5 Tips for Turning a Stressful Morning into a #PowerHour

The kids are back in school and I’m so thrilled! Don’t get me wrong, I love that I get to spend more time with them when they are home for the summer, but sometimes that can get really chaotic and challenging for two parents who work for themselves. One of the things I hear from women all the time is how chaotic mornings can be when it comes to rushing everyone out of the house to start their day. Below I’m sharing 5 tips you can try to help change that.

Start each morning with movement or meditation

I cannot even begin to express how important it is to start our day off with a little bit of intentional mindfulness, especially if you’re a parent. The first thing I do in the morning before my day starts is I sneak into my office, light up my candles, and begin to meditate. I like to keep my meditation simple. I focus on deep breathing. Simply concentrate on the breathing, and make inhales and exhales the same length. Breathe from the stomach rather than the chest, and allow the belly to go soft, rising and falling with each breath. If a thought enters your mind, acknowledge it, and let it go. The 5 minutes I give to myself before the chaos begins really helps to keep me centered, grounded, and stress free.

Nourish the body with fuel

I can’t start the day without having a meal. It’s a must in my book. Some mornings I kick off my day with a green juice made in bulk from this simple recipe or I have myself a matcha latte. I personally love hot breakfast and I try my best to also make one for the kids as well, but some days they are up a tad bit earlier than we are. If you have any tips on getting them to make me breakfast, please leave them in the comments below.

Take a Renew Life Probiotic

In the wellness world gut health is all the rage and I can’t blame it. The gut is home to the largest amounts of our microbiome and is found in our large intestine. Did you know that there are well over 40 trillion bacterial cells in the body and only 30 trillion human cells? This microbiome is responsible for digestion, helping control your immune system, and helping to control brain health. One way to support your microbiome and all these awesome good germs throughout the day is to take Renew Life Ultimate Flora.

Probiotics may help with IBS, balance the good germs in your digestive system, can improve mental health conditions, heart health, reduce the severity of allergies, and boost the immune system.

We’ve been also incorporating probiotics into our kids daily vitamin routine just to help strengthen their immune system as well. The Ultimate Flora Kids probiotic by Renew Life contains 6 probiotic strains, it’s a chewable, and Olivia says it’s pretty tasty too. Although I haven’t seen much results yet with her, since she doesn’t really have any specific gut issues, it’s great to know that a daily probiotic can help support her immune system when being exposed to other germs at school.

Choosing the right probiotic

There’s a ton of different probiotics to choose from. Here are a few things to look for when introducing a probiotic into your daily supplement.

1. Colony Forming Units (CFU) - although there is no right or wrong number, my functional doctor recommended to always look for a CFU count of at least 10 Billion for adults. If you don’t get enough CFUs the results might not be effective, but going for more could be a waste of money.

2. Genus, species, and strain - Many probiotics will only list the genus and species, but knowing the strains can help provide more insight on what the benefits will be. Lactobacillus acidophilus, is a strain naturally found in the digestive tract, incorporating more of this strain can help with any digestive issues you might be experiencing. Lactobacillus bulgaricus, is a strain that helps the body break down any lactose making it easier to be absorbed by the body. Both of these strains are found in the Renew Life Ultimate Flora in addition to 10 others and contains 30 billion CFU.

3. Shelf Life - This is another important factor especially with probiotics since you are dealing with live and active microbes. Make sure to read how they should be stored and if it works with your lifestyle.

Get that morning soundtrack going

Music is such a huge part of our lives. When we moved into our house we hooked up the house with Sonos speakers and play music daily. Needless to say, having good music playing all over the house really helps to set the tone of the morning, keeps the pressure down, and the stress levels low. In the mornings we love to play something like Lo-Fi or even a little liquid drum and bass. These are both sounds that are mostly instrumental with light vocals and perfect to get us going. You can check out my Spotify account if you’re curious about our jams.

Prep things the night before

Mornings turn #highwoodhaus into a madhouse. My eldest daughter goes to school at a different time than my youngest, we don’t have a drop-off support system with our neighbors, yet. So the responsibility to get them out the door on time is most definitely a team effort. My husband does all the drop-offs in the morning since I love to get to the gym early to start my day, but what I do is prep all things the night before.

For me I prep my workout clothes in the morning and put my probiotics and usually my other vitamins right on top of my dresser so that when I’m stumbling in the dark I don’t have to struggle pulling clothes out. Plus if you care about looking cute at the gym or your studio you can make those clothing options prior instead of at 5AM when you’re barely functioning.

I also like to have the girls prep all their things the night before. Olivia will help by prepping her lunch the night before, putting it in the fridge, and have it ready for the next day. This has been such a time saver in the morning and a great responsibility lesson for the little one.  I also encourage her to put her backpack by the door next to our shoe rack with all her homework already inside. Nothing stresses me out more than things not being ready to go. This is just one less thing to worry about in the morning.

I’m not a perfect mom nor do I have it all figured out yet, but I do hope these tips can help you create a more stress-free environment, both internally and externally, for you and the fam!

Now that I’ve shared my morning routine tips, I’d love to hear what your power hour tips are.  You can join the #PowerHour discussion on Instagram and Twitter and share your tips to maximize the morning routine for a chance to win a Renew Life Power Hour Kit and other great prizes.  All you have to do is follow @RenewLife on Instagram or Twitter and post a picture or video of your morning routine with #PowerHour, #Sweeps.

This post was sponsored by Renew Life and I was compensated to write this post, but all the opinions are 100% my own