Alarm. Blissful yawn and stretch. Jump out of bed energised, refreshed and ready for the day.
Sound like you? Thought not. Are your mornings more bleurgh than bounce?
High speed city lifestyles need high energy levels. Try these ideas to get you leaping out of bed. Well, nearly.
A good morning starts with bedtime the night before. Check your diet to ensure you are eating the right meals for a good night’s sleep. Invest in some blackout blinds or good curtains for a dark room. Put the phone off (yes really). Treat yourself to a good old-fashioned alarm clock for a no-blue-light timecheck.
Talking of phones – don’t leap for it the second you wake up. FOMO is also a sleep-thief. Nothing is that urgent. Honestly. Plenty of time for the information bombardment later. Instead, begin your day gently with a few minutes of ‘me-time’. Meditation, a little music, even a few morning stretches.
A cold shower will get anyone alert. Ok, that’s a little bit harsh for most of us. Compromise with a short blast of cold at the end of your normal warm shower. James Bond does this in the Ian Fleming books. If it works for an ageless super-spy who survives anything, it can work for the office jungle.
No-one wants an 11am sugar crash. Equally no-one wants to waste time preparing food when it could have been spent in extra shut-eye! The right breakfast need take only a few minutes, and will keep you energised right through to lunch.
As a final de-slugifying measure, get some natural light during the day. That will help set your body clock to know when to be alert and when to sleep. Walk to your Hussle workout, go for a park run or even enjoy time with a good book in the park.
A few tweaks make for a big change. Welcome to a new day!
Photo by Tracey Hocking on Unsplash
Id never really thought about the importance of getting natural light during the day, I do get some, but maybe not enough, so definitely food for thought
I do the cold water at the end of a shower and it makes me feel good and freshens me up. I would also recommend doing a few moments of mindfulness meditation when you wake up.
I learnt to turn the phone off the hard way - people really do think nothing of texting at stupid o'clock, do they? Too much faff to put it on silent, so it stays in the living room and I spent a fiver on an alarm clock. Job done.