Welcome   >  Vitamins  >  Why did you get...
08-07-2016

Why did you get up this morning?

get up It’s a question worth asking. Why did you bother to get out of bed this morning? What was it that made you want to leave your soft warm cocoon? Were you forced to? Did you, like most people, put off opening your eyes until the last possible moment? Did you get up reluctantly, praying that the day would pass quickly? If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, it’s time to take action. Without delay. This article will give you the key to regaining your drive, motivation and good humour each day, to stop missing out on life, to discover the potential you’ve always felt was within and to finally live the life you deserve.

A difficult start to the morning followed by a dull day: why this daily grind is unacceptable

How you wake up each morning and how you spend the moments that follow significantly affect your mood and vitality throughout the day. And that vitality is critical to success. Your inner state is reflected in the outside world: how you view the day depends on whether you wake up feeling stressed or happy. If you struggle to wake up in the morning, and then drag your heels or wander about aimlessly, there’s a good chance your day will be unproductive and boring. That’s why it’s said that the first hour after waking sets the tone for the day1. Your state of mind during this crucial hour has a powerful impact on how the rest of your day pans out. Indeed, as any psychiatrist will tell you, morning is the most difficult time of day for people suffering from depression. So starts the vicious circle of the dull, monotonous life: you wake up depressed and unmotivated, your day is boring or stressful and you go to bed feeling desperate at the thought of having to get up again the next day.
Do you think the situation is hopeless? Would you secretly like it to change? Well, obvious though it may seem, if you want your life to take a different course, you have to make some changes. Yet every morning, the vast majority of people remain stuck in the same state: lacklustre and tired. If they had a choice, most would carry on sleeping. And how about you – do you have a choice? Would you prefer to stay asleep rather than live life to the full, as you’ve always dreamt of doing? Many forget that life is a miracle

Most of us take our presence on Earth for granted, when in fact our existence is nothing short of a miracle. From the tortuous journey made by sperm (at the end of which part of you is created) to the improbable meeting of your parents, to the number of times conception fails to take place: the chances of you coming into the world are infinitesimal. An unlikely combination of circumstances that wins you the right to life. The jackpot. Consider for a moment that if just one of your thousands of ancestors had been killed before they had reproduced, you would not be here. This one fact should normally be enough to give you a positive outlook on life. Indeed, the only possible outlook. When are you going to truly take advantage ofthe miracle that is life? Are you waiting for your ‘days to be numbered’ before appreciating everything that life has to offer?

Your alarm clock goes off and you press ‘snooze’. Congratulations – you’ve just programmed your subconscious to register your apparent inability to convert your intentions, wishes and desires into concrete action. Because of this programming, you forget about your dreams and the trope “Maybe one day” becomes entrenched, while you wait for life to make choices for you. Until the day, that is, when you suddenly wake up and say “What on earth happened?” Could there be anything worse than waking up one day full of regret at having lived a life of procrastination? When you pause your alarm clock and loaf around in bed, you’re almost registering a resistance to your very existence.

From the morning miracle to the convivial attitude: a fool proof approach to finding motivation and a positive mood

Among the hundreds of ways to regain your form, motivation and success, there are two approaches that work every time provided that you use a little self-discipline. They are based on two extremely simple principles. 1) You have to wake up one hour earlier. I can see the indignation on your faces now: “I’m not a morning person”, “I need more sleep, not less!” But don’t confuse physical tiredness with mental fatigue: this method, popularised in a book by personal development coach Hal Elrod 2, produces incredible results. According to Elrod, we feel unfulfilled because we spend too little time taking care of ourselves. That’s why he recommends devoting one hour each morning (and we’ve seen how important this particular time of day is) to carrying out various activities recognised by psychiatrists and science in general. Never fear that you’ll fail to get up early : one of Elrod’s tips is to persuade yourself at bedtime that tomorrow you’ll be in excellent formto tackle your new routine and that you’ll no longer be that person who lets life pass him or her by. Instead of saying “Oh no – I’m only going to get six hours of sleep”, tell yourself firmly that “six hours of sleep is plenty for me to have a fulfilling day”. Think back to waking up on Christmas Day when you were a child: despite being tired, you had absolutely no difficulty in getting up early to discover what had been left for you. It’s said that no-one likes waking up early, but perversely everyone loves the feeling of getting up at dawn. So what are you going to do with this new hour of yours? Take your pick from these activities and establish a new ritual which will have a positive influence on your day:
    Read –A brilliant way of encouraging personal development, reading is unfortunately often neglected in favour of smartphones. Spend these moments of calm rediscovering the pleasure of reading.
    Be silent – Enjoy 5-10 minutes of silence and simply listen to your breathing. Silence is a rare commodity in modern life: devoting a little time to listening to your heart beating and deliberately cutting yourself off from the frantic pace of life is invaluable.
    Write a journal – Whether you’re a talented writer or not matters little: keeping a private journal encourages you to express emotions and reflect on events. Write a few lines every morning – it won’t be long before you feel the benefits.
    Exercise. The benefits of exercise on physical and mental well-being are well-established. A gentle jog, muscle exercises or yoga: when practised immediately after waking, these activities have the ability to resynchronise our biorhythms, with lasting effects throughout the day.
You can choose other activities as long as they are aimed solely at promoting your personal development. The aim is to bring together these activities so as to constitute a morning ritual. In no time at all, you’ll wonder how you ever did without them.

