Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” -Anonymous
The road to recovery from mental health and substance abuse issues starts anew every day. Every sunrise brings a renewal of your strength, skills, hope and courage to successfully work towards maintaining emotional and mental stability. Here are some quick tips to start your day off right:
- Open the window: Heavy curtains and a pitch-black room are a nice sleep stimulant, but can hinder our will to get up in the morning. Sleeping with an open window helps to replenish fresh oxygen in the air and help us feel more refreshed when we wake. Before you go to bed, open your window and crack the curtains; waking up to a fresh breeze, chirping birds, and some rays of sun on our face is a much more pleasant way to start the day.
- Stretch: A big, indulging stretch can be just what you need to get your day off right! This gets the blood circulating and improves our oxygen intake.
- Shower: A blast of cold water in your face is sure to wake you up, so imagine how invigorated you will feel after a cool morning shower. If you don’t want to wash, blow dry and style your hair every morning use a shower cap. A morning rinse leaves us refreshed, confident, and happy as we get our day started.
- Prepare the night before: Hair, makeup and the perfect outfit can make mornings much more difficult when you’re a woman. To avoid the stress and the mess of hurrying to figure out what to wear, lay your clothes out the night before. Doing so will instantly reduce your morning routine by at least 10 minutes. Try preparing your lunch the night before as another strategy to minimize morning stress. By reducing the time we spend on the actual act of getting ready, we can spend more time taking in the morning peacefulness.
The start of the day is inevitable and unavoidable; therefore, embracing it is the foundation of building a fulfilling, healthy existence. Mornings should leave you feeling refreshed and focused as you begin the first day of the rest of your life.
