Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome back to on Purpose. Today is about
Speaker 1: how to reprogram your mind before eight am. I want
Speaker 1: to share with you the most practical, science backed morning
Speaker 1: routine that I could find, and I actually tried myself.
Speaker 1: Here's something nobody tells you about your morning. The first
Speaker 1: sixty to ninety minutes after you open your eyes is,
Speaker 1: neurologically speaking, the most programmable window of your entire day.
Speaker 1: Your brain is literally in a different state. It's transitioning
Speaker 1: out of theta and alpha brainwave patterns, the same frequencies
Speaker 1: used in hypnotherapy, into the waking beta state you'll spend
Speaker 1: the rest of your day in. And what do most
Speaker 1: of us do with that window? We hand it over,
Speaker 1: We pick up our phone, We scroll through someone else's priorities,
Speaker 1: someone else's outrage, someone else's curated highlight reel, and we
Speaker 1: wonder why we feel behind before the day has even started. Today,
Speaker 1: I want to share the most practical, simple, gen only
Speaker 1: achievable morning routine. I found one that I tried myself,
Speaker 1: one built entirely on neuroscience and peer reviewed research. And
Speaker 1: I promise you there's no ice baths at four am,
Speaker 1: no two hour rituals that require monastic training, just six small,
Speaker 1: surprising science backsteps that take about forty five minutes total,
Speaker 1: and that anyone night Owls included can start tomorrow. And
Speaker 1: here's what I love about each one. There's a clear
Speaker 1: reason why it works at a biological level. When you
Speaker 1: understand the mechanism, you're not relying on motivation. You're working
Speaker 1: with your brain, not against it. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: I know mornings are something we all struggle with, and
Speaker 1: I want to be honest, I've struggled with them as well.
Speaker 1: It's not easy for me to wake up energized and early.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I want to stay in bed. Sometimes I want
Speaker 1: to scroll too, and end up doing that as well.
Speaker 1: And so I've worked really hard on developing some of
Speaker 1: these habits that have changed the way I feel. I
Speaker 1: want you to go through your day feeling ready, energized
Speaker 1: and prepared, and I've found that when we do certain things,
Speaker 1: we actually end up doing the opposite. So let's start
Speaker 1: with the most controversial thing I'm gonna say today. Hitting
Speaker 1: the snooze button is one of the worst things you
Speaker 1: can do for your brain in the morning. Here's why.
Speaker 1: When your alarm goes off, your brain is finishing its
Speaker 1: final sleep cycle, usually rem sleep, the phase critical for
Speaker 1: memory consolidation and emotional processing. When you hit snooze and
Speaker 1: drift off for another nine minutes or nine times, your
Speaker 1: brain starts a brand new sleep cycle that it cannot
Speaker 1: possibly finish. You're essentially fragmenting your sleep into useless chunks.
Speaker 1: Research on sleep inertia, that's the scientific term for that groggy,
Speaker 1: disoriented fog you feel after waking, shows that fragmented sleep
Speaker 1: from snoozing actually worsens cognitive function. We're talking about slower
Speaker 1: reaction times, impaired memory, and reduced executive function. You're not
Speaker 1: getting rest in those extra minutes, You're creating neurological confusion.
Speaker 1: The internal clerk, controlled by a tiny brain region, gets
Speaker 1: conflicting signals, and the grogginess can linger for hours. So
Speaker 1: what do you do instead? I'm gonna share something with you.
Speaker 1: It's a little weird, but I want you to try it.
Speaker 1: I want you to try something called the future You
Speaker 1: is calling alarm. Now. I've never loved the word alarm
Speaker 1: because we think about alarms as a fire alarm. When
Speaker 1: there's an alert, when there's some danger. Imagine you actually
Speaker 1: shocking yourself to wake up out of danger. But try
Speaker 1: the future you is calling before bed, record a ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen second voice memo pretending you're you from six
Speaker 1: months in the future. It could even be that morning.
Speaker 1: Not motivational fluff, make it oddly specific and slightly dramatic.
