Blissfully Simple: inspiration

The World Needs More Feminists

9:40 AM

Waking up in the morning, without sleeping in, can be tough for anyone. As an Early Childhood Education major, I am doing my student teaching practicum and my alarm goes off at 6:30. I always joke that it feels like I fell asleep, blinked, and then woke up. Some mornings, it is SO tough to get up. But I've figured out my night and morning routines that make waking up A LOT smoother. Here are some of those tips:

The Night Before:

Make your lunch: Yes, I am a college student and pack my lunch. Doing this the night before makes for one less thing I have to worry about in the morning.
Set out your clothes: I always pick out my outfit and put it on my desk chair. This makes it easier and saves you time so you're not trying on three different outfits while you're loopy from still being half-asleep.
Have a skincare routine: This is important regardless of whether or not you're waking up early. Take care of your skin. Period. End of discussion. Your skin is one of the most important things about your body. My skincare routine includes: face washing, toning, serum, and moisturizer, plus an on-the-spot acne treatment (when necessary), and an eye-cream! It may sound like a lot but again, your skin is so important.
Read: Everyone I know sits on their phone before bed, I even do it. But, studies constantly show the importance of putting the technology away before you sleep is extremely important. Instead of wasting your time going through Instagram or Netflix, pick up a book and end your day genuinely.
Relax with some breathing exercises: Whenever I have trouble falling asleep, I focus on my breathing. When I was younger, my aunt taught me this technique and it still helps me to this day. The technique is to focus on your breathing and each breath you breath out, picture it as all different colors of the rainbow. This helps to relax my mind and body.
Go to bed early!!: Does this even need to be explained? Every night I go to sleep after 10:45 I wake-up wanting to kick myself. It really makes for a rough start to the day.

The Morning of:

Don't wakeup to a beeping alarm: I wrote an article last year on waking up to a happy song. I wakeup to the song Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. It makes me happy and starts my day off right.
Have a morning wakeup routine: I have a whiteboard in my room that states my morning routine on it: wakeup, brush teeth and wash face, do makeup, get changed, eat brekky. I also get up and my boyfriend and I head to the cafeteria at 7 to eat. Next, I grab a coffee and I'm off for the day. Having a routine makes the morning go a lot more smoothly in that you know what to expect.
Appreciate: Last but not least, appreciate the day. Appreciate the fact that you woke-up. You are blessed. The first thing I do when I wakeup is to check to see if the Sun is awake. In the beginning, of the semester, she never was. Now, she's starting to wakeup with me. I love that. It's instinctual to wakeup when you see the Sun. It also helps me to appreciate the day and appreciate how lucky I am to be able to see the Sun and be awake.

I feel like a lot of my blog articles are about waking up and the morning. But I just love the mornings and it's only natural to write about things you love.