Have you ever heard (or said) the phrase, "I'm JUST not a morning person!" - WELL do I have news for you!.... It's not that you're not a morning person. It's actually probably that you're not a NIGHT TIME person - because you're not getting the adequate rest you need to BE a morning person!
I woke up this morning after having a really great sleep, and I was reflecting on how grateful I am to wake up feeling like a morning person. And I thought "I can't believe I used to tell people I wasn't a morning person!"
And then it hit me - back then, it was because I wasn't taking the steps I needed to honor my body (and my soul, honestly...) to set myself up for rest, and that might look a little bit different than you're expecting!
Now, I remember years ago when I was having a lot of trouble sleeping and I tried doing some of the things you hear often: drink less coffee, exercise, no TV before bed, etc (and I am NOT discounting those - they may be something to explore for you). BUT, honestly, that was just not working for me.
And it wasn't when I stopped and said "I'm going to make changes to get better sleep" that it started happening.
It was when I said "I'm going to take changes to work on my SELF" which led to
1. listening to my body
2. lowering my stress levels
3. gaining more mindfulness
4. aligning with my passions
Which honestly led to getting better sleep. When I began finding more alignment in my life, I had less to worry about and less keeping me up at night.
Read on for Alisa's 5 ways to become a morning person...
Spiritual practice: This can look like anything. For some, it's going to church. For some, it's just reading the bible/religious texts. For some, it's personal prayer. For me, it was finding spirituality through meditation. If you're interested, the book that sparked it for me, was The Yoga Sutras, which I studied during Yoga Teacher Training. Actually, you could say my Yoga Teacher Training is really what ignited my spirituality. Seeing the interconnectedness throughout all of life - the good, the bad, the ugly - that really helped me to heal through some trauma and let go of the past. Feeling like I could write a whole blog post on this....
GOING TO BED EARLY: This should really be number 1 but here we are. Every time I stay up too late, I regret it. And every time I actually go to bed "on time" (which for me is 9pm - ridiculous, I know), I wake up grateful that I did it. The cost-benefit analysis every time, tells me, GO TO BED EARLY. It's so much more worth it to wake up feeling refreshed and able to take on everything throughout the day (also giving myself extra time in the morning to do my morning routine) sets me up for SUCH a better day. Spending that extra hour the night before to catch up on a few things? SOOO not worth it in my opinion.
Yoga: For me, it's yoga. For you, it may be something else. All I know is, when I fall off my yoga practice and haven't been to class as often as I need to, I become stressed. I lose sleep. It affects all areas of my life.
Eating less meat: This is not a pro-veganism shpeel or anything like that. This is a "listening to your body" PSA. Living in California, doing YTT, it was easy to listen to my body and make healthy choices as they were a lot more prevalent. Moving home to Buffalo, I instantly became the wings & beers lover again. I'm not super strict right now, but I am very selective and my body appreciates it. That's all I'm going to say.
Alignment in my career: And I know this isn't possible for each and every person to be perfectly aligned in your career. We have to do what we have to do. And maybe I'm just lucky. But about a year ago I was finally pushed out of "working for the man" when I was let go from my job during COVID and I began taking steps to create a business and bringing more of my passions into my career world. I still have a full time job - BUT the culture at my place of work is amazing, the flexibility, the benefits are great. Again, the benefits outweighing the costs. If you are miserable at your job every single day, I'm not surprised that you can't sleep!
Now... I realize this wasn't your traditional "5 steps to get better sleep" kind of post. But, my hope is that this inspired you to think about the INTERCONNECTEDNESS between all parts of your life. If you can't sleep, it's not always as simple as turning your TV off early. I want us ALL to be morning people! I want you to wake up and feel ready to take on the day. I want you to bring your LIGHT and confidence and energy to those around you who need it most <3
So.... What other parts of your life do you think could be contributing to your lack of sleep? Share them in the comments!
XOXO
Alisa
What did you think about these ideas?
Have you found any of these areas of your life affecting your sleep at one point or another?
I want to know what you're going through. Leave a comment below, or head over to Instagram to send a DM or comment on my most recent post.
Did any of this resonate with you? Maybe you need a little support & guidance on working through these areas of your life... I'm here to support YOU!
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