If you wake up for three or this episode is great, we're back into morning ritual life. Earth science is spirituality. Welcome to roots of the rise. Meant to spark curiosity, help you root deeply, rise freely, and remember who you truly are. If you are anything like me, you are really interested in figuring out how to become the best version of yourself possible. So you read the books, you listen to the podcast, you watch the reels on Instagram from all these people out there who know so much about what can help you do that. And there is a ton of great advice about what you can and should be doing in order to set yourself up for success on all levels. And one of the things that many of these people across the board talk about is having some sort of morning ritual, a set of things they do to set themselves up for the day. I'm going to be honest, I don't have a morning ritual. I've often thought about it, especially as it pops up in my feed or on a podcast I'm listening to or in a book I'm reading. I think about how I, gosh, I really probably should have a set morning routine, but I've just never really gotten around to establishing one, not with any sort of real thought or intention behind it. It's really overwhelming. And if I'm being super honest, there's also been like a lot of resistance to it. There's a part of me that doesn't want to be disciplined, a part that wants to wake up slowly, scroll a little, you know, not try so hard. And I think that's important to name because sometimes we don't lack knowledge. In fact, I think often we kind of know what's in our best interest. We just have a hard time doing it. And that isn't a problem with discipline, that's a problem with integrating. So recently I've been getting nudged internally more and more to establish a set warning routine. And I think I'm finally ready to do it. But again, it's been really overwhelming because there is so much information out there. So I thought what I would do is a little bit of research and figure out, okay, what do all these highly respected sources in the be your best self world say about what you might want to include in a morning ritual? And since I'm doing the research for myself, I thought I would share it with you. So let's start with the why. I mean, how do you normally start your day? Do you wake up and groan? Do you roll over and think, ugh, I don't want to get out of bed? Do you reach for your phone? Do you stumble downstairs to immediately start the coffee and then doom scroll for a while? I mean, it's really easy to fall into these habits. I'm doing it too. The problem with it is that the first hour of your day isn't neutral. It's programming for your nervous system, your identity, your focus, and your biochemistry. So either you're doing the programming intentionally, or someone or something else is doing it for you. And here's the deeper layer: your nervous system wakes up looking for cues of safety or threat. If the first thing it meets is urgency, comparison, news, chaos, it registers that as baseline. If it meets calm, sunlight, breath, intention, well, that becomes baseline. Put simply, if your nervous system starts in urgency and chaos and stress, your whole day is filtered through urgency, chaos, and stress. Maybe it's the news you immediately begin watching or reading, the Instagram reels that are showing you all the ways you aren't measuring up, the snooze button you keep hitting because you're just too tired or not quite ready to face the day. But the science is real and undeniable. Dr. Andrew Huberman puts it plainly. He says the first hour programs your brain chemistry for the next 10 to 16 hours. And here's something to note: that better morning actually starts the night before. It's about your sleep timing, your phone boundaries at night, whether you go to bed overstimulated or grounded. All of that determines how hard your morning will be. The ritual doesn't begin when your alarm goes off, it begins with how you close your day. And that's what we're going to talk about next week. But for now, my point is that most of us aren't utilizing that first hour in a way that actually helps us. We have a ritual that gets in the way of us being our best selves. But man, is it hard to change that morning routine, especially if you've had it established for a long time. You know, Mel Robbins says motivation is a myth. Momentum is real. So where's your momentum? You know, small wins early in the day, build self-trust. Making the bed, saying your gratitude practice, moving your body, resisting the phone. These aren't just habits, they're signals to your subconscious about who you are. Tim Ferris would add that a structured morning reduces chaos. Journal before the internet gets to you. Clarify your priorities before the world assigns them. James Clear reminds us every action you take is a vote for the person you want to be. So this isn't just about building a routine, you're building an identity. Tony Robbins frames it simply too: state determines outcome. Your emotional state in the first 10 to 20 minutes of the day shapes every decision you make that day. Win the morning emotionally, and you've already set yourself up for a successful day. It makes me think a little bit about this uh anecdote about Steve Jobs. And I don't know if this is accurate or not, but I've heard it said that he looked himself in the mirror every morning for 33 years and asked one question. If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do? And whenever the answer was no, too many days in a row, he knew something had to change. Most of us never ask that question. We just react. Where it's like Groundhog Day, where that hamster in a wheel, the phone's in our hand before our feet hit the floor, we're already behind before the day is started, we're already stressed out from whatever the news cycle is spouting at us. A morning routine is an intentional autopilot. It's you choosing what you want to attend to instead of just drifting along. I mean, think about the difference between a morning you get up on time versus a morning you get up even 15 minutes late. How do you feel the rest of the morning? That difference between breathing easy as you have the time to make yourself breakfast and not worry about traffic, or getting they get to school late, you get to