This week’s topic: How to Use Morning Rituals to Set a Positive Mindset and Boost your Mood
Namaste loves welcome back to our Thursday Q&A show where our topic today is the art of intuitive eating, how to listen to your body for nutritional guidance. So this is such an important topic, a vital one for our health. And when I say health, I mean on all levels, our physical health, our ability to stay in our peak vitality, our optimized vitality and to ward off illness, disease, aches, pains. It’s also critical for our……
Topics Covered
In this episode, Kimberly discusses the importance of morning rituals and how they can set a positive mindset and boost mood. She shares her own morning routine and emphasizes the impact of activities such as physical exercise, meditation, gratitude practice, visualization, and positive social interactions. Kimberly also highlights the significance of aligning with nature and body types, and the benefits of consistency in building energy. Overall, she encourages listeners to create a morning routine that supports their well-being and helps them thrive.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Importance of Morning Rituals
01:24 The Impact of Morning Routines
06:57 Meditation in the Morning
08:24 Gratitude Practice
09:48 Visualization and Positive Mindset
11:38 The Power of Vibration and Field
13:34 Morning Social Interactions
21:27 Kimberly’s Morning Routine
30:26 Consistency and Building Energy
31:21 Closing Remarks
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[RESOURCES / INFORMATION]
SOLLUNA PRODUCTS LINKS
KIMBERLY’S BOOKS
Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart
You Are More Than You Think You Are
Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life:
Other Podcasts you may enjoy! Click on the title to play.
How Your Morning Routine Sets the Mood for Your Day + My Morning Routine!
5 Daily Rituals for Finding Acceptance in Yourself [Episode #615]
9 Powerful Ways to Overcome Anger or a Bad Mood [Episode #826]
How Foods Affect Your Mood [Episode #405]
STUDIES AND LINK ON TOPIC
A 2019 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined the effects of morning exercise on mood and found that engaging in physical activity in the morning led to improvements in mood and energy levels throughout the day. Participants reported feeling more alert, enthusiastic, and relaxed after morning exercise compared to days when they did not exercise in the morning.
A Study on Morning Meditation and Cortisol Levels in the Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology (2013) found that individuals who engaged in mindfulness meditation in the morning had lower cortisol levels throughout the day compared to those who did not meditate. Lower cortisol levels are indicative of reduced stress response.
A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology(2003) examined the effects of daily gratitude exercises on happiness. Participants who engaged in a morning gratitude exercise, such as writing down things they were grateful for, reported higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction compared to those who did not engage in the exercise.
Research published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology (2016) explored the effects of visualization techniques on mood. The study found that participants who engaged in positive visualization exercises in the morning, such as imagining a successful day ahead, experienced improvements in mood and self-esteem.
A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2014) investigated the effects of morning social interactions on well-being. The study found that individuals who had positive social interactions in the morning, such as spending time with loved ones or engaging in meaningful conversations, reported higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction throughout the day.
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Transcript:
Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
Kimberly Snyder (00:00.81)
Namaste loves and welcome back for our Thursday Q &A show. Our topic today is around the morning and specifically how to use morning rituals to set a positive mindset and boost your mood. So as I am recording the show right now, it is 419 in the morning and I get asked all the time how I fit so much in.
because I’ve got the kids and the family and the hubby and the show here, as you know, which is twice a week. And then I’m writing books, two more books publishing this year and running Saluna and a lot of other things. And I want to share that what has been the most impactful on my day -to -day productivity and rhythm and still feeling really grounded and happy is my morning.
practice. Now, I’m not saying that you have to get up as early as me, but I will say I used to try to stay up late at night to get things done, to, you know, I would drink some black tea or whatever, and then try to finish my writing or to get all the emails done. And I would get things done, but it was never, it never felt as in flow.
