Saying ‘No’ to Instagram help…

I know. Instagram would have you believe that your perfect morning comes intricately associated with discount codes and affiliate links. Subscription to morning hymns, waking up with that perfect skin, all thanks to that bank-breaking night serum and that on-an-empty-stomach cup of God-knows-what drink prescribed by that influencer! Hey, not really, no! Your best morning rituals cost nothing really, except perhaps your alarm clock’s dignity when you repeatedly hit snooze!

I still believe early morning people are that special breed, up and active before the sun wakes up, out on their yoga mats on the green grass, a quarter dozen sun salutations and still home on time for that quick tossed-in-the-pan healthy breakfast. Wow! I could never whip up enough courage to even try this daily rigour. 

But as it turns out, the secret to building a beautiful start to your day isn’t in the expensive supplements or the designer yoga mat. Neither is it in chasing Instagram to discover the latest in what’s brewing for that perfect flat tummy or that glowing skin. It’s in the simple act of meeting your morning with intention rather than treating it like a fire drill where you’re both the fire and the person who forgot where they put the extinguisher. Embracing a mindful morning routine can truly shift your entire perspective.

Let me share what’s worked for me, with the caveat that I’m still very much a work in progress. It’s a simple word and a key to our life being a success. Its called ‘happiness’. 

Some mornings I’m a zen Goddess floating through my mundane rituals. Making myself a cup of tea, taking my doggies out, waking up my son for school, preparing his breakfast while its still dark outside. All regular, nothing exotic, nothing exciting. Yet in this boredom lies a strange comfort. Other mornings of course, I’m a confused goblin who can’t remember where I’ve kept my cup of tea or where I had kept my laptop charger the night before. I would climb those many stairs up to my bedroom and wonder why I got there in the first place. Etc etc etc. I comfort myself often telling myself “oh this is mid-life overworked woman syndrome”.

And from this humble background of thou, comes this journal of suggestions on how to make your mornings better, more relaxed. A sure recipe, if not for Nirvana, at least for a day of low stress and more smiles. 

First ritual: waking up without immediately reaching for my phone. This one nearly kill us all. My phone and I had developed what therapists might call an unhealthy codependency. But here’s the thing—starting your day by scrolling through other people’s curated lives, reading news designed to make you anxious, or checking work emails at 6am is like voluntarily jumping into a pool of piranhas. Skip this love story with your phone, at least keep it at bay for the first hour of your day!

Instead, I spend those first few minutes simply lying there, checking in with myself. And I cannot over emphasise on just how important this is. Awaken your mind. Be conscious. How do I feel? What kind of energy am I bringing to this day? Is that an actual ache in my shoulder or did I sleep funny? It’s a small act of self-awareness that costs nothing but pays dividends in not stumbling through my day like a particularly confused zombie. Well, what I mean is, you don’t jump out of bed like a woman bitten by a bug and spring to action. No! You begin your day with YOU. Believe me, a few minutes of your thoughts focussed on yourself would do you a world of good. Its beginning the day on such a lovely note. Its you!

Next: water. A full glass of room-temperature water before anything else. Do not give this a miss because this sounds so boring. So before you dismiss this as too simple to matter, consider that you’ve just spent eight hours not hydrating. Your body is parched, your brain is foggy, and that first glass of water is like sending a memo to all your cells saying, ‘Good morning! We’re doing this again!’ Go for it.

Then comes the ritual I call ‘meeting the day.’ I step outside—balcony, garden, street corner, wherever—and simply observe. What’s the temperature? Is there a breeze? What do I notice? Sometimes it’s the particular quality of morning light. Sometimes it’s a bird letting our constant calls to God knows whom. Sometimes it’s just the reminder that I’m part of this larger, breathing world and not merely a brain in a box responding to email notifications. I have learnt that this small gesture takes our attention consciously away from ourselves into the world, albeit for a short while. Short is ok, to start with, no? This is a wonderful way to cultivate daily gratitude for the world around us.

Well now, time for me to progress to my ‘next phase’. Conscious movement. Of course, most of my days are filled with clumsy and certainly not anything like ‘graceful yoga flow’, a bunch of aggressive stretching whilst muttering to no one my frustrations. Well, the point isn’t to achieve Instagram-worthy poses. The point is to remind your body that it exists and would quite like to be acknowledged before you spend the next eight hours hunched over a laptop like a scholarly maniac. While targetting planned workout is always welcome, to those who cannot, get your body in some workouts. Common, basic stretching and walking can be managed in your kitchen and home. Take a pause from hunched-over laptop work and take a conscious 10 minute work or do some simple stretches. Common, thats doable. While cooking, take turns to stand on your heels to a count of ten and then stand on your toes. Do some sideways stretching and try to touch your toes while those onions are turning pink or while the water is boiling. Simple, but thoughtful. And totally doable!

Let’s move on now to my ‘doing nothing’ time. Silence. Just five minutes of it. No music, no podcasts, no urgent mental planning. Simply sitting with your thoughts, watching them drift by like clouds. Your brain will protest. It will throw up shopping lists, anxieties about that nasty thing you heard, sudden urgent concerns about whether you’ve left the iron on (you haven’t). Let these thoughts come and go. Do not try to stop them. Remember, your aim is to just practise not immediately acting on every single thought, till a point when fleeting thoughts stop bothering you. Let them come and go as they please. A 5 minute silence may sound easy; be warned, it’s not! 5 minutes would seem like an eternity at the start. Get used to it slowly.

If silence feels too intimidating (it did for me initially), try this instead: make a list of three things you’re looking forward to today. Not grand things. Not ‘achieving world peace’ or ‘finally understanding cryptocurrency.’ Small things. Your first cup of tea. That book you’re reading. A phone call with a friend. The simple act of directing your attention towards anticipation rather than dread changes the entire flavour of your morning.

Finally, and this one’s crucial: decide on your one intention for the day. Not seventeen goals that would require you to develop superpowers. One intention. Maybe it’s ‘respond rather than react.’ Maybe it’s ‘notice beauty.’ Maybe it’s trying out that new grilled fish recipe’. Whatever it is, it becomes your north star for the day.

The beauty of these rituals lies in their simplicity. No subscription needed here. No membership fees. No complicated instructions written by some Michelin Star chef which you must follow. No, nothing as complex. Just you, your attention and the choice to meet your day with intention rather than chaos.

Will you do this perfectly every day? Absolutely not. Some mornings you’ll sleep through your alarm, spill water on yourself, skip everything and overdo on caffeine whilst simultaneously trying to put your brains to your child’s monstrous exam syllabus. This is called being human. The ritual isn’t about perfection—it’s about returning. Determination to return again and again, to these small practices that remind you of who you are and who you want to be.

Start with one. Any one activity. Maybe it’s the water. Maybe it’s stepping outside for two minutes. Maybe it’s simply putting your phone in another room overnight so you’re not greeted by the blue glow of digital anxiety before your eyes are fully open. Small steps, taken consistently, create the life you actually want to live.

The morning ritual industry wants to sell you complicated solutions to a simple problem: we’ve forgotten how to meet our days with awareness. But awareness doesn’t require a subscription or a membership fee. It requires attention. And attention is free, though in our distracted world, it has sadly become our most precious currency.

So tomorrow morning, before you reach for your phone, before you leap into the day’s demands, try just one of these rituals. Meet yourself first. The emails can wait. The world will still be there. But this moment, on this particular morning, will never come again. Seems worth savouring, doesn’t it?