How you start and end your day has a major impact on your mindset and health. The first thing you do in the morning can dictate your mood and feelings going into the day. Here I will provide some tips to help make your mornings and evenings more enjoyable.

Media 

When you wake up the first thing you check is probably your phone. I have fallen to this habit, scrolling on Instagram not wanting to get out of bed, but every time I did this I felt more groggy, unproductive, and tired throughout the day. I tried putting my phone across my room thinking by the time I had walked over I would be awake, but that didn’t work. I tried screen time but hitting 15 more mins over and over again kind of defeats the purpose. Later what I tried was deleting all the apps that distracted me and I felt I was wasting time on. I deleted Instagram and YouTube ( I don’t have TikTok or Snapchat) . I had them deleted for around a month and I found I didn’t miss anything. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on fun or missing information. I was happy without it. During this time,I didn’t check my phone in the morning and sometimes didn’t even look at it until after I had breakfast. My mornings without my phone feel much slower and relaxed. I can take in the day at my own pace, getting breakfast and feeling refreshed instead of bored and tired. I wasn’t planning on reinstalling these apps, but organizations I am part of started using Instagram as their main source of communication. I then reinstalled instagram but what I found is I broke the habit of checking it constantly. After not going on it for a month I didn’t feel the need to check it so often despite it being right on my homepage. I now go to Instagram periodically but because I fully avoided it for a month I now have the willpower to prevent going on it for hours. I recommend trying this by deleting an app for a week or a few days to start. 

Breakfast 

I was never a breakfast person. In highshool I oftain skipped it, feeling not hungry enough at 7am, later on the weekends I would sleep in so when I woke it was around time for lunch. I was never a fan of ceral or yogert and your general breakfast foods. My viewpoint changed though during my college winter brake. During this time I was lucky to have free time and I was determined to follow my goals. My routine was wake up, have breakfast, do yoga, workout, and then edit my films. I started doing yoga everyday and running and this is where I stared focusing on my breakfast. I would make myself a fruit smoothie and avocado toast or an egg omelet every mornings.  In terms of what you have for breakfast its entire up to you and what your body needs and how it makes you feel. Wail eating I would listen to music or read my book. I will be honest I can be an inpatient person and before would compromise a healthy sit down breakfast for a quick bite of something befor I ran out the door. Here I took my time to make my food, planning my plate and drink and as a result it made my day more enjoyable. Its cliche but maybe thats for a reason, starting your day off with a delicious breakfast and some time to yourself can really lift up your mood throughout the day. 

If you would like a “recipe”

Avocado toast Souerdou bread slightly toasted, smashed avocado spread over the bread.

Add salt, pepper, chia seeds, and two slices of tomatoes

Smoothie – mango, strawberries, spinach, almond milk, and more strawberries  

Reading

When I was younger I had a love-hate relationship with reading. I am dyslexic so reading was difficult for me, I often only read for class and felt discouraged to read for fun. As I got tutoring and strengthened my skills I learned to love reading again and years later I now have to many books on my to-read shelf and a Goodreads account. I recommend reading a few pages a day my personal goal is 10 pages a day and I usually try to do it before bed. In general, reading is relaxing and it introduces you to new worlds, ideas, and vocabulary. 

Writing and Journaling

I love to write specifically storytelling and screenplays and I find that writing is an amazing way to explore feelings and your personal creativity. I would recommend daily journaling or writing short stories. Journaling can be writing everything that is happening during your day or writing of how you feel that day. One Journaling technique I reckon is three good things. At the end of the day, you write three good things that happened three things that brought you happiness or three things you are grateful for. 

What to keep in mind

The most important thing about creating healthy habits for yourself is consistency. A habit is something you do regularly so if you desire to have a habit of reading every day then you must stay consistent. If you set your habit and three weeks later suddenly remember and then read half your book and then leave it for another couple weeks it’s not going to grow into a daily/weekly habit. Transitioning desired habits takes time and you will see the effect over time. I am using the word habits because goals are usually seen as an end point a finish line, once you get there you are done. Once you complete your goal you can go back to your regular routine. With this post I am focusing on habits, the habit is not the end goal its a practice to gain control of your regular everyday life and gain strong willpower. 

Thank you for reading! I hope this helped you and let me know any feedback 

Zara V 🙂