I read the book The Miracle Morning about 7 or 8 years ago. This was a game changer for me not being a morning person. I started to change the way that I started my day just by waking up earlier and establishing a routine. Since becoming a mom, my miracle morning has changed over the years, and I have had to wake up even earlier to be out the door on time for work. Starting the day off with some self-care and quiet time to myself is just what my overstimulated mom brain needs each day. I felt like sharing my daily routine may inspire you to take advantage of the wee hours of the morning before the chaos begins.
The Alarm Goes Off
The first thing I had to change was learning to just get up when the alarm goes off. No longer was I pressing the snooze button or laying there for “just 5 more minutes”. I hear the alarm and I just get out of bed. For me, this has become 4:30 AM. A few months ago, it was 5:00 AM, but this proved to be not enough time to get my 2-year-old and myself out the door on time. Often my cat is waking me up just before my alarm goes off. I don’t know why they have to be such jerks like that.
When I get out of bed, I make sure to drink a big glass of water to help hydrate and wake me up. You may not realize that the fatigue you feel in the morning, may be due to the fact that you have not consumed any liquid for the past 6-8 hours. Try a tall glass of water first thing. It’s a game changer. After feeding the ravenous feline, I pop a k-cup into the Keurig and make myself a cup of coffee to start my quiet time. Even with the water, this mama needs some coffee.
Meditation While my Coffee Cools
I use a Yeti coffee mug. Those things keep the coffee very insulated. This gives me enough time to do my morning meditation, while it is still cooling. I’ve tried meditating in silence to a timer and focusing on my breath, but I really prefer guided meditation and a variety of them. Sometimes I am doing manifestation meditations, sometimes a nice body scan, and lately even some pregnancy specific meditations. My favorite app to use is Insight Timer. This app is free with over 150,000 tracks! On my home page, there is suggestions for the day, which I often choose from. If I have liked a track in the past, I can bookmark it and use one of those. I usually only meditate for 10-15 minutes on my workdays.
Journaling and Planning with a Focused Mind
Once my brain is focused on the here and now following the meditation session, I’m ready to put it to paper. I like to journal a little bit and take a look at my daily planner. Journaling could be anything from writing about the day before, the day to come, gratitude, or whatever I was manifesting during my meditation session. Some days I have a lot to write about, other days it’s just a paragraph.
I take a look at my Sugar Paper Planner. Maybe I’m a child of the 90s and the nostalgia of the school agendas gets to me, but I have always loved a good, old fashioned paper planner. I like the organization of my weekly and monthly goals, daily to-do lists, and looking ahead. I also keep track of what workout I am going to do that day. My workout plan is made at the beginning of each month.
Bonus Time for Reading or Learning
I have added in some extra time to my morning routine for reading or listening to material that will improve my life in some way. In the past, I used this time to read self-help books, but lately I have been focusing on improving my understanding of prenatal yoga and the pelvic floor. I am trying to become more knowledgeable on things that will help me have a better pregnancy, birth and postpartum period. I plan to use this knowledge to continue to help others in some way or another.
Getting The Blood Flowing
Working out or doing yoga has been essential to my daily routine. If you are someone who doesn’t work out, add it to your morning routine right now! Once you do this for a few weeks, your life will be changed! You will have so much more energy. During my first pregnancy, I worked out pretty intensely using at home programs not necessarily made for pregnant people. I knew to modify if it felt wrong for my body.
After a difficult postpartum experience, I decided to change things up this time around. I have been doing a lot of exercises from Pregnancy and Postpartum TV on YouTube. The videos are safe and effective for pregnant mamas. I am almost 24 weeks pregnant and have been feeling great. There is a great variety of strengthening exercises, cardio, Yoga, and Pilates. I usually work out for about 30 minutes and make sure to drink another big glass of water during this time.
Ayurvedic Routine
After a quick shower, I start my morning ayurvedic routine. I wrote a whole other blog post about this that you can read more about here.
I start with tongue scraping, which consists of scraping the tongue with a metal tongue scraper. PRetty sel explanatory, right? This helps to remove the toxicity before it gets into the rest of the body. Following tongue scraping, I oil pull with ayurvedic pulling oil. Oil pulling is simply swishing oils around in your mouth. This helps to improve the breath, prevent cavities and tooth decay, whitens teeth and strengthens the gums. It also removes oil soluble toxins from your system, which improves digestion and your immune system. Sometimes, I do this while I am showering to save time.
After I take a shower, I do some dry brushing. I bought a firm bristle brush to scrape dead skin off before applying oil. I use almond oil to massage into my skin, which is recommended for Vata dosha. This practice promotes detoxification, tones the muscles, and helps relax the nervous system.
Lastly, I clear out the nasal passages. Nasal cleaning disinfects and moisturizes the nasal passages decreasing mucus, toxins you breathe in, and allergens. I suffer from year-round allergies, which have really improved since I started using my Neti Pot. It is currently the middle of winter, and the air is cold and dry. My Neti pot has also helped with the congestion and irritation from that, not to mention speeds up recovery from nasty little bugs that my son brings home from daycare.
Nourishing My Body
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The easiest and quickest way for me to do this is with a daily superfood shake. I use Shakeology shake mix, half of a frozen banana, a scoop of Teddy’s peanut butter and a spoonful of spirulina. I make my shake, while preparing my son’s breakfast. He has woken up at this point and my morning “me time” has come to a close. Usually, I have to drink my shake, while he is on my lap watching Paw Patrol.
I also make sure to take a daily prenatal vitamin. My favorite one has been Eu Natural Glow Prenatal Vitamin. The capsule form makes it easier to put down without the associated nausea. They are vegetarian with DHA and folate.
So… Do I Get Out the Door on Time?
I have to leave my house by 7:30 to get my son to daycare and get to work by 8:00. If you recall, I have now been up for 3 hours. Despite all of this time, there are still many mornings that I feel rushed to get out the door. It is so variable on when my son wakes up and how cooperative he is. My husband usually packs his lunch, while I sit with him. Amongst the morning toddler pandemonium, I am so grateful for the time that I had to myself. It is totally worth getting up before the sun to make sure I have this moment just for me.