In my last post I shared about how helpful a morning routine can be and in this one, I want to share my exact morning routine with you so you can try it out and let me know what you think. It’s super easy to remember, and easy to follow. You just have to remember “ADAM” - as in, up and ADAM.
It stands for activate, drink, appreciate, meditate. Let’s walk through it:
Activate:
As soon as possible after getting out of bed, activate the body in some way. This is the best way to combat any feeling of grogginess or lethargy that may be lingering when you first wake up.
Ideally, you’d want to get some exposure to sunlight as soon as possible. Depending on where you live, and what season it is, that might not be possible, but multiple studies have shown that exposure to sunlight first thing in the morning can significantly improve your alertness and positively impact mood.
We are hardwired for this, which is why a lack of sunlight exposure can lead to various forms of depression. So crack a window, throw open the blinds, or get outside if you can, to feel the sun on your skin. Your body and mind will thank you.
Buuut, if you’re like me and you just don’t get to see the sun for 4 months out of the year, you might need to try another strategy.
A super simple way to activate the body when you first wake up is to get out of bed and immediately do a set of pushups, or air squats. Depending on your fitness level, you could start with 5 or 10. A friend of mine tried this, starting with 10, and then every day has been adding 1 or 2 pushups. He’s up to 35 now!
The idea is to get your blood pumping and your body oxygenated. This will help you feel awake and energized, and it’ll shake off the typical morning grogginess you might experience otherwise.
You could also try breath work. Guys like Wim Hoff and Gary Brecka have their breath work routines that you might want to try, or you could just do regular box breathing: breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds. Repeat.
This kind of breathwork floods your system with oxygen and will help you feel alert and awake.
It’s up to you how you want to do it, but the important thing is that you activate.
Drink
Your body becomes super dehydrated overnight. While we sleep, our body sweats and even just breathing throughout the night causes us to become dehydrated, and being properly hydrated is crucial for having energy and feeling good, so after you activate, the next step is to drink.
For me, I make sure I drink at least 16 ounces of water within 16 minutes of waking up. It’s easy to remember and ensures I’m getting enough fluids. This is a perfect time for me to take my supplements for the day, so I just bake that into my routine.
If you want to take it to the next level, add some electrolytes to your water to help your cells rehydrate as quickly as possible or fuel your morning workout.
Appreciate
Third step is to engage in some kind of practice that allows you to appreciate the goodness and beauty in your life. This could be journaling, it could be quiet reflection, it could be a form of prayer.
Now, I get that depending on your background, even the word “prayer” might carry some baggage for you. Here’s what I’ll say:
It is profoundly beneficial to cultivate a sense of gratitude.
Gratitude for being. For existing. For life itself. If the purpose of a morning routine is to start our day off right, then starting with gratitude or appreciating the gift of life itself is a no-brainer. Even if you don’t believe in God, starting your day with all the things you are thankful for and finding a way to express or articulate that thanks is an extremely healthy habit.
Here’s a simple question that might help you with this.
What’s right?
I mean, if I ask you “What’s wrong?” you probably have a bunch of answers. Your back hurts, you have a headache, you don’t want to go to work today.
But what we focus on expands. So why is it that we spend so much time focusing on what’s wrong, instead of asking ourselves (and others) “What’s right?”
Start your day there. Think about what’s right in your life. What are you grateful for? What do you appreciate?
Better yet, can you communicate that to someone? Is there someone in your life you appreciate, and could you let them know? It’ll help your mental health and improve your relationships if you make a habit of this.
If you can, try to go beyond just gratitude (what you’re happy about that is benefiting you in some way) and move to find the beauty in everything. I mean, everything.
Look for beauty even in the potential challenges that you are facing, because it’s hiding there somewhere, I guarantee it. I wrote more about that HERE.
Meditate
The last step of ADAM is to meditate. If you’re brand new to meditation, we suggest a form of mindfulness meditation we call Sensory Meditation. I’ll give you the short version.
It's really simple.
Here’s how it works:
Pick a sensation. Sound and touch are probably the easiest, but any can work.
Pay attention to that sensation. Just notice it. You don’t need to strain, you don’t need to try hard. Just notice it. Stay with it. Keep noticing it.
Inevitably, you will get lost in thought without realizing. This is normal.
At some point you will remember that you’re supposed to be meditating.
Celebrate this moment! The moment you ‘wake up’ from your daydream, and remember that you’re supposed to be meditating. Resist the urge to berate yourself, this ‘waking up’ is success.
Return your attention to whichever sensation you chose.
That’s it. Pretty simple, right? If you like, you can do a sensory scan, moving one by one through each of your senses, noticing it carefully. Maybe you start with sound, then move to smell, then move to sight, then touch etc.
Here’s why it works:
When you meditate like this, you are gradually training your mind to be increasingly present. Instead of being lost in thought without realizing it, you will eventually come to enjoy the space between thoughts, and recognize that thoughts come and go all the time but you don’t have to go along for the ride.
Eventually this will bleed over into the rest of your life, and you can tackle your day with a heightened awareness and intentionality. Starting your day with even 5 minutes of sensory mediation can have ripple effects of awareness through the rest of your day.
So that’s it. That’s the morning routine.
A.D.A.M.
It’s intentionally flexible, because everyone is different. Maybe you want to do breathwork or yoga, maybe you want to lift weights or run, maybe you want to journal, or maybe you want to pray.
The specifics are up to you. The important thing is the routine. Committing to starting each day the same way, with ADAM, can have enormous benefits for your well being, so give it a shot. We are running a 40-day sprint to better health at my companies, and the folks who have committed to starting each day with ADAM have told me how much it is helping them prepare for the day ahead. We’re 4 weeks in, and it’s becoming second nature for them now.
So give it a try and let me know what you think! I’m dedicated to building a community of people who are committed to better health, better relationships and better finances.
So if you want to connect with others who are on this same journey, join our private Freedomology Labs facebook group where we swap stories and strategies to find what’s working.
We’d love to meet you!
Greg
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