How To Design The Perfect Morning Ritual

"The morning breeze has secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep. Do not go back to sleep. Do not go back to sleep." - Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (aka: Rumi)

(Click here to listen on iTunes)

Learn a framework for setting yourself up for success every single day by starting it off with a powerful Morning Ritual.

Learn how I do mine, and how you can customize one for yourself.

Start streaming via the player below, or keep scrolling to keep reading this article.

Meaningful Show, Episode #33: Designing Your Morning Ritual

How To Design Your Morning Ritual

Below, I’ve outlined a rough sketch of what my morning routine looks like (absent any extenuating circumstances — such as, but not limited to — the occasional downtown outing, and the inebriated state of consciousness that can come along with it!)

Additionally, I’ve included some notes/do’s and don’ts for you, should you aspire to join the 5am club.

5:00am | Rise and shine. As soon as I rise, I take my vitamins + 16 ounce bottled water (yes, on an empty stomach.) If your goal is to become an early riser, the important thing to take note of here is NOT to let yourself hit the snooze button… if you do this, you’re done. Trust me, it’s happened to me on several occasions. 3 hours later, I wake up pissed.

5:30 – 7:00am | Gym time. Depending on my workout / training protocol at any given time/day, my workouts typically last between 45-90 minutes. Post work-out meal is usually about 45 grams of protein.

7:15am – 7:30ish | Nature walk. Walk outside. Begin breath-walking. Get grateful. Envision a successful day. (For more details on breath-walking, scroll down)

7:30am | Green juice. After my walk/gratitude/visualizing session, I’ll fire up the Breville juicer and blend together a nice tall glass of green juice to get me going. After that, I’ll hop in the shower and get ready to dominate the day.

8:00am – 8:20ish | Meditate. I cannot begin to tell you how beneficial it is to meditate. Study after study has proven it to be so over the years; and the mountain of evidence seems to be piling up by the day. Here’s an article that outlines how to meditate (scroll to the middle of the post.) Note: even the act of *trying* to meditate has massive benefits… which is what I feel like I’m doing most of the time anyway.

8:20am – 8:30am | Review daily priorities. At this point, I’ll take a look at my most important tasks for the day, and I’ll begin to dominate the day from there.

Tips + Tricks To Dominate Your Day With a Powerful Morning Ritual

In case you want to dive into the details, I’ve outlined the exact steps on the breath-walking phase, gratitude phase, and visualization of my morning ritual for you below.

Breath-walking phase

Go outside and start walking a normal pace.

As you’re walking, begin breathing in the following ratio:

Inhale four times through your nose,
exhale four times through your mouth,
tap your thumbs + fingers together (one by one: thumb to index; thumb to middle, etc. together with your breath) as described in the podcast episode
repeat continuously for about 3-5 minutes.

This practice alone, will significantly impact your overall energy levels because oxygen = energy, and oxygen levels are highest in the early hours of the morning.

Nature walk phase (get grateful + visualize)

This is when I think about everything I’m grateful for in life. I take my self through various moments of gratitude during which I get thankful for what I have been blessed with in the past, the present, and everything I will be blessed with in the future. I always begin with my family and closest friends, whom I name individually in my mind and think about why I’m so thankful to have each of them in my life…

Here's how to do it:

- Think about everything you’re grateful for. Start with yourself and include your family, friends, co-workers, peers, impactful moments in your life, etc.

- Then begin transitioning over to visualizing in your mind’s eye, everything that you want in your life. Think of it as if you’ve already achieved it — and that you’re already grateful for it. I haven’t found any solid data behind the validity of being grateful for something you don’t actually have yet, but it’s been a long-standing belief in the world of psychology and social science that our mind/brain/consciousness can’t tell the difference between something we vividly imagine and something we actually experience. That said, I personally believe that putting yourself into a state of gratitude for something you want — but do not yet have — can help you get it… and regardless of how big a contribution this exercise has on your ability to get what you want or achieve a goal of some kind; it certainly can’t hurt your chances of doing so.

- Lastly, focus on what you want to create TODAY. What do you want to make happen? What do you want to do, achieve, or accomplish today? Imagine that “the deal is done”. Think about shaking hands with a customer/patient/client. Envision it happening exactly the way you want it… you’ll be surprised when it actually starts happening.

LIVE LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN,
Dean Bokhari

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