Having a solid morning routine can greatly improve your life. This week, Lisa and Brad explore how to construct a morning routine that will make a positive difference.
When I was grappling with the darkest period of my life, suffocating under the weight of ill health, it was the discovery of a morning routine that breathed new life into my days. Inspired by Hal Elrod's "The Miracle Morning," I embraced the S.A.V.E.R.S. philosophy, and it's this journey of transformation that I'm thrilled to unfold for you. Embarking on this episode, we navigate through the potent mix of Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing, examining how these elements can be tailored to fit any lifestyle, from those who have the luxury of time to others who can spare only minutes at dawn. It's a candid reveal of my personal evolution, a testament to the power these practices hold in fueling productivity, fostering positivity, and enhancing well-being.
As the sun peeks over the horizon, many of us face the familiar foe of morning dread—a slumbering dragon that I, too, once fought every day. In this heart-to-heart, I share the tactics that helped me slay that beast: grounding myself in gratitude, indulging in affirmations, and steering clear of the mental 'bad place playground.' We discuss the importance of being present and how it can reshape our morning narrative, setting us on a path to happiness and success. Every one of us has a default routine, but with intention and practice, we can forge a routine that serves as our ally. So whether you're a perennial snoozer or the kind who greets the dawn with open arms, let's discover together how mornings can be a launchpad for a life that soars.
Having a solid morning routine can greatly improve your life. This week, Lisa and Brad explore how to construct a morning routine that will make a positive difference.
When I was grappling with the darkest period of my life, suffocating under the weight of ill health, it was the discovery of a morning routine that breathed new life into my days. Inspired by Hal Elrod's "The Miracle Morning," I embraced the S.A.V.E.R.S. philosophy, and it's this journey of transformation that I'm thrilled to unfold for you. Embarking on this episode, we navigate through the potent mix of Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing, examining how these elements can be tailored to fit any lifestyle, from those who have the luxury of time to others who can spare only minutes at dawn. It's a candid reveal of my personal evolution, a testament to the power these practices hold in fueling productivity, fostering positivity, and enhancing well-being.
As the sun peeks over the horizon, many of us face the familiar foe of morning dread—a slumbering dragon that I, too, once fought every day. In this heart-to-heart, I share the tactics that helped me slay that beast: grounding myself in gratitude, indulging in affirmations, and steering clear of the mental 'bad place playground.' We discuss the importance of being present and how it can reshape our morning narrative, setting us on a path to happiness and success. Every one of us has a default routine, but with intention and practice, we can forge a routine that serves as our ally. So whether you're a perennial snoozer or the kind who greets the dawn with open arms, let's discover together how mornings can be a launchpad for a life that soars.
Hello and welcome to Just One Thing. I'm Brad Stearns, here with Lisa Stearns, and we're your hosts on this weekly exploration of simple ways to enhance your relationships, improve your health, manage your stress and just be happier. Now settle in while we discuss Just One Thing. Good morning, good day, hello and welcome to the next episode of Just One Thing. Just One Thing is the podcast of Mindful Livingtoday. You can find us on Facebook at the Mindful Couple. We have a great Facebook group, mindful Living Today, with Lisa and Brad. We're also on Instagram and I will ask you now and I will ask you later If you like the podcast. Please take the time to subscribe. It helps us in some way.
Speaker 2:
I'm not quite sure how, but the more subscribe, like lets other people know that it's for listening to. That's true. So if you go to a podcast and there's no subscriber.
Speaker 1:
you think I don't know if I want to listen to this. So if you like us, please subscribe. It just helps grow our listenership and hopefully, if we're carrying a message that's worthwhile to you, hopefully it would be worthwhile to other people, so we're trying to encourage that growth. Speaking of growth, today I would like to talk about improving your morning routine.
Speaker 2:
Or having one.
Speaker 1:
Or even having a routine. Well, what I was going to say? Because when we were thinking about this topic and I know you've read several books on improving or having a morning routine I was thinking to myself. I don't even have a morning routine and in reality, I am going to bet everybody has a morning routine of one type or another.
