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Creating a Morning Ritual Can Transform Your Days

Letter From The Editor
Necole Kane
Jun. 27, 2018 08:42AM EST

Two years ago, I used to wake up flustered and in a panic.

"What did I miss while I was asleep," I'd wonder as I scrambled to get out of bed to get to my laptop, all while scrolling through emails on my phone.

Within minutes, I'd be responding to texts, shooting off emails, making phone calls, and updating social media before I even had the chance to hop in the shower and eat breakfast. Those minutes would turn into hours, and before I knew it, my entire day had passed by before I had an opportunity to eat, drink a few glasses of water, and find my center.

It was no wonder when I visited a holistic doctor, in 2014 after my monthly cycle went missing, that I found out I was extremely fatigued, dehydrated, malnourished, and my nervous system was on the brink of shutting down.

I knew in that moment that things had to change.

During a February 2015 text exchange I had with Sway In The Morning co-host Tracy G., we dived into the topic of morning rituals, which went something like this:

Tracy: What does a successful morning look like for you?

Me: A successful morning to me right now is waking up with a positive mindset and knowing I can do anything I put my mind to. It might sound small, but I've mentally abused myself over the past year more than any man or human ever could. A successful morning means eating two meals before noon. It's the small stuff.

My success definitely does not include giving my mornings to others and not myself first, even though I am very thankful for my job.

That was my morning for 8 years, giving it to others. Now I make sure I wake up, drink a glass of water, open my blinds, listen to an empowering podcast while cooking my breakfast, and really make sure I've found my center before I plug into what the rest of the world is doing.

I'm trying my best to have an hour to myself in the morning before having to prep for my show. Now that you've realized that it's a non-negotiable, that can help you with future decision-making. If something is going to disrupt your recharge time in the morning – is it worth it?

Absolutely not.

Two years later, I've remained pretty consistent about my morning recharge time and it has literally transformed my days and changed my life.

Here are 13 things I find myself doing upon waking up before I've even had the chance to check emails or log into my computer:

  1. Lay in silence for 15 minutes and visualize how I want my day to go.
  2. Write down my intentions for the day in my journal.
  3. Pray (and thank God for the many blessings He's bestowed upon me).
  4. Stretch (a lot of people do yoga or meditate, I'm not there yet)
  5. Make my bed (I've found that if I don't do this, I'll want to jump back in.)
  6. Drink a glass of water (you are super dehydrated upon waking up).
  7. Open my blinds and let the sun in. (This is actually my favorite part of my day.)
  8. Shower. (The steam from the shower helps get my ideas flowing.)
  9. Cook breakfast. (Normally, it's 3-4 eggs with a side of oatmeal and fruit.)
  10. Take my vitamins.
  11. Listen to an empowering podcast or audio book. (This can be done while making breakfast.)
  12. Put on feel-good music.
  13. Aromatherapy. (I find that when I put Peppermint oil in my diffuser, it helps energize me. Lemon awakens my senses.)

Depending on how I feel, I may do about 15 – 30 minutes of cardio to get my heart rate going in the AM.

Once I've completed most of my ritual, and fully immersed myself into my "Me" time, that's when I will log online and plug into what the world is doing.

I have noticed such a dramatic change in my life since putting these rituals in place and my friends have all pointed out the shift they've seen in my energy and overall attitude towards life since I've been doing this as well.

A lot of people may say, "Sorry, I don't have time," but making the choice to go to bed earlier, and wake up an hour or two earlier makes all of the difference.

If you put a good morning ritual that works for you in place versus the usual routine of scrambling out of bed, hopping in the shower, plugging into emails, and rushing out the door, you increase your chances of having a productive, well-balanced, and positive day.

Try it, and let me know what happens!

What's your current morning ritual?

Originally published on Necole Kane.com

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Necole Kane

Necole Kane is the founder and Editor In Chief of xoNecole.com. After spending 7 years as a successful celebrity gossip blogger, the Maryland native launched xoNecole.com with the mission to promote positive images of women of color as well as empower, educate, and inspire millennial women to live their best lives. Keep up with Necole on Instagram and Twitter@hellonecole, or through her personal website NecoleKane.com.

