The constant stress of everyday living takes a lot of energy to meet the demands of growth and improvement. All of us dream of starting our mornings feeling refreshed and ready to start the day with a clean slate. This is the ideal way to live our lives – with enough energy to live it, but using enough of that energy to sleep sound at night. For many us however, this is not the reality.

Many of us succumb to quick fixes like caffeine and sugar to make up for the sluggish, drained, and passive feeling of dread that we come to accept as normal. These quick fixes only accomplish an endless cycle of high and low in energy level that depend on the continued use of caffeine or sugar. To have some freedom over our energy so that we can achieve the dreams we have to break this unnecessary and damaging cycle. The solution is to try a healthier, natural approach to our problems instead of evading them. Implementing small changes will help create a more natural and energized lifestyle that will cultivate the perfect vibe to achieve your dreams.

Starting Your Day Right

1. Pay attention to how you feel in the morning. Do you feel dread? Do you feel irrational anger at your alarm clock? Do you feel numb? Depending on the answer find a solution to combat this and create a healthier frame of mind. How do you want to feel when you wake up? Journaling out your thoughts and your dreams is a great way to pick out the divide between what you say that you want and your reality. Your goal is to limit this gap as much as possible. This will help you pick your problem areas and will help you address them so that you can live well.

2. Try mediating for five minutes. Find a nice tune or mediation session track that lasts 5 minutes so you don’t have to track the time. Find a comfortable area to sit – try using a pillow for added comfort. Sit in the posture you feel best in and allow your mind to focus on nothing. Ok, I’m exaggerating; it’s impossible to think of nothing (I’ve tried). So I learned the best approach is to let go of thoughts that intrude as I’m trying to mediate. Each time a negative thought invades you as you’re mediating hold it for a second. Destroy your negativity or better yet accept it but don’t focus on it. Tell your thought “I accept you” and let it drift away. The focus in your practice should be on your breath, and how your body is feeling. Allow your body to send you the message “I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive”. You should hear this message as you focus on your breath coming in and out of you, as you focus on your stomach rising and falling, as you focus on your heartbeat. Listening to this message everyday it will help you focus on what’s really important – you’re are alive.

3. Sun Salutation. I love starting off my days like this. It’s such a cheerful and tranquil way to greet the day. A key component of vinyasa style yoga the history of this sequence is not fully known but it is often used as warm up. Beside the health benefits of moving early in the morning, doing this routine is way to express gratitude to the sun for sustaining our life here on Earth. I can think of no better way to start the day than by giving thanks.

4. Try writing. As soon as you get up write something. Maybe you could personify the day and tell the day your feelings and ambitions for that day. It may seem silly but allowing your thoughts to have a resting ground allows them to at least escape you so they don’t bother you as much anymore. You could also make a jar full of short writing prompts and everyday randomly pick one out. Starting the day by activating the brain muscles to do something creative is a great way to kick off a productive day.

5. Start your day with something that inspires you. This is my favorite way to start my day. I like to take books with inspirational quotes or short stories and read one before I start my day. But you can use anything that speaks to your heart. It can be interesting science facts, for example. There are series of books that teach an interesting fact from psychology, history, and other fields every day. There are also inspirational quotes from famous people that you can use to gear you towards the right state of mind. Even religious books can help you focus on how you want your day to go. It’s all about creating intention for the day to make it meaningful. Know every day that you are important and that what you do matters.

6. Opt for the Tea. I know the studies for this are pretty divided with both researchers showing the pros of both coffee and tea. But there is one thing that cannot be denied and that is that coffee has more caffeine. Anything with caffeine if taken too much can cause increased anxiety, insomnia, restlessness, and loss of energy. If you want higher energy decrease your caffeine intake in all forms as well skipping on the heavy cream and sugar. It is a horrible trap to fall into.

7. Don’t deprive yourself of a delicious and nutritious breakfast. When I think of having energy to achieve my dreams, I think about the fact that in order to achieve financial freedom and business you need to know how to allocate resources. That means using the things in your life to the best of your ability and using the things that serve you best. Think of food as fuel that is supposed to propel you in your day. Foods that boost energy include bananas, chocolate, peanuts, and whole grain to name a few. So a good breakfast could include a whole wheat sandwich with peanut butter and chopped bananas slices and a cup of ginger tea.

8. Consider practicing simple aromatherapy. There is nothing like waking up in the morning and starting your day with yoga or meditation and combining it with simple aromatherapy by diffusing a few drops of energizing essential oils such as Bergamot, Peppermint, Lemon, Orange to name a few. Reach a new level of serenity with this combined approach.

Continuing these simple tips throughout the day should increase your drive and energy. It’s important to develop a healthy habit over time until they become a habit and become a part of your lifestyle. Once you can take on the new habit and see the benefit you won’t want to go back.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop – Confucius

SaveSave