A Slow Living Morning Routine For Calm Or Busy Days
This post is all about slow living morning routine.
Waking up to a calmer “you” every morning with birdsong and sun shining through your windows sounds ideal, doesn’t it? A new movement known as slow living is taking hold and mindfulness is at its core. Setting your intentions and starting your morning with a fresh relaxed attitude can help create a gentle start to your day. Though starting your morning like this each day isn’t always feasible due to scheduling conflicts or time constraints, even participating one day per week can make a difference. Most importantly, the slow lifestyle is all about intentional living and taking your life off of autopilot.
What Is A Slow Living Morning Routine?
Mornings are a hectic and often stressful start to a day. Most people experience a great deal of anxiety trying to get to work or school on time. What slow living morning routines are able to do is help you break out of this mold. It’s not just about living intentionally and in a planned manner, but having a quiet moment to gather your thoughts and feelings before responsibilities take over.
For those new to the movement, it’s important to know that there’s no right or wrong way to participate. As long as the actions you partake in are comfortable and fine for you, then you’re doing fantastic! Though some people choose to meditate or journal in order to participate in slow living, this is not a necessity and no set of rules exist.
Enjoying a slower morning routine also opens your day up to a number of possibilities. Instead of rushing at the start of every work or school day, you can make time for a number of relaxing things:
- Listening to favorite music or a podcast.
- Cooking a healthy protein-rich breakfast.
- Reading a chapter from a favorite book.
- Taking a brisk morning walk to get fresh air.
- Participating in gentle stretching exercises or yoga.
- Completing a few quick household chores.
Slow mornings need not become a daily habit, but rather, a part of your weekly or monthly routine. Whenever you feel that your body and mind could use a rest, inserting a slow living morning routine can help you pause and rewind.
Benefits Of Slow Living
From your physical to your mental well-being as well as your emotional health, slow living offers a great number of benefits. Incorporating slow living into your daily routine can yield numerous advantages such as:
1. Improved Mental Focus
Those choosing to participate in the slow living movement practice mindfulness at the start of every day. Doing so can help enhance your mental clarity and make it easier for you to focus during work or school. This, in turn, helps enhance productivity and allow for you to make fewer mistakes with the tasks that you’re given. What’s more, having a mindful start to any day can also produce a more efficient way to complete tasks and allow you to think outside-of-the-box.
2. Better Overall Well-Being
One of the most often overlooked aspects of taking a step back and prioritizing self-care as well as self-reflection is a better overall well-being. From providing your body with the energy boost it requires to fuel itself through the day or allowing yourself to feel centered, slow living is a great way to become a more fulfilled individual.
3. Accomplish More
Productivity is another direct result of a slow living morning routine. By infusing your days with focus and intentionality, you make it easier for your mind to become productive and do more work in less time. This can help further free up your already busy schedule to participate in other relaxing activities.
4. Reduce Stress
Rushing through your morning routine not only adds stress to an already stressful situation, but it also brings out anxiety. Allowing yourself to ease into your role for the day allows your mind and body the time it needs to prepare itself for the work ahead. Attempting to quickly get things done and speeding through tasks only makes you feel more anxious and stressed out, becoming a vicious cycle that’s bad for your mental health.
5. Appreciation For The Simple Things
Happiness is elusive, but if you find one thing to remain joyful or thankful for each day, you’re on your way to happiness. A slow living morning routine gives you the ability to take the time to enjoy the simple things in life. From savoring your morning tea or coffee to enjoying the beauty of the nature that surrounds you, being present in any moment and finding joy is a great way to live.
READ: 9 Things To Do Before 9AM For Morning Routine Success
Slow Living Morning Routine
If you’re a morning person and ready to create your own slow living morning routine, here’s a quick outline you can use as-is or make personal changes to:
1. Wake Up Naturally
Though it’s tempting to set your alarm and force yourself awake, it’s much better to let your body do its own natural waking up. Sticking to a regular bedtime schedule and waking up at the same time every morning will allow your circadian rhythm to grow accustomed to your morning schedule. It eliminates hitting the snooze button on repeat, but also makes you less anxious in the morning as alarms are often jarring.
READ: Aesthetic Morning Routine: Tips & Ideas For Beginners
2. Open The Curtains
It’s important to create your own slow living intentional morning schedule, and it starts with letting the sun and natural light through your windows. Avoid reaching for your phone in the morning because it serves as a stressful distraction. Rather, opt to open your curtains (or blinds) and let the natural light wake you while allowing it to circulate the air. Light allows your brain to stop producing melatonin, the sleep hormone.
3. Practice Mindfulness
You want to remain calm and centered throughout your day while being clear of your intentions. Mindfulness meditation along with deep breathing exercises and positive affirmations can help you prepare for the day ahead. You don’t need to spend a great deal of time on mindfulness, just a few minutes for mental clarity.
4. Read A Book For 30 Minutes
Reading is a great way to get your mind to feel more alert in the mornings while also giving yourself a quick form of escapism. Choose a novel that you find enjoyable and relaxing. Use 30 minutes of your morning routine every day to do a bit of reading. Make it a ritual by lighting a few candles as you read. This will help you calm your mind, center your thoughts, and give your brain the workout it needs to complete the tasks that lie ahead.
5. Move Your Body
Give your mind and body the jolt it needs to really wake up every morning. A short workout session in the morning is a great way to make your body feel fresh and energized enough to handle practically anything. Bear in mind, whatever you choose to do should remain low impact. Anything such as walking, stretching or basic yoga poses can do the trick without straining your body. For bonus points, consider taking the exercise outdoors if the weather is nice and the sun is shining.
6. Have Breakfast In Bed
Self-care is another core value of the slow living movement. One of the ways you can do just that is to have a healthy and nutritious breakfast in bed. Even if you’re the one cooking a healthy breakfast, preparing it in the kitchen and heading back to bed can give you a few more minutes of relaxation that’s often missed for a calmer day. If your partner is willing to cook, then your job just became easier because breakfast in bed is as simple as waiting for it to arrive. As a bonus idea, you may also choose to prepare certain aspects of your breakfast the night before (i.e. overnight oats) to make it even less stressful in the morning.
7. Do Some Gratitude Journaling
The Five Minute Journal for gratitude journaling // Buy on Amazon
The moment you wake up, make sure you start your day with a smile and gratitude for the things you have to be thankful for. Have a gratitude journal where you write an entry every single morning for something you have that you’re thankful for. I like to journal while enjoying my morning coffee. Of course, your journal doesn’t need to become only about gratitude, but rather, it can serve as a starting point for your day. Write down your goals or what you hope to achieve for the day or the week ahead. Having this journal to look back on when the going gets tough makes it easier to live your life intentionally.
8. Put On Music While Planning The Day
It’s important to know what you want or hope to get out of your day. What is it that you need to accomplish in order to feel successful? While compiling your quick itinerary, get your outfit together and planning your to-do list, listen to some uplifting music that gets your body and mind energized. For some people, this may be classic music, and for others, this may be pop music. Whatever genre your preferences are, let some music into your life to get the day rolling.
Slow living is about being intentional and understanding what you want out of life. Instead of rushing through your day in a mad frenzy, stepping back and planning a slow living morning routine can help you reset and refocus your mind as well as body.
I hope you enjoy this slow morning routine ideas. Share your thoughts by commenting below!
