"Where am I?

What am I doing?

Am I awake?

What's that strange sound? …. *thinking-very-slowly

Oh right, that's my alarm.

Okay, I'm pretty sure am still sleeping.

……. 30-sec later

Ugh, where is that snooze button?"

We've been there aren't we? I know we experienced this similar weird feeling in our half sleep-half awake self still thinking unconsciously whether to take a step to open our eyes or the other way around. As much as we love to do things with our eyes open, still we prefer to close our eyes and flying on a dream land with our fluffy pet unicorn. With that being said, we are an intelligent human being, we know that it's hard for us to choose to wake up, so we came up with a smart solution, to put a lots of alarm. Hoping that we will wake up one day, somehow. 

I know I'm not the only one who put a tons of alarm, like 4:30, 4:35, 4:45, 5:00, 5:10, 5:12, 5:15, 5:25 AM? 

yeah, you too? Great.

And yet yourself still push that snooze button over and over again. You are aware that you have to wake up, because you have so much thing to do, and plus maybe you have to go to that early meeting, or class. But you don’t feel like it so you just keep hitting that snooze button until your finger bleeds then you realize it's already 7 AM. You're doomed. Sounds like you? You might saying this; Duh, Sekar? Of course, I do that all the time. 

Starting your day off right is crucial when you want to feel un-garbage for the rest of the day. You might think? Nah, it does not matter. Hear me out. Because I know, you know. We all know. We just know. We experience this thing every-single-day, we wake up every single day. Therefore you might understand somehow about your mood changes depends with your routine. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice this one out, we just have get to know ourselves better, even on it tiny-bity self.

Okay alright, here is the thing, Would you rather wake up then spend an hour in bed and scrolling through social media? Or divide that hour into something productive? We both know that social media is pretty addicting. According to research, the average person will spend nearly two hours (approximately 116 minutes) on social media every day, and the cray-cray thing is teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms. Shocked? Me too. It's such a waste of time when you think about it.

So for that being said, I will tell you my routine in a way that will improve your morning, yes you have to be a morning person, sorry for the night owl out there. I promise you, it just take an hour from your morning to get your day feel extremely wonderful. Morning is my favorite time of the day, every time I go to bed, I always looking forward for morning to come. Before I go to bed, I always wonder things about tomorrow, because my half nerdy half fancy person am, wondered about the next chapter of a book, or excited for what clothes to wear, or will be there something exciting happen tomorrow? You know?!?!

The thing is I've been experimenting to myself to know what makes me feel happier, that means how I feel happy in overall self. Being physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually happy.

So, I keep a track on an app called "Daylio" which is a mood track app. Basically, this thing always asks you "how are you feeling?" every day. Just like your boyfriend who always concerned about how you feel, but in my case I have no one to call as my boyfriend, therefore I like this app so much. No worries.

With this in mind, here are the things that scientifically "proven by me" to begin your day right for an awesome great day ahead.

You're thinking? Why should I wake up when it's still dark outside? But Sekar, I thought I should wake up when it's sunrise when the sun is shining, hence; rise and shine? Yes, but when we are packed with schedule, we have no time to wake up at 7am. The great thing to wake up when it's still dark, you tend to be more observant on your surroundings. It has shown that wake up early increase your productivity as well, and having a better focus.

On the other hand, I adopted 2 cats this year which is a lot of responsibility. I need to feed them anytime they started to meowing for food, which they tends to meowing in early morning, so I need to make them food, because I love them and I don't want them to die in hunger.

Back to the topic, It's necessary to get an 8-hour sleep for our brain to perfectly function, therefore I make sure I always discipline myself to sleep early, but it depends if I have things that I must do. I still make sure to get at least 7-hour, then I know that my body gotta make up the rest hours by napping here and there. Once I wake up, I reach for a soothing-music background like Tom Rosenthal. Here lists of song that might you want to listen:

Fresh morning cold water is the best to freshen up yourselves. It usually take me 10 minutes to do this.

Pray and meditate has shown to be a positive things for your mental, emotional, spiritual self. When we do it daily as a habit we tend to be more compassion in a way aware of your surroundings, plus doing it as a habit will make you relax and calm. Try this and see if you notice any difference in the way you feel and react to your day.

Then after that I head to the kitchen to make myself a breakfast, cold brewed coffee, and Tiny's and Catty Cat's food.

I make sure before any physical activity, I take a 600ml of water and my vitamin B12,C, Nigella Sativa/Black Cumin. The advantage of getting Black Cumin in the morning is endless for your overall health, they just have so many benefit. Whenever I take 3 capsule of Black Cumin in the morning, my body tend to be healthier, because I know it, I feel it. Likewise a green juice, we all know this is great for the body. I always make sure to get enough veggies in my day, sometimes I forgot to eat vegetables on my meal, so by routinely drinking green juice in the morning, somehow it will cover all those veggies intake requirement.

I make sure I go outside to get a fresh air, and exercise for 15 minutes. If exercise sounds so tiring to you, you could just move your body by taking a walk around your neighborhood. I really like google fit app, it's my favorite to track my physical exercise and I can set goals around how many steps I want to take every day. When it's weekend I tend to run along the boulevard for 45 minutes or so. Anyhow, you could do whatever fitness exercise you'd prefer. I also have an app called 7-min workout, it's great if you like to spend 7-min only exercise, hence the name. Once I'm done with my workout, I tend to go to my garden to water my flower plants and the rest green plants.

Proven way to get a great day, get a cold shower. The colder it is, the better. Well it depends where you live, if you live at the place below 0 Celsius, maybe this might not applicable to you. Since I live on the exact equator of the earth, cold water is always makes me happy and plus it is refreshing.

This is the advantage when you wake up early, you already finished with your routine, that means you can relax and eat while looking through that sun light strikes to your face. Breakfast for me is always different, I think that's what makes life exciting, you eat different foods every day.

So you might saying, But Sekar, a coffee? Coffee is bad for you, bad bad bad!

I like coffee not just by it taste but by it smells. Have you try smell freshly roasted coffee? And you are wondering why it smells so great that it sort of makes you happy? Or is it just me? Or maybe I'm already addicted to it? Oh well.

I love to eat my breakfast and sip my coffee while watching / listening to headline news. My favorite way to get a headline is by an app called NPR, BBC, or News app from Windows 10. News is applicable to you if you like to know what's happening to the world, well if you don’t care much about things happening around you, then you could watch your favorite YouTuber to entertain yourself.

After breakfast and still have my coffee on hand, I enjoying myself to read in the morning. I've been reading In the Company of Women and Originals in the morning. I tend to do comparative reading every day, and try to make sense with the information that come from the book. Now this is the best part, a perfect way to start the Day, when you could enjoy the morning by having a coffee and reading a book.

I'm pretty sure when you corporate one or two into your routine, it will improve the way you feel. Head to work or class with the big smile on your face. Because damn it, those things that I just mention do make me happy. Alright, Now go try it for yourself. See you again, on Friday for my next post.