stroll into work, versus skipping breakfast, hitting all the traffic, because even five minutes makes a difference, screeching into car line, scrambling to make it to your desk on time, how does that set you up? How does the rest of your day feel? Like, unless you are well versed in the practice of chunking your day, viewing each part of your day as kind of a new beginning, which is something we can talk about some other time, likely that rushed morning kind of tainted your whole day. And if you're someone healing from trauma, dealing with anxiety, chronic stress, that taint isn't just emotional, it's physiological. It's the body staying in subtle fight or flight all day long. And we don't want to ignore the spiritual level either. You know, Tara Brock says the morning is when the mind is most impressionable, beginning with presence instead of urgency sets the tone. The Dalai Lama wakes up every morning and spends the first hours in meditation and compassion practice, not because he has the luxury of time, but because he understands that inner peace has to precede peaceful outer action. The morning rituals where you set yourself up for how you want to show up in the world. You hear it all the time. You cannot pour from an empty cup. Well, the morning is when you fill it. It's when you decide what you are filling it with. And here's something else. This isn't just about optimization. It's not about hacking yourself into productivity. This can be sacred, it can be gentle, it can feel like devotion to your own life. It can include things you love, reading, sitting quietly with coffee, stepping outside barefoot. This is being in right relationship with yourself, creating authentic alignment, not punishment. So that's the why. Now let's get into the what. When you look across all the experts, all the research, the same three layers keep showing up. You can think of them as three legs of a stool, remove one, and the whole thing isn't as stable. So you need, first of all, in no particular order, but you need a physical win. So that's walking, running, lifting, stretching, regulating your nervous system. Do something that says, I took care of my body today. You need a mental win, reading, writing, creating, learning, intention setting, small wins. Build momentum and the identity of who you want to be. Something that says, I acted in alignment with my best self today. And finally, you need a spiritual win. Praying, meditating, reflecting, rooting yourself in the heart. Something that says, I was present today. We're going to go over all three in more detail now, but keep in mind this is not an order of operations thing. It's about making sure you cover all three. So the first layer is physiological, regulating your biology. We are physical beings, my friends. We have to work with this body we've been given. So here are some of the ways you can do this. Sunlight within 30 to 60 minutes of waking, even on a cloudy day, get outside. This is really important to help with getting better sleep and regulating your circadian rhythm. Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Peter Atia, they go on and on about this. So does Mel Robbins, getting that sunlight in your eyes. Another thing you can do, hydrate water, water. Ideally with electrolytes. You know, your body is dehydrated after sleep. As part of this, delaying your caffeine for 60 to 90 minutes. Let's not further dehydrate the body right out of the gate. I mean, this one's simple. Just have a glass of water first thing. Another one, move your body. Walk, lift, stretch, whatever. The intensity matters less than the consistency. You know, movement early in the day, it floods the brain with dopamine. And I mean, that's your focus and drive fuel. So what if you're, as one of my clients puts it, a worm, you know, what if you're just laying there, moving as little as possible? You're not giving yourself that boost. Mel Robbins has a five-second rule. She wakes up, she counts down, and by the time she hits, you know, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, she's up and out of the bed. You got to get moving. The longer you lay, the more inertia you have. So another thing you can do is stay off your phone for the first 30 to 60 minutes. No social media, no news. Don't allow external input to shift your internal state in that first 30 to 60 minutes. Another thing you can do, breathing practice. Again, this is about keeping you or helping you be in that parasympathetic response to go from being reactive to responsive, reducing your heart rate, lowering your blood pressure. If you get up and you immediately turn on the news, I'm gonna bet that your blood pressure is gonna go up. So staying off the news and then implementing a breathing practice, uh, a good one to do is just extended exhale breathing. So, like four counts in and then six to eight counts out can be very powerful, even just for three minutes. You don't have to do it for a long time. And then this one isn't gonna be possible for many of us, but I have to give a quick shout out to cold exposure because Huberman, Robbins, Attia, they all talk about this. You get a huge dopamine spike and uh create stress resilience when you do cold exposure. Now, not many of us have like a uh um tub that we can get into, but even 30 seconds of cold water at the end of your shower can do this. Not super fun, but useful. Uh, my personal trick is that I imagine that I'm jumping into the lake that I used to swim in all the time as a kid, and that like refreshing feel of the water uh that helps me bear it. Okay, so uh so that's physiological. So then we also have the psychological. We want to build momentum and create the identity of who we want to be. And I really do think about this in terms of identity. It's about what are the practices that support the identity of who you want to be? So maybe you want to be someone who is organized. Well, you can create that feeling, that sense by making your bed, not leaving unless the counter is cleared off, like all the dishes are in the dishwasher, not hanging out in the sink. You know, small wins. What about if you want to be someone who is positive? You want more positivity in your life. Gratitude practice. I mean, I know it gets talked about a ton. Tony Robbins does it, Tim Ferris does it, the research