The Mind-Body Couple

The Morning Routine That Can Rewire Your Brain & Heal Chronic Pain

• Tanner Murtagh and Anne Hampson • Episode 123

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Could your morning routine be secretly sabotaging your chronic pain and illness recovery? In this illuminating episode, we explore how those critical first moments after waking profoundly impact your nervous system's regulation and pain processing throughout the entire day.

When you first open your eyes, your brain is in a uniquely vulnerable state—actively scanning your environment and asking: "Am I safe today, or am I in danger?" The signals you send during this transition period can either trigger fight-or-flight responses that amplify pain or create safety cues that begin a cascade of healing. We break down exactly which common morning behaviors are keeping you locked in pain and symptom cycles and which practices can rewire your brain for relief.

Many of us unknowingly start our days with habits that spike dysregulation—immediately checking phones, rushing frantically, consuming caffeine on empty stomachs, or engaging in negative self-talk about symptoms. These seemingly innocent behaviors trigger stress responses that directly increase pain and symptom sensitivity. Equally problematic are patterns that promote freeze responses: staying in bed scrolling, avoiding movement, and remaining isolated. We share personal examples of how these patterns affected our own healing journeys and how we transformed them.

The good news? Simple, intentional morning practices can dramatically shift your pain experience. We provide a comprehensive toolkit of healing morning rituals including somatic movement, specific breathwork techniques, embodiment practices, thought work, and nature exposure—all designed to send powerful safety signals to your nervous system. You'll learn practical implementation strategies that don't require massive time commitments or dramatic lifestyle overhauls.

Whether you're struggling with chronic pain, persistent symptoms, or simply want to optimize your nervous system regulation, this episode offers a roadmap for creating morning routines that support lasting healing. Start tomorrow with even one small change, and begin transforming your relationship with pain from the moment you wake up.

Tanner Murtagh and Anne Hampson are therapists who treat neuroplastic pain and mind-body symptoms. They are also married!

In his 20s, Tanner overcame chronic pain and a fibromyalgia diagnosis by learning his symptoms were neuroplastic, not structural. Post-healing, Tanner and Anne have dedicated their lives to developing effective treatment and education for neuroplastic pain and symptoms.

Listen and learn how to assess your own chronic pain and symptoms, gain tools to retrain the brain and nervous system, and make changes in your life and health!


The Mind-Body Couple podcast is owned by Pain Psychotherapy Canada Inc. This podcast is produced by Alex Klassen, one of the wonderful therapists at our agency in Calgary, Alberta. https://www.painpsychotherapy.ca/


Tanner, Anne, and Alex also run the MBody Community, an in-depth online course that provides a step-by-step process for assessing, treating, and resolving mind-body pain and symptoms. https://www.mbodycommunity.com


Check out Tanner's YouTube channel for more free education and practices: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Fl6WaFHnh4ponuexaMbFQ


And follow us for daily education posts on Instagram: @painpsychotherapy


Disclaimer: The information provided on this podcast is for general in...

Welcome to MindBodyCouple Podcast

Speaker 1

Welcome to the MindBodyCouple podcast.

Speaker 2

I'm Tanner Murtaugh and I'm Anne Hampson. This podcast is dedicated to helping you unlearn chronic pain and symptoms.

Speaker 1

If you need support with your healing, you can book in for a consultation with one of our therapists at painpsychotherapyca or purchase our online course at or purchase our online course at embodycommunitycom to access in-depth education, somatic practices, recovery tools and an interactive community focused on healing.

Speaker 2

Links in the description of each episode.

Speaker 1

Hi, everybody, welcome back.

Speaker 2

Hello.

Speaker 1

We want to talk about morning routine today.

Speaker 2

Yes, so we're really going to dive into this. We're going to talk about the morning routine that can rewire your brain and reduce your chronic pain or illness.

Speaker 1

Yeah, so kind of thinking of morning routine. How was your morning, Tanner?

Speaker 2

My morning was up and down a little bit. There were some ups.

Speaker 1

What were the ups?

Speaker 2

I got a good sleep, which was nice. Often I wake up a few times in the night.

Speaker 1

Tanner wakes up a lot in the night. Yeah and eats.

Speaker 2

And I eat, which makes people talk about that as part of the morning routine, but I slept right until 4.30.

Speaker 1

To be fair, we get up pretty early, so that is like a normal sleep for Tanner.

Speaker 2

That is a normal sleep. We go to bed at like nine. Yeah, so yeah. And then I had a good morning. I did some Qigong in the morning, a little bit of yoga as well, did some breath work, cold shower.

Speaker 1

That's pretty good.

Speaker 2

Then our Wi-Fi went out.

Speaker 1

Oh, and then Tanner was angry.

Speaker 2

Then I was an angry guy.

