Good morning heathens, Today I thought it would be a good day to talk about routines. And the best way that I can bridge the subject of morning routines is to walk you through my own personal practice and why I do the things that I do. 
For starters I will say that it is not easy to develop any routine, much less a morning routine, and I don't want to make it seem like it is. I think many people, at least the ones that I have talked to, find it almost impossible to change the routine that they have established over their lifetime. Let's first understand that everyone has a routine, period. Even someone that wakes up in a new place and situation every morning has established some morning patterns. One example would be to grab a cup of coffee and pour over social media while catching up on what you missed while sleeping. While this is probably not the best practice, I'm not here to judge. Think back on what you do every morning while getting ready for work or school. Now consider when those morning routines were adopted. It is easy to adopt a new routine when your life has had a major change. As an example when I retired from the Marine Corps I maintained some of my morning routine while easily dropping others, most notably the 5am physical training session and morning formation. In time I fell into a different habit of sleeping in late and watching the TV news morning shows.
We could argue that those are not routines but just being lazy. I suppose that both are correct. There is some evidence to show that repeating the same action over and over for (x) many times, is how you establish a pattern. I don't disbelieve that data, but I think it can be much more simple than counting 10k repetitions or whatever the most current study suggests. I also believe in creative visualization, so if the first phase that routine is to visualize yourself completing the rest of it, you are mentally and emotionally triggering the reaction that you want, which is to say, completing your routine.
The biggest hurdle to establishing a beneficial routine is to break through the already persistent tendency to do as you have done before. This does not mean that you are lazy or unmotivated. There is actually a medical reason why this is hard. It is called "homeostasis" and it means that the body and mind seek stay in a comfort zone of established patterns. But we can all agree that growth does not happen in a comfort zone. Those will include an unconscious routine and even poor eating habits. The act of breaking out of this unrewarding, automatic reactive lifestyle is to break the loop of stasis. That is why adopting a new routine after a major life change is easier than doing it out of the blue. This may be the origin of the story of bouncing back from rock bottom. But I wont go down that road right now.
The best way to describe the process that has worked for me is to just cover my routine and when I adopted it. So here is my current wake up routine, and how I keep it going.
Wakeup is usually around 0600, I get up with the kids for school and usually have a cup of coffee while I write in my journal and visualize the rest of my ideal morning. I may also take a peek at the socials to see if there is anything urgent that I should address. Not the best first step but the socials are more than a distraction around here so they do require constant maintenance. The journaling part is easy because I have been doing it off and on since high school. I was once in a conversation about my military tour in Somalia and after some points were a little fuzzy, I pulled out my journal from that deployment only to read that I was misremembering a large portion of the events. This made journaling seem like the most important tool that I had for self reflection, remembering the lessons learned the hard way, and passing on accurate information to future generations. I do fail to record periods of my life but knowing the importance of it I do come back to it if I fall off the wagon for a while. I always try to keep an accurate journal, so I can trust the information years down the road when I forget the major details. It is also important to note that I will return to that journal throughout the day and before bed, to add accurate info as it happens. It is a self limiting practice to try and remember a whole days worth of information and write it all down at one sitting. That is a sure fire way to set yourself up for failure. And if you miss a day or three, jump back into it where you are, not where you left off. It takes the pain out of the process, and it will eventually become a cherished routine.
After I get that squared away I sit down for a meditation. I think mediation is one of those things that most everyone wants to do routinely, says they do often, but barely ever engages in. The reason is that when people try, no matter how well intended, meditation is boring and uncomfortable. I wont tell you how to sit or hold your hands. I wont tell you what to think or even how to empty your mind. I can only speak on what works for me to break through that startup phase. Now, I light a candle on my personal altar to establish a connection with the gods, and I burn an incense, usually chosen for the mindset that I want to cultivate for myself for the day. But often I meditate outside or when traveling without those luxuries. I like to get my meditation in fairly early in the morning when my mind is not fully awake or engaged yet. That helps me clear my mind and get into the right headspace, but again I consider that a luxury as well. I do my meditations in multiples of three minutes, I found that is the perfect increment in which to upgrade or downgrade this activity. So start by setting a timer for 3 minutes. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position and start the timer. If you have an itch, scratch it, no need to suffer, these distractions will pass in time. If you are uncomfortable, adjust, no one is judging you, but you. Three minutes will go very fast and if you do this every day you will eventually be comfortable enough to do 6, 9, 12, 15, etc. My standard is 15 minutes but in times of instability in my life, I increase this time up to 30 minutes when needed. Don't be concerned with the benefits, or seeing results, just establish the routine. Much like switching to a whitening toothpaste, results take time to be noticed, but they are happening. The last thing I'll say about meditation is that I try to avoid thinking about the topics of the day and instead focus on how I want to feel today. Focusing on tasks alone, makes me feel unnecessarily anxious for the rest of the day. I will also down a glass of water to wake up my cells and I put in wireless headphones with some mediation music to block out the external noises. Once mastered you can do this anywhere just to clear out your headspace and shake off some frustration that is affecting your mindset. But like any tool, you first have to learn how and when to use it.
