Wake Me Up: Morning Positivity - Morning Routine for Happiness and Contentment

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

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If you'd like to enjoy Wake Me Up completely ad-free and get access to exclusive bonus content, check out the link in the show notes for the Wake Me Up premium feed. Good morning and welcome to Wake Me Up. The way this podcast works is pretty simple. Just turn on an episode while you're still in bed. All you have to do is follow along as I guide you through a refreshing morning routine that's sure to leave you relaxed and excited about your day. To have great mornings, you really just need to have a regular morning routine. That's why Wake Me Up works. If you tune in consistently, you'll become a morning person in no time. And you'll find that if you consistently win your morning, you'll consistently win your day. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

It'd be really helpful to tell others how they might benefit. from the podcast as well. Let's get started. So as you're lying there in bed, you can just listen to me as we take the next few minutes to get up. You can start by rolling onto your back and wiggling your fingers and toes, open your eyes, and allow the morning light to help you wake up. Begin to take some deep breaths. Notice the flow of air in and out of the air, in and out your chest, draw the air deep into your belly, hold it for just a moment, and exhale. Now bring that movement to your arms and legs, nice and gentle. You may have a difficult day ahead, you may have an easy day ahead, most likely it'll

be somewhere in the middle. Either way, you can win this day. matter what is in store for you. It starts right here, right now. If you win this morning, you'll be primed and ready for anything to come today. So take one more deep breath in, and as you exhale, roll over on your side, place your feet on the ground and stand up. Feel the sensation of your feet on the floor.

Feel the blood beginning to move through your body. Notice yourself coming to life. Stretch your arms to the sky, bend at your hips and take a forward fold. And just loosen your body up. Now that you're up and stretched out, let's take a moment to get ready for a bit of meditation. If you'd like, you can have a sip of water and make your way to a comfortable seated position. You can sit anywhere you'd like, just don't sit in bed. And while you take a moment to find that comfortable seat,

I'm going to share with you my tip of the day. The tip of the day is a bite-sized piece of information that will help augment the morning routine you'll build with this podcast. Since this is the first episode of Wake Me Up, I want to talk about the importance of prioritizing your morning routine. Many of the most successful people in the world tout their morning routine as the key to their accomplishments. We know from science that the human mind is particularly suggestible in the waking hours.

So if you feed it distractions, it will be distracted most of the day. If you feed it focus, it will be focused most of the day. So the most important thing that you can do to start having consistently better days is to prioritize having a good morning. Decide that the first 30 minutes of your day is the most important part. If you execute on those 30 minutes, the rest of your day will fall in line accordingly. I've done this myself, so I can speak from personal experience. I wasn't always a morning person. I used to hit this news button several times almost every day.

Some days I'd be really productive, and others would just be a wash. Some days I'd be really happy and grounded. Others I felt disorganized, lazy, or chaotic. I was getting tired of it. So I decided to experiment with myself. I set a simple, standardized, morning routine. I always got up with my alarm, no snoozing. But I got up calmly and slowly. I'd have a glass of water and sit down for meditation. After that, I did a simple journaling exercise.

It took me about a week to get used to it, and my days began to blossom. I was physically, psychologically, and emotionally better off. It kind of blew me away how simple it was, but it worked like magic. I've always loved the saying, keep it simple, stupid. There really is truth to it. And that's exactly why I made this podcast.

So I hope it does the same for you too. Now that you've found a comfortable seat, you can just listen to my voice as I guide you. you through a brief meditation. Now many people hear the word meditation and automatically tense up. Meditation requires literally no effort. A better word for it would be sitting because that's all you're going to do. Sit. That's why it's great to do in the morning. Thoughts will come and go because that's what our brains do and all you do

is sit and watch it's as though you're laying in a field watching the clouds move through the sky each thought is a cloud and you're just noticing them as they float by not judging or worrying about them just watching so you can gently close your eyes

and breathe deep into your belly hold that breath for just a moment before exhaling slowly. Take three or four deep breaths just like that at your own pace. As you take these breaths, draw yourself inward. Notice the subtle movements of your body, your heart beating, your chest, rising and falling with each breath. Notice what it feels like to breathe with your lungs.

And as you sit, watching your breath, thoughts will come to mind. That's perfectly normal. You're not doing anything wrong. You can just note that thought like a passing cloud in the sky. It's just a thought. As quickly as it arises, it's replaced. But you remain. your breath remains so whenever you find yourself distracted just note the thought and return to your breath

if you find yourself distracted remember just to return to your breath what does it feel like to breathe what does it feel like in your chest your belly your neck your shoulders and your back. Just watch your breath from all sides. Now you can draw your attention to your body. Notice the sensation of sitting on the chair. You can begin to wiggle your fingers and toes. Bringing a little movement back to the body. Notice the sounds of the room you're in. or the noise from the street outside. Notice the smell of the air you're breathing, and slowly open your eyes.

It's time for today's send-off. In this final portion of the podcast, I share a bit of positivity to motivate you for the day ahead. Today I want to talk about a thought experiment that I learned from Alan Watts. And if you don't know Alan Watts, I highly recommend checking him out. The thought experiment goes like this.

What if you had the ability to control your dreams? Each night while you slept, you could live an entire lifetime, let's say 75 years. At first, you'd surely use your newfound skill to live out your wildest fantasies. You'd explore every nook and cranny of the earth. You'd fall in love, perhaps even more than once. You'd be rich, you'd be famous, you'd skydive and go to space. Night after night, you would live out the best life you could wish for. But eventually, after controlling every moment of many lifetimes, you'd get bored.

You would have done everything there is to do, seen everything there is to see. You would have been in control for so long that it's not exciting anymore. You would miss that excitement, that thrill of life that you can only find by not knowing. That thrill of doing something brand new. That thrill that comes only with not being in control. And so, after living out these many perfect lives in dream after dream, you'd give up complete control. Because you want the thrill of living a life without a predetermined future. and you'd find yourself exactly where you are in this moment,

a flawed person facing known and unknown challenges, to which you don't know all the answers. Yet you would be invigorated with life, invigorated by the thrill you'd lost, always being in complete control. You see, this life is the dream of all dreams. Surely it's not perfect, but that's what makes it interesting. That's what gives it direction and purpose.

We spend so much time worrying about the outcome of our lives that we forget the entirety of life is lived in the present moment. The outcome is right now. The outcome of life is the journey of life. And because the outcome is the present moment, you can change the outcome instantaneously. Like the flip of a switch, you need only decide to make a change right now.

If you do, the outcome of the next moment is immediately changed. In fact, even if you don't make a change, if you do nothing in this moment, you're affecting the outcome of the next moment. The outcome would be one of laziness in the prior moment. So the control is truly all yours. You can choose to be positive. You can choose to be healthy and happy right now in this moment.

And thereby change every other moment in the rest of your life. That's all for today, friends. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave a review or share it with a friend. I'd also love to hear from you. so please share your feedback at wake meuppodcast.com. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful day.