Elegant Mornings

How do you start your day? 

What are the things that typically take up space in your mind when you wake up in the morning?

For many women, mornings are filled with chaos, hurry, worry, and stress. We wake up worrying about all we have to accomplish that day, the things we forgot to take care of yesterday, and, very often, a feeling of overwhelm. 

Sometimes, we feel defeated before we even get started, wishing we could crawl back under the covers.  

It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we’re blessed to have a new day at all.

Fortunately, an elegant morning routine, or ritual if you prefer, can inspire feelings of optimism, inspiration, and excitement that can carry us through our day with the high vibe energy that we aspire to as the creative, elegant women we are. 

Elegant mornings integrate clarity, intention, and tranquility to set you up for a beautiful day. 

The practice of an elegant morning routine has worked for me for years. Likewise, I’ve seen many women create intentional, well-designed mornings that have changed their lives completely. 

I’ve created an elegant morning ritual that allows me to care for myself, express gratitude, and inspire myself for the day ahead. 

I’m going to share a few elements of my mornings with you, but I’m not suggesting that my routine be your routine. 

Nevertheless, I do want to gift you some ideas today that may inspire you to create your morning ritual. A ritual designed to start each day with a routine that sets your mood and boosts your attitude, and gives you the perfect foundation for a peaceful, joyful, and productive day. 

Imagine waking up and starting your day with a feeling of empowerment and excitement.  

Your mornings are a chance for you to embrace your power and own how you’re going to show up in the world. 

Elegant Mornings Are Personal

There are dozens of books on the shelves about creating a morning routine in the interest of personal growth and professional development. 

I suggest that you embrace the inspiration they offer, but don’t adopt their “rules” without question unless they fit with who you are. Treat them like the proverbial lunch line- take what serves you, and leave the rest. 

Many books, gurus, and coaches out there imply you “must” do things a certain way to have a blissful morning that will help you generate an abundant, accomplished day. 

I don’t believe that’s the case at all. 

Elegant mornings are deeply personal. 

There are many ways to create elegant mornings, and not all of them are for everyone. For example, some of you hate journaling and just can’t bring yourself to do it. Others can’t even think of beginning their day with exercise, preferring to hit the gym, the yoga studio, or a hiking trail a little later in the day.

Whether you need routine or you need flexibility, your elegant morning routine is yours and yours alone.

Give Your Elegant Morning Some Wiggle Room 

At one point, I found myself getting very “all or nothing” with my morning routine, so I created a morning ritual basket that contained several choices. I reach in to get inspired to do whatever I’m led to each morning.

In my basket are things like:

• Journal
• Meditate
• Take a walk 
• Prepare a delicious breakfast
• Work out
• Have my morning coffee while I gaze out at nature
• Enjoy a good old fashioned lie in, luxuriating in the feel of my soft cotton sheets and the morning sun as it streams through the window

And, Some of Us Need Our Elegant Mornings To Be Routine

A friend of mine wakes up at 4:30 AM every morning before her kids or husband gets up. 

In that quiet early hour, the first thing she does is sit with a cup of coffee, watch the sunrise, and think about her day. 

Next, she gets out her journal and writes. She writes about what she is grateful for, her plans for the day, her concerns and confusions, and she writes about whatever comes to mind. 

After journaling, she hits her home gym for a good, hard workout.

After that, her family is up, so they have breakfast and get ready for their day. 

She does this daily regimen religiously every single morning. She says that if she strays from it, her entire day feels off-kilter. She swears by habit, and it works for her. 

 6 Elegant Morning Ideas to Start Your Day With Ease and Grace

Journal

Of course, you knew I was going to say this. I feel journaling is so important for putting boundaries around those thoughts that may be spiraling out of control, for getting down the things we are grateful for – thereby making them more real and solid in our brains – and for planning from our future. 

There are so many ways to journal. A few ideas are the good old-fashioned way of pen and paper, using an online journal, journaling through art, or music journaling. Whatever works for you, I recommend giving it a shot – even if it’s part of a different part of your day and not necessarily your morning. 

Meditate

Whether it’s transcendental meditation, mindfulness, guided meditation (there are so many apps for this!), or just sitting in thought and prayer, it’s so important to spend some time just being at some point during each day. I find that my morning hours are a good time for meditation because the house is quiet, and so is my soul. 

Get Moving

Go for a walk, head to the gym, practice your morning yoga, or dance in the shower. Whatever works for you to get your juices flowing and elevate your mood for the day. 

Enjoy A Morning Beverage And Some Quiet Time

Mornings are the best time of the day for you to spend some time with yourself. A cup of coffee or tea, or perhaps you prefer lemon water or juice; anything will do so long as you sit with it quietly and allow yourself just to be or to think. This morning quiet time helps set a tone of tranquility for your day and gets you ready to face anything. 

Make Your Bed

Tidying up before you head off for your day can be a great way to set your mindset to productivity. Likewise, it’s a great way to start the day with a feeling of accomplishment.

Make A Plan

Some women find it helpful to sit down and write out a task list for the day; things they want to get done are not part of their regular routine. Perhaps this is a continual list that allows tasks to rotate to the following day when not completed. A friend of mine keeps a list like this in a small book that she carries in her bag. 

Elegant Mornings Are Always Preceded by Elegant Evenings

I don’t think I need to tell you how important a good night’s sleep is for having a wonderful day. Now, this is fodder for an entirely new blog post, but just to quickly give you a few ideas, here are some things you can do to ensure that each day starts as elegantly as possible.

• Create your day’s task list the night before. In their book Organize Tomorrow Today: 8 Ways to Retrain Your Mind to Optimize Performance at Work and in life, authors Jason Selk, Tom Bartow, and Rudy Matthew say, “Identifying daily priorities might seem like an obvious or insignificant step to take, but writing your most important tasks down the previous night turns your subconscious mind loose while you sleep and frees you from worrying about being unprepared.”
• Turn off your electronics at least an hour and a half before bedtime to ensure that your circadian rhythms are right as rain.
• Take it easy on your alcohol intake - alcohol will disrupt your sleep.
• Decide what you’re going to wear the following day if you have something important planned. 
• Plan and possibly prepare meals the night before so that getting out the door in the morning is easy- especially if you have kids!
• Meditate, pray, or give thanks to the Universe for the day you’ve just completed before heading off to sleep and facing a new one the following morning. 
• Clear your head by reading a book, journaling, listening to music or a podcast, talking with your partner, spouse, or a good friend, or watching some light-hearted television – anything will do so long as you do a bit of a brain dump and leave the day’s stressors behind. 

Elegant mornings create elegant days, which in turn create elegant lives. 

Put a ritual in place to start your days off with grace and tranquility – you’ll be amazed at how it manifests throughout every other area of your life.