5 reasons your MORNINGS SUCK (+ what to do about it...)
In today’s post we’ll chat thru…
① ONE WEEK until WINTER ENROLLMENT OPENS for The SISTERHOOD Membership
② 5 reasons your MORNINGS SUCK
③ 5 things you can DO ABOUT IT.
LET’S DIVE IN. 🖤
HEY HEY 👋🏼 SELF CARE SISTERHOOD community. I have such a fun announcement that I gotta kick off today’s post with it. ONE WEEK from Friday (on Black Friday) is the launch of WINTER in The Sisterhood Membership.
We only open The Sisterhood Membership FOUR times a year and November 24th - Dec 3rd is THE FINAL TIME to join us in 2023 AND the only window to join us to KICK OFF 2024. If you want to be FIRST in the KNOW when enrollment opens next Friday, be sure to click on the link below to get on the wait list.
This season is all about WINNING OUR MORNING -
Creating, Cultivating, and showing up to a morning routine that honors your best self.
DO ANY OF THESE SOUND LIKE YOU?! 👇🏼
▫️you know exactly how many times you can hit snooze to have “just enough time” to make it out the door to work
▫️your mornings look and feel chaotic, rushed, and anxious
▫️winning your morning looks like actually having enough time to shower AND eat breakfast
▫️you grab for your phone first thing when the alarm goes off and start scrolling social
▫️you wake up every morning already feeling tired for the day ahead
Here’s the deal. ZERO SHAME bc that was ME for. ev. er. I get it. But I also know I desperately wanted to have MORE peace, MORE purpose, and MORE intention to start my day.
IF THAT’S YOU, TOO, THEN THE SISTERHOOD MEMBERSHIP IS THE SPACE FOR YOU!
THIS SEASON I WILL GIVE YOU TOOLS + RESOURCES TO HELP YOU…
▫️set an alarm and actually wake up refreshed when it goes off
▫️feel less rushed and more peaceful in the first moments of the day
▫️take care of YOU first thing in the day with things that fill you up
▫️live your life vs watch + scroll others live theirs
▫️wake up excited for your routine + the day ahead
And even if you don’t coin yourself a “morning person” I know today’s blog is gonna have SO MUCH VALUE. So let’s dive in. 🖤🤟🏼
5 REASONS YOUR MORNINGS SUCK (+ what to do about it…)
Alright. I titled this on purpose bc if there is anyone who knows what it’s like to have a SUCKY MORNING…it’s me. I used to be the woman who stayed out + up way too late for her own good. The one who hit snooze enough times to throw my hair in a messy bun and rush out the door. I never ate breakfast. I rarely had a game plan except “get to work on time.” I felt rushed and chaotic on a regular basis. A “good” day was when I had time to stop for coffee. And a “bad” day was that one time my car got towed and I only realized that with about 10 minutes remaining to get to work. Funny story for a different day. I’m simply sharing all of that to say that I GET IT. My mornings used to SUCK.
About the time I got serious about my fitness journey and started helping women get serious about theirs was when I realized that the people I looked up to…the ones I admired…the most successful people were the ones who had a solid morning routine. There was a HUGE gap and one that’s taken me years of tweaking and refining to fill but I no longer think my mornings suck and I wanted to share 5 things that used to make for a sucky morning + a few helpful tweaks I made along the way.
① Your PM routine sucks.
I’m starting here bc I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned when it comes to mornings is that the way I end my day has the BIGGEST impact on how I start it.
Eating fast food.
Watching Netflix.
Staying up too late.
Drinking heavily before bed.
Late night snacking.
Scrolling my phone.
And then stumbling into bed crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t “feel it” when I woke up wasn’t serving me.
On the flip side…
Eating a home cooked dinner.
Taking a walk to wind down.
Playing with the dogs + connecting with my family.
Tidying up the home.
Making a little mocktail to unwind with.
Unplugging from my phone + blue light an hour before bed.
Reading a book (I love murder mysteries before bed which…IDK…helps me relax ha!)
Taking a relaxing bath.
Doing some night time yoga or stretches.
Picking a time to go to bed that allows me enough sleep.
Putting on a sleep story or meditation + turning on some white noise (like our fan).
All of these night time behaviors have helped me remove the suck from my morning. I’ve learned that it’s WAY harder to have an energizing + productive morning if you aren’t giving yourself the gift of a peaceful + relaxing evening. And I get it. Not every night will you have time for a ten step PM routine. But what if you started setting a reminder on your phone to unplug? What if you swapped out the wine for a sparkling water mocktail? What if you ditched the binge watching and took the time to stretch (or shoot…even paired a stretch WHILE you watch TV)? What I gave you is a MENU of ideas you can pull from. I don’t do every single one of these every night but I pick from them and try to give myself at least an hour before my head hits the pillow of something that helps me relax + unwind.
