In a world where hustle culture is the norm, just about everyone and their mother will try to sell you on their morning rituals. They’ll be all talk about how waking up at an ungodly hour and doing a million things before the sun even rises is the way to get ahead. 

Truth is, only you know what works best for you. Tailoring a morning routine to your exact needs can be incredibly empowering, not to mention an easy way to add an abundance of mindfulness to our days. So here’s some suggestions for little slow morning rituals to insert into or completely replace parts of your morning routine so you can mindfully achieve your goals.

Why Slow Morning Rituals Matter

Set The Tone For Your Day

A good morning routine designed to accommodate your specific needs is incredibly important for accomplishing your goals and setting the right tone for your day. For instance, if you want to be more mindful throughout your day, integrating mindfulness practices into your morning rituals can be absolutely life changing.

On the other hand if you’re wanting to be more confident then you could include some confidence boosting affirmations or maybe dancing to some upbeat music. 

Eat The Frog

Another reason for a good morning routine is it can allow you to “eat the frog”. This is a saying first coined by motivational speaker Brian Tracy and it entails finishing challenging, irritating or tedious tasks ahead of ones you’d probably prefer to do.

The “frog” stands for the most significant and impactful task that you have to finish. To eat the frog is to just do it. If you don’t, the frog will eat you, and you’ll wind up putting it off all day. I know for me this is true for getting a workout in. If I don’t get my workout done as a part of my morning routine, I probably won’t do it at all.

Prepare Ourselves For The Demands Of The Day Ahead

Morning rituals offer us the brilliant opportunity to fully awaken from our slumber and get into the right headspace for the day to come. It can also allow you time to process the demands of the day ahead of you so that you can prepare yourself mentally. Perhaps even visualize how your day is going to play out so that it feels more familiar to you as you move through your day.

Creating Your Routine of Slow Morning Rituals

Have a look at the following list and anything that speaks to you or feels like something you want to do, consider integrating them into your morning routine.

Consider The Time You Wake Up

Maybe you need more time to not feel rushed, or maybe getting enough sleep is your priority. Either way, you should figure out what your goals are for your morning routine and determine what your time constraints are.

Do you need to finish your morning routine by a certain hour? Or are you able to take as long as you’d like? You should also consider how long it will take you to complete your morning routine and how much sleep you need to get every night.

Bonus Tip: If you’re using an alarm to wake yourself up in the morning, consider changing the sound to something soothing or even try a sunrise alarm clock!

Begin With A Moment Of Calm

Regardless of whether you’re waking up naturally or to an alarm, consider taking a moment or two before getting out from under your covers to take a few deep breaths. Tell yourself some positive affirmations or visualize yourself moving through the steps of your routine. You’d be surprised how impactful this can be!

Mindful Movement

Integrating a little bit of movement every day can have exponential benefits to your life. Whether you do a full workout as part of your morning, go for a leisurely stroll or get in some stretching, it’s incredibly helpful to get your daily dose of movement done and out of the way early on in your day!

Savor Your Breakfast

You’ve probably already heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. While this may have started off as a marketing slog it essence still holds true. When we’re feeling rushed in the morning, it can be tempting to skip breakfast entirely, or to at the very least eat something as quickly as possible, not even taking the time to sit while we eat, but there is another way.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, whatever foods you find makes you feel good and can be prepared fairly quickly, if not the night before. Try sitting down at the table and taking your time as you eat. Try to taste each and every bite as you chew.

This is called mindful eating and it can help ground and tether you to a moment. When we’re intentionally taking the time to be mindful, we’re better able to be present (which I know isn’t always easy) and acknowledge our thoughts. 

Cultivate Gratitude

Chances are that you’ve heard this one before. Practice gratitude. It raises your vibration and overall energy to make manifestation easier. I know for me when I’m practicing gratitude I feel much more in tune with everything I already have and it makes my entire being more positive. I find that that usually encourages those I interact with in my day to day life to be more positive as well. This is another morning ritual that you can practice with little to no effort and definitely never hurts to try!

Mindful Meditation

Many people believe that they can’t meditate or be mindful because their thoughts interrupt them. They give up, declare it as something they can’t do, and never try again. I’m here to tell you that thoughts will always cross your mind, this doesn’t mean that you’re failing at mindfulness or meditation, it’s actually the whole point.

When those thoughts cross your mind, acknowledge them, and then bring your mind back to the present moment. Even just a couple of minutes of meditation can have a significant impact on your stress levels, focus, and your sense of wellbeing. Try incorporating a quick meditation session into your morning routine, you may find that you love it!

Align With Nature

This one might not be possible in the winter as the days are oftentimes too short but try spending a portion of your morning routine outside in the sunlight. It can be as simple as sitting outside for your morning coffee, tea, or breakfast. Or maybe your morning movement can be some light stretches or a leisurely stroll outside. Getting sunlight on your face is incredibly important for your health and wellbeing.

Single Task It

Nothing quite says hustle culture like multitasking. Meanwhile, it’s actually near impossible to do more than one thing at the same time. What happens when we try to multitask is that our brains are constantly switching back and forth between the tasks and therefore not giving any task the full attention it deserves. And frankly, that just sounds exhausting.

So let’s try to ditch the multitasking culture. When you’re doing something, just do that one thing until you’re done and then move on to the next thing. You may surprise yourself by finding mundane tasks semi-enjoyable and you might even find that you can be just as productive. And this isn’t to say that you can’t prepare for tasks ahead of time by setting up systems or making sure that you have everything you need ready ahead of time.

For your morning that could look like having clothes and exercise equipment ready to go. You could prepare your breakfast the night before or even your coffee. You may just feel more present with every little thing that you do.

Remain Flexible with Your Morning Rituals

Life happens and so you may not be able to do your morning routine every day or you may not be able to do every single one of your slow morning rituals every day.

That’s okay.

The goal is not perfection, it’s consistency, and building a life that you intentionally built for yourself and finding pockets of mindfulness throughout. If you’d like more information on slow living, check out my blog post The Beginner’s Guide to Slow Living.

Our days can get hectic, so it’s important to be prepared for them. We can do that by adding a few more mindful slow morning rituals to our regular morning routine.