A new morning, a new day, new opportunities.
It doesn’t matter if you are a morning bird or if you like to hit the snooze button a hundred times before you get up, we all want to have a good morning.
For me, the morning is what determines if a day will go good or bad for me. If I have a great start, suddenly the whole days turns in for the better. It’s not that I give up on the day if I have a bad start, but it will absolutely be a little bit more difficult getting the day going.
As you know, I’m an actress, and a TV-reporter for Norway, but based in L.A, so that means I have a home office and most of the days on set, is in the evening, so I don’t really have a nine to five job. So it would be easy for me to just skip the mornings, sleep until noon and so on.
But I’m a bizzy bee, and love to get the most out of my days, and there is always something to do. Editing, auditions, reading scenes, workout, meetings, interviews and the list goes on.
So, after I moved to L.A I had to make a deal with myself to get the most out of my days and life, so I get up a little extra early to have some time waking up, and get a good start.
And in the beginning, it was hard, but you will get used to it and trust me, it will make your days easier.
So I found a list on Hubpages.com with 14 good things to make your morning easier, and I decided to add my advise as well, and what I so to make a “Good Morning”.
So here you go, hope it might help you as well to get more out of your mornings.. :)
The Best Way To Start Your Day
1. Wake up on time. Most of us hear that loud ringing sound in our ears and just bang it until you hit the snooze button and then go back to sleep for 9 more minutes. Then it goes off again! Some of us hit it again, but others actually get up! By hitting the alarm clock over and over meaning you sleep later and later only calls for a bad day. This means you wake up late and have to rush to work or school and rushing things is always a call for disaster. Instead, get up at the right time so you can have enough time to get ready and stuff.
And here I have a confession, I don’t really like myself for it, but it is what it is. After I wake up and get dressed, I like to check updates quick, check my email, twitter, instagram, quick look over the news and then I’m done. I’m updated, and don’t think about it anymore. If there is emails I need to answer in a hurry I do that, the rest of it can wait til after breakfast. If you can, it probably would be better to wait until after breakfast with the whole update thing, but I like to do it after waking up, getting up and getting ready, because then I don’t think about it anymore.
Oh and stretch! like a cat, in bed. Nothing is better than stretching out all over the bed in the morning. it wakes you up and get the blood flowing in you. stretch stretch stretch
2. Take an early morning walk or jog. If you have a lot of time on your hands, this will surely wake you up. Get up, get some shorts or something on, and go for a walk with the dog or a jog. It allows you to awaken strong for a good day!
Me and my dearest Lena walk with her dog Smulan every morning at 7 or 8 am, it depends on the weather. if it is a hot day, we have to go a bit earlier, or you will be in shock at the top because of the heat. But it’s almost therapy! you wake up, you get great exercise and you will feel so much better throughout the day.
3. Take a shower. Taking a shower allows you to be cleansed of all the gross stuff your body picked up overnight. For example, oil in your hair. You don’t want to go to work with horrible looking hair! You want to keep your job don’t you? Taking a shower also offers some relaxation for your morning.
I also have a morning routine for my face that I have told you about. Three simple steps with Kinara. Wash, cleanse, moist. I simply love it! The best about it is the Re-balancing Tonic (step two) because it is so fresh, it has a strong mint in it and your face gets a cold tingle. It feels so nice and it really helps me wake up! read more about it here and get it at mybeautyavenue.no
4. Take your time getting dressed. When taking your time, really at anything, you avoid error. If you rush through something like getting dressed and mess up somehow, you will be regretting it. You will regret forgetting socks and you have to go the whole day with a stinky pair of feet!
What can help you is finding out what you want to wear the day before so you all ready have it figured out. I wish I was better at that, because I never know what to wear (girls huh?) But most important of it all, wear something that makes you feel good, look good and is comfortable. So after you are dressed, hair styled and makeup on, look yourself in the mirror and say “You look pretty today!” This is not always easy, but just do it, because it will stay in your mind and if you feel it, everyone else will see it too.
5. Eat a good breakfast. Once you have done the first 3 thing, its time for the food, everyone’s favorite! Eat a good breakfast for energy for the day. Choices include an apple or banana or both, cereal, bacon and eggs, anything that will give you energy for the day.