Speaker 1

He was angry.

Speaker 2

Then I walked my dog to burn off the anger.

Speaker 1

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2

So that was my morning. How was your morning?

Speaker 1

It was all right. I usually I wake up early too, so I woke up around 5. I like to spend some time on my own and we'll talk about that as we get into the podcast a bit more. But actually it was bothered by my cat who kept attacking me. So usually cats are part of my ruining routine, but when they're crazy it just ruins it. So I actually was a bit stressed this morning.

Speaker 2

It's not both the cats, it's the one cat, it's the one cat, our black catry.

Speaker 1

Yeah, he attacked me the whole time. Um, instead of like a relaxing time, it was just like get off of me, harry, I heard you like yelping upstairs well, his nails are really sharp.

Speaker 2

I'm like doing my breath work doing my breath work and I'm hearing, anne, because you're right above me in the room yeah, yeah, oh my goodness the whole thing is harry harry's a bit of a jerk yeah, he can be, but anyway.

Speaker 1

So I guess both of our mornings were not great and we'll talk more about the importance of kind of morning routine and implementing, when you're training, that works for you, but sometimes it doesn't always go as planned. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

And we want to pose this question of what is your morning routine? Is it supporting your healing from chronic pain and symptoms, or is it quietly keeping you stuck?

Speaker 1

Totally, and I think it's really important to look at that Like. That's a really good question of like how does my morning and how it usually goes impact me for the rest of my day?

Speaker 2

morning and how it usually goes, impact me for the rest of my day. I really think people need to assess this really honestly, because for many people that I work with and I used to be this way the very first thing you do in the morning can just unintentionally throw your nervous system into dysregulation. This is why mornings matter so much, because when you wake up, your nervous system is in this sensitive transitional state. Your brain is scanning. Essentially, I like to think about it this way your brain is scanning first thing in the morning Am I safe or am I in danger? And if your day begins, like many, with chaos, rushing, disconnection from your body, you're going to get stuck in that survival mode and this is going to start amplifying your pain and symptom sensitivity.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and to be fair, like like today, I was like, okay, I'm going to implement my morning routine and it totally did not go that way and I was a bit stressed by the time, like I went to wake my kids up and so that's not how I planned it. But we're talking about starting to at least have some intention around your morning, but we can't always control how it goes.

Speaker 2

No, like my wifi went out. Yeah, I got upset. However, I feel like I had more of an ability to attend to the anger, to process it, because of my consistent morning routine. Ah, okay, so you're just, you're putting in the actions Like you want to start your day in this like structured, calm, safe way, and this day is going to help you with healing and with feeling resilient.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

And so that's what today's episode is all about. We want to help you create an epic morning routine that's going to support, of course, nervous system regulation, but also, over time, chronic pain and symptom reduction, because this is really what we focus on in our podcast.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I'm not, a morning person like so many, and symptom reduction, because this is really what we focus on in our podcast. Yeah, and if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I'm not a morning person like so many and, like I mentioned, tanner and I are morning people, so we understand that this is hard, but it's a great thing just to start reflecting on.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and as we're going to talk about you, want to start small. You know, for myself, I've worked on my morning routine consistently for years and it took time. It took time to build it and find what works for you, but we really want to start to reflect on what habits might be keeping you dysregulated in the morning and what ones are going to help you shift to a state of healing. Yeah, so everyone buckle in. This is the morning, grab your coffee or your tea, and we're really going to dive into this. So what we want to start with is morning behaviors that spike dysregulation. So specifically, we're first going to talk about behaviors that spike this fight or flight response like angry, anxious feelings inside.

Speaker 2

And the first one we want to talk about is phone and social media overload which I think is a big one, which we all relate to, myself included yeah, and in our technology-based world, people unfortunately just become controlled by their technology which is funny, because our internet was having problems and you went into panic totally. However, I did not wake up and check my email repetitively. Go on all my social media accounts, business or personal, start to watch, you know, YouTube videos or Instagram reels. Like that is going to cause a lot of dysregulation right off the bat.

Speaker 1

And, to be fair, I have I struggle with that. So I often do struggle with, like, checking my phone first thing and I have this rational. So I often do struggle with checking my phone first thing and I have this rationalization where I'm like I want to check the weather app so I know what to dress my kids in, but I quickly am checking everything else and it's really sneaky and it's a bit of a habit and so right away I'm glued into social media.

Behaviors That Spike Fight-or-Flight Response

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, it's so easy. Our phones are addictive they really are, and so you know Anne's going on to check the weather and all of a sudden she's doom scrolling on Instagram for the next 20 minutes and you know why this is so dysregulating. I think is important you know right off the bat you're getting consumed with information, with news that could be scary. All of a sudden you might be comparing to a nice holiday picture of your friend and how they could afford this nice holiday and all of a sudden we're like urgent and frantic, so it can cause a lot of dysregulation just being on our phone for 20 minutes.

