8 things to do before 8 to make sure you feel great
It can be a struggle just getting up in the morning at the moment so an expert gives us tips in how to get going
LOCKDOWN can sap motivation and make it hard to have a good day.
But life coach to the stars Jill Ritchie reckons there are small things we can do every morning to set us up for a positive, productive day ahead.
Jill, who hosts the podcast She Loves Herself, recommends her Eight before Eight guide to transform your mindset.
Here are eight things to do before 8am that will have you raring to go – even in lockdown.
1 Flight Mode
This starts the night before and it is switching your phone to flight mode. If you wake up it’s so tempting to pick up your phone and think, “I’ll just have a little scroll.”
Don’t do it. When you do, you are flooding your mind with other people’s stuff. Your mind doesn’t know the difference between someone in front of you and the information on screen.
2 Push past the story
It really means push past every single part of your being that wants to keep you in bed.
Don’t hit snooze because that sends a message to your mind saying, “I don’t want to get up today.” That is then hardwired so your reaction is to not want to get out of bed.
If the only way to stop yourself is to move your alarm a few metres away so that you have to get up and move your body to even turn the alarm off, do that.
3 Rehydrate yourself
Take a moment to mindfully drink water and almost feel it going down your throat, into your body, nourishing and cleansing your body.
4 Journal
Journalling is powerful. You can use it for gratitude, you can use it for future manifestation but for the purpose of this one, journal for a brain dump.
When we get up we are carrying all this stuff, these things we have to do, worrying about what is going to happen, so we need to dump it from our mind to paper – it really releases it.
5 Meditate or breathe
This has changed my life. Until a few years ago I had never meditated. It was tricky at first because I couldn’t silence my mind. So I started to just consciously breathe. It regulates your nervous system, slows everything down and brings a state of calm. Then if you want to take that further, you can develop into meditation. The key is consistency. Your mind always wants to run the show but there are great tools you can use to slow that overthinking mind down, drop into your heart space and connect with your breath. You don’t have to be amazing at meditation you just need to be able to breathe.
6 Set intentions and do affirmations
Once you’ve done your meditation or breathing and calmed down, you want to write down your intentions for that day – how do I want to feel today?
You can do this because your phone is still on flight mode, you haven’t watched the news, so you can decide how YOU want to feel today, how you want to show up and how you want to be. Say it aloud – this is important – speak the words, name it and claim it.
Don’t touch your phone – you’ll flood your mind with other people’s stuff
7Visualisations
Close your eyes and think about the day you want, the future you want.
When we visualise something, our energy changes. When we think about something for more than six to eight seconds it becomes a dominant thought.
8 Move your body
Whether that’s any form of exercise like yoga, running, walking, dancing to your favourite song, yoga, moving your body is so powerful. It changes your whole vibration completely. If you want to manifest things into your life you need to be a vibrational match and moving your body, changing your state and energy ensures you are that match for the things you want to bring in to your material world.
Jill Ritchie is an advanced accredited life coach, meditation guide, writer, blogger and speaker. See www.jill-ritchie.com