or this incredible fullness. And I think that even if we label ourselves as more night owls, we can start to shift to get up earlier. There’s a different energy in the morning. So how we start the day is going to impact your energy, your creativity, how clear you feel. And we’re going to talk about the research in just a moment as well as what RU VEDA says about earlier mornings. Now, don’t worry again, it doesn’t have to be…
three or four in the morning, which is when I’m book writing, a typical time for me to wake up. But if you’re someone who wakes up more towards eight or nine, getting up a little earlier, even in the seven o ‘clock range can have tremendous benefits. And just like when we shift our diet, there may be a bit of a transition time as we move things up. But from the bottom of my heart, I want to share that you will be so happy with
Kimberly Snyder (02:22.286)
how you feel in your day when you start to really own your morning and have an incredible rituals to build up your morning. And don’t just take my word for it. There’s quite a bit of research which we’ll get into in just a moment. Before we dive in, little reminder that I am here on video now. If you want to check out our show on our YouTube channel, you could head over there.
But as always, we’re always going to be on Apple and Spotify. So I will be with you for your morning walk, your morning drive, or later in the day while you are cleaning your house or chopping vegetables or wherever we are together. And remember that on the show notes, mysaloon .com, we will have links to the research in this show, as well as the transcript. If you want to read some of this.
or other shows and other shows I think you would enjoy, recipes pertaining to this topic, guided meditations, which also pertains to this topic and more. All right. Let’s get into our show today. And our question comes from Christine who lives in Maryland. Hi, Christine. Thank you so much for bringing this amazing topic to the forefront. You’re right. Hi, Kimberly. Love your show.
I’m writing to see if you can share what your morning routine looks like these days. I’m trying to find some inspiration to get started on the right foot. Thank you. So Christine, thank you once again. I love to share about this because I do really passionately believe that this is a key to wellness and vitality. As I’ve shared about…
before and what Arya Veda teaches us is that we are part of nature. This Panchamahabhuta theory, this idea that the elements in our body are found also in nature. And so whilst we have modern conveniences like fluorescent lights and we have the internet so we can sort of be beyond in any hour, the truth is that the more we sync up our natural cycle with the circadian rhythms in nature, the more we can benefit.
Kimberly Snyder (04:35.214)
from riding those energetic waves which are happening in a larger collective capacity around us. So when the dawn comes and the light is gathering energy, this is said to be a sacred time in yoga, especially three to five in the morning where a lot of spiritual insights can come. And then as we get to the peak of the day, a great time to exercise, right? We’re in the middle of the work day. And then it starts to come down as we move towards dusk.
And so if we can get up earlier and we can start to go bed closer, not exactly when the sun goes down, but closer, we will start again to have enormous boosts in our energy and just being part of this natural cycle. And I can say that I have personally experienced this and it’s good to move in the morning. It’s good to get into our bodies and into flow.
So a 2019 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that when we have some sort of physical activity in the morning, we are more alert, we are more relaxed, and we have a boost in our mood compared to those who did not exercise in the morning. So I will say that my exercise was walking and I happened to do that midday when the sun is at its peak. But in the morning,
Physical exercise wise, I am hustling around the house. I am getting breakfast ready. I’m getting my son ready for school. I’ve got the little one. I’ve got lunch making. I’m picking up the little one. And there is some walking to and from the car, to and from the school. So there’s a lot of activity. So this is not, you know, it’s how we define it. It doesn’t mean we always have to hit the gym first thing.
But getting the blood flow moving, getting the circulation flowing, getting everything turned online is a wonderful thing to do in the morning and to move us out of sluggishness and slothfulness. A study published in the Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology found that those who meditated in the morning had lower cortisol levels throughout the day.
Kimberly Snyder (06:57.774)
Remember cortisol is the stress hormone. So this is a measurable way to see that as I’ve been talking about for so long here, when we get into our body, when we get into deeper connection with the true self, the higher self, the soul, the heart, whatever you want to call it, we are more resilient to the outside world. And this is so huge.
even if you can meditate five minutes in the morning. Or our heart aligned meditations, which I will be putting up tracks very soon. We have our kids tracks coming up because our Chilla Gorilla and Lenky Lemur Journey to the Heart book is coming out in May. And then my adult book on the heart is coming out in September. These meditations are eight minutes. And in our research, we did a formal study with the Heart Math Institute. We found that coherence went up 29%.
