How do you wake up in the morning and stop feeling tired all the time? What can you do to power-up your morning rituals and routines to help give you more of an energy boost? (and no, you don't need jugs of coffee for this). This video will show you how to stop waking up tired with simple ways of powering up your morning rituals.

No time to watch this 11-minute video? Read the transcript below!

LINKS IN VIDEO:

○ Download the workbook - Go From exhausted to energised: http://enlightenedspoon.com/download
○ Phillips Wake Up Light: https://geni.us/dFaRs
○ How to get out of a rut - why motivation will fail you: https://youtu.be/RoBRg2yh4hk
○ Create healthy habits that stick: https://youtu.be/Y7BXjQ5xkUo
○ Is coffee good or bad?: https://youtu.be/vBF7H6eOA1c
○ 5 best sleeping tips: https://youtu.be/WTtOM4MMh9o
○ Bedtime yoga to wind-down for sleep: https://youtu.be/_TBY9N89Zd4

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Intro
01:08 - Are You Waking Up Tired All the Time?
02:09 - Get a Good Night’s Sleep
02:53 - Wake Up at the End of Sleep Cycle
04:37 - Don’t Snooze
06:06 - Hydration
07:54 - Light Exposure
08:44 - Gentle Exercise
09:38 - What's Next?
10:04 - Summary
10:24 - Workbook to Help You

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○ Manduka PRO vs. PROlite vs. eKO Superlite Yoga Mats: https://youtu.be/BagD_ayAhbY
○ Manduka eQua Yoga Mat Towel Review: https://youtu.be/KZ4xlLZQBnY

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, and welcome back to my channel.

This video will give you 6 tips on how to power-up your morning rituals, so that you stop waking up tired and set the right tone to win the rest of your day.

Who Am I?

If we haven’t met yet, Hi! I’m Jaime Tan at Enlightened Spoon. On this channel you’ll get nutrition, fitness and lifestyle tips just like today’s, and other times you’ll get yoga and meditation videos to help bring some calm into your busy life … all tools to help you stress less, yet accomplish more. So hit that Like button and consider subscribing if you want more like this.

If you feel like you need more motivation to keep you going, you might like this previous video on why if you’re relying on motivation alone - you’re setting yourself up for failure. There are 2 other important factors you need to also take into consideration. Watch that video to find out what.

Or you might also like this deeper dive into my 6 tips on how to create healthy habits and stick to them… really getting into the systems and processes to have in place to keep you sticking to the new healthy habits you want to create.

Are You Always Waking Up Tired?

Now… Are you constantly waking up tired, and feel like unless you’ve got a jolt of coffee through you, your brain just doesn’t seem to wake up? Maybe sometimes even that shot of espresso doesn’t seem to clear that brain fog and you’ve gotta double-down on the coffee? That’s probably not such a great idea first thing in the morning and this previous video will explain why.

Waking up tired, with brain fog hanging over you the first few hours of your day doesn’t have to be your daily “normal”. In fact, many people just assume that this is normal when it’s actually not. How you get yourself out of bed in the morning can really help - and no, you don’t need to be doing a thousand things before 5am everyday, like most productivity gurus will tell you.

6 Morning Rituals to Get Out of Bed with MORE ENERGY!

Here are my 6 tips on the best morning rituals to get you going every morning so that you’re not dragging your bum around like a zombie the first couple hours of the day.

1. Get a Good Night’s Sleep

This seems obvious but we can’t really talk about waking up energised without talking about how you’ve been sleeping. There’s so much to get into this juicy topic and since this is a video on morning rituals not sleep - I’ll have a series on sleep coming up soon, so we’ll dive deeper then, be sure to hit that subscribe button to follow my channel if you need those tips on sleep.

In the meantime, you can watch this previous video on my 5 best sleeping tips and this video for some bedtime yoga to get a better night’s sleep.

But basically - to wake up not tired - you need good quality and quantity of sleep.

2. Wake Up At the End of a Sleep Cycle

Beyond the quality and quantity of sleep you’re getting, when in your sleep cycle you’re waking up is just as important. We cycle through 5 stages of sleep a few times a night roughly 1.5 hours at each cycle. Waking up at the end of a cycle, when sleep is lightest, may be best to help you wake feeling more rested and ready to start your day.

If you’re waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle - that usually tends to be when you’re feeling really heavy, groggy and out of it.

But how do you actually wake up at the end of a sleep cycle? One of the best ways is to use something like the Phillips Wake Up Light Alarm

How it works is you set the latest time you definitely need to wake up by, but 20 minutes before then, this clever alarm which is also a bedside lamp, starts to simulate the sunrise - glowing slowly like a red ball, then increasing in light intensity to its brightest setting and finally at the latest time that you’ve got to wake up by, the alarm of birds chirping or jungle sounds come on. It’s a nifty little gadget, and I love it especially in the winters when it’s dark till at least 9am here in Amsterdam.

