00:00 You’re listening to the live happier longer podcast, episode 52
00:15 welcome to the live happier, longer podcast we’re your host Molly Watts and Angela McDade. We are here to help you build the five habits of happier, longer life and to create your habit mindset, starting now.
00:29 Hey, Angela. Hey Molly, how are you this morning? Not too bad at all. Are you a morning person Angela? Some mornings more than other, but I’m I would say and I like to get things done in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there’s a lot of people that choose to, you know, the mornings, that productive time. I’ve definitely, I’m definitely a morning person. I’m one of those irritating morning persons. I think that is always just wakes up pretty easily. Although I will have to say that in my older adult years and working years, sometimes sleeping in on the weekends is kinda nice. Yeah, but it’s supposed to be not good for you, but I know, but I mean we’re talking seven or eight o’clock. I mean that’s the thing for me. I know. I’m not sure it really qualifies. Yeah, I think that’s it’s one person’s lie in compared to somebody else can be quite different.
01:22 Um, well we are going to be talking about, uh, morning routines this morning and a little bit about why having a morning routine is actually good for you and what it can do for you in terms of, and then also the miracle morning, which is a popular content idea. Hal Elrod, and we’re going to talk about that later too. Specific type of morning routine ideas, but when we talk about having a morning routine and why it’s actually good for you, it’s pretty easy to see or to understand. Philosophically, I think I always.
02:00 I read this a comparison like it if you just think about it in terms of when you’re trying to stick to a diet or stick to an eating plan, you wake up in the morning and you start off your day with a big donut. Yeah. And then that’s, that kind of sets the tone you have to say to you, well, that’s it. So right. The rest of the day kind of follows suit. You have the French fries at lunch and the pizza at dinner and you know, you’ve just sort of set yourself up from the very beginning. So likewise, if you have a very solid morning routine, it kind of sets you up for having a better day and making better choices throughout the rest of the day. Yeah. Right.
02:38 And it’s all about building the habits. We talk about it all the time. The quality of your habits really equals the quality of your life. So if you want to have a, a stronger, a stronger outcome at the end of the day, you really want to start the day. Just start it well. Yeah. And I know you and I can look back, remember fondly on mornings, uh, you know, when we were trying to get kids out the door and having a routine and then not having that routine go to plan. Yeah. And it was quite a stark difference, right? And it’s like you can feel that you can, I can remember that. And the stress and the, just the tension that it causes.
03:19 So, and it’s actually proven scientifically healthwise that having routines are good for you. yeah. Structured is good for you, structure is good for you. And I know that there’s some people that are free spirited and highly creative. They kind of push back at the idea of routine, but you can actually structure creative time into your, to your day. Yeah. And just having that, that habit and having that routine is definitely good for you. Uh, people are creatures of habit and routines offer a way to promote health and wellness through structure and organization.
03:56 So here’s ways that having a routine can improve your health. Uh, people that don’t have any type of routine suffer from one stress. And we just kind of gave an example of that in the morning routines when, when you, if you don’t have a morning routine and you’re always just trying to shuffle everybody or run out the door every morning, just get overwhelmed by the volume of stuff, whereas if you’ve got a routine. It’s like check, check, check, check, check, you just go through it order. Exactly. And you don’t have to have that constant worry of when will I get it done? Uh, it, people that don’t have any type of routine suffer from poor sleep without a daily routine at work and home, you may find yourself playing catch up. Yeah. With yesterday’s to do list. And if you’re always behind, you know, you, you stay awake worrying, you might stay up late trying to catch up. It’s just again, and then it’s back to being overwhelmed. Right.
04:51 Uh, poor eating obviously just mentioned that, but one of the reasons that people, uh, get into poor eating routines is that they’re, they don’t or poor eating habits. They don’t have a routine, they don’t have a plan and they just grab. Yeah. Right. So poor physical condition. Obviously one of the first things to go in anybody’s life is your exercise routine, your exercise, or not routine, but your exercise choices. And if you don’t have a consistent routine of it, yeah. There’s no where to fit it in. Right. Exactly. And it’s, it’s easy to not fit in, right. When things get busy, then it’s really simple to just say, Oh, that’s the first thing that’s going to go. Uh, and then obviously just an ineffective use of time is what people suffer from if they don’t have routines.