Speaker 1: For example, Hey, it's you. I'm literally standing in the
Speaker 1: kitchen of the life you wanted. Don't hit snooze. Today
Speaker 1: is one of the days that got me here. Also,
Speaker 1: you still hate rushed mornings. Right, that's just an example.
Speaker 1: Set that recording as your alarm. And here's why this works.
Speaker 1: Your brain doesn't expect your own voice. It breaks the autopilot.
Speaker 1: Future you creates curiosity instead of dread. It reframes waking
Speaker 1: up as time travel, not obligation. And you can put
Speaker 1: your phone outside your bedroom and only allow yourself to
Speaker 1: hear the ending of the message if you stand up
Speaker 1: and walk to it. What I find fascinating about this
Speaker 1: example is that we're completely tricking the brain. Right. Usually
Speaker 1: you think we have to force ourselves out of bed.
Speaker 1: Usually we have to find a way to get that energy.
Speaker 1: When you hear your own voice in the morning that
Speaker 1: says it would mean so much for us to wake
Speaker 1: up right now, because if we wake up right now
Speaker 1: now will actually be really happy because guess what, there's
Speaker 1: a voice in your head telling you go to sleep,
Speaker 1: go to sleep, go to sleep, and we're not strong
Speaker 1: enough to fight it in our head. And that's why
Speaker 1: the alarm does that for you. Right Having an alarm
Speaker 1: that's your voice telling you the reasons you want to
Speaker 1: wake up, the amazing day, you want to have, the
Speaker 1: life you want to build, to encourage you specifically, is
Speaker 1: actually allowing you to externalize that powerful voice, that motivated voice,
Speaker 1: that conscious voice before the subconscious takes over. The subconscious
Speaker 1: is saying, just lie in, hit the snooze button, sleep
Speaker 1: in more. It doesn't matter, It won't make a difference,
Speaker 1: and your conscious mind at that time is switched off.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have the ability to fight back. So use
Speaker 1: your conscious mind to create a conscious alarm. I also
Speaker 1: want you to seriously consider moving your alarm across the
Speaker 1: room if you need to. The physical act of standing
Speaker 1: upright triggers a blood pressure change that signals wakefulness to
Speaker 1: your brain. But the voice no alarm is key. It's
Speaker 1: a micro decision that becomes a macro habit step number two.
Speaker 1: Now you want sunlight in your eyes the free drug.
Speaker 1: This might be the single most impactful thing on the
Speaker 1: entire list, and it costs you absolutely nothing. Within the
Speaker 1: first thirty to sixty minutes of waking up, get outside
Speaker 1: and expose your eyes to natural sunlight for ten to
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. Now, I know that sounds like a long time.
Speaker 1: You could have your morning coffee, You could do a
Speaker 1: small workout outside. You could pace and take a phone
Speaker 1: call if you wanted to, not through a window, ideally
Speaker 1: not through sunglasses. Outside with the light hitting your retinas.
Speaker 1: Here's the science, and it's genuinely fascinating. Your eyes contain
Speaker 1: specialized cells called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells or ipRGCs,
Speaker 1: if that makes it any easier, that have almost nothing
Speaker 1: to do with vision. Their job is to detect ambient
Speaker 1: light and send time signals directly to the parts of
Speaker 1: the brain. That's the masterclock I mentioned earlier. That signal
Speaker 1: does several things simultaneously. First, it triggers a healthy pulse
Speaker 1: of cortisol. Now before you panic, cortisol gets a bad
Speaker 1: reputation as the stress hormone. But the morning cortisol awakening
Speaker 1: response is not the same thing as chronic stress cortisol.
Speaker 1: Research published in multiple peer reviewed journals shows that this
Speaker 1: natural morning surge, which peaks about thirty to forty five
Speaker 1: minutes after waking, promotes alertness, supports immune function, and sets
Speaker 1: the emotional baseline for your entire day. About seventy seven
Speaker 1: percent of healthy people experience this response, and light exposure
Speaker 1: amplifies it in the right direction. Second, that same light
Speaker 1: signal tells your pineal gland to start the fourteen hour
Speaker 1: countdown to melotonin production. That means morning song unlight doesn't
Speaker 1: just help you wake up, it directly programs better sleep tonight.
