10 Inspiring Insights From 10 Years of Shaping Morning Routines

Consistent self-care has fueled many brave life choices.

Over the past ten years, I’ve made space for nurturing myself most mornings. During that time, I’ve done many things I’m proud of. I made the most of my college experience, traveled to Europe twice, moved to San Francisco, achieved and left a successful UX career, and broke a multi-generational trauma cycle — to name a few.

My priorities have shifted over the years: from emphasizing appearance to prioritizing intuitive well-being and creativity. With regular reflection, I choose to honor my body’s natural cycles.

Perfectionism and productivity culture messaging might be my biggest struggles. I’ve spent a long time trying to have the perfect mornings and optimize every part of my lifestyle. But after burning out at work and straining a few muscles, I lean more into self-acceptance and self-trust.

I hope these insights inspire shaping your morning routine — it’s not another checklist. You always know what’s best for you and your body. Here are my takeaways from ten years of regular self-nurturing:

1. Prioritize high-quality sleep

Sleep tops my list for simple changes that make a huge difference. When you feel well-rested, your mornings feel much smoother. Over the years, I’ve read several books on sleep, experimented, and more recently used a sleep app every night.

These practices have helped me to sleep well consistently:

• Be consistent: Our bodies work well with routine. Getting up and going to bed around the same time helps a lot.
• Power down screens before bed: About 60 minutes before going to bed, take a break from technology. You’ll feel sleepy more easily without the forced alertness from screens.
• Have calming nighttime rituals: Stretching, reading a calming book, a hot bath, a gratitude journal, whatever your thing is, find what works for you.
• Don’t stay in bed if you’re not sleepy: If you don’t fall asleep in about 20 minutes, try getting up and doing something calming until you feel sleepy again. This contingency plan removes the pressure off of being “good” at sleep.

If our bodies still need eight hours of sleep every single day, it must be pretty damn important. Read “Why We Sleep” by Mathew Walker for more sleep motivation.

2. Move intentionally every day

Similar to getting high-quality sleep, exercise feels like a magic potion. It solves so many problems! Consistently exercising helps with your sleep, emotional regulation, mental health, and generally feeling great.

I‘ve been going to the gym and staying active since I was 12 years old. Here are a few of my favorites: practicing yoga, hiking, strength training, cycling, and pole dancing. I’ve also researched motivation, created vision boards, and read at least a dozen fitness books. To simplify my advice:

• Move intentionally for at least 20 minutes every day.
• Find movement you enjoy.
• Listen to your body so you don’t overdo it.

Make fitness fun by trying new activities, combining things like being social or spiritual, enjoying movement arts, or finding a new playlist on Spotify. If you want to feel good in the morning, moving every day will help.

3. Keep experimenting

Throughout our lives, we experience regular cycles of high and low energy. Our values and priorities shift, we get new jobs or have new relationships, etc. For these reasons, I’ve worked to determine what my essentials are.

Movement, journaling, and meditation are my morning staples right now. I do other routines like make a green smoothie, brew black tea, or take a sunrise walk. But my life will always be shifting, so I keep it simple and listen to whatever my body needs that day.

4. Let go of the “perfect” morning

Google results for morning routines show results for the “perfect” morning and insights from the “most successful” people. That sums up pretty well how my perspective used to be. I became obsessed with optimizing every minute of my morning and being as productive as possible every day.

Somewhere between burning out at my tech job and waking up to the realities of cultural misogyny, I faced my inner perfectionist. At the core, it’s about not feeling good enough — like all the time. You’re driven by the need to prove your value.

My mornings became more enjoyable when I stopped trying to be perfect. I let myself wake up naturally and focus on being present with what my body needs. Because if you’re trying to measure yourself by external achievements, you’ll never “get there.”

5. Take a day off regularly

I used to feel like I was failing if I skipped my morning routine. I felt like I was being a terrible, lazy person. So when my therapist encouraged me to give myself a break and be “off the hook” once a week, I resisted pretty strongly. But that was my inner perfectionist talking.

Now, I highly recommend taking a day off about once a week. Let yourself do whatever you want (within reasonable boundaries) and feel good about that. Have fun, break the rules, eat the donuts, or whatever sounds joyful to you. Instead of judging yourself, get curious:

Why did my body need that type of break this week? Why do I feel guilty about indulging? What expectations am I holding myself to and why?

If taking a day off sounds scary, then you likely really need to. For more insight on perfectionism, I recommend Marion Woodman’s book, “Addiction to Perfection.”

6. Know your priorities

Being clear about what’s most important gives me a lot of flexibility in the mornings. For example, my well-being and creativity are my current priorities. So I adjust my behaviors to align with that energy.

Right now, I do “morning pages” every day, three pages of stream-of-consciousness journaling. Julia Cameron popularized this practice with her book and creative program, “The Artist’s Way.” Free-form writing also helps with rebuilding my self-trust and self-acceptance.

Once you know your priorities, you can determine your essential morning rituals and be flexible about the rest.

7. Protect your morning time

Before I knew about setting personal boundaries, I practiced morning routines. Protecting my morning feels like the first step I took to rebuild my self-worth and draw a circle of sacredness for myself. Having morning rituals is setting a boundary for yourself.

Not everyone you meet will have your best interest at heart. Noticing how people respond to your decision to prioritize yourself is a great way to determine who supports you and who doesn’t.

If setting boundaries sounds new to you, protecting your morning time is a great place to start.

8. Make your mornings fun

If you dread your morning activities, you likely won’t stick with them. Self-discipline and “powering through” don’t work in the long run. Consider what sounds fun and what you would want to get out of bed for.

Right now caffeine, a neighborhood walk, and writing time really work for me in the mornings. At night, I’ve started doing things like practicing yoga, taking a candlelit bath, or grabbing a good book. Sometimes I’m awake to catch the sunrise views, which are always lovely.

What would make the morning more fun for you?

9. Practice mindfulness throughout the day

In addition to morning meditation, I check in with my breath throughout the day. Like drinking water, this awareness helps me in so many ways. At a minimum, feeling grounded makes it easier to fall asleep. You can use body scans to soften and relax each part.

Figure out whatever tools help you to keep turning inward and do that. Yoga and stretching are also great approaches.

10. Trust your intuition

Your body always knows what’s best for you. I would encourage my younger self to listen to her emotional responses and trust that small voice. Rather than morphing to meet external expectations, align with your body’s natural energy.

Gradually you’ll start to trust the pendulum swing of ups and downs. You’ll learn to question what is “too much” of something and begin to support yourself along with the explorations. Life is way too short to live by someone else’s expectations.

Going against the grain or trying out new lifestyles can be difficult. But having the tools to stay grounded empowers those positive changes.

So be selfish in the mornings, give yourself the gift of mindfulness, and trust your intuition. When you feel guilty or overworked, try curiosity and compassion. Slow down and let your morning routine unfold organically.

Have you been experimenting with your mornings lately? What are you discovering? Any favorite rituals?

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