So coherence is measured by your HRV patterns, coherence is as a measurement of clarity and focus, and on an energetic level, having more feelings of peace and being centered. And this is because we have to get centered inside of ourselves. Again, this is one of the most powerful aspects of a morning routine. If we set up our morning so we’re not just hitting the ground, literally our feet hitting the ground after waking up.
and in a mad rush already on TikTok, racing to our work, racing to get our kids ready for school. We’re putting ourselves in a sort of an energetic blueprint, a pattern for that to continue. So as this study showed, if we make the space in the morning, which could mean getting up 15 minutes earlier, so you have that space, but it’s worth it, and we can sit and center ourselves.
we will be more resilient throughout the day. There’s more research that I will discuss in this new heart book. I haven’t shared the title yet. But there was an amazing study that showed that when you get into these, when you’re practicing these heart -based techniques, which are very different than mind -based meditation, where there can be a lot of thoughts, they can be disassociative, but practicing some of these heart -based techniques, which aren’t just meditations,
Kimberly Snyder (09:19.95)
but it practices you do in the middle of your day to stay coherent. There was a 23 reduction overall in cortisol after one month of practice, and there was a 100 % increase in DHEA. Now DHEA is a precursor hormone. It’s really important for our energy and our vitality. It also plays an optimal role in fertility and egg quality. So, I’m starting to study this.
on a scientific level, which has been talked about for millennia by the yogis and the ancient ones, right? From Arya Veda talking about connecting to the heart, talking about pratyahara and yoga, withdrawing the senses, going inward. This is how we’re going to feel really safe and secure in a world that feels very turbulent. And there’s a lot out of our control. There’s a lot of stuff on the news. There’s a lot of illnesses.
around, there’s a lot of things happening in the economy. So the only place we can really find that deep safety and security is rooting more into ourselves. So I cannot emphasize enough how important carving out some space for that morning meditation, which could just be five or eight minutes.
Now, another study practiced in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that a daily gratitude exercise, even writing things down or saying them out loud to your partner or to your friend or your roommate or to yourself, was found to increase our levels of happiness and life satisfaction. We are always emanating a type of vibration of field.
And this field is made up of electromagnetic frequencies, and it can be measured with sensitive instruments known as magnetometers. And this is also in my next book, which you can tell I’ve just been editing it because it’s very much top of mind for me. But we’re talking about a positive mindset, boosting your mood with this show. But I also want to expand that to say our success in life is very much around our vibration. It’s not just what we’re doing.
Kimberly Snyder (11:38.734)
It’s not just what we’re saying, but it’s who we are and how we’re showing up. Now, how we define success isn’t just in material outcome and gain, but also, I would say, in our harmonious relationships and our ability to be in flow and how peaceful we are and how joyful we are independent of external conditions. We don’t want to keep giving our power away to even beautiful things like our kids.
our success at work, because those things can shift and change. Our kids are going to grow up, projects will change at work. We want to pull that into ourselves inside. So gratitude is a very expansive quality. It helps us to see what’s here now. It helps us to get out of lack -based thinking and shift towards an abundance mindset, which is that my heart is so full, my true self, I’m whole and complete.
as I am right now, as this day is. And then we can start to shift. So when we start this day, the day in a very full place, we can better see that life is happening for us, not to us. So we start to move out of the very lack -based mindset of victimhood. This shouldn’t have happened. I got a raw deal. This isn’t supposed to be this way. My expectations didn’t match this, whatever it is.
And then we start to shift into this abundant place of acceptance. And when that happens, we start to harmonize with life. We start to flow. We start to pivot and shift and we start to see everything as a beautiful gift that is for your favor. It is for us to grow. And so we start to embrace. We start to find joy. Imagine coming into this energy in the morning. What a different energy we would bring into our day.
It would feel very different. It will be very different. So I encourage you to spend some time in the morning writing things down, saying them out loud. Or in my practice, I come into the meditation and then there’s a part you’ll find when you practice our heart aligned meditation. There’s a part for appreciation, this expansive part. And at the end, I always close in gratitude. Same thing with our practical enlightenment meditations, which are already on our website, which you can practice.
