Slow Mornings
Create habits to ease into a new day
By Gabriella Enniss
Imagine your alarm goes off and you’ve already hit snooze three times — your heart races when you realize the time. As you hop out of bed, you remember forgetting to pick out your clothes the night before. So, you rush over to the laundry basket to throw something together. As you head to the kitchen, you realize you don’t have time for breakfast because you have an 8 a.m. meeting and it’s already 7:35. You hop into your car and drive to work, feeling stressed, and you wonder if you put on deodorant before leaving.
Starting your day off this way is not ideal. You could feel stressed and distracted for the rest of your workday. So, what is the alternative?
Creating a slow morning routine is a better and more productive way to begin your day. A slow morning routine is a wellness practice focused on developing habits to ease yourself into your new day without stress or hassle. It gives you intentional time for self-care. Here are some recommended steps to create a slow morning routine.
1. Pause before you open your devices.
Those first 30 to 60 minutes of your morning allow your body to adjust to the new day by following its natural process of waking up. According to a Forbes article by Jay Rai, your body shifts from a deep sleep to a daydreamy state and finally to an alert state.
Introducing screens early on can interrupt your body’s natural process of waking up and shift it into an alert and more distracted state. The blue light from devices and notifications from emails, news and social media have been shown to increase stress levels, decrease feelings of happiness and limit the capacity for early morning creativity.
2. Plan the day.
Having a plan the night before can help eliminate the hurry and give you more time for the things that matter. Plan your breakfast by meal prepping, set your clothing aside and have your essentials (keys, wallet, bag or purse) prepped. Doing these steps in advance will allow you more time to enjoy breakfast or coffee or partake in a hobby or activity.