Mornings and Happiness

Not a morning person? Neither am I. I'm impressed by people who can wake up early and not be a grouch. For me, the morning starts when I have to get up (unless it's 3 PM...then my day is just lost). I rarely have good mornings because I try to get in as much sleep as humanly possible. I time everything. I give myself the bare minimum amount of time to get to class (or wherever else I'm going) to ensure I get the maximum amount of sleep that I can.

With that said, it's no wonder I'm a grouch in the morning. I hurry myself to the point that I need to rush to places (habit of a New Yorker?). At those moments, I cannot tolerate anything or anyone inhibiting my journey to said destination.

All that aside, here are some tips I have found to be helpful to myself to have a great morning that carries out throughout the day:

• Reward your stomach and taste buds. That's the least you can do for wrenching your body out of your nice, cozy bed and into the frigid air outside of your blanket. Normally I don't have breakfast due to the lack of time. I indulge in double the lunch to make up for it. But breakfast is amazing when it's not cereal and milk. I've had the pleasure of having waffles with ice cream today. I apologize Elizabeth for not mentioning this while I devoured my waffles. But a warm waffle goes with ice cream like ketchup on eggs. IT'S DELICIOUS. While the coldness of the ice cream is still fresh in your mouth, drink a hot cup of coffee. You can thank me later.
• Reconnect with good music. I usually just listen to the same playlist on my iPod while I go wherever I'm going. That's basically just house/electronic/dubstep/anything that makes me want to dance. However, there are days when I decide to just hit shuffle on all my songs. I surprise myself with songs that come up. While I was walking back from class, one of my favorite songs of all time came up: "You Are Not Alone" by Michael Jackson. Instantly made me smile.
• Listen to new songs. Enough said.
• Smile. It's free therapy. Someone told me you can improve your mood by just smiling. It's true. I get happy watching other people be happy. When someone else is genuinely smiling, I smile too. I watch videos of soldiers returning home to an unexpected family. Everyone bursts into tears of joy and I'm smiling like an idiot to myself. It makes me happy to be a human being. That or watching Jamar Rogers' reaction when Cee Lo turned his chair around for him on The Voice. Happiness can be contagious, even if it's through a computer screen.
• Most importantly, don't rush yourself. It's nice to just walk at your own comfortable pace and enjoy the things around you. When you're in a hurry to be somewhere, the journey becomes that much less enjoyable. You're constantly worried about the little things that can delay you. Go to sleep earlier so you can wake up earlier.

I really need to follow my own advice, especially on the last one there. But I'm a procrastinator. I work most efficiently against the clock. Old habits are hard to break.