Benefits Of A Morning Routine And Why You Need One

Creating a morning routine helps me with starting my day off in the right direction.

The stress of getting the kids ready for school and out the door in the morning can be a trigger for me and sets the tone for a day in survival mode.

I am sure you can relate to those days that you drag yourself out of bed after a snooze (or two), with no time for a peaceful cup of coffee you head straight into Mom mode. Cue the whining, arguing, frustrations and panic as the clock ticks faster than you can pull it all together.

That is why my sweet friend I want to share this magic little solution of implementing a morning routine into your life.

Benefits of a morning routine

A Solid Morning Routine Helps Me To:

Focus

Minimize Stress

Feel Confident

Increase My Motivation

Be Less Forgetful

Maintain Control Over My Emotions And Feelings

Feel More Alive

Live Life To The Fullest

A solid morning routine helps me keep my mind clear and focused so I can stay on task throughout the day. Since I have learned and disciplined myself to buffer in a little “me” time first thing in the morning I give myself a few minutes to visualize and plan out the day before me.

Doing this simple thing and sacrificing just a small amount of sleep has huge benefits. It minimizes my stress level and helps me feel more confident in the choices I am making for myself and my family, it increases my motivation and energy level because I am less forgetful and feel more in control of my emotions, feelings, and thoughts.

Implementing a solid morning routine has even helped hugely in my relationships with both my husband and my children because I feel more excited, alive, and beautiful when I have a good morning routine in place.

In all honesty, having a thriving morning routine makes me look forward to getting out of bed each and every day and it even helps me to live life to the utmost fullest. It’s a secret sauce to living my best life.

It wasn’t always this way!

I feel called to share with you what caused me to learn the true benefits of having a morning routine in place.

I will never forget that dreadful Monday morning during one of my husband’s lengthy deployments, while we were still stationed in Savannah and part of the 165^th Airlift Wing. We had a preschooler and two toddlers in the home. I remember waking up that morning and feeling so overwhelmed and lost. I was honestly pretty miserable.

The children were all at an age where they needed me almost every second of every day and I was down-right exhausted trying to not only tend to them, but while also trying to maintain a functioning home all on my own while their daddy was deployed overseas.

I quickly reached a breaking point and remember having the thoughts that if I did not gain control of my day soon I was going to start drinking again due to feeling so overwhelmed, lost, and alone.

I sure wish I had listened to my heart, soul, and my mind that day because I quickly became dependent on alcohol yet again. The last season of alcoholism began the day I found my son, Samuel, lifeless in his crib at the tender age of 9 weeks old, and it didn’t end until the day I found out I was pregnant with my rainbow baby.

Thankfully, I had a dear friend who was on the leadership board for Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) with me, at our church in Savannah, who called me straight out. She immediately encouraged me to put down the bottle and get help. This time I listened, and that very day I made an appointment to start seeing a therapist.

Some of the greatest advice I received after sharing with my therapist, was to implement a morning routine for my family immediately.

I took the advice and I activated a morning routine right away. Boy did it change my life and in a way, saved my life too.

Here is exactly what I did that made a huge shift toward living my best life.

1. I started waking up at the same time each and every morning no matter what.
2. I would do my quiet time with the Lord
3. Reflect on the previous day and think about what I could do better
4. I started working out
5. Took a shower before the children were even out of bed.

I want to be real with you. Yes, it meant waking up a couple of hours before them, but the benefits of having a healthy morning routine in place made it so worth it.

I even ended up losing a significant amount of weight too!!

As I share this with you, it reminds me of how far I have come by simply implementing a morning routine. As I mentioned above, I now feel more beautiful, healthier, rested, energized and even more ready to take on whatever the new day has to throw at me.

My children and husband have reaped the benefits as well. So, TODAY, I encourage you to go ahead and create a morning routine for your family as well. I promise you will not regret it!!

Positive Affirmations For Healing

by Nicole | 04,13 | Blog

How I have used positive affirmations to heal emotionally from losing a child, sexual abuse, rape and alcoholism

I’m excited to share with you one of my secret weapons to healing my emotional pain. You can empower yourself daily by speaking positive affirmations over yourself to counter attack the emotional suffering you may feel after experiencing abuse or loss.

