How has your week been? Have you seen an impact on the ease and flow of your mornings this week? If not, maybe 
your morning routine needs a little tweaking. Take a look at it and see what you might want to adjust, add, remove, or change.
This week I want to talk about waking up in the flow.
When do you wake up?
For years we have believed that in order to be at our best, we need 8 hours of sleep. Recent studies are changing that belief. As we sleep, we cycle through brain waves that are either closer to being awake, or closer to being comatose. If we wake up while our natural sleep cycle is closer to being awake, we will flow into our awake state more easily and naturally and with less resistance. This part of our sleep cycle happens every 90 minutes. So, the first thing to determine is, based on the time you when to sleep, what time should you wake up? Calculate it out in 90 minute increments. I like to wake up after 7.5 hours (5 sleep cycles). I know people who prefer 9 hours (6 sleep cycles) or 6 hours (4 sleep cycles). Test and find out how many cycles suit you best, and try always wake up at the 90 minute increment.
How do you wake up?
Your mind is at its most impressionable, vulnerable state when you are between sleep and awake. Whatever you feed into your mind in those first moments of waking up will have a big impact on your day. Are you waking up to music, an alarm, talk radio, the news? What suggestions go into your mind when you wake up to these things? The sadness of an unhappy love song, advertising about some random product, news about some war going on, fear from that scary buzzing that just jolted you out of sleep? Instead, impact those first few waking moments with something positive and reinforcing for your mind and body. Create an affirmation and set it as your wake-up sound. Or start your day with some lovely instrumental music that makes your heart sing. The key here is to pay attention to the thoughts and emotions you are experiencing first thing in the morning.
We’ll talk more about this next week. Until then, experiment with these ideas and see how they affect your day. Notice if you feel more rested, more in the flow, and generally more relaxed and happy. See you in part 4 of this series.