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Hi , welcome to the podcast

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between hard and brave . I'm Sarah

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, and I'm here to be with you in

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your personal growth and self-improvement

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journey , and I'm here to share

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my own life experiences

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with you . I'm a yoga teacher

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, a business intelligence manager

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with a master's degree in IT

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, and Nobel Queen International 2023

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with health and wellness advocacy

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. I'm so excited to start

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this journey with you , to uplift

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you with positivity , the power

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of mindfulness and yoga and

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the freedom of conscious living . So let's start

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together and take a moment for yourself

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. Take a moment for yourself . Have

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you ever felt like your mornings are

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a chaotic rush , leaving

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you stressed before the day even begins ? If yes , this episode is for you . I created this

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episode because I myself struggled with this and I found ways to make

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my mornings more meaningful

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and more likeable to me

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. In this episode , we're going

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to explore how creating

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a simple morning routine

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which is also effective

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at the same time can transform

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your whole day , can set the right

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tone and boost your productivity

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or energy . I

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used to wake up in the morning and

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just do what I had to do take

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a shower , freshen up , grab my stuff

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, put them in the bag and run out of

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the door as soon as I could , especially

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if I had to go to the office back

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in the day or go to attend

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classes . As

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I got older and as I got more

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mature , I realized that how

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I wake up really

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affects my whole mood for the

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rest of the day . Not saying that

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it 100% guarantees that I'm going to

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feel great , but it plays

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a major role for the rest of my

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day , plays a major role

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for the rest of my day . So

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slowly , slowly , I try to test some things and see what works for me , what

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doesn't , and eventually

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and habitually , I created

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a morning routine which I'm really

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happy to share with you , and I

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hope that you enjoy it . If

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you yourself have a morning routine

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that you think a lot of other people might

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be finding

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that useful , including

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myself , please send

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it to me . You can

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find me on Instagram and I would

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love to have discussions with you guys

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, with my listeners . In

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this episode , we'll explore

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things that are

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really impactful , even

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though they don't look like they

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might be , if you're someone

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who is not very much familiar with

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morning routines

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. Why do we want to discuss this

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? Because , of course , boosting

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our physical and mental health is

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all we are about in this podcast . Mental health is all we are about in

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this podcast . We

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want to feel good , we want to be

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productive , we want to be positive

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throughout the day , we want to be resilient

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regardless of what comes our way , and

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we also want to be consistent . So

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let's start . The first

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thing I try to do especially

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if I remember it in most days or most mornings I do , if I've had a good amount of

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sleep is to

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have a gentle

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smile on my face when I open my eyes

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. It might feel

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a little silly , but it does

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work . You know , just

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being happy and grateful to

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see another day , another

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blue sky , and

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be grateful for having

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the gift of presence

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. That's the first thing I would

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do . Then I take some time in

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my bed , maybe one

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or two minutes , just to allow

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my brain to load

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the buffer time , and

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then , after that , I try to

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start my breath work

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. If you're not familiar with yoga

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and breath work , I'm going to give

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you a few tips on how

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you can do it . By

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the way , try not to grab your

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phone as soon as you open your eyes . I

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know that it's addictive and

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we really want to see what's been happening

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when we were asleep , if you have notifications

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, if you have messages . But you can get

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there , you know , just give it some time , just

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allow your body to wake up , allow your

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mind to wake up in a good and nice

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way , and then you can get to your notifications

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or to your feet . So

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what I usually do , with my eyes closed or

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open , I try to start

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breathing slowly

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and steadily and steady

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, and make sure that

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I do it a few times . So

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together , together , let's empty our lungs

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. Then I count to four inhale

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one , two , three

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, four . Hold for one , two

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. Exhale one , two , three

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, four . Let me repeat this

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four times or eight times , and

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just see how it feels . It's really

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nice , especially that you've just woken up and

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you feel great . Hopefully you had good

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rest , good dreams , if any . That

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would be the first step . After that , I

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would sit , I would just

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sit on my bed . I actually learned

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this from my uncle

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, or actually the husband of my aunt

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. Well

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, of course , he is older than I am I

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think he's in his 60s and

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he told me that one thing he sees young

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people do is that as soon as

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they wake up , they stand up . They don't

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allow their blood pressure

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or their body to get ready and

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to be prepared to transition

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from laid down to seated

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and then seated to standing

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. So that's what I do For like a minute or

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two I would sit on my bed and

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once I'm ready I would

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stand up While

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I'm seated , especially if I have time . So I

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suggest you wake up a

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little bit earlier , like if you have to leave house

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by 8 am , maybe you want to wake up by

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6 , you know . So you're not rushing and

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you are having a slow morning . Slow

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morning allows you to

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feel calm and feel

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like you know you don't have to rush things

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and you're in control of your morning . So

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what I do while I'm seated

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on my bed , sometimes I stretch

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it there . You can just interlace your fingers

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, bring your palms towards the ceiling and send

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your arms up , feel the stretch

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on your arms and your shoulders and

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then bring your hands down . Then

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hold on to your right wrist , bring your arms up and then

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pull your right wrist

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towards the left side , then

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hold on to the other one and pull it towards

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the right . You can even fold forward

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towards your legs a little bit

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or twist towards the sides

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, looking back and then

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the opposite side . This

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gentle stretches

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really helps with you feeling better

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, because stretching helps

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releasing happy hormones , and that's

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what we want . Also

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, maybe small and slow movements

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in your neck , creating circles

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, clockwise and counterclockwise

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, with your head from one shoulder