on it is overwhelming. Gratitude primes the brain to scan for opportunity instead of threat. This is not some soft science woo-boo thing. It is a neurological hack. And there are ways to make your gratitude practice more effective. I have a whole bunch of podcast episodes on it. Um, you can just search for them uh in the in the podcast. What if you want to be confident? Uh Mel Robbins high-fives herself in the mirror every morning and has this sense of like, yeah, I can do it. So all of this, you know, is kind of building an identity. You can do visualization practices. You know, the brain doesn't strongly distinguish between imagined success from rehearsed experience. So you can have a visualization practice that sees you walking through your day as the person, as the type of person that you want to be. So, you know, that's how we prime ourselves to show up the way we want to. As my Mel Robbins would say, this is about momentum. So when we have rituals like this, it helps us overcome hesitancy and build self-trust. Lastly, there's the spiritual layer. And this is really about choosing your inner direction before outer demands rush in. You can frame it however fits your worldview. So meditation, prayer, intention setting, the form doesn't matter as much as the presence. So here are some practices, different ones that you can explore. Meditation. I mean, how much do we need to talk about meditation and emphasize how beneficial it is? You know, it reduces anxiety and reactivity, it connects us to our higher self, it opens us up to who we really are on the deepest or highest levels. The quality of your consciousness is what shapes the quality of your life. There are many different types of meditation, not all of them are created the same. That's a topic for another time, but all of them are worth exploring. Another thing you can do is intention setting. And this isn't about what you want to accomplish. That would be more in the psychological sphere. It's about where you want your motivation to come from, you know, before you engage with the world. How do you want to show up? Write it, say it, feel it. Journaling practices. Uh, I did a podcast on episode on this. Oh gosh, it was way at the beginning. I think it's episode seven or eight, about different journaling practices. So that might be something you want to implement. A lot of people do it. And then lastly, uh, you might want to implement some energy protection, some boundary setting, especially if you're someone who finds that you have a hard time with boundaries. Setting a moment, setting a space and time in the beginning of the day to kind of establish those boundaries can be very powerful. And I'll I'll talk more about this in a second. But before I do, it's important to recognize that these three layers, they aren't separate. They're all saying the same thing in different languages. Be intentional before you're reactive. When we talk about protecting dopamine and staying off the phone, that's nervous system training. Every morning you choose calm over chaos, you are teaching your body that safety is available, that you are in charge of your energy. And that matters, especially if you're sensitive, empathic, easily overstimulated. You're not weak. You just need boundaries around your inputs. And that's where energy protection comes in. I have a practice that I'm very consistent about in working one-on-one with people or before I go into large crowds, where I say to myself, Shields up. And I, this isn't about fear, it's about sovereignty. It's about remembering that not every emotion in the grocery store belongs to you, not every mood in the office is yours to carry, not every client's baggage is yours to pick up. You know, the morning is when you decide what and who gets access to you. The full practice that I do is part of the boundaries episode. And members, if you go back and you look in the app, there's a guided meditation to walk you through my actual practice of creating that energetic bubble that now when I say shields up, it's automatically there. So if you are interested in what all these experts that I've been referencing actually do, members can find a cheat sheet in the app. For the rest of you, there's a really simple pattern, which is simply protect the first hour from external input, regulate the nervous system before engaging the world, and anchor your identity through small intentional acts. All of these guys, they're not doing the same ritual, but they are doing a ritual. That's the point. And here's something else important. None of them require perfection. These people have missed days. They've been traveling sick days, late nights. The ritual isn't about streaks. It isn't about perfection. It's about returning. If you miss it, you don't shame yourself. You just begin to get to the next morning. If you cannot complete all the steps in the morning ritual that you've kind of created for yourself, that's okay. You do what you can and you offer yourself grace. This is practice, not performance. This is asking presence of you, not perfection. You just need something, at least one intentional act before the world gets to you. Because ultimately, this isn't about mornings. It's about who you are becoming. When you protect your morning, you're telling yourself, my energy matters, my mind matters, my spirit matters, I matter. Because you do. Thanks so much for listening. If someone came to mind as you heard this episode, share it with them. That's how we grow this community of healing and rise together. In this episode, I mentioned materials for members. If you're curious about what that means, I offer a membership that includes show notes, reflective prompts, guided meditations, and other resources to help you integrate the episode on a deeper, more embodied level. You can learn more by going to risingwithsarah.com or through the links in the show notes. That's all for today. I hope you have a wonderful week. And remember, know who you are, love who you've been, and be willing to do the work to become who you are meant to be. Just a quick reminder this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist, and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist, or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal, and seek the support you need to thrive.