You are sleeping in your cozy bed and suddenly the alarm clock s starts shouting, you hit the snooze button a few times, and then after a few minutes – finally wake up after. You force yourself from the bed to the shower. And then multitask by reading newspaper along with your breakfast and morning coffee. In the above mentioned scenario, you are just doing the regular chores….

How about making your mornings more exciting?

Here are a couple of ways to make your mornings more exciting and full of life!! By the way, a lot of people believe that if you start your day happily, you are more likely to be positive and successful throughout the day.

1. Start you day with thanking God

God has gifted you with another beautiful day to look forward to. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” You have got one more day to achieve your dreams, to spend time with your loved ones and to enjoy life.

2. Look at yourself in the mirror and smile

Smiles are contagious. When you look in the mirror and smile at yourself, you feel more happy and positive. Positive energies vibrate all around you. If you don’t believe it, just give it a try. I do it daily after waking up and I really feel awesome while doing it.

3. Look at an inspiring Poster / Quotation – in your room

If you like some inspirational quotation / poster that truly makes you feel great, you can paste it in your room. It can be on your study table, on the wall, on the door,in fact it can be anywhere where you feel you will see it after waking up in the morning.

4. Sing a song while taking your bath

“Oh come on Raj, you must be kidding me…” I know you are thinking this. I understand that you might consider trying this a little bit weird. But, you got nothing to lose. We all like songs, don’t we? Starting your day with singing a song in the shower is really an exciting and fun way to start your day with. It will help you forget all the troubles and set you in a very positive mood.

5. Do a small Deep breathing exercise

Well, you can do it for less than five minutes and feel relaxed and peaceful after doing it.

The technique is pretty simple.

1. Sit in a position in which you feel relaxed. You can sit with crossed legs or with your legs apart.

2. Breathe in slowly through your nose. You will notice that your stomach expands while you are doing so.

3. Breathe out slowly through your nose.

4. Breathe in and out for about 5 minutes. After you have done so for about 5 minutes, you will feel more relaxed

6. Go for a Walk / Jogging / Stroll outside

If you are one of the early risers, and like to wake up early in the morning, You can go for a walk or a stroll in a park nearby. You can also try jogging while listening to music on your iPod.

7. Spend some morning time with your loved ones

You can have a cup of tea with your love mate or family members. If you do not like having tea/coffee in the morning, you can try doing breakfast together.

8. Read your affirmations

Reading affirmations out loud to yourself in the morning is one of the best ways to start your day. It creates a positive tone for the day. I have been using this technique since a long time and it’s simply amazing. Throughout the day, if you face any hurdle in your work, you will automatically feel your affirmations being repeated in your mind and it will help you to counter the hurdles.

You can try these affirmations:

Daily affirmations for positive Self Esteem

Daily affirmations for Success

9. Give 5 minutes the night before

You can save yourself from the morning stress by taking out five minutes the night before to organize the things you will need next morning. For example, if there is an important file that you will be needing in the office tomorrow, it is better to keep it in an organized place the night before rather than searching for it in the morning with a toothbrush or a cup of coffee in hand.

Do you use some other technique to start your day with a bang? Maybe I can learn from what you share in the comments….

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In my early 20’s, I had started my search in pursuit of happiness. I had found love and was having success in my chosen career but found myself wanting more.

Up until this point my understanding of happiness was that it was a place you arrived at and were then forever blessed to live a happy life, one of the chosen few (I probably read a few too many fairy tales as a child I think). I was not naturally a positive person and I had the false idea that some people had life happen to them and some people were just happy.

I guess a few lessons learnt along the way and the maturity to realise that we hold a lot of the power to be happy in our own hands, finally made me realise that living positively was a choice. Phew, what a relief, now that I had that lesson learnt I was well on my way to becoming Happy. Wasn’t I?

Well, I realised at this point that it was a choice to live a positive life. I realised that I needed to chose positive thoughts, be around positive people and that each small decision I made daily led me towards the positive and happy life I wanted to create for myself. But with all this positive going on, what did I do with the negative stuff?

I am not talking negative thoughts here because the positive attitude soon cancels those out. I am talking about the gut wrenching, out of control, negative emotions like anger, jealousy, disappointment, grief, fear…. Sometimes positive thinking just isn’t enough.

This is not a success only journey.

“Life is not a success only journey”

- Dr Phil

The reality is that people will hurt us, disappoint us and anger us. We will suffer grief, the break down of a relationship, financial strain and be really hurt by somebody we love, at some point in our lives. We need to have realistic expectations about life so that when these things occur we have the strength to ride the storm. Know that you are strong enough to survive this and one day you will feel joy again.

Be honest

I know this is hard because it means being really open with another person and therefore leaving yourself wide open to rejection. Built up, un-resolved anger can poison a relationship from the inside and it can also damage your health and peace of mind. You need to be honest with yourself and others if you are feeling depressed or angry because bottling it up will only last for so long. Most importantly, be honest with yourself and make the decision to start to work through unresolved feelings.

Give yourself permission

Women are especially guilty of feeling guilty for their feelings. We like to be seen as ‘nice’ and will often put our own feelings aside, to please others and then we bottle up our resentment. Anger, frustration, sadness…..these are all normal, healthy emotions and you need to find a healthy way to express yourself when these feelings emerge. Life is not perfect and you will feel angry and upset with other people. This does not make you ‘un-nice’ and you are completely within your rights to say NO or to feel anger if somebody hurts you. If you handle the situation with consideration then you do not have to apologize for your feelings.

Pay attention

We need to learn to be fully present in a moment of intense emotional and try to identify the message. Negative thinking patterns and negative emotions can tell us a lot about ourselves and if we pay close attention they can lead us to a better life. Discontentment is often a sign that there are changes we need to make in our life, frustration may give us the opportunity to reach out for help and anger speaks of unresolved issues. Sometimes we are too close to a situation to see it clearly and yet if we stop and really pay attention we realize that we had the answer all along.

Be kind to yourself

Finally, treat yourself with the compassion you would show your children, spouse or best friend. When you find yourself dismissing your hurts or berating yourself for your anger…STOP! What would you tell a loved one in this situation? Would you show compassion, offer advice or give comfort? Give that to yourself.

Are you being kind to yourself ?? Are you having realistic expectations from your life ?? Do you have a fear of negative emotions ??

You were reading a guest Post by Bee Joynes.