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to another . After

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this , of course , I get up

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, I freshen up , I

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do what I have to do if you want to make

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myself a good breakfast . I'm

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going to be honest , I'm a little guilty

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of not having a high protein

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breakfast all the time , because that's what we need

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. I tend to drink

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coffee or tea , but

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at least what I do . I don't add sugar to it

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because , you know , I don't want my sugar

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levels to spike up . That's

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not what we're recommended to do . Apparently , scientifically

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, we're supposed to consume

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more protein . So

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that's what I do . I prepare my

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coffee or sometimes , if I

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feel good , maybe a little bit of

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eggs or avocado

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on a toast , honey

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maybe a little bit , or

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if I have soy milk , I would drink that

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, and then after

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that , I get to

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plan the rest of

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my day . To plan the rest of my day , I learned this part

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from the book Eat your Frog

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. Not sure if

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it's exactly the name of the book , but yeah

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, basically that's what it's called , and

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your frog is the hardest thing that you have to do . It's up to you if you want to go read that book or

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not . The general message is something else , but basically

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it told us . The

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author told us to plan

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your day , and I cannot

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clearly remember if you had

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to do it the night

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before or in the morning , but what

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I do is to create that

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list . In the morning , before I

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continue with the

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rest of my day or before I step outside

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or do a little bit more serious things

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, I grab a pen or paper

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or my notebook and

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then I list down the things that I have to do and

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the things that have higher priority

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. I put them first because I'm more energetic

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, the sun is up , the world is

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busy and I want to feel connected

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, so I keep myself busy . Then I

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do the ones that are , when I say , more

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challenging , not necessarily that they're harder

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, or sometimes it's just something that you like

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to do less Like , for example , you have

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to go to a

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government office and for most

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people I know that it's not something that

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you really like to do , but I try

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to do that one first , I

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put that in the list and then

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, once I'm done , I

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start with checking

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the boxes of the tasks one

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by one for the rest of my day . A

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suggestion that I have , which is something that I don't do myself

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but you might want to , is to allocate some personal time before you

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go and start your day . You

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can , you know , read a book

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or anything

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, anything that you would call a personal time

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. Do it for yourself . I

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wouldn't really do it in the morning . I'm too energized for in

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the morning . I'm too energized for in

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the morning for that . I usually have my

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personal time at night . But if it works

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for you , then why not by all

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means do so Now

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? If there is anything else

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that you would like to add to your routine

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or maybe remove from this

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list , it's totally up to

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you . You should do what works for

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you . You can grab

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a pen and paper now Actually , I suggest

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this in most episodes and

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see what you want to do and

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create a routine good for you

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, only good for yourself . Let's

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say you've already created that

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routine and you've put it on

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paper . What's the next thing

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to do ? My suggestion is

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to avoid trying

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to do a list of five

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, six , seven things in the morning tomorrow

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. Start really small , because

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you don't want to disappoint yourself

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. You don't want to pressure

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yourself . And let's say

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you put a list of seven things

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to do in the morning , seven things that

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are part of your morning routine

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, and then tomorrow you only get to do them

12:02

. Do the five of them and then the day

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after only three , the day after only

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one , and then you're going to think that oh

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, apparently I cannot do it , I cannot stay

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consistent . Let's not pressure

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ourselves that much

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. Let's be kind to ourselves

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and give ourselves time to adjust

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and adapt . So I suggest start

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with one or two things If

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you're someone who generally procrastinates

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a lot , or two things If you're someone

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who generally procrastinates a lot . I suggest starting with one thing . That one thing could be

12:30

the breath work or could be the stretch . Or

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if you don't usually procrastinate

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, I suggest to start with two things

12:38

. Maybe for three days or

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four days or five days . Do

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those two things

12:45

in the morning and then after

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that add one or two to

12:51

your morning routine and when you

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feel like you're already comfortable with

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this , two to four tasks

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every morning for about ten days

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. That's when you might want to

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add more and do your routine

13:03

completely . Also

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, remember to be kind to yourself . This

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routine is for you to feel better

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, not the opposite

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. So there are days that we cannot

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always stick to the routine , and that's totally

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normal , that's totally human . But

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most days we

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should be trying

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to stick to the routine so

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that we get used to it and it becomes

13:30

a habit . When it's a habit

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, it's easier to follow it and

13:34

it's easier to be consistent . But if

13:36

it's very inconsistent , then every

13:39

time you want to get back to that routine you

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have to push yourself

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and it doesn't feel natural . So

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my suggestion is to try to stay

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consistent , start small

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and try to do this for a month

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and after that see how

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you feel about this morning

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routine of yours . I

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hope that you enjoyed this episode

14:04

and I hope that you that

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you enjoyed this episode , and I hope that you try to make small changes to your warnings

14:11

and do things that feel nice and right

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to you . Thank

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you , dear listeners , for joining

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me on this empowering journey

14:20

today . As we conclude this episode

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, remember that your potential

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is boundless and your journey

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to a more fulfilling life has

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only just begun . I'm

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here to support you every step of the way

14:33

, so keep coming back for more

14:35

insights and inspiration , and

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remember this podcast is

14:40

proudly independent , created

14:42

with a passion for making a positive

14:44

impact . Your support means

14:47

the world to me , so please

14:49

consider subscribing and sharing

14:51

it with the people you know . Together

14:53

, we can inspire more individuals

14:56

on their journey to empowerment

14:58

and a better life . See you soon

15:00

for more life-changing discussions

15:02

. Until we meet again , stay

15:04

empowered .