The third phase of my routine is my morning cold water therapy. There are a great many physical and mental health benefits from an ice bath and that is certainly not the focus of this post. I will say google is your buddy on this one. I started my cold plunge routine with a cold morning shower. I started by blasting the cold water after my showers but I felt that the benefits were diminished by the initial overheating. So I switched to stepping into a cold shower first, I immediately had flashbacks to the cold morning canteen showers in bootcamp. Perhaps they actually knew what they were doing after all. Eventually I got lucky and found a 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank on clearance because of a cracked rim. I picked this up and began the morning plunge routine. By far this is the best way that I have found for me. I started this practice during the summer to establish my routine, but now it is the dead of winter and I have to break up the ice every morning just to get in it. My times in the winter usually hover around 2 to 3 minutes but I can do much longer if I want to. Two minutes is my minimum but it didn't start out there. It started out with just stepping in, dropping to the neck and getting right back out. One thing that I do Is when I wake is put on my swim trunks. If I skip the tank I have to change out of my trunks and into work clothes, knowing that I skipped the tank, and that leaves me a little embarrassed, so mentally I try to avoid disappointing myself, and just do it. After a while the need to challenge ones-self will set in and longer times can be achieved. I think this desire to challenge yourself and do the hard stuff first is an unspoken mental benefit to this practice.
I was on a float trip with some veteran friends on the Smith river in Montana and we were doing some holistic healing techniques each morning of the trip. When the morning came to do the cold plunge I felt a strong urge to challenge myself. Being that I am the only person in the group that does this routinely, I went in first with the sole intent of staying in until everyone else was done. Granted there was no ice on the water, but it was still unreasonably cold. I did of course accomplish this even though some of them caught onto what I was doing and tried to make it as hard on me as they could. Because that's what friends do, hahaha. In short, if you feel an challenge internally, go for it, You might surprise yourself.
If you are considering cold water therapy then I would suggest that you talk this over with your doctor before beginning. For all the health benefits there could be some risks depending on your individual health situation. Anther factor to consider is the act of getting warm again. For many cultures these cold water plunges are coupled with a sauna session. That is a great idea, although, not always available. I myself have a hot tub that I can escape to after my plunge. I don't always use it but it is always available. A hot shower or a steamed up bathroom is also an affordable alternative. If I am engaging in this activity in a forest lake or stream then I will make sure I have a camp fire and wool blanket ready to go for a warm up, after the dip. As always, self preservation is always a good idea. The act of moving between hot and cold is reportedly beneficial to blood vessels by promoting elasticity and also increases your bodies ability to thermally regulate its temperature which give you a much wider temperature comfort zone.
After my morning dip I will enjoy a hot breakfast and then head up to the office to begin my day. I find that during the day when things get a bit overwhelming I often feel the need to climb back into that cold tank for a reset. I believe that is my body and brain looking for that endorphin boost to improve my mood when frustrated. In a lot of cases, since I am so familiar with the feeling and process, If I meditate on it for a couple minutes, I can also receive that mood stabilizing boost.
In any case the big three of my routine are self reflection (journaling), meditation, and cold water therapy. All of these together or separate are ancient practices that our ancestors used to maintain a healthy body, mind, and lifestyle. These are the medicines of our forefathers that have slowly been marginalized, demonized, and ridiculed by the pharmacological industry, therefore, being pushed to the very fringes of main stream health practices. Fortunately Sports medicine has once again legitimized Ice therapy and it is finally making a healthy come back. -þórr viki
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