Kimberly Snyder (14:03.79)
We end in gratitude. We end with fullness. So I don’t have a separate gratitude practice, but it is interwoven in my meditation practice. And I encourage you to try that or to have your own iteration of gratitude, but to very much make that a part of your morning.
Now, I’m going to talk about another study from the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. And this was talking about visualization and imagining a successful day ahead. And those that did this improved in mood and self -esteem. This is measurable. I have a dear friend named Faith Collier, and I met her in Hawaii and she is a deep
spiritual, mystic practitioner. She’s in her late seventies and she shared with me a practice of praying over the day. Meaning that, again, you can stack these rituals. So it doesn’t have to feel so separate or there’s so many of them. But one of the things that she taught me is to visualize or to sort of flash in your mind what’s happening that day. Right? So it could be,
going to a school event or your work Zooms and having dinner with your friend later on or walking to work and just visualizing this beautiful harmony throughout the day, visualizing yourself coming from your heart as you move through the day and things feeling in a seamless flow. And so there’s this energy that we’re already inserting that’s positive.
And it also gives us a sense of positivity as this actual research showed, so that we don’t feel as much as randomness or being batted around. It doesn’t mean everything’s going to work out perfectly, but it means that we feel this sense of interconnectivity and this deeper sense of groundedness within ourselves. So as we go into the day, we can bring more of that energy. So again, it can flow from meditation into gratitude.
Kimberly Snyder (16:17.134)
And then just taking a moment to visualize the day ahead, to pray over the day ahead in ways that feel organic and good to you so that you can experience more of that flow and the mood increase, the benefits to mood that this study very much showed. So,
the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, so it’ll be the last piece of research that I mention, in 2014 found that there was an effect, a very positive effect between morning social interactions and well -being. So this means when we had positive social interactions in the morning, it had an increase in happiness and life satisfaction throughout the day. What does this look like? Cuddling your pet.
This is some of the things that I talked about in my love chapter in the book behind me called You Are More Than You Think You Are, which is a wonderful guide, if you haven’t checked it out yet, for tapping into the true self in practical ways. So in the love chapter, I talk about how important it is to activate love, to make it a verb. So what this looks like in practical terms is on the way to work, call your mother, or you call a friend, or you take time to hug and to cuddle deeply your partner.
or your kids before you rush off into the day. I love this morning time with my family. And even this morning, I’m down here by 4 a .m., laying my head on my husband’s chest and having that moment to really feel so together. Even if it’s brief, it’s just a few minutes and he’s groggy and he’s kind of awake. Just to feel our head and hearts connecting together is amazing.
It means we are moving away from this robotic existence, which never feels good where we’re scrambling to survive versus thrive. And then we start to say, what am I doing here? Is it just trying to work to pay my rent? And I’m just, you know, shoveling my food down and eating as fast as I can, hustling all day. What is this? So we want to break that up. We want to…
Kimberly Snyder (18:36.854)
seize our morning because again, while we don’t control everything, we have great power over the morning because we don’t have the same sort of obligations that may come up unexpected emails or meetings that are called or the traffic. We can really build this energy in such powerful ways in the morning that it’s hard to even in the evening, we may feel
more spent from the day or maybe our child needs extra help with their homework or there’s something we need to talk to them about or you know we have to support a friend or it just took so long to get home from work we’re not in the same space. So as we mentioned Ariveda talks about this power of the morning the rising sun and we want to take advantage of this incredible energy and move with that.
Along with that, I want to mention that we have different body types. There’s Kapha energy, which is more earth based energy, earth and water. And this body type tends to like to get up later in the morning and be more of a night owl. There’s Vata energy, which is my predominant energy. At least it goes more out of whack when I am out of whack myself. We all have the energies inside of us, but Vata are very late sleepers.