It’s a gradual process of waking up, and usually if you’re in your lightest cycle of sleep - the increasing light and gentle sounds are enough to wake you up. Sometimes this might mean waking up 15 minutes before the alarm actually sounds, and if this happens, this leads to my next point:

3. Don’t Snooze

Whether or not you have a smart alarm like the Phillips Wake Up Light, when your alarm goes off - don’t go back to sleep and snooze, since this means you’ll start to fall into stages 1 or 2 of sleep again and when the snooze alarm goes off again in 5 or 8 minutes, you’ll be waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle, causing that heavy, groggy, tiredness.

Rather than jumping out of bed immediately, or reaching for your phone - you might want to take a couple of minutes to slowly stretch out, or as your mind starts getting active, perhaps take a moment to pause and be, collect your breath and become the observer of the unseen within you.

Use that time to set an intention for that day, or think of one thing you’re grateful for in your life. This simple act ranging from a few seconds to not even a couple of minutes already sets an intentional tone for the rest of your day.

There’s so much hype about morning routines and getting more and more done before you start your day… that sometimes it’s the smallest simplest moments that can make such a difference. What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. And if you’re getting value out of what I’m sharing so far, I’d appreciate if you’d hit that Like button and consider subscribing for more videos like this in my morning rituals series.

OK 3 tips down, 3 more to go. Are you ready? Let’s continue.

4. Hydration

When you’ve been sleeping, ideally somewhere between 6 - 8 hours at night, your body’s gone without water for the entire time. And you would’ve still been losing water through the night through your breath and skin so you’re going to wake up dehydrated. If your usual routine is to chug a coffee instead of water first thing in the morning - you are dehydrating yourself even more, since coffee is a diuretic - it takes water away from your system.

The first thing to do when you get out of bed - maybe after you go to the bathroom - is to drink a huge glass of water. It’s up to you if you want it to have lemon or ginger or if it’s warm, cold or room temperature - according to Chinese medicine and Indian Ayurveda, warm water is less of a shock to the body than cold water - but as long as you’re drinking a giant glass of water I don’t care if it’s warm/ cold or room temperature, I’d say at least a half litre or 500 ml or 17 ounces of water to rehydrate first thing in the morning. At least.

The other good thing about drinking this much water first thing in the morning - is it flushes through your digestive system, waking it up, and also moving things around especially in the lower bowel area. For those of you who don’t have a regular #2 - and I mean doing a #2 in the bathroom at least 1 - 2x a day - if that’s not happening for you, drinking a giant glass of water first thing in the morning is what you need to be doing to wake your bowels up and flush things out.

5. Light Exposure

Exposure to light basically resets your circadian rhythm - your natural sleep-and-wake cycle. Melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleepy is only produced in the dark. So light exposure reduces melatonin production in the brain immediately, which helps to wake you up.

This is why it’s so difficult to get out of bed in the middle of winter when it’s still dark outside. The darkness keeps melatonin high in the brain, keeping you in a sleepy state. To wake yourself up, open the curtains. If it’s still dark outside, turn the lights on. This helps to shift the brain from a sleepy state to a wake-up state. That’s also another reason why that Phillips Wake Up Light is such a good idea, especially in the winter. It wakes you up with light.

6. Gentle Exercise

We could talk about the positive effects of morning exercise on building muscle faster, boosting your metabolism helping you burn more calories for the rest of your day… and while that’s all true, I’m not talking about starting your day with a mega high intensity workout especially if that’s not your jam.

However, if you’re waking up tired and sluggish, some gentle activity can help to wake up the brain and body, mobilising your joints, activating your muscles and raising your body temperature and heart rate.

Some examples are a 10 to 20-minute walk - so if you’ve got a dog, you’re already doing this when you’re taking it out for its morning walk. Go you.

You can also do some gentle stretches in bed, or as you’re getting out of bed, as your way to very gently wake the body up.

What’s Next?

Stay tuned for my next video where I’ve got a wake-up stretch yoga for you that you can do in bed, as a way to get some gentle movement into your body to wake yourself up as get yourself out of bed.

I’m also planning an easy morning yoga flow for once you’re out of bed and ready for a little bit more breath and movement to start your day. So hit that Like button and subscribe to this channel so you don’t miss those videos.

Download the Workbook to Create More Rest:

If you wanna take this further with being more intentional about creating the mind, body, soul moments that can help bring more rest and calm into your busy day I’ve got a 9-page workbook you can download which will help you prioritise the things that energise you rather than the things that exhaust and drain you further.

It’ll take you through the practical steps of prioritising what’s important and how to schedule them to make it happen throughout your day no matter how busy you get. It’s the same steps I take all of my wellness coaching clients through too… so download it now and start putting the right systems in place to help you get your energy back!

Download the Workbook Here!