Having kids can be very rewarding as you continuously learn from them. One of the lessons we learn from our children is how to make every day happy and joyful. In this video, I give you five tips to help you start your day stress-free with no more hassle, no more panic, no more bad moods...
A few months ago, it was almost impossible to get my eight-year-old son up and ready for school in the morning. The dark winter mornings only made him dig deeper under the blanket.
As a result, he frequently started his day in a bad mood and therefore, so did I.
I was looking for a way to show him that there is another way to start the day.
Then one day, I asked him on the way to school how joyful his days have been lately. He muttered something, and I continued: "what do you think, would your day be happier if you wake up being happy?"
The next morning started differently than before as he woke up without any problem. As a result of the better mood in the morning, his attitude the entire day was different. He felt happy and joyful the whole day.
Since that day, our mornings have been different. More joyful and happier.
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What can you do to make your mornings more joyful and happy?
1. Start preparing for your morning night before.
Want to take a lunchbox with you? You can prepare and pack this food in the evening before you go to bed. If needed, create a reminder either on your phone (in the alarms or Google Calendar) or in a visible place (paper on the fridge or whiteboard by the door).
Have to pack more stuff that usual? The evening before, write a list of all the items you need to bring with you. If you want to create more ease in the morning and avoid having to hunt for each item, gather everything on the list and put it in an easily accessible space where you won’t forget them. This way you save valuable time and avoid morning hassle.
2. Check the calendar and think about more significant tasks the night before
It can be easy to forget important tasks, projects, or events coming up during the day. To feel more prepared, check your calendar at night and again in the morning to review what’s coming up. It could be a presentation you need to create for the next day, an important business meeting you need to attend, a report to write, sales event to organize, or something else that requires your attention that is time-based. Whatever it is, if you remember to write it down in your calendar and check your calendar regularly, you’ll be more likely to remember the tasks and complete them in a timely manner.
Besides, researchers have found that when we can sleep after we're given a task, the results are much better as our subconscious mind has done most of the work during the night when our mind is at rest.
3. Think about (at least) one good thing what happened that day before going to sleep
A reflection habit is very important and can change your outlook on your day. From the time you wake up, you can start being more mindful throughout the day.
Some questions to ask yourself at the end of the night can be:
- How was your day?
- What did you do?
- Who did you meet?
- What did you accomplish?
- What made you happy?
You can tailor the questions based on what you want to pay attention to and grow.
Introducing gratitude to your life increases your well-being, eases stress and improves your mood. And, you'll get better and happier dreams as well.
4. Make a decision that you wake up without endless snoozing
Alarms have been very effective in waking people up on time, but sometimes you might need more than one alarm to wake up fully. What can you do to wake up on time early enough to get ready for the day, do your morning routine, and review your day? I suggest you place these alarms (whether it’s your phone or an alarm clock) out of reach from your bed so you need to physically get up and out of bed to turn them off. A clever invention is Clocky, the alarm clock that runs away from you.
Why not this endless snoozing? You are not able to go through your deep sleep cycle during this snoozing time. Instead of feeling fresh and energized (the way you would when waking up after a deep sleep cycle), you wake up tired and foggy.
5. While you are awake, choose to be happy
You can be happy because of the sunshine. You can be happy because of a challenging task waiting for you. You can be happy because you'll meet your friend during your lunch break or it can be another reason that you choose to be happy. Or, you can just be happy without any obvious reason. You just choose to be happy.
You can trick your mind and body to make yourself happy by finding something funny to watch. If you use YouTube, you can make a playlist specifically for funny videos so you can always access them easily. If you prefer Facebook as your platform of choice, you can save posts and create a collection for just funny posts and videos you find. It’s amazing how your laugh makes you happy and changes your entire emotional state. You can also read this blog post to bring more joy into your life.
These are five simple steps for you to start your day stress-free.