Speaker 1

Right, right for sure. Also like rushing and skipping rituals, I think can put us in that fight or flight mode yeah, people struggle with this, and this is.

Speaker 2

there's not an easy fix to this one. But are you someone who just perpetually hits the snooze button up until like 10, 15 minutes after you should have woken up and now you're just rushing? You're rushing to get your kids ready, to get breakfast, to shower and get to work on time.

Speaker 1

Yeah, this happens to me a lot in the morning actually, in terms of like getting my kids out the door, and a lot of parents that I've met with talk to me about this rushing sensation in the morning, because sometimes it does feel like there's so much that we have to do, um, and we have to do it on time. For me, I'm very like time-based and there's all these different things, but it can feel incredibly stressful, like like almost like I'm like fighting this war in the morning and this war with my children and I'm like on high alert and this like feeling like I have to get it done. But when I step back, it's like if we're 10 minutes late, big deal, and that's kind of true yeah, yeah, and I think that's it.

Speaker 2

And I think the other thing that I hear um a lot when we talk about not rushing or skipping routines is people say, okay, but I need to get enough sleep, like I need that extra 15 minutes of sleep and I get that. This is a balance. You know, if you're waking up three hours before you should be to do a three hour morning routine, which you should not do, that that's a lot, sure, but people just don't understand that extra, even 15 minutes of sleep now causing you to rush for the next 30, 45 minutes, that's where things are going to get really dysregulated.

Speaker 1

Well, and planning sometimes either not sleeping or even waking up 10 minutes earlier can help ease that fear and, like that feeling that we need to rush.

Speaker 2

Next one excessive caffeine on an empty stomach.

Speaker 1

Oh yes.

Speaker 2

Now just a disclaimer me and Ann are not dieticians, so we're not telling you how to eat or any of that. That's not our place. But we know this Coffee before eating is going to really spike a lot of sympathetic energy. It's going to spike your cortisol levels and this can, for many people, myself included, start to mimic anxious sensations, anxious symptoms like racing heart, jitteriness, and so too much caffeine first thing in the morning can cause that fight or flight energy to start to rise.

Speaker 1

Well, and it's interesting because sometimes it's like well, why do I feel so anxious right now? Why do I feel so dysregulated? And it's sometimes hard to pinpoint oh, I'm drinking so much caffeine and I'm not eating.

Speaker 2

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a good point, and I find people need to figure out what's their sensitivity to caffeine. Like, and she's crushing coffees.

Speaker 1

What I don't have that many.

Speaker 2

How many coffees do you have in a day Like?

Speaker 1

I have three oh you have three.

Speaker 2

I thought it was more.

Speaker 1

Well, it was more when I like, when I was younger, no, Now she has three.

Speaker 2

I have two. I know that's my limit. I have some decaf throughout the day but like two caffeinated coffees, that third one every once in a while, like every few months, I'm like I could have a third coffee. Cause in my mind I was thinking well, anna has like seven. Okay, I don't have seven, now that we've clarified that, but I was like I could have three and then I just feel like anxious for two hours. I'm like that wasn't worth it.

Speaker 1

So it's knowing, like your sensitivity. Caffeine as well. Yeah, negative self-talk or worry is something that we also want to mention. That can keep us in that kind of sympathetic, ferocious energy, for sure.

Speaker 2

Yeah, for many people and I used to often wake up this way, like they wake up anxious, they wake up feeling overwhelmed. And what do people do when they're, you know, in pain and symptoms? I was talking about this with a client yesterday.

Speaker 1

First thing anyone does who has chronic pain or symptoms, you start scanning your body ah, so that's like high alert, like that intensity right there of, like what that body scan.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and it's not like they're scanning to do a nice somatic tracking. They're. They're scanning like fearfully being, like what hurts. Am I going to be able to make it through my day? This is going to be awful, because my pain's already at this level and so, like all this fear and obsessive thinking just like, hits us instantly.

Speaker 1

Well, and then what happens when sometimes, like the people you're talking with, tanner, realize there is pain? Then what happens to their thinking?

Speaker 2

Yeah, it starts to go haywire. All the fear thoughts rush back to them, the catastrophizing thinking in worst case scenarios. And you know, that's why we're doing all this brain and nervous system work is to retrain your brain out of thinking that way. And so you really want to watch this in the morning because that's going to make you feel really overwhelmed.

Speaker 1

Yeah, for sure. And if we start that way with like the negative self-talk and that kind of thinking, no wonder it trickles on throughout the day. And sometimes it's like, okay, we can notice first thought, thought, but then we want to try to change that and and we talk about that a lot in other podcast episodes is how to do that? Because sometimes we can't get rid of that negative thinking, but it's being aware of how much that's impacting us yeah, no, I agree, and uh, I think it was three episodes ago.

