Are you looking for a calmer start to your teaching morning? Enter: Mindful Mornings for teachers as an important life hack that you can incorporate for an intentional and calmer day.
I struggle so much with mornings. I’m just not a morning person, but… I would like to be. Can you relate?
Do you hate mornings like I do?
I don’t like early morning starts. The alarm goes off… you hit the snooze button. It goes off again. SNOOZE! You know how it is?! Or it just me!
On the weekends, I’m even worse! I can be so slow to get going. Often, I hang around in my pyjamas for hours and waste a fair chunk of the day.
I know we’re tired as teachers, especially after a massive week at school, but that certainly doesn’t make for a productive start to anyone’s weekend.
When I’m teaching, I only get up with enough time to be ready for work. Dragging myself around with bleary eyes, until the shower kicks in.
Coffee, where are you, my friend?
Actually, no, that’s not me anymore – caffeine doesn’t like me. Keeps me awake at night.
I usually only need about an hour to have breakfast, shower, get dressed and be ready to leave. This allows me a later start – usually, around 6:30 am. and I make my lunch the night before to be more organised.
This allows me to get to work early enough to make me feel organised enough before the students arrive.
But, only allowing an hour to be ready for the day, makes the morning feel quite rushed. It doesn’t foster that calmer more reflective start, which would help me to be more productive and positive.
Are you relating? If not, maybe you can finish reading now.
But… if you’re looking for a brand new way of starting the day; a more mindful, intentional and positive morning, keep reading.
A better start to the day with Mindful Mornings for teachers
I’ve been hearing from many sources now, that having a more intentional morning routine has the ability to change your life for the better; helping you to get focused and make you rearing to go!
I think I’m getting the hint from the universe that I might need to start this.
So, with this in mind, I’m keen to kick things off and improve my mornings; by having a more intentional list of things that I can do to help improve my day.
What’s a mindful morning, you ask?
Well, that’s a good question.
I thought a mindful morning was just when you didn’t forget to take your lunch to school. 🙂
But, no, Mindful Mornings are what you do as soon as you wake up. Mindful Minutes says that a morning routine will set the tone of the day and help you to move through the day with ease, energy and awareness.
It’s a much more intentional plan than just rolling out of bed and scrolling through your social media feed. This would mean following a more structured outline of events that you don’t have to think about.
You just know it, and do it.
Making you feel more relaxed, more ‘switched on’ and more productive for the day if that’s what you are trying to achieve.
How do you implement a mindful morning?
My new life coach has suggested a morning routine for me that follows these steps:
- Planning my day and goals
- Deep breathing
- Visualisation and manifestations of the future I desire
- Practising gratitude
He suggested that my mindful morning tasks should only take 5 – 10 minutes or maybe even 2 minutes if I have to, but obviously “the trick is to start doing it, and every day.”
This sounds pretty easy and some sources suggest that having an intentional morning routine is great for anyone interested in personal development. Which is me! – Apparently I’m known at school by some as the ‘self-help’ guru. LOL!
I was also keen to know more about the concept of a Mindful Morning, so in my research, I’ve found a very successful author called Hal Elrod, who has perfected morning routines in his book, The Miracle Morning: The not-so-obvious Secret That Will Transform Your Life. (I also heard him on a podcast recently, which is how I know about his program).
This interesting video explains the core message of The Miracle Morning.
But, Hal says that your Miracle Morning only needs to take 6 minutes a day to set up a productive start.
This intrigues me and sounds much more achievable for a busy teacher.
Here is Hal’s suggested 6-minute routine for anyone who is “extra busy and pressed for time.”
That’s me and I’m sure any teacher, including you!
The 6 minute miracle morning routine summarised
Minute 1: Silence
Silence.
I know for me, I often don’t stop long enough to have silence at any time of the day; especially with all the technology and busyness, we take-on in our lives and having a family.
But, silence first up in the morning sounds like a great way to be just ‘in your own thoughts’, to relax and calm your mind. (If you can find a place to have no interruptions.)
Instructions: Sit for one minute of purposeful silence in a calm and peaceful state, while you breathe deeply and slowly. You may want to say a prayer of gratitude or for guidance on your journey. Your minute might be in meditation, being in the moment, calming your mind, relaxing your body and letting the ‘stress melt away.’
Minute 2: Affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements that can empower you to achieve what you want in life. Often they are short and to the point. They affirm your goals or are specific to your required needs. Statements as simple as:
- I am strong and powerful
- I will achieve my goals today
- I am a capable teacher
- I’m grateful for a new day
- I’m willing and able to learn new things
Instructions: Have prepared affirmation statements that energise and encourage you or remind you of your priorities. Then, read your affirmations out loud from top to bottom.
Hal says that as you verbalise these intentions and focus on what is important to you, your level of internal motivation increases.
Statements of how capable you are, help you to build your confidence, and by looking over what you’re committed to (your goals), will reenergize you to take action and make the changes necessary to live the life you truly want.
Here’s an example of some self-love affirmations.
Minute 3: Visualisation
Instructions: Close your eyes and look at your vision board or think about your goals. Now picture in your mind what you want to achieve. What will this look like and how will you feel when you achieve these things in your life?
You can visualise your day going perfectly, seeing yourself enjoying your day at school, smiling and laughing with your teaching colleagues and family. Picture this and you will experience the joy that it brings to your day.
Minute 4: Scribing
Instructions: Grab your notebook and pen and start writing down all the things you’re grateful for, things you’re proud of and the results you intend to achieve for the day. Hal says this puts you into an empowered, inspired and confident state of mind. I love this!
Minute 5: Reading
Instructions: Get your favourite self-help book (you know me well, Hal!) and invest just one Miracle Minute on a page or two of reading. Learn something new to implement into your new day or something that helps you to feel better and to BE better!
Minute 6: Exercise
Instructions: Stand up tall and for the last minute of your routine, do jumping jacks to get your heart-rate up. This will help energize you and wake you up to be more alert and focused for the day.
Miracle Morning routine:
Here’s a clip by someone that has tried to put this 6-minute routine together in an easy-to-watch video. Great to help understand how a morning routine like this will flow.
After thinking over my strategies for my new mindful morning routine, I’ve now combined some of Hal’s 6 minute Miracle Morning and some of my own ideas.
- Prayer
- Medication
- Energy drink (Lemon & vitamin C in water)
- Gratitude Journaling
- Planning and goal setting for my day
- Visualisation
- Deep breathing
To help get my morning underway, I’ve created a list of my ‘must-dos’ and stuck it on the wall next to my bed.
It’s a good reminder to wake up to and sets up my day before I have even put my feet on the floor. I then won’t forget what I want to do while I’m building the habit.
This will hopefully become a thing I don’t even have to think about and help me create a much calmer start to the day before the madness at school hits.
Give it a try too! Let me know how you go and how it helps your life.
Remember you’re worth it!
Michelle xx
PIN IT FOR LATER!
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