Here are three super simple practices to follow in the first part of your day. They help keep you get clear, focused and in a good mood, resulting in a gently productive energy throughout your day. I’ve also shared a few more easy, mood boosting morning habits to increase your joyfulness.

Important: NONE of them require you to wake up early! LOL

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Hey there, welcome to the Feel Good Factor! I’m Susmitha Veganosaurus, and I’m so glad you’re here today. If you enjoy this episode, you’re gonna love my free newsletter, The Feel Good Tribe. Go to veganosaurus.com/newsletter to sign up.

Today I’m going to share a few different things for you to do in the first part of your day.

Preferably in the morning, right after you wake up, but any time before you begin your day’s activities and work and stuff like that.

Now I need to be very, very clear with you.

It does not matter what time you wake up!

Anything I share doesn’t require you to wake up early in the morning to do it. If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you know I’m a firm believer of waking up in your own time – slow mornings, starting everything at your own pace.

Listen to episode 189, I talk about why it’s important to work and create in alignment with your own energy cycles.

So, right off the bat, I want to tell you, I’m not expecting you to wake up early, okay? Whatever time you wake up, it doesn’t matter, but soon after that if you could do these things, it’s going to vastly improve the way you feel the rest of the day.

You’ll feel more clear and focussed. And therefore, in a very gentle, steady way, you get to be productive. Throughout the day, or for however many hours you choose to work, learn, create, etc.

One thing that I like to do after I’ve woken up and brushed my teeth – sometimes even before I brushed my teeth – is…

Step out into the balcony and look up at the sky.

Don’t directly stare at the sun! If you’re like me, when you’ve woken up, the sun is already up in the sky. Haha So do *not* directly stare at the sun. That’s not good for your eyes.

But the idea is to get some sunlight in your eyes. And you can get that by just looking up at the clouds, or at the sky, away from the sun. That’s enough. Light reflects off the clouds or the sky and comes into your eyes, and that’s all you’re trying to do.

Sunlight is a mood booster.

And also it helps your body set to that time, like, you realise what time it is. Your circadian rhythm is aligned very well to the sunlight.

So exposing yourself to sunlight, especially in the morning, but also other times through the day (sometimes in the middle when you want to take a break and just go sit for two, three minutes in the sun to soak it up) helps to improve your mood. It fills you with a sense of hope.

I’m not the kind of person who’ll do something every single day with discipline.

I do it for a while, then I kind of fall off the habit, then do it again.

So I can see a clear difference between the way I feel if I’ve consciously exposed myself to sunlight in the day versus on the days when I haven’t done it. You know, morning or not.

You don’t have a balcony? No problem. Sometimes I’m also lazy to go out into my balcony. So I just roll out of bed, open the window, and look up at the sky through the window. That’s all, that’s enough.

Doesn’t matter which part of the world you live in.

Yes, if you live in a tropical country like me, then we’re blessed with loads of sunlight. (A bit too much these days, right? LOL) But even if you’re in a colder place, a place where you don’t get enough sunlight throughout the day, especially during winter, it’s still okay. In fact, it’s especially required for you to go and look at the light while daylight is in the sky. It’s so, so important!

So again, remember, do not directly stare at the sun, but look out at the sky or look out around you. The idea is that daylight is soaking into you through your eyes, through your body.

The second excellent morning habit is…

Setting an intention for the day.

This doesn’t have to be some kind of complicated affirmation or making a wish. It doesn’t have to be any of that.

One simple intention, every single day – Let everything today go smoothly, let it be easy and friction free. Let it all go well.

If you know the prayer, Vakratunda Mahakaya, you can say it. You’re calling upon Ganesha to help make everything smooth through the day and remove all obstacles. He’s an obstacle remover. So say the prayer if you can.

Vakratunda Mahakaya,
Suryakoti Samaprabha,
Nirvignam Kurume Daiva,
Sarvakaryeshu Sarvada.

But again, you don’t have to chant or say a prayer or be religious if you don’t want to.

If you’re spiritually inclined to call the universe to help you, or angels or any gods, guide, gurus, your highest self…. yes, ask them to help you make the day smooth.

