AMA with AMA: What's Your Morning Routine?

The 1 minute morning routine you CAN actually do.

Dear AMA:

I’ve heard you talk about your extensive morning routine. Can you tell us about it? And also maybe provide some tips on starting a morning routine, for somebody who has never been able to stick with one?

I am so thrilled to answer this question - because I love having a morning routine… and I was also somebody who absolutely did not have any morning routine for most of my life. If you’re like I used to be, your morning might look like this:

• wake up and check phone

• scroll through e-mails quickly - and open any of them that looked important

• check social media

• immediately start rehearsing conversations that haven’t happened… events that haven’t happened…

• replay the things that happened yesterday that pissed me off

• think about all of the things I need to do today

AND ALL OF THIS WAS BEFORE I EVEN FINISHED BRUSHING MY TEETH.

Was it any wonder that my days typically maintained a low level of permanent stress, anxiety and chaos?

Your morning routine is your welcome mat for the day. Just imagine that while you sleep… the slate (your consciousness) has been temporarily wiped clean. Which means that all of the energy and momentum that you had the day before has changed overnight. So, when you wake up in the morning - you have an opportunity to lay out the welcome mat for a brand new day. Most people want their day to look like this:

But, when we wake up and immediately jump into yesterday’s chaos, our ‘welcome mat’ ends up looking more like this:

First off - this isn’t bad at all. I’m not here to chastise or blame - because this is how I started my morning for most of my life… immediately ‘jumping into it’… going on auto-pilot and then feeling surprised when things seemed busy and chaotic. Plus, sometimes life is really challenging… but having a morning routine when things are ‘normal’, will give you access to these tools when things are tough. And, you never know… you might be surprised that as you start introducing a small morning routine … things start changing in your life too.

My current morning routine:

I’m going to start with a description of my current morning routine… but please don’t fret as you read this and think to yourself, “HOLY CRAP ANASTASIA… there is LITERALLY NO WAY I can find the time for all of that in a week, let along every single morning.” It’s important for you to understand that my morning routine did not start like this. I am going to share how it started a little bit later - and it will give some context for the life changing power of introducing a microscopic amount of stillness into your morning.

My current morning routine starts at around 4:15 am or so. I go to bed around 8 pm (I’m quite the partier, as you can probably tell!), so that I get enough rest. I start my morning with a walk. I am fortunate enough to live in a rural area, so I am usually able to fit in about a 5-6 mile walk in the morning. In the winter, I do this walk in the dark with a headlamp on. Around 6:30 am, I join our Dance Experiment group as a participant… or as a facilitator if it’s my ‘turn’ to lead. Some days, I don’t join the group - and I opt for dancing on my own - usually in the woods near my house. Other days, I switch it up and go for a rollerblading trip at a local paved path.

A particularly beautiful sunrise on one of my morning walks.

During my walk, I try my best to focus on being present and on feeling my inner body. Sometimes I will listen to music, other times I will listen to some of my favorite Eckhart Tolle podcasts, or an audio book. Sometimes, I will do a walking meditation. At some point during my walk, I usually stop at a small ledge overlooking the local area and I do about a 10 minute meditation. During this meditation, I do a combination of feeling my inner body and visualizing some of the things that I am creating in my life - as if they are real now - and I offer gratitude and thanks for those things.

Oh - and somewhere in the midst of all of this, I fit in a short strength routine for the day - which usually (but not always) includes 100 push-ups, 100 walking lunges, some ab exercises, bicep curls… and, if I’m feeling spry, some jump rope.

After participating in the Dance Experiment session, I wake my husband up out of bed (if it’s on the weekend and I don’t have to work that day - I’ll sometimes hop back into bed with him and sleep for a little bit longer - I’ve been enjoying an extra nap lately - ha!). We eat a small snack and then we do a meditation together and then we go on a walk together. We usually listen to an audiobook (right now we are re-listening to Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power of Now’) or we do something that I like to call an ‘Abundance Walk’. During our Abundance Walk, we will speak out loud our gratitude and appreciation for life and for each other and we will discuss, in the present tense, the things that we have created in our life - and express more gratitude for those.

