Want to know how to start your day the right way?

First, you need to know what the morning means to your brain. The morning really is the first event that your brain sees via your eyes and other senses. In this way, the morning sets the mood for the rest of your day for your brain!

When you wake up, your mind is slowly leaving the delta state. The delta state is a dream state. It’s slow brain activity. This means you’re easily influenced by mental suggestion. What thoughts you put in your brain will stay in it, until at least the end of the day. That’s why if you are awakened by a sound or a song, you’ll be able to easily recall it again and again throughout the day (even if it’s a song you cannot stand!).

Keep those negative thoughts out!

We all know its important to start your day off on the right side of the bed. Any negative thoughts from anxiety, or bad dreams, will shape your subconscious for the entire day. If you wake up and say “Wow. Today’s gonna suck…”, then it will suck!

This is basically the Law Of Attraction . The idea of ask and you will receive. Your brain is basically asking the Universe to send you bad or negative events. And you probably don’t even realize the sabotage!

Sometimes bad or negative events of one day will spill over into the next day. This is beyond your control. Wake up knowing the situation, but don’t add more negative thoughts to it. Your brain has digested, analyzed, and come up with a thousand outcomes of the situation. All you need to do is wake up, know what the reality of the day is, and not add any more negative thoughts to it.

The moment you wake, whatever you put into your mind sticks around. Your subconscious becomes filled with the belief that “today sucks”. Even if your day will turn out to be the most perfect day in your life, your brain wakes up with that negative thought as the first idea it hears. So its important to greet your awake brain with a positive thought first thing. It can be a pretty difficult task, especially if anxiety and depression have you in a choke hold. But here’s some ideas to help you.

Get up fast!

Yeah, get up fast! When you wake up, try to get out of bed as fast as you can. The longer you stay in bed procrastinating or thinking of why the day sucks, why things at work are going to be horrible, how you’re going to be bullied, the more your mind comes up with reasons and excuses to just stay in bed.

Some people put their alarm clocks on the other side of the room. That forces the sleeper to have to get out of bed to turn the alarm off. Other have a family member wake them up – sometimes forcibly.

The power of light.

The power of light is severely underestimated by most people. Light has profound effects upon body chemistry and energy levels. You circadian rhythm is based on light levels, and affects nearly all aspects of your physiology. The level and type of light that you receive affects your heart rate, digestion, emotions, immunity, sexual appetite,  just to name a few.

Bright, natural light is best for bringing the most energy to all your body systems. The more light you receive, the more serotonin your pineal gland produces. Serotonin is a feel good neurotransmitter. The less light received, the more melatonin your pineal gland produces, which is a depressant. Your body makes melatonin at night, and serotonin during the day. So, the sooner you turn on the lights, or open the blinds, the quicker your body will increase its energy levels.

Wake Up to a Clean Room

What would you rather see first thing in the morning? A room littered with pizza boxes and laundry piled into the corners, or a nice clean room?

Waking up to a clean, organized room has a positive first impression upon your mind. Waking up to clutter, dirty clothes, and piles of beer cans from the night before does not. Clutter acts like a barrier to positive vibrations of a room. It’s feng shui. Give it a try and you’ll realize this idea works. It’s easier to quickly leave a room when it’s clean and relatively organized, versus a room that’s piled up high with stuff.

Fresh Air

Open the window. No matter what season it is. Open the window even if it is just a crack.

Your bedroom sat stagnant all night, void of fresh air, especially if you leave your door closed as I do. When you open the window you create a cross draft to bring in fresh air. During the night while you where in your room, you lowered the oxygen level by rebreathing the same air in the room. However, as soon as you open the window, you bring in fresh air with high oxygen levels. This instantly raises your energy level.

Even if it is 10 degrees out, open the window just a tad. When it’s cold out, it will have even more of an effect – the cool, denser air will carry more oxygen, and the temperature alone will help you to awaken.

 Music

Music can be part of your morning wake up. Even if you are not musically motivated, music can shape your mornings. Make sure it is something positive and up lifting. Make sure you’re listening to something that pulls you up emotionally, not down.

If you’re not one for listening to radios or ipods in the morning, listen to nature’s music. Birds chirping, wind chimes, ect – all help awaken and sooth the mind.

Food

Water is the best ‘food’ to start your day with. Why?

Mucous has lined your throat and mouth (mucous causes morning breath). Water dissolves that mucous. After all you don’t really want that stuff coating your food when you eat, right?

Toxins have also built up in your tissues. Drink a full glass of water –and give it ten minutes. If you have an empty stomach, the toxins will be flushed down, and pass out with your urine, with no food to absorb them. Ten minutes later, you may eat your breakfast. At the same time, water rehydrates your tissues.

DO NOT SKIP BREAKFAST. And don’t just grab a quick sugary bite. Your body has been starving for eight hours or more. Breakfast jumpstarts your metabolism, ends your body’s “hoarding mode” from the night, and will actually help you lose weight and stay lean if you chose the proper foods. Choose to eat some fruit, some protein, and some carbs.

Make Your Bed

Making your bed sounds like a simple and easy idea. But many people ignore this one way to start your day right.

There’s the saying that an unmade bed foretells how you’ll spend your day. Basically scattered in thought. Making your bed can be a soothing morning ritual where your mind basically says all is well and organized in your world, even if the outside world is chaotic. A made bed is also a great sight when you come home at night. Your bed looks cozy, inviting, and comforting from a hard day of work.

Leaving your bed unmade kills your motivation. Not only does it appear messy, which drains your energy in its own right, but it also invites you back in repeatedly, when you usually cannot afford to.

Self talk

Self talk is one of the most important parts of any morning routine. In the morning, you need to load yourself with as much positive mental programming as possible. Your mind is most receptive to it in the morning, and it will shape the rest of your day.

Self talk has lots of help from the wellness industry. There are all types of motivational CDs that help you say the right positive things to yourself. You follow along with the CD and pretty soon you’ll be saying the mantras on your own. You might also want to leave stickies with positive quotes on your bathroom mirror, your bedroom door, or anywhere you will notice.