If you don’t want to do any of that, just set the very clear, very earthly intention that everything today goes smoothly and easily in a friction freeway.

That is all. Just that one intention every single day when you wake up in the morning.

You don’t even have to get out of bed to do that. You can sit in bed and set that intention. Lie in bed without even getting up, set that clear intention, then get up.

Again, you’re signalling to your mind, to your brain, your whole system, that it’ll all gonna go well. All is well.

“All is well” is a beautiful signal to send ourselves again and again. A reminder that ease is our default setting. It’s our natural state.

If everything goes well, what else do we need?

Every work you do, every connection you make, every decision you take in your business, if you go out or stay in, every chore, every creation – if it goes smoothly and easily, doesn’t matter how complicated the situation is.

If it goes smoothly for you, then that’s all you need in your day-to-day life, right? What else do you need on a daily basis?

The third thing is what I spoke about a bit in the previous episode, 244.

The power of touch.

The power of your hands, your fingertips, your palms – it’s an underrated thing!

Just from your head to your toes, gently touch yourself. Gently, smoothly, let your palms go over as many parts of your body as you can reach.

I’m not asking you to do some circus and twist and all that. LOL As far as you can reach, you know – your back, your shoulders, your waist, especially the side of your body along your rib cage.

If you place your palms around your waist and just pull down gently like that – Oh, the relaxation! Oh boy, that’s so, so good.

Gently stroke yourself from your head to your toe. And feel it. You can do it as softly or firmly as you like, you see. For the cheeks, for example, it needs to be soft. But for your waist, maybe a little more firm.

This is a beautiful nervous system reset.

You’re signalling to your nervous system to be relaxed. Activating your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest and relax and reset state.

But also, by doing this, you’re pulling yourself out of your head into your body.

Thoughts always run around in our minds. All kinds of things are always going on. Whether it’s first thing in the morning or later in the day, this is always going on.

But bring your focus to your body… because if you’re moving your hand down your leg, you will focus on your leg. If you’re rubbing your fingers together, you will focus on your fingers.

Bringing your attention from your mind into your body, is a beautiful way to start the day, because you start in a very relaxed way.

Include all these three easy morning habits into the first part of your day.

They’re simple, they take barely a couple of minutes, but the benefits are incredible!

Tried and tested. Not just tried, but tried and dropped and then did it and then dropped…you know, I’ve seen the difference in when I do it and when I don’t.

I highly recommend you do them on a daily basis.

After you wake up (it doesn’t matter what time you wake up), just do them every day. See how it benefits:

• the way you work, create, learn
• the way your brain works
• your motivation through the day
• the sense of hope and relaxation through the day

All of it gets impacted by these 3 simple things!

You can also include other things to help you stay in a good mood, in a nice state through the day.

A few more things that I do are…

Eating fruits, especially bananas, first thing in the morning.

Bananas are sweet, but also a naturally sweet thing. So it’s a mood booster.

Sweetness is a mood booster, and ripe bananas? Wow! Really great. I feel like having bananas first thing in the morning helps avoid other cravings through the day. I mean, it reduces cravings drastically.

Gardening.

Not gardening in the sense of doing involved gardening work. Not necessary. If you have even two or three plants in a pot in your balcony or or even on your kitchen counter or your table (like indoor plants), doesn’t matter what kind of plants – water them a little bit.

If you have herbs, touch them…I have Tulsi, Italian Basil, and Mint growing in tiny little plant planters in my balcony, I just touch the leaves and smell them. It feels so good!

You just generally touch the leaf and smell it, or dig the soil a little bit and smell that soil. That’s also a mood booster.

And then finally, to help you boost the Serotonin in your system, if you can get your hands on them…

Eat one Brazil Nut a day.

This helps you stay in a nice, balanced, joyful mood.

Joy, satisfaction, feeling of calmness is what leads to better productivity and creativity.

So yeah, that’s it for today. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter, The Feel Good Tribe.

Take care! Talk to you again next week. Bye.

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and I’m most in my element when I’m teaching, writing, and playing with clay. I believe authenticity and kindness are the keys to world peace. Sign up for myfree newsletterwhere I share conversational emails with stories about Life and Business Tips, Vegan Hacks, Holistic Guidance, and more.“

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