Speaker 2

We did a whole episode on negative thinking how to overcome it. So this is your struggle in the morning. Go back to that episode. We break it down. We give you lots of free tips there.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Next. Ah yes, skipping breakfast.

Speaker 1

That happens to me sometimes and I don't even notice it. I have to eat breakfast.

Speaker 2

I know, yeah, you're skipping it because you're drinking your seven coffees.

Speaker 1

Three, but usually I skip it because I'm rushing. So I'm rushing, I'm yeah, you're skipping it because you're drinking your seven coffees. Three, but usually I skip it because I'm rushing. So I'm rushing, I'm in urgency and I don't even remember to have breakfast, and then I'm compounded by the stress and I'm hungry.

Speaker 2

And you're hungry, yeah. And there's a feedback loop here where if people wake up in fight or fight, when you're in fight or fight, no one really feels like eating. Like that I've seen, or for myself personally, when I get anxious, like I don't feel like eating, I'm like this is, this is awful.

Speaker 1

I already feel terrible, but if people wake up feeling in fight or fight and then they skip breakfast and then it just like perpetuates the whole feedback loop and if you're a person that doesn't eat in the morning, then that's different, but this is more speaking to the people that do eat in the morning and are missing that.

Speaker 2

So the last behavior that can spike that fight or flight energy first thing.

Speaker 1

Is something that Tanner struggles with, oh that's something I struggle with.

Speaker 2

This is my nemesis right here.

Speaker 1

I have to say so. Tanner wakes up before me and we'll say what this one is in a minute. But Tanner wakes up before me, um, so he's already downstairs and, uh, I'll come down, I'll be like okay, and I'm gonna do my morning routine, which involves a coffee, of course, my morning coffee and I'll look and I'll see Tanner on the couch and I'll look down and sometimes you know he's doing his things or he's meditating, but other times Tanner's working and I can see, I can see work open on his computer and it's like early it's early, it's 5 am yeah so diving into work immediately now.

Speaker 2

I've gotten way better at this over the years, but it's so tricky because if you start opening your laptop maybe you'll look at your emails and like, oh, I gotta respond.

Speaker 1

It'd be so nice to respond to these things right now, before work starts then I'm not cramming it in later, different than me being like oh, I just need to check the weather it's exactly it, and this is just gonna start your brain in survival mode.

Speaker 2

It's going to stress your poor little brain out.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Here's a pattern that happens to me is I get excited about work People haven't noticed on the podcast.

Speaker 1

I get excited. That's good.

Speaker 2

So I wake up and there's something on my to-do list where I'm like I really want to do that right now and then I'll do it. And then, all of a sudden, I've been working for the last hour hour and a half and now I feel rushed, and now I feel anxious, and now I'm like frantically trying to do my morning stuff that I know is good for me, before I have to start work again. So it's just, it doesn't work for me very well.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Behaviors That Trigger Freeze Response

Speaker 2

So really watch out for that. If you can resist that urge to open that laptop or check your emails. Now we're going to shift to behaviors that can trigger a freeze or shutdown response. Right Now this could be feelings of despair, hopelessness, feeling numb, disconnected. Just overall, your nervous system is feeling shut down. Now there is some crossover, and we'll explain that as we go. But there's also these behaviors that are going to make us feel really low, have low energy and perpetuate that first thing in the morning.

Speaker 1

So that could look like staying in bed and just scrolling on your phone.

Speaker 2

Yes, so I see a lot of people in chronic pain and symptoms that are off work, and I get it. I was off work for a period. The sensations feel really overwhelming, but one thing that work can provide us in a very meaningful way is structure, and when people lose that, when they go off, what I'll see is people will be in bed until 1 pm scrolling, and I remember doing this like when I was off work in pain yeah, I'd be getting out of bed at 11, 12. And a lot of it I just spent scrolling on my phone endlessly.

Speaker 1

And that can be really like addictive and become this habit forming of like I'm, that's how I spend my morning and so even if we notice, hey, that's problematic, that can be hard to shift.

Speaker 2

It really can be. If you just stay in bed scrolling, it's like you're just avoiding life.

Speaker 1

And I think with chronic pain and symptoms it can feel complicated because we think, oh, I need to rest, which sometimes we do, but we think our pain won't allow us to do anything. So then we're stuck in bed. But we know mobilization is important.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and too much avoidance on board will hijack your healing journey. It will stall it completely.

Speaker 1

Well, and that brings us into the next one of skipping movement or stimulation.

