Article

If you WIN the morning, you WIN the day

January 12, 2021

“If you WIN the morning, you WIN the day”, is a quote by Tim Ferris. The motivation, encouragement, empowerment and drive that oozes from it is and can be life changing! What an incredible uplifting attitude to start the day ahead with! The most striking thing about it and about the ‘morning routine’ in general, is that it is a personal choice we can all make as to how we want to set ourselves up for the day ahead!

When you think about an ‘effective’ and ‘beneficial’ morning routine, you may automatically think that is has to incorporate exercise, fresh air, meditation, tea or coffee! But who makes up the rules as to what your own individual morning routine should consist of? Who says it has to compromise elements that may not be suited to you or activities that may cause you more personal blocks in engaging with and implementing a solid and continuous ‘morning routine’?

Winning your own morning can mean so many different things for individual people. What works for one person might not work for the other so it’s important to take some time out and to explore different elements or activities that you would like to try to incorporate into your own ‘morning routine’ in order to become a ‘champion’ of your own day and of your own life.

I am addicted to my own personal ‘morning routine’ as I have found something that really works for me. I love and really look forward to my ‘power hour’ each morning between 6am-7am, before anyone else in my house stirs. This is ‘my’ hour, it’s my own time to reflect, to motivate, to empower and set my mind, body and soul up for the day ahead! I wouldn’t miss it for the world. My addiction to this ‘self-restore’ and ‘self-development’ time is so powerful that it happens anywhere I go, be it away for the night or even on holidays, it’s now a constant pillar in my life and very much a part of who I am. I personally love opening or stepping outside the kitchen door looking onto the garden for a few mins, breathing in the fresh, early morning air, followed by approx 30mins of meditation, stillness, quiet breathing practice, in darkness if possible, followed by approx 30mins of yoga, body stretches with more breath work is my ‘tonic’. I sometimes mix in some journaling, listening to relaxing music during breathwork or guided meditations. This is what revives and ignites my mind, body and soul for my day ahead! I can guarantee you that when you find the ‘morning routine’ that you love and works for you, you too will become addicted to it and all those dopamine and serotonin hormones that it will create!

A quote I love that highlights the importance of ‘setting up’ your mind before you start your day is:

“….you can make up your bed, make up your face but before you leave the house,
MAKE UP YOUR MIND”

(quotemaster.org)

Cultivating a belief and practice of starting each brand-new day, with a new fresh mind and attitude can really help you to become more positive, more affirming and more respectful towards yourself. Committing to yourself that each new-day is a new chapter in your life and is another chance to write or re-write your own life story is like an adrenaline. We always have the power and choice to change a thought or to change our response to a stimulus, we just need to teach our minds how to do this. One way we can learn to do this is to:

“Get up every morning and tell yourself ‘I CAN DO THIS!’”

(changeinseconds.com)

So, taking the time out to investigate, to explore and to examine different elements that may help to set you up to ‘win the morning and win the day’ can be so life changing. Some people may find that something as simple as even getting up an hour earlier each day so that they have an extra hour to ‘live’ each day is their tonic, their fuel, their empowering trigger! Others may like to read, to build a jigsaw, do a crossword, to gratitude journal, exercise, sit quietly, meditate, listen to music, watch and listen to the early morning birds and their bird song, clean the house, maybe prepare the evenings dinner. It really doesn’t matter what you choose to do. It’s about creating a personal space for you to reflect, restore, renew, empower, enhance and to set yourself up for your coming day ahead! When you establish your ‘morning routine’, you will automatically gain more clarity, purpose and commitment to yourself and to your own life. You will feel grateful to have the chance to wake up to another brand-new day and to see the new day for the amazing opportunity it is to do whatever you desire!

A thought to leave you with:

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year”.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

How to set yourself up to ‘WIN the morning and WIN the day:

The following is a guide on how to set yourself up to ‘WIN the morning and WIN the day’:

  1. Start by preparing for your ‘morning routine’ the night before. It is just as important to ensure that you have adequate rest and sleep time the previous night. Limiting screen time the night before can also help you to rise refreshed, restored, renewed and ready to start your ‘morning routine’.

2. Try to create a few minutes in your ‘morning routine’ to write down 3-5 things that you are grateful for in your life and on that particular day. When you see them written down, it helps to create a positive, nurturing response in your body.

3. Affirm to yourself every morning that you are doing the best that you can and to the best of your ability. Confirm to yourself that ‘I CAN and I WILL’ today.

4. Incorporate whatever elements you wish to into your morning routine to help you to feel better able to focus during your day, to feel empowered, to feel like you are accomplishing your goals and dreams.

5. Every-morning, praise and tell yourself that you are ‘PROUD’ of yourself, that you are ‘GRATEFUL’ for the gift of another day of life and that you are ‘COMMITTED’ to doing what you desire to help you to feel and to become the ‘BEST’ version of yourself.

Morning routines can come in different shapes and sizes

Thank you as always to Brian O’Loughlin and his team at Celtic Media Group (https://www.anglocelt.ie/, https://www.con-telegraph.ie/, https://www.meathchronicle.ie/, https://www.offalyindependent.ie/, https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/ and https://www.westmeathindependent.ie/ for all their wonderful help!

As published by The Celtic Media Group in The Anglo Celt, Connaught Telegraph, Meath Chronicle, Offaly Independent, Westmeath Examiner and Westmeath Independent newspapers w/c 11/01/2021


empowerfocusmindfulnessmorningmorning routinerenewrestoreself care

Leona McDonnell

Hi, I’m Leona McDonnell and I am a Mindfulness Teacher. I empower the children, teenagers and adults that I work with through Mindfulness, Meditation and Wellness with the belief that they already have all of the resources they need inside themselves to be the best version of themselves possible …. they just need to learn how to connect to and utilise these internal resources. I teach those I work with how to experience calm, peace and serenity in their everyday lives and I teach people how to reduce the everyday chatter in their minds. Having always being a very nervous and anxious child and teenager, from being afraid of my own breath, my own heartbeat, my own shadow, from undergoing numerous emergency medical surgeries with complicated recoveries, ICU admission, from anxiety, trauma and post natal depression to getting glandular fever in my mid 30’s, with 2 young children at home, working outside the home and also running my own Healing Practice, I hit breaking point in my own life some years back. I was stuck in a state of ‘Flight’, in a state of continuous panic. I had a broken mind, a broken body and a depleted soul. I didn’t know what to do, where to go, how to fix things. It was the toughest time and recovery of my life…. I then stumbled upon a local Yoga class and I decided to join it to see if I could create some calmness into my invasive mind and thoughts. I can remember not being able to even change my own natural breathing rhythm for the first few weeks, as I was in such a panicked state. As time went on, I grew to love Yoga as it made me reconnect with my body and my breath. It made me learn to trust my breath again. I then went on and sought out Mindfulness tools and techniques that I could introduce into my daily life. I slowly learned how to become more present in my life. I learned how to stop ruminating in my past and how to stop worrying about my future and just be present and accept the only moment I could change, which is the present moment, the most important moment. I learned how to ‘Train my Brain’ using Mindfulness tools and techniques. Coupled with Gratitude Journaling, Meditation and with a lot of time spent outdoors in nature, I began to feel much better. I began to feel much more centered in myself, more grounded, calmer and more present. After a number of years of my own daily Mindfulness, Meditation and Yoga practice, I felt amazing and had a zest for life! At this point, I decided that I needed to share with and help as many children and adults as I could with what helped me to transform my life! So I went on and did my Mindfulness training and here I am today!

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