Try It For 1 Day: Do This Every Morning to Boost Motivation & Focus

so let's settle the debate once and for all is it true that some of us are just not morning people and never will be if you don't consider yourself a morning person or you just find it's hard to create and stick to a good morning routine well your friend Mel I got the answers I have dug into the science I have so much amazing news to share with you and here's the thing if you are a morning person you can just spring out of bed I guarantee you you need to hear this because you not

only need to understand the other people in your life who can't get out of bed but you also have to understand yourself I mean you may know what you're doing but do you know if or why it's working you should and by the time you and I are done today you're going to know the six steps that science says you need in order to set your morning up for success and when you do you'll not only sharpen your routine you're going to squeeze even more out of your day so let's get in do it hey

it's your friend Mel welcome to the Mel Robins podcast I am so excited to talk to you today and I love this topic and it may surprise you to know that I'm not a morning person not at all but I love talking about morning routines I have so much to share with you I have taught myself how to break through that like GH in the morning and build a science back routine and when you digest and absorb and really put to use everything that I'm about to share with you it's going to change the entire

trajectory of your day of your week of your month and of your life and if you're interested right now in making changes the morning routine and what we're about to share with you this is everything and so first of all before we jump into it because I got a lot to share with you in fact this is one of those episodes if you're watching on YouTube where I'm not going to look at you a lot cuz that sound that you can hear as you're listening I have pages and pages and pages of research to share

with you because this topic is not only fascinating but the science is very clear it's very clear what's happening in your brain and your body when you wake up and you need to know about it and it's also very clear what the research says that you and I need to be doing every morning to truly Leverage The Best of our brain and our body and to set ourselves up for success and one more thing we have so many new listeners that if you're brand new and this is the first episode that you're listening to I

just want to personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins podcast family the fact that you have hit play on this conversation about the science of morning routines and the six steps that you need to follow based on science you know what that tells me about you it tells me that you're interested in learning more about how you can Empower yourself to create a better life and I think that is so cool that you've taken the time to invest in yourself and I promise you you're are going to freaking love this conversation today and you're going

to be able to put everything that you're learning to use you're going to be able to share it with people that you care about whether you're the kind of person that can spring out of bed or you're the kind of person like me that you have a hard time getting out of bed because the fact is I'm not a morning person and there are some people like my husband that literally it's like he's a weirdo the alarm rings and he's like Bing right out of bed no drama no noise no groaning he might you know

a little because we're getting a little bit older but that's it like he just starts his day me oh my gosh like for me I feel like I don't know that overnight I somehow gained an extra 200 lbs because I feel so heavy and lethargic and I don't want to get out of bed and uh and I'm starting here because I really want to make sure to validate that there are a lot of us and you may be one of them or you may love someone maybe one of your kids maybe it's your roommate maybe

it's one of your siblings there are a lot of us that have a hard time getting out of bed so let me preview what we're going to cover first of all I'm going to walk through a number of reasons why you may not be a morning person and if you're somebody who Springs out of bed I still still want you to listen to this because it's going to give you a greater understanding of what someone else in your life that you care deeply about is dealing with and why it may be difficult for them to

just get up and go then what we're going to talk about is a number of reasons why morning routines really do matter and the benefit of it and finally we're going to jump into the six non-negotiable steps of your morning routine what science says about it so here's the first provocative thing I want you to consider even if you're listening to me right now and you are saying to yourself okay I got to listen to this because I know morning routines are important I see it all over the place and I got to get a

morning routine and so I'm gon to listen I'm gonna figure this out even if you don't think you have a morning routine right now you do hitting the snooze button five times in the morning that's a morning routine reaching for your phone first thing and laying there and scrolling through social media for 45 minutes that's a morning routine rolling over and putting the pillow back over your head that's a morning routine the thing that you do right now in the morning every single morning whether it's working for you or not that's your routine and what

we're going to confront today together is is it actually working for you are you working against the science or are you working with it are you following the steps that could set you up for success or are you just kind of doing what you've always done and then you beat yourself up because it's not creating better results and so first things first accept that whatever it is that you're doing you wake up you're hung over you're just devastated with anxiety you hit the snooze hit the snooze hit the snooze hit the snooze and then it's

an emergency and then you rock it out of bed and then you're racing around and then you're late and then you're racing out the door and you didn't have breakfast and you didn't exercise and you left the house without your wallet that used to be me and that can become a routine and the good news is you can change it and that's why this matters and so now that we're on the same page and now that we've kind of gotten rid of the story about where you're at or whether or not you already have this