05:39 I know for me this month I have been working back into my exercise routine prior to going to work. And for me that’s, that means I have to get up early. Um, and it’s, you know, it’s a habit. It’s a choice. It’s a, it’s a plan. Yeah. And it’s doing it because if I don’t do it, then yeah, doing it later is not as easy. No. And it just doesn’t tend to happen. And so I’ve really been sticking to it and I actually, I can honestly, it’s been, I’m in week four right now. I’ve been every five days a week up on my treadmill and I can genuinely feel the difference without a doubt, not just in my physical condition, but the structure that it forces me to be and going to bed earlier. You know, all of it, it, it’s just a decision. It’s a commitment and it, it certainly is showing improvement for me in, in the rest of my day too. It makes me feel, you know, just honestly gets me up and going.
06:39 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, the same routine isn’t going to work for everyone and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean that, you know, one is better than the other, right. It doesn’t, but it does mean that people, that most of us, any of us can benefit from setting up some types of routine for ourselves.
06:59 So one of the, uh, routine protocols that is pretty popular right now is called the miracle morning and the miracle morning was developed by Hal Elrod. Hal has a pretty interesting story. He, he was very young, 20 years old, got into a catastrophic car accident. Yeah. Died literally for six minutes and um, was brought back and told he would never walk again. Walked in like three weeks and that path or that incident sort of took him on a different path than he became a motivational speaker. And along the way wrote a book called the miracle morning. Uh, it’s been translated into 27 languages has over a, you know, has about 500,000 people that are practicing it at 70 different countries.
07:51 Hugely popular. And he’s gone on and again, increased that into more uh, miracle mornings. Very specific for different types of people. But I want to talk about his ideas behind the miracle morning because they actually really closely align with our five daily actions. Yeah. And so they are, the miracle morning is really, and people, you know, attribute kind of coming out of depression and really, again, whether it’s just the idea of having a morning routine or these specific steps of your morning routine, people are very, very get great results from doing this. So I definitely love everything that he has to say in the miracle morning. And you know, if you’re trying to set up a new morning routine, I can say, why not try this? This would be a good, yeah know it seems to be working for a lot of people.
08:43 The one thing we’re going to say really quick as a caveat is that, well, the whole thing about this is the idea is that you get up early and do it. So if you get up early, we knew how important sleep is, so that means you have to go to bed daily. So yeah, although he’s promoting a morning routine, actually bookends both sides of the day, because if you’re, if you’re having to get up early, then you have to take into account that you’re going to bed to bed a bit earlier as well. So right. Is having an evening routine to really, yeah. Yeah. It’s because we don’t want to make any less important. The notion of getting a good night’s sleep as, we have done lots of conversations and lots of research on the importance of sleep for preventing Alzheimer’s and dementia. So this is not telling you to shorten your sleep.
09:32 However, if you’re, you know, uh, one of the, you know, you talked about, or you told me a story about, uh, a college roommate who literally like was still snoozing the alarm at like midday, two o’clock in the afternoon. So you know. That’s excessive, that’s no snoozing. That it’s just being lazy and in bed. That’s not sleeping. So if you’re not, uh, using your day, you know, if you’re not feeling like you’re getting the most out of your life, out of your day and for sleep and half the day away, you might want to think about getting up, you know, an hour earlier. I think there’s more going on than right, right? Yeah. So as long as you’re getting seven and a half, eight hours of sleep at night, good to go. And then try to incorporate a morning routine and protect potentially one like this, the miracle morning.
10:18 So the miracle morning has a acronym at the beginning. It’s called savers, S, a, V, E, R, S. and this is the six things that he breaks out the morning routine into. And I like all of that. And I think they’re, you know, that we’ve talked about each and every one of these in different parts of our various podcasts that we’ve done.
10:38 So the very first one S is silence. And during your morning routine doesn’t have to be the first thing you do. But spend some time meditating, sitting down, deep breathing and being silent. I have been, I don’t know, one of those things that when meditation or well, meditation has been crossing my path. You know how something just like you keep hearing about it, hearing about it. Yeah. And then it’s everywhere. Yeah. And that’s happening to me right now. Which like I feel like a, I’m getting a universal signal that perhaps I should try to work on this.
