5 Habits To Raise Your Vibration Every Morning
Simple yet life-changing
Until recent years, I was never a morning person. I would be slow, irritable, and all I wanted every morning was to go back to sleep. I lived most of my life this way.
A few years ago, I decided to help myself by creating a morning routine that would give me structure, not quite realizing then, that structure would guide me to freedom and flow.
I find it quite hilarious as I write this, knowing how my days used to begin, but I love mornings now. I wake up excited, grateful and full of energy. I‘d like you to have glorious mornings that positively influence the rest of your day too.
How you start your day makes a huge impact on how the rest of it goes. If you do not set aside some time to take care of yourself first, you can’t possibly perform optimally during the rest of the day. You want to be able to give the best version of yourself to your career, family and friends. These habits will get you in touch with your divine self and open the doors to purposeful and joy-filled days. Let’s dive in.
1. Gratitude meditation
The first thing that I do when I wake up every morning is to express gratitude. I sit up on my bed, legs crossed, with my back against the headrest. You can place a pillow behind you for support or do it lying down if you wish.
I take slow deep breaths and start expressing gratitude for the blessings in my life, no matter how small or trivial they may seem. For example :
Thank you for my comfortable bed. Thank you for the fact that my body kept breathing throughout the night and I didn’t have to think about it. Thank you for a new day. Thank you for another opportunity to chase my dreams. Thank you for my one-bedroom apartment. Thank you for my five senses. ( Missing one of them? Express gratitude anyway and see if there are any lessons to be learned which allow you to grow or to help others.) Thank you for my passions. Thank you for my freedom to smile. Thank you for my capacity to love. Thank you for video calls so that I can see my loved ones even when we are apart. ;-)
I take about ten minutes to focus on the things that I am thankful for. If you’re short on time, you can even just list three things that evoke gratitude . There is no right way to do this. Just allow the emotions to wash over you and experience the good vibrations.
Once you focus on gratitude, your perceived problems in life seem to become insignificant. Stressed at work? Not anymore. Now you’re grateful to have a job that allows you to put food on the table. Fed up with your rusty old car? At least you have a car. Not having to walk to work is a blessing. No matter how many squeaks and clunks you hear along the way.
When you choose to express gratitude for what you have instead of focusing on what you lack, the universe gives you more things to be grateful for. On the other hand, if you choose to ignore your blessings and focus on the problems instead, you welcome more problems into your life. I didn’t make The Law. It is what it is. So the choice is yours. Do you want to attract more to be grateful for or more things to complain about?
2. Cold showers
There are a number of reasons why this is great to elevate your vibration in the morning. Let’s start with the scientific evidence.
The first benefit of cold showers is that it boosts your immune system. A study in the journal Plos One found that participants who took cold showers were 29% less likely to call in sick for work than those who didn’t. London’s Thrombosis Research Institute also found that cold showers increase the release of white blood cells. And yet another study showed that cold showers have an anti-depressive effect.
From my personal experience, starting your day with a cold shower does wonders for your willpower. Let’s face it. Cold showers aren’t pleasant. But when you start your day by doing something uncomfortable, you create momentum to then tackle difficult tasks throughout your day.
When that cold water hits you, your breathing rate as well as heart rate increases, improving your blood circulation and decreasing CO2 levels in your body. You naturally stand with good posture because your muscles are contracting to generate heat within the body, which changes how you feel mentally as well. You walk out of the shower buzzing, standing tall and proud, ready to take on any challenge.
If even the thought of a cold shower seems daunting, you can ease yourself into it by ending your warm showers with a 30–60 second burst of cold water.
3. Yoga
Most people already have an idea of how Yoga may benefit them. It is a great form of body weight strength training. It improves posture, flexibility and helps to calm the mind. However, these are just short term benefits of Yoga that lead you to it’s true purpose.
The word Yoga is one that is often misunderstood. In most of the Western world, when the word Yoga is mentioned, we think of people on their mats holding or moving through different postures. This is Hatha Yoga, a system of physical postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama) and energy regulation techniques (mudra and bandha). It’s purpose is to bring awareness and render control over our life force (prana), preparing us for meditation.
