Confession time: how many times did you hit ‘snooze’ on your alarm this morning?

Once? Twice? *Whispers* Multiple times?

I feel your pain!

When the birds are chirping, the early morning sun streams through the gap in your curtains, and you can already feel a little warmth in the air, getting up at 6am is a breeze.

You bound out of bed like some sort of modern day Snow White, just waiting for woodland creatures to help you into your early morning yoga gear.

But as soon as those clocks change and you prise an eyelid open, only to be met with complete darkness, it’s another story.

Your routine, your motivation, and your good intentions disappear. And more often than not, they take your energy and your sparkle with them!

So how do you create a morning routine that’ll work for you all year round?

Short answer: you don’t.

Slightly longer answer? Read on…

First up, it’s important to abandon the notion of a one-size-fits-all-seasons approach to wellbeing. Your life, your body, your emotions, and the world around you are in constant flux — so it’s unrealistic to expect the same self-care routine to work for you at every season of the year, and at every stage of your life. The best self-care routine is a fluid self-care routine.

What to keep and what to change??

As the autumn turns to winter and mornings become even darker, how do you know which parts of your usual self-care routine to keep and which to change?

Well, rather than looking at your usual rituals in detail, try to look at them in more broader terms to suss out which elements you really love.

Take your morning walk, for example.

If a post-breakfast walk is usually the thing that sets your positive mood for the day, why is that?

Is it about the exercise-induced endorphins? Me too! But I’m not a fan of walking in the dark so on darker mornings I switch things up by lifting weights and practicing yoga to enjoy the same benefits I’d usually get from my early morning stroll.

I try to make the switch even easier by leaving my weights and yoga mat in my office where I’ll see them first thing every day.

Or maybe you love your morning walk because it gets you outdoors; it’s appreciating the sights and sounds of nature that brings you the most benefit. In which case, why not look at changing the format of your day rather than changing the activity. A lunchtime walk might be the best tweak to make to your routine, particularly because it is still really important to get as much daylight as you can in winter — especially if the dark mornings get you down.

A nutritious breakfast.

Your nutritious breakfast might be the thing that usually leaves you feeling energised and excited to get up during spring and summer.

But, you just can’t muster up the enthusiasm for an ice-cold green juice or a chilled cup of blueberry overnight oats when the temperatures are getting closer to single figures or — gulp — zero.

This is why it pays to go with the seasonal flow, food-wise. No, not by going all hygge with breakfast pastries (unless you want to!) but by finding your usual burst of morning nutrition in other forms.

So, your ice cold fruit and veggie juice? Heat it up! There are literally no rules to say you can’t have soup for brekkie. And no rules to say that you can’t have a lovely, nutritious veggie curry to start your day either. Or go more traditional with a warming porridge spiced with cinnamon or ginger and grated carrot stirred through it. Honestly, it’s way more delicious than you might think!

And you might just find that pushing your own boundaries of what constitutes breakfast makes you more excited about your 6 am wake up call.

Lean into the season.

Just because you absolutely adore getting up at 5 or 6am all summer, doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have such an early morning wakeup call during the winter.

Because society tends to expect us to perform in exactly the same way all year round — working the same hours, exercising at the same time, eating meals at roughly the same time — it’s easy to forget just how attuned your body is to the changing seasons.

But it’s no coincidence that you usually feel a burst of energy every spring and start re-organising your cupboards like a woman possessed.

And it’s no coincidence that you want to rest more and sleep more at this time of year. Just as the trees and flowers prepare to gather their resources and build their strength for a springtime rebirth, your body will naturally push you to slow down, rest, and reflect.

So why fight it?

Okay, if your boss expects you to pitch up at 8 am, there’s not maybe a whole lot you can do about it. But are there things you could do to ensure you get a little extra shut-eye in the morning?

Make the kids packed lunches the night before? Make sure your clothes are all laid out before you go to bed? Wash your hair in the evening instead of first thing? Tell your family how important your morning routine is to you and ask for more help to ensure you’re all less rushed in the morning?

If you do have more freedom around how you plan your day, go ahead and lean into the season. Sleep a bit later, exercise at lunchtime, or take a pause in the afternoon to rest a little more if you feel you need it.

There’s no escaping it: most of us would far rather be faced with glorious sunshine when we open our peepers each morning. But dark mornings don’t have to be quite so depressing. With a few tweaks to your usual routine, a bit of creativity around how you plan your days, and a scrumptious — if unconventional — breakfast to look forward to, you just might find you don’t mind winter mornings quite so much this year.

Could you use some more advice about creating a self-care routine that works for you — and for where you are in your life right now? There are two ways I can help.

The Balance Club is an online community of inspiring, energetic, joyful women. When you join us you’ll find a whole host of delicious benefits, like expert-led masterclasses on topics like fashion, nutrition, and menopause, regular live sessions with me, and unlimited advice from the rest of the community. Doors are currently closed but join the waiting list and you’ll be the first to know when they open up again.

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