Then, we come back into the house… shower… eat breakfast… and, finally, my employees arrive and we are ready to start work for the day.

PHEW!

Maybe this sounds absolutely ridiculous - but I genuinely love LOVE LOVE my mornings, so it might surprise you to learn that less than a decade ago, I used to specifically tell people, “I’m not a morning person.” Isn’t it funny when you realize… that the things you say about yourself… become true? And are they true because they are true… or are they true, because you believe them to be true? I bet you can probably guess my view on that question - but it’s one that you will have to discover for yourself.

Getting started with a morning routine.

Please, do not think that you need to start your day with a morning routine as ridiculous as mine in order to get the benefits of having a morning routine. In fact, I do not recommend even remotely attempting my morning routine if you are just getting started - because it won’t stick. It’s simply too complicated, and most people cannot just ‘find’ an extra few hours in their day to start walking and meditating. In fact, about 5 years ago - I didn’t have that type of time either and if somebody had suggested that I should do all of those things… I would have laughed at them, “Give me a break… that’s so unrealistic… who has time for that crap?”

Every single person is in a different life situation right now, and they are all varied and provide different challenges. Some people have kids… some people are caring for a sick family member… some people work night shift… some people are struggling with health issues… some people have mobility challenges… some people live in the middle of a city… some people have roommates… some people are working multiple jobs… we all have different circumstances that we are in right now. So, with acceptance of where you are right now - is where you must begin. You don’t need to change your current life situation or rearrange everything in your life to have a morning routine. Having a morning routine will not force you to change anything - in fact, it is through the process of beginning a morning routine, that your life situation might start to change (in a good way).

If you have some limiting beliefs about your morning routine - and what is ‘possible’ for you - I want to acknowledge that while you might absolutely have some limits right now - it will feel better and more hopeful to you to have a sense of openness as you approach this practice. So, for instance, you might be telling yourself, “I can never have a long morning routine due to XYZ life situation.” This statement might be true right now, but it is the morning routine equivalent of saying, “I’m not a morning person.” Remember, what you say, becomes real. So - instead of making a definitive statement that feels pretty terminating in nature - open it up a bit and try saying, “I don’t know how it’ll happen, but I am really looking forward to the day when I can have a more open and spacious morning routine. I know it has happened for other people, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it might be possible for me too.” I bet that feels a lot better than, “This isn’t possible.”

When I first started looking at my life and wishing that I could change it - starting a morning routine was one of the first things that I decided to do. Initially, I wanted to make ‘big changes’ - but very quickly I discovered that I couldn’t do that. At the time, I lived in a very urban area where I did not have access to trails without driving to them, and I didn’t live in an area where it was safe to walk around at night. I also worked night shift, so my ‘morning’ didn’t really start until around noon, when I woke up. I decided that if I was going to give this an honest effort, that I had to start with something that I knew I could stick with - so I decided that I would start with a 1 minute morning routine, every single day.

Every single morning, I started doing a small practice for 1 minute… and after about a week, you know what? I felt really good! I was amazed that having a morning routine for 1 minute was making such a difference in my life… so I decided to see if I could ‘add on’ to it a little bit. Instead of looking at my phone in the morning, I started reading a little bit from a personal development book each day. Eventually, I started walking around the neighborhood as a part of my morning routine. At some point during this process, I started doing short meditations at work in the evenings too - I’d find a little bit of time where I was alone in my office, and I’d do a 2-3 minute meditation practice. I was amazed at how incredible I felt. The more I seemed to change the energy within me, the more everything outside of me seemed to change too. And… well… if you’ve read my weekly posts, you know that all of Kula Cloth exists today because I started to look within and find that tiny bit of stillness.

Finding even a moment of stillness opens the door for more stillness to enter. It shifts and changes your energy, almost instantly. Feeling a sense of gratitude changes the energy of every single cell in your body, and it sends out a very strong signal that says, “Show me more things to be grateful for.”

