When you get up in the morning, knowing what you got to do, knowing how you want to spend your day, and giving yourself ample me-time to nourish yourself and to do the things that matter, you take your power back. Yes, having a morning routine is what helps us take our power back.
My life started to improve drastically ever since I became a morning person. Before that, I used to wake up feeling exhausted already and oh! so directionless.
Ever since I decided to become a morning person and created a morning routine for myself, I realize how life-transforming it is. But you will never know if you never give it a try and experience it yourself.
Now I can’t imagine myself just waking up with no intentions, with nothing to do, and not giving that me-time to myself in the morning.
So today I want to share with you my morning routine before 8 am: Things I do before 8 am. These 8 things I believe are what everybody should at least try to do in the morning.
My morning routine before 8 am
Table of Contents
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Get up at 5 am
I wake up at 5 am. I have my alarm set but I naturally get up before the alarm even rings. When you start waking up at one fixed time for some days till you build a habit, your body knows automatically.
Related post: How to become a morning person
Tidy up
So I get up at 5 am and go to brush my teeth. After freshening up, I put on my moisturizer early morning, tie my hair and make myself feel tidy. Even what clothes you wear at home is important.
This making yourself feel tidy is very important. It automatically charges me up and makes me feel good and ready to start my day in a clean state of mind.
So before I sit down to actually the start of my morning routine, I tidy myself up. This takes around 10-15 minutes and it is 5:15 am.
Hydrate myself
The first thing I do is hydrate myself. I have my big bottle in front of me which I will finish slowly by 8 am but for my first glass of water, I allow myself to just drink the warm water and do nothing else.
I try to bring awareness as I drink my first glass of water and just try to be with the water as I take mindful sips.
This is till 5:30 am.
Read
Then I give 30 minutes to reading. This is how I give time to read everyday. This is how I cultivated my reading habit.
In the morning- I must read. In the morning- as a matter of fact, everybody should read. It is the most powerful habit you must add to your morning routine.
If not anything else- read in the morning. Even 10 minutes is great.
The kind of book you read in the morning is also very important. I try to read only self-improvement, encouraging or spiritual books for my morning read. I keep the novels for my evening. I don’t like reading novels in the morning.
Currently, I am reading ‘Awareness’ by Osho. Before this, I was reading ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle’
Other good books I would suggest for morning read are:
- Atomic Habits
- Power of Subconscious mind
- The Dalai Lama’s Cat
- Courage
- Like the flowing river
- Eat that frog
- The 5 am club
I finish my reading session at 6 am.
Exercise
After reading, I get up and put on my exercise clothes which I keep ready and in front of me so I don’t have to keep on searching for them every morning.
I put out my yoga mat. Open soothing flute music on Spotify and begin exercising.
I stretch for 5 minutes and exercise for 30 minutes. I usually use the app called ‘Daily Workouts’ but these days I am currently doing the 21-day abs challenge which I found on Youtube.
This is the one. I am currently on day 15.
I finish my exercise latest my 6:40 am.
Prayer
Then I sit down for prayer for 30 minutes. My prayer consists of chanting ‘Nam Myoho Renge Kyo’ so it is different from meditation.
Prayer is another important part of my morning routine where in my prayer I set my intentions for the day and pray for the strength to complete it.
I pray for attention, pray for a good relationship, pray for my mother’s good health and for my father, and everyone who has passed away.
I give thankfulness and pray for strength and it recharges me and connects me to my true self.
I finish my prayer my 7:10 am.
Related post: Why I pray and how to pray
Meditate
After prayer, I sit down for meditation till 7:30 am. This I have added to my morning routine after a long time. I had stopped for a long time, but after reading the book ‘The Power of now’ I have come back to meditating again.
Even 10-15 minutes feels empowering. I release and try to surrender everything and come back to the present focusing on my breath and keep on focusing on my breath.
The difference between prayer and meditation I think is this, through prayer God listens to you and through meditation, you listen to God.
And God here just means your truth, the universe, your heart, whatever you name.
M.I.T (Most Important Task)
After two hours of me-time, at 7:30 I sit down for my M.I.T which is my Most Important Task for the day till 9:30 am (my breakfast time)
Getting your MIT done early in the morning, you are already productive and you don’t have anything major important left on your to-do list.
This M.I.T is different for different days for me. Some days it is learning something, some days it is preparing for my class, working on my blog, and some days it is writing my blog post like it is for today.
By getting my MIT done early morning, my evenings are free and I spend reading, playing, painting, journaling, or just relaxing and using my phone.
At 9:30 my mother calls for breakfast and my morning routine ends.
End note
So this is my morning routine before 8 am. I love this morning routine and how it sets a good tone for the rest of my day.
Morning routine update: P.S This was my morning routine during the time of the Pandemic when I was home. Now that work has begun, and I am living alone, my morning routine has changed a bit, but nevertheless, I still make time for my MIT, exercise, reading and prayer.
This is only possible because I deliberately make time for it in the morning by waking up at 5 am.
If you really want to create a beautiful morning routine for yourself, first Stop Doing These 10 Toxic morning Habits, Then add these 10-morning Habits that will change your life
How about you? How do you spend your mornings?
I believe it is totally doable.
If you don’t have this much time to give, check out my Doable One hour Morning routine post.
I believe everybody should take out at least one hour for themselves in the morning. Its a must.
Depending on your own list of things to do- I highly suggest that you too create a morning routine if you haven’t and give at least the first hour to yourself each day. You will notice the difference soon.
No matter what and how little time you give to each, make sure to add at least 3 things from these 5 sacred ingredients for a powerful morning routine.
That is how you will take your power back.
For more personal stories and insights from me, you can check out my Podcast ‘Heart Of Living’ which I launched this year on my birthday
Wish you a wonderful day ahead!