The word Yoga simply means ‘union’. The union between our individual consciousness and the universal consciousness. It is a state of being. The word Yoga can also refer to the systems and practices that bring us back to this natural state of being.
I say ‘bring us back’ because the contents of our mind such as our perceptions, thoughts, and memories are what take us away from our natural state of being. We identify with these thoughts and emotions, defining ourselves through them, when in fact they are merely tools to help us navigate life. They do not define us.
In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, he defines Yoga as “the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind”. When we stop identifying with our thoughts, emotions and memories, who are we really? Patanjali calls it the ‘true self’ or the Seer (drashtri).
Yoga can be seen as a practice that allows us to connect with our ‘inner being’ or ‘higher Self’. It bring us the awareness that we are one with the Universal consciousness, which means that we are one with all of creation.
Yoga is much more than downward dogs and tree poses followed by meditation. However, this is not to discourage you from stepping on your mat for the sake of exercise. Practicing asanas followed by a short meditation is a wonderful part of the Yoga practice.
However, do understand that Yoga is not limited to being on your mat. It is a state of being. You can be in Yoga while dancing, or washing the dishes. If you wish to learn more, Light on Yoga by B.K.S Iyengar and The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami Sachidananda are great reads and will definitely enrich your life.
4. Affirmations
The use of affirmations is a great way to penetrate the subconscious mind. It allows us to rewrite the core beliefs that have been wired into our minds throughout our lives.
The subconscious mind is best accessed during sleep, when your brainwaves are in a theta or delta state. So playing an affirmations track while you sleep would be extremely beneficial.
However your subconscious mind can still be accessed when you first wake up. Your brainwaves are mainly in an alpha state. This is a perfect time for self-spoken affirmations. You could say them out loud or in your mind. Writing them down may also be effective.
For example, let’s say you have a dream of starting your own business. You could be experiencing doubts or fears related to this. Maybe you were told your whole life that starting a business is risky and more often than not, people fail. These limiting beliefs are embedded in your subconscious. By using affirmations, you will be able to overcome these limiting beliefs.
So if you’ve been meaning to start a business but are doubting yourself, you may use affirmations such as these:
I am a successful business owner. I am constantly receiving innovative ideas that can be turned into prosperous business ventures. I always make the right decisions. I attract people into my life who can help me grow my business. My business ventures bring me financial abundance. I work with joy and optimism. I have faith that the universe is working with me. I empower myself with knowledge so that I can run my businesses intelligently. I never let setbacks bring me down. Instead, I learn from them and keep moving forward. I understand that failures are necessary on the road to success, and success is my birthright.
5. Visualize your perfect day
Our mind is a powerful tool. More powerful than many of us realize. Thinking negatively can affect our physiology as well as the energy we put out into the world.
How many of us go through our days expecting negativity? We use the events of the past as parameters for our future. Just because we have experienced hardships in the past, does not mean it is all we will ever encounter. We have a choice to remain optimistic and expect good things to happen to us.
Take a few minutes in the morning to visualize the day you would love to experience. See yourself accomplishing your tasks for the day with zeal. You could even anticipate certain obstacles that may arise during the day. Envision yourself tackling these obstacles with confidence and ease.
What kind of interactions do you picture during your day? Are you meeting people who treat you with kindness and respect, or the opposite? Say you are treated with disrespect, how would you respond?
It is common to have people in our lives that we have tense relationships with, whether it be a boss, colleague or family member. We sometimes visualize an argument with these people before it has even happened. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s time to make a change.
Visualize the relationship dynamic you want instead and maintain that energy. Don’t just visualize a desired outcome and then go back to the same old emotions you carry from the past. It won’t work. Let the past go and create a new future.
I have used the power of visualization to completely transform the dysfunctional relationships in my life and it has ALWAYS worked. It may not happen within a day or a week, but if you keep at it, you will create the relationships you desire.
Use your mornings to visualize the day you would like to experience. The universe tends to give us what we want if we can focus our thoughts on our preferred outcomes and live as if they’ve already come true.
There is no particular order in which you should practice these habits in the morning. You don’t even have to practice all five of them each morning.
On some days, you may want to start with a cold shower. On others, you may want to visualize first. Do what works best for you on any given day. I hope that these habits enhance the quality of your life and that they lead you to joyous, purposeful days. Much love.
