A supportive wake up routine can significantly ease the subtle—yet persistent—morning anxiety so many women experience (and often despise).
While it may seem like a small detail, how you start your morning directly impacts your nervous system, mood, energy, and overall sense of well-being.
This post is all about a wake up routine!
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This simple wake-up routine supports your nervous system by addressing common causes of morning anxiety, helping you start the day feeling calmer, steadier, and more in control.
Wake Up Routine
Truthfully, your morning routine (especially a wake up routine) starts the night before. If you want to wake up actually feeling good, then the night before is critical.
Let's start with the most important...
1. Avoid this the night before...
Ask yourself, when you wake up and feel anxious what were you drinking the night before? Were you maybe tooling with some alcoholic beverages?!
I have friends who wake up anxious all the time, and they wonder why. Then, I see them drinking almost every night and it makes me wonder: Do they realize that drinking alcohol is probabllyyyy causing their morning anxiety?!
It is no secret that alcohol can be a cause for negative feelings, sensations, and emotions the following day.
But, it's not about completely giving it up. It is about drinking in moderation.
Wine, and other drinks, are sacred and beautiful and we just have to learn to respect them. Using this one tiny shift we can conquer alcohol in moderation and be one step closer to relieving our morning anxiety.
2. Number #1 trick
To waking up early and having a wake up routine that you can blindly do, setting out your clothes the night before will make your wake-up 10000x easier.
It seems silly that simply putting clothes out on your dresser will make your morning that much better. But, it goes deeper than that.
By putting your clothes out (whether work outfit or exercise outfit) you are planning your morning the night before. So, when you wake up you are prepared.
Studies shows that when people ‘refocus on planning’ during uncertain or stressful periods, they experience fewer negative emotions and lower anxiety symptoms, indicating that planning itself functions as an emotion-regulation strategy.
Imagine waking up and without even thinking just putting on your workout clothes and meandering to the gym. You might as well be able to do it with your eyes closed!
3. Don't press snooze, use this instead
We have all been there, and will probably return to the land of snoozing in the morning. But, if your wake up routine avoids the snooze button you will be wildly better off!
This study shows us that pressing snooze impacts our sleep to where we feel prolonged fatigue after waking up.
So instead of snoozing giving you more sleep and waking up more rested, that is actually not really the case. Your wake up routine will become more difficult due to the prolonged fatigue and grogginess.
Instead, use this sunrise alarm! It mimics natural sunlight and gradually gets brighter right before the alarm goes off. A perfect match for our circadian rhythms, natural wake up routines, and more!
Especially for those 5AM risers, this can realllyyy help those mornings to wake up more naturally and calmly. No more blaring alarm in the deepest part of your sleep!
4. PLEASE avoid at all costs
I don't know about you, but I get totally weird about phones and TVs. It just feels like something we ought to realllyyy get control of, or it takes control of you. And in the latter, it's not pretty!
So, please for the love of everything, avoid your phone and/or TV right when you wake up.
I mean, that moment your alarm goes off and you immediately grab your phone and start scrolling, answering texts, seeing what's new, etc. That is like setting up your mind for absolute failure the rest of the day.
Our minds are so vulnerable right in the morning, we are not ready for an overload of information. In fact, flooding our minds with content, texts, etc, actually effects our focus and cognitive abilities later in the day.
Now, imagine why you are feeling anxious...
5. Have ONE immediate thing to do
When I started getting into morning routines years ago, I started with one simple task. Wake up and brush my teeth. That was it. Nothing else mattered and I could do it with my eyes closed!
Have just one simple and immediate morning habit you do every morning right when you wake up. You can begin to slowly build onto it, or keep it as it!
You can brush your teeth, make your bed, get dressed, take a shower, I mean anything works! This is the easy one!
Now, make it all easier
Now that you have you wake up routine somewhat mastered, right? Avoid your phone, get a sunrise alarm, have your clothes laid out, and wake up with one simple task.
Then what?
Well, I made a super simple and easy morning routine checklist just for you in this moment. Once you have your wake up routine simplified and dialed in, then you can move through this morning routine checklist!
Now can you imagine waking up gently with a sunrise alarm, having your clothes already set out nicely on your dresser, and knowing the first things to do in the morning!
No more frantically jumping out of bed, no more wondering what to do next, your anxiety will fall to the waist side. It is a gentle and small step into taking control of your mornings.
Anxiety tends to come in those moments of uncertainty and lack of control of a situation. So, taking control of your wake up routine is an amazing start to finding that ground and getting your nervous system into balance.