How to Build a Morning Routine with S.A.V.E.R.S
Although morning routines can be challenging for people, the benefits are undeniable. A good morning routine puts you into a positive mental state, bolsters confidence, increases energy, and keeps your goals top of mind. Surprisingly your morning routine actually starts the night before.
A few tips for your nightly routine:
- Get your to-do list out of your head by writing it down
- Prepare your lunch and other items you will need to take with you
- Choose your clothes for the next day and set them out
What is the S.A.V.E.R.S Exercise?
Often our mornings are driven by necessity: what we have to do to prepare for the day as opposed to considering how we choose to prepare for our day. What I love about S.A.V.E.R.S is that it's like a taster menu for morning support activities. You can change the order or combine them if that suits you but should take under an hour to do all 6.
Developed by Hal Elrod (author of The Miracle Morning) S.A.V.E.R.S stands for:
S - Silence
A - Affirmations
V - Visualizations
E - Exercise
R - Reading
S - Scribing
How to Get Started
By flowing through these 6 morning activities you will help yourself cultivate grounding, creativity and productivity for the rest of your day. To start, aim for 5-10mins for each exercise. Find what order works best for you and try out different variations for each until you find what supports you. Eventually, you'll find your own flow and if you need more or less of one or even if you feel better combining two together.
Below are so examples to get you started:
Silence: Usually, this means meditation either seated or walking. You could also do this as breathwork - something as simple as sitting with yourself and taking 10 deep and intentional breaths. Click here for mini-mediations series that are all under 5 minutes.
Affirmations: Try to pick something that you feel you need to hear. It can be as simple as thanking yourself for all the work you’ve done to get to where you are, telling yourself, telling yourself you forgive yourself and release past mistakes, that you are worthy of love/ affection/ praise/ etc. Click here for affirmation inspirations.
Visualizations: For five minutes try to “visualize living your ideal day, performing all tasks with ease, confidence and enjoyment.” My take: In addition to picturing my “ideal day,” is to visualize my affirmation coming true. Some find it more useful to create a vision board or Pinterest board. Click here for beautiful digital vision boards on Pinterest
Exercise: This can be low-impact, seated stretches or a short walk around the block, just get the blood flowing! We all have different energy levels in the morning so find what supports you, not exhausts you.
Click here for an 8-minute morning flow with Yoga with Adriene.
Reading: This can be a book you’ve been trying to read forever or articles around a subject that you’re interested in. Try to stick with material that makes you feel good vs. anxious (i.e checking social media or the news)
Scribing: This can be timed journaling, jotting down creative ideas, making a gratitude list — really, putting whatever is on your mind on paper (or on a screen!) Click here for a great article on how to start writing morning pages
Once you have a feel for what you need to support your morning, you can figure out how much time you need and work backwards from when you have to be at work/ drop the kids off to know when you have to get up/ go to bed.
