What Becomes Possible When You Stop Scrolling In The Morning?
Niki Vinogradoff
I guide parents to sit peacefully on a meditation cushion in the morning, watch the numbers on bank account go up through creative work, laugh at the dinner table, and fall asleep in a healthy body. Mindfulness Coach
READY to stop going through a guilt-ridden day of procrastination?
EAGER to enjoy a ritual that puts you in a state of calm focus and on track for your income goals?
I see that you've decided to take ownership of your mornings, hence your mind.
Here are the 3 outcomes you can expect:
1. Strong motivation to design a morning that sets you up for the calm and focused day in line with your impact and financial goals - and intentionally using your phone ONLY AFTER you have been up for an hour.
2. You'll have a first draft for the morning the way that suits you, helping your brain to be relaxed, creative, and in flow. (This doesn't have to be anything unpleasant or complicated.)
3. You can see how much better your life will be with consistent little effort.
Ready to commit yourself to the above service towards the best in you?
Let's go.
Honest truth is a great beginning.
If your brain was attached to an EEG machine - measuring your brain waves, here is what it would show the moment you wake up and reach your phone:
Brainwaves jump from Delta to Beta.
In practice, that means you will begin to expect problems and threats.
As your body detects that, it'll start producing stress hormones and become tense.
And your brain will react to that by becoming even more contracted around worries.
You’ll feel like you're being squeezed through a busy tunnel.
That's not even the worst part, that'll come later...
At this point, you've set yourself up for perceiving the day as a set of potential problems and threats to solve.
You've spilled your dopamine, your source of curiosity and excitement into a black hole.
Then people wonder why they don't have the drive and mental energy to focus - but instead look for more and more dopamine from the wrong places.
A recipe for low energy and a high probability of brain fog.
It's like you flattened your tires, broke your brakes and threw out your GPS before driving to your destination.
You might consider that normal or random or even familiar…
But it's a consequence of how you set yourself up in the morning.
Into a survival state of being.
Now imagine doing that tomorrow, next week, next month, daily, next year - what is the likelihood that it becomes a way of living?
It's high.
10 years of doing it means that you've begun 3650 days by effectively scrambling your brain.
At this moment that might not seem like a big deal, but 10 years from now...
MANY people will as they look back and see how they wasted immense amounts of time watching things that gave them absolutely nothing but stress (a very narrow way of living).
If it’s difficult to stop that habit today, it won’t be easier tomorrow.
Yes? No?
It gets worse (and will give you ''negative motivation'', a strong desire to leave a habit behind.)
You do know that scrolling in the morning is a disservice to yourself.
Imagine the psychological impact of doing that daily - what will you think about yourself when you repeatedly do something that isn't good for you?
How will that impact your relationship with yourself?
Well, the answer is - it'll eat your confidence and fill you with anxiety.
It's very anxiety-provoking when you can't rely on yourself to be the person who stands up for your dreams and plans.
Now, if this is stinging your heart, soul, and mind - good.
Because that will launch you into change.
It'll make you ask:
"What if I did the opposite? Today?''
Here comes another car metaphor…
Imagine that for 10 years you'd have a 2023 Ferrari driving next to a 1960 Lada, they'd be in totally different places 10 years from now.
That's a completely different life!
You can change the trajectory at anytime.
Beginning now.
Why not?
Imagine your head softly landing on the pillow, while having a relaxed body and content mind - ready to fall asleep, easily, because:
With focus and energy, you completed 2-3 most important priorities of the day (IF you took breaks.)
You had time for meditation, and learning and had a long relaxed dinner with your loved ones. (Not perfectly, but best possible)
Because that is what you decided and envisioned in the morning.
What would happen when you'd do that for 30 days? 90 days? A year? 10 years?
I can confidently tell you that you'll be:
领英推荐
Looking forward to the day.
What honestly could be better than that? To feel than tingling aliveness and warm in your heart the first thing.
Your work would be filled with meaning and confidence because that's how it is when you are competent and calm.
Your relationships would be filled with more laughter.