11:15 Yeah. And I have to say it’s a hard thing for me. Meditation has an, and I, I’m sure I’m not alone in that and I have difficulty with the length like right. You’re doing it for any length of time. Right. And so, um, anyway, that’s a part of this miracle morning and I really do believe that, well, we just talked about it a couple of weeks ago on let go. The, the health benefits of meditation, they’re very real. It’s very good. And it can increase your longevity and definitely. Just take a deep breath now and You can already feel the benefit of it. But well, truth, right? Deep breathing. There’s, there’s a whole book, deep breathing that is very anyway, but the idea of being silent and really getting your, your thoughts to not be there and to slow down and to be, to give your brain a break in that respect. I think there’s a lot of value. So S is for silence. The first one.
12:13 The a is for affirmations and like most of us, like anything you want to look at your self talk and uh, you know, steer away from that negative stream of consciousness that a lot of us have just playing on in our head. A lot of worry, a lot of anxiety, a lot of just, you know, negative self-talk where you’re not necessarily, and I sometimes have struggled with affirmations, but I’m looking things up and we can probably, I’ll share a couple of these in our show notes because I thought they were really some, there was a couple that, there was an affirmation sheet I saw on business and I thought it for entrepreneurs and I thought, Oh that’s really, that’s a really good, you know, I could get behind saying those kinds of things. Like, and just, it doesn’t have to be like I’m the greatest of all time?
13:03 Or even just, you know, I am, you know, I love myself. Like I just don’t know. It just reminds me of the friend’s episode. You’re a strong, confident woman and so it just feels, it feels awkward to me. I’m going to, you know, I don’t think I’m alone. We’re not alone in that either. A little more woo woo than I’m typically used to. But there are actually really good positive affirmations out there that you can find that you can probably get yourself to. You can relate to them and that. So that’s the key, right? Finding something that works for you. So silence. Affirmations.
13:40 V is for visualization. So pro athletes do this. It’s important to rehearse mentally what you want your life to look like and what you want your results to look like. I’m sure Hannah, when she’s racing, has kind of a vision of what her, her race is going to look like. But even just the full arc, you know, of, you know, your training schedule and where you want to be at certain points and peaking at the right time and all the rest of it. And that’s, that’s just one factor of your life and you can, anybody could adapt that to any part of their life. Right? And well, I mean, and that’s the beauty of being human, right? We’ve got this, this prefrontal cortex, this executive function in our brain that allows us to think about the future and allows us to plan which is uniquely human. And um, you know, we should use it. So V is for visualization.
14:34 E is for exercise. So you, uh, you know, this is because obviously it’s one of those times that it’s often, uh, if you don’t do it in the morning, you’re going to put it to the side and it’s a great way to get your heart pumping, which helps get your brain moving and, but just kick starts your day. Does cardio is a great thing to do in the morning, I have to say. But for some people, the idea of exercising first thing in the morning is just hard. It’s a hard, you know, again, I think it’s more of a time thing. You know, the idea of if you’re doing like a half a workout or whatever, that just seems like a lot of time in the morning if you haven’t factored it into your schedule. So it’s the factoring it into your schedule part that’s quite challenging as well. And the time is, but I’ve got to tell you, sometimes I’m laying there and my alarm goes off and I start negotiating with myself. I can feel it, you know, like, Oh you can do it later. You can take your clothes to your work, you can do this. You know, I just like, cause I don’t wanna I just don’t want to get out of bed.
15:41 I don’t want to have to get moving. And maybe the notion of doing yoga might feel more doable. Like it’s calm, you know? And it was still good for you. Right? So just choose something that’s gonna work for you. Maybe going outside for a walk, you know, is a great way walking the dog and the first thing in the morning. So there’s different ways that you can do it, but exercising is a great, is part of the miracle morning and definitely something that I think is a great way to kick off your day.
