Feel Good Effect Your Morning Routine (For Fall)

by Robyn Conley Downs on Oct 14, 2020 (last updated Jul 26, 2021)

In this episode of the Feel Good Effect Podcast, I’m talking about how to feel good effect your morning routine. Specifically, I’m diving deep into how to make your morning routine work for you, your life, and the season you are in.

Feel Good Effect Your Morning Routine (For Fall)

I talk about morning routines all the time, specifically the power of mini-wellness routines sprinkled throughout the day and a 5-minute morning (one of the most popular episodes).

But now I’m talking about how to feel good effect your morning routine and make it work for this season, in particular, fall.

Your morning

Think about your morning.

Whether it’s on purpose or not, your morning is typically a routine.

About 67% of our day is determined by automatic habits.

(Habits: a behavior or action that has been repeated enough to become automatic)

The amazing power of habits is that it is automatic, and you don’t have to think about it.

The downside is that if you’re not thinking about it, it might not lead you down the path you want to be on.

Think about your morning routine, the actions you take, and the actions you don’t take to get a sense of where you’re starting from.

This is where the feel good effect starts, wherever you’re starting from.

Feel good effect your morning

The first step is to pause and pay attention.

We can miss a lot of important information if we don’t know where we are.

Pay attention to how you wake up, what demands your attention and time, where you put your energy and focus.

Remember, this is where you are starting.

Next, start from this place of asking how do I want to feel?

This is where we can easily go off the rails by applying productivity to our morning routine, approaching it with a mentality of getting things done = productivity = higher self-worth.

A morning routine is not about productivity, perfection, all or nothing thinking, or comparison as outcomes.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed watching a YouTuber go over their morning routine, it’s a good indication that you’re applying a striving mindset.

Instead, ask how do I want to feel.

Then, make that (how you want to feel) the outcome.

Next, ask yourself how your routines and habits are connected to the way that you want to feel.

The power of a morning routine

The way you start your day impacts your mood throughout the day.

Intentional tweaks to that can be really powerful.

The way I want to feel changes with the season, whether that’s a change in the year or a seasonal change in my life and family.

For example, in the fall, I want to feel a little slower, taking a little more time, taking a little more rest.

Look at your routine, the routines of the people you live with, and/or your job to see if there are any shifts you can make to feel good.

In action: my morning routine

I’ll walk you through my morning routine, but the point is not to compare.

Instead, use this example to see it in action, giving yourself permission to customize your own based on what’s going on in your own life: make it your own it zone.

First and foremost, without sleep, we are setting ourselves up for a more difficult day when it comes to concentration, focus, resilience, metabolism, blood sugar regulation, immunity… all of these things being so important.

For those reasons, I do not trade less sleep to do more in the morning.

I make sure my routine the night before is set up to allow me enough sleep.

You may need to try different things to figure out what works for you, but pay attention to how you feel.

Asking yourself how you feel is the best place to start for changing your brain to feel good.

Mornings

For me, alone time is an important part of my morning.

I get up slowly, grab a cozy blanket, and sit in stillness on the couch by myself.

I often integrate meditation, reading, and doing something that brings me joy into my mornings.

It’s really about what feels good.

Sometimes the people we live with have different morning needs.

I’ve found that it’s been as much about paying attention, pausing, and noticing what my family needs for their routines as it has been making sure mine fits within that.

For easier mornings, my husband makes a double batch of Real Food Whole Life pancakes over the weekends that he freezes.

We pull one out for Elle in the mornings for a quick, easy, healthy breakfast.

Technology and mornings

I don’t keep my phone in my bedroom and I typically don’t even pick it up until I’ve been awake for about 40-minutes

While Elle is eating, I often jump on my phone and do a self-compassion practice called good morning, I love you from Shauna Shapiro.

Then, I quickly check my email for any changes I need to know about for the day and glance at my calendar.

Email and social media are not where I want to put my energy for the morning, but I also know it makes me feel better to know that I didn’t miss anything

Instead of being on my phone all morning or never looking at my phone, this was my power middle.

Small changes

Anywhere there’s friction I try to think about how I can feel good effect it.

With my daughter, that’s picking out her clothes.

A solution was to create a decision template for her: on Sunday we do laundry and pick out five outfits for the week.

In the mornings, I also like to have a 20-minute workout (I use an indoor cycling bike with the Peloton app)

20-minutes makes a huge difference for me.

Afterward, I shower and get ready using just a few beauty products and a work outfit template I’ve created for myself.

Then I pause and think about how I feel, paying attention to my hunger cues.

By paying attention to my own cues, I’ve noticed that I’m usually not hungry until around 9:30 or 10:00, so that’s when I eat instead of first thing in the morning.

Another decision template I have is for breakfast: I usually choose between a smoothie or eggs with veggies.

It’s fully about saving my energy and attention for things that matter.

When you’re thinking about how you want to feel and creating these templates ahead of time, it’s not about what should I feel but also what’s good.

That is my morning routine, short routines in little bursts.

Reflect

Pause, think about your routine.
Ask yourself, how do I want to feel?
Ask yourself, how are my behaviors, actions, habits, and mindset contributing to that?
Make small shifts, paying attention to what’s not working

You don’t need an extra hour to have a morning routine.