handled now I want to jump into some facts okay if you're the kind of person like my husband who can just spring out of bed I just want to say you won the lottery congratulations you don't need to rub it in but it's it's really important for you to hear what I'm about to share with you because I think it'll give you more compassion and understanding around the people in your life who can't just spring out of bed and it will also help you understand how to better support them now you may be working a

late shift which means you don't actually have the same schedule as anyone else when I was a young lawyer dressed out of law school I used to work the night shift in court it was so discombobulating I mean you're not even a morning person because you're really like stopping work in the morning here's a second reason and this one's very interesting if you're retired or you're a new empty nester or your routine is out of whack check this out there's research around this University of Wisconsin study said that when people transition to retirement they often

start sleeping longer and they go to bed later and they wake up later and this may be a reason why it's harder for you to get out of bed right now because your routine is out of whack because your life just changed another reason maybe you have really amazing sheets I mean this is a problem for me like I truly invested in smooth cozy bamboo sheets the bed's too nice like that's part of the problem like why would you want to get out of bed and I I mean that truly I found this fourth reason

to be super interesting genetics this is from a study published in nature communic ations there are 351 genetic markers linked to being a morning person and a recent study that was published in genome biology and evolution said that mourning people those of you who can just spring out of bed like my husband that's an inherited trait from Neanderthal ancestors that's kind of cool probably because if you slept in some sort of sabertooth tiger would be gnaw on your rear end before you woke up and here's one more study that I found this one from Harvard

medical school so if you think about your circadian rhythm which is basically that sort of 24hour program that runs in the background that truly runs your entire body functioning okay and it's tied to your ability to sleep and so many other things your circadian rhythm is generated by your internal biological clock and according to Harvard Medical School that internal biological clock it varies from person to person but the good news is there are things that you can do even though your internal biological clock is personal to you there are things that you can do to

optimize it and you're going to learn about it today some of us have a predisposition to Spring out of bed like my husband and some of us have a predisposition to be like a hunk of meat laying there marinating in the morning like I do good to know no reason to make yourself wrong then right you got to work with what you have here's the fifth reason and this one really rang true for me trauma see trauma and past trauma it activates a freeze response in your body and the University of Arkansas did a study

about this and they found that when you've experienced a traumatic event it can disrupt your sleep and PTSD what theyve found in the research is that PTSD is linked to you having having sleep issues and what happens when you don't get a good night's sleep like you can't truly drop into deep sleep you wake up and you're exhausted and you're exhausted not because you're not a morning person you're exhausted because past trauma is preventing you from getting a good night's sleep and when you wake up and you're exhausted because you didn't sleep well what do

you want to do you want to go back to sleep you feel even heavier that's why it's hard to get out of bed and for me connecting the weight that I felt in the morning to pass traumatic experiences was liberating because I realized oh wait a minute this isn't a deficiency this is just something that I need to heal and when I understand oh there it is again I'm waking up in the morning in a freeze response I'm just going to push through it that is empowering the sixth reason and this so many of you

and your kids are experiencing right now and that's anxiety anxiety is the highest for a lot of people first thing in the morning and one of the reasons why is and we're going to dig into this when we get into the research around the six steps that you're going to take and how I'm going to teach you to work with the science and work with the natural wiring of your body anxiety can be higher in the morning for a simple reason cortisol which is a stress hormone or a lot of people call it an energy

hormone cortisol is high in the morning because cortisol helps you wake up that's why it's there but the problem is if cortisol remains elevated you're going to feel more anxious and this isn't just your friend Mel Robbins who has a history with anxiety telling you this this is the research like if your energy and stress hormone is super elevated first thing in the morning of course you're going to feel anxious but if you don't take steps to start to lower it and regulate it your anxiety is going to be humming all day long and if

you've ever woken up and the first thing that you feel is anxious and your mind starts spinning and your heart is racing you don't want to face a day you want to hide from it and that's what I did for years that's why I was hitting the snooze button and there's two other reasons why your anxiety might be higher in the morning drinking so if you have been drinking the night before guess what one of the number one symptoms of a hangover anxiety because as your body is processing the alcohol overnight your blood sugar is

dropping and your anxiety is now spiking and so if you're waking up for anxiety ask yourself did I drink last night okay Bingo and the third reason why anxiety can be higher in the morning is because your blood sugar levels are often lower in the morning and that can lead to morning anxiety and so this is super important because when your blood sugar drops and your body then tries to bring it up what it's doing is it's pumping adrenaline into your body which then what stimulates fight or flight which what makes you feel more anxious