Speaker 2

So this could include things like no light exposure, no stretching, no movement. And it's looking at this because if there's too much avoidance of the outside world or of moving your body, your brain's going to keep thinking oh, my body's damaged, I can't do this, I need to be still, I need to not do anything.

Speaker 1

And again that'll make engaging in movement harder when maybe you decide you want to.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and this is why, in our approach, we really focus on graded exposure People slowly and gradually widening their world, going outside more, moving, more, starting to do activities again. It's really essential because your brain's going to start to learn hey, I'm safe to live more fully.

Speaker 1

On another note, like moving in the morning just helps wake us up, so we feel like we can't. But once we start engaging in some movement then we naturally start feeling woken up more. We're like more alert, and so there's something about that movement piece.

Speaker 2

Next self-criticism, first thing.

Speaker 1

So that negative thinking again can keep us in that fight or flight or freeze and shut down.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we talked about, you know, more fear thoughts, obsessive thinking, but that self-criticism right away of I can't handle today. What's the point? Yeah, it's going to keep people feeling helpless, feeling hopeless, and we'll mention this point again avoiding nourishment, so again, skipping breakfast, going too long without hydration. This is going to leave your body feeling really exhausted, really tired.

Speaker 1

When you were feeling really low, tanner, like what was it like for you in the morning, how like and we'll talk a little bit in the podcast about how we shift this but when you started realizing hey, this morning routine wasn't helpful and kept you in freeze and shut down.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it was. It was difficult to shift. It wasn't an overnight thing that took place. But for myself, yeah, when I was in debilitating pain, I was just oversleeping pain, I was just oversleeping. I was just staying very immobilized a lot of the time and I had to slowly start to do graded exposure. I had to slowly start to work again. I had to start to move my body walk. Eventually this led to bigger things like going back to the gym, which it's it's a really helpful cycle because I started to feel safer doing these things. Pain and symptoms came down. So we just need to have the right level of mobilization in our system to make the healing possible.

Speaker 1

And it's going to feel hard, but we're going through kind of all of these points because we want to build awareness again of like, okay, what's happening in the morning and what do I need to shift. So that awareness piece is key.

Speaker 2

Yeah, overwhelmed by to-do list.

Speaker 1

Yeah, A lot of people talk to me about that, which rightly so. That can feel overwhelming and make us just want to kind of hide and go back to sleep and shut down.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it just makes us want to click off when the demands feel too high.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

This overwhelm of too many demands can trigger and perpetuate this kind of shutdown state. For people, yes, and they just it feels too overwhelming to even get started.

Speaker 1

One thing I want to say if you relate to that and you want to chip away of that is sometimes managing expectation around the to-do list can be helpful and again, starting small and acknowledging that small step. Because when we look at the to-do list it can be very much all or nothing and that can keep us just feeling like we can't tackle it and shut down.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Lastly, isolation and disconnection yeah, just avoiding communication or any social connection, you know it's going to keep you very dysregulated, like as human beings, we're meant to connect. That's how we naturally regulate. As we start to co-regulate with another person, we communicate with them. There could be soothing touch with another person, like a hug or holding a hand. We need that as human beings and for a lot of people with chronic pain, chronic illness, we start to get very isolated and not talk to anyone for days.

Speaker 1

And I see that actually and we relate to that because our work can be remote a bit sometimes but a lot of people that I work with that engage in remote work can fall into isolation, especially in the morning, like when that morning time hits and then start kind of socially connecting later on in their day, but that really impacts them. So it's something else I think to think about. If you are home most of the time, whether it's for work or not, where are you isolated and how much of your time is in isolation?

Why Mornings Matter for Nervous System

Speaker 2

You know, I think that's. It is like people need to start to be aware of this and because they get lost in it right of not realizing they've been so isolated, so that awareness can be the start to starting to shift this. Yeah, now we're going to dive into why mornings matter for the nervous system totally so we want to talk about, then, why the morning is so important.

Speaker 2

Mm-hmm. You know, when you wake up, as we stated at the beginning, your nervous system is in a more sensitive state. It's transitioning into the world, into living life for that day. And when we talk about the hormone of cortisol, what happens with cortisol is like as you're starting to wake up, it starts to rise. This happens intentionally for people, because your body is getting ready to wake up and your brain again is scanning. Am I safe today, am I not? So all these things we talked about of behaviors that perpetuate, fight or fight, or freeze and shutdown if you start your day in that way, you can get locked into that state really easily. We've all experienced this. I've had this where I wake up reading an email first thing. Now I'm angry and I'm just grumpy the rest of the day.

Speaker 1

Oh yes, I know that state well of Tanner.

Speaker 2

That state. Well, that fight grumpy energy. Yeah, I'm doing my best here. Ann All right, maybe I need another coffee.

Speaker 1

No no.

