KATRIEN'S VERSION
My Morning Routine includes 4 Pillars:
Breath - Some sort of Calming Breathwork and Activation of Your Interstitial Pump to get Your Body Fluids going
Visualization & Awareness - Visualization to kickstart feeling of Love and Joy and Sensational Awareness to enhance Interoception and Presence
Movement - Integrated Movement that supports Proper Recruitment Patterns and sets You up to move well for the day.
Water - Get some Cold Water on You skin in a Parasympathetic state to enhance Vagal tone and switch on Energy Production.
THE GOODS
I don’t know about You but when I show up to a Meeting, Appointment, Drop-Off time, Conference or Party and I’m early it feels pretty darn good. I feel ahead of the game and I have clear sight lines ahead of Me, ready to steer in any direction I choose.
I feel on top of it. Ready and Willing, and usually pretty excited as I anticipate what’s going to happen next.
It’s the same for My Morning.
Instead of lying in Bed trying to get that extra 10 mins, or getting up and moving straight into Your Day, scrolling through Social Media or the News or jumping in Your Car and just grabbing Breakfast on the way to work, I feel it’s important to reconnect with Yourself to set Success up for the Day.
A Morning Routine lets You prioritize all the things that are important for You and Your Self-Care while Your Willpower is high and distractions are low. It grounds You in the Present moment to make Your day an “Actionary” one rather than a reactionary one and it stabilizes Your Biochemistry, Potentiates Your Focus and sets Your Day up for Productivity.
Look at any Successful Person or Master in their Craft and You’ll likely find it backed by some elaborate, often detailed and complex, Morning Routine.
Above all having a Morning Routine spurs the opportunity for You to Recharge and Rekindle Your Energy, feeding gas onto the Flame of Your Pilot Light, dimmed from Your Night’s slumber.
And more than likely it’ll make You feel like a Million Bucks.
WHY HAVING A MORNING ROUTINE IS IMPORTANT
I don't know about You but I don’t want to start My Day, wired looking for Lions with a heavy Heart and short of Breath. We feel Stress when our demands outweigh our Resources to cope.
Waking up and rushing to get out the door or into Your Office sends the message that Your Resource of Time has clocked out. With one of Your resources perceivably out the window You start the day off stressed, this perpetuates a cycle of Sympathetic Response that besides feeling unpleasant, really doesn’t support You in any way. Having Your Adrenals consistently pump out Cortisol is a sure-fire way to alter immune function and induce Chronic inflammation resulting in Poor Sleep Cycles, Muscles Repair, Tension, Emotional Exhaustion and a whole host of other rather unattractive outcomes.
On the Flip Side, Waking Up and Spending Quality Time with Yourself and Your Body is a great way to balance Cortisol Energy Spikes with Parasympathetic Activation and Vagal tone. A fast, and may I add, extremely effective way to feel like a Powerhouse. Chock full of Energy and Ready to Liberate the Day.
So without further ado, here is My Morning Routine and Why I do it.
WHAT I DO:
30 mins - 1 hour before dawn
Get Up to Pee
It may surprise You that getting up to Pee is a priority on My list. Micturition, (a fancy word for going pee), is stimulated by a Parasympathetic state. Holding in Your Pee requires Sympathetic Activation.
I don’t know about You but trying to stay relaxed with a full and demanding Bladder don’t usually go hand in hand.
Currently My Morning Routine revolves around My Goal. Which is to recalibrate My Breathing Patterns and Readjust My Skeletal Structure through My Fascial Web. When I’m Up I’m usually still in a Theta Brainwave state so I’ll take full opportunity to do some cueing and have some low-level Body Awareness staying Open for Salient Signals.
The low-level awareness keeps Me in Theta, engraining patterns with sufficient ease as the Autopilot for My Default Mode Network is Open to suggestion.
Looking for something New also engages My Right Hemisphere to lead and offers up the opportunity foR My Homeostatic and Hedonic Pathways to align.
Scanning from a Curious state of Mind helps Me look for Novelty, speeding up the LearniNG Curve
First 20-25 minutes
Breathwork and Meditation - DIY Breathing Device
At this point I'll crawl back into bed, rollover, fill My DIY Breathing Device and proceed to practice Diaphragmatic Breathing for the next 20 mins. (You could also use a Frolov Breathing Device).
