15 Amazing Morning Habits to Inspire Happiness Throughout the Day
You can set yourself up for a happy day first thing in the morning. Use these morning habits to spark joy and happiness throughout the day!
What you do when you first wake up can set the tone for the rest of the day. Morning routines can be inflexible and time-consuming though. These small habits can make a huge difference with ease! Keep reading to find out the best morning habits to inspire happiness throughout the day!
Habits to Inspire Happiness Throughout the Day
Without further ado, here are 15 morning habits to inspire happiness throughout the day. You can combine any one of these into your own flexible warning routine. You can pick and choose which ones you like or switch them up on days when you feel like doing something else.
1. Make Your Wake Up Call Soft
Some of us have gotten used to getting up to the sound of a blazing alarm that increases our heart rate to 100. This isn’t good for us. Try to practice a more gentle wake-up call. Use an alarm with natural sounds, one that starts slow and increases in volume. This will help your body wake up in a more calming way which can give you a better start to the morning.
2. Stretch in Bed
After being curled up in bed all night, you may feel sore or achy. This guide here can show you a couple of stretches that you can do from the comfort of your own bed that will help combat the postures we sleep in. Try them out and boost muscle health as soon as you wake up in under 5 minutes.
3. Get to the Light
We need to regulate our circadian rhythm, the internal clock by which our body abides. Getting light in the day will help you feel more energized throughout the rest of the day and can help you feel tired and ready for bed at night. Plus, taking in the morning sunlight is super beneficial as it can be a good way to increase vitamin D while decreasing your exposure to the harsher afternoon UV rays.
4. Make the Bed
Making the bed is one of the first tasks to do in the morning. While this may seem inconsequential, it can help set the tone for the rest of the day. Accomplishing a task can help your happiness chemicals release more readily. This will put you in a better mood and will motivate you to accomplish more later on.
5. Eat a Healthy, Well Balanced Meal
Breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day. It should be a meal that is well-balanced with healthy protein, good fats, and healthy carbohydrates. A good combination of all three macronutrients can help you feel full for longer and provide stable energy throughout the entire day.
6. Moments of Mindfulness
Moments of mindfulness have been found to change the brain, reduce stress, lower inflammation, and manage blood pressure. All this combined can help increase cardiovascular health and mental wellness. Practice moments of mindfulness throughout the morning. Take a shower mindfully, brush your teeth mindfully, or enjoy breakfast with no technology.
7. Move
After staying in bed for so long, besides stretching, another good morning habit to develop is movement. You can combine stretching with movement by practicing a short yoga session, or you can make it a habit to take daily walks. Bonus points if you take these walks outdoors as this will expose you to natural light that can help regulate your internal clock and boost vitamin D. Plus, as stated before, it’s recommended to take in sunlight early in the day in order to avoid the harsh UV rays of the afternoon sun.
8. Avoid Tech
Reaching for your phone as soon as you wake up can increase cortisol and stress levels greatly. That’s why it’s important to unplug and avoid your phone for about 30 to 45 minutes after waking up. Avoiding your phone can influence how you feel the rest of the day, as reducing this stressful activity primes your brain for more productivity later on.
9. Set Up a To-Do List
Just like making the bed, accomplishing any task can help give you a reward of dopamine. In the morning, try to set up a to-do list that you can accomplish throughout the day. That way, you are motivated to complete your tasks in order to feel that reward.
10. Play a Song
A simple morning habit that can help inspire happiness throughout the rest of the day is to play a song that you enjoy. Pick one of your favorite songs and let it color your morning with beautiful notes that you enjoy listening to.
11. Wait for Coffee
It has been found that coffee has many benefits, particularly due to the nutrients in it. However, it may be beneficial to delay drinking coffee. Instead of drinking it as soon as you wake up, wait about 30 minutes. This will help you maintain your energy while reducing agitation and spikes in cortisol.
12. Hydrate
We wake up slightly dehydrated. That is why it is important to hydrate properly as slight dehydration can reduce cognitive function, decrease mental clarity, reduce memory, cause headaches, and more. Wake up, and sip on some water with electrolytes in order to restore hydration to the body.
13. Mind the Vagus Nerve
A good morning habit would be to work with the vagus nerve, a part of the central nervous system that can help you manage stress. Here’s a full guide on how to activate the vagus nerve for more health benefits. In general, some ways to activate the vagus nerve include humming, gargling, or meditation.
14. Mini Meditation
Along with activating the vagus nerve, meditation is a habit that can literally change the brain. People who meditate often usually exhibit more emotional control and higher cognitive function due to these brain changes. Take 5 minutes, find a quiet space, and breathe deeply, focusing on inhaling positivity and exhaling negative emotion.
15. Gratitude Mornings
Gratitude is a habit that can raise happiness with ease. According to this article, it is one of the only proven ways to raise baseline happiness. While getting a gift or going to a fun event May momentarily boost joy, practicing gratitude is something that will increase the joy you feel in normal mundane moments. Take a couple of moments out of your morning to write down five things you are grateful for and truly think about what it feels like to be thankful.
The Takeaway
Morning habits can be used to inspire happiness throughout the day. While morning routines are time-consuming and inflexible, these morning habits can be mixed and matched to create a space for joy. You can switch them up, use them as needed, or create a schedule that works for you and your mornings. They can make your day amazing and joyful. Try them out the next morning and watch how your day sparks joy naturally.
Remember that health comes from within. Eat healthy, nutritious meals, exercise daily, and take care of your mental health. Daily habits become the building blocks for emotional, mental, and physical health. Take care of your gut health too! Learn everything you need to know about gut microbiota today for free here.
