bring into our lives on a regular basis will help determine the quality of our lives. When we tap into a morning ritual properly then we get to access emotions of joy, gratitude, connection, love, wonder and, of course, motivation.

When you create and connect to those emotions on a regular basis, then you can boost your mindset so that it helps you move towards your best results after WLS, every day!