2) Starting now, shower yourself with positive vibes. The ‘Convivial Attitude’ method popularised by the author A. Bennani3 is based on a fundamental principle: the more you surround yourself with negative vibes (bad mood, incessant complaining, negativity), the more reason you give yourself to act negatively. “A rose or violet doesn’t wait for a particular occasion or admiring audience to give off its perfume”: it does so freely and naturally. Why? Because in reality, it’s the flower itself that benefits first. Simply take the decision to radiate positive energy and you’ll see that you are the first to see the advantages. A colleague or shopkeeper who receives a friendly gesture, smile or show of appreciation will be more likely to return the favour. And so on. A simple smile offered at the beginning of the day can spread around a workplace and come back to you at the end of the day - only magnified, because of the chain reaction of goodwill. See for yourself how infectious it is – you won’t be disappointed

Help yourself with the aid of natural products: omega-3 and vitamin D are the obvious choices

Before we move on to talk about natural supplements – undervalued, as always – I want to draw your attention to two factors that are relevant to morale and mood.

- giving up smoking, a habit obviously harmful to everyone, may improve levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and irritability, and promote a positive attitude4.
- (moderate) sun exposure significantly improves mood5. The effect of the changing seasons on mood is well-documented. It’s even been shown that people who live in areas of high rainfall have more marked symptoms of depression (this is a growing trend due to increases in rainfall)6.

The lessons learned from these studies mean it’s vital to wean yourself off one of the worst poisons in existence (some people are barely out of bed before smoking their first cigarette of the day!) and replace it with activities such as jogging or walking.

As I was saying, there are two natural products that can also prove invaluable in helping to change behaviour and improve mood. The technique of ‘habit-changing’ is now well-known by psychiatrists. It can be broken down into three phases. Most people fail to ditch their bad habits because they don’t realise that the difficulties they’re bound to encounter will not last forever. If you stall at stage 1 (which lasts around 10 days), you perceive that establishing a new habit (getting up early) and giving up a bad one (staying in bed) is difficult. If the first few days can seem exciting, the next few are often challenging because the body tends to vigorously reject the change. You must resist. It is usually in the middle of this stage that people fall by the wayside. Time and time again.

But they’re wrong. They’re unaware that this difficult phase won’t last and that all they need to do is hold on for a short time. Ten tricky days to achieve a better life – surely that’s not asking too much! Phase 2 lasts another 10 days or so and is characterised by gentle acclimatisation. You start to notice the positive effects and feel proud of your progress. Finally, when you reachphase 3, marked by pleasure, you’re almost there.

To help you to keep going and get back your motivation and spirit, two natural products with scientifically-recognised effects can prove invaluable.
Supplements rich in omega-3 offer the best hope here. Countless studies have highlighted their potential in reducing depression and mood disorders7. One analysis of 13 different studies even showed that omega-3 had a comparable effect to that reported in a meta-analysis onantidepressants8. And that’s not all: a study published just last month showed that people with depression had a low omega-3 index9. Hardly surprising when we know that the ratio between our intake of omega-6 and omega-3 is now 15:1 when humans evolved eating a diet with a ratio of 1:1. 10. This imbalance is actually responsible for a number of modern pathologies such as auto-immune diseases and a number of cancers.
Do I really need to remind you of the other proven benefits of omega-3? All right then, judge for yourself: it improves cognitive ability11, reduces markers of inflammation, prevents loss of grey matter, has anti-ageing effects, lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease12, improves adaptation to exercise 13, …

It’s obviously best to take a natural supplement with proven effects, obtained from a sustainable fish source such as Super omega 3, available at Supersmart.com. At the same time, an adequate diet with a focus on seeds and seafood is recommended in order to maximise the effects. Why not include them in your breakfast (the subject of the next paragraph) and enjoy their benefits over the longer term?

You can also count on vitamin D, particularly the products Vitamin D3 5000 IU and Vitamin D3 5000 IU to improve your mood and encourage change14. This vitamin, deficiency in which is common, is partly produced by the body on exposure to the sun – and remember that those living in areas with little sun are more affected by low mood and depression …

Do you need to eat breakfast in the morning to feel in top form?

