Build Your Morning Routine

Movement. Meditation. Inspiration.

Jan 28, 2024

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Welcome to the fourth, and final, week of our January theme: “Mindful Mornings”.

The purpose of this month was to empower you to establish a meaningful, morning routine. So far, we’ve discussed the power of small, daily habits and the impact morning movement has on your whole day.

Today, I’m going to share the system that guides my personal routine and how I developed it.

If you’re just joining us, you can catch up by reading the first three “Mindful Morning” issues here: "Mindful Mornings" here: "Mindful Movement" and here : "Morning Meditation"

Next Week, we will introduce a new theme for the month of February. It’s a great time to subscribe to the newsletter and get on board with the Root&Rise community!

The Steps

My morning routine took shape, gradually as I experimented with a variety of morning practices. The image above represents the culmination of all that exploration. It’s a system I developed to help me show up and get the most out of my practice, every single day.

The system works well for me and I know it can work for you too.

So, let’s break the system down into steps, in the order I that incorporated them into my practice.

Hydration

For a long time, my morning hydration consisted of a classic, Ayurvedic delight: warm lemon water. Now, I chug a scoop of greens powder mixed with 8oz of water, followed by another, big cup of plain water between my yoga and meditation.

Meditation

My meditation practice, and really my entire morning routine, started with five minutes a day and evolved from there.

As my practice grew, I tried a lot of different meditation styles. Here’s a list of my favorites, with links to resources you can explore:

Vedic - Light Watkins wrote an excellent book about Vedic meditation called "Bliss More". You can also listen find him on the Rich Roll Podcast, where he’s appeared multiple times.
Metta (also called Lovingkindness) - Legendary meditation teacher, Sharon Salzburg has produced many, quality resources for people seeking to learn about lovingkindness. Here are just a few: her podcast “The Metta Hour”, her book “Loving Kindness” and multiple appearances on the “Ten Percent Happier Podcast”.
Open Awareness - This is a form of meditation where you simply let your mind be open to whatever is present or comes up in your practice. Thoughts, sounds, emotions, etc.
Chakra Bedhana - I used this meditation, in yoga teacher training, for my required 40-day Sadhana and it was a transformative experience. Here is a link to a guided mediation with Alan Finger, the founder of Ishta Yoga: Chakra Bhedana Meditation
Yoga Nidra - My favorite way to meditate, right now. To learn all about it, check out the Yoga Nidra issue from December.

All of these meditations vary wildly in length - fifteen-thirty minutes, a full hour and everywhere in between. For me personally, 15 minutes is the sweet spot for a seated meditation. For a supine meditation like Yoga Nidra, I stay as long as I can.

Movement

Eventually, I started exploring short, yoga asana classes before my meditation and that’s when my morning routine became especially deep and meaningful.

For one, practicing yoga, the moment I woke up, created the consistency I always craved. Before, I wanted a daily practice but struggled to fit it into my busy days.

Taking the time to stretch and move my body immediately before meditating also helped me settle in faster, sit comfortably for longer and be more present during my meditations.

I’ve been doing daily movement+meditation practices for almost four years now.

Inspiration

This step started when I read the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron and learned about “Morning Pages”

Morning pages are simple. You sit down and write out three, handwritten pages of whatever is on your mind. It’s an effective exercise for sorting through the noise in your head and getting to the bottom of things that are bothering, confusing or eluding you.

I don’t do the morning pages anymore, but I do take time to reflect and engage in some sort of inspiring activity before starting my day.

Right now my inspiration takes the form of a daily gratitude list.

Movement+Meditation+Inspiration

After lots of exploration, i’ve settled on a solid system that works well for me: Movement+Meditation+Inspiration.

I’ve been following these steps, day after day for years and they’ve become a deeply ingrained habit.

Now, I just show up. No matter what. If I’m short on time, jet lagged, sharing a hotel room with my family, or even sick.

Flexibility & Variety

My typical morning looks like this:

Wake up, drink my greens w/ water
Practice approx. 15 minutes of gentle yoga
Settle in for 30-45 minutes of Yoga Nidra
Make myself a very fancy cup of French press coffee
Sit down and write out my 10 item gratitude list

I am human and there are plenty of mornings when my typical routine doesn’t fit my morning. Luckily, there is a lot of room for variety in this system.

On mornings when I don’t have much time, I do less yoga, a quick seated meditation + coffee and gratitude.

if I wake up feeling unusually energetic, I might choose a longer yoga class (20-30 minutes), a shorter Nidra (10-20 minutes) + coffee and gratitude.

My morning coffee is really the only non-negotiable. I will cut the movement and meditation short just to make sure I have time for my fussy, fancy coffee. Priorities, right?

Make it Yours

This is my morning system.

How will you take what i’ve given you and personalize it?

Maybe you will choose one thing and run with it. Or, you can change the order of the steps. Maybe you decide to follow my steps exactly as i’ve laid them out, but fill them with different activities.

Here are some examples of alternative activities for each step:

Movement : an early morning walk, somatic stretching, swimming, dancing

Meditation : chanting, breath work, mantra, affirmations, guided savasana, body scan

Inspiration : Journaling, drawing, vision board, draw oracle/tarot cards, intention setting, reading, listen to an inspirational podcast.

What feels interesting, exciting and doable for you?

Remember: it’s your morning, your routine and your life. You build it.

Put it into Practice

This issue is filled with links and resources. I encourage you to spend some time looking through them and thinking about what feels like a good fit for your morning.

Additionally, I compiled two YouTube playlists for you. They include all of the classes I’ve share since the first issue of Root&Rise was published on September 10th of last year.

Check them out and see if there are any classes you missed, or would like to return to.

Yoga Asana Playlist - Root&Rise Featured Asana

Meditation Playlist - Root&Rise Featured Meditations

Final Thoughts

Trust and enjoy the process of cultivating your morning routine. It will change and grow over time. Mine doesn’t look like It did five years ago and I’m sure it will continue to evolve.

Let me know in the comments if you tried any of the steps, or, tell me about your unique morning routine. I’d love to hear what makes your morning meaningful!