Did You Know?!

Your brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and what you imagine. Think about it the brain only knows what you experience and tell it. That is why regular repetition of affirming statements about yourself can encourage your brain to take these positive affirmations as fact to reprogram your brain and take your life to the next level.

It’s so important to create and implement positive affirmations into your life, especially if you have been wounded from abuse, rape, or loss. But, obviously the benefits of positive affirmations helps everyone.

You can use affirmations to:

Build belief in yourself
Increase your confidence
Increase your self-esteem
Create habitual positive thoughts

Since emotional trauma can put you on the struggle bus of constantly fighting depression, anxiety and dark thoughts, making an effort to use positive affirmations can help you heal and overcome faster.

Affirmations That Are Repeated Frequently And With Feeling Are Most Effective!

Repeating an affirmation can indeed help boost your motivation and confidence, but please remember you still have to take some action yourself. Affirmations are a step towards change, not the change itself. Say it, and then take action like you truly believe it.

Ok, Ok. Let’s back up here.

In all honesty, I use to laugh in disbelief when I would watch a movie or read a book that talked about positive affirmations. Especially positive affirmations for healing. How in the world could writing positive affirmations on sticky notes and then hanging them around your home heal you?

I mean who really does that in real life anyway? Seriously?!

On top of that how in the heck were positive affirmations going to help me heal from losing a child, rape, sexual abuse and alcoholism?

It all really sounded bogus to me until one day I sucked it up and actually tried it.

My life changed that very day and my healing journey finally begun. I know it sounds like I am exaggerating but I’m not. It’s true, and I am telling you this made a huge difference for me.

The first thing I did (in my head; because I wasn’t ready to speak it out yet since it felt so awkward) was, I started listing off ten reasons why I loved myself right after I woke up each morning. I had made an agreement with myself that I would give it 21 days. But, I knew deep down after that very first day I would be doing it for the rest of my life. The healing and mindset change that I needed so badly in my life was almost immediate, as I began to speak those words I so desperately needed to hear out loud.

Another thing I did after I got out of bed each morning, is I would look into my mirror and say, “I love you, Nicole. You are beautiful, Nicole. You are enough, Nicole”. It was super-duper hard at first. But, after a few days it became easier and easier.

The crazy thing was after about a month, I started to really believe that I was indeed loved, that I actually was beautiful, and that I truly was enough.

I also began writing in my journal. You know the journal someone gave you for your birthday years ago and you said you would never use it?! Yep, that one. And, little does that person know who gave me that gift, that writing out positive affirmations in the journal likely saved my life because of the action steps I took once I truly believed the affirmations I was telling myself and writing out to myself. The positive affirmations, as well as the empowering habits I began doing (once I believed the affirmations I was saying), with out a doubt helped me start to heal.

Repeating Affirmations, Writing in my journal and on my mirror is what helped me realize

I was not the reason my 9 week old son died.
The shame I felt from being sexually abused as a child was his to hold not mine
That it was also not my fault those fraternity brothers my freshman year at Florida State University raped me even if I was intoxicated
Being a recovering alcoholic does not define me.

I started loving life again.

Feeling empowered.

Forgiving myself and others from my past.

I Learned how to turn that frown upside down

To be get excited about getting out of bed each morning again.

All of this happened by switching my mindset into positive thinking, affirming that I was enough, and taking action with implementing empowering habits so I could heal from the inside out.

So, if you are finally ready to get the help you need to feel like you deserve love, that you are beautiful, you are enough, and you are truly ready to feel empowered then start TODAY with this simple process.

Stating the affirmation you need to hear to out loud to yourself
Acknowledge any doubt or limiting belief (even though/in spite of…) to take away it’s power
Restate “I know I can/am”

Do this each and every morning and at night. You can even write it on a sticky note too or ask others you trust to say your affirmations to you as well. I promise you will not regret it and your healing journey will begin!!!