And I definitely get up early in the morning. And then there’s the Pitta, which is more steady energy, the fire -based types. So if you find yourself, and I was just speaking to someone I was doing a consultation with a few days ago, she loves getting up eight or nine. She loves going to bed at one in the morning, very kaffa. This is something that may feel good to us, just like Vata types like me love to eat the dry crackers, the
pretzels, the crunchy, because it’s aligned with our nature. But we can still make an effort to shift that by going to bed earlier, getting into that train, getting up earlier. Arya Veda says if we ideally, and this is going to sound really early, but if we can get up before six, just say even for modern times, before seven, but even before six, we won’t have the same lethargy and slothfulness.
Kimberly Snyder (21:01.134)
If we keep sleeping later, we may actually have more hours of sleep, but from an energetic standpoint, we’re out of sync with nature. So please make an effort to shift, even if it’s 20 minutes and then 20 minutes a few days later or in a month or whatever it is, we can start to shift into a more natural cycle. I know this is possible because I very much…
used to be a night owl living in New York City, having dinner reservations at 930 at night, and just not struggling very much to get up early. So back to our question from Christine, which she says, what does your morning routine really look like now? So I’ll run you through some of what I do and then also my recommendations for you, which have…
been very steady for many years now when I’m talking about the hot water with lemon and the SBO probiotics. These are protocols that I have held to for over a decade, but I do get up earlier. So my morning practice is to wake naturally. It is very, very rare for me to set an alarm, even if I have an earlier flight or even if I have an early podcast, I naturally get up so early. So,
If we take a step back, I am going to bed much earlier and I am wearing blue light blackened glasses. I’m watching something for a moment, not super common. I don’t love to watch stuff, but I’ll watch for a few minutes. I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. My husband and I love that show. So I’m wearing the blue light blackened glasses. I’m going to bed closer to my kid’s bedtime, to be honest. I love to go to bed in the eights.
or the nine o ‘clock would sort of be my cap most of the days. So then I’m waking anywhere from three, five typically. And I get up, go down into my kitchen and I drink some water. And then I sit to meditate. I like to do it first thing. There’s an unpredictability to when my kids will wake up. And I definitely want to do it as soon as possible to waking. So I light a candle and then I go into my practice.
Kimberly Snyder (23:23.95)
do Kriya Yoga, which is the ancient yoga technique by Paramahansa Yogananda. Then I flow into my heart and I do, I finish with the Heart Aligned Meditation, which I will be sharing with you soon, but it’s really this heart -based practice that brings you front and center into your life to come from your heart, to come from intuition, to come from this much more expansive, coherent place. Again, our Heart Aligned Meditation showed in scientific research to increase coherence 29%.
This is a key to starting the day feeling amazing, creative, joyful, and peaceful, resilient against stress. So I do that. And as I mentioned earlier, I end with a type of expansive appreciation, gratitude practice. I reflect on the day ahead. I pray for easefulness and flow and harmony as I move through my day.
So that is how I start. And then I go down into the kitchen again. And this time I have more room temperature water. Sometimes I add half a packet of element, the electrolyte product you’ve perhaps heard me talk about here. I don’t do a full packet at once all the time because I don’t drink, you know, jars and jars first thing when I wake up. It does have a fair amount of sodium. So I only like to have half a packet.
And then I have hot water with lemon. If I have all room temperature water, I’m too full, right, for my hot water with lemon. So I do like to have something hot at that point. And at that point, I do take my SBO probiotics, which you can find on our Soluna website. Our feel good probiotics are clinically researched. They emulate, they bring us back to nature. Even though we live in concrete environments and homes, we want to take in those probiotics every day, which are soil -based and emulate how our ancestors used to eat dirt.
on unwashed fruits and vegetables. So we don’t have to get so caught up just like with food into the minutiae and the exact numbers. What we know is that these are proper ratios and strains. So just like our ancestors weren’t sitting there counting calories or looking at, oh, 50 billion culture count, more the naturalness, putting us in sync with nature. This is what’s most effective. So you take your two SBO probiotics in the morning and that way you’re starting on an up.