Speaker 1:
The thing is, though, that most people's morning routine is probably not consciously built and not consciously put together to enhance the day. That's to come afterwards, because when I think about my morning routine, it's just sort of a set of default things that I have typically done. You know, I get up, I walk out of bed, I slip on my bathroom, I brush my teeth, I walk downstairs, I make my coffee, and so it's a set of steps that probably vary not quite at all, you know, day to day, and if you're a working person, maybe it varies a little bit on the weekend, but almost everybody falls into a set of habits which become your default morning routine, and so the topic today is improving your morning routine. What can you do in the morning, when you first get up, when you first open your eyes, even before you open your eyes, as you become conscious?
Speaker 2:
that can make your day, your life, sort of a better activity better thing, and I would say it starts from the moment you wake up until usually the moment you start work. Okay, is that time period?
Speaker 1:
It's sort of the stuff previous to actually working on what it is and day to day work. Yeah, so I know you've read a couple of books about this and you have actually done some things to make your morning routine better so that you are more productive, more positive. Okay, okay focus. More gooder things.
Speaker 2:
More gooder, definitely more gooder.
Speaker 1:
And then I'll talk a little bit about mine. So why don't you sort of give us a background about how you got into the whole topic of morning routines?
Speaker 2:
Okay, well, I would say it's probably been about maybe 10 years ago now, when my health was in the tank and I was really struggling even to get off the couch to get out of bed to move forward, because I just didn't have any energy and life had been so negatively impacted by my health. I read a book by Hal Elrod. He, at that point was a young man, so 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:
he's not probably not not so young anymore. He was still quite famous for this whole idea of morning routine.
Speaker 2:
Morning routine and I can't think of the miracle morning is the name of his book and it's really short read, so you know, if you want to pick it up, I highly recommend it. It'd probably take you maybe an hour and a half to read it, but a very inspiring story. Very inspiring young man and his he had had a very similar story where his life tanked, actually twice, where he had been really on the top of his game two times and had the whole rug pulled out during this whole life altered dramatically, one because of a serious accident I can't think of the other incident that caused the crushing of everything and it was at that point that he decided to see if a morning routine would help him.
Speaker 1:
Did he talk about at all where the idea of that came from?
Speaker 2:
I think he was doing nothing. And it started with a friend of him just telling him just get up and run Like do anything, just get out of bed and do something, and so it started with exercise. But he created this, this program, and the. There's an acronym for it and it's Sabres S-A-V-E-R-S, and Sabres stands for. So these are the things in how L Rods morning ritual. These are the things that he recommends that you do and you can do anything.
Speaker 2:
when I was first doing this and I was not working because I couldn't, I could easily spend two hours to work.
Speaker 1:
S-Sure.
Speaker 2:
When my health improved and I got to the point that I had morning meetings and stuff like that, then I boiled it down. I could do it to six minutes, so it's something that you can adapt to the time that you have.
Speaker 2:
S-Much like we talk about a meditation and a mindfulness routine, s-right, s-it can be long, it can be short, s-it can be short and as long as the ritual is what's important, and so what he recommends is have time for silence, which is either meditation, breathing, prayer, whatever you want to do, it can just any kind of silence. So that's the S. A is for affirmations. So either create, find or have an affirmation for the day.
Speaker 1:
S-Right. I know you've been big on affirmations over the last few years.
Speaker 2:
S-Affirmations are huge in my opinion, s-and I started to use them from time to time.
Speaker 1:
I think I've talked about them a little bit on this podcast. I do find them to be a powerful tool S-Yes, s-if you repeat and if you-. S-you have to repeat it regularly, s-if it becomes very regular and very conditioned to these affirmations and believing them.
Speaker 2:
S-Yes and in the trigger, so it's the negative trigger that then you use the affirmation to smooth out and give your rewire, your brain. It's the affirmation to allow you to rewire your brain S-Well and for me.
Speaker 1:
I'm thinking just in my own mind about how to improve my own morning routine, because I think the whole affirmation thing would be something that I do not tend to use today, but I probably should use it. I'm thinking about some of the affirmations that I would use.
Speaker 2:
S-Right Right. The third thing is visualization. So just imagine yourself doing each task or whatever that you need to do to get it done, but imagine yourself actually doing it successfully. So I'm not just thinking about, oh God, I've got to do this report and I'm ready about it, and I hate that Fred's going to tell me you know, that's not the visualizing we're looking for, we're looking for gee. I wrote it easily and Fred loved it.
