Three Morning Routines to Improve Your Mental Health and Productivity

Exercise

Studies have shown over and over again that regular exercise outperforms psychiatric medications in terms of the reduction in anxiety, poor concentration, and irritable or sad mood. Exercise causes our body to release the very same neurotransmitters that the medications artificially cause - Serotonin, Dopamine and Norepinephrine. A dose of exercise is literally a dose of all the best psychiatric medications combined all without any side effects. Plus, it boosts confidence and motivation by at least 40%. It’s so worth it.

Meditation

Meditation is simply a mind-body practice that allows your mind to focus and achieve a state of calmness and mental clarity. Before you start your day, spend just five minutes of your time just focusing on your breath. Take deep breaths while thinking about a positive quality or an idea from your favorite Scripture verse. This practice, if done on a regular basis will reduce anxiety, increase mental sharpness, and improve sleep.

Setting Goals

Setting goals is a good routine that can immediately follow your meditation. Through meditation you clear up the fogginess in your brain and with sharpened mind you write down the tasks that you need to accomplish today. Write them down as they come to your mind. Once you have written them all down, highlight the ones that you really want to accomplish today. This process helps to reduce the working memory burden in your brain - you are not constantly thinking about what needs to be done and feeling anxious that you might miss something. By highlighting what you want to accomplish today, you are priming your brain to be goal-oriented. Goal-orientedness stimulates our prefrontal cortex which allows us to do high executive functioning tasks.

The Order Matters

This order of starting with exercise to meditation then setting the goals for the day is important. In the early morning it is difficult to immediately engage the mind in a deep and mindful way. So you work your way up from your feet which you use to exercise to your brain where the success of your day hinges on. By increasing the heart rate and blood flow to the major organs including the brain, you prime your brain for a more complex level of functioning such as meditation. Through meditation you bring calmness to your brain networks which is then optimized for analyzing, prioritizing and planning for the rest of your day.