Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your Day Feeling Good
That’s it. No meditation required.
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What happens when you first wake up?
Do you grab your phone and start scrolling, only to be flooded with other people’s emotions? Or, given these challenging times, do you check the news? Do you groan because you have to get to work? Do you leap out of bed to make breakfast for the kids?
Or do you just hit the snooze button? Maybe twice?
My morning routine first developed out of necessity. And now I’m sticking to it.
If I jump out of bed immediately, I get nauseous. No idea why, but that’s just how I am. So I used to hit the snooze button.
Then I used to lie in bed and let my mind wander — which sometimes was pleasant, but more often than not turned to worry. This is hardly surprising given that our brain has a “negativity bias” where it continually scans for danger, according to Dr. Samuel Paul Veissière:
“Any cue that contains information about potential dangers and threats will jump to mind easily, will be easier to remember, and easier to pass on.”
Then I tried feeling good. And it makes all the difference for my morning routine and the rest of my day.
It also makes me a much calmer writer.
What Do You Mean by “Feeling Good”?
Easier said than done, right?
Let me be clear that by “feeling good,” I do not mean we should bypass or repress negative feelings, or that it is easy for a depressed person to simply “feel good” (see this recent Brooke Castillo podcast on feeling awful). What I mean is that we can consciously try to tap into this practice of feeling good as a gift to ourselves every morning. A gift that can have enormous rewards for your…