② YOU AREN’T GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP.
And I should also add…maybe your sleep isn’t QUALITY sleep, either.
This is HUGE friends. Even though I desperately wanted to be a morning person + productive…the fact that I was TIRED was a big reason I never had a solid morning routine. It’s why my mornings always felt rushed + chaotic. Maybe you feel this, too.
A lack of sufficient sleep is a fundamental reason why your morning may suck. The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours of sleep per night for adults…and friends…that’s not time in bed. That’s actual ASLEEP hours. I got this wrong for a long time bc I would only count the hours I was in bed (like maybe I laid down at 9 and got up at 6 BUT I spent two hours watching my iPad and was super restless in the night). And instead I should have been calculating the hours SLEEPING.
Sleep deprivation can lead to a variety of negative consequences, including impaired cognitive function, reduced mood, and decreased productivity. I’ve felt this in my life and one of my big goals this year was to get laser focused on REST.
I purchased an Oura Ring and honestly LOVE IT bc I can see how much I’m sleeping, how consistent my sleep schedule is, how well my body is recovering, and track the patterns while I’m sleeping (such as deep sleep + REM cycles).
You don’t have to purchase a tracking device like I did, but some simple places to start would be:
CREATE A CONSISTENT SLEEP SCHEDULE. Having a consistent bedtime + wake up time is a simple first place to start. We have this thing called a circadian sleep rhythm that plays a role in determining when we feel alert and awake and when we feel drowsy and ready for sleep. It’s why we feel awake when the sun is up and sleepy when it goes down. You can regulate and adapt your circadian sleep rhythm by maintaining a consistent sleep schedule.
GET CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT INTERRUPTS YOUR SLEEP. For me I know that alcohol at night often causes me to wake up in the middle of the night sweating. Late workouts or stimulating activity before bed will have my brain swirling. I’ve had seasons where lights shining in or the room being too hot or neighbors being loud have all interrupted my sleep. Get CURIOUS about what’s interrupting your sleep and then….
MAKE YOUR BEDROOM A RETREAT. Temperature. Darkness. Sound. How comfortable your bed is. How comfortable your pillows are. It all matters. We have a fan that blows for coolness and for white noise. Black out blinds. And we’ve invested in really nice sheets + mattress to make sure getting into bed feels like a relaxing treat at the end of the day. Often the room that we neglect to pour attention into is our bedroom. How can you make your bedroom a space that feels like a retreat + helps you get long periods of uninterrupted sleep?
③ YOU HIT SNOOZE.
Gosh. You knew this one was coming, right? And for good reason bc we all know that SNOOZE IS NOT SERVING YOU. I had this club I created a while back to support the women in my fitness community called TEAM NO SNOOZE. We had this club bc one of the things that was killing our best intentions in the morning to get up and workout was the snooze button.
I get it. The bed is comfy and warm and the dogs are giving the best snuggles. Staying in bed seems like a great choice in the moment. But let's be real. Snooze isn't helping you have your best morning. It's disrupting your sleep and leaving you less and less excited about getting out of bed.
Mel Robbins is one of my fave authors + speakers and she talks a lot about the science of not hitting snooze. You want to know the scientific reason why you should never hit the snooze button? Let me hit you with some neuroscience here. Two words sleep inertia. When you hit the snooze button, you're awake, and as the alarm turns off, your brain then drifts back into sleep. Researchers have figured out that when you drift back to sleep after you've woken up, your brain starts a fresh sleep cycle. And sleep cycles take anywhere from 75 to 90 minutes to complete. So, when that alarm goes off nine minutes later after you hit snooze, you're nine minutes in to a 75 minute sleep cycle. We think that bc we’re groggy + exhausted but that feeling you have isn’t bc you didn’t sleep well. It’s bc you’ve entered a new cycle.
In my life I was a CHRONIC SNOOZE HITTER. Like chronic. But if you learned the habit, you can learn a better one, right?. So. What can we do about.
