A recent study found that the average human is awake for 1000 minutes in a day. Neil Pasricha, happiness author and podcaster, asks: ’what can you do to make the first 2 minutes of your day, have a positive impact on the rest of the 998 minutes remaining?’
Let’s be honest, most people start their day in a blur often been woken by the alarm, the kids or their pets demanding attention and food now! If you are fortunate enough to wake up in your own time, chances are, you’ll be lying there with a big, long to-do list urging you out of bed. Then there’s the rush for the shower, breakfast or a cuppa before starting the day.
So if you recognise the feelings of being rushed, frazzled, stretched, not knowing where to start, and all before your working day has even started! Then here are Neil’s three approaches to make your day start positively and happily.
1. Let go of (anxiety)
Research tells us that there is significant benefit in writing down or saying out loud, what is bothering us. We’ve all experienced at some point in our life the feeling of having the weight-of-the-world on our shoulders, and once we’ve put it out in the open, it suddenly is not as big or as bad as we had first imagined.
So start the day with noticing what you feel and claim – ‘I will let go of…..’ (whatever you are anxious about)
2. Gratitude
To add even more weight to this daily practice, research has shown that if you also write down just one thing you are grateful for, and do this continually for 10 weeks, compared with people who wrote down hassles, events or to-do lists, you will not only be happier, and physically healthier. The art of gratitude is to capture those tiny little moments, like spotting your first snowdrop, coming downstairs and finding the dishes already done, or a text from a colleague saying thank you.
So step two is to capture at least one thing you are grateful for.
3. Intention
OK so I know you can’t suddenly vanish your kids or pets to another dimension, but you can put in a pause and start the day with one clear and small intention. We know that to help with willpower, if you write one thing you want to get done every single day on a post-it -note and put it on your pocket, or on your desk, you are more likely to achieve it. And even better, at the end of the day, you get to cross it off.
So, the final morning task, is to write down that one, small task for you to focus on.
Your new morning practice.
So, to make the first 2 minutes of your day have a positive and lasting effect on the rest of your waking day, then as get set for the day ahead, do these 3 morning routines of writing down:
- I will let go of.. (anxiety thing)
- I am grateful for.. (one or more thing simple thing you are happy with)
- I will focus on.. (write one small action and intention)
And if you’d like to find out more about moving from a negative to a positive mindset then join me on my Mental Fitness HIIT session or get in touch for a blether about how to build your mental muscles to thrive during this time of change.