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Becoming A Popstar’s Amira Unplugged Is Where She’s Meant To Be

Before she was Amira Unplugged, rapper, singer, and a Becoming a Popstar contestant on MTV, she was Amira Daughtery, a twenty-five year-old Georgian, with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. “I thought my career path was going to lead me to law because that’s the way I thought I would help people,” Amira tells xoNecole. “[But] I always came back to music.”

A music lover since childhood, Amira grew up in an artistic household where passion for music was emphasized. “My dad has always been my huge inspiration for music because he’s a musician himself and is so passionate about the history of music.” Amira’s also dealt with deafness in one ear since she was a toddler, a condition which she says only makes her more “intentional” about the music she makes, to ensure that what she hears inside her head can translate the way she wants it to for audiences.

“The loss of hearing means a person can’t experience music in the conventional way,” she says. “I’ve always responded to bigger, bolder anthemic songs because I can feel them [the vibrations] in my body, and I want to be sure my music does this for deaf/HOH people and everyone.”

A Black woman wearing a black hijab and black and gold dress stands in between two men who are both wearing black pants and colorful jackets and necklaces

Amira Unplugged and other contestants on Becoming a Popstar

Amira Unplugged / MTV

In order to lift people’s spirits at the beginning of the pandemic, Amira began posting videos on TikTok of herself singing and using sign language so her music could reach her deaf fans as well. She was surprised by how quickly she was able to amass a large audience. It was through her videos that she caught the attention of a talent scout for MTV’s new music competition show for rising TikTok singers, Becoming a Popstar. After a three-month process, Amira was one of those picked to be a contestant on the show.

Becoming a Popstar, as Amira describes, is different from other music competition shows we’ve all come to know over the years. “Well, first of all, it’s all original music. There’s not a single cover,” she says. “We have to write these songs in like a day or two and then meet with our producers, meet with our directors. Every week, we are producing a full project for people to vote on and decide if they’d listen to it on the radio.”

To make sure her deaf/HOH audiences can feel her songs, she makes sure to “add more bass, guitar, and violin in unique patterns.” She also incorporates “higher pitch sounds with like chimes, bells, and piccolo,” because, she says, they’re easier to feel. “But it’s less about the kind of instrument and more about how I arrange the pattern of the song. Everything I do is to create an atmosphere, a sensation, to make my music a multi-sensory experience.”

She says that working alongside the judges–pop stars Joe Jonas and Becky G, and choreographer Sean Bankhead – has helped expand her artistry. “Joe was really more about the vocal quality and the timber and Becky was really about the passion of [the song] and being convinced this was something you believed in,” she says. “And what was really great about [our choreographer] Sean is that obviously he’s a choreographer to the stars – Lil Nas X, Normani – but he didn’t only focus on choreo, he focused on stage presence, he focused on the overall message of the song. And I think all those critiques week to week helped us hone in on what we wanted to be saying with our next song.”

As her star rises, it’s been both her Muslim faith and her friends, whom she calls “The Glasses Gang” (“because none of us can see!”), that continue to ground her. “The Muslim and the Muslima community have really gone hard [supporting me] and all these people have come together and I truly appreciate them,” Amira says. “I have just been flooded with DMs and emails and texts from [young muslim kids] people who have just been so inspired,” she says. “People who have said they have never seen anything like this, that I embody a lot of the style that they wanted to see and that the message hit them, which is really the most important thing to me.”

A Black woman wears a long, salmon pink hijab, black outfit and pink boots, smiling down at the camera with her arm outstretched to it.

Amira Unplugged

Amira Unplugged / MTV

Throughout the show’s production, she was able to continue to uphold her faith practices with the help of the crew, such as making sure her food was halal, having time to pray, dressing modestly, and working with female choreographers. “If people can accept this, can learn, and can grow, and bring more people into the fold of this industry, then I’m making a real difference,” she says.

Though she didn’t win the competition, this is only the beginning for Amira. Whether it’s on Becoming a Popstar or her videos online, Amira has made it clear she has no plans on going anywhere but up. “I’m so excited that I’ve gotten this opportunity because this is really, truly what I think I’m meant to do.”

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