9 Morning Habits To Start Your Day Right

Make the mornings your best friend with these tips – thank us later!

We’ve all had mornings where we struggle to throw off the duvet and yearn for a few more hours of rest. But most of us will be slaves to the alarm, at least from Monday to Friday. So how can you start the day with a little more va-va-voom?

Let There Be Light

When eyes are exposed to daylight this stimulates a nerve pathway from the retina in the eye to the hypothalamus in the brain. This sends signals to areas of the brain that control hormones and body temperature and we start to release “fight or flight” hormones like cortisol. This wakes us up.

Wake up and smell the roses

Literally! Keep a vase of fresh flowers in your bedroom. A research by Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that mood improves and anxiety levels fall when we see a bunch of flowers.

“The morning blahs is a real phenomenon, with positive moods – happiness, friendliness, and warmth, for example – manifesting much later in the day,” says Dr Nancy Etcoff. “Interestingly, when we placed a bouquet of flowers into their morning routines, people perked up.”

Don’t be alarmed

Get rid of that loud, jarring alarm clock and wake to the sound of chimes or ocean waves. Blaring alarms jolt us too quickly from a state of sleep inertia, that first groggy, semi awake stage. Dr Hans Van Dongen, a US sleep expert, says a jarring alarm forces us to wake up before we’re totally ready.

Ramp up your smile

When you smile your body gets a jolt of energy – enough to shake you out of that sleepy state.

So give your smile muscles a quick workout at the start of the day, says Dr Clifford Kuhn, also known as the Laugh Doctor.