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P R I V A T E P R I V A T E

D U A L D U A L

7 N I G H T S 7 N I G H T S

20-minute Morning Routine

The best start to every day!

©AlisonTSmith–www.alisontsmith.comAllRightsReserved

What’s the first thought that goes through your mind as soon as you wake up?

Perhaps it ’s something l ike:

• “I ’m so tired!” • “I don’t have the energy to move!” • “I just want to stay here.” • “I ’ve been awake most of the night.” • “I ’ve only just got off to sleep.”

It ’s well documented that the first 20 minutes upon waking are our most impressionable and those types of thoughts are not conducive to a productive, happy, stress-free day. You’re almost setting yourself up for a bad day with thoughts l ike that. With a few simple steps each morning, you can change your thoughts and feelings of negativity and defeat to ones of posit ivity and optimism for the day ahead, which wil l serve to make your days easier and more successful when it comes to your health goals. Everyday without fai l , I fol low a quick, simple routine, which real ly does make a difference to the type of day I have. Just 20 minutes, f irst thing in the morning, starts my day off on a posit ive footing and enables me to handle the challenges that l ife throws at me, in a stress-free, relaxed manner, and I can usually see the posit ive side of just about anything!

But why should you l isten to me?

Hi, my name’s Alison Trethewey-Smith and for the majority of my twenties and thirt ies I suffered with recurrent bouts of burnout, and was often signed off from my job in the city of London for weeks at a t ime; my doctor always put the cause down to having some unknown virus. This continued up unti l I left work and my 4-hour dai ly commute, to have my son at the age of 28. When my son was just 16 months old, my husband was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour and passed away 11 months later. The years that fol lowed were extremely challenging and my health deteriorated to a stage that I struggled to get out of bed everyday.

©AlisonTSmith–www.alisontsmith.comAllRightsReserved

For a couple of years, I ached l ike I had a constant bout of bad flu, my joints were painful , my brain no longer seemed to retain any information, I could’ve fal len asleep standing up and I didn’t have the energy to l ive a normal l ife, without paying for it for days or even weeks afterwards! I became severely depressed and on one occasion suicidal , due to the inabil ity to lead a normal l ife. At the age of 36, I was diagnosed with M.E. , now also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. That was in 2003, and after 4 years of taking responsibi l ity for my own health and making massive changes to al l areas of my l ifestyle I recovered total ly and have never suffered burnout or depression since, let alone a relapse of M.E.! Although not the only reason for my recovery, my mindset played a massive part in the journey to my consistent better health and an end to years of depression. So much so that I later trained as a practit ioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Hypnotherapy and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique or ‘Tapping’) My 20-minute morning routine is a simple but powerful sequence of steps, which have changed my l ife and can change yours too. It is the perfect way to start everyday and wil l help you move towards making the improvements you need to make when you’re suffering with M.E./CFS or burnout. I urge you to fit this routine into your day, everyday! You owe it to yourself to have at least 20 minutes productive 'ME' t ime each day! The good thing is, it can be done even on the days you find yourself unable to get out of bed!

©AlisonTSmith–www.alisontsmith.comAllRightsReserved

20-minute Morning Routine

1. Wake up earl ier – If you have to set an alarm have it go off 20 to 30 minutes earl ier than you need to get up. Even if it seems ridiculously early, the benefits wil l far outweigh the feel ing of being awake too early.

2. Plug in - Immediately upon waking, plug in your earphones

and l isten to a posit ive affirmation audio or posit ive hypnotherapy audio for around 10 minutes.

I l ike to do this because if you’re sti l l drift ing in and out of sleep it won’t matter, the posit ive thoughts wil l st i l l go into your subconscious mind. ( If getting up on time is necessary for you, you may l ike to set another alarm in case you drift back off to sleep, or set your alarm to snooze for the time that it takes for you to l isten to the audio.)

3. Express Gratitude - Next, ask yourself “What am I grateful

for?” And sit up in bed to write your answers in a gratitude journal.

If you ask yourself this question on a dai ly basis, you’l l start to wake up feeling on top of the world every single day. When you view your l ife and the world around you as being ful l of things to be grateful for, you’ l l start to attract more and more of those things into your l ife. The key to getting results is to do this for thirty days in a row; your brain wil l create a l ink between the empowering states you create with the question “What am I grateful for?” and being awake in the morning. We al l have much to be grateful for but often get caught up in the things that are wrong with our l ives. This dai ly procedure wil l enable you to shift your focus. In my journal, on the left-hand page, I always write 4 or 5 things that I have now and for which I ’m grateful. On the right-hand page, I write 4 or 5 things that I don’t yet have but that I would l ike to have, and I write it in the present, as if I already have it .

©AlisonTSmith–www.alisontsmith.comAllRightsReserved

For example, if your focus is to have more energy, on the left you could write, “I am happy and grateful now that everyday in everyway I am getting stronger and stronger and stronger.” And on the right, you could put “I am happy and grateful now that it ’s (enter date) and I have al l the energy I need to l ive an active, fulf i l l ing l ife.”

4. Visualise - Next, take a couple of minutes to visual ise/imagine

what you want/need to do that day, see it going to plan and free from stress!

5. Give Thanks - Next, as you swing your legs round to sit on

the side of the bed, place one foot on the floor and say ‘Thank’ and then place the other foot on the floor and say ‘You’.

6. Breathe in posit ivity, breathe out negativity - Remain sitt ing

on the side of the bed, close your eyes and as you take a deep breath in through your nose, visual ise a healing white l ight coming down from above your head, into your head, down through your neck, chest, arms, hands, torso, legs and into your feet. As you breath out through your mouth, imagine grey air or smoke coming out of your mouth, hands and feet. Breathe in posit ive feel ings/thoughts and exhale negative feelings/thoughts.

7. Protect Yourself – Whilst sti l l imagining the healing white

l ight coming in through the top of your head, visual ise your body having a large protective bubble al l around it , and see that healing white l ight coming down and fi l l ing the bubble al l around your body.

This wil l protect you from any negative energies or people you come across that day. If you are going to be mixing with crowds i .e. traveling on public transport or working in a busy office, you may want to imagine yourself having a heavy, impenetrable cape around your head, shoulders and body, for extra protection!

8. Ground yourself – Final ly, as you sit with your feet on the

floor breathing deeply, imagine roots growing out of the soles of your feet travell ing through the floor and ground, and down into the centre of the earth. Imagine the roots cl inging around rocks.

Now you are good to go and face the day with posit ivity and energy! Try this for the next 30 days and notice the difference – you won’t want to give it up!