MoHow Posted By: Dr. MO One of the most enjoyable parts of my life is my morning routine.

I enjoy the quiet and solitude of the morning. I stretch, exercise, garden, and meditate which prepares me for a wonderful breakfast and then a walk to work about 50% of the time. I also use the quiet time to write my morning email, AmMo, each day.

Now, not everyone is a morning person, of course. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create your own routine, one that incorporates something that gives you solitude, quiet, and peace. While morning is an ideal time for such a routine, other times are after work and before bed, and really, any time that works for you is good.

I recommend that you create your own peaceful routine. Give it some time to become a habit. Focus on doing it every day, and soon, you will not want to miss it.

Here are 10 ideas for you:

1. Warm morning drink. A nice cup of tea or cocoa, or a glass of water with lemon are great. Sit and enjoy the silence as you wake up, and even better, watch the sun rise. It’s the perfect way to greet the day.

2. Exercise. Go for an easy walk or run.They relieves stress, and give you time to yourself to think, and enjoy nature. Evening walks or runs are great too, especially as the sun goes down. If you’re not into running, walking, cycling, swimming, or really any exercise works well. Just take it easy in the beginning, and try to do a little every day. Don’t overdo it.

3. Meditation or yoga. Meditating on a regular basis,is calming, and centering. You don’t need to do anything formal, simply focusing on your breathing, as it goes in and out. Give yoga a try, lots of people who swear by it.

4. Gratitude session. This is one of my favorite rituals: every day, take a couple of minutes to think about everything and everybody you are grateful for in your life. It is an amazing ritual. Try it right now, it only takes a minute. Who are you grateful for? What are you grateful for? I’ve found that this little ritual has so much power that it makes me happier and more compassionate.

5. Evening review. This is an especially fruitful routine for anyone. Spend some time at the end of each day to review how you did, and reflect on how your day went. It only needs to take a few minutes, but just go over your day, what you did right and what you did wrong today, what you can improve, what you need to do in the future. If you want to journal this, it would be even better!

6. Bath or shower time. I truly love a long hot shower. If you have the time to do this, it can be extremely relaxing.

7. After work unwinding. Long day at work? Overwhelmed Take 30 minutes to unwind. Some great ideas for that: a 20-30 minute nap, snuggling with your kids, deep breathing, stretching, self-massage, or really anything that relaxes you.

8. Pre-sleep ritual. Another ideal time for a calming routine is just before you go to bed. You can do any of the calming things mentioned in the other items, or just develop a routine: get clothes ready, get lunches ready, clean up, brush teeth, and decide on your three Most Important ToDos for tomorrow.

9. Journaling or writing. A morning writing ritual is a good thing, but you can do a writing ritual at any time that works for you. Or instead of writing, try journaling. It can be very productive and relaxing.

10. Connection time. Try this: every night for a half hour, just sit and talk to your spouse. Share the highlights and lowlights of your day, talk about your goals, your finances, your relationship, movies, music, books. This can, of course, be adapted for conversation with your children.

If you found this post useful consider subscribing to this blog, and if you want more help and support, including the MOmentum Mind thinking training course, personalized training and coaching, and a wide range of specific motivational tools and resources and a morning boost in the form of my morning email AmMo to help you get going every day, consider joining www.maintainmomentum.com.