Energy Thinking
Coffee in the mornings is a thing, and it’s a thing for a reason. People depend on a jolt of energy to get them motivated. Coffee and/or tea is also a ritual that provides your morning with some structure. We like that feeling of energy moving through our body to help us shift from a warm comfortable bed to the daily grind of meetings and rush-hour. The need for a burst of energy in the morning doesn’t have to come solely from caffeine; we can also turn to a different more powerful form of energy, which is our thoughts.
Morning thoughts make or break your day. The phrase “I woke up on the wrong side of the bed” is derived from negative thoughts that set a precedence of gloom throughout the day. Our day starts with either a tone of negative or positive sparks. We teach ourselves how to view the world by what ideas we choose to focus on. We are constantly sifting through messages that relate back to our self-schema. Behaviors are derived from beliefs. And so we have always understood that our beliefs shape our actions. In those waking moments, what if we were acutely aware of and chose carefully what to deliberately attend to? Many wildly successful people have consistently revealed that, for them, their morning routine determines their level of productivity for the day. But where does the morning routine begin? In actuality, the morning routine starts the second you wake from sleep. The morning routine begins even before you get out of bed. How we communicate with ourselves in those waking moments is paramount to a productive morning, and day and evening. The day starts with your narrative of yourself in relationship to the world around you. So how do we start to incorporate such an intense focus in the moments where (most of the time) we are half asleep and groggy and don’t really want to get out of bed? It all starts with intention. As you are reading this now, for obvious reasons, you are currently able to reason and plan. In these moments you have every capability of planning and setting the intention for full-utilization of energizing thinking
Our thoughts are not pre-existing; they continue to be an evolving mechanism shaped by what we focus on. Our brain is not so much an object but a process of messages and actions we repeat. What would be different about your day if you reviewed a positive quote that resonates with you before getting out of bed, or repeated a mantra? Try making an effort to first, pay attention to what messages you send yourself upon waking, and then insert a positive affirmation. The way we interact with ourselves has huge consequences. As you are opening your eyes in the morning, place your day in a position of power by identifying how you want to feel and what you want to think about.
