The Ultimate Morning Routine
During The Coronavirus Lockdown
Table of Contents
From Anxious To Mindful Mind
With the COVID-19 outbreak now a pandemic, the world has become chaotic. We are all experiencing something that has never happened before in human history. Countries are imposing coronavirus lockdowns, hospitals are nearly overwhelmed, schools and “non-essential” businesses are closed, people work from home, kids spend their spring break indoors and we are all trying to make sense of this unprecedented situation. Some people panic and compete in inventing various worst-case, others live in complete denial acting as nothing happened. And then there are those who accept the situation as it is, faces the fear of unknown and challenge themselves to perform better under stress.
To be completely honest with you, I had my major panic attack about 10 days ago when they put the entire country under the lockdown. Once I’d calmed myself, I realized that the only way to get my life back on track is to embrace my less-than-perfect circumstances and allow myself to adapt to them. And that’s exactly what I did. I decided to focus on the things I can control. Because if you want to rebalance an out-of-balance life you need to let go of things you cannot control, identify the areas that you are in control and create an action plan to address them one by one.
It turned out that the first thing to do to recreate a healthy balance in my daily life is to level up my morning routine and make it more adaptable to the new circumstances. And this is exactly what I did. I’ve created a brand new (lockdown) morning routine that helps me to stay positive, healthy and productive during the Coronavirus pandemic. So, if you’re interested here it is my 5 step lockdown morning routine to guarantee success through my day! It starts with my morning MOTTO!
Download Your FREE Printable Workseets & Set Yourself Up for Successful 2020!
Benefits Of Morning Routine
A solid, healthy and powerful morning routine helps you to:
- Manage Anxiety & Reduce Stress
- Eliminate Time Wasters & Distractions
- Remove the unnecessary non-critical Decisions from your daily life
- Create Consistency
- Create Momentum
- Increase Self-Awareness
- Improve Focus & Concentration
- Increase Productivity
- Create Motivation
- Increase Engagement Levels
- Boost Physical & Mental Wellbeing
- Boost Happy Hormones
- Enter Flow State
- Boost Self-Confidence & Self-Esteem
- Feel a Greater Sense of Fulfilment
- Improve Interpersonal Relationships
- Give Yourself a Reason
- Hack Your Brain to Increase Creativity
- Create Work-Life Balance
- Regulate Emotions
- Increase Emotional Happiness
- Fight Chronic Fatigue
- Increase Self-Love
Quarantine Morning Routine Manifesto
Tips For Creating Morning Routine
Keep It SIMPLE
Be CONSISTENT
Enter the PRESENT Moment
Have FUN
Make It COZY
Make It UNIQUE
EXPERIMENT A Little Bit
Have The PLEASURE Of It
Here is my 5- step formula on how to get started creating a balanced day during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
1. Get Energized - The Power Of A Morning Ritual
Wake up early enough to have time for your powerful morning ritual, morning self-care and your updated morning routine that will put you in a positive headspace and boost your productivity levels in those less-than-perfect circumstances. Start your day with a powerful highly-personalized morning ritual, the fun and energizing one. It can be one habit or sequence of habits that reinforce each other you practice right after waking up to start your day in a positive way. It can be anything from making a delicious cup of coffee to going for a morning run. But it has to be something that inspires you, motivates you and makes you feel good about yourself. So if the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is reading the news with terrible and depressing headlines you should probably avoid that unless you want to feel depressed, anxious and just awful throughout the day. Instead, develop a positive morning ritual that will help you set the tone for a positive day.
- Go to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up early
- Start your day with a powerful morning ritual, the one that will put you in an instant good mood
- Drink a glass of warm water right after you wake to rehydrate your body
- Make yourself a delicious cup of coffee or tea
- Listen to uplifting and energizing music
- Reduce watching Tv and news in the morning to ZERO
- Make time for morning self-care (Simple, Healthy & Positive Self-Care ideas here)
- Do a quick morning stretch to increase flexibility and boost your energy levels
- Get inspired by interesting and motivational content (read, watch or listen to an inspirational content)
Powerful Morning Rituals Ideas
- Make yourself the perfect cup of coffee or tea
- Achieve peace of mind with morning guided meditation
- Set 3 intentions for the day
- Perform the 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise
- Track the past, organize the present and plan for future with a Bullet Journal
- Practice positive self-talk looking in the mirror
- Write gratitude notes and put them in your Gratitude jar
- Practice morning yoga stretch to wake up & stretch out for your best day ever
- Get active and boost your endorphins naturally
- Go for a morning walk and connect with nature
- Read self-improvement book
- Listen to an inspirational podcast or watch motivational Ted talks
- Listen to mindfulness music for positive energy and stress relief
- Listen to Uplifting Music
External Source Of Inspiration
Download Your FREE Printable Self-Care Worksheets!