I have woken up and felt anxiety is the first thing I've felt in my body since I was 15 years old like this is like my alarm clock in the morning I would wake up oh there's the anxiety I had no idea that drinking was part of the problem and the anxiety was present because my body is now processing alcohol while I'm sleeping I had no idea of the stored trauma which also is why I was waking up in a freeze and fight ORF flight response I had no idea about the blood sugar dropping and

I had no idea that cortisol levels are the highest first thing in the morning I just felt like I was damaged goods that was going to feel this way for the rest of my life and when you understand what's happening in your body and you realize it's not you this can be explained and when you understand it to me it makes me more motivated to want to take the steps that are going to help me face it and quiet it and experience life differently and that's what's available to you that's what's available to the people

that you love when you understand this and you follow the six things I'm going to tell you and the seventh reason why so many of you do not consider yourself a Mourning person is because of depression do you know that based on the research 75% of people that have depression have a hard time getting out of bed why well one of the reasons why is because depression just covers you with this kind of sense of heaviness this real dark cloud my husband had about a very very serious depression it's very scary when it happens and

one of the big problems with depression is that your depression lies to you and it makes you feel like you can't do the things that alleviate the depression and lying in bed I'm sure you've probably heard the term bed rotting right where you just lay in bed and you think about your problems and you let the heaviness take over it is an extraordinarily common symptom of mood disorders like depression this comes from a study out of Emory University and look if you have been just burning the candle at both ends and you're tired like I

have like I've been super tired this week and I didn't even set an alarm I just allowed myself to sleep as long as I needed to sleep and then wake up when I want to wake up and two mornings ago I just kind of laid in bed for about 20 minutes until I was ready to get out of bed that's okay every once in a while because you're just getting the rest that you need but if you chronically are laying in bed and you're just ruminating on what's wrong with your life that's a huge problem

and the six steps that you're about to learn are going to help you feel better they're the six steps that you need in order to live and Thrive with depression they are the six steps that you need to push through all seven things I just talked about and I promise you the coolest thing about learning how to get up and get going is that the movement and the rhythm of your routine actually snaps you out of these seven things that I just listed that validate why it's been so hard hard for you and if you

really Embrace what I'm going to be sharing with you these are things within your reach that are completely free that you are capable of doing that will help you feel better it will help you tap into the amazing wiring of your brain and your body it will help you start building momentum in your life and no matter what change you want to make what thing you want to improve this is the building block for you being being able to do that for yourself but I want to just unpack even at a deeper level why a

morning routine works so that when we jump into the six steps you're like give it to me Mel let's go and I'd like to start with a quote from James clear because I think this quote really sums up what a morning routine is and then we're going to jump into kind of deeper reasons why they're so important so James Clear wrote the book Atomic habits he's like the go-to guy in terms of syn synthesizing habit research and making it understandable and he has this quote you don't rise to the level of your goals you fall

to the level of your system now if you have a morning routine that is basically hit the snooze button six times and run late from work never eat breakfast hydrate on coffee that's a system that's one of the reasons why you're not meeting your goals you may have huge goals but if your systems don't support those goals of yours you're going to always fall to how bad the system is and that's what a morning routine is it's a system it's a system that can help you rise to higher levels it's a system that can help

you be more energized it's a system that can help you achieve your goals and when you think about the simple things that you do every morning as a system you can now be very honest with yourself about whether or not you have a system in place that is helping you achieve what you want you can be very clear about whether or not you have a system in place that's helping you feel the way you want to feel every day and that's the first reason why this matters because a morning routine is just a system and

it's fully within your power to change the system to improve it and there are reasons why you want to and that brings me to the second reason why your morning routine is so important this is the only time of the day that you're fully in control if you really stop and think about about how your day goes the second you look at your phone the second you walk into work the second that you check the news your day is gone you're now reacting so your only shot at feeling in control is this system we call

a morning routine the things that you do before you do everything for everybody else the things that you do first thing in the morning that are just for you and I want you to protect this time I want you to honor this time I want you to honor Yourself by getting very serious about the system that you create first thing in the morning for you this is what you get to do for yourself before you turn your life and your time and your energy over to everyone else I mean you deserve this and that's why

this is so important you're going to have days weeks and months where life is running you over but you want to know what's cool about a morning routine and this system that you can create for yourself is that you can always come back to it because when you wake up you get a fresh slate you get a clean start you get to decide today today I'm going to take control today I'm going to do the things that I know just make me feel like myself today I'm GNA put myself first and that's available to you

every single day and when you have this system in place that you know you can come back to that's grounded in research you can truly take advantage of the gift that is a new day another reason why this is so important as you're about to learn because we're going to dig into this the benefits for your mind and your body and your spirit of creating a routine and this system it's just undeniable what I'm about to teach you in these six steps it will reduce anxiety it will lower your stress it's going to keep your

brain energized it's going to help you boost your productivity and your concentration and check this out it's even going to help you sleep better and you deserve all that and that's why I want you to try this routine I'm about to teach you another reason why this is important and I think you're kind of getting this over and over is it sets the tone for your day who's in charge are you in charge of your day or is what's on the news in charge of your day you're in charge and that's what's available to you

every single morning that you wake up and you follow these six steps and finally it's the single most powerful step of creating new change in your life if you want to be happier if you want to make more money if you want to get in better shape if you'd like to feel a little bit more peaceful if you want a mindfulness practice if there's anything in your life that you really want to improve having this system in place first thing in the morning it's like pouring a foundation for a house that you're going to build

this is what you build on and so let's get into the six things that science says you and I need to be doing in order to set ourselves up for success and build a system that unlocks the potential of your mind body and spirit and the first thing is when that alarm rings get up and start the day do not lie in bed do not hit the snooze button research shows that lying in bed like I used to do increases rumination it makes your depression and your anxiety worse and this is all based on Research

there so many studies that have proven this that I don't even want to waste the time listing it in fact this episode has a very robust notes section you can always find it at the end of the description you can also go to melrobbins.com where we have so many resources for every single episode but the science and the research is very clear lying in bed is making how you feel worse okay and so how do you get out of bed first you can use my 5-second rule I mean I literally invented a trick to help

me get out of bed 15 years ago and it is super simple as soon as the alarm rings or as soon as your eyes open you're just going to count backwards five 4 3 2 1 boom get out of bed just get out of bed move and the reason why this works is because I've found that you know in those moments where you hesitate and you stop and think about getting out of bed if you hesitate for more than 5 Seconds you actually will lose all motivation to do it but when you start counting backwards

5 4 3 2 1 and then you move the second you start counting backwards 5 4 3 2 1 you've made a decision to get up it's the domino effect I don't know if you know this but when you tip a domino that first Domino it moves with a bit of force so that it can start knocking over something that's two to three to four times its size and so counting backwards is this tiny little micro action that you take that starts the momentum rolling boom get out of bed do not pick up your phone

this is critical do not pick up your phone I have a rule personally that my phone is in my bathroom because then when the alarm goes off I'm kind of screwed I have to get out of bed to turn it off and so that's one thing that I've done because I know if I have the chance to lay in bed I just might so I go 5 4 3 2 1 I'm up and another reason why it's so important for you to just 5 4 3 2 1 get up is because of the research that

you've already learned cortisol levels are the highest in the morning and so if you sit there and marinate in that stress and energy hormone you will feel more depressed you will feel less motivated you will feel more anxious those things that you're spinning around in your mind they're going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and you're going to start to doubt yourself that's why you got to push through you got to get up and you got to get going and that brings me to step number two make your bed make your bed you're standing

up you've turned off the alarm you have not looked at your phone because again we're we're taking this time for you you get 20 to 30 measly minutes don't you every morning before you let the world in of course you do so step number two you're going to make your bed now why is this important there are so many reasons why you know for those of us who are not mourning people one reason is because when you make the bed you're not going to climb back into it okay and I know some of you are

kind of laughing along but it's true but the more important reason is because when you make your bed every morning it's a super simple thing that you can do that starts to build a little bit of discipline and it's a way for you to just practice this skill where you just do what you need to do no matter how you feel and one of the reasons why making your bed is a great thing to do right away is because of all this research around clutter I mean when you walk into an environment where the bed

is messy and your laundry is all over the place and things need to be picked up research shows that it can increase your anxiety it can make you continue to feel depressed in fact I'm looking at this one study right now from Bond University in Australia that says your physical environment significantly influences your cognition your emotions and subsequent behaviors including your relationships with other people and so it's a simple thing that you can do that truly helps you feel like a disciplined person it removes the visual clutter it prevents you from climbing back in it

and here's the thing that I love the most it's a gift that you're giving to yourself because every time that you walk back into your bedroom for the rest of the day or at the end of the night you see this beautiful bed you literally do it's like this beautiful place for you to climb back into at the end of the day and you've done that for yourself a and this is one of those things that sounds little but it's actually really big when you're taking care of yourself you make your bed when you're feeling

good about life you make your bed when you're on top of your stuff you've made your bed it's just a sign a simple sign that you care about yourself and that you take time to clean up and tidy things and that's a really important skill in life and it translates in so many other areas and so boom make your bed and I'm going to add one more thing to this for those of you that have a habit of hitting the snooze button or laying there and rotting and looking at your phone just think about the

difference think about the difference of just boom you get up boom you make your bed you have gone from a person whose first decision of the day is procrastinating to becoming a person that takes action and a person that has discipline and a person that cares about how you take care of yourself and that's just in the first two steps now let's talk about the third one the third one you're going to hate and the third one you're going to resist doing but the third one has so much crazy science around it that I wrote

an entire bestselling book about it and that third habit that I want you to do is something that you're going to add to your morning routine after you brush your teeth so after you get up you make your bed you go to the bathroom you brush your teeth I want you to look in the mirror I don't want you to say a thing and I want you to Simply high-five your reflection I know it sounds crazy cheeseball I got it I understand high-five yourself in a mirr m give me a break I was with you

getting out of bed with the alarm ring I was with you and making the bed I was with you with creating a system high-fiving myself in the mirror like what is this let me tell you what this is the science around this is so crazy that I'm going to read from my New York Times bestselling book the high five habit um and the first thing that I'm going to read to you is I'm going to read to you this is on page 24 of this book The reason why you want to high-five yourself in the

mirror and you're not going to say a thing comes from research from Dr Lawrence Katz who's a neurobiologist and researcher at Duke University and he studies something called neurobics now neurobics is a fancy term that basically describes the fastest and easiest way to create new neurop Pathways and Connections in your brain and the way that you tap into neurobics is you basically take a routine activity which for you is brushing your teeth standing there looking in the mirror and then you pair it with something unexpected like all of a sudden high-fiving yourself that's kind of

weird and what happens is it snaps your brain into attention and according to Dr Catz this little unexpected physical movement that you're now adding to something you already do it's like a brain fertilizer that makes a new habit encode in your brain faster so you might be wondering well what's the new habit Mel well the new habit is great it's believing in yourself because now let's unpack what a high five is when you high five someone else what are you saying you're saying I see you I believe in you let's go you got this when

you high five a team member that's what you're saying when you high five a family member that's what you're saying when you high-five somebody on a team that just screwed up in a huddle you're saying Shake It Off you got this when you do this every morning in the mirror you just activated brain fertilizer and you accelerated new wiring for a mindset that goes I like the person in the mirror I cheer for the person in the mirror I believe in the person in the mirror and it's crazy how this works in fact because you're

probably like okay I kind of get that let me tell you something would you feel more inclined to create this system for yourself if you knew that this is what all the winning NBA teams do yep they studied NBA teams and high fives let me read a little bit about that to you for those of you that are curious this is all in Chapter 2 of the high- five habit book the chapter is science says this works and the study that I'm about to read to you is on page 22 and it's all about research

from UC Berkeley so UC Berkeley researchers studied NBA players habits of success and they took a look at teams in the beginning of their seasons and they recorded how often players gave each other high fives and other signs of encouragements like a fist bump check this out they were able to predict which teams would have the best records at the end of the season based on the number of high fives they were giving each other at the beginning of the Season why well the best NBA teams I'm talking the ones who made it to the

Championships they were the teams who gave each other the most high fives at the start of the Season whoa why does this matter well high fives are about trust when you high five a team member you're lifting them up instantly the physical touch and the high five says I got your back man let's go we got this it helps you shake off a bad play it lifts your mood it communicates confidence and it reminds you that you can win now when you do this in the mirror to yourself you are your own best teammate and

you're leveraging this amazing in science and the Brain fertilizer to accelerate programming a mindset of winning of resilience of believing in yourself and of cheering in yourself and that's why a silent high five in the mirror right after you brush your teeth is the third science back thing that I want you to do and that brings me to number four drink a full cup of water and every time I cover this and I teach this and in fact I teach this in a course that I offer once a year called launch and people go crazy

they hate this drink a cup of water I don't want to drink I need coffee let me just explain why this matters first of all you need water and every single one of us underestimates the crucial role that water plays in your body brain and spirit operating effectively and most of us are dragging ourselves out of bed and the first thing we Hydrate with coffee or tea or something other than water and let's just stop and consider the importance of water water comprises 45 to 75% of your body weight that's amazing and 80% of your

brain composition it transports nutrients it regulates your temperature it has a huge role to play in lubricating your joints and allowing your internal organs to to work properly it gives structure to your tissues to your cells its critical component of your heart being able to pump I mean you can go a month or two right without food you wouldn't last more than a week without water that's how critical this is now I'm not going to get into how much do I need to drink all day we'll do a whole another episode about hydration and proper

hydration and how much you should be drinking all I'm telling you is Step number four of a science morning routine is get water in first thing in the morning and I want you to make it part of your system that you drink a full cup of water before you start slamming the caffeine and there's so many reasons why this is important there's an incredible book called brain food the surprising science of eating for cognitive power and in it it's it's fascinating the role that water plays for example did you know that when you don't drink

enough water you want to know what you feel brain fog you're exhausted you you have headaches and you have mood swings and step four of your new morning routine and the system you're going to create for yourself of just drinking a cup of water before you do anything else it's simply just starting you to get aware of how important it is to become more conscious of it so that you start taking better care of yourself in fact simply drinking more water it can be one of the easiest and healthiest changes that you can make for

your overall health and for your brain functioning and here's a huge reason why this matters you know I used to be the kind of person that once I dragged myself out of bed and I made my bed and then I high-fived myself in the mirror I Army crawled to the coffee maker like I could not start my day without doing a tap suck of the Nespresso machine I mean I just literally like give me the coffee give me I can't wake up without coffee I didn't understand the science and then Dr Amy Shaw came onto

the podcast and explained to me and I'm gonna share it with you so that you don't miss a thing she basically said that if you drink coffee or any form of caffeine first thing in the morning meaning within the first hour or two of waking up you are screwing yourself over because there is this sleepy chemical that's in your brain called a Denine and when you wake up it takes your brain an hour or two to flush the adenosine the Sleepy chemical out of your brain so you can wake up this is why you're groggy

but if if you're like the old Mel Robbins and your army crawling your way to the big gulp cup of coffee first thing in the morning you know what you're doing that caffeine and the coffee it is trapping the adenosine in your brain the caffeine is preventing your brain from flushing this sleepy chemical out and so have you ever noticed that if you have coffee first thing in the morning about two hours later you're like I need a second cup and then halfway through the day we like oh my God I'm exhausted I got to

have another cup I used to be the kind of person that would I'm almost embarrassed to tell you would have at least six cups of coffee then when I mve to lattes it would be at least three like double triple shot lattes I was chasing the caffeine this one change step four drink a cup of water full cup of water first thing when you get up and then wait at least an hour for your first cup of coffee I know I know I know I know I know I know you don't want to just try

it once please try it once try it once and see what happens cuz I'm going to tell you what happened in my life I drank a cup of water I set the timer I was gripping for 90 minutes before I could have my first cup of coffee and then something crazy happened I didn't crave a second one I have gone from being a person who drinks coffee all day long to waking up and drinking a full cup of water I'm not even craving the cup cup of coffee I then enjoy a cup of coffee about

90 minutes to 2 hours later and I don't ever need a second one it's incredible and so that's why I say step four is drink a full cup of water and then try to delay your caffeine for at least an hour and you know just as a side I have to tell you something we did an internal research project with a focus group about what I'm sharing with you right now and the results were extraordinary we put a group of people together and we walked them through this morning routine and the feedback that we got

specifically on starting your day and drinking a big cup of water first thing and then delaying caffeine it was insane they quit coffee I mean they'll drink decaf every once in a while but here's the reason they're using science to leverage the potential and capacity of your brain power and your natural wiring see you don't need to be chasing these things when you understand the science you can activate all of the amazing programming and possibility of your mind body and spirit and that's what's available to you and that brings me to number five get outside

and take in Morning Light so we had Dr Rebecca Robbins from Harvard Medical School on the podcast and she's a really important expert on this topic because she is a world-renowned expert on sleep she runs one of the most respected sleep clinics and labs in the world she's doing research on this her research is the research everybody who writes books about sleep is actually citing and she's the one that came in and talked about the importance of exposure to light first thing in the morning for your overall health and you and I tend to think

about things like okay gota exercise we got to eat right we got to be in great relationships with people that's all true but you also need need to take care of your circadian rhythm and doing this first thing checks the box and I love that first thing get outside look out the window whatever you need to do Dr Robin said that exposure to morning sunlight is crucial to reset your body's internal clock and help you transition into the awake phase in fact getting Morning Light is one of the most important things that you can do

to get better sleep at night because when you get morning light it not only helps you move into an awake phase it starts the internal timer in your body that starts to count down toward when it's going to be time to go to bed that's why this matters so much and I know what you're thinking you're like Mel well what about if it's cloudy well this is what Dr Rebecca Robbins had to say even if it's a cloudy day getting outside will get you the sunlight exposure that you need in your eyes and it'll stop

the floodgates of melatonin and begin your day it is a complete myth that a cloudy day can hamper that or dampen that ability same thing with a rainy day complete myth that just because it's raining that the type of light that's coming through the clouds isn't going to help you now you don't want to go out and stare blindly at the sun that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about stepping outside and actually getting the light exposure and so how much light should you get now I like a 51020 roll and a lot of

this comes from research that neuroscientist Andrew huberman of the podcast huberman lab has made wildly popular with people right now but I break it down this way 5 10 20 if it's sunny outside just be outside for 5 minutes if it's cloudy outside be outside for 10 minutes if it's raining or it's not great outside or you can only get bright artificial light inside first thing 20 minutes that's your rule and finally what am I doing what am I doing after I step outside you got to move your body really Mel yes you do now

if I got to wave a magic wand and I were able to tell you exactly what to do for my age group I'm a 56y old woman it's all about strength training and getting outside and walking but I'm going to tell you something for this system all I'm going to ask you to do 10-minute walk that's it 10minute walk every morning and why am I asking you to just add to your system a 10-minute walk there's a number of reasons why first of all the research is very clear and it's also shocking the benefit that

a simple 10-minute walk can have on your health it can add years to your life but I also want to highlight the things that it does for you immediately like how you feel when you start the walk versus how you feel 10 minutes later is shocking and I think you kind of know this but it's important to go through this so that I just remind you of why this matters and why it's important that this is part of your system every single morning it clears out any of the overwhelm and the overthinking and the anxiety

that you may have it immediately boosts your mood there is this research around what happens when you're walking the term is called forward ambulation that sounds like super fancy right which makes me want to do it because you and I hear walk and we're like oh for God's sakes a walk for real Mill yes forward ambulation is what's happening when you're walking see you get into this mode where you're walking you're moving your legs you're swinging your arms and you get into this optic and auditory Flow State where your brain is now kind of having

to absorb all this input around you from the path that you're on to the traffic going by to the birds in the in the trees and this input changes how you see the world this input as you're walking and you've got this new optic and auditory flow what does it do it quiets your anxiety why because there's all this new input instead of sitting there in your bed ruminating and feeling overwhelmed you're flipping on this switch inside your brain that helps with overthinking and what's super cool is even if you have low vision and we

have an extraordinary producer on our team that's legally blind it still works and the reason why is because sound becomes your primary sense and the same phenomenon happens with auditory flow so whether you have visual or auditory flow it has a powerful documented effect on your nervous system and it changes the way your brain is working and the reason why I recommend a 10-minute walk is because that's what the literature says that's all that you need you can put your kids in the stroller and go around the block you can find 10 minutes to walk

the dogs real quick and that's why I'm saying get out there for 10 minutes and have you realized that you can combine five and six yeah so when you step outside to get light into your eyes first thing in the morning to set the Circadian rhythm just start walking for 10 minutes it's going to put you in a better mood it's going to make you more productive this is all research back and if you do it without being on the phone or listening to something meaning you take a quiet walk the research is incredible about

how it helps you create a stronger more relaxed and confident mindset and that's why I say that the sixth step is a 10-minute walk outside and the other reason why I'm focusing on 10 minutes is because systems work when you can do them and I don't want your morning routine to be so complicated and timec consuming that you have to opt out of it I want you to build a morning routine and create a system that starts your day that puts you first that leverages the science that is something that you can do whether you

have a super busy day or you're on vacation I want you to be able to use the same system whether you're in a hotel or you're visiting friends or you're at home because if you can do the system anywhere the system is truly going to work for you and so let me recap what that system is starting tomorrow morning or anytime you decide this is your reset this is how you take control of the time that you have first thing in the morning and you set yourself up for Success using all of the best research

to tap into the potential of your mind body and spirit this is also the foundation for you being laser focused on making the changes and doing what you need to do and you can kind of sense that when you st back these six things up you're now on a roll and you can add anything you want to this but these are the basics so let me walk you through them and then I'm going to share one more thing that I do number one the alarm rings you're up 543 2 1 get up get going because

once you get up and you get going you're going to keep going second thing you're going to do you're going to make your bed it's just simple discipline it's a wonderful thing to do for yourself and you become the kind of person that just does what needs to get done and you have higher standards for yourself I love that third you're going to leverage this fascinating science around neurobics and as you're brushing your teeth or after you brush your teeth just high-five yourself in the mirror don't say a word that's it number four you got

to drink a big cup of water big cup of water start the hydration train first thing in the morning and delay caffeine for at least an hour and see what happens number five get yourself outside remember the 5 1020 rule for sunny cloudy or rainy days or if you can't get outside artificial light and finally number six 10-minute walk 10minute walk does extraordinary things now that whole thing takes about 14 minutes if you really think about it get out of bed that's 10 seconds make your bed that's a minute high- five your mirror that's a

couple seconds drink a cup of water depends whether or not you chug it could be another 20 seconds get outside and take the 10 I mean this is a no-brainer this is something that you can do any morning anywhere it's a system that sets you up for success and it's also a system that helps you lower anxiety it helps you push through depression and find your energy again it's a system that helps helps you tap into what's possible and then when you get back from your walk add whatever you want for you maybe it's meditating

maybe it's journaling maybe there's something else that you want to add in there are lots of mornings where I do my 10-minute walk and then I head straight to the mat and now I'm doing strength training but this core six step principle is the system that I use it's the system that makes the difference for me when I go through those periods where I don't do it I feel terrible and I love that I can wake up any single day and just come right back to it and when I follow the system you know what

I feel I feel like myself I feel good because I'm taking care of myself I feel more powerful because I'm not letting my emotions or my mood or the things that are going on in my life or my business to dictate what I do this system shows me that I'm in control because I can do these six things in my life no matter where I am or how I'm feeling and that makes all the difference in the world and if you do that you got the formula for Success you got the formula for supporting yourself

you understand the simple things that you can do to leverage all of this remarkable science and I'm also going to encourage you if you want to go deeper make sure you check out the notes section of this episode because we have summarized all of this on our website at melrobbins.com we have resources for you to take a look at but this is the basics and the building blocks for you to tap into your own potential oh and I almost forgot to tell you the seventh thing so when I'm done with this system you know what

I do I sit down and I take 15 minutes before I look at my phone I haven't even looked at my phone yet I haven't answered emails yet I haven't looked at social media I mean I am selfish in the morning this is my time so when I'm done with that walk I come right down to my kitchen table and I sit down and I spend 15 minutes on a project that matters to me and the reason why I do this 15 minutes I call it my hot 15 every single morning is because I know

based on the research that that moment right there after I've taken my walk after I've done these six things my mind is primed for Focus I am motivated I am able to push something forward and because we're going to be doing another episode about this where I dig into your questions make sure you submit them whether you put them in the comments or you go to melrobbins.com this would be better go to melrobbins.com podcast you're going to find a form where you could submit topics and questions you can submit them there and we're going to

compile them all and we will do a really amazing episode answering your questions all about optimizing your morning and we're going to have that coming up really soon I'm so excited that you listen to this thank you for listening all the way to the end I've got awesome bloopers on this sucker so there's still more to come and I wanted to be sure to tell you in case no one else tells you that I love you I believe in you I also believe in these systems and the reason why is because systems help you create

a better life systems ensure that it's not your mood or your feelings or what's going on that determine what happened in your life it's you that you have the ability to support yourself and to set yourself up for success and there is no doubt in my mind that when you implement what I just shared with you into your life you will be very very surprised by how it impacts you all righty I will see you in the very next episode and thank you for being here on YouTube with me and watching all the way to

the end I know that you loved this I know you're going to share it with all kinds of people in your life so thank you for that and I also have one request of you please hit subscribe you know it's my goal that 50% of the people that watch this channel are subscribers it's free to subscribe and it tells me that you really enjoy this it supports the team and helps us in bringing you more amazing content here every single day so hit subscribe thank you thank you thank you for being the kind of person

that supports people who support you and I know you're now thinking okay this is amazing Mel we're on a roll and that's how you're going to feel when you implement these six steps you're going to feel every morning like okay check check check check check now I'm on a roll uh you're probably thinking what's the next video that I should watch great question let's watch this one next and I'm going to be waiting for you in it the moment you hit play I'll see you there