This is important, but I’m not always hungry in the morning. So what you can do is make yourself a big, healthy smoothie that you even can take with you in the car or out into whatever you will do next. Or, make a little bowl of oatmeal with berries. It will last for long, and taste good, even if you don’t feel that hungry.
You can read more about food in the morning in this post: “What to eat”
6. Drink coffee. Drinking coffee allows every bit of you that didn’t get waken up by the first 4 steps to be waken up, haha. Coffee is good for when you are tired to wake you up. What are you in the morning? Tired. What do you need to do? Wake up! Drink coffee.
Or, even better, drink tea! I love tea in the morning . My favorite is TAZO organic Chai Tea. And it has caffeine as well, so trust me this will get you going. And it taste amazing :)
7. Read the newspaper. This can be done while you eat and drink breakfast. Reading the newspaper allows you to catch up on the news. Who knows, you might read something that you like that will put you in a good mood for the rest of the day, or you might read something bad which creates a bad mood. Just read the homes or sports section. Those shouldn’t make you mad.
Okay, I don’t read the papers, but I do surf the internet to see the top news. So here I guess you should get the whole email, insta, twitter,Facebook update thing going. What I like to do during breakfast is actually to read the newest fashion magazine or something like that and listen to my favorite music depending on how I feel that morning. Music always makes me happy and inspired. Great start in the morning!
8. Watch the morning news. Just like reading the newspaper, the morning news will allow you to catch up on the current news. It will also provide something to talk about at work.
Or just the morning shows. Here in L.A there is a lot of them. I like Fox 11 the best, it gets you updated on the weather, the traffic, the news and the gossip. it is entertaining, it has guests, music, advise for workout, fashion, food and events happening in L.A.
9. Clean a little bit. When you clean something like a table or a cabinet or whatever you clean, you feel like you have achieved something valuable. Not something big like conquering a nation, just clean a little bit to ensure a good feeling. Feeling good about yourself enables self-esteem which creates a good mood then creating a good day!
And, cleaning up will make you happy when you get back home again. I always do my cleaning in the morning. If I’m not going out and have extra time, I like doing the laundry as well. Having the house clean, your bed, your clothes before noon is a good feeling. Nothing like coming home to a clean and fresh house!
10. While driving to work, turn on music you like. If you prefer quietness while you drive, that is just fine. It creates more time for relaxation. One thing that puts people into a good mood is their favorite type of music. Turn on some tunes and enjoy the drive.
Yes, well this repeats me. But in the car is a great place to play your favorite type of music as well :)
11. Take your time driving to work. Once again, take your time! Rushing through might cause for someone to get mad at you which will create a bad day for them and then you might even get in a wreck! That would really not be a good day.
I’m always 15 minutes early to appointments and so. Always! not everyone likes that, so you don’t need to get in to the people you are meeting 15 minutes early. Just get to the address. stroll the neighborhood, find your focus, get ready. And walk in perfectly on time! This is a big plus in my business. have respect for other people’s time, and for yourself as well. Nothing feels better than being on time and prepend for a meeting.
12. Arriving at work. Arrive at work with a smile on your face, especially if you are passing your fellow co workers. Sometimes, all people need is a good smile to change their day around.
This is a good one! Live by this one! Give people your best smile and a “Good morning” or “Hello”! You will get some pretty good smiles back as well, I promise you that!
13. Walk into work happy! Odds are, you really do not want to be at work. If you storm in with a frown on your face and stomping your feet, people will notice you are not having a good day. Instead, walk in happy and say hello to everyone, or at least try too.
Well, yes. this is pretty much the same as number 12.
14. And finally, have the right mindset. Sometimes people pass this step up. They do all these steps but still turn out having a bad day for some reason. Put it in your head that you will have a good day today no matter what happens.
Think positive, and positivity will follow you. Still remember, you are allowed to have a bad day! We all have them sometimes. The best thing to do if you have a bad day is to ask yourself “why”, why do I feel bad, and what happened that makes me feel that way. Find the answer to that and tell yourself you have right to be ad at it, sad or frustrated, but do I really need to? can I fix it? better yet, can I just leave it? surprisingly, what I have learned is that most of the time, you can just let it go. Most of the time, it is just small things, so fix it or leave it. Don’t get all messed up because of a bad comment, something you did wrong or stressing about something that you can’t control anyway. You don’t need it. You have so much more better things in you, in front of you and around you to focus on. So do that instead.