My morning routine today only exists because I started doing a one minute morning routine almost 6 years ago. You can’t wait until ‘you have more time’ in order to have a morning routine. You have to find the feeling of spaciousness in your morning now … and then, though you might not have any clue how it will happen, your spacious morning routine will ultimately arrive in ways that will surprise and delight you as your life shifts and changes to allow that space to reveal itself to you. A few years ago when I started this, I absolutely did not have time to do the morning routine that I do today - but I did have time to devote 1 minute to a routine every morning. That one minute was like a tiny crack in the door - letting in a teeny bit of light. Each time I did my one minute routine, the door opened a little bit more… and a little bit more… until my life situation allowed the door to stay open, so that I could have the time and space to create the morning that I wanted to experience.

The one minute morning routine.

Keep in mind - you can modify or change this to what works for you, given your current life situation. But, here are the basics of the 1 minute morning routine:

You can do this morning routine while lying in bed (after your alarm has gone off), or you can sit up in bed and go through the practice as your feet touch the ground for the first time. Or, you can add it into your morning in a place that works best for you. If you notice your mind wandering as you are going through the practice - that’s ok - just bring your attention back to your breathing. See if you can be as present as possible while you do this practice. For that reason, I don’t recommend looking at your cell phone or social media until after you’ve completed your one minute.

Here’s a video of me performing the entire practice - as you can see, it only takes me around 46 seconds total:

Commit to doing this every single day for one week, and see what happens. I can’t tell you what will happen - but I do believe and know that something will change for you. The ‘welcome mat’ that you are setting out at the start of your day will send a different signal, because this tiny practice will change your signal just a little bit. So, without expectations for anything specific to ‘happen’ - just be open, and notice how you feel and how your day and week progress as you continue this practice. If you are able to keep it up for 1 full week… see if you can do it for a full 30 days, and simply plant this question into your mind:

If I do a one minute morning routine every day for the next 30 days, what can happen?

I’m pretty curious to hear what happens - and I hope you are too. I asked this question to myself many years ago when I started my morning routine - and never could I have fathomed that making such a seemingly tiny change would have such a massive impact in my life. As somebody who went from a self-proclaimed ‘not a morning person’ … to a self proclaimed, ‘I love mornings more than anything’, person… I absolutely know that you can do this!

Go with the flow.

You might start with this 1 minute morning routine - and quickly discover that you want to add or subtract things to your morning. Some people love to journal in the mornings… other people love to do yoga… some people love to dance (me!)… other people love to do other things - there is no right or wrong… this is just about you, taking care of yourself, and laying out the type of ‘energetic welcome mat’ that you want to welcome your day with. So, just have fun with it - be open to whatever feels good - and go with the flow.

I am the type of person who loves to change things up - and I don’t like things to feel stagnant … so even though it’s called a ‘morning routine’ - my morning ‘routine’ is anything but routine. In fact, I’m constantly shifting it and changing it and asking myself what I need each day. What is consistent is the time and space that I dedicate to setting an energetic tone for my day. I know that if I immediately jump into social media, e-mails and going on unconscious autopilot - that I’ll end up spending my day feeling chaotic and frustrated and irritable. So, change things up frequently - but hold space for your morning routine as sacred and precious - but with a gentle flexibility for life. Some days, especially if I’m leaving early to go hiking or motorcycle riding, it just isn’t possible to do the ‘full’ routine - so on those days, I might skip the walk and just do a short meditation. For me, the meditation is the non-negotiable part of my morning routine - the other parts of it are just a bonus that I really enjoy.

Have fun - be playful - do what feels good to you - and watch your morning routine grow and expand from one minute… into anything that you want it to be.

Feel free to ask any questions that you might have about morning routines below. And if you have any question that you want to submit to AMA with AMA - I’d love to answer it! You can submit your questions anonymously by clicking on this link.

And, if you try the one minute morning routine - I’d love to hear how it goes for you - so never hesitate to reach out to me - my personal e-mail is anastasia@kulacloth.com.

No matter where you are right now - please know that as I am walking and dancing and meditating each morning - I’m sending all of you a wish for ease, peace, wellness and love in your lives. Thank you so much for being here.

Love,

Anastasia