It’s Not Just a Morning Routine

In this episode, I’m sharing the routines that truly set the tone for my days—starting the night before. I walk you through my ideal morning routine, the habits I consistently stick to, and the key rituals that keep me grounded from night to morning.

This isn’t about perfection—it’s about creating simple, intentional habits that support your energy, mindset, and overall well-being.

Thanks so much for listening! If this episode resonated with you, make sure to subscribe and leave a review. New episodes drop every Tuesday morning, and you can follow me on Instagram @Stephanie_Monge to stay connected and come along for the journey.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back to Barefaced and Becoming. Today we are talking about one of my favorite topics. I am known for being a creature of habit. I could eat the same thing for breakfast for two years. I love a routine. And so today we are going to be talking about my ideal morning routine. These are not things that I necessarily hit every day, but this is what I strive for. And I will also kind of separate what are my anchors. I have a few habits that are my non-negotiables. So we'll be going over what keeps me grounded, absolutely non-negotiable, and then kind of my ideal and what I'm always kind of striving for. So to begin, whether you've heard it and hate it or haven't heard it and you need to, your morning routine does start at night. So I will also be talking about my ideal night routine because sleep controls everything. If you go to bed late or you scroll for an hour, you sleep poorly in the morning, you're gonna feel groggy, you're gonna feel unmotivated, rushed, craving sugar, craving caffeine. I noticed that when I go to sleep, like the last hour I'm on my phone, I am more easily reaching for it the next day. Like I'm craving that dopamine hit much, much more than if I would spend the last hour of my day more relaxed. So good sleep makes it easier for you to wake up. It helps you to be in a better mood, make better choices, and have more willpower. Your brain sets the tone overnight. So your night habits are going to affect your morning focus. Overnight, your brain processes emotions, stress, and memories while you sleep. So if you go to bed anxious, overstimulated, or doom scrolling, well, first of all, doom scrolling actually messes with melatonin. So it makes it harder for you to fall asleep naturally. But like I said, it also encourages you to crave more dopamine in the morning as well. So your sleep controls everything. We want to make sure that we're sharp and focused and able to make good decisions. So let's start with my night routine. The first couple habits are gonna be my ideal night routine. This sets us up for success for the next morning. First, eating two hours before bed. Ideally, I would cook at home. So I'm hands-on, I'm present, I'm vibing, maybe to some music and choosing, you know, good ingredients. I prefer to cook not only because I like it, but also I like knowing exactly what's in my food. I feel like two hours is the most ideal for me. I know some people say more than that, but I just feel sometimes that's hard for me to do. So for me, two hours before bed, phone is gonna be put away one hour before bed. And the last hour of my day is doing a grandma hobby. So my grandma hobbies are reading, doing Legos. I recently got into bedazzling, highly recommend. Needle pointing, still haven't tried that, but we'll be doing that next week on my cruise, which I'm excited for to finally use it. I also recently figured out that I do have a whole karaoke system. Like I had a speaker and a mic that I would use for events. I don't know why I never thought about it, but yeah, recently I've been singing like 15 minutes before Ben. It's been so nice. And then also it could be skincare. So I could do a mask, maybe LED, maybe just take a little bit more time on my skincare. And then sitting down and planning out my next day's top three most important things on my to-do list. And then lastly, my acupressure mat. I recently got this maybe like a month and a half ago, and I do it for about five minutes when I'm getting ready to get into bed. Love. Notice a huge difference with the acupressure mat. Those are my ideal night routine, my non-negotiables for my night routine. So, number one would be to set the vibe for the night. For me, this looks like all of the lights are off. I have a little lamp in my living room. I have my hatch does red light, and then whatever candles I want, my lava lamp, just kind of setting the vibe to be more calming and not so harsh. And then a night scent. I love to do lavender and my diffuser. The scent actually becomes a sleep cue. It signals to your brain and your senses, like, okay, it's time to start winding down. So, number one, set the vibe for the night. Number two would be my tea. I don't really, I haven't been doing this to be honest. I need to get back on this, but having something warming at night and again that sensory. So the taste and the smell of the tea, ideally, this is also calming lavender in it or just like something that helps you to calm down and wind down. And then laying out your morning workout clothes. I am a morning workout girly. If I don't work out in the morning, I'm not gonna do it. So getting it out first thing in the morning is super important to me. And laying out my clothes the night before, you know, kind of just sets my discipline in place. Like, okay, this is what we're doing. Change right when I wake up. And laying it out the night before just makes it that much easier. Don't have to pick anything out. It saves me even having to second guess anything. And then the AC turns down. I put my AC to 68. I like it really nice and cold. I do 68 and then I also turn my fan on. So I want to be nice and freezing so I can snuggle up in my bed. And then lastly, is my sleep prep. So in my nightstand, I have a I'm obsessed with my little nightstand. I recently like organized it with like little dividers and it's just Steph's kiss. I'm obsessed. But I do magnesium spray from Symbiotica. I'll either spray this on my chest or spray it on the bottom of my feet. And it's like a lavender scent, it has magnesium in it. If you don't know, magnesium is a little bit better for you than melatonin. Magnesium actually helps your body make and use melatonin, which is your sleep hormone. Whereas when you're supplementing melatonin, it can kind of backfire because when you're constantly supplementing it, it kind of confuses your brain and your body's internal clock. I've also heard that melatonin can make you feel groggy in the mornings. So I personally just like magnesium a little bit better because it's just enhancing my body's melatonin rather than supplementing it. And I don't want my body to become dependent. So magnesium spray. And then I also love, usually