Speaker 1:
S-Well, yeah, and I know for me a lot of times the things that are sort of my task list for the day causes me to have anxiety. So it's not so much the concern with the success or failure.
Speaker 2:
S-It is not.
Speaker 1:
S-It's the feeling that I have while doing it, s-right, s-so for me, I'll probably visualize oh, I'm happy doing this, I'm excited doing this, s-right, s-and I'm having a good time doing it.
Speaker 2:
S-There was no bumps in the road.
Speaker 2:
Nothing went wrong, s-and actually don't use the negative. Everything went well, everything went smoothly, I was prepared to accomplish all of it. So that's S-A-V. The next is E, and E is exercise. That's any kind of movement at all, doesn't mean you have to go to the gym for an hour. It can be a walk, it can be stretching, it can be a little yoga, whatever. Just some movement for your body. R so we're looking at sabers is the acronym, r is next and that's reading for enlightenment, reading for education, reading for expanding your thoughts or knowledge, and again it can be one page.
Speaker 1:
You know.
Speaker 2:
granted, it's nice to be able to sit down and read for an hour and you might get more out of it, but it's fine to read for two minutes. And the last one is scribe, which works well for sabers. It actually just means journal, and journaling is one of those things that people get really hung up on. They hate it or love it. My thing for people that hate it is don't think of it as having to fill a whole page.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's what I was going to say, because I know we looked at somebody's routine. It was like. I think it was like write three full pages for a day.
Speaker 2:
That's the artist way.
Speaker 1:
I'm like I can't do that. That's going to take me an hour to do that. And it's going to be all nonsense. Yes, but that's okay, right, the nonsense is okay.
Speaker 2:
Right, but you can just be write one thought that pops into your head, so it doesn't have to be. You're not looking to be profound, you're not looking to empty your mind. If you hate the journal, if you love the journal, great. If you don't like the journal, then you just write one thing that popped into your head that morning. Or write something that you hope to think that day or have to happen that day.
Speaker 1:
All right, so that's how Elrods and again, when you're talking about improving your morning routine, you don't have to include every piece of the scribe, although that would be maybe an ideal.
Speaker 2:
Right, but you can start to get that one.
Speaker 1:
That you're not currently doing, I think, would improve that routine. Other than just like get up, brush my teeth, put on my shoes, walk out the door Right, there are things that you can do to prepare yourself your mind, your body, your psyche for having a more successful day, a better day, yes, a happier, a more contented, a less negative day.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so that's how Elrodt highly recommends his book.
Speaker 1:
And I know the next one is the one you're going to enjoy talking about, because you love Louis's head. I love Louis's head and she changed your life.
Speaker 2:
She really did and she has a book called you Can Change your Life. She's since passed, I think about two years ago. She has an amazing, phenomenal story. I love her book. It's again you Can Heal your Life. She's got lots of books, but that's the one that was gifted to me and she has suggested a morning ritual routine and one of the things I liked about how she set it up was it's a more mindful practice to me and it's just being aware of what are your thoughts? What are you thought? You open your eyes, your laying in bed, the alarm goes off or doesn't go off. You wake up, you know you've got to get up. What is the first thing you're thinking? Are you thinking, God, I hate getting out of bed. This day is going to be terrible.
Speaker 1:
I wish I could sleep some more.
Speaker 2:
I wish I could sleep some more. That sets the tone for everything that happens after that. Exactly so, when you hear those, first of all tuning into those thoughts. When you hear those thoughts, can you slip into? Can you have an affirmation, can you have something positive that you say instead?
Speaker 2:
of this is going to be a hard day, terrible day, whatever it is that you normally say. And then she kind of walks you through like what do you do up until the point that you get to the office. So what are you saying to yourself as you're fixing your coffee, for example? What are you saying, oh God, now I've got to get the kids up and you know Joey's going to be cranky because he hates getting up early, it becomes a dreadful thing.
Speaker 2:
The whole process becomes this heavy weighted, dreading. What are you thinking as you get ready to leave the door? Oh God, traffic is going to be awful.
Speaker 1:
You never get to work on time, there's always bad drivers.
Speaker 2:
As you're driving, are you thinking those thoughts? So it's this active curiosity about what thoughts you are having about the day that is to come.