Speaker 1: It's a twenty four hour investment disguised as a fifteen
Speaker 1: minute walk. Third, and this one surprised me. Research on
Speaker 1: office workers found that those who got significantly more bright
Speaker 1: light exposure before noon scored substantially higher on cognitive performance
Speaker 1: tests after just five days. Five days, and separate work
Speaker 1: from Northwestern University found that people who got the majority
Speaker 1: of their light exposure earlier in the day had lower
Speaker 1: body weight compared to those who got light later. So
Speaker 1: here's the practical step. Walk outside for ten to twenty
Speaker 1: minutes after waking, Combine it with your coffee, your dog walk,
Speaker 1: or just standing on your porch on overcast days, you're
Speaker 1: still getting significantly more LUX that's the unit of light intensity,
Speaker 1: than any indoor light provides. If it's pitch dark when
Speaker 1: you wake up, use a ten thousand LUX light therapy
Speaker 1: lamp positioned at eye level for twenty to thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: and skip the sunglasses during the window. Regular glasses and
Speaker 1: contacts are fine, but your eyes need that full spectrum
Speaker 1: light input. Obviously, don't stare directly at the sun just
Speaker 1: to point it out, but light exposure is huge. It's
Speaker 1: it's helping you sleep better, it's helping you wake better,
Speaker 1: it's helping you have better energy. And here, I know
Speaker 1: what you're saying, Jay, how do I get ten to
Speaker 1: twenty minutes? I get it, even if you can start
Speaker 1: with one or two, If you can start with one
Speaker 1: or two minutes, it will make a huge difference in
Speaker 1: your life, and I hope you'll give it a go.
Speaker 1: Step number three, the ninety second cold shock. I promise
Speaker 1: you know four am ice baths. But stay with me
Speaker 1: before you skip ahead. I'm not going to tell you
Speaker 1: to take a twenty minute ice bath. I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you to do something much simpler and honestly, much
Speaker 1: more interesting from a neuroscience perspective. At the end of
Speaker 1: your normal shower, turn the water to cold for sixty
Speaker 1: to ninety seconds. That's it. Here's what happens in your
Speaker 1: body during those sixty to ninety seconds. Cold water activates
Speaker 1: your sympathetic nervous system the fight or flight response, which
Speaker 1: triggers a rapid release of neuropinephrine and adrenaline. These are
Speaker 1: the same neurotransmitters responsible for alertness, attention, and mood elevation.
Speaker 1: It's essentially a natural stimulant. But the more interesting research
Speaker 1: is about what happens after the cold exposure. A study
Speaker 1: looking at cold water immersion found that quartisole levels and
Speaker 1: negative mood ratings were both measurably lower three hours after
Speaker 1: just fifteen minutes of cold exposure. So the initial shock
Speaker 1: wakes you up, but the downstream effect is actually a calmer,
Speaker 1: more resilient baseline for the rest of your morning. And
Speaker 1: here's the really compelling finding. Research on people who did
Speaker 1: regular cold exposure just two to three times per week
Speaker 1: for twelve weeks showed that their quartisole response to the
Speaker 1: cold drops significantly. After only four weeks, the body's adapted,
Speaker 1: but critically, researchers believe this adaptation generalizes, meaning your body
Speaker 1: may also become better at managing cortisol responses to other stresses,
Speaker 1: work stress, relational stress, the daily chaos of life. You're
Speaker 1: essentially training your nervous system to be less reactive. There's
Speaker 1: also a neurological angle that fascinates me. Your skin has
Speaker 1: a significantly higher density of cold receptors than warm receptors,
Speaker 1: especially on your face, where you might have ten or
Speaker 1: more cold sensing spots per square centimeter for every two
Speaker 1: warm sensing ones. Cold water on your face activates the
Speaker 1: vagus nerve through what's called the dive reflex, which shifts
Speaker 1: your nervous system toward the parasympathetic the rest and digest mode.
Speaker 1: It's a reset button. Here's the practical step. At the
Speaker 1: end of your regular warm shower, turn the doll to
Speaker 1: cold and stay in for just six to ninety seconds.
