Brainwash Yourself for Joy: The Power of Your First 30 Minutes

What if the first few minutes after waking could change the way you experience your entire day?

In this episode of Joy Unfiltered, Rachel talks about the science of the waking brain, theta brain waves, nervous system regulation, priming, gratitude, and how to “brainwash” yourself for more joy.

Not in a toxic positivity way.

Not in a pretend-life-is-perfect way.

In a grounded, practical, science-backed way.

You’ll learn why your brain is especially open during the transition from sleep to waking, how your first inputs can shape your mood and attention, and what to do before reaching for your phone.

Rachel shares a simple 5-minute joy reset you can try this week:

Take three breaths.
 Ask one joy question.
 Choose one sentence.
 Do one joyful thing.

Because joy is not waiting at the end of the day.

Joy is available at the beginning.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to or welcome back to Joy Unfiltered. I'm Rachel, your host, and I am so glad that you are here today. This is a space where we stop pretending that burnout is the price of success and start exploring a different way to lead, live, and actually feel good in our lives. Because here is what I believe at my core. Joy is not the reward. Joy is the strategy. And in a world that's been built on pressure, urgency, and endurance, we're doing things a little bit differently around here. We are choosing energy over exhaustion, regulation over reactivity, connection over competition, and we're doing it in a way that's grounded in both science and maybe a little bit of magic. So whether you are walking, driving, lifting something heavy, or just taking a breath in the middle of a busy day, you are in the right place. So let's get into it. Today we are talking about something small that can change the entire tone of your day. Yep, the first 30 minutes after you wake up. Now hear me out. Not because you need a perfect morning routine, and not because you need to wake up at 4:30 a.m., journal by candlelight, cold plunge, meditate for 47 minutes, and become a brand new woman all before coffee. Nope, I am not talking about that. But what we are talking about the first 30 minutes, because your brain in those first 30 minutes is in a unique state when you wake up. It's transitioning from sleep to waking. There is this time where your brain is a little softer, more suggestible, less guarded, and way more open. And that means what you feed your brain in those first 30 minutes matters. Most of us are already brainwashing ourselves right away in the morning. We just do it accidentally. We wake up and immediately, what do we do? We grab our phones. We check our messages, we look at email, or maybe we scan the news, we open social media, we look at our calendar, and within five minutes, our brain has been handed a full buffet of urgency, comparison, obligation, and most frankly, chaos. Good morning, nervous system. Here is your tiny little panic parade. So today I want to talk about how we can use those first few minutes differently. How we can quote unquote brainwash ourselves into more joy. And nope, I do not mean pretending that life is perfect. I do not mean toxic positivity. I do not mean ignoring hard things. I mean intentionally training your brain to look for what is good, steady, possible, and joyful before the world starts making demands. Because joy is not the reward, right? Joy is the strategy. So what happens to us when we wake up? When you wake up, your brain does not instantly go from sleep to full CEO mode. It moves through a transition. You may have heard people talk about, or on this podcast, I've talked about theta brain waves. Theta waves are slower brain waves often connected with drowsiness, light sleep, creativity, meditation, and those dreamy in-between states. That waking up state is sometimes called the hypnotic state, which is the transition from sleep into wakefulness. Now, here is where I want to be very clear. That does not mean that every single one of us gets exactly 30 magical minutes of pure theta brain waves every morning where you can whisper, I am wealthy, I am hydrated, and your whole life changes before lunch. I mean that would be fun, but no. The real science is a little more grounded than that. When you wake up, your brain and your nervous system are shifting, your attention is forming, your emotional tone is setting, your body is moving from rest into action. And that makes the morning a powerful time for priming. Priming simply means that what you experience can influence what you notice next. So if you start the day with stress, your brain is going to scan for stress. If you start the day with urgency, your body immediately begins bracing. If you start the day with comparison, hello, Instagram, your mind begins measuring. But if you start the day with breath, gratitude, intention, and joy, you give your brain a different assignment. Not a fake one, but a better one. I mean, your brain is a prediction machine. Your brain is always trying to predict what is coming next. And you know, that used to be helpful for us. It asks, am I safe? What matters? What should I notice? What