Grab Your FREE Self-Care Workbook
DOWNLOAD Your SELF-CARE Workbook FOR FREE and Start Practicing Daily Self-Care for Healthy, happy & Fulfilling Life!
2. Stay Grounded - Focus On The Present Moment
Stop living in psychological time. Be mindful. Use the time to your advantage but be present. Learn important lessons from your past experience and plan for the future but avoid overthinking and over-scheduling because it will create excessive worrying and unnecessary suffering. Instead, focus on the present moment and start building foundations for your future self. Stop thinking and start doing. Focus on the present moment and make the most of it.
- Lower Your Cortisol Levels
- Keep a 5-minute bullet journal
- Challenge your negative thinking using the mirror technique
- Do a quick deep breathing exercise
- Do Mindfulness Meditation
- Practice Gratitude (Find positives in the current situation)
- Use positive affirmations to boost your self-esteem and increase your confidence
- Get Active, boost your happy hormones and accelerate your mental performance
3 Effectife Types Of Mindfulness Practice
Guided Meditations - Guided meditations are highly beneficial for both mental and physical wellbeing. They are a powerful tool in building self-awareness, gaining a new perspective, reducing stress and anxiety, accepting your feeling and emotions without judging them, increasing creativity and motivation, connecting with your higher-self, establishing a healthy relationship with your self, creating a mind, body, and spirit balance
Breathing Exercises - Mindful breathing exercises have a variety of benefits. Since we can control and regulate our breath we can use a simple act of inhaling and exhaling as a powerful tool in reducing stress, anxiety or getting rid of negative emotions like anger or frustration. Focusing on your breath can also improve your attention, concentration, and self-awareness.
Body Scan Meditation - It’s a powerful component of mindfulness practice designed to develop self-awareness. In particular, it’s a way to get in touch with your body. A way to narrow your complete attention to the one part of the body to move to the other part right after that. Body scan meditation practice improves the ability to move the attention up or down to the body. It trains your mind to switch your focus from detail to the wider one.
Simple Ways To Lower Your Cortisol Levels Naturally
- Get the right amount of sleep (go to bed early and get up early)
- Get active and coax your body into making more endorphins
- Eat some delicious dark chocolate
- Eat more Omega 3 rich foods
- Drink green tea
- Laugh more and worry less
- Listen to uplifting music and dance like nobody’s watching
- Connect with your tribe
- Limit Alcohol
- Drink Caffeine in moderation
- Practice guided meditation
- Listen to ASMR content
- Connect with nature
- Try adaptogenic herbs such as Ashwagandha, Holy basil, Rhodiola, Panax ginseng, Licorice root, Chamomile, Skullcap, Lemon Balm)
- Do a quick breathing exercise
Best Relaxation Apps
3. Stay Centered - Create A Balanced Day
Being completely honest with you, I don’t believe in creating a permanent life balance that nothing, absolutely nothing can interfere. I think that life is very much a constant balancing act, a sum of rises and falls, ups and downs, stumbles and missteps, failures and fresh starts.
Life without struggles and challenges would be an empty and meaningless existence with no possibility to grow and improve. Every step forward is a balancing act. Sometimes life throws you off and knocks you down but only to give you a chance to raise up and regain your focus. A constant and perfect balance in life does not exist. So stop pursuing it. Focus on building momentum and balancing the present moment. Keep moving forward and if you lost your footing accept it as a part of the process. Don’t make it discourage you. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, give yourself a pat on the back for raising up and get back on track.
- Plan Your Days According to 3 x 8h rule (8h of work, 8h of productive “me time”, 8h of quality rest. A 3 x 8h rule it a great way to achieve work-life balance.
- Set 3 Daily Priorities (You can use the 20/80 Pareto Principle to set your priorities, eliminate your distractions and focus on personal and professional growth. 24 hours a day can be enough to get the most important things done if you eliminate distractions and time-wasters (in every area of your life).
- Set your Daily Intentions (Ask Yourself, how do you want to feel at the end of the day)
- Create an effective To-Do List
- Set 3 MITS - the most important tasks (get them knocked out in the early morning, as soon as you can when your mind is fresh)
- Set SMART Goals & Deadlines
- Break down your big goals or larger tasks into more realistically achievable and manageable steps and then set deadlines for any of them
- Design an Action Plan for Your Goals (a goal without a plan is just a WISH!)
