Last time, I wrote about making choices and how they affected your life. Today, I want to talk about one important choice you make every day—your morning routine.

Your morning routine sets the tone for your day. It plays a big part in how you handle the day and determines how the rest of your day will go.

How often do you jump out of the bed, get ready and dash out the door to work or rush to get the kids off to school? Then, the rest of the day you feel stressed, constantly on the go and behind schedule. Creating some quiet time in the morning, to ease into your day, will better equip you to handle any situation that comes up during the day. Starting your morning with quiet time won’t make all your troubles go away. It won’t prevent the day from trying to tackle you. It will, however, give you a better foundation and a better mindset to deal with the problems and issues that come up throughout the day.

So, how do you create a more peaceful morning?Try getting up half an hour earlier and spent the time on quiet activities: reading the Bible, meditating, writing in a journal, etc. I’ve found that thinking about what I’m grateful for, always helps me start the day in a positive and relaxed mood. If you’re the kind of person who hits the alarm, jumps out of bed and immediately has to get everyone else awake, your morning most likely feels hectic. Just getting half an hour of quiet time to enjoy coffee or tea and get your head together can do help a lot

Nowadays, too many people start their day on Facebook, or Twitter, or other social media sites. Or they immediately turn on the T.V. To catch up on the latest news. When you start your day like this, you are allowing other people’s moods and situations dictate how your day will go. It isn’t necessary, or healthy, to start your day worrying about what your friends are doing or what bad thing happened in the world while you slept.

Spend time with yourself in the morning before grabbing your phone or sitting at the computer. You’ll be in a better place mentally and emotionally to deal with all the chaos in the world.

Take care of yourself first and your friends later. Try to create a good morning routine for yourself. Start easy and gradually add to it. Within a few weeks or months, you’ll be glad you did.

Do you have a relaxing morning routine? Tell me, how do you start your day?