Speaker 1: Focus on breathing slowly and steadily through the discomfort. If
Speaker 1: a cold shower feels too extreme, start with just splashing
Speaker 1: cold water on your face and the back of your
Speaker 1: neck for thirty seconds. Even that partial exposure activates the
Speaker 1: vagus nerve and triggers a nora penephrine response build up.
Speaker 1: From there, the goal isn't to suffer. The goal is
Speaker 1: controlled brief discomfort that rewires your stress tolerance. Now I've
Speaker 1: been trying all of these out. The voice alarm in
Speaker 1: the morning worked incredibly well for me to sunlight. I
Speaker 1: haven't been able to do ten to twenty minutes, but
Speaker 1: even just doing the one to two minutes. I did
Speaker 1: ten to twenty minutes when I first tested this out
Speaker 1: for like thirty days, but my schedule's got busier, so
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do one to two minutes at least
Speaker 1: of direct sun exposure. And this one, the sixty to
Speaker 1: ninety seconds, is an absolute game changer. These are all free.
Speaker 1: You don't have to download an app, you don't have
Speaker 1: to learn anything new. Step number four moved for seven minutes,
Speaker 1: not sixty. One of the biggest myths about morning routines
Speaker 1: is that you need a full gym session to get
Speaker 1: the neurochemical benefits of exercise. You don't, and the research
Speaker 1: proves it. A study published by the American College of
Speaker 1: Sports Medicine validated what's now known as the seven minute workout,
Speaker 1: a high intensity circuit of twelve body weight exercises thirty
Speaker 1: seconds each with briefressed intervals. The findings showed that this
Speaker 1: short burst of activity was sufficient to trigger meaningful cardiovascular
Speaker 1: and metabolic benefits, comparable in several measures to much longer,
Speaker 1: moderate intensity sessions. But here's what I want you to
Speaker 1: focus on from a brain perspective. When you move your
Speaker 1: body in the morning, you're not just burning calories. You're
Speaker 1: doing four things neurologically. One, you're increasing blood flow to
Speaker 1: the prefrontal cortex, the seat of decision making, planning, and
Speaker 1: impulse control. This is the part of your brain that's
Speaker 1: slowest to come fully online after sleep, and movement accelerates
Speaker 1: that process. Two, you're triggering the release of BDNF brain
Speaker 1: derived neurotrophic factor, which is essentially fertilizer for your neurons.
Speaker 1: BDNF promotes the growth of new neural connections and strengthens
Speaker 1: existing ones. It's one of the most important molecules for learning, memory,
Speaker 1: and cognitive flexibility. Three, you're flooding your brain with endorphins, serotonin,
Speaker 1: and dopamine, the trifecta of mood regulating transmitters. This isn't
Speaker 1: just f feeling good. These chemicals directly affect your capacity
Speaker 1: for focus, motivation, and emotional regulation for hours afterward. And four.
Speaker 1: Physical movement, especially if done outside, creates a state that
Speaker 1: neuroscientists call optic flow. When you walk or run and
Speaker 1: the visual world streams past you, it activates circuits in
Speaker 1: your brain that reduce activity in the amygdala, your threat
Speaker 1: detection center. It's one of the reasons walking feels so calming.
Speaker 1: It's not just the exercise, it's the visual processing. Here's
Speaker 1: the practical step. Do seven minutes of body weight movement
Speaker 1: push ups, squats, lunges, jumping, jacks, anything that elevates your
Speaker 1: heart rate. If you want structure, search for the scientific
Speaker 1: seven minute workout, and it's free and widely available. If
Speaker 1: seven minutes feels like too much, start with three. Do
Speaker 1: it in your pajamas. If you want, the barrier to
Speaker 1: entry should be almost zero. You're not training for a marathon.
Speaker 1: You're telling your brain that the day has begun. I
Speaker 1: think for so long, we've just put so much pressure
Speaker 1: on needing an entire workout. And I know what you're thinking, Jay,
Speaker 1: what's seven minutes gonna do. Here's what it's gonna do.