Speaker 2

So what we need to do here is we need to begin your morning in this structured, safe way, because that way your nervous system is going to be more flexible throughout the day. What I mean by that is, like you know, for example, this morning I started in a very calm, connected, safe state. Then my Wi-Fi went out. I got angry and then I was able to go for a walk, get out of it. Do this podcast shift back up to the safety and connection?

Speaker 2

So, there was a flexibility, and starting your morning in more of this safe place is going to give you that flexibility throughout the day.

Speaker 1

And now I know it's not always possible, like there's all these factors that impact our morning, but thinking about your morning routine is about starting to put in things into place or systems that create some of that calm for you, and starting to do that consistently.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because, as we know, a good morning routine which we're going to explain in a second what we suggest supports sending safety signals to your brain, it supports balancing stress hormones. It can also support just activating that safe and connected state more often and it builds neuroplasticity for healing. I like this point because when we talk about brain retraining techniques, we need to be consistent, and if you could wake up every morning and do some type of brain retraining with your thoughts, with your pain and symptoms, that's going to be huge. You're already starting in this very consistent way each day totally.

Speaker 1

I think that's really important because it sets you up for the day. So it's like okay, I want to lessen my fear around pain and symptoms. I'm going to start that right away in the morning, and then there's a trickle effect going on there.

Speaker 2

Yeah, no, I agree is and loves the word consistency. I do, and if you can start each morning with doing some healing practices, that's great. Think how consistent you'll be over months or over a year with doing that. Yeah.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

So now we're going to dive into what we suggest including in your morning routine. Now I want to be clear. You don't need to include all of these things as we go through them. Just start to analyze, like, what do I need to start to include in my routine? What do I want to try out?

Speaker 1

One thing I want to say before we dive into this is for a while I wanted a morning routine, but I thought I couldn't have it. So as a mother who would sleep until my kids woke up and then felt like kind of strapped to taking care of the kids, I was like, well, I want to implement things, but but I can't. For me I had to start waking up early and that was hard. So part of my like learning and training was just okay, I'm going to wake up. And for me I started waking up half an hour early to an hour early. Eventually I got used to that, as long as I was getting enough sleep, but I'm so grateful for that now. It just felt really hard. So sometimes we have to like, if we need to carve out time, we might have to make shifts like that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and it was hard for Anne, but drinking her seven coffees helped.

Speaker 1

That's true for a while, actually, I started that hour without coffee and I was like, no, no, no, I need coffee as a part of my morning routine. But and so but I realized, oh, there is time for me to have that time for myself in the morning to do some of these things. I just had to shift my thinking about it a little bit.

Building Your Healing Morning Routine

Speaker 2

Yeah, so let's go through what you can include. Somatic movements Okay so somatic movement. I love somatic movement.

Speaker 2

I do a lot of qigong or yoga in the morning, just deep breath, slow movement, stretching. I find what it helps is with relaxing any muscle tension that's kind of built up for me. I find it can activate that safe, connected state. It really helps me connect to my body and so some type of somatic movement is really key. I think this is key for reducing pain and symptoms long-term because you're teaching your brain you can do it. But it's also key for regulation. I have a funny story of how Anne started to do some somatic movement in the morning.

Speaker 2

So, maybe about I don't know when. This was year and a half two years ago ago. You know, I I get up at five and Ann wasn't doing her morning routine at this point, so it would be dead silent in the house and it was great just relaxing doing my thing. All of a sudden, like for you know, 10-15 minutes every morning, I'd hear like this, this slight banging noise upstairs, like what is going on, and I thought it was like the furnace or pipes or something.

Speaker 1

But like every morning it was happening and I discovered later Am was like getting up and like running on the spot for like 10 minutes to like get her body moving yeah, so I read this book called the 5 am Club, written by Robin Sharma, and he talks about morning routine at 5 am or whenever works for you, and that inspired my morning routine. But something he talks about in that is doing some movement, doing some quick movement, like get your energy going, and that connects with what we talked about earlier about cortisol levels, yeah, anyway, so I was doing that and I was like, okay, I'll just run on the spot and cortisol levels and anyway, so I was doing that, I was like, okay, I'll just run on the spot, and I didn't realize it was so loud, but I found it really helpful. That is one of the hardest pieces. So I struggle with getting movement in in my morning time, but when I do, holy do, I feel like awake.

Speaker 2

I like it. I like it, so just explore this. Find some somatic movement On my YouTube channel, which is just my name, tanner Murtaugh. There are free brief qigong practices, so you could try that out if that's something that you're interested in. Next breath work.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 2

Now, breath work can be tied with somatic movement, of course, but you can also do it just on its own movement, of course, but you can also do it just on its own. It's just one of the most direct ways to create safety for your nervous system.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and I've had people really speak to how useful this has been for them in the morning and how much this has impacted them throughout the day.

