Morning Routine That Makes Me More Productive and Peaceful

And here’s how you can achieve it too

Shailja Dwivedi
Wholistique
4 min readFeb 27, 2023

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Photo by THE 5TH on Unsplash

There was a time when I’d wake up hurriedly, study, bathe, have breakfast, and board my school bus. All day I’d feel stressed and unfocused all day after that.

Thankfully, today I have a better system. It allows me to be productive, calm, and peaceful.

This is what it looks like.

Pray

I’m spiritual. I pray first thing in the morning. To feel grateful, to express myself, or for anything I would like to learn or experience.

If you are spiritual too, prayers can calm your mind and help anchor yourself, and it feels great to connect with a higher consciousness.

Read

I do most of my reading at noon. But I also like to do 15 minutes of reading in the morning, especially things I like to remind myself of.

It’s crucial to begin your day by reminding yourself about things that matter.

Meditate

15 months into meditation, I’m thanking myself every day. It has made me more peaceful and calmer.

To start your meditation exercise, you need to focus. Just direct your focus on something. It could be your breath, a candle, or your body.

The harder you try to focus, the more you get distracted and the more you’re tempted to give up.

But here’s the thing: you need to focus on one thing and — even though you get distracted — keep trying to focus. After a few weeks of doing this, you’ll feel calm and more peaceful. After a few more months, you’ll feel you’re becoming less angry.

And 1 year in, you start to heal yourself.

I know it sounds like woo, but it’s not. It happens for real. I speak from my experience.

Give it enough time and soon you’ll start to become more peaceful, calmer, and less angry.

If somebody said something (not so cool) to me, I’d cry and waste my entire day. But it hit me hard when Ankur Warikoo said in one of his videos “you have a long way, my friend”.

I started meditating more. 15 months in, I don’t cry if somebody makes me feel bad. Though I have a lot of work to do still, I’m on it.

Meditating for a long time doesn’t let you down.

Refreshing bath

By the time I’m done reading and meditating, I’ll bathe and get ready for my day.

And no matter the day or season, I only ever take cold showers.

I’ve been doing this all my life. A doctor recommended hot showers a while ago, but I went back to cold ones after 1–2 weeks.

It’s not Twitter dudes who wired my brain this way — it’s ingrained deep in my blood for decades. No matter the temperature, in winter I’d still bathe with cold water. This is true for my parents too and they’re the reason why I do what I do. More stories for some time later! Onto the next one.

Oil massage

The most effective thing I started doing lately.

Oil massage has got a ton of benefits :

  1. Improves blood circulation
  2. Moisturizes your skin
  3. Lubricates your body from within
  4. Calms your mind
  5. Removes dead skin
  6. Stimulates your nerves
  7. Improves your heart and stomach health
  8. Keeps your skin healthy

I use cold-pressed oil because it’s non-refined and has no added chemicals. It’s heaven for your skin.

Walk

For a good part of my life, I lived a sedentary lifestyle. Recent health complications forced me to start moving more. Now I walk 2 hours everyday.

I know it’s crazy but seeing my health going downhill was crazier.

Bottom line: Make time for your health or your health will force you to do it.

Before it gets really bad, prioritize the right things in life.

Enough Water & a Rainbow Breakfast

1 Plate of seasonal fruits helps provide nutrition. The best part?

It not only gives energy and freshness but also makes your periods a lot better.

Including (soaked) dry fruits and seeds fills omega-3 fatty acid requirements. Which all help in making your periods a lot easier and less painful.

It’s also important to make sure you get enough water during the day. Get started in the morning, and prioritize water over coffee or tea.

Sunlight

At school, I played basketball, badminton, and kho-kho. Which made tanning more visible, and I developed this weird phobia about getting too tanned.

Fast forward to today: after just 30 min sitting under the sun, I’ll feel as if a strong wave of calmness and peace rubbed off of me.

On a serious note, if you don’t sunbathe, you should.

Do it for 30 min for 30 days straight. Share your experience under this story! I kid you not, it’s powerful.

Deep work

The last but important part of my morning routine. I got introduced to Deep work in Feb 2022. I did it religiously. After

  • 10,000+ tweets
  • 100+ threads
  • 20+ medium blogs
  • 10+ digital products and
  • 1500+ email subscribers

… I get more work done in less time.

I still juggle many things because, in the end, I’m human.

But deep work for 4 hours for 6 months straight can change anyone’s life. I believe in consistency. And it’s best to get started with these tasks in the morning, after the rest of your routine is done.

I invite you all to be consistent. Pick one habit or skill you wanna build, and commit to it. By starting every day on the right note, let’s build a better future.

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