Great Ways to Start Your Day

“Good morning! Isn’t it a beautiful day?” Well, you can make or break your day in the next hour or so. How you start your morning has a huge impact on how the rest of your day will go. Sticking to a routine may help you have a better day.

The early morning hours are usually very calm and peaceful. Because of that, if you want a little time to get your head screwed on straight before your day starts, you should try to get up at a decent time in the morning.

Perhaps one of the most useful routines is to open all the windows in your house as soon as you wake up (weather permitting, of course.) This will help you to feel energized and refreshed, ready to face the day that lays ahead of you. Brush your teeth and drink a few glasses of water and you will feel almost ready to face the day.

Exercise is another great way to start your day. Do whatever works for you, whether that be taking a brisk walk or jog in the morning, jumping on a mini-trampoline, or perhaps yoga and meditation is your style. Remember, all of these are also a great way to stay in shape.

If you are the type of person who likes to take showers or bathes in the morning, make sure you use nice warm water, as this will help you feel refreshed as well.

Never skip breakfast. This is said to be the most important meal of the day. What you eat for breakfast will have an effect on how you feel and work throughout the day. Make sure you have a nutritious breakfast, not just junk food.

Now comes that part of the morning that most people dislike. Chore time. How can you make a time of drudgery become time well spent? Try playing upbeat music that you enjoy while you work. Or you could spend a few minutes reading a newspaper or book before you start your chores so that you will have something constructive to think about.

Before you leave the house or start your work, spend a few minutes making a list of things you would like to accomplish before the day is done. Also spend sufficient time on your looks. If you look good it will help lift your spirits. Try to look cheerful. If you look cheerful, most people will respond in kind, and that will make your day easier.

At the end of the day, reflect on how your day went. What were some things you could have done better? How will you do in the same circumstances tomorrow? Plan ahead for tomorrow and you will have a wonderful day.

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By Alex Ryan
If you enjoyed this article, find other articles on the antenna ball and antenna topper by visiting his blog.

When Discipline Becomes a Habit, Boredom Enters Your Life

Daily routines seem to be boring phenomena to many. Especially if you have to wake up at six, reach office by nine and come back home by eight in the evening, after pushing your head through a mad traffic, you will start hating your life. Our elders always choose to advise us to be disciplined. They tell us about their experiences and site believable examples about SUCCESSFUL people who were successful (according to them) because they were disciplined. Many parents want their children to be disciplined to a level that often drives them crazy and children end up doing exactly opposite.

Discipline is not about a fixed routine. Discipline is about putting your own self to an order at the level of health and fitness, work and studies, friends and relationships etc.

1. “You turn down your friends offer to watch a movie because it’s an important day at office” – that’s discipline. “You don’t accompany your colleague for a cup of coffee after you finished your shift because you have to reach home by ten everyday’ – that’s not discipline. That’s you submitting to a routine.
2. “You wake up at 6 in the morning, brush your teeth, do some yoga exercises and then have a light breakfast at 8 before you leave for office” – that’s discipline. “You didn’t have your breakfast because your mom prepared something other than your favorite list of items for breakfast” – that’s certainly not discipline.

Discipline is about having the sufficient gut to do what you want and do it with full attention. If you take up a task, complete it by the deadline and do it well, you are disciplined at work. That doesn’t mean you should always follow a specific method or approach. As soon as you stop playing with methods and ways, you stop growing!

Here are key benefits of discipline:

1. You will be more organized. You can manage your time well and also find some free time to recreate yourself. Your life will be less chaotic and everything will make sense to you. You will not swear at the crowd where everyone is pushing himself forward.
2. You will be better at work or studies. You will keep disturbances and stress at bay and put your hundred percent in doing what you are supposed to do. You will love what you study or do because you will become good at it.
3. You will be a happy individual. Your head will stay safe from clutter and sudden unexpected audio visuals. You will have a peaceful sleep at night and you will appreciate the morning sunshine when you wake up.

When discipline becomes routine:

As soon discipline becomes a routine, you are becoming lesser a part of the practice under discipline. Your involvement comes to a halt because you don’t feel alive while you travel to office by bus, talk to your colleagues on escalator or sit on your desk.

1. You will start hating it. You will be less interested in doing what you are doing. You will find that you suddenly lost interest in doing what you always wanted to do.
2. Boredom enters your life sphere. Suddenly, you don’t like the atmosphere in laboratory or office where you were so happy earlier.
3. Everything starts messing itself up. When your head goes nuts, everything else follows.

When routine becomes habit:

1. That’s the worst part. You won’t feel alive. You will run from one corner to other but peace will continue eluding you.
2. You will stop dreaming about ‘good and great things’ you want in your life.

As soon as you start acting out of habit, whole joy of action is lost. It is important to lose habitual practice to have anything new in life. In the world of internet, majority of young population spend their time on social networking websites, chat rooms and several other portals. As long as the excitement is there, as long as the eagerness is there, they find it interesting. Then, it becomes a habit.

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The Intentional Morning – 3 Simple Habits to Energize Your Day

Not long ago I realized just how off-track my mornings had become.

Under the guise of “keeping up with business” I was cramming my mornings with “busyness.” (I was checking my email upon waking and sampling blog stats before breakfast.) No surprise that my days lacked energy and inspiration!

Use these three simple suggestions to fine-tune your own morning routine.

#1. Get up a half-hour earlier, and use the time intentionally.

In many spiritual traditions, the early morning hours are revered as a time of spiritual insight and renewal. You don’t have to become a monk to leverage this principle, though. You don’t have to get up at 5am!

If you can manage to get to bed a few minutes earlier and start your day with an extra half-hour, I can almost guarantee that in three weeks’ time you’ll be feeling happier and more energized in your life.

The world offers us many opportunities to react in a day: news reports, phone calls, real-time internet apps. Without intentionality, we allow the subtle signal of our inner compasses to get diluted or drowned out by the input coming our way.

Try waking up by intentionally using a small portion of your morning time just for yourself. Doing so will revitalize your inner compass and boost your energy.

#2. Connect to Your Body (Not the Internet).

Practitioners of NIA (non-impact aerobics) make an interesting distinction between “mechanical” time and “natural” time.

In mechanical time, we react to external timetables (like clocks and calendars). We gain satisfaction through “matching” our environment. We show up on time. We meet our deadlines.

In contrast, in natural time we synchronize our efforts with an organic rhythm we perceive from within. If you’ve ever enjoyed a day listening to the waves at the beach, then you understand the meditative calm that arises from reconnecting to natural rhythms.

Here are two easy ways to connect to natural time.

• Stay offline.

When you “log on and check in” online, you allow yourself to be nudged into reacting to the world’s demands. For your morning routine, prioritize “natural time before mechanical time.”

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