A lot of people say who struggle with health anxiety have lots of morning anxiety. Today I want to share a system that I've used with you to start overcoming this feeling, to start moving with it, to start defying these fears, and to start moving towards your day in a different way.
With morning anxiety, I remember a lot of times I would wake up and go:
"Oh my goodness. Another day. Another day of this..."
"I can't do it anymore. I really can't"
This cycle continues to go on and on. The vicious cycle of waking up and at times I couldn't wait to get back to bed again.
"I can't wait to sleep. I can't wait to put my head on the pillow"
Therefore, shutting myself off the world, going completely unconscious and just kind of a vacation from your sensations.
Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash
As soon as you wake up in the morning, you basically create these associations that morning equals anxiety.
Morning equals dread and fear.
When I showered I did it very quickly with lots of shallow breathing. When I was eating my food I didn't know what I was eating. Next thing you know I had to get in my car, I was full of anxiety, and with every thought we create a visual representation around that thought in our mind.
There were lots of visuals in my mind constantly playing out in my subconscious mind, telling me that I should fear. I should have doubt that I'm going to get more anxiety in the future...
The "Two by two by two" Routine
I want to tackle it head-on and get rid of this morning anxiety. I started a two by two by two routine.
This going to take commitment and may take some work in the first couple weeks. But it is going to benefit you.
Negativity journal (2 Mins)
I spend the first two minutes to write my negativity journal.
The negativity journal is something which works really well for me. For two minutes, I write down all my negative thoughts, all my fears, all my challenges for the day, all the things that might happen, and all their catastrophic thoughts out.
What this does is that you start to associate the first two minutes of your morning with getting your negative thoughts out of you and putting it in a journal app.
Throughout the day if you are feeling anxious, fearful and negative, you can respect your subconscious mind and thoughts but do not deal with them. You don't have time for this right now.
You'll deal with them in the two minute powerful morning exercise at the start of your day.
Gratitude/Stretching routine (2 Mins)
The next two minutes is your gratitude/stretching routine.
What sort of things are you grateful for?
Turn your attention away from the fear, negativity, and the "what if" thinking cycle to what you're grateful for.
I'm grateful:
- For my career right now
- For my overall having great health
- For being able to have my family around all the time
- To be alive
Think of whatever that helps you to get your momentum back there. Write it down in your journal app.
Photo by Rowan Chestnut on Unsplash
Next, start a stretching routine.
We lied down for six seven hours straight and now it's time for us to get our bodies moving, get in touch and to kind of stretch ourselves out and to break our pattern of sleepiness.
Yoga is fantastic in the morning. I like to do a yoga routine and that just gets me moving in the right direction!
Interview your future self (2 Mins)
The kind of questions you ask determine the kind of life you lead. That’s because your questions trigger its own set of answers, which lead to certain emotions, which then lead to certain actions, followed by results.
Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash
Hence, this last two minutes exercise is very powerful because you get to interview your future self.
Spend two minutes to look into the mirror and understand that the person that's looking back at you is your future self.
That person in the mirror is one year down the road.
That person has overcome his/her anxiety, has started that new business, has a great social circle, fulfilled in his/her relationships, and everything that you want to happen is in that person.
What you're going to do is to pick three questions to ask our future self.
For example:
- How did you start that business?
- How did you get to travel the world?
- How did you in fact overcome those fearful thoughts?
In this moment when you ask your first question, you ask with a slight pause and you'd begin to get some answers.
If you don't get answers right away, you're going to find you're getting answers throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the month and such and you'll notice the momentum you start to gain.
Summary
- For the first two minutes, start your day with your negativity journal when you wake up.
- Then get into your gratitude / stretching routine in the morning - that's your second two minutes.
- Then your third two minutes is going to be you talking to your future self in the mirror.
By then you should have a routine to start your entire day with confidence and full of momentum.
- You don't have time for negativity and fear anymore
- You're going to move forward
- You're not going to sit at the back of the meeting room anymore
- You're not going to avoid people that bring fear in you
- You're going to confront those things because you've started my day properly
Start a negativity and gratitude journal in Journey now.