needs my attention right now? Where is there a threat? Where is there the opportunity? So when you wake up and immediately check your phone, check Instagram, check your messages, your brain may get the message, we're already behind. People need us, something is wrong. We we better hurry, so get up. And your nervous system responds accordingly. This is why you can wake up feeling absolutely fine, check your phone, and snap, suddenly feel anxious, irritated, overwhelmed, or perhaps not enough. Nothing has even happened yet. Nothing has happened. You are still laying in bed, but your brain has started rehearsing the day through pressure. And what we rehearse, we reinforce. That is the brainwashing part. The world is already trying to train your attention. The question is: do you want to participate on purpose? So, what if we brainwash ourselves for joy? And when I say brainwash yourself for joy, I mean this. Let's wash out the urgency, let's wash out the comparison, wash out the dread, wash out the belief that joy has to wait until everything is finished. What if we begin the day with something that is more true? I am here. I am safe in this moment. I can handle today. I can notice what is good. Joy is available before everything is done. That's not fluff. That, in fact, my friend, is nervous system leadership. Because gratitude, savoring, breath, and attention are not silly little wellness sprinkles. They are practices that shape how we experience our lives. Gratitude trains your brain to notice what is already good. Savoring teaches your body to stay with positive emotions longer. Breath helps regulate your nervous system. Intention gives your attention a direction. And joy, joy becomes more available when you practice noticing it. That's the key. We know joy is not always loud. Sometimes joy is tiny. The first sip of coffee, the way the morning light hits the floor, a text from someone you love, your pet doing something ridiculous, a quiet room, a song you forgot about. A moment where you remember I am alive, I am here, and this moment counts. Tiny delights are not tiny when your nervous system learns to receive them. So what not to do first thing? Let's let's make this super practical. Here are three things I do not want you to do first thing in the morning or those first few minutes after waking. First, do not grab your phone immediately. I know, rude. Your phone is useful, but it is not neutral. Your phone is a portal. And most of us do not gently open the portal. We cannonball right into it. Email, news, texts, social media, calendar, notifications, suddenly the internet is sitting on your chest wearing tap shoes. Give yourself a few minutes before you let the rest of the world in. Second, do not rehearse dread. If your first few thoughts are, I have so much to do, I am already behind, today is gonna be so hard, I cannot keep up. Pause. I'm not asking you to lie to yourself, but you can tell yourself a more regulated truth. Why not try? Yes, today is full, and I can take it one step at a time. I'm really tired, and I can be kind to myself. I do have a lot to do, and I do not have to carry the whole day all at once. That's not denial, that's leadership. Third, do not outsource your mood. Do not let your inbox, the news, your DMs, your likes, your bank account, or someone else's energy decide who you are before you have even brushed your teeth. You get the first word. Not the silly algorithm, not your calendar, not the chaos goblins. You. Now, I know this episode is about the first 30 minutes, because that's what I titled it, but let's be honest. Some mornings are super spacious, but some mornings are not. Some mornings are where are my keys? Why is my bra attacking me? And who moved my coffee? I get it. So instead of 30 minutes, why don't we start with five? So think about a five-minute joy reset. Before you touch your phone, take three breaths. Ask one question, choose one sentence, do one joyful thing. That's it. Three breaths. One question, one sentence, one joyful thing. Let's walk through it. So, step one, take three deep breaths. Before your feet hit the floor, take three slow breaths. Inhale, exhale longer than you inhale. Again and again. This tells your nervous system we are here. We are not yet sprinting. We are allowed to arrive. You can even say those words. I am here. I am safe in this moment. I can begin gently. That alone can shift the tone. So those three deep breaths. Step two, ask yourself one question. Where might joy meet me today? That question gives your brain a search command. It tells your brain to look for joy. Not huge joy, not life-changing joy, everyday joy. Tiny joy, micro joy. Maybe just a little little glimmer. A little goodness. A little, well, that was lovely. When you ask yourself a better question, your brain starts looking for better evidence. So ask yourself, where will joy meet me today? Step three, choose one sentence. Pick one sentence to repeat every morning for a week. Something believable, something your body and your brain do not reject. Here are a few options. Joy is available before everything is finished. I can move through today with steadiness. I can notice what is good. I do not have to earn