The Morning Routine That Actually Makes You Want to Get Out of Bed

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Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Feast Life. I'm Julie Ross, and today I’m here to help you understand why carving out a few minutes for a morning routine is one of the best gifts you can give to yourself. 

A morning routine is a gift. It is so important to nourish yourself that way.  I used to wake up for our homeschool days… not in a very good mood, let's put it that way. I usually was woken up by the sound of my children fighting downstairs, or them making a whole bunch of noise. I'd just drag myself out of bed, half asleep, in my bathrobe, and I'd come downstairs, and be frustrated with everyone, asking why nobody can be respectful or kind to each other, or figuring out what everyone was fighting about. Needless to say, it wasn't a really good way to start the day for anyone. I realized that, in order for me to show up as the kind of mom that I wanted to, I needed to wake up in the mornings before my children and do certain practices that were going to set me up for success in my day. 

Let’s start with why we even need a morning routine. I know it might seem like this is just really simple, but a morning routine is so key because it has such a profound impact on your day. Establishing a set of activities to start your day sets the tone for the entire day. It also influences your productivity, it changes your mood, and it can increase your overall well being. A morning routine is more than just a series of tasks. It is the cornerstone for a successful and balanced life in homeschool. 

First of all, having a morning routine increases your productivity and focus. Having a structured morning routine sets your tone for the day. If you just wake up, whenever your kids wake you up, and you have no routine or structure, you end up putting out fires all morning, and this does nothing for setting your mind up for productivity. Having a structured routine, even if it's just for a few minutes, helps you feel so productive; and that productive feeling will carry you through the rest of the day. Starting your day with predetermined tasks eliminates the need for you to make decisions early in the morning, which can be really hard to do, especially before your coffee. So, we don't want to have to make a bunch of decisions in the morning. Having a routine where we're doing the same things makes it habitual, which means it takes less mental effort to do those morning tasks, and that gives us more mental energy for more complex things later in the day. 

Another reason a morning routine is so important is it cultivates consistency and discipline. Adhering to a morning routine does require discipline though, and over time this discipline becomes part of your character. Charlotte Mason said, "Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character.  Sow a character, reap a destiny." It's these little things that we do on a daily basis that over time, add up to who we become. Being disciplined in the morning with these few little things helps us become more disciplined with other things in our lives, which helps build our character, which is ultimately going to change our destiny. 

This consistency is then reflected in all aspects of our lives. When you begin your day with a consistent set of habits, it fosters a sense of reliability and stability, which is crucial for tackling life's unpredictable challenges. Things are going to come up, but when we're used to keeping our word to ourselves and having this discipline of habits, it will help us overcome those larger obstacles.  

Another reason a morning routine is so key is because it improves your mental health. We're either doing things that are improving our mental health or we're naturally doing things that are going to take us down a different road. Our natural, sinful man can just go down this road that we don't want to, so I had to be intentional about fostering good habits and feeding my mind, body, and soul with what it needed. A morning routine is just a really simple way to do this. We can tend to make this really complicated, and I'm going to talk about that, but really it can be very basic. Activities like prayer, journaling, having a gratitude practice, moving your body,  eating or drinking something that's really nourishing. These things all just set your positive mindset for the day. This can lower your stress levels, reduce your anxiety, and improve your overall sense of well being. 

Having a morning routine also encourages healthier choices. By incorporating healthy habits first thing in the morning, like a nutritious breakfast, exercise, hydration, or feeding your mind, it's going to encourage you to keep making healthier habits throughout your day.  A morning workout, for instance, not only energizes you, but also motivates you to make healthier eating and lifestyle choices throughout the rest of your day. 

A morning routine also enhances your time management, because with a morning routine, you're essentially scheduling a part of your day.  This habit of planning and sticking to a schedule can spill over into other areas of your life and help you be more productive with your time throughout the rest of your day. There will be times when you have things blocked on your calendar, like running errands, appointments, or cleaning the bathroom, that when the time comes, you’re not going to feel like it. Of course, right? Most of us don't feel like doing the things that we have to do in life at all, but we need to learn to build that discipline. When it's time for something, that is the thing that we do and it feels good to get that thing done. 

It might mean waking up just a couple minutes earlier, or having a set wake up time, to start. If you have little tiny babies that you're waking up and feeding in the middle of the night, I am not talking to you. You can finish reading this and just save it for another day, but I am not talking to you. That is a whole different season and it doesn't last forever.  

Some of you, your children are older. They might wake up every now and then, and you can't always control that.  You get to be my age and you start having hormonal problems that keep you up in the middle of the night. So you can't say, “I'll start a morning routine when I have the perfect night's sleep.” Okay? You just need to start it. It might mean that you need to wake up 15 to 30 minutes earlier than what you're currently waking up, if you're waking up at the time that all your kids wake up.  It also might mean, in order for you to still get the right amount of sleep,you might need to go to bed 15-30 minutes earlier. I'm not talking about depriving yourself of any sleep. 

