When we wake, our stress hormones are high due to the darkness of night.
This means that the first priority upon waking to boost daily and long term performance, is to down-regulate these stress hormones, before we do anything else really.
This is prioritising “energy generation” or metabolic health, which is happening at the cellular level – important if we would like to maintain longer term vitality.
So the big three?
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Food (balanced meal, including ample carbohydrate).
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Natural light exposure (face, body, skin)
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Breath (meditation, slow breath work, hypoventilation – this can be done with gentle movement)
Now, these have been going since the beginning of time: “break fast” – to break the fast and normalise night-time stress, light (via circadian rhythms, we naturally wake with light), and morning breath or meditative practices, but alas, they do go against some current trends of fasting, early high intensity training, early morning running etc etc.
So, as usual, we need to notice cultural conditioning and try to think about what makes sense and also tune in to what we feel. A lot of trends come, a lot of trends go, yet as I often like to say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
If you are interested in this, check out my Pillars of Power eBook, a free 130 page download.
and,
***The third episode of my new Podcast comes out today. Response has been great so far, I hope you enjoy (it’s also on iTunes).***