- Use the Pareto Principle to track your success and optimize what really matters in your life (According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of your work produces 80% of the result. This means that if you manage to identify that 20% correctly you will spend more time doing the right things that will produce the greatest outcome.)
- Schedule Time To Relax - Remember that relaxation and quality rest is the key to success.
4. Boost Your Focus - Regain Your Mental Clarity
Given the chaos of the moment, it is a real challenge for everyone I know to stay focus on what really matters. Because watching the news and listening to journalists that spread panic like fuel on a fire, seems much more engaging but at the same time, it’s completely unproductive. It’s easy to focus on what’s wrong. But when you press through and focus on the things you can control you’re not worried anymore about the things you can’t. So turn off the news and get control of your time and life.
Stop thinking and start doing. Seriously put yourself in motion and start producing real results. Overthinking and overanalyzing not only prevents you from taking action but also makes every situation much more complex than it ever needs to be. If you want to achieve your goals you need to stop creating worst-case scenarios and start taking action towards your goals! Seriously stop thinking and start doing!
Stop negotiating with yourself, instead, eliminate all external and internal distractions, put the right kind of music (I usually listen to mindfulness music for deep focus and concentration with binaural beats) and start working towards achieving your goals. Enter into that hypnotic state where creativity flows effortlessly and start achieving your goals.
- Stop overthinking and over-analyzing because it’s entirely unproductive
- Reduce non-critical decisions from your daily life
- Eliminate time-wasters and distraction (switch off the news)
- Create a clear vision of what you want to accomplish by the end of the day
- Develop an action plan and start achieving your goals
5. Boost Your Productivity - Start Producing Results
If you want to be productive, seriously organized and incredibly motivated during this extremely unusual and unpredictable time you need the right strategy, the one that will enable you to work in a productive and relaxed manner. In other words, you need to gain control over your time management and plan your work for maximum results. So take a pen and piece of paper or create a new Google Drive document and plan on HOW and WHEN you’re going to achieve your professional and personal goals on a given day. Then prioritize your tasks, schedule everything that needs to be done and track your progress. Plan for maximum productivity BUT don’t overschedule. Be rational and always negotiate with yourself. Do not be your own tyrant. Design your ideal day using the Pareto principle and set yourself up for success.
Gain Control Over Your Time Management With Productivity Bundle
Are you ready to be more productive? Get 73 eBooks, eCourses, and printables on conquering your to-do list, reaching your goals, and freeing up more time with the Ultimate Productivity Bundle. 97% off!
- Stop thinking and start doing - Put yourself in motion and get inspired by your own actions
- Adopt anti-procrastination strategies and boost your productivity levels (post about how to become a highly productive person HERE)
- Use the Pareto Principle (According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of your work produces 80% of the result. This means that if you manage to identify that 20% correctly you will spend more time doing the right things that will produce the greatest outcome.)
- Unlock your creative potential (The best way to do it is through observation, connecting with nature, interacting with others and fueling your passion. Personally, I like to train my creative mind through journaling and communicating with my inner child because I really believe that our inner child is our source of creativity and infinite potential.)
- Manage your time wisely and efficiently (Be productive, NOT Busy) - focus on making steps to move forward with your goals
Grab Your FREE "Balance Your Hectic Life" Workbook
DOWNLOAD Your Work-Life Balance Workbook FOR FREE and Start Living Your Best Life!
Best Productivity Apps For 2020
- Trello - project management app here
- Any.do - get seriously organized here
- Todoist - task management software here
- FocusList iOS / Android - productivity app that helps you get more DEEP work done
- Y Productive here
- TickTick: ToDo List Planner, Reminder & Calendar (Android / iOS)
- Hours - Time Tracking App Online here
- Toggl - Free Time Tracking Software here
- RescueTime: Fully Automated Time Tracking Software here
- Google Drive (My Absolutely Favourite!)
Best Posts On Creating A Balanced Life
- 8 Powerful Habits For Balance In Your Daily Life HERE
- 5 Step Daily Routine To Start Living Your Best Life. HERE
- The 3 x 8 Method Will Immediately Change Your Life For Better! HERE
- From Vision To Results HERE
- 6 Self-Improvement Habits To Adopt in 2020 HERE
- Get into the Habit of Being Seriously Organized in 2020. HERE
- 8 Simple Steps to Set Yourself Up for a Successful 2020 HERE
- Gain Control Over Your Time Management HERE
- Become a Highly Productive Person HERE
- Motivation And How To Create It HERE
P.S.
Stay Positive
Be Mindful
and Recreate a Balanced Life During the Coronavirus Pandemic
xo Kate
2 thoughts on “Morning Routine To Reduce Stress And Anxiety: Quarantine Edition.”
🙂
🤗🤗