Speaker 2

Yeah, like even in our digital course, we have like a breathwork session section where we just go through all of this. But to keep it really simple, what you want to aim for it's like five to seven breaths a minute, so pretty slow breath compared to what you're probably usually doing. You always want to breathe in through the nose. You can breathe out through the nose, or for some people, they need to breathe out through the mouth. That's okay. What you need to be doing is your inhale. Say you do your inhale for a count of four, your exhale would be for a count of eight, so you want your exhale to be about twice as long as the inhale, and just doing something simple like that, simple belly breathing, can be really effective. Now you can get more fancy with breath work, but this is a good place people can start. If you, you know, are not used to doing this or struggle with having time in the morning, just do it for five or ten minutes, it doesn't have to be super long.

Speaker 1

Embodiment with symptoms and nervous system state can be crucial in a morning routine.

Speaker 2

Yeah, instead of avoiding sensations within, you are turning towards them. You're getting this gentle, curious, compassionate response to how you feel inside.

Speaker 1

And again, like we mentioned, this can really set the day off really well in terms of like, okay, I'm starting to build safety with my body, I'm noticing what's going on, and then it's easier to keep doing that type of practice throughout the day.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think it takes some time for people to get in a routine for this because for some people they're really scared of their body and I understand that when we've had these really unpleasant pain symptoms, dysregulation, it can feel scary, but it will become easier over time. And we're just teaching, we're teaching our brain hey, the sensations inside they're not dangerous. I can attend to them, I can create safety with them and learn that over time by doing this they're going to reduce. I have a couple of morning practices on the YouTube channel people can check out. Yeah, when it's just. I just kind of did a collage of some work with emotion, some work with your nervous system, with pain and symptoms. So it's just a great way to start to connect with your body and start to move through sensation. Next, thought work. This one's a good one Thought work, working with your thinking.

Speaker 2

As we said, a lot of people wake up with all that negative thinking taking place and so doing some thought work can be really helpful. Now we talk about, like, safe self-talk. So safe to self-talk about your pain or symptoms, Reminding yourself hey, this is temporary, it's going to come back down. I know my symptoms are neuroplastic. It could be about your emotions or nervous system, state Understanding. Hey, my nervous system is just trying to protect me. I don't need to fear these anymore. I can attend to them and they'll play out like a wave. They're not going to be here forever.

Speaker 1

It could be like also safe self-talk around your to-do lists of like I don't need to get it all done, I don't need to rush through it If you know that's something that happens to you.

Speaker 2

What I usually do with this is I pair it with my breath work. So I'm doing that deep belly breathing, and as I do this, I'll usually have, you know, three or four safe messages that I'm giving myself over and over again, and I'm just cycling them through each breath.

Speaker 2

And so it's just a. It's a great way. I also in the past I'm not doing this right now, but I used to I had two documents on my computer and I would change them slightly each day and then I would read them through the one document which I don't use as much anymore because I don't have pain and symptoms. But my one document was why is my body safe?

Speaker 1

Ah, I like that. So it was like kind of a reminder list. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

It was all of it. I would be reminding myself why I was safe to move, why my symptoms were neuroplastic, where I was going to overcome this by doing the mind-body work. I also had a document and I still use this one. It's a silly title why I can conquer the world, and it had just a bunch of affirmations, messages about why I was capable to handle my day, and I would even write my goals down there and review how I wanted to focus on those.

Speaker 1

You know what? That's great, tanner, and a lot of people talk to me about that and it doesn't always have to be like a word, doc. I've had people tell me they've had like affirmations or different things like posted on their mirror, on their wall, somewhere visual where you can see it. But including that into your morning routine really can hopefully bring that fight or flight energy down, combat some of that negative thinking. It can be a great start.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I like the post-it notes.

Speaker 1

That's great.

Speaker 2

I've heard clients doing that too.

Speaker 1

Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2

Or they just put them all over the place. They're on the mirror in the bathroom so they read them quick. They're on their fridge.

Speaker 1

They're in their car so they're constantly being told some of this safe self-talk, cold showers. I do not do cold showers, I've never tried and never will try, but many people tell me the benefits of a quick cold shower.

Speaker 2

We could get you doing a cold shower.

Speaker 1

No, I refuse. I like hot baths. I'm not a cold shower person, so it's like the opposite it likes the soothing heat I like.

Speaker 2

I like hot showers as well, but cold showers was something I implemented pretty early on. Um, you don't have to do them for super long. First, like, make sure it's realistic, you know if you can do it for 30 seconds or eventually. You know I'm up to about three minutes as I do it.

Speaker 1

Oh my gosh, so it's a little bit long. What's the benefit, tanner, of the cold shower?

