Tired of aesthetic, performative morning routines? If you are barely holding it together and wants an ultra-simple morning routine, this one is for you.
A bad day usually starts before you even get out of the bed, isn’t it?
You keep on snoozing the alarm a hundred times. You toss and turn around in bed, scrolling through phone, thinking about having to attend another dreadful meeting that never have any useful outcomes.
Mornings are delayed deliberately to hold onto the little moments of comfort that will be stolen away once you put your feet down.
Of course you are clinging to them even though you know these are the things you should never do in the morning.
The morning rush is engineered by you. You are already delaying and starting anxious.
Clinging to your bed and wrapping yourself in the coziness of blanket, scrolling through phone helps you escape reality for a few fleeting seconds.
It doesn’t have to be this hard.
Living the whole day before it even started is what most of us do. I am guilty of this too.
Dreading about something that hasn’t even happened yet is robbing your peace of mind. Your morning routine should fix this and not turn you into a productivity machine.
You don’t need one hour or do a million things. You need intentional 15 minutes.
8 Things Before 8 am Might Not Be For You
When you are running your life hooked to a ventilator you cannot do ‘8 things before 8 am’ – getting out of bed itself is a victory.
You might have probably tried one – woke up early, journaling, reading, exercise and more.
Probably quit by day 3, right?
You blame yourself for not having a morning routine. Undisciplined, unmotivated, unintentional – your brain starts assigning these labels to you.
Well, your brain is wrong.
The mainstream Instagram famous routines are for people who have the luxury of time. And at least a near stable optimized energy levels.
That’s the only thing you know. So, of course you blame yourself for not being able to stick to a morning routine.
These highly optimized, aesthetic, ultra-productive morning routines are not for someone living hooked to a ventilator.
There is a mismatch between your life and your morning routine. That’s why it’s not sticking. Also, you don’t have the luxury to wake up one hour before.
But you can wake up 15 minutes before, right?
This is for anyone having a hard time and also for the days you simply want a gentler, more realistic start.
Related Post: How to Develop A Realistic Morning Routine
The 15 Minute Morning Routine
1. Deep Breathing
The moment you open your eyes and realize it’s a new day; a wave of thoughts comes rushing in. You can feel the anxiety, anger, frustration building up and you haven’t even got out of the bed.
The best way to begin your day is by taking a few deep breaths.
Deep breathing helps to reduce stress and anxiety helping to set a calm tone for the day.
A few minutes of deep breathing can boost energy and oxygen delivery. Studies have also found that it can help to improve focus and concentration.
There are a few different methods to do it:
1.SQUARE BREATHING
I first read about this method in the book ‘Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before’ by Dr. Julie Smith. It is also known as box breathing.
Here’s how to do it: Inhale you breath by counting to 4, hold the breath for 4 seconds, exhale by counting to four and hold for 4 seconds. Repeat this for 3 to 5 times.
2. 4-7-8 BREATHING
Inhale through your nose to the count of four, hold the breath for 7 seconds and exhale through your mouth for eight seconds. Repeat this for 3 to 5 times.
3. PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGH BREATHING
I found about this breathing technique from Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast. You must inhale once, then inhale again followed by a long exhale through the mouth. Repeat this for 3 to 5 times.
These methods of deep breathing helps to reduce stress and anxiety and calm your mind.
Estimated time required: 3 to 5 minutes
2. Practice Gratitude
Practicing gratitude might be the last thing you want to do when life is hard.
I have tried to be grateful by doing the regular ways to practice gratitude like writing down 3 things to be grateful for. If you can’t find anything, write about the simple things to be grateful for.
I will be honest it never worked for me.
But that doesn’t mean you give up on gratitude. Nope.
The problem was never gratitude itself, it was how we were taught to practice it.
Forcing yourself to find silver linings while ignoring your very real pain doesn’t build gratitude, it just teaches you to discount your own struggles.
It’s like telling someone who lost an arm to be grateful they still have the other one. Technically true. Completely unhelpful.
You can practice gratitude even during difficult phases of life without forcing positivity.
One of the best thing to do is to be grateful for yourself.
Have you ever thought of mentioning yourself in your gratitude list? Rarely, right?
Every morning take a few minutes to express gratitude for yourself – for surviving this mess, for not giving up on yourself.
Your journey matters. Your efforts matter.
Estimated time required: 2 to 3 minutes
Related Post: When nothing seems okay, these 5 gratitude practices can help you shift your mindset without forcing positivity.
3. Read About Your Dreams
Burnout makes everyone forget about themselves.
All of us gets so busy in our day to day lives that we get disconnected from ourselves. We forget our dreams, goals in the run to make money to pay bills and rent.
Slowly, we lose touch with the person who had dreams before all this.
So, what is your dream, your goals?
Write it somewhere – in a pocket notebook or notes app.
Even if you can barely do something about this dream right now, remind yourself about it every day.
Your dream could be to start an Instagram page to share your drawings or to start a blog or newsletter to share your thoughts and ideas.
Or it could be to travel with friends, or learn different languages or read 1000 books.
Whatever it is, read it every morning.
This will not magically make your dreams come true. But it will help you be in touch with your deepest self.
This is one simple step you can take to stop losing yourself completely in this mayhem.
Because at the end if you lived a stable life but wasn’t true to yourself none of what you did matters.
Estimated time required: 2 to 3 minutes
Related Post: If you feel lost or unsure about what truly matters to you, this guide helps you uncover your core values and principles so you can make decisions with clarity and confidence.
4. Stretching
Before you stand up, sit on the edge of the bed and do some quick stretches.
Neck rolls. Shoulder rolls. Ankle circles. Reach your arms up. Twist side to side. Nothing ambitious – just enough to remind your body it’s attached to you.
Muscles take up your mental stress and they become stiff and drag down you down too.
A few minutes of stretches loosens it a little bit before the day stacks more of it.
Estimated time required: 5 minutes
Extra Tips
1.Freshen up slowly – Splash cold water and don’t rush the freshening up process. Brush your teeth mindfully without being at your office meetings.
2.Delay your coffee intake – Your cortisol is high after you wake up. Drinking coffee as soon as you wake up makes you jittery and not alert. Take your coffee after 90 minutes of waking up.
3.Keep your outfits ready the night before – One decision less to make in the morning is a tiny win.
Related Post: 30 Ideas for a Successful Morning Routine
What This Morning Routine Will Do and Won’t Do
This is a simple 15 minute morning routine you can do in your bed.
So obviously this isn’t going to transform you or sky rocket your entire day’s productivity.
This routine has no cold plunge, morning pages or 5 am workout. Not that these are bad.
Because these are not for you right now.
It might feel like this routine is too simple and hence useless. If you feel so the Internet is the culprit.
This morning routine is meant to stabilize and calm you. You will feel relaxed, a sense of control.
That doesn’t mean you are going to jump around like a happy puppy.
This small moments of calm will accumulate into something useful. You will start to feel and notice it after a few weeks.
Conclusion
This routine will not fix your life. This isn’t going to magically make your day exponentially better.
But it will make it better.
You might not be able to chance your life situation but you can change how your mornings.
Also this isn’t only for the hard days, it’s for any day you want a softer, more realistic start. Even when you’re not burnt out, having something simple can make a difference.
Keep it easy, and let that be enough.
Start with 15 minutes.
Keep Exploring!
➡️How to Develop A Realistic Morning Routine that’s Perfect For You
➡️15 Things You Should Never Do in the Morning
➡️9 Effective Ways To Stop Using Phone In The Morning
➡️15 Simple Morning Journal Prompts for a Better Day
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