It’s not just another Monday!

Mornings are more than just a time to wake up. They provide a strong opportunity to set the tone for your entire day. Perhaps the first 30 to 60 minutes after you wake up can influence your mood, energy levels, focus, and even your ability to handle stress. While many people start their day in a rush mood, checking their phones, skipping breakfast, or hitting the door, there is a better way to make your day.
Let’s be honest as most of us don’t wake up! Instead, we restart the disorder with eyes open, brain twists and the phone flashes. Just like that, we are off racing with time, chasing deadlines and looking for the version of ourselves we promised we would be last week. But what if we stopped that? Just for a moment to make our mornings more meaningful and purposeful.
Remember that how you start your day is often how you start your life on autopilot or in alignment. Every morning, the universe hands you a blank canvas and whispers to you to paint wisely. However, most of us start splashing stress on it before we even put our feet on the floor.
That is why mornings set the tone for everything that follows. The way you start your day can either energise you with purpose or bring you down with anxiety. Imagine beginning each morning not with stress or snooze buttons, but with clarity, calm and confidence. That is the power of positive morning rituals — intentional actions that align your body, mind and spirit for the day ahead.
Developing a set of positive morning rituals can help you regain your morning and approach each day with clarity and purpose. These rituals don’t need to be long or complicated; what matters is that they are consistent and aligned with your goals. But why do morning rituals matter?! In fact, science and psychology support the idea that our early-morning habits significantly shape our emotional and mental states.
Science tells us our brains are most absorbent in the first hour after waking. That makes mornings fertile ground for focus, gratitude and clarity. What you plant in those early moments grows throughout the day.
Likewise, research shows that individuals with regular morning routines report lower levels of stress, greater productivity and improved emotional attitude. In contrast, beginning the day in a reactive state — for example, immediately checking e-mails or news alerts — can increase anxiety and decrease decision-making ability throughout the day.
It is true that there will be days when things don’t go as planned. You might oversleep or miss an important appointment, but that is okay. The goal is not achieving perfection, but maintaining consistency over time. Small, repeated actions create big changes. Begin with just two or three practices or rituals and build on them as you go. The most effective rituals are the ones that feel natural and sustainable.
Every morning gives you a fresh start. You have a choice to either rush into your day reacting to demands or to rise with intention, positivity and clarity. Morning rituals are not about being productive for productivity’s sake. They are about honouring your time, your body and your mental space, so that you can lead the rest of your day with purpose and success.
Great mornings don’t begin when the alarm rings; they begin the night before. Hence, before going to bed, ask yourself: How do I want to feel tomorrow morning? And the next morning, stand in the silence of the new day and whisper to yourself: This is my life. I get to choose how it begins. Then, you walk into your life with your shoulders back and your heart open; not because it is perfect, but because it is yours. Mornings are not about control; they are about creation.
Just like every muscle in the body, the mind needs to be trained to gain strength. It needs to be worked consistently to grow and develop over time. If you don’t proactively push yourself in little ways every morning, of course, you will struggle later on when things don’t go your way.

The writer is author, translator and a communications professional