In this post I’m sharing:

An alternative wake-up ritual to start your day with more intention and more joy. If you're someone who reaches for their phone first thing in the morning, this is for you.

So many of us are in a distracted and reactive mode when we wake up in the morning. We’re sucked into the scroll on our phone and the noise from the outside world. We might check Instagram or check our emails and we end up letting all that noise and chatter into our life before we've even started our day.

We're also letting in other people's opinions, comparison can creep in (especially on social media) and we’re literally stuffing our brains full of noise. And that state can often stay with us for much of the day. Does that sound a little familiar?

So this seemingly small act of checking ~ and potentially scrolling ~ on your phone can have a real knock-on effect into your day. Whether it's a lack of focus, feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything or feeling at the whim of others' agendas.

If we're starting every day like this? That has a BIG impact on our life.

So the point of this exercise I'm sharing today is to make sure that you’re able to start your day with intention and in the way that you want to. Essentially, to make sure you’re not letting that online noise or others’ opinions cloud your own vision for the day.

And particularly if you're an empath or an overthinker (it’s me…! 👋🏻), this is so important.

I know how easy it is to get derailed by something that you see on the news or that someone posts on social media. It's incredibly easy to soak up those emotions and it can mean you’re starting your day on the back foot ~ you wake up with such great intentions and suddenly this thing has totally altered your mindset.

So this ritual will make sure that you can start your day in the way that you want to.

PSA: Just a quick public service announcement about alarms before we dive in! If you use your phone as an alarm, and that’s your cue for picking it up and scrolling when you wake up? I implore you to buy yourself an alarm clock, a good old-fashioned hit-the-top-of-it alarm clock.
And if that fills you with total dread? Try instead putting your phone across the room. Your alarm will still go off, but you’ll have to get out of bed to turn it off.
And if you’re still not convinced and can’t bear not to have your phone next to you as an alarm? (I totally understand this btw!), give this third option a go:
1. Just tap the button rather than picking up the phone ~ it immediately makes it a LOT easier to not get sucked into the scroll.
2. Stack this new wake up ritual (which I’ll share in just a sec) onto the action of stopping your alarm. So the act of tapping that “stop” button triggers this ritual and interrupts your habit of starting a morning scroll session.
Okay, PSA over! Now for the ritual.

THE 3-PART RITUAL

ONE

Wake up, turn off your alarm (however that might look for you) and then simply say to yourself:

“Today is going to be a great day.”

(Ideally, you’d say this out loud… but if you have a partner asleep in bed next to you, they may not appreciate it! So just whisper it under your breath.)

TWO

Swing your legs around and sit on the edge of the bed, put your feet on the floor and repeat the affirmation again.

“Today is going to be a great day.”

THREE

Stand up and start your usual morning routine.

Easy as pie!

Perhaps you’re thinking this seems a bit too simple and doesn’t seem like it’ll be effective… but just try it for one week and I promise you'll find value in it.

And it's meant to be FUN. Making something silly or joyful helps make new habits stick. So try smiling when you say your affirmation too - research shows the act of just saying joyful words and smiling can make such a difference to your emotional state. Positive affirmations and self-talk have such power in our lives that often goes untapped.

And, of course, if you’d like to substitute this affirmation for another, go ahead! Just make sure it’s something that primes you for your day and that you can repeat each day. Here are a few more ideas:

Today, I find joy in the simple moments
Today, I move through my day with ease and grace
Today, I am fully present for each beautiful moment
I am inspired and ready for the day

So if you're up for the challenge, comment below and let me know how you get on!

P.S. If you want to dive deeper into living with more presence each day and becoming more intentional with your time, I have a free Time Clarity workbook that I designed to help you transform your time and live each moment more fully, more intentionally and more joyfully, click here to download!

Research mentioned in this post:

Self-Affirmation Improves Problem-Solving under Stress. Read here >
Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation. Read here >
Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. Read here >
Can Hope be Changed in 90 Minutes? Read here >