A Mindfulness Morning Routine For More Calm

Mindfulness can be incredibly calming in the morning and help you to feel more present during a time of day that can often feel rushed and stressful. If you’re looking to build a mindful morning routine, this post might just be for you. A morning mindfulness routine can sometimes be the difference between a stressful morning or a more relaxed morning that sets your day up in a positive way leaving you feeling calmer and more focused.

A morning mindfulness routine is essentially allowing yourself the space to understand that each morning is a new beginning. Every morning we have a new chance to reflect and appreciate the little things we sometimes take for granted. Morning mindfulness is a great habit to have and there’s really no downside to slowing down and bringing mindful intention to everything you do before you step out the door.

Creating a mindful morning routine doesn’t mean you have to set aside half an hour to meditate, it can be built into the things you already do in the morning. In fact, your mindful morning routine can be as short as a few minutes long, depending on what you’d like to do.

Use this morning routine as a framework and take or add things as you see fit. Part of making healthy habits stick is finding what works for you personally and taking it one step at a time.

Here’s the best mindful routine in the AM that includes many of the things we all do in the morning and how you can do them more mindfully to feel a little bit calmer before you head out.

1. Breathe

A good mindful morning starts with a breathing exercise. This can be incredibly grounding when you wake up and either feel a bit sluggish or rushed. The good news is, that it doesn’t have to take long. In fact, it can take only 3 minutes with this short mindful breathing exercise.

Find somewhere comfortable to sit or lie down and close your eyes if you’d like to.

• Bring your awareness to your breathing. Try to focus only on your breathing for one minute. If your mind starts to wander, gently observe your thoughts before bringing your focus back to your breathing
• Spend the second minute of this exercise actively noticing your thoughts. Try not to label them as negative or positive, simply observe them as they come and go almost like clouds or falling leaves in the wind.
• Finally, spend the third minute of this exercise noticing how your breathing is affecting the rest of your body. Do you feel calmer and less hurried? Be patient with yourself and show yourself compassion.

This breathing exercise is simple and easy for anyone to try. Remember, if you start to wonder if you’re doing it right, be patient with yourself and simply continue until the 3 minutes are up.

2. Check your devices if you need to

Most of us check our notifications in the morning yet most of the advice out there is to avoid looking at your phone, especially social media late at night or first thing in the morning. Whilst it’s not always helpful to look at your notifications at these times, many of us still will.

When you reach for your phone in the morning and start scrolling, do it mindfully. Whatever you’re checking, bring your awareness to how it makes you feel. Prior to this, notice what your mood is like and if it changes once you’ve scrolled your phone. Pay attention to if your mood changes or if you feel more stressed, anxious or maybe even more sluggish.

Again, show yourself compassion whilst you do this. You can use the feedback you feel within your body to make a different decision in your habits the following day.

3. Enjoy your warm drink mindfully

Many of us enjoy a hot cup of coffee in the morning. Make it a mindful one by sitting down to drink it, and giving it your full attention as you drink it. Switch off the TV and notice how the warmth of the mug feels on your skin and how that affects the rest of your body as it runs up your arms.

Bring your awareness to the sensation of the warm drink going down your throat. Notice the smells as you prepare and then finally drink your drink to completion, taking your time and showing a sense of gratitude for the opportunity to have a warm drink first thing in the morning.

4. Prepare your breakfast mindfully

If you’re a breakfast person, the next thing you can consider doing is preparing your breakfast mindfully. This means not tipping cereal into a bowl or bread into a toaster but preparing your own fresh food for your morning meal.

If you need more time to do this, you may need to set your alarm a little bit earlier or prepping your food the evening before. Preparing your own fresh foods for breakfast is a great way to be mindful as you chop, slice and fry.

To do this mindfully, get your hands dirty. Hold your foods and bring your awareness to their texture and colours. Think about where they were grown and how they might have gotten to your plate.

Bring a sense of gratitude to your food as you eat it, pay attention to how it feels in your mouth and how it nourishes you as it enters your stomach.

Try and get involved with the cooking process as much as you can to make cooking your breakfast a mindful activity.

5. Write in your journal

A great addition to your mindful morning routine is to write in your journal. You can write about the night’s sleep you had and how it’s made you feel and you can also jot down your intentions for the day to outline clear goals and what you want to get out of the day ahead.

When you’re jotting down your intentions, think about why you want to do them and what you think you’ll get out of them. Ask yourself if they are realistic or if you may need to change them a little bit to make them more achievable.

Later that evening, you can come back to your journal and write down if you did what you set out to do and discuss anything that made your goal difficult or what helped you to complete it.

6. Sit and contemplate

When was the last time you simply sat and spent some time contemplating and reflecting? Instead of turning on the news first thing in the morning, set some time aside even if it’s 5 minutes to sit and reflect on anything you like. You could use this time when you’re journaling or you could simply do it in silence with your eyes closed. Start by bringing your awareness to your breathing. Use it as your anchor that’s always there for you to come back to throughout this calming exercise.