Speaker 1: It's gonna give you the energy and the motivation to
Speaker 1: do fourteen minutes, to do thirty minutes, to try and
Speaker 1: invest more time. I think as humans we get into
Speaker 1: this perfectionist mentality. It's either all I'm either going to
Speaker 1: do an amazing workout or nothing at all. And I've
Speaker 1: realized that showing up and doing a simple workout is
Speaker 1: what gives us energy to do even more. Step number five,
Speaker 1: the brain dumb journal. This is the step that changed
Speaker 1: the most for me personally, and it's the one I
Speaker 1: think most people underestimate journaling, but not in the way
Speaker 1: you probably think. I'm not talking about keeping a diary.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about writing three pages of stream of
Speaker 1: consciousness every morning, although that's amazing. I'm talking about a specific, structured,
Speaker 1: five to ten minute practice that is decades of peer
Speaker 1: reviewed research behind it. Foundational work comes from psychologist James
Speaker 1: Penbaker at the University of Texas at Austin. His research
Speaker 1: on what he called expressive writing demonstrated that writing about
Speaker 1: your thoughts and emotions, particularly stressful ones, for as little
Speaker 1: as fifteen to twenty minutes produces measurable improvements in both
Speaker 1: mental and physical health. We're talking about reduced blood pressure,
Speaker 1: improved liver function, stronger immune response, and fewer doctor visits
Speaker 1: from writing. Neuroimaging research from UCLA helps explain why expressive
Speaker 1: writing activates the prefrontal cortex, your executive control center, while
Speaker 1: simultaneously dampening activity in the amygdala. So the act of
Speaker 1: translating chaotic emotional experiences into structured language literally rebalances the
Speaker 1: relationship between your thinking brain and your fear brain, and
Speaker 1: it gets better. Research has shown that regular journaling practice
Speaker 1: can reduce cortisol levels by up to twenty three percent
Speaker 1: in consistent practitioners. A study on people with major depressive
Speaker 1: disorder found significant improvements in depression scores after just five
Speaker 1: days of expressive writing, and a meta analysis of twenty
Speaker 1: randomized control trials confirmed that journaling is an effective adjunct
Speaker 1: intervention for anxiety and PTSD. Here's what I also find fascinating.
Speaker 1: A study published in the journal Mindfulness found that people
Speaker 1: who practiced mindful journaling for just ten minutes each morning
Speaker 1: showed greater self control and were less likely to abandon
Speaker 1: their other habits throughout the day. So journaling doesn't just
Speaker 1: help you process emotions, it strengthens the neural infrastructure for
Speaker 1: discipline itself. And I know what you're thinking, Jay, What
Speaker 1: do I write about? Maybe I won't have anything to say,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll get lost or stuck. I found that even
Speaker 1: just trying to remember my dreams was an incredible place
Speaker 1: to start. I remember just writing about how I felt
Speaker 1: in the morning, whether I was tired, upset, worried about something,
Speaker 1: was just useful. It didn't have to be perfect, it
Speaker 1: didn't have to be something that I'd have to hand
Speaker 1: in for an exam or And it's weird, isn't it,
Speaker 1: How we've all programmed ourselves to think, Like when you're writing,
Speaker 1: it's like it's a test, it's an exam. It's going
Speaker 1: to be amazing. No one's ever going to read this.
Speaker 1: It's for you. Here's the practical step. Every morning, spend
Speaker 1: five to ten minutes writing by hand. And yes, by
Speaker 1: hand matters because handwriting engages different motor and cognitive circuits
Speaker 1: than typing. Answer three simple prompts. One, what am I
Speaker 1: genuinely grateful for today? Gratitude journaling has its own body
Speaker 1: of evidence for boosting positive effect and counteracting depressive thought patterns.
Speaker 1: Two what's the single most important thing I need to
Speaker 1: accomplish today. This forces prioritization and activates your prefront or
Speaker 1: cortex for planning. And three, what's one thought or worry
Speaker 1: I need to get out of my head. This is
Speaker 1: the expressive writing piece. You're externalizing intrusive thoughts so they
Speaker 1: stop consuming working memory. You're literally freeing up cognitive bandwidth.