You'd have so much more to give to others.
What would be the impact of that after 10 years?
10 years will pass, and it will feel heart-wrenching if thousands of new beginnings got lost into scrolling...
And as the ripple effect - ?THOUSANDS of hours into guilt and distractions.
Simply by switching a 5-minute morning scroll into reading a book - you'd have 1825 minutes more learning behind you after a year.
Which road do you want to take?
Scrolling down the path of distractions. (Better yet, destruction...)
OR
Waking-up as the architect of your day. (Like my client mentions below)
If the latter, let's look into the HOW….
I can't actually tell you the how.
I can give you questions and inspiration.
But there is no 'HOW' to your morning ritual.
There is your commitment and your design of it.
I can share a bit about what my morning looks like.
And it begins in the evening...
I do a 5-min visualization about the next day, this improves my sleep and my brain will improve my ideas during the night.
As I wake up with a crystal clear mind, I get up, sit by the bed for 5-min and speak my intentions to myself.
Drink 1L water.
Meditate.
After I been up for 60-90min, I check client messages and my schedule - and do some thinking.
Coffee and sunrise in our garden, even when it's raining.
I began work about 3 hours after I got up. Same for many of my clients.
I can't imagine waking up at 8.45, having coffee and 9 a.m. Zoom meeting...
My phone is switched off and in a drawer downstairs - we sleep upstairs.
Enough about me, because the thing is...
If you are scrolling in the morning, while you know it's not good for you, but you still do it...
And have been doing it for a long time - then you'll need to pull yourself out of that habit first.
These 5 questions will effectively put a end to the habit if you need extra motivation
The next steps are to decide:
What do I want to do in the morning? Why?
How can I help myself in that?
What do I want and need to change in my environment? (EG. Write down 5 legit reasons why having your phone by your bed is making your life better. A way to trick your brain…)
What would someone who truly loved themselves and got their own back do?
What will I do tomorrow morning? How exactly will it be different?
Remember, it's a practice - not an attempt to once and for all do it perfectly.
Understand that technically not scrolling is so easy, but...
It's the ILLUSIONARY emotional short-term rewards that pull you into it, when your body and mind are already used to those.
So...
You need to create a clear understanding of what kind of pain will become part of your life if you don't stop it.
And how your life will be and feel better when you do your morning ritual instead.
10-years will pass and the countdown is already on.
The change can be much easier when you take it one day at a time.
AND...
When you are ready for a 90-min BREAKTHROUGH session like Anna
Write me a DM, let's get to know your challenges and dreams.
And the first 3 will get on top:
The price is $200usd, and the ROI is easy to calculate:
Will having a focused, calm, and energized mind at your business help you to earn more in the next 3-months?
PS. To make a breakthrough, you have to be 10/10 committed.
PSS. After this you can of course continue further with me.
Humble thank you for your commitment to be the best you can be,
Niki
Helping high-performing leaders attract and retain top talent by fostering a culture of sustainable wellbeing. Neuroscience | Mindfulness | Emotional Intelligence | Author of Mindfulness at Work | Researcher |Ex-Banker
8 个月Your warning to stop reading if one is not ready to let go of certain habits is actually very powerful, Niki. It makes us aware that our actions and habits have consequences that we need to take responsibility for. This alone is a great lesson, thank you for all you do to raise awareness of this!
Life & Business Strategist. MBA, MA Psychology, ICF. CEO, Kaspari Life Academy. Host of the Unshakeable People Podcast. Habits & Behaviour Design, Neuroscience. I shape MINDS and build LEADERS.
8 个月Excited to see the positive changes ahead for you! ??
What is your relationship with your phone like in the morning?
I guide parents to sit peacefully on a meditation cushion in the morning, watch the numbers on bank account go up through creative work, laugh at the dinner table, and fall asleep in a healthy body. Mindfulness Coach
8 个月?? Eve (Leader, Mother & Artists) tells her life-changing BEFORE and AFTER story in the carousel better than I can: https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7168963147221946368/