What you do those first 5-10 minutes can determine your mood, your energy and your happiness the rest of the morning, and even the whole day.

How do you start your day? When you first wake up in the morning, what are the first words that come out of your mouth? Do you complain? Do you worry about the day ahead of you? Do you think about what’s not working in your life?  Or maybe your morning is a whirl wind of activity, The alarm sounds and you’re off: Onto checking emails, text messages, finding car keys and, so on. The madness, the rush of it all — it has to stop.  “How we start our day is often how we live our lives.” says motivational guru, Louise Hay. 

You have the power to wake up on the right side of the bed every single morning for the rest of your life by starting  your day with intention and ritual. Adding intention to your morning routine is in your best interest; It sets the tone for the rest of your day.

You are what you repeatedly do everyday. You are defined by your RITUALS – what you do on a consistent basis.  If you’re always miserable, unhappy, anxious, living in fear, etc… it’s because you have rituals that you may not even be aware of, that are creating these emotions in your body on a consistent basis.  You have literally trained yourself to be this way through practice and conditioning.

“If the first thing you do in the morning isn’t 100 percent for you, selfishly, then the rest of your day will be spent not doing anything for you,” writes Micah Baldwin, founder and CEO of Graphicly.  A morning ritual is entirely about you.  Sure, you will have to deal with other people at some point in your morning. If you’re lucky, you will get at least a few minutes of time just for you. This is your chance to center yourself and embrace your day instead of fleeing before it.

So how do you go about adding positive intention and ritual to your mornings?  The most effective tool to use is to direct your intention to positive thoughts daily, through the use of affirmations. Affirmations are a sure fire way for you to become aware of your thoughts and of what is going on in your head. Affirmations start your day on the right foot. They give you the tools to handle things with ease and gentleness because you have already affirmed that you are ready for them. Your mind is poised for success and happiness and your body will follow your mind and together, you can face any kind of day. You will also become aware of your natural tendency to think negative thoughts in certain (or most) situations.  Awareness helps you identify when the patterns are happening and now you can use affirmations to reverse such patterns.

What you do those first 5-10 minutes can determine your mood, your energy and your happiness the rest of the morning, and even the whole day.  You can create your own affirmations, depending on the circumstances you want to apply the affirmation for.  However, I know if daily tools are not quick and easy to use, we are not likely to stick with them even if the benefits are huge.   That is why I pulled together a list of 10 short and easy-to-memorize daily affirmations that are both effective and energizing.

It is best to say these first thing in the morning. When you first wake up and open your eyes and before you get out of bed. Start with 3 or 4 affirmations, repeat each affirmation three times and do this for one week to start getting results.

• I am a gift to the world.
• There are great experiences coming my way today.
• I am able to perform all of my tasks with accuracy grace and ease.
• I am a magnet for miracles.
• I am richly and abundantly blessed.
• I am safe and protected.
• I am loved and assisted by all that I meet today.
• I am feeling healthy and strong today.
• I have all the information I need to solve any challenges that come up today.
• There are two sides to everything and here are a few things to avoid, in the morning, that can send your day off course.

Morning News – While it is good to stay abreast of the latest happenings, you’ll do yourself a huge favor by missing out on the more upsetting things that have happened overnight.

Sleeping In – These are morning *rituals* we’re starting here, and you cannot expect them to change your life unless you stick to them religiously. Taking the weekends off of your routine is a sure way to disrupt the good habits you’ve formed during the week, and regress to your old ways.

Message Checking — Do not check your emails, Facebook, or text messages first thing in the morning.  Mornings are your time and there will be time for messages later

There is beauty in a brand new day. The turn from dawn into morning gives us the chance to start anew, begin fresh. Nina Simone may have put it best when she sang in “Feeling Good”: “It’s a new dawn/It’s a new day/It’s a new life.”

Reprinted from my July 2015 Art of Life column in the Capital City Hues newspaper.

Last month I wrote about overcoming fear and the power of belief.  Well, I used my own advise to begin a new project and I am so happy I did.  It has been a month since my weekly jazz radio show, The Jazz Experience began, on WSUM 91.7 FM, every Monday morning from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm.