7 Steps to Change Your Entire Day

A Guide to Building a Meaningful Morning Ritual

Photo by Lesly Juarez

I am a 27-year-old woman who has been waking up around 5:30 am since I was 15-years-old. Over the course of the decade, there have been some strange intermittent seasons of my life when this wasn’t the case. During this time, I’ve lived through a lot of early mornings and have finetuned the techniques to turn a routine into a ritual for the most effective, productive, and most importantly — sacred start to your day.

1. Move Your Body Until You Sweat (15–25 minutes)

For years I woke up in the morning and ritualized my slow walk to the kitchen, where I made a pot of coffee. Then I would sit down on my couch, or hammock, or grass depending on what season of my life we’re talking about, and I would read and journal for about an hour while drinking coffee and watching the sunrise. This languid start to my day served me for many years, but more recently, I have found it hard to awaken from that state and get moving.

Now, within five minutes of my melodic alarm singing, I am dressed and moving my body. In my dimly lit apartment, I begin to move — jumping jacks, burpees, squats, push-ups, mountain climbers, what have you. Sometimes, if I’m feeling it, I literally head straight out the door and run around my…