Speaker 1: Three questions, five minutes the reset says it works. Step six,
Speaker 1: delay the scroll. Protect your first hour. This last step
Speaker 1: might be the simplest to understand and the hardest to
Speaker 1: actually do, and it might also be the most important.
Speaker 1: Do not check your phone, no email, no social media,
Speaker 1: no news for the first sixty minutes after waking up.
Speaker 1: Here's why this matters so much from a neuroscience perspective.
Speaker 1: Remember that I mentioned your brain is in a highly
Speaker 1: programmable state in the first hour after waking. The transition
Speaker 1: from sleep to full wakefulness involves the shift from theta
Speaker 1: and alpha brain waves to beta. During that transition, your
Speaker 1: brain is exceptionally receptive to external input. It's forming the
Speaker 1: emotional and cognitive framework for the entire day. When you
Speaker 1: immediately check your phone. You're doing something very specific to
Speaker 1: your neurochemistry. Every notification, every email, every social media post
Speaker 1: triggers microdoses of dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with rewards seeking behavior.
Speaker 1: But it's not the satisfied content dopamine of accomplishment. It's
Speaker 1: the restless, craving dopamine of novelty seeking. You're training your
Speaker 1: brain in its most impressionable window to be reactive rather
Speaker 1: than intentional. Research are shown that checking email and social
Speaker 1: media first thing in the morning increases stress levels and
Speaker 1: fragments attention, reducing your ability to enter deep focused work later.
Speaker 1: You're essentially letting other people's agendas, their emails, their posts,
Speaker 1: their news cycles set the emotional tone of your day
Speaker 1: before you've had a chance to set your own, and
Speaker 1: there's a compounding of effect. Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has talked
Speaker 1: extensively about the importance of staying within your own mental
Speaker 1: frame during the first hours of the day. When you
Speaker 1: pick up your phone, you're stepping out of your frame
Speaker 1: and into everyone else's. The cognitive cost of switching back
Speaker 1: is real. It's called attention residue, and research shows it
Speaker 1: can impair your focus for the next task, even after
Speaker 1: you've put the phone down. There's also a lesser known
Speaker 1: benefit to delaying caffeine, which pairs well with this step.
Speaker 1: If you drink coffee too early, you interfere with that
Speaker 1: natural clearance process and you're more likely to crash later.
Speaker 1: Delaying your first cut by sixty to ninety minutes means
Speaker 1: the caffeine hits when your body actually needs it, and
Speaker 1: the effect lasts longer without a harsh drop off. Here's
Speaker 1: the practical step. Put your phone in another room before bed,
Speaker 1: or a minimum, keep it faced down with notifications silenced
Speaker 1: until you've completed steps one through five. Use a cheap
Speaker 1: alarm clock instead of your phone alarm. If you need
Speaker 1: to ease into this, start by delaying your phone check
Speaker 1: by just ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, and build
Speaker 1: from there. Replace the scrolling with your sunlight, walk, your movement,
Speaker 1: your journaling. Fill the space with intention rather than reaction.
Speaker 1: And if you're a coffee drinker, experiment with waiting sixty
Speaker 1: to ninety minutes after waking before your first cup. I
Speaker 1: promise your afternoon self will thank you. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening. I know that you might not be
Speaker 1: able to do all six of these steps starting tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to choose one that makes a
Speaker 1: difference and add one every week after you feel comfortable
Speaker 1: with the one you've implemented. I hope this transforms your morning.
Speaker 1: I hope it'll let you retake you back your time
Speaker 1: and your energy, and I can't wait to see what
Speaker 1: you go on to create with this new found resilience.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. I'll see you soon. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening to this conversation. If you and it,
Speaker 1: you'll love my chat with Adam Grant on why discomfort
Speaker 1: is the key to growth and the strategies for unlocking
Speaker 1: your hidden potential. If you know you want to be
Speaker 1: more and achieve more this year, go check it out
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: You set a goal today, you achieve it in six months,
Speaker 2: and then by the time it happens, it's almost a relief.
Speaker 2: There's no sense of meaning and purpose. You sort of
Speaker 2: expected it, and you would have been disappointed if it
Speaker 2: didn't happen.