I get asked a lot about my morning routine, because I always say how much it changed my life.
A decade ago, I read an article about how the first 90 minutes of your day can change your life. The article changed my perspective and I realized that I wasn’t doing anything active in my morning to create the day I wanted.
In other words, most of my life I was reactive – I responded to information outside of me and based on that I started my day. Whether it was the needs of work, the news, the networks and friends.
The worst thing you can do for yourself is to start your day without a plan. This doesn’t mean you have to change the world. It means you decide what you’re going to do in the morning, and chances are, even if you’re on vacation, that there’s nothing you want to do in the morning. Whether it’s making breakfast or going out to dinner.
Do you have a morning routine? Because it’s the most effective way in my opinion to change your life.
Every morning when we wake up, our brain waves go through several levels.
Starting with Delta (sleep), then Theta, Alpha, and finally Beta (wakefulness).
The transition process is significant and necessary for us to wake up properly.
The waves that we should remember are alpha and beta;
Alpha, this is the subconscious, like the subconscious. What is also called the flexible brain. We will get there if we enter deep meditation.
Beta, this is awareness, alertness, everything I know, all past experiences, in other words – the personality.
If the moment we wake up we open the phone, our brain quickly switches to high beta waves, and we start the day in a state of high stress.
If I check social networks in the morning, I immediately increase dopamine levels, and lower the dopamine baseline (dopamine baseline) and therefore I will constantly seek higher dopamine stimulation through exposure to more content that will make it difficult for me to leave my phone all day.
This is exactly what creates addiction to social networks and a feeling of unease and even depression when I am not on the phone.
It is a vicious circle.
So as long as I am in bed and not distracted, I have the opportunity to create things with myself.
I can ask myself who I want to be today? What do I like about myself? What is important to me?
Remind myself of how many beautiful things exist in the world.
What I usually do in bed when I haven’t woken up is positive affirmations or think about things I am grateful for.
When we are still in alpha waves, our brain is in a flexible state.
At this time, we have a higher ability to remember and learn things easily and thus program our brain.
In other words, alpha waves are the most ideal state to be in if I want to change something in my personality.
The second thing I will do is some kind of movement, it doesn’t have to be strenuous physical activity, because there is not always time, but stretching, push-ups, squats.
Movement – produces noradrenaline, dopamine and endocannabinoids
through which we access energy, focus, motivation, plus a huge improvement in mood.
Physical activity increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain, so what more could you ask for to start the day with movement?
Another important and critical thing is exposure to natural daylight, a little sun on the eyes and face (without glasses!) To balance the biological clock, this will not only improve the feeling and function of the body, it will also improve sleep at night.
The most important thing in my opinion, my superpower, the thing that changed my life, is meditation. Meditation is a superpower, it is not a privilege or luxury, it is a basic existential need.
Stress makes you stupid, slow and sick, all body functions fail when we are in constant and unmanaged stress.
Don’t get me wrong, stress can be a great thing, what is called eu· stress, or in Hebrew positive stress. The kind that comes from physical activity or a challenge that you overcome.
But the daily stress that we all experience harms all body functions. From diseases to baldness.
Meditation has been around for 6,000 years, and there is no end to the amount of research that shows its ability to improve every bodily function, every emotional state, every health problem, and of course brain function.
It’s something everyone should do, and there’s no excuse for not doing it.
And what does it actually require? Ten minutes without a phone?
Ten minutes of not doing any more of the dozens of activities that every person does a day that don’t serve our real needs, and are necessarily a distraction.
Practice meditation and change your life.
The Change Course is a great way to dive into new depths, where you’ll learn how to start practicing all types of meditation yourself, and choose what’s most accurate for you.
