Find Your Energy-Boosting Routine
“It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life for me, ooh
And I'm feeling good...”
Those are the iconic lyrics espoused by Nina Simone in her track, I Put A Spell On You – a song that's ingrained in the consciousness of the world thanks to its soulful, uplifting vibe. But how can we embrace the energy of the song and empower ourselves to win the day when it comes to happiness, productivity and wellbeing?
For millions of psychologists, business leaders, professional gamers and internet entrepreneurs – part of the answer lies in the adoption of morning habits that help to fine-tune the body and brain for optimal performance – collectively, your 'Morning Routine'. When combined with an effective 'Night-time Routine' – the results can be highly rewarding.
From establishing new rituals to discovering energy vitamins that can give your morning a boost, let's explore just how important this is...
Morning Routines – A 'Millennial Trait' With Power
While there isn't a 'one size fits all' answer when it comes to the 'perfect way to start the day' – most successful people do have specific daily traits, rituals and habits, which they attribute as the foundation of their capacity to master life. For example, Apple CEO, Tim Cook's morning routine, reportedly includes 60 minutes of jogging, some meditation, ensuring his Apple watch is set-up to track his performance, followed by a nourishing breakfast.
Naturally, all human beings intrinsically have a set of ingrained habits that form their current morning activities – the time we get up, whether we eat breakfast, a shower, watching the news, and a plethora of other things that typically run subconsciously. However, for many people, their morning can equate to random chaos – something that needs to be assessed with honesty if you're looking to enhance happiness and achieve more.
In contrast, the concept of a perfect morning routine, entails making conscious choices about activities that can positively impact your body and brain. While used for eons of time by successful people, the concept has emerged as something of a trend during the last decade, thanks to social media, the growing number of internet entrepreneurs, advances in neuroscience, and a greater general interest in optimising the mind and body.
While everyone has a different genetic code and circardium rhythm (hence why you may intrinsically be more of an 'Early bird' of 'Night owl'), what you during in the 60 minutes after waking, can significantly affect which version of you plays the day. For example, cultivating a positive mindset and productive brainwave patterns, can help you optimise productivity, mindfully react to problems and reduce stress throughout the day.
Creating The Perfect Morning Routine
When it comes to creating a more effective morning routine, it helps to know where you're at today – and this takes self-reflection, honesty, humility – and action. For example, a good night's sleep, waking-up to a clean and tidy house, eating a nourishing breakfast, giving your body the right energy vitamins, and being fresh and groomed are simple things that might not be in current alignment with your goals. Before implementing more advanced morning habits, it's important have an integral foundation.
Implementing Advanced Morning Rituals
Once your morning has an integral base, you can consider endless strategies that social media lifestyle coaches, entrepreneurs and elite performers adhere to. However, following every morning routine fad can also be a potential ego trap – becoming a competition to see who can do the most leftfield activity before breakfast. Fortunately, there are several science supported activities that are legitimately likely to improve your happiness, productivity and life.
Five proven morning rituals
1. Exercise
Weight training and cardiovascular exercise is proven to enhance brain oxygenation, release feel good hormones and lower stress. HIIT is a fast and effective way to train in the morning and may enhance the function of mitochondria in the brain and help wuth mental clarit
You can support this great activity by making sure your breakfast contains plenty of energy vitamins – particularly the boosting B vitamins – or you can take it a step further with an energy supplement. Just remember, when choosing an energy supplement to keep it as natural as possible. Selecting a proven formulation of plant-based extracts such as our Charge energy supplement, infused with Ginkgo Biloba, is great way to kick-start your schedule without the caffeine crash later on.
2. Yoga & Stretching
Yoga and stretching routines activate neural pathways, lower stress, enhance creativity and can release feel-good dopamine. Giving your body a boost of this important hormone and combining it with an early-morning dose of essential energy vitamins is perfect for setting up a positive day – and quick too. Routines can include easy, effective home poses and short pre-work yoga classes.
Try a natural mood improving herbal remedy like Neubria Shine Mood supplement with food to help improve mental clarity and wellbeing.
