Every Sunday, I take deliberate time to start my day. Every other day starts with a jolt. During this Sunday morning, I was thinking of the topic for this week’s blog. Writing is an important me time allowing me to reflect and reason. Its one of my strongest forms of expression. Mainly to also be able to share my thoughts with those who graciously follow me. I am well versed and well published. We have been posting a blog entry every two weeks for the last three years on our Northern River Financial website, and its shared through our social media channels.
Every day is a new day for everyone and even if something was wrong yesterday, we can get it right today, so it is very important to start our day in a good way. I was reminded of this the other day at breakfast. A lovely server gave me a nice compliment: “You are a pleasure to serve!” I like to believe she saw the smile on my face as I was served with a smile on her face. It certainly made my day and it carried forward into others.
Personally for several years, waking up in the morning was a bit like a little trauma, mainly because the previous evening I used to go to sleep late and, of course, I was not sleeping enough. I used to stay in bed until the last second and I became a master at being able to get ready in a few minutes. Of course I jumped breakfast and, most of the time, I found myself out in the street. I was not even fully awake and ready to interact with the world.
Do you know that feeling too?
The time it was taking me to get ready, that was only 30 minutes, it was like living it in a sort of autopilot mode. Fortunately, that belongs to my past. For several years now I have a new and better habit to start my day in a good way. I thought I would share it with you with the hope that it will help you too to improve the quality of your day. If you smile at life, life will smile back at you. Happiness comes from within, so we need to work on our positive daily focus.
Ways to Start your Day with a Smile
When you open your eyes take a half-smile and then give yourself a good morning wish to fully wake up and then spend a few minutes concentrating on your breathing and relaxing your body. Why breathing? Respiration as well as being very important, just imagine what would happen if we stopped breathing, it is the connection between our body and our mind. Through our breath we can reach a calm and mental clarity.
Do not jump out of bed and start the day in an autopilot mode. When you get out of bed and rest your feet on the ground, be aware of what you are doing, start to live the present, remember happiness is in the present moment, the only moment we are alive. It may seem silly or obvious, but talking to yourself can help you to live the present. Say to yourself mentally what you are doing at that moment, it helps to be aware of the action that is taking place and then to live it in the present and feel alive.
Decide your first thought and do not let the first thought decide the course of your day. Why do we have to decide our first thought? Because the thoughts create our emotions and moods. So what can we think? It is important to think of something that puts us in the right mood, something that makes us feel good, happy and alive. Remember happiness is a choice and we have the choice every morning to be happy or not, just choosing our thoughts.
Now stop for a moment, take a pen and paper and write down two or three things that make you feel good and happy by thinking about them. Voice memos on our mobiles works too. Here are some suggestions: your children, your pets, the next vacation, it can be anything and it is very important they create good positive feelings.
A thought of gratitude can help us start the day in a positive way. Pausing and thinking about what we have, it creates a positive mood. We live in a society that pushes us to want more and more and we are never satisfied. It makes us not appreciate what we have and make us take a lot of things for granted, first of all, our health. Even just a small thought of gratitude for our health, because unlike many other people that are not well and in a hospital, we are physically well and this can help us to feel good.
Now if you have not already done so, do it now, create a list of people, animals or things that you associate with a good feeling. Think carefully and do not take anything for granted, we take too many things for granted, as I said earlier including our health and realize it only when we don’t feel well. If you like music there will certainly be one or two songs that create a feeling of happiness that makes you feel good when you listen to them so then do yourself a favour listen to these songs in the morning.
Drink a glass of water on an empty stomach, warm water or at room temperature because the body after all the hours of sleep can be easily dehydrated and even better if we squeeze in some lemon. Do not drink cold water from the fridge and do not drink coffee on an empty stomach. Why is that? Because it is not good for our health. Why instead it is good to drink lemon water in the morning? Here some of the benefits of drinking warm water with lemon in the morning:
- Strengthens the immune system
- Helps digestion
- It is a diuretic
- Helps lose weight
- Cleans the skin
Have breakfast, its really the most important meal of the day. Not only it does give us the energy to start a new day, but breakfast is linked to many health benefits, including weight control. It also improves the performance of the day, reducing the need for calories. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
Prepare a reminder to start your day in a good and happy. It is just a matter of habit, repeating the same thing day after day, we create a habit, both good and bad. Put something on the side of the alarm clock, a drawing, a smile, take your pick.
The important thing is, always remember, to start your day in the best way possible. See the bright opportunity in each new day. Starting a day in a happy way, it’s more likely that is going to be a good day, all we need to do during the course of day is to focus on positive thoughts. In fact the happiness of our life depends on the quality of our thoughts. Positive thinking can help to create our happiness and Keeping Life Current.
