1. Morning is the best time of the day to have sex, not only does it boost your immune system and release oxytocin to make you more relaxed – a quickie in the morning will set you up for the day!
2. Get that heart beating and feel-good hormones flowing with just 5 minutes of stretching, which will start to release serotonin (the happy hormone) as well as cortisol (the de-stressing hormone). Science has shown that just 5 days of doing this will make your outlook more positive.
3. Programme your phone alarm to play your fave feel-good song that will make you want to start throwing some shapes.
4. Once you’ve got that piece of happy music programmed in your phone, don’t press the snooze button as those minutes when you fall back to sleep again can make us the most tired – and groggy – of all. Remember if you snooze, you lose!
5. Wear something yellow in bed – it’s the colour of fun, happiness and playfulness. It’s tough to be grumpy wearing yellow. And if jim-jams aren’t your thing, have your morning brew in a yellow cup or use a yellow towel to keep the invigoration of that shower going.
6. Have an easy to make (or readymade) breakfast on hand that you look forward to. Oats are a brilliantly balanced breakfast choice – filling, nutritious and full of energy to get you going first thing and fuel you all through the morning. I like MOMA breakfast oats.
7. Unless you absolutely have to, don’t put the alarm on over the weekend. The sheer anticipation of deferred reward is part of becoming a morning person. You’ve got a maximum of 5 alarms, until you can have a couple of lie ins. Not so bad as long as the kids give you a few extra minutes too!
8. Don’t punish your system, if you find mornings difficult, simply shave off 3 minutes each weekday morning over a period of two weeks. You’ll be getting up just half an hour earlier then, feeling more refreshed and you’ll hardly notice the ‘pain’.
9. And here’s some other ways to jump-start your sluggish mornings too for those emergency mornings when you have no choice but to spring out of bed!
Jump into an ice-cold shower
Tug or pull your hair to get the blood flowing to your head
For the really determined, doing a headstand will work even better!
Put some eye drops in to refresh those tired eyes as you wake up
Use an old fashioned bell alarm clock in a saucepan on the other side of your bedroom