Your 10 Step Guide to Starting Every Day In a Grateful State of Mind

Getting Up Grateful

For the past six months, I have started a morning routine, and I call it “getting up grateful.” Why did I choose to call it that? Because I think, gratefulness is the key to living a happy, healthy life. “You can’t be grateful and angry simultaneously” – Tony Robbins.

I think that is the case with any negative emotions we have. Now that’s not to say we won’t experience negative emotions at all, but when we look at the world through the lens of a grateful heart, the negative emotions don’t linger for long.

When I start my day in a grateful state of mind, it aligns my heart with my head. It brings a sense of joy, peace, and fulfillment that I have never experienced before. In my opinion living with a grateful heart is the secret to creating the life you want, a life you love, and a life full of happiness.

Is “getting up grateful” something I can do? Of course, it is! I’m going to share my “getting up grateful” morning routine with you.

1. Set yourself up for success the night Get your planner, or notepad out and have your pen handy. Have your checklist out and ready to go. I have found that when I have my things organized the night before, I wake up and start my morning routine immediately, and it saves me time! It also helps think about my morning right before bed and feel excited about what I’m going to do when I wake up.
   
   
2. Set your alarm for an hour earlier (insert concerned emoji). I choose to dedicate an hour to my morning routine, and you can decide what amount of time works for you. If you simply don’t think an hour will work then try 30 minutes at first. In Hal Elrod’s book, The Miracle Morning, he even discussed the power of a 10 minute morning routine.

   The point is, waking up early can be challenging if you aren’t used to it. However, I encourage you to be willing to try something different to better your life. That was the biggest wake-up call for me. I kept saying I wanted my life to be one way but wasn’t doing anything different. The moment we have that shift in our thinking (willing to do something different), is the first step in creating the life we want.
   
   

3. Drink a full glass of water first thing in the morning. I make it easy on myself and pour a
   glass of water the night before and have it on my nightstand. I prefer room temperature water anyways. I do like to add lemon to my water as well. There are a lot of health benefits to drinking lemon water. I’m convinced it has cured my acid reflux! I also make my bed as soon as I get up, it’s less tempting to go back to bed once it’s made!
   
   
4. Get some coffee and head to a quiet space. If you aren’t a coffee drinker, then maybe some tea? I go back and forth on the two depending on what I’m in the mood for!
   
   
5. Silence – use this time for reflection, meditation, prayer, or just a time to connect with yourself. I personally start this time with a Bible lesson from the first 5 app. The “halfway” me used to read these lessons after work every day and to be honest, my mind just wasn’t right to fully comprehend what I was reading. I guess its call the FIRST 5 for a reason, ha! After that, I spend some time in prayer. There are a lot of apps you can use for guided meditation, two of my favorites are: Simply being and Head Space.
    
6. Grateful State of mind –  If you take anything away from this post I encourage you to check out this exercise here. It is an auto clip of Tim Ferriss’s interview with Tony Robbins. Tim Ferriss had so many requests for this clip that he edited the podcast with just this section. It is 12 minutes total and the part with Tony start at the 3:40 mark. In this interview, Tony talks about how filling yourself with gratitude aligns your heart and head and can get you into what he calls, a beautiful state of mind.

   I love this exercise! In this specific example, he uses the beautiful state of mind to solve a problem. I use the technique to simply get myself into a beautiful state, and I do this every morning. Now that I’m familiar with what he says to do, I will listen to meditation music and go through this process. It takes about 5 minutes, and the results are compelling. I have found that it is the foundation to how I start my day. If I start it with my head aligned with my heart in a beautiful state, I approach everything different. It gives me an overwhelming sense of peace and calm. 

7. Reading/journaling – You can use this time to read a chapter or two in a book, an inspirational blog post, listen to a clip of a podcast, etc. After that, I like to write down any thoughts that inspire me from my morning or just any thoughts in general. (By the way, the idea for my blog came from this part right here!). It’s amazing what we are capable of creating when we set aside time to feel and understand our thoughts.

    

8. Exercise – Use this time to get your blood flowing. It can be so hard to muster up the energy after a long day at work, or a crazy day chasing your kids around to make time to exercise. Why not tackle it first thing in the morning? I promise if you struggle with finding time to workout, this is your answer. I think we sometimes underestimate the power of a good 20-minute workout.

   At this point in my life, I choose to do some yoga/cardio exercises in the morning to stretch and get my blood flowing. For my full workouts, I will often go to my barre classes in the evening depending on my work schedule.

   If I find my week filling up, then I will do my full workouts in the morning. The most important thing here, do what works for you! I don’t have kids, so it’s easier for me to make it to classes. When I do have babies one day, my routines may change. What matters is that we understand the importance and benefit we get from exercising. 

9. Affirmations – I’m not going to lie, this was a weird for me at first. Talking to myself out loud proclaiming my potential, kinda strange, huh? Just give it a chance. You don’t have to shout or do anything weird, I promise. It’s amazing the effect that affirmations have! They have totally transformed my negative thoughts toward myself.

   For example, for the longest time, I had convinced myself that I wasn’t smart enough to create a business or blog. After a few weeks of telling myself I was smart and that I could create a beautiful blog.. well here we are :). 

10. End with a well-deserved healthy breakfast – I love nourishing my body with healthy foods. After all that work we just did on getting our minds to a great state, we need some good fuel to keep it going. Please, please, please, I beg, don’t skip on breakfast. There are so many simple options for a quick, healthy breakfast. I will share my easy suggestions in following posts! My absolute favorite breakfast is a smoothie bowl!
    

Now go out and tackle your day! Become the person you need to be to create the life you desire. Find happiness in small things, believe in yourself, and kick fear to the curb.

You are worth the time and effort to be the best version of yourself. Life is a gift, and we all have greatness inside just waiting to come out. My morning routine “getting up grateful” has changed the way I approach my life. It was a small step, and it’s as already lead to significant results!

 

Take one small step today,

 

Xo-Jenna