Instead of RESISTING the urge to hit snooze (bc that’s not working for you, right) let’s make it HARDER to hit snooze. Here’s how I do this. YEARS back I created a habit of taking my phone OUT of my bedroom at night. This does TWO things. One it helps with snooze which I’ll talk about in a second…but TWO it also helps me stay off my phone before bed and when I wake up. So lots of wins. Each night before bed I set my workout clothes out in my bathroom and then I plug my phone up to charge and lay it on top of that pile. When the alarm goes off in the morning I physically HAVE to get out of bed to turn it off AND it’s on top of my workout clothes so this jump starts my morning routine bc the next step is made easier for me. I’ve stream lined it.
④ YOU SCROLL FIRST THING.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who picks up a phone, scrolls for a bit, and then leaves feeling emptier than when I started? There’s a reason for this, friends. Scrolling through your phone as soon as you wake up can lead to information overload and stress. Studies have found that excessive screen time in the morning can increase anxiety and decrease overall productivity.
Elisabeth Shaw, a psychologist, says the morning has a significant impact on the rest of your day.
“Taking time for yourself to recalibrate and reflect can actually orient you better to more effectively face what the day will demand of you. Looking at the phone immediately takes you away from yourself. Before you have even registered your state of mind or how your body is feeling this morning, you’re off into other people’s stories, others’ needs of you, and what the next demand might be.”
Grabbing our phones and scrolling overwhelms the nervous system and our cognition, making us stressed, anxious and tense. It skyrockets our cortisol levels, which contributes to feelings of anxiety, depression and poor mental health.
Instead of checking in on what “everyone else” is doing…I highly recommend checking in on YOU.
Moving your body.
Journaling.
Meditating.
Sipping your coffee + getting clear on what’s coming up in the day.
Eating a solid breakfast.
Reading a book that is helping you grow in an area or sparking creativity.
All of these set you up for the day so that you’re not starting on empty and continuing to burn out.
⑤ You don't make your bed.
Laugh if you want at this last reason but it’s TRUE, ya’ll. People who spend a couple extra minutes smoothing the comforter back and rearranging pillows actually led more productive lives, according to surveys.
It may sound silly that such a small task would influence the rest of your day, but the survey found that completing this chore actually gives people an early sense of accomplishment that then helps them feel more productive throughout the rest of the day.
In his book, "Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World,” author William McRaven shares the idea that making your bed in the morning sets you up for success. His theory is that just by making your bed, you've accomplished at least that one thing. So, the simple act of tidying up your covers lets you begin your morning with a small success that, the theory goes, will encourage many more throughout the day.
I also think it’s a treat for FUTURE YOU bc when you return to your bedroom later that day it’s like a beautiful welcoming package to relax into.
And I know it’s your bed…but there is solid evidence showing a clear link between living and working in an organized, clutter-free environment and having improved focus, goal-setting skills, productivity, and lower levels of stress. On the flip side…those with messier homes, especially to the extreme of hoarding, are known to have more issues with emotional regulation, stress, and mental health.
So. Want a quick win? Make your bed.
I wanted to walk you thru 5 simple things that aren’t serving your best morning and take you kind of “start to finish” thru how to set that up to help you gain some success.
It starts with how you’re winding down in the evening.
It trickles into the quality + duration of restful sleep you’re getting.
It involves REFUSING to hit snooze now that you know the neuroscience behind that groggy feeling.
It requires you to LIVE YOUR LIFE before checking in on Sally’s on the internet.
And it’s as simple a making your bed to get some quick wins first thing before you head out the door…or into all the other hats you wear each day.
Friends. I know people are counting on you to be your BEST SELF day in and day out. You have a lot of people + purposes that are grabbing for and demanding your attention. I get this. That’s why it’s SO IMPORTANT you give yourself the best shot at an energetic + productive morning. One that is LIFE GIVING no matter if you call yourself a “morning person” or not.
If today’s post spoke to you and you’re ready to…
▫️set an alarm and actually wake up refreshed when it goes off
▫️feel less rushed and more peaceful in the first moments of the day
▫️take care of YOU first thing in the day with things that fill you up
▫️live your life vs watch + scroll others live theirs
▫️wake up excited for your routine + the day ahead
Then tap below to get on the WAITLIST so you’re first to know when we open up registration.
AND A Quick recap if you’re newer around here…
The Self Care Sisterhood is a virtual self care community for hard working women who also want to include THEMSELVES on their to do list. The sisterhood’s mission is to provide tools, resources, and community that equip and empower you to take care of YOURSELF (mind, body, + spirit), so you can go out into the world and LOVE + SERVE from the overflow. Each season there is a topic centered on various themes surrounding ALL THINGS self care…and this winter it’s all about WINNING OUR MORNINGS.
I can’t WAIT to welcome you in. 🤍
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