How to Gladly Wake Up before 5:00 AM

Allowing your body to rise according to its more natural cycles has come to mean allowing it to sleep longer. This is only half of the equation. Waking up early in the morning can increase your energy throughout the entire day, and there are a few easy tips to make that happen.

Many people see sleep as the only thing that gives our body the energy that it needs throughout the day. This is not the case. Meditation and mindfulness are tools that can effectively increase energy, and the morning routine is the foundation of each day's energy-increasing efforts.

You need to be EXCITED to wake up early. Like, actually excited about the activity, not about the output of the activity. If you are attempting - or even succeeding - in waking up early through will power despite your body's craving for more sleep, you are depleting your energy. Remember that your energy is mental, emotional, spiritual and physical, not just physical. All are interconnected. Having authentic excitement for the next morning's routine each night as you fall asleep is paramount for purposefully doing what you are doing, which is to enjoy life and have an abundance of energy to do so.

Getting excited about a morning routine is easy if you allow it to be. Think about yourself as a child and wanting to get up early to play, play, play. The nights before a daddy/daughter adventure day, a daughter is ecstatic to go to bed. She wants to wake up so she wants to fall asleep. When she wakes up, she's filled with life and energy. She might have only gotten 7 hours of sleep (not traditionally enough for a four-year-old), but will have more energy that day than any other day...and in the evening will be so excited for sleep once again.

Think about your morning routine like a four-year-old. What do you want to do? Can you get so excited about an extended self-care routine? An extra five minutes in the shower? Making smoothies and juices for the day? Sitting outside and meditating to the sunrise? Reviewing your lists of things to do that day and seeing them come together? Or perhaps just waking up and laying in bed an extra five minutes to allow your body to adjust to the day?

Meditation = energy and insight pouring into you. Meditation in the morning is more important to some than brushing teeth. We have a Spirit Science friend that about two years ago made ONE simple change in his life - adding a morning meditation. He was a program coordinator for a tech company at the time. He's now managing millions of dollars in alternative investments for wealthy individuals. When we trace back all of the decisions and the synchronicities that occurred from two years ago until today, we see that it all started with morning meditation as the catalyst. His mind was right in the mornings, 7 days a week. He saw the opportunities and connected the dots that others were unaware of. He was zoomed out and locked in at the same time. He saw blockchain at its right peak and jumped in. He saw how diet affected his clarity and made changes. He prioritized travel and his sexual relationship and saw more energy come forth. This all started with the beginning of the day...setting the mind in its place of observer, not driver of all activity.

Gladly waking up early means preparing for it the night before. Is your house in order when you fall asleep? Are these unfinished tasks all-around your home? Are there unanswered emails that you FEEL LIKE you need to get to before you go to sleep? If the answer is yes, then you either need to change your perspective on what needs to be done or suck it up and get it done before you go to sleep. If you go into your evening routine and eventually your sleep with anything other than 1) gratitude for your day and 2) excitement for tomorrow, then you will not be able to find consistent emotional and spiritual sleep...where ALL of your bodies can rest.

An extra 20 minutes each night to tidy the home, do the dishes, put away the laundry, sweep the floors, etc. makes a world of difference in the energy of your home as you sleep, which sets you up for the next day. Getting projects completed sometimes means working into the night. That's fine but ENJOY IT. Make hot chocolate, get cozy, take ten minutes to set the stage for a fun late-night work session. That will bring your energy back into joy as you jump into sleep, and again, make it FUN to wake up early and love yourself.

Changing the perspective that sleep is the only way you receive energy is paramount. You are constantly receiving energy if you allow yourself.