A 5 Minute Morning Ritual To Start Every Day Off Right
What do the first five minutes in a typical day of your life look like?
Does it consist of you rolling over to hit the snooze button in disbelief that morning has already come? Or does it involve you grabbing your phone to see everything that happened on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter while you slept?
No matter how your day currently begins, I'm convinced you could be doing it better. That's a bold statement, I know, but as someone who has found himself enacting both of the above scenarios, as well as a number of other, equally unhelpful ones, far too often, I now recognize just how impactful the start of your day really is.
It's time to take control of your life and kickstart every day in the healthiest way possible:
0:00 to 1:00 - Lemon Water
Minute number one is all about hydration. Over the course of the night your body becomes increasingly dehydrated, so it is crucial you consume water (I start with 1 litre) before doing anything else, and particularly before eating.
Rather than just consuming plain old water, amp up your morning hydration by adding organic lemon. The lemon alkalizes the body, gets your digestive juices going, and offers some extra nutrients.
A bonus benefit would be to prepare the lemon water the night before, place it on your nightstand, and consume it before getting out of bed. Both myself and several others have been amazed to see how effective this can be at getting you to the bathroom right around the end of this five minute sequence. To me this is certainly something to consider, whether or not you are among the 63 million Americans who struggle with constipation.
1:00 to 2:00 - The One Minute Meditation
Whether you enjoy meditation or not, it's hard to begrudge the practice so much that you refuse to do even a single minute of it. A one minute meditation may sound uselessly brief, but the more you do it, the more you realize just how much you can accomplish in such a short period of time.
I've found that the best way to do this is to focus on one single thing. Some of my favourites include:
Physically focusing on the centre of my forehead with the intention of opening and removing any blockages from my third eye
Physically focusing on my heart with the intention of feeling love
Feeling a flow of energy between my brain and heart to increase their connectivity and coherence
Focusing on the centre of my body with the intention of aligning my chakras
Too hippie-dippie for you? Just spend a minute focusing on your breath to give your mind a chance to start the day more peacefully.
2:00 to 3:00 - Gratitude
Life can undoubtedly be a challenging experience filled with a number of trials and tribulations, but it is also a blessing with a lot to be thankful for. Before getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, minute three is all about expressing a little gratitude for the many gifts you've been given.
To do this, simply challenge yourself to come up with 10 things that you are grateful for right now — and yes, they can be the same 10 each day. To show you just how simple this can be, I'll come up with 10 for myself right now:
I am thankful to be alive right now.
I am thankful for the love and support I receive from my family.
I am thankful for the car that I drive.
I am thankful for the conversation I was able to have last night with my friend Cam.
I am thankful for the sun that is shining today.
I am thankful for the lessons I am learning from the book I am currently reading.
I am thankful for the computer that I am typing this article on.
I am thankful for having the courage to share information with the world.
I am thankful for Collective Evolution and the platform it provides me with.
I am thankful for the desire I feel within me to consistently improve upon myself.
Once again, the more you do this the easier it will become, and the more likely you are to find yourself accomplishing this task in even less than one minute.
3:00 to 4:00 - Bounce It Out
Now it's time to get moving, and what better way to do it than with the exercise that NASA called "the most efficient, effective form of exercise yet devised by man"? What is this incredible exercise you ask? It's bouncing, which you can do by making a minor investment in a rebounder/mini trampoline.
Here is a recent video I put together outlining five of the best reasons why you should make a rebounder a part of your daily life:
I now spend more than a minute on a rebounder daily, but I love getting that minute in first thing in the morning to get all of that energy flowing through my body.
4:00 to 5:00 - Shout It Out Loud
Now that you've given your body the physical boost it needs, it's time to support it with some genuine confidence. The tool that I find particularly effective at accomplishing this is incantations, something that I was introduced to by Tony Robbins in the audio book The Power to Shape Your Destiny: Seven Strategies for Massive Results.
Incantations (in the non-magical sense) are statements you repeat with the intention of bringing yourself to fully embody and believe them. To do them most effectively, Tony suggests you say them with force and let your body language match the intensity with which you deliver them.
To understand more about incantations I suggest you check out this article I put together about them earlier this year. If you have the time to do them for 10 minutes, that's great, but if not, pack them into one minute to round off this five minute morning routine in a powerful and impactful way.