joy. My nervous system does not have to match the world's urgency. I am allowed to begin again. Choose one, say it super slowly, write it on a sticky note. Whisper it while the coffee brews. This is not magic. It is repetition, and repetition trains the brain. So pick a sentence. And then do one joyful thing. Choose one tiny joyful action. Send one kind text. Step outside. Turn on some music. Stretch. Maybe it's drink a little bit of your coffee without multitasking. Pray. Pet your cat. Cuddle with a dog. Light a candle. Open the blinds and let the light in. Put your hand on your heart and say, we've got this. Don't make it complicated. Tiny counts. Tiny is how we build a life. One of my favorite practices in the morning is the one joyful text, right? Sending one joyful text. Not the first thing right away in the morning, but that could be your joy thing of the morning. One text. Just one. It can be simple. Thinking of you today. I am cheering for you. You popped in my mind, and I wanted to tell you. I hope something good surprises you today. Thank you for being you. That is it. One joyful text can shift your energy and someone else's. It lets you get out of your own head. It creates connection. It reminds your brain that joy is not just personal, it is relational. And this is part of what I believe so deeply. When one person chooses joy, it changes their day. When a community chooses joy, it can change the world. Now, let's take a different slant at this. If you wake up anxious, I know this. I know some people wake up anxious. You open your eyes and your mind is already running. Your chest feels tight, your thoughts are loud, your body feels like it started the day without even asking you. If that's you, first, nothing is wrong with you. And second, do not start with big, shiny affirmations that feel fake. It's not gonna work. Start with safety. Open your eyes and look around the room. Name five things you see. Feel the bed underneath you. Put a hand on your chest and say, This is a hard morning, and I am here. I do not have to solve my whole life from bed. I can take the next kind step. Sometimes joy starts as safety. Sometimes joy starts as gentleness. Sometimes joy starts as not abandoning yourself. All of that counts. And because this is joy and filtered, and we just came off of an amazing joy-led leadership forum last week. I don't want to just talk about personal development. We're also talking about leadership. Because how you start your day affects how you enter rooms. Remember, your nervous system walks in before your strategy does. Your pace walks in, your tone walks in, your energy walks in first. If you begin the day in urgency, you might lead from urgency. If you begin the day in comparison, you may likely lead from scarcity. If you begin the day in reaction, you might be leading from pressure. But when you begin the day with breath, attention, gratitude, and intention, you create more capacity, more steadiness, more clarity, more presence, and that is powerful. Joy-led leadership, as we talked about last week, does not mean nothing hard happens. It means you do not let the hard thing be your whole nervous system. It means you practice becoming the kind of person who can stay connected to what matters. Even in the middle of real messy life. Especially in the middle of real messy life. So I've got an experiment for you to try this week. Seven days. For seven days, protect the first five minutes after waking. Not 30. I mean, if you've got 30, that's great. But let's start with five. As we talked about this before, before your phone, do this. Take three deep breaths. Ask yourself, where might joy meet me today? Repeat, joy is available before everything is finished. And then do one joyful thing. That's it. Five minutes, seven days. See what happens. What have you what have you got to lose? See what happens and then notice your mood. Notice your energy. Notice what your brain starts to look for. Notice how it feels to give yourself the first word. Because most of us wake up and hand the pen to the world. Your world, you take over. You write my mood. You write my urgency. You write my worth. You write my day. But joy-led living says, no, we're gonna do things differently. I get the first word. Before the inbox, before the news, before the algorithm, before the demands, before all of the noise, I get the first word. And maybe that word is gratitude. Maybe it is steadiness. Maybe it is breath. Maybe it is love. Maybe it is joy. But whatever it is, let that first word be yours. Because joy is not waiting at the end of the day. Joy is available to you right at the beginning. And sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is meet it before the world gets loud. So seven days. Try this for seven days and then drop me a note. Send me a DM, send a note, put a comment on this podcast. Let us know how did those seven days go for you. And if you know of someone else who could use a softer, steadier, more joyful start to their day, pass us along. And don't forget to subscribe because you don't want to miss another episode. And remember, from my heart to yours, I am celebrating you today and every day. So have fun, live well, enjoy.