Speaker 2

so it can help reset your nervous system, and essentially what it does is it increases vagal tone. It's a fancy term.

Speaker 1

Tanner likes that term, by the way, just so you guys know If you're interested in our course. Tanner talks a lot about vagal tone with passion.

Speaker 2

With passion. I'm excited about it. But cold showers is a great way to reduce fight or flight energy right in the moment, or free shutdown, like it almost resets us really quick. This is why when people have panic attacks, they'll like hold ice or put ice packs on the back of their head. Same idea, but consistently doing it increases vagal tone, and what this means is it will make your system more flexible. So say you did cold showers for a year, once a day, oh my gosh, and it's terrifying right now. But say you did cold showers for a year once a day, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2

And it's terrifying right now, but say you did that what's going to happen is that if you do go on the fight or flight, you'll have more of an ability to be flexible and shift back out to safety and calmness. So like that's the idea of how it can be effective. Next also can increase, vagal tone being in nature.

Speaker 1

This is one I do do. I don't, I can't include. I can't include being in nature like right away in my morning routine, but I'm very fortunate where I have some time, where by 8 am, I'm often out in nature at the barn.

Speaker 2

Yeah, at the barn.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and it's a great way to start my day because it definitely helps regulate my nervous system. I feel kind of connected to something outside of me. I'm not in isolation, like maybe I'm alone at the barn, but I feel connected to the world.

Speaker 1

It's interesting because, yeah, I definitely lean towards the cold showers, you're leaning towards nature, night time well, and there's something if we can even be out in nature a little bit earlier, that can be helpful too. So like, maybe walking the dog out for a walk before you head into work, um, just maybe out on your back patio yeah, it's the sunlight that they've really shown as well.

Speaker 2

Like, just having morning sun can be very regulating for your day. Yeah, and lastly, the last thing you can include connecting with someone.

Speaker 1

Sometimes Tanner doesn't want to connect with me in the morning. Actually, when I think he's working, I'll kind of hang out with him while I'm bringing my coffee and he'll just grunt at me. He'll be like go away.

Speaker 2

Make a grunt sound.

Speaker 1

He does not want to connect.

Speaker 2

I find it's interesting for my nervous system.

Speaker 1

It's to stay away from me.

Speaker 2

I just not you specifically.

Speaker 1

You've told me that.

Speaker 2

I just You've told me that you're like you don't want me to talk. I find it overwhelming because sometimes Ann will come down and you know it'll be a day that maybe I'm not in the middle of Qigong or something and she'll sit on the couch and start asking me questions about the day. I find it quite overwhelming.

Speaker 1

I do, I guess I'm I'm not really sitting, I'm not really into the calm there. I'm bringing up your fight or flight energy You're like urgently asking me questions.

Speaker 2

This is why I don't want to talk to you in the morning.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

It's too much for me, but overall, some connection in the morning is important. As we said, co-regulation is key. It's connection is this kind of biological safety signal and so getting some of that, whether it's with a pet or with a person, especially if you work remotely, I think this is really key to work on this. Sure, if you're going into the office, you get to have some coffee time with your co-workers before you start the day great. But a lot of us we work remotely now, and so we need some of that.

Speaker 1

Well, and that's why I kind of I mentioned earlier about the cats being part of my morning routine, you know, when they're not attacking me, like this morning, um, it's really nice and it can be really regulating and I can like spend time leaning into them or petting them and it can be very soothing yeah so we gave you all lots of examples, lots of examples of what you might be doing wrong with your morning routine and elements that you can start to add in.

Speaker 2

So we came up with a bit of an activity at the end here. So, based on this episode, we want everyone to reflect on what are some problematic morning practices that you need to change and what are some healing morning practices that you want to start to do Again. Start small here, just a little bit at first. Add something in so that you're more likely to consistently do it. I've seen the mistake so many times where people are, you know, learning about morning routine, how it's so important they make this epic one hour morning routine. That's very detailed. They do it for three days. They never do it again.

Speaker 1

Right, right.

Speaker 2

So just start small and build from there.

Speaker 1

Totally. It's almost like too much, too soon. So the small kind of increase.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so thanks everyone for listening thank you for listening and it's gonna go drink another coffee now totally, I have like two more you have two more to drink. I've only had one tanner, you're like the excitement, the excitement in your eyes, right there oh yeah I haven't seen you that excited in a couple weeks.

Speaker 1

Well, yeah, I guess we are advocating that. You know, if you like coffee, it's a good part of your morning routine.

Final Reflections and Action Steps

Speaker 2

We're also advocating within reason here. Yeah, that's true so we'll talk to you all next week.

Speaker 1

Talk to you next week. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening For more free content. Check out the links for our YouTube channel, instagram and Facebook accounts in the episode description.

Speaker 2

We wish you all healing.