16:12 So we’ve got silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, R is reading this is spend time reading like 10 page if you’re, if you know it will help you build a reading habit, which we’ve talked about in for learn is a great way to use your brain. And reading is just, uh, you know, that spending some time, especially if it’s a self-development book or other things that where someone else has succeeded in an area that of life that you’re trying to improve upon too. History, biography, read, things like that, they really, uh, again are great food for your brain, right? And a nice way to incorporate that habit into your life.
16:56 The next and last S is scribing. So we of course, uh, are fully on board with the idea of journaling. Yep, and writing it down. And you could incorporate a lot of what you’re writing here in terms of the miracle morning into your fight for life planner for sure. There’s an area for morning meditation, so great space and obviously planning out your day visualizing and you can write those things down on the schedule on the other side. Yeah. So, uh, he talks about, uh, writing it down in terms of what lessons learned and new commitments. So, and we know that people that write things down are 42% more likely to accomplish them. And so obviously incorporating, uh, journaling time into your morning routine is something that’s going to help you in a lot of different ways.
17:53 So that is what the miracle morning looks like by Howe L rod. It is silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and scribing. Now he says, you know, you don’t have to, his, his miracle morning is actually an hour long. He attributes 10 minutes to each of those things, at least, and that’s kind of what he, you know, his, he, he does, but well it doesn’t have to be a full hour, no, it doesn’t. And when you’re first starting out building any routine, um, we talk all the time about taking small incremental steps and then layering on your success each week. When I was starting out my, uh, this, this month of incorporating exercise back into my life, that first week I was literally 15 minutes. Yeah. I was just get out of bed, get on the treadmill for 15 minutes. My ultimate goal is to be doing two miles every day before I leave. Yeah. And I’m almost there. So week four, and I’ve got up to, and I’m, this week is time-based, so I’m 25 minutes, but next week we’ll be at the full.
19:02 So it’s uh, but so when you’re starting out, you don’t have to plan for an hour. You could literally, he says start with six minutes where you’re just doing one minute each. Yeah. So it might look like this. So you got one minute to sit in silence and breathe. That might be about as much as you and I could take of being silent. I quite like the silent to be honest. But it just, if you’re not used to it, a minute can be quite long. Right? Right. Yeah, you’re right. No, I like silence too, but I don’t like the, I don’t know that the not thinking during silences. Yeah. That’s the challenge.
19:41 Um, minute two would be to recite your affirmations. Again, a minute of affirmations feels like forever, especially if you’re not in the habit of doing it. Um, three, visualize the day you want it to be. That’s a really quick, you know, I mean that literally could take a minute and you could write that down on the left side of your planner while you were doing it. Just, you know, tick, tick, tick. Um, number four, uh, this would be the scribing, you can just simply note things that you are grateful for and maybe another, you know, goal for the day. Again, really easy to use your planner there. And minute five would be to read two pages. You don’t have to spend you this as literally we’re spending a minute in each of these spend, read two pages of some book that you’re interested in, and minute six do crunches or pushups or our favorite, a plank.
20:32 Yeah. Planking for a minute. I guarantee you. Yeah. You will feel that. Do that for 30 days and you will definitely have a. You’ll, you’ll definitely see the benefits that for sure. So that’s just a way you could again, incorporate this six, you know, the six steps of the miracle morning in a very quick way. Yeah. Short space of time. And then build on that, stretch it to two minutes, stretch it to three minutes and soon you’ll have a get, you know, affirmative Yeah, right.
21:01 Um, he talks about, and we loved this because it actually mirrors exactly what we’ve been doing in what I’ve been talking about in terms of the 30-day ultimate habit building system. Um, he says that if you’re trying the miracle morning, you should commit to 30 days. 30 days is a, it’s a time block that we’re all familiar with.
21:21 Yeah. It’s a really good timeframe in terms of establishing habits. There’s no, people have said, you know, 21 days, there’s been studies that have been 66 days. Basically what they’ve come down with is the idea that really is just all personal, but yeah, but there’s, there’s a lot of focus that in that 30 days. So yeah, because a month is, you know, we’re all pretty used to that time zone, so it’s a comfortable way to get into a habit and it actually does, you know, get things more firmed up.
