Early bird gets the sun: waking up earlier

There's something so magical about rising with the sun, to see the world slowly light up. The quiet hours of the morning are so peaceful and full of possibility.

We can have uninterrupted quality time to ourselves before the world wakes up and inundates us with emails, texts and various notifications.

My personal early morning rising journey started in my first year of university - I would wake up at 5AM and go to the campus gym to play squash (i.e. hitting the ball by myself again the wall), do my laundry and journal.

However, through the years, I have cycled anywhere from waking up at 5 to just before a 9AM work call, but I always feel my best when I've had time to myself in the morning.

If you want to start to wake up earlier and seize the day, this post is for you.

I've put together a list of my top tips on how to wake up earlier (whatever time this might be for you!)

Have a plan

There's nothing worse than waking up early, realizing you don't have anything to do and then just falling asleep again. I make a to-do list every night before I sleep to remind myself of the key tasks I want to accomplish the next morning so that I wake up with a purpose.

Another helpful tip if you're trying to work out in the morning is to set out your gym clothes the night before. When you wake up and see them, it'll kickstart the intention that you set the night before.

If you still really don't know what you want to do in the morning, think about all the times you said, "Oh, I don't have time for this" —> What are these things? Do these in the morning, make time for yourself and your hobbies.

My gym clothes laid out on my desk the night before!

Prepare the night before

Having a proper night time routine is one of my secrets to success and it's why I'm able to fall asleep so deeply and wake up naturally before my alarm.

Getting into the zone and starting to wind down earlier in the night can really help. If you know you want to wake up earlier the next morning, limit your caffeine, don't be in-front of screens and coax your mind and body into a state of relaxation.

Be gentle

In this post, I highlighted the importance of getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night. That being said, don't shock your body by waking up at 5AM when you've slept at 1AM. You'll just end up feeling super groggy and tired for the rest of the day.

Instead, I would recommend slowly bringing your body into a routine where you try and sleep 15 minutes earlier, and wake up 15 minutes earlier. By these small 15 minute increments, you can achieve your desired wake up time!

Affirmations

I stumbled upon affirmations around 2 years ago and they've made such an impact on my life. We speak to ourselves in our heads more than anyone else, so I do my best at making it a positive dialogue.

There are two affirmations which I love to start the day off with:

"Today, I am brimming with energy, overflowing with joy and gratitude for this life." This one is a daily reminder on my Google calendar.

"Today is going to be the best day ever" This is what I write at the beginning of my morning pages!

Now even if we don't feel this way, saying them outloud (or in our heads) can shift our mood slightly in the right direction.

Saying affirmations can solidify your purpose as well as create meaning in waking up early and getting things done.

Alarm sound

Building on the point about being gentle, I found that a loud, blaring alarm would jolt me out of bed - and not in a good way. Our body has been resting for 7-8 hours and the last thing we want to do is send it into a state of panic.

I now use a more uplifting and happy tune and I never thought an alarm tone could make such a difference! It starts off quiet and slowly builds up which means that it usually integrates with my dreams and slowly wakes me up.

Waking up to your favourite song is also an option but beware - that might not be your favourite song for long! 😜

Alarm placement

There are some mornings where my alarm rings, I get my phone, turn off the alarm and tell myself, "I'm just going to close my eyes for 2 more seconds" and the next thing I know, it's been 90 minutes.

I've also noticed that these events happen when my phone is on my bedside table making it easy to grab and dismiss the alarm without even processing what's happening.

To avoid this, I plug in my phone to charge (on airplane mode of course!) quite far from my bed so that I have to physically get up to retrieve it. The small action of getting up and walking is usually enough to jar myself and feel more awake.

Concluding thoughts

Waking up early, especially with quarantine, has given me four (4!!) extra hours per day to get things done before work even starts. That's crazy, but it's also why I'm able to be so consistent on my blog and posting on my Instagram as well as go on walks and journal.

Initially it is tough and like I said, there are days where I sleep in too, and that's okay as well. I just know that on the days when I make time for myself first, those are usually amazing days.

So try it out, and if it's not for you, at least you know 🙂

Sending you lots of light, love and good vibes as always!!

-Reina xo