One of the things I hear very commonly is people saying “I just want to wake up feeling fresh and jump out of bed every day.”
I have no idea how many people really jump out of bed every morning feeling wonderful. I suspect most people need a little preparation for the day to feel really good. But there’s a huge difference between dragging yourself out of bed, needing several coffees before you feel alive and getting out of bed and feeling fully awake within a minute.
Personally I have never really felt like jumping out of bed in the morning, even when I was a lot younger, but I can easily get out of bed and be ready for anything 2 minutes later.
So I’m going to cheat a bit. Most of these suggestions are things to do if you don’t wake up feeling totally fresh – but they will help.
- Make sure you’re getting enough sleep.
It sounds obvious, but many people don’t do it. I read an article recently about the difference between millionaires and billionaires. It said that millionnaires sleep for 5 to 6 hours per night (and are proud of the fact), while billionaires sleep 7 to 8 hours. I don’t know if this is true, but it makes a point. It’s hard to wake up naturally sparkling if you’re simply tired and overworked. - Aim for consistency
It helps a lot if you can go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Weekend lie-ins are a disastrous habit if you want to feel fresh. First of all it gives you the underlying feeling that you always need extra sleep. And then you have to get back into the habit of waking up earlier again during the week. I wish my mother had prevented me from lying in as a teenager during the school holidays. It would have been much better for me. - Get up.
If you don’t like getting up in the morning you probably need to “just do it.” Throughout the night you are cleaning out and releasing the energy of the previous day. Effectively you wake up in a pool of your old energy. This never feels great. The minute you get moving you feel more alive. If it’s hard the best way I found is to make a commitment to get out of bed the minute the alarm goes off – no excuses. But you need to stick to it. - Move
One of the reasons we don’t feel fresh is because our energy has slowed down. We’re not moving all night and so the energy doesn’t circulate as fast. When you exercise it speeds up again. The Chinese traditionally recommended exercising first thing in the morning, both to refresh the lungs and to get the energy moving. I exercise every morning and it makes such a difference to the day. Most people who do it will say the same thing. And one of the things I love about it is that I feel I’m giving something to myself first thing in the morning. - Connect with fresh energy
If you have an understanding of energy it will make sense that we feel fresh when we connect with fresh energy. When we connect with, or think about, old energy (old ideas, past stories, things that happened yesterday and before) we feel less fresh than when we connect with new energy (new ideas, the bright future, our vision etc). I take some time every morning to connect with the fresh energy of the day by practising Energy Relaxation. It feels wonderful, gives you energy all day and is a really fast way to feel positive and alive. It gets better the more you do it too. A daily meditation practice will also help.
If you want to try Energy Relaxation for yourself here’s a course to get you started.
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