Extricating yourself from the warm embrace of a duvet can be the single most horrendous part of your day. Given your unwillingness to get out of bed, it stands to reason that you’re starting your day negatively. Harvard psychologist Amy Cuddy argues that simply stretching your body every morning is enough to positively affect your mood for the rest of the day. Surely it can’t be that easy? Sadly, it isn’t.
Professor of Health Psychology at Sheffield Hallam, Ann Macaskill, calls it “a little frivolous”. “I think it’s giving too much credence to argue that stretching will affect how we feel all the day.” Instead, she tells indy100 that your mood throughout the day is dependent on the way you respond to different situations.
Dr Macaskill also emphasises the importance of getting enough sleep every night — lack of sleep (or too much sleep) is linked to a whole host of health issues, including decreased concentration, depression, heart disease and diabetes.
Instead of stretching, Dr Macaskill advises people to have a routine every morning, which will decrease the need to rush for work (usually manifesting in anxiety). “You can have little routines, to make getting up a pleasant experience. Better to get up a little earlier and give yourself time to have breakfast, to give yourself time before you have to rush out to your daily work,” says Dr Macaskill.
Nutritionist Jo Travers agrees that a solid breakfast, as well as hydration, are the best ways to start off your day — “Have breakfast including carbs to give your body energy to get through the morning. Another important health practise is to rehydrate in the morning.” This makes sense, given that, on an average, you may have gone without drinking anything for some seven hours. Travers insists that it doesn’t have to be water — so if you’re not a fan, orange juice and milk count too.
— Source: www.indy100.independent.co.uk