A great morning routine really does start the night before. For some of you that might mean that you have to start training your kids to stay in their rooms a little longer. I had a season where my kids were really, really early risers. We're talking like 6 AM, and that left me no time to actually get up before them.  I did not want to get up at 5:30, so in order for me to have a gift of a morning routine for myself, I had to train them to stay in their rooms. They were all like preschool and above at this age, and I got them all little digital clocks. I taught them how to read when the clock says 7:00, you may come out of your room. Again, like any habit training, it required consistency on my part, "nope, it's not 7:00, is it? Okay, let's go back in here." I'm so glad I trained them in that because that allowed me to have some valuable time to myself in the mornings.

If something is hard, we're not going to do it. So, any routine that you want to establish in your life, any new habit, start small, make it easy. If you want to have a morning routine, put the things that you need for your morning routine out the night before. If you're going to  get up and go for a walk, put your walking shoes right next to your bed so you trip over them in the morning.  Put your Bible and your journal right next to your coffee pot so while your coffee is brewing, you can start working on those things. You don't want to have to go hunting around the house for those things every morning. The easier it is, the more likely you will stay consistent with doing it.  

First, think through what time you’re going to get up. Set a wake up time for yourself, which may mean you need to go to bed earlier. You may have to train your kids to stay in the room so you can have this time for yourself, but just decide on time. It might be a good idea to put your phone in the bathroom when you go to bed, so you have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm. This also helps if you tend to start scrolling on your phone when you first wake up.

Next, I want you to think through your mornings, and consider if there are any habits you have in the mornings that are not serving you. Are you laying in bed hitting the snooze button five times, or maybe just laying in bed dreading the activities of the day. These are things that are not serving you, in time or mental health. 

Now we are going to consider the things to add to your morning routine. I do three things in the morning. Again, keep it simple. Each of these three things is about 10 minutes long, so I call it my Powerhouse 30. These activities are: move my body, feed my mind, feed my soul.

When you wake up and you start moving, it sends all those happy chemicals to your brain and it gives you energy. So even if I didn't have a really good night's sleep, just moving my body for 10 minutes really does wake me up. Sometimes I will go outside and do it, or I have a little gym set up in my garage. Some days if I'm really sleepy, I'll just roll onto the floor and just stretch for 10 minutes, but moving your body for 10 minutes really will energize you. 

After I move my body for 10 minutes, then I feed my mind for 10 minutes. This might be reading my Bible, or reading some other kind of book. It might mean listening to a podcast or the Bible while I make breakfast. You can figure out what works best for you, but just be intentional about having 10 minutes where you are feeding your mind, because we want to have that nourishment in our minds so that we can pour that out for our families.

The last 10 minutes of my Powerhouse 30, I  feed my soul. For me this looks like prayer, a gratitude practice, and some journaling questions. I ask myself things like, “What am I most excited about for today?”  “How do I want to show up today?”  “What good will I do today?” That's a question Ben Franklin asked himself in the mornings. This helps focus your mind on positive things first thing in the morning, instead of automatically going to all the things that are wrong, or could go wrong. 

Here's the thing about building a new habit. You don't have to do it every day for it to be successful, and for it to change the neural pathways in your brain. If there are days where you have your morning routine and then something goes wrong and you don't get to it, it's not the end of the world. What will keep you from being successful is when you say, "Oh, well, I missed two days, so I guess this isn't gonna work. I guess I'm never consistent, and I can never stay with anything." Well, yeah, then you're never gonna change. It's better to say, "Okay, well, yeah, I didn't do it today but I'm starting back tomorrow morning."

The best part of having a routine is that if something happens and I don't wake up with my alam, I can still do those three things. Nourish my body, nourish my mind, nourish my soul. It might not be 10 to 15 minutes each like I would normally do, but I could do it for a few minutes. I may not get time to really move my body, but I can still stretch for two minutes right now. Then, I can find a way to fit some other movement later in my day, like a short walk. Having a routine  helps you be intentional about figuring out how to incorporate those practices, even if the schedule doesn't always go the way you want it to.

Sometimes we feel like we need to totally revamp our whole entire lives, but that is not true. Start small. Research has shown the power of what they call compounding habits. When you build one habit, it helps you build the next habit. Focus on getting one habit down. I think a morning routine is so easy because it really is the first thing before your brain has time to think of something else or other people have different expectations for your time.

I also encourage you to sign up for 'The Confident Homeschool Mom.' This is a coaching program that I do where I combine my life coaching training and my experience as a homeschool mom to help you get better structure to your days. We really work on the mindset and the thinking that needs to happen in order for change to be possible. So if you go to thefeastlife.me/join, you can get on the waitlist for that course that will be coming out in the middle of January. 

In order to show up as our most nourishing selves for our families, it is essential to prioritize self-care and establish a morning routine. By dedicating a few minutes each morning to nourishing our bodies, minds, and souls, we set the stage for a successful day of homeschooling and overall well-being. Remember, a morning routine is not a prison, but a gift we give ourselves to prepare for the race of the day. Start small, make it easy, and be consistent. You deserve to savor the feast of life, starting with a nurturing morning routine.

Don't forget to sign up for "The Confident Homeschool Mom" coaching program, where you'll receive personalized guidance and support to create structure and mindset shifts in your homeschool journey. Visit thefeastlife.me/join to join the waitlist and receive early bird discounts.

Thank you for joining us on this exploration of the power of a morning routine. Remember, life's a feast. Let's savor it!