The importance of breakfast is open to debate. If certain theories are to be believed, the human body is totally geared towards eating a meal as soon as we wake up (some even say it should be our largest meal). But is that really true? The proponents of these theories – which are sorely lacking in evidence (a number of studies show that breakfast is just a meal like any other) 15) are quick to forget that dietary behaviour is not always linked to instinctive mechanisms: sociocultural, psychological and familial factors are much more significant. This suggests that the most important thing is to listen to your body. If you’re not hungry in the morning, don’t force yourself to eat. Though you should ask yourself if you’re creating the right conditions to feel hungry. A depressed state of mind or being rushed in the morning are not the right conditions to stimulate hunger. And while there is still uncertainty over the apparent link between skipping breakfast and putting on weight16, there is no doubt about the link between eating breakfast and physical and cognitive performance (capacity for learning, for example) 17,18. The drop in glucose which follows several hours’ fasting impairs brain function: attention, concentration and memory are undeniably less sharp. And who wants to start the day with reduced mental and physical ability?

Life begins anew each morning. Don’t miss the train headed for change – the destination is truly worth the effort …




Bibiliography
1. Steve Pavlina, The Rudder of the Day : Personnal Development for Smart People, 2010.
2. Elrod H. Miracle Morning. The not-so obvious secret guaranteed to transform your life (before 8 a.m.), 2014.
3. Bennani H. La conviviale attitude au travail : 96 attitudes pratiques pour prendre soin de soi-même, des autres et de la planète, 2013.
4. Taylor G., McNeill Ann et al. Change in mental health after smoking cessation: systematic review and meta-analysis BMJ 2014; 348 :g1151
5. Leichtfried V et al, Intense illumination in the morning hours improved mood and alertness but not mental performance. Appl Ergon. 2015 Jan;46 Pt A:54-9.
6. O’Hare C et al. Seasonal and meteorological associations with depressive symptoms in older adults: A geo-epidemiological study. J Affect Disorders, 2016; 191: 172–179. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.11.029.
7. Su KP, Matsuoka Y et al. Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Prevention of Mood and Anxiety Disorders. Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci. 2015 Aug 31;13(2):129-37. doi: 10.9758/cpn.2015.13.2.129.
8. Hallahan B1, Ryan T2 et al. Efficacy of omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids in the treatment of depression. Br J Psychiatry. 2016 Apr 21. pii: bjp.bp.114.160242.
9. Parletta N, Zarnowiecki D et al. People with schizophrenia and depression have a low omega-3 index. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2016 Jul;110:42-7. doi: 10.1016/j.plefa.2016.05.007. Epub 2016 May 13.
10. Simopoulos AP. The importance of the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acids. Biomed Pharmacother. 2002 Oct;56(8):365-79.
11. Cutuli D. Functional and structural benefits induced by omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids during aging. Curr Neuropharmacol. 2016 Jun 13.
12. Rizos EC, Ntzani EE et al. Association between omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and risk of major cardiovascular disease events: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Med Assoc. 2012;308(10):1024–33. doi: 10.1001/2012.jama.11374.
13. Stiefel P, Ruiz-Gutierrez V, et al. Sodium transport kinetics, cell membrane lipid composition, neural conduction and metabolic control in type 1 diabetic patients. Changes after a low-dose n-3 fatty acid dietary intervention. Ann Nutr Metab. 1999;43(2):113–20. 14. Heidi May et al. Association of vitamin D levels with incident depression among a general cardiovascular population, American Heart Journal, Volume 159, Issue 6, June 2010, Pages 1037–1043
15. Tanya Zilberter, Eugene Yuri Zilberter. Breakfast: To Skip or Not to Skip? Front Public Health. 2014; 2: 59.
16. Cahill LE, Chiuve SE, Mekary RA. Skipping breakfast or eating late at night increases risk of coronary heart disease. Circulation (2013) 128(4):337–4310.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.001474
17. Wurtman RJ, Judith J, Wurtman J. Determinants of the availability of nutrients to brain. Cereb Nut Energy Metab 1977; 1: 103-129.
18. Rampersaud GC, Pereira MA. Breakfast habits, nutritional status, body weight, and academic performance in children and adolescents. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005 May;105(5):743-60; quiz 761-2.
Order the nutrients mentioned in this article
Super Omega 3

EPA and DHA: one of the most natural, pure, powerful and stable product on the market

ca.supersmart.com
Vitamin D3 5000 IU

To help prevent the risks of vitamin D deficiency

ca.supersmart.com
Vitamin D3 1000 UI

Healthy individuals now require a minimum dose of 1000 IU a day.

ca.supersmart.com
Further reading
10-04-2019
Vitamin C: was Linus Pauling right?
Would you put your faith in a man who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize in two different categories? One of only two people (the...
Read more
28-06-2017
Nutrition: how to keep your brain well-nourished
As the control centre of the central nervous system, the brain has to deal with a constant flow of data, processing millions of bytes of...
Read more
30-04-2018
Scientists discover why the body’s use of...
A newly-published study in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association shows that the body may be unable to make proper use of vitamin D...
Read more
Follow us
Please choose your language
enfres

Free

Thank you for visiting our site. Before you go

REGISTER WITH
Club SuperSmart
And take advantage
of exclusive benefits:
  • Free: our weekly science-based newsletter "Nutranews"
  • Special offers for club members only
> Continue