You don’t have to follow a guided meditation or think about anything in particular, just sit and think with your eyes closed. When you do this, try not to become attached to your thoughts or label them good or bad, just observe the thoughts that come to you and watch them fade into new thoughts.

Resist the urge to judge them or yourself. Your job is to simply be an observer, allowing yourself to be separated from the images and words that come to you. If you find yourself fixating on a thought, try to gently bring your awareness back to the rhythm of your breathing.

This activity makes for a great part of your morning mindfulness routine as it’s not only calming but always helps to sharpen your ability to detach yourself from both positive and negative thoughts you may experience throughout the day.

7. Get your blood pumping

Exercise in the morning can often feel like a bit of a chore, especially if you haven’t had a great night’s sleep the previous night. However, exercise can be an incredibly mindful activity. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that there’s probably nothing quite like exercise to get your head into the present moment.

When you get your blood pumping from exercise, you hone your focus and you find that there’s little else to think about except for the task at hand. Unlike many mindful activities, exercise is of course very physically active so if you’re not a fan of traditional meditation, doing some form of exercise might be a more fun way to meditate and be mindful.

You don’t need to spend half an hour on a treadmill either. Simply doing some sit-ups or push-ups can get your heart rate up.

Of course, if you choose to add exercise to your morning mindfulness routine, be patient with yourself and notice the sensations in your body as you go. Be patient with yourself. If you’re new to exercising, you don’t need to push yourself or even find a fancy workout routine. Just start small and be kind to yourself.

Focus on some exercise that gets your heart rate up and notice how it can sharpen your focus. Many people use exercise for the mental benefits alone.

8. Brush your teeth with mindful attention

When you come to brush your teeth in the morning, why not do it mindfully? Sometimes it’s easy to rush them but slowing down and paying attention to each brush can help you to feel fully present as you do it. As you squirt your toothpaste on your brush, feel a sense of gratitude that you are able to clean your teeth so well each and every day.

Brush slowly, noticing how the bristles rub over your teeth and between them on your gums. Feel the toothpaste foaming, coating your teeth in a cleansing way. Pay attention to how your tongue feels. Is it minty fresh? What about your breath? How long does it take you to brush your teeth fully?

Run your tongue over your teeth, noticing how smooth and clean they feel.

9. Make the mundane mindful

Alongside brushing your teeth, make all your morning tasks mindful. Whether it’s ironing shirts or putting the washing on, bring your awareness to the task at hand to be more present. Take your time, and notice every step you take in your morning routines by using your senses to ground you as you go.

Pay attention to the feel of each object against your skin, the smells, the look and even the taste. Do everything you do with intention and focus.

10. Cultivate gratitude

Starting your day focusing on gratitude is a great way to be more mindful in the morning. When you train yourself to focus on what you’re grateful for, you can improve your mood over time. It’s also a brilliant way to ground yourself in the present moment.

You can do this through silent thinking or you can add what you’re feeling grateful for in your daily journal entry. If you’re in a hurry, be patient with yourself and jot down a few things you appreciate in that moment.

Some days can feel busy and hectic and often we can lose focus of that which we’re grateful for. If it’s a person you’re grateful for, for example, why not give them a hug and tell them how much they mean to you? No doubt you’ll make their day and make yourself feel good at the same time.

11. Summon love and kindness

Start your day with love and kindness by bringing this exercise to your mindfulness morning routine.

• Find somewhere comfortable to sit for 5 minutes where you won’t be disturbed. Focus your attention on your breathing if you can.
• Now, close your eyes if you’d prefer and see yourself surrounded by a warm white light that is full of love and compassion
• Imagine those you love coming to you with their own warm aura surrounding them. Embrace them with love and notice how your warm lights both transfer to each other. There is no need to say anything to each other, simply, engage them without expectation.

When you’re finished, allow the light to dissipate before gradually opening your eyes and slowly moving your body.

12. Bring awareness to your feelings

Notice how you feel when you wake up in the morning all the way up until you leave the house and lunchtime comes around. What is it that has made you feel the way you do? Without judgment towards yourself, consider how you have landed in the mood you find yourself in.

You can carry this throughout the day, taking mindful breaks and checking in with yourself by using the breathing exercise in tip number one from this list. Listen to your body and your senses. Could your sleep have affected the way you feel this morning? Could you try to sleep a different way or go to bed at a different time this evening?

For a stress-free mindful morning routine

For a stress-free mindful morning routine, be patient with yourself. If you haven’t practised mindfulness much in the past, it’s easy to ask yourself if you’re doing it right. Mindfulness is not something that comes naturally to a lot of people, after all, we have busy lives where it’s sometimes hard to take time out of our busy schedules to reflect and check in with ourselves.

Show yourself a degree as you practise this routine. You don’t have to perform every exercise on this list. Pick a few things that make sense to you and try and implement them over the course of a week, to begin with. If they seem easy to complete, start adding a few more in when you’re ready.

Making mindfulness a habit takes time like any other habit so there’s no need to rush and cause your mornings to be more stressful than they need to be.

If you’re short on time before you leave the house, consider practising some of these tips once you get to work or during your day.