21:49 So he says that basically there’s three phases within a 30-day period and uh, what it’s going to feel like kind of depends on the person and it depends on how hard it is to do. But here’s what it looks like if you’re going to try to incorporate a new routine into your life days one through 10 he calls that the unbearable phase. And it’s important to remember that that is a very temporary phase and I can definitely relate to that because the first 10 days when I was starting this new, you know, it’s just hard. It’s just hard when you’re, and I mean, like I said, I have to get up earlier because I’d have to go to bed earlier, I have to get up earlier and it’s, and then you have to do the thing, right. Especially if you’re trying to exercise first thing in the morning. It’s like, ah, but now that I’m doing it, we’re getting to the new, to the last base. We’ll get there. So the, remember that that first phase, the unbearable phase is temporary and just keep reminding yourself of that and push through.
22:49 Phase two, days 11 through 20 he calls the uncomfortable phase. So this is where it’s no longer just like, you know, you cannot believe it. You’ve come to terms with doing it, but it’s still not feeling. Yeah, it’s still not feeling like, Oh, okay. But you again, you just want to push through it and remind yourself that there’s the better stuff is coming because if you can get through the uncomfortable phase, that’s where the payoff comes. And days 21 through 30 he calls the unstoppable phase and that’s when the habit has really taken hold. The routine is getting set and you start to feel those positive side effects yeah. That are like, and you’re like, Oh, okay. You know what, this really does feel good. I actually feels better to do it than not do it. And then exactly. So, um, and I can definitely, I can definitely recommend that as far as what’s been going on for me personally this last month.
23:46 So last but not least, I’m just going to tell you these little things out, these four little ideas that are all about setting up routines and setting up habits and how, you know, to incorporate a morning routine into your life. So the first thing is that you’ve got to set your intentions and this talks a little bit, this is sort of like what you said about having an evening routine first, right? You’ve got to, you kind of get, uh, in the night before, you know, think about what you’re wanting to do. Get your plan going for the morning and really have the intention of what you want to do. And, uh, whether that’s, you know, it doesn’t have to be, like I said, it doesn’t, it, it, what I’m doing doesn’t have to be what you’re doing, but whatever it is, set yourself up with a plan. Yeah.
24:37 Swap out things that aren’t. Number two is swap out things that aren’t working. You know, if what you’re, if your breakfast that you’re eating leaves you feeling bloated and tired, you might want to swap that out or something else. Don’t force yourself to go for a run if you don’t feel like running, go for a brisk walk instead. And it’s like what we always say, you’re not going to do something if it’s something you absolutely don’t enjoy doing. Find something that works for you and that you enjoy. Right? And that goes for food, exercise, what your reading, all of it. Find something that is pleasant for you and then you’ll keep doing it. And yeah, because we know that the consistency is what’s important.
25:20 So number three is carry it forward. You know, as your day moves on and things start to get going, you know, going around you, remind yourself, carry your momentum that you’ve built going forward and really get your mindset to be like, okay, you know, this is good. I check in on your to do’s, your intentions and remind yourself, okay, I set myself up to have my best day. How is it? How’s that working for me? Yeah. So and lastly is just rinse and repeat because consistency is key as we know and you can’t have a habit if you’re not doing it consistently. And ultimately it’s the habits that we have that really determine what our life story is going to be.
26:05 So there you have it folks, go out and uh, hopefully get tomorrow, start tomorrow, get a morning routine going. Um, we highly encourage you to take a look at the miracle morning. We’ll link that in our show notes as well. And if it’s not the miracle morning, just set yourself up. The Five for life planner is a great tool for starting off in the morning. You know, we’ve got a spot for morning meditation. We’ve got a spot for recording your exercise routine. We’ve got a whole left hand side for planning out your days for your timed out days, evening reflection. Um, there’s a spot there for your, you know, little motivational quote for you to get, go feeling good in the morning and then a little tidbit to learn. Turns out it’s quite good. Turns out well we’re fans anyway, right? We like it.
26:55 All right, there you have it folks. Have a great week. We will see you next time. Thanks for listening to the live happier, longer podcast. Now it’s time to move, learn, share, give and let go. Five daily habits to make the rest of your life the best of your life. See you next week.
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