Your day actually starts the moment you open your eyes.
When it comes to mental health, its important to constantly take inventory of yourself, on a daily basis. Being aware of your mental state and how your emotions are impacting your actions is a very powerful tool in terms of living a happy life, overcoming your issues, and maintaining health, both mental and physical.
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For many of us, waking up can be a struggle. We tend to either throw ourselves out of bed and march into our day without much thought, or lay around and fantasize about all the ways we could get out of our daily obligations, which often includes hitting the snooze button multiple times.
A third, more healthy option is to take a few moments to ourselves before we get out of bed, and reflect on our current mental state, as well as our goals for the day.
Here are six things you can do before you get out of bed to set yourself up for the best day possible.
Drink a glass of water. I keep an insulated thermos beside my bed, and fill it with water every night. The very first thing I do every morning is roll over, and drink the entire thing. This immediately jump starts my metabolism, wakes up my systems, and helps me remain hydrated throughout the day.
Stretch. Stretching first thing in the morning will help your body adjust to the idea that it needs to wake up. It also helps if you are undertaking a challenging fitness routine, and can even help your posture throughout the day.
Express gratitude. When you wake up, you may be in any number of moods, especially if you had bad dreams. A great way to start the day (before you start stressing about your daily obligations) is to think about all the reasons you are grateful. They don’t have to be big things, but being mindful of all the good things in your life will help set you up for a mentally healthy day.
Forgive yourself for yesterdays mistakes. First thing in the morning, it’s often easy to run through a laundry list of all the things that went wrong yesterday, but I challenge you to leave all that in the past. Every day is a new opportunity to pivot and change things for the better.
Set intentions for the day. Of all the things you need to do, choose three every morning to focus your attention on. These can be anything, but the important thing is to be mindful of what your intentions are. It will help you stay on task every day. And if you don’t get to all three of them, forgive yourself the following morning.
Take five deep breaths. Sometimes, deep breaths are the hardest things to take. If you start the day with five deep breaths it will automatically relieve some of the stress you may feel, and impact both your mental and physical health overall.