As I continue to breathe like Darth Vader I simultaneously bask in the Glory of all the Benefits I’m invoking at once:
- Cycling more CO2 into each inhale increases My CO2 Level and transports more O2 into My Cells through the Bohr Effect. (Article) Kicking up My Metabolism a couple notches and ramping up My Energy.
Simultaneously it’s dilating My Blood Vessels and increasing Cerebral (Brain) Blood Flow while keeping Me in between Delta and Theta Brainwaves.
- Increasing Vagal Tone through Diaphragmatic Breathing. Parasympathetically steering My Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) towards relaxation and priming My Rest and Digest Pathway for My Morning Poop (soon to come).
- I’m retraining My Diaphragm as I inflate My Lower Ribcage in a 360 Expansion on the inhale and let it come to a near complete collapse on the exhale.
The increase in CO2 keep Me calm in what would otherwise elicit a state of Panic. This stretches and lengthens My Diaphragm and Intercostals to their full capacity strengthening both My Diaphragm and Lungs at the same time.
- Activate My Interstitial Pump and get New and Fresh Fluid moving into all My tissues, exchanging the stale solution from the Night’s repair with Clean, Life-giving, Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen-Rich Flow.
As You can imagine this feels beyond Amazing. I pair this up with My Affirmations while I’m in a suggestive state and it turns out to be one wicked Stack!
Right after that I’ll launch into…
My Mind Movie
For the next 10-15 minutes I’m going to leverage My Current State of Consciousness and Keep the Bubbly, Joyful Delight rolling as I carry My Momentum into My Mind Movie.
Here I’ll take 10 -15 minutes to Dream and Visualize, letting My Left Hemisphere take the lead as I playfully Dream Up and create what I want for My Life.
During this visualization Process I’ll purposely focus on connecting to My Heart, maintaining full conscious awareness of How I feel emotionally. I will visualize from first person and third person perspectives drawing on sounds, sights, touch, taste and smell to really embed Myself in the Imagery.
While I get in touch with feelings of Gratitude, Appreciation, Love and Joy I’ll anchor those feelings by rubbing or tapping My Heart and occasionally repeating an affirmation out loud to prick up My Ears, blurring the lines between My Reality and My Imagination.
Later in the day I can then use these phrases and touches as Anchor points if I experience something I like, feel unsafe and want to reduce Sympathetic Response or wish to enhance an Alpha Brainwave State.
After about 10-15 mins I will usually have a Giant Grin stretching across My Face with My Cheeks squeezing so hard they’re cramping and My Body so full of Energy it spouts out in surges of Laughter.
Then I’ll sit there for 1-2 minutes, celebrating the feeling and really paying attention to all the sensations My Body feels, letting intensity be My Guide. Sometimes it goes to My toes, or My arms, or it meanders through My stomach and up My Back.
It’ doesn’t really matter I just follow it and enjoy the ride.
Not only does this feel good but by coming back to the Present moment I am able to build My interoception, increasing My ability to tap into My current Physiological state and how I can intuitively self-regulate it and maintain Homeostasis.
After about 40 mins
Hydrate, Movement and Water
Once I’ve celebrated I’ll pop out of Bed, drink 500-750mls of Structured, Mineral-Rich Water I source from a Spring 10 mins from My House. I’ll usually combine this with a good Mineral Salt like Quinton, Celtic Sea Salt, Redmonds Real Salt or a Sea Salt from Clean Waters like the Hawaiian Island Salt Company.
After that in no particular order I’ll:
- Get in some Water.
I’ll do a Hot-Cold Contrast, alternating for 30-60sec rounds between as Cold as it will go to as Hot as I can stand for 5 rounds.
The switching between Vaso-Constriction and Vaso-Dialation creating an increase in Blood Flow.
Or
I’ll do a 2-5 minute Cold Shower, making sure the water is below 12 degrees Celsius and ensuring I engage with some sort of calming Breath technique like Box Breathing to remain Parasympathetically active, increasing Vagal Tone and Cellular Resilience.