Kimberly Snyder (25:44.206)
and your microbiome is starting on and up. And then I, maybe, you know, again, this is where it’s more fluid for me. I start to get my kids ready. At this point, they’re usually up or I do a little work or I read or I go back to meditating. For you, it may flip or you’re doing that hot water with lemon first.
and then your meditation afterwards, but I do encourage the meditation. Ideally, I would say the meditation is even earlier. If you can get into the habit of getting up, sitting up and going to a regular meditation place and meditating right away, you will get into that flow. And then even, you know, going to the kitchen, having your hot water with lemon, you can start to get on your phone, you can start to get into emails or Instagram or whatever it is, start to get pulled away.
So as close as possible as the meditation, the gratitude, the intentions, whatever your practice looks like, hot watered lemon, Espio probiotics. And then a little bit later, because I’m not so hungry right away, I, well, I’ll say this. If I’m up as early as this, I have been having at times a cup of organic low acid coffee, or I love black tea.
something like that, I will have some caffeine. I’m not gonna pretend that I don’t have any, because that’s not the truth. I sometimes have some. And then a time after that, I will have my glowing green smoothie. And my glowing green smoothie recipe right now is largely the rotation of greens, almost always broccoli sprouts, which is in heavy rotation in my home. And then I love frozen mangoes right now. Frozen mangoes, banana, and lemon.
So the classic recipe is apple and pear. I had that last week, but now I’m feeling called into the yellow, the sun, the tropical fruit. And I rotate it as I encourage you to do, but that’s my practice right now. And then as I go further into the day, I will have a wrap. I usually have a almond flour wrap or brown rice flour wrap.
Kimberly Snyder (28:03.086)
with avocado, hummus, sprouts. I’m not so into the tomato these days, but definitely cucumber is more my jam right now. So these are these little tweaks that I’ve been making, but the backbone of it, the meditation, the hot water lemon, GGS, and the SBO probiotics remains the same. And that’s because energy builds over time. So we start to see the morning ritual as a support system for us. The…
reliant go -to that is always there. So we don’t have to sit here thinking about what we’re going to do. We don’t have to wonder. We don’t have to be all over the place. Morning means stability, support, resilience, which will make you more strong for the day and to feel more emotionally balanced. There’s a real practicality to this. As we start to sync up our day so our digestion gets on point and our energy, we will feel
our immunity will go up and we will just feel so much more balanced that naturally our moods and our emotional state will be more balanced as well. So to summarize a couple of points, getting up earlier so you don’t feel rushed, so you’re more in sync with nature is something I definitely recommend. And then definitely a meditation practice with some, ending with some sort of gratitude and visualizing the day or an intention for the day, head over to mysalooner .com.
for the guided practical enlightenment meditations and to be tuned, stay tuned for our heart aligned meditations, which will soon also be up there. Having some sort of activity in the morning, moving your body, getting outside, walking your kids to school or a little bit further across the parking lot or exercising if that fits into your routine. As I mentioned, my actual exercise routine is a little bit later in the day, but seeing how that works for you.
And then being consistent. These are the main points. Energy builds over time. So it doesn’t have to be super complicated, but picking those components that you can count on. And once again, I’ll say for me, it is room temperature water, sometimes electrolytes, hot water with lemon, meditation, SBO probiotics, and GGS. And then I feel amazing and I do this consistently.
Kimberly Snyder (30:26.062)
And I was in Phoenix recently for a conference. So I ordered room service before I meditated. And a lot of places now will make a version of the GGS. You can give them the recipe. They will certainly bring you hot water with lemon. You stay on track as much as you can. And so I did meditate. And then an hour later when the room service came, I was there, right? On track. Travel with your SBO probiotics and definitely travel with your detoxie as well, of course. So.
These are some of the components I am so excited to share with you. And I hope this helps, Christine, and all of you listening to this. I hope that you build an amazing morning, an amazing life, because you deserve it. You are unique. You are important. You have an important contribution to the world. The world needs your heart, your energy. So please use it to the highest benefit. Please express your creativity in all the ways, all the infinite ways.
And remember, you can continue to ask me questions over at mysaloona .com. There’s a podcast tab. I look forward to connecting with you more, sending you so much love and so much gratitude. Also find me on social at underscore Kimberly Snyder. Also, I’m being more active these days on TikTok. Much love, much gratitude. Namaste.
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