What's the Best Part of Waking Up?

You have no doubt read the tips about good strategies when you first wake up**. You have also read about what some people find effective and what really successful people do. (I’ll let you in on a secret about that: Really successful people pay others to do the hard work of getting up in the morning.)

Of course, we have to be mindful of the asterisks. Should your routine be the same when you're facing a day’s work and when you're on vacation? Should it be the same when you're a retiree and when you're a single, working mother of six young kids, three dogs, and two cats? Obviously, circumstances vary and any general strategy has to be adapted to circumstances. That being said, let’s consider common suggestions about that morning routine.

Make Your Bed

This idea is rooted in the notion that getting started early in the day with necessary routines gets you in the right mindset for action. A couple of comments about this.

1. If you are going to make your bed as you’re waking up, please make sure there’s nobody in it.
2. There’s a lot of evidence that suggests that our bodies create an environment on sheets and bed linens that leads to microorganisms (i.e. bugs) clinging to the sheets, in which case the best plan is to leave the bed unmade for a few hours, so the sheets can air out.

Have a Bowel Movement

The notion behind this suggestion is that this activity will stimulate the stomach and even prepare you for some light exercise.

Get Sunlight

The body needs to know it’s now daytime, begin to change the circadian rhythms, and cut down on melatonin. The natural way of doing this is to expose yourself to real sunlight. Your dogs, and most animals, respond to this light change.

Exercise

Your body has been stationary for several hours and you need to move. Some people recommend simple stretching exercises, others something more demanding, like a walk or a run.

Express Gratitude

It is valuable to appreciate that you have been given the beautiful gift of another day.

Drink Water

Drinking water is a valuable habit as you are likely to be dehydrated. It also helps get the body ready for a more awakened state.

Create a To-Do List

This will supposedly get your head into processing mode and prepare you for the day.

This raises an interesting point about brain states.

As a useful generality, brain activity can be represented in these four main groups of brainwaves.

Delta waves: 1-4 cycles per second. Deep sleep

Theta waves: 4-8 cycles per second. Light sleep

Alpha waves: 9-12 cycles per second. Relaxed wakefulness

Beta waves: 13-30 cycles per second. Cognitive processing.

When you wake up, you are in a low alpha state and many of the strategies described above are about getting you into beta state as quickly as possible.

But wait a minute!

The low alpha state is likely to be one of your most creative times. Some of my best ideas have come when just waking up or shortly thereafter. Why rush yourself out of this creative, insightful state? Why buy into the notion that unless you are in beta mode you’re being unproductive?

As Einstein stated:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

I suspect that Albert wasn’t making his bed when he came up with that thought. He was probably out for a walk in nature and soaking up the early morning sun.

So, if it’s possible and practical, I would recommend not rushing into cognitive processing. Don’t look at your phone or the television, just allow yourself to be. Indeed, meditation is often suggested as another morning routine. But maybe it doesn’t even have to be that formalized. Don’t rush. Just be. Allow yourself to wake up gradually. Not racing into “productive” mode might be, in the end, more productive.

Another morning routine possibility comes from Oscar Wilde. Clearly, a potential advocate of the impending positive psychology movement, Wilde summed it up well.

“When you first wake up in the morning, smile and get it over with.”

Recently, I had a Buddha moment, which actually lasted a couple of hours. After a brief afternoon nap one weekend, I woke up in a tremendous state of peace. I had experienced this division in consciousness before but only for a minute or two. This time, the sense of just being was incredible. The usual sensations and experiences of the external and internal world were present but discerned as separate, without their usual demands.

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Now, being in this incredibly peaceful state didn’t mean I was sitting on the couch with my eyes closed. Far from it. I was able to energetically attend to some household chores that needed attention while still maintaining this peaceful mindset.

My point is that getting into such states doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. Not at all. You can do it in a flow state and a peaceful mindset.

We must get away from the binary simplicity of believing that one is either energized and productive or peaceful and lazy.