Pay a Little Morning Kindness to yourself

This article is aimed toward people who are at the beginning of their journey to better health, and those looking to try out new morning routine methods.

It is also aimed toward people who do not have much time to do specialised practices, but still wish to do something healthy.

The moment you are slowly coming to your senses after a long sleep is important. Many health-oriented disciplines advise practices toward good health specifically to be done at this time, for instance; stretching out, sitting in meditation, breathing, going for a brisk walk, etc.

All these suggestions can be good. You have to experiment with various ideas until you find out which works best for you. For some, a good run in the morning puts them into high energy mode all day. For others, it would slam them back to bed.

I like to focus on what the body needs rather than following any discipline or practice. My belief is that the body is its own doctor - it knows what it needs. Your job is to listen. What is going on with you during those few moments after waking up? The stiffness of the limbs, the slowness of movement, sometimes drowsiness, the dryness of the mouth, the gently increasing heartbeat, the blurry vision… What is all this?

The bodily systems are gently increasing their work rate after working in slow motion during your sleep, and I think that the ideal morning exercise should allow these systems to get into their natural medium gear gently (we’re not hitting high gears so early here). The sun comes up slowly over the horizon, it doesn’t just appear suddenly out of nowhere. Animals wake up slowly and stretch before moving, they don’t hit the ground running. Nature shows us the way: slow and gentle.

Don’t be too capricious with your early morning energy. Remember that your daily energy is limited and that you need good energy for the next 16 hours or so of activity before going back to sleep. Focus on what you are feeling, and work your way through it.

Here is my suggestion:

1. While still in bed, move the joints, tense and release the muscles.

Stay in bed for an extra 2-3 minutes. Stretch out, hands wide. Rotate your wrists, move your shoulders up and down, back and forward. Claw your fingers tightly, then release, for a couple of times. Push the toes forward and back, arch your back and cave your chest. Tighten your glutes and thighs, tighten your back and shoulders, then release and repeat. Push your head backwards against your pillow to tense the neck, then relax. Feel your heart rate slowly increasing.

From the larger joints of the shoulder and hips, to the smaller ones of the fingers and toes, giving them a little movement will oil them up. It doesn’t need to be too long. Pay attention to what you feel, some joints will need movement more than others.

2. Before you stand up from bed, sit for a moment.

Allow your blood to adjust to the change of gravitational pull. Do some neck rotations, move the shoulders and ankles.

3. When you stand up from your bed, feel the tense areas in your body.

Do the body’s natural stretch: hands out pulling backwards, and back arching slightly backwards. Then shake your legs and arms to release some tension.

4. Drink a large glass of water.

Your body has endured a good span of time without hydration. The natural drink is water. Make sure you drink a large glass of water first thing in the morning.

The movements I mentioned above should not take you more than 5 minutes unless you deliberately want to extend them to include more stretching or movements. And it will be enough to get you started.

What you do next depends on your routine, but try not to push too hard at such an early time. For the first hour or so, go slow.

There is nothing special about this short routine. You will not ‘feel like a million bucks’ or tap into some magical energy that makes you want to sprint across continents for the next 16 hours of your day.

But you will feel good doing it, and once you’re done with it, remember that you have taken care of yourself for those 5 minutes, which is already good progress toward better health.

Till next time, stay strong!

P.s. I left the breathing part out of the equation on purpose in this article.

Some people advise doing some deep breathing at this time. I personally do not suggest any form of deep breathing at such an early time during your day, because it takes a while for the lungs to be able to go to their full depth, and basically, deep breathing is pushing the lungs to high gear, which is what we don’t want at that moment. It might however work for you, so experiment with it if it interests you, and if it works, keep it.