September is Self-Care Awareness Month. To watch it, every week we’re speaking with experts in mental health and wellness to supply actionable ways to practice self-care that prioritize emotional wellbeing.

I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of it. You get up within the morning and the very first thing you do is pick up your phone. Perhaps it starts as a method to check the time, to ensure you haven’t overslept, but then it slowly devolves into you responding to a message, peeking at your emails, checking in with the goings on of social media and the day’s breaking news. Before you understand it, whatever energy comes from those spaces impacts your mood. Your day either gets off to a positive start, or a negative one.

As common as that scenario is, it’s not a healthy one for us in accordance with certified life coach Krystal Conner, PhD.

“It’s vital to begin your morning off the appropriate way, because the way you start goes to find out the flow of your day,” she tells ESSENCE. “When you’ve a morning routine, you possibly can avoid feeling rushed and avoid decision fatigue right from the beginning of your day.”

Conner says planning upfront, perhaps the night before — from what you’ll wear to what time you’ll leave to get to where it is advisable be on time — lets you ease into your mornings versus attempting to make 100 decisions the moment you get up.

“The ‘right way’ of starting your day just isn’t in a hurried, frantic, stressful rushed pace,” she says. “Ideally, you desire to start a peaceful flow that lets you check in with where you’re mentally, physically, and emotionally.  You would like to have enough time to readjust, reaffirm, and construct momentum into having the perfect, most efficient, peaceful day possible.”  

And what higher method to start the day in a peaceful place than to begin by tapping into something greater than yourself?

“I like to recommend that folks start their day by quieting their minds in either prayer or meditation. By doing this, you permit yourself to feel rooted and grounded,” says Conner. “This also helps you’re feeling connected to your higher power source, which results in feeling less anxious, more hopeful, and motivated to take control of your day.”

Journaling can also be an amazing method to go into the morning, because it gives you the prospect to place your thoughts on the market and work out why you would possibly feel the way in which you do.

“Your thoughts create your feelings, so understanding what your thoughts are and allowing yourself the chance to redirect them is a robust start,” she says. It also gives you a probability to write down out stuff you’re grateful for, starting your day in a state of abundance versus a sense of lacking something. 

Along with those practices, create some affirmations that may empower and motivate you. But Conner doesn’t recommend just saying anything.

“It’s vital that you simply create an affirmation you could consider now.  Repeating affirmations that you simply don’t really consider are true just isn’t a helpful practice, and is why most individuals think ‘the ability of positive considering’ is more like being in denial,” she says. So for instance, as an alternative of claiming “My life is amazing” whenever you’re in a spot where you don’t consider it for whatever reason, try “Today is a possibility for me to make my life higher” and meditate on that throughout the day.

As for what you must bypass very first thing within the morning, the life coach says hitting “snooze” when your alarm goes off. You don’t wish to run the danger of oversleeping as that may leave you feeling rushed and off-balance. And really, does that extra 10-Quarter-hour of sleep actually leave you feeling refreshed? Doubt it.

Something that doesn’t leave anyone refreshed is taking a look at social media and emails the minute you awaken from sleep.

“Watching videos of another person’s fabulous vacation, or getting an ‘urgent’ email from work before your eyes are fully opened goes to set you on an emotional path that would possibly throw off your day or a minimum of decelerate your momentum,” she says.

And if that’s not enough, social media apps and emails may leave you scrambling for time. All of that may wait for after you’ve done your morning routine that gives some tranquility.

Lastly, don’t assume the annoyances of the day before will likely be the identical things to tank the brand new day before you.

“Whatever happened, happened, and the perfect thing you possibly can do is concentrate on the right way to make today higher,” she says. “Replaying yesterday’s bad news will only serve to place you in a worse mood for a recent day when you don’t manage your thoughts around it.”

Nonetheless you select to begin your morning, whether you lift up a prayer of gratitude for a recent day, write down your thoughts, or just sit in stillness before the rat race summons you, go for it. These practices literally put you first.

“So often, we put everyone else’s needs before our own. We ensure everyone else is sweet before we even consider how we’re doing, which results in us being burnt out, resentful, and drained,” Conner says. “Taking the time to ascertain in with yourself, regular yourself, and prepare for the day helps you’re feeling more emotionally stable and is one in every of the best types of self-care you possibly can take part in.”