Speaker 1:
So that would be a first step, is what are the thoughts? And then is there because I don't really know though the we say process. Is there then a active effort then to change those thoughts so that they become more positive, or is it just an observation?
Speaker 2:
I think observation is the first, and then using affirmation.
Speaker 1:
She's huge on affirmations.
Speaker 2:
And her book is full of affirmations which I love. But, for example and I love this one, you know, when you look in the mirror, do you look at yourself and say, oh God, you know, I've got bags under my eyes, I'm getting so old? Or you know, what is your first thought that you think when you see yourself in the mirror? And one of the things that I love that she recommends is, when you get up and you see yourself in the mirror, whatever your thoughts may be, can you think thank you. Thank you for my body, for allowing me to get up this morning, sure. Thank you, body for working well, even if you're sickly. Thank you, body for working, because it is continuing to work.
Speaker 1:
Or letting me even wake up in the workshop.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for letting me wake up this day. Thank you for letting me have this day. So if little things like that, it doesn't have to be something phenomenal or whatever, it can just be something very simple. As you're laying in bed, can you think oh, I'm so thankful that I have this warm, cozy place to start my day. What a great thing that would be instead of oh God, I can't even get enough.
Speaker 1:
If I could just interject. I know my mornings, historically, have been very rough, very difficult for me. Usually the first 15 minutes to an hour I wake up with a feeling of dread and almost despair. I just don't even want to face my day. It almost is like a very depressed feeling Right very low energy, and so my routines have really been focused on.
Speaker 1:
Are there things that I can do just to ride that out Right, or somehow make it shorter so that I can become because once that passes, I'm positive, I have energy, I don't procrastinate too much, the anxiety that I typically have is much, much less, if at all. So my routines and the things that I've been doing have been focused on. Can I get over this sooner, right? Or can I not experience that sort of feeling of dread or depression at all?
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
And so I've done some very small steps that seem to have helped a lot. And so sort of letting my mind wander in the morning. One of the first things that I do as I sort of roll over and say, oh, it's time to get up, is that I just focus on absolutely the moment that I'm in. So I concentrate on what does my body feel like as I'm rolling up and lifting the covers off me? What does it feel like in the soles of my feet as my feet touch the floor? What does it feel like as I take the weight on the joints of my knees and hips? And just trying to feel physically exactly what I'm going through and not let my mind wander into thoughts.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
What's next? What do I have to do? Today it's just trying to focus on the here and now through bodily sensations and if I get up and I go through that, through the process of brushing my teeth and I don't shave first thing in the morning usually, but getting dressed usually by the time I'm dressed I'm fine.
Speaker 1:
Whatever that feeling was is gone and that little routine of just being very focused on the here and now and not trying to think about anything else just sort of helps me get over whatever is going on in my brain and body that had previously made me feel so despairing. Right, it's kind of gone, so it's been pretty successful in that. The last month. It's taken me a couple years of doing this the last month or so. Now when I wake up, I don't have that feeling anymore. It's just sort of a neutral feeling, and I'm good with a neutral feeling.
Speaker 2:
The neutral is great.
Speaker 1:
I'll be zooming in about 30 minutes, so I know that. So that little bit of a routine has helped me and there are a few things here that I think I'd like to probably include in my routine as we move forward.
Speaker 2:
And I think the whole thing is exactly what you talked about is if you lay in bed and you let your mind do what it normally does, I call that the bad place playground.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's the place.
Speaker 2:
Your brain is going to go to that bad playground and you have to be a mindful parent and not allow your mind to go to that. Take you to that place. I refer to it as dangerous.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so this has been sort of an introduction to morning routines. Maybe we have a little bit more to say about it, I don't know. But maybe we'll do a part two of this, because our time is pretty much up this morning. So before we go on, I'm not even going to ask for you just one thing at this time.
Speaker 2:
I think we'll do that next time. We'll do a couple of those Right.
Speaker 1:
And I will just say if you do like the podcast and there are things of value to you, please subscribe. Please share our podcast with your friends if you think they will benefit from some of the things, we have to say yes, and so until.
Speaker 2:
Let's give them just one thing the two of us together. What's one thing?
Speaker 1:
The realization that you have a default routine I can guarantee Right and that it is possible to create a routine that's going to make your life better, happier, more successful, et cetera.
