Goood morninggg! Sipping on a WARM matcha while sitting outside. I forgot that this is honestly one of my favorite times of the year. Not the fact that it gets dark so early, but the sun rising around 6AM really makes me want to wake up with the sun every morning. I don’t typically wake up that early, so I practice slow mornings during this time and it’s such a peaceful time.
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It is so important that when we have this seemingly limited amount of daylight during the winter that we see the sun as much as possible. Wake up with the sun, get sunlight in your eyes in the morning, go for outdoor walks throughout the day. We are much more susceptible to seasonal depression otherwise. I highly recommend checking out my Circadian Rhythm Reset because these tips are essential for taking us through the winter (& really all year round)
Slow Mornings
For now, I want to introduce you to slow mornings. This is a practice I began last year that has become such an integral part of my week. A slow morning for me is waking up 1-2 hours earlier than I normally do, and taking those extra hours to give myself the time and space to do whatever I want to do. Sometimes it is an elaborate wellness routine, sometimes it is breath work and meditation, sometimes a long walk outside, sometimes reading or a bath, or just sitting on the patio in the sun enjoying stillness, the options are unlimited. The reason for this is to give myself a quiet space and time with just me before heading into the craziness of the day.
I started this when I noticed that every time I would wake up I would jolt into fight or flight immediately, start responding to emails, texts, stressing about all of the things I need to get done for the day. Starting the day in that state affects your entire system. It really caused me to burn out - mentally and physically. By giving myself the intentional space to do things for me (without my phone, without work, without the outside stresses of everyday life) it completely re-energized and re-inspired me.
Waking up early can seem like such a hard task to begin to implement - who doesn’t want those extra hours of sleep, especially in the winter when your bed is SO WARM AND COZY. That is why I love slow mornings so much - dedicate ONE day a week to waking up 1-2 hours earlier. Start slow.
I learned that this one day a week I was dedicating always ended up being my favorite day of the week to look forward to, so subconsciously my mind shifted into wanting to wake up earlier every morning.
& remember - snoozing your alarm may seem like a good idea at the moment but you will always wake up more groggy than you were before. Stopping snoozing my alarm has truly CHANGED my life.
When you snooze your alarm your body begins a new 75 minute sleep cycle, so when your alarm goes off 10 minutes later, you are woken up 10 minutes into a 75 minute sleep cycle, making you more groggy, foggy and disoriented than you were the first time you woke up, causing you to have a sleep hangover for half of your day. Even if I am so tired when my alarm first goes off, I ALWAYS feel better when I get up right then versus if I snooze and then get up. (Check out Mel Robbins for more on this!!!)
TIP: I now charge my phone in a different room with the alarm on to force myself to get out of bed to turn it off in the morning. Also wonderful to not have your phone anywhere near your head while you’re sleeping through the night anyways!
Another way to ease into the winter season and lift your spirits is to make these triple chocolate fudge sweet potato brownies, which are SURE to boost your mood. Free of gluten, dairy and refined sugar!
Triple Chocolate Fudgy Sweet Potato Brownies (GF, DF, RSF)
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