This also activates the AMPk Pathway, Autophagy and has a nice Fat-Burning effect, switching on Uncoupling Proteins in Your Mitochondria and promoting the production and activation of Brown Adipose Tissue.
Or
Last but definitely not least I’ll do a Cold Water Rinse. Where I’ll drench My Head, until it’s thoroughly soaked. After which I’ll proceed to rinse the rest of My Body with Cold Water making sure every square inch gets covered.
Then I’ll step out of the shower, towel off and dry Brush for 1-2 minutes, either using My hands or a Smooth River Stone. Alternatively You could also use a Boar Bristle Brush if You feel the other 2 options are a little too intense.
If I feel like ramping it up a little I’ll use a stimulating Essential Oil like Peppermint to encourage Blood Flow into the small capillaries of My Skin facilitating nutrient exchange while I simultaneously support lymphatic drainage, dry brushing towards My Heart.
- Poop
After all that build up of CO2 colon will definitely be on the move and be getting ready to expel whatever is left over from the Day before. If it needs a little coaxing I’ll exhale, hold My Breath, move around and repeat for 3-5 rounds keeping My Inhales short and small.
This builds up CO2 inducing peristalsis and intestinal motility.
I’ll then crawl up onto the toilet bowl or use a Squatty Potty to get into an Ancestral Squat. This allows the Puborectalis, a U-shaped muscle wrapping the bottom portion of Your Rectum, to relax allowing for more efficient defecation and a more enjoyable pooping experience, (Yes, they actually do studies on this stuff).
After I finish, that’ll be My last poop of the day and I’ll move on to My next step in My Morning Routine.
- Move
During My Movement Sessions I’ll pick a choice of Bob Cooley’s Resistant Stretching, Corrective Exercises or some MyoFascial Release (MFR). Where I’ll use an Arsenal of Mobilizing Weaponry like Peanuts, Trigger Point Rollers, PVC Pipes, Theracanes, rock solid Lacrosse Balls and Resistance Bands to focus in on My Restriction Points.
I may include a combination of the three, mobilizing to enhance My Corrective Exercises or letting an exercise draw My Attention to an adhesion or area that needs to be explored and opened up.
During mobilization I’ll let one restriction point lead to the other. If it releases I feel for the next point of tension, otherwise I’ll just stay on it. This method not only enhances My Proprioceptive Awareness but it also helps My Brain to begin formulating and tweaking its own Mental Maps.
Searching for sensation, meandering the networks of My Sensory Receptors and opening up to Fascial Feedback, I’ll listen. Nourishing a richer stream of data and closing the gap between what I’m perceiving and what is actually happening in My Body, with the goal of evolving it to become seamless.
I’ll do this for around 15 minutes, breaking up any excess fascia and opening up new access points. Then I’ll do a light 2-5 minute bounce, rebounding off the balls of My Toes.
Killing 2 Birds with one stone, I’m inducing G-Force effects to trigger lymphatic drainage. The rapid stop-go cycles combined with gravity stimulating lymph flow and moving the Fascia I just broke apart into My lymph canals and out towards My Lymph nodes.
That some pattern of acceleration and deceleration is creating a piezoelectric effect through compression and decompression of My Bodily Fluids naturally electron density and naturally creating Exclusion Zone Water, supercharging My Hydration and ramping up My Energy.
Right after that I’ll immediately jump into a handstand, focussing on the same Breathing Pattern I had with My morning Breathwork session, letting all the Fresh, CO2 and O2 Rich, EZ Water Dense Blood rush into My Face and Scalp and give Lymphatic Flow it’s last little nudge.
Once I come back down to My Feet My Fluids are Flowing, I’ll take My supplement stack for the Day and at that point I’m rocking and ready to Rumble.
In total it takes Me somewhere between 1 hour - 1.5 hours.
SUMMARY
So now that You know what My Morning Routine looks like, what are Your thoughts? What’s Your Morning routine like? Is there anything that You really look forward to that’s makes every day better? Feel free to reach out Me through Instagram and share Your ideas. I’m always looking forward to hearing about new and eccentric ways to kickstart My Morning!
RESOURCES MENTIONED
How to make Your own DIY Breathing Device
ARTICLES
