Own Your Morning - The First Choice of the Day Should Be Yours

What five years of moving countries taught me about mornings, mindset and owning your day.

If you’d asked me for advice how to improve your life quality or make changes in your life. If you’ve asked me to name one thing that I truly and wholeheartedly believe in and always always come back to myself. If you’d asked me for one thing that can have an immense impact, one thing that has changed my life with no return… It would be: Be aware of your morning!

It seems so simply and so subtle and you have probably heard a million advises about morning routines, hacks, tipps and tricks but let’s just talk about mornings in general for a second. I am not handing you a to-do list for a two hour morning routine. I am not comparing my morning to yours. My season to yours. What I am saying is OWN YOUR MORNING. BE AWARE OF YOUR MORNING.

What I mean by that is that every morning we have a choice. A choice about our mental state. A choice about awareness. Studies consistently show that high-performing leaders and entrepreneurs guard their mornings fiercely - not because they follow a rigid routine, but because they understand that the first hour sets the tone for everything that follows. Many of them start the day with one simple, conscious intention: today is going to be the best day. Not as wishful thinking. As a decision.

But let’s look at this outside my emotional emphasis and see what yoga has to say about it first. Because from a yogic perspective, this is nothing new.

There’s a reason yogis have known this for thousands of years. In traditional practice, the morning was simply the time to move. The concept of Brahma muhurta - the divine hour, the hour (and a bit) before sunrise - was considered the most potent window for creativity, movement and meditation. And Surya Namaskar, Sun Salutation, was literally designed as a greeting to the rising sun - pretty obvious now that I say it, I know. Sun Salutation. Sonnengruß. Solhilsen. 

But back to the topic: We were never meant to fight our bodies in the morning. We were meant to join the day as it begins.

Instead, what is happening in a Yang-led world is that we allow our mornings to be defined by our work schedule. Need to be at work by 9am - so how long can we sleep until we need to get up and get ready? If we’re lucky we manage to get a coffee in before we rush out of the house. We instantly start the day reacting to the world.

And that with our cortisol levels - our stress hormone - being at their highest in the morning. So we’re basically adding to it, instead of owning it.

The Science Behind It

Here’s what’s actually happening in your body when you wake up. Cortisol — often labelled purely as a stress hormone, but that’s only part of the story — is at its natural peak in the early morning hours. This is your body’s built-in alarm clock preparing you to meet the day.

Transitioning from rest to wakefulness. Making you alert. Not as a threat. Rather a gentle push, a biological invitation to get started.

The problem is that most of us immediately hand that energy over to our phones, our inboxes, our to-do lists and our problems. We spike the cortisol further. 9am arrives and we’re already depleted.

A morning practice - in whatever form it takes - works with that natural energy flow. It channels it. And then it helps the nervous system regulate back down into a calm, focused and present state for everything that follows.

The way I spend my mornings has been my anchor throughout the past five years where I have moved countries, time zones, jobs, drove on the other side of the road and tackled all sorts of obstacles along the way. And the one thing that has never required a new address or a new language is the way I spend my morning. Or at least the awareness I have about my mornings and the way they affect the outcome of my day, my mood, my feelings and relationships.

This was the very first thing I changed in order to live a more mindful life. Being aware of my morning. Choosing to slow down. Deciding for myself what course my day is going to take, instead of allowing the outer world to decide.

And that does not mean a two-hour morning routine. It does not mean it looks the same every single day and everywhere I go. It does not mean waking up at 5am or being a morning person by nature - although I personally do love it, the earlier the better. It simply means owning your start to the day. Setting the tone before the world sets it for you. More acting, less reacting.

You can’t pour water from an empty cup, so fill your cup in the morning. Through awareness, through mindfulness. So you can meet whatever the day has in store for you. 

How unfortunate would it be if the universe sent you an opportunity and you were too drained by 9am to even notice it?

Some mornings are full and intentional. Others are quiet and slow. Both count. What matters is that the morning belongs to you first.

Today for instance, Tuesday, is the morning I teach a 7am morning class. Hot Balance & Power Flow. Imagine this and understand why I love it: 

It’s early. Outside it’s still quiet - the world has not fully awakened, not fully started yet. You are enjoying the early hour, the silence, the stillness, the birds chirping on your way to the studio. Knowing that you are showing up for yourself. Setting the tone for the day. One step ahead.

You enter the room and feel the gentle heat meeting you, inviting your muscles to loosen before you’ve even realized they needed it. A gentle wake-up to the day - for the body, for the mind, for everything that’s about to begin.

If you’re based in Aalborg come find me on the mat.

Every Tuesday at 7am HOT Balance & Power Flow at Yoga Huset in Aalborg. 

The heat wakes the body up fully and gently at the same time. The balancing calls your mind into the present - there is simply no way to drift in a balancing pose. And the power channels that natural morning energy into momentum, clarity and a focused state that carries you through the rest of the day.

So,

I said I won’t give you a to-do list and I won’t - but let me end this by saying that my morning practice has followed me wherever I go, and it was never about WHAT I did. Just like Home was not about the WHERE anymore. Both was about the HOW.

My morning did not look the same wherever I was. It was not the same every day. And still isn’t. It is about showing up for myself in a sense of presence. Even if it’s only five minutes in the morning. The very first choice of the day should be yours. Yours only.

And if you are interested in some ideas you could easily include in your morning — in whatever state you're in, whatever season you're in, and depending on how much time you can make available for yourself — I am working on a morning habit guide that will be available for you soon. Not a rigid routine. Not a to-do list. Simply a menu of tools and habits you can choose from, make your own, and come back to whenever you need it. Because we are not the same every day, and your morning doesn't have to look the same every day either. 

Just bring one thing: Awareness.

Much love,

Kim