Sleeping Rituals and Morning Rituals for a power-packed running in the morning

We all want to be legends in our lives.  I can tell you here how you can be a legend in your mornings. 

Getting up in the morning and going for a run is the most awaited opportunity for me every day.  I want to get up and go running.  You see, running is a kind of love for me.  The more I run, the more I get to love myself. 

But, for a busy middle-aged banker, it may sound like a daunting task.  These days, we all are so busy that we don’t have sufficient time for exercising or running. Business is the best excuse that we have invented for ourselves. However, when you are in love with your running and fitness regime, you can become stronger than your excuses.

In this post, I am sharing with you a total of 10 rituals that would help you grow stronger than your excuses.

5 Morning Rituals & 5 Evening Rituals

First goes the Evening Rituals:  This is my finding that we are trying to fix our early morning rise without first fixing our evenings.  I mean the time before you go to bed decides your wake up time in the morning. We are awake till late hours of the night and then force ourselves to wake up by putting an alarm clock by the bedside.  I am sure for such souls, 90% of times; they land on the Snooze button more than on their feet on the ground!

So, why does this happen? 

The most common cause of these mishaps is lack of correlation and coordination between your before bedtime and after bedtime.  Our Evening is what would determine our success rate of getting up at a pre-designated time in the morning. So, setting up your Evening Rituals holds the key.

Now, let us see how we can do that:

1. Keep your sleep time fixed:

Having a fixed time to go to bed is a great thing to do.  When you go to bed on time, your circadian rhythm will be in tune with your body.  By doing that, you will be respecting your body’s biological cycles.  Like, digestion, repairing of cells, etc.  Imagine like you have a vehicle that is going to the garage for service and repair.  Our body needs to go under repair and service on a daily basis.  That’s when we sleep and the god comes with its tools to do the servicing.

Therefore, sleep on time.  It will give your body a cycle to follow and you will cultivate a healthy habit of having a sound sleep.

2. Sleep for 7 hours:

Studies have suggested that sleeping for an average of 7 hours every day keeps our body fit.  This is the optimum number of hours your body needs to be serviced properly -everyday.  If you are not doing so, you are depriving yourself a wonderful opportunity to benefit by a simple natural process. 

3.Get your Running gear in order before hitting the bed:

I am sure you don’t want to be looking for a pair of socks under the bed in the early morning hours.  The early morning hours are for the victors to go out and conquer their world – to build their inner kingdom.

4. Eat Light:

Eating heavy in the Evening could be a disaster for your overall health.  But, here we are just concerned with saying that if you eat heavy, your body will not move so swiftly to get you out of the bed easily.  You will act more like a sloth.  So, even though, you may open your eyes, you would still be rolling under you bed from left to right.

So, have beggar’s meals in the evening.  You don’t need a energy booster for going to bed.  Do you?

5. Get off from your Mobile:

Cell phones are the instruments of change an revolution.  They are double-edged swords.  When used wisely, they will help.  So, the wisest thing to do in the evening is switch off your phone or mute it at least half an hour before going to bed.  Avoid chatting on the messenger of WhatsApp before going to bed.  Make it a ritual to renounce your phone at least half an hour early.

Now Morning Rituals:

1.  Rise

Waking up in the morning at a scheduled time is like winning your first battle – The battle of the bed.  You might want to take the help of an alarm clock.  But, as you start to maintain discipline in your wake-up timings, you let your Circadian Rhythm work well.  And as your Circadian Rhythm gets better and better, your dependability on an alarm clock will reduce. 

I am able to get up at 5 am these days.  On those days I don’t get enough sleep; my body alarm clock still goes off at 5 am in the morning.  But, I feel miserable throughout the day for lack of proper sleep.  This is how powerful our Circadian Rhythm is.  So, you will immensely benefit if you keep a wake-up schedule for your early morning rise.

2. Finish your Morning Ablutions:

It is not a good idea to move out of the house immediately on getting up.  You can take some time to finish your morning ablutions.    Make your bed.  It will give you the feeling of having the first task finished. 

3. Drinking a glass of lukewarm water :

When I get up early in the morning, I feed myself with the wonder nutrition:  Water.  I drink plenty of water.  I consume lukewarm water. The lukewarm water goes to your intestines and makes them ready for the excretions.  This way it helps the body to get rid of the water first thing in the morning.  You feel a lot lighter now.      

4. Eat Something before going for a Run:

You can eat something that can give you instant energy.  I eat 2 bananas.  They produce instant energy.   Eating will energize and provide immediate fuel to the body.

5. Provide some nutrition to your mind

I write my blog posts early in the morning.  I do it before going for a run.  When I am not writing posts for this blog, I enjoy reading a book or watching a video.  I even sometimes just browse through google to find inspirational quotes.

I mean feed your mind with positivity first thing in the morning.    This will make your running more inspirational and push you beyond the boundaries that you have set for yourself.