3. Take A Natural Focus Supplement
There are many energy supplements out there, but it's key to choose one that delivers an-all natural energy boost. Saving you from the dreaded caffeine crash and providing a range of other health benefits, too.
Loaded with active ingredients, Neubria Charge Energy Supplement with botanical blend supports your energy levels with four types of ginseng, maca root, guarana, and an extra helping of energy vitamins – selected to support a healthy energy metabolism, physical performance and your immune system.
4. Gamma Meditation
Meditation is one of the oldest morning rituals and extremely beneficial. Using apps can quickly stimulate the brain for enhanced day-time performance. Meditation is also good for mental clarity & focus. For example, brain entrainment tracks that take you from Alpha through to Gamma brainwave frequencies (typically 40Hz or higher) may elevate mood, stimulate learning, enhance clarity, reduce stress and boost focus. Adding positive affirmations or using tracks with integral affirmations may offer further benefits.
5. Journaling
Journaling is a research proven way to develop mental clarity and cultivate a healthier mind. Ending a morning scribe with focusing on things your gracious for, is a scientific way to build positive momentum and raise important energy levels for the day ahead.
The Perfect Morning Routine – What Works For You?
One day, science may help us to define the exact formula for creating a winning day, by identifying very specific foods, key energy vitamins, natural energy supplements, exercises and actions to take during the first two hours of waking. However, even then, it's likely to vary depending on someone's personality, DNA, lifestyle, job and goals.
Who are you
The perfect morning routine is dependant on who you are – and what you need to implement into your own life, to achieve happiness and success. According to his journals, Winston Churchill's morning routine was far from 'perfect' – but it didn't stop him becoming one of the most famous politicians the world has ever seen. Churchill awoke at 7.30, ate breakfast in bed while reading letters and newspapers, prior to taking a bath. At 11.00 a.m. he strolled around his garden, and then worked in his study, apparently accompanied by a weak whisky and soda.
Be flexible
Naturally, times have changed, and in today's world, a more enlightened approach a morning routine is much more likely to manifest what we desire in our lives. Take for example meditation, something that's supported by science to have tremendous benefits for cognitive health; a simple 10 to 20 minute session in the morning could have profound long-term benefits, in addition to an acute impact on the day ahead. However, there's no rule about how you fit it into your day – it could be during a morning jog, on the commute to work via a meditation app, or in a quiet part of the office once you get to work.
Implement slowly
For most people – going cold turkey on a morning routine isn't likely to be effective. Instead, slowly implementing changes to your morning routine is likely to create long-term adherence. Indeed, over time, a ritual like meditation can become an ingrained habit. You can then ask yourself whether you need to take yourself to another level – and how. Furthermore, while a disciplined morning routine works for some people, it's also impractical for many, due to professional and family commitments.
Autoregulate your morning
Successful people grow to instinctively develop morning traits without having to think too much about what they're doing. Similarly, what you need on a daily basis to be the best version of yourself may fluctuate – perhaps you need a yoga class to de-stress on a Monday morning, but by mid-week a HIIT session is the fire you need to deliver a world class presentation to clients.
And remember, this includes making sure you give your body the energy vitamins it needs to power your through – whether that's from a nutrient-dense breakfast or a scientifically proven energy supplement such as Charge. In the long-term, this form of instinctive autoregulation may be a key to effective mornings, without adding more decision fatigue.
Developing a better morning routine is challenging – requiring honesty, action and integrity. If you're struggling to align the morning with your goal – ensure your 'reason' for change is bigger than your 'excuses'.
A good morning routine is much easier with a great night's sleep. try Neubria Drift sleep supplement to help you drift off into a peaceful slumber.
References:
Jjaer, T. et al., 2002. Short communication Increased dopamine tone during meditation-induced change of consciousness. Published: Cognitive Brain Research
Jensen, O. et al., Aug 2007. Human gamma-frequency oscillations associated with attention and memory. Published: Trends in Neuroscience.
Andrea, N. et al., Jan 2015. Effects of Expressive Writing on Psychological and Physical Health: The Moderating Role of Emotional Expressivity. Published: Anxiety Stress Coping.