This Morning Routine Will Improve Your Mood

Improve Your Mood.

Intentionally setting yourself up for a good day can be extremely beneficial. Creating, maintaining, and sticking to a routine is beneficial in many ways. Not only are we allowing ourselves to know what to expect, but it helps us keep organized and can help you feel ‘sane’. It can give us the power to choose what happens, especially when we cannot control other aspects of our lives. This can help increase your self-care for your overall well-being.

Here are some tips to help you lift your mood in the morning:

Make your bed - this might be a task that seems minor, but sometimes when we work at de-cluttering our environment or make it a habit to leave our rooms a bit more tidy, it an help us feel less clutter in our minds. This habit in the morning can allow for you to make more positive choices throughout the day as well.

Savor your morning beverage - when you really sit and allow yourself time to be mindful of the sips you take. Take this time to focus on you and be present in the moment. How does it taste? How does it smell? What do you notice as you savor your morning coffee or tea? What are you grateful for? Really try to sit in the moment and detach from social media or the news. Give yourself a brain break, don’t worry, it will all still be there after you are done.

Dress for the Day - I tend to love pajama days, but this does not help to improve your mood for the day or make you feel energized. Especially when we may be overwhelmed by the tasks we need to accomplish. This global pandemic has had a lot of people working virtually, which means we don’t really have to get out of those pajamas, but making sure you get dressed for the day and keep a routine can help us feel motivated. We cant take care of others unless we take care of ourselves.

List of tasks - Having a list of things to do, or even just writing down one thing you would like to accomplish or achieve for the day can help you improve your mood as well. Make sure that the task you are trying to do is reasonable, not extremely hard to do, and takes one of the many things you are responsible off your plate. If it is more that one task you write down, prioritize them by rating them in order of most important to least important.

Get moving - Since the stay at home order with the global pandemic, this has probably been one of the hardest tasks. We know that moving our bodies is beneficial for our health, physical and mental, and it can help keep us strong and safe. This tends to be one of the hardest things to do though, especially after a long time of not getting ourselves moving. When we exercise/walk/move we help our bodies to release the ‘feel good’ chemicals called endorphins from our brains. This gives us a natural mood enhancer created by our bodies. It can help us sleep, relieve anxiety and stress, and naturally increase our mood. Be ok starting off slow. Even getting back to adding a move goal for 30 mins just a couple times a week at first and take note on how different you felt on days to you got to move more than usual.

Practicing these tips can have a great impact on your mood. Make sure you are doing things to help your overall well-being.

-Dr. Sarmiento