I do either or, sometimes I do both if I have trouble sleeping. The body lotion from Lush, it's called Sleepy. Oh my god, it's so delicious. The smell of it is amazing. They also make it in a body wash. So if you're showering at night, you can use that too. Oh, it just smells so good. And it's again with that night scent that just like puts your brain to that signal. Like, okay, we're going to bed now. Love that one. And then I always put my hair in a sleepy tie just so it makes it easier again for me to do in the morning. And a bonnet, I know it looks silly, but helps my hair be healthy. I just get like a satin one. I think I honestly got mine from the dollar store and just helps my hair not to get poofy and crazy overnight. And then the last two I'm not that proud of, but it is what it is. I use earplugs every single night and I use an eye mask every single night. I wish I could be that person that wakes up with the sun and that isn't affected by like noises, but I am, and it is what it is, and it helps me knock out so good. So just to go over again, the non-negotiabs are night vibe, tea, layout morning clothes, lower the AC, and then as I'm in bed, I do the body spray and put my earplugs in and my eye mask. Literally a five-minute routine. So for me, non-negotiables. The last non-negotiable for me, I know this is really a hard one for a lot of people, but this is one that really has changed my life. My phone sleeps in another room. I do not touch my phone. I would like for it to be, like I said, for the last hour. Usually at least it's 30 minutes, but she goes to sleep. She's tired too. She goes in her own room. She sleeps in my living room and I don't touch it at all. And this is going into the morning routine. I don't touch it until the next morning after my non-negotiables in the morning are done. I know. I know this is a really hard one for a lot of people, but if you take anything away from this episode, let it be this. Let your phone sleep in another room. You will notice a massive difference. You'll be less reactive, you'll be less overstimulated, less likely to scroll, compare, spiral to massive energetic boundary. No phone in the morning or before you go to bed equals no bad news. No one can bother you. You can't compare, no texts that shift your bad mood, and you're not worrying about anybody else's urgency. You wake up, you make the bed, you relax, you go to sleep, you're focusing on yourself, you're doing your grandma hobbies, you're doing your skincare, you're reading, and it's just chill. Your sleep is so important, and the phone can have such a bad effect on your sleep. I would say the last 30 minutes before you go to bed and the first 30 minutes when you wake up, you are meeting yourself first and setting yourself up for success. I used to have a bad habit of sleeping. I've always put my phone on airplane mode when I went to sleep, but I used to have my phone like in my nightstand when I was going to bed and I had a really bad boundary with my aura ring. I would wake up in the morning and the first thing I would do, I would leave my phone on airplane mode because you can check your aura score even if your phone's on airplane mode. So I always knew like first 30 minutes of the day, I'm not checking, you know, any notifications or social media or anything like that. But I would check my aura score. And if I didn't sleep long enough, I'd be like, oh no, no, like my sleep is so important. I need more sleep. I I guess I'll have to like work out later. Obviously, I wouldn't end up doing it because, like I said, I need to work out in the morning. If not, I'm not gonna do it. But I would lie to myself, oh, I'll just work out later. Obviously, my body needs more sleep. Like I my body needs eight hours. I only got seven and a half, and then I would end up knocking out for another hour. So then the phone got kicked out and now she sleeps in my living room. It just makes it that much easier to have the boundaries and respect them. Yeah, I just think it's so important to not go to bed like worrying about anything, not wake up and feeling any type of urgency. I think that the phone addictions are crazy. I genuinely feel like later it's gonna be like normalized to go to rehab for our phone addictions. And I'm not exempt from this. Obviously, I have my own phone addictions, but I just think the sleep part, let her go to sleep just like you're going to sleep. She doesn't need to be next to you. That is a huge one for me that I've done for a while now, and that if I do absolutely nothing, it's at least this. And then so my morning routine, these are my non-negotiables. These non-negotiables take 15 minutes. I will not touch my phone until at least these are done. First of all, I wake up with my hatch. I have sound bowls that wake me up. But if you don't have an actual alarm clock, actually, no, I recommend getting an alarm clock because if not, then you have to wake up with your phone, right? But at least just like a non-cortisol spiking alarm, something calming, something soothing to wake you up. Even if it's, I know that hatches can be kind of expensive, but I'm sure there's so many different alternatives on Amazon. But I think actually having an alarm clock is kind of not negotiable, like I said, because if not, you're gonna have to have your phone. So alarm clock, calming alarm to wake up to. Number two is making my bed. Then we're gonna change into the workout set that we laid out the night before. Get your morning sunlight. So ideally, my perfect wake-up time is 6 a.m. And right now the sun's not up at that time. So do with that with what you will. But I would say, like at least getting outside and like looking outside, hearing the birds chirp. But ideally, the sun is out. It's just not accurate right now. And then I will have my supplements and fill my water up for the day, put some chlorophyll in that if I have, then my matcha. So those six things are my non-negotiables. Again, like literally 10 to 15 minutes. Ideally, I would have my matcha after a workout. But as these are non-negotiables, sometimes life gets ahead of me and I don't have the time to work out, or if I'm in a rush and whatnot, then I'm not working out. But just those first 10 to 15 minutes of the day being intentional and not in a rush and calming from my nervous system so that I can have a clear mind for the rest of the day. So now going into the ideal rest of the morning routine, things that maybe I don't always have time for, but I would like to do and I strive for would be obviously a workout. This is something I'm trying to make a non-negotiable. Ideally, I'm doing this every single day. If I'm not working out, I would want to be like stretching or at least going on a walk or something, but moving my body in the morning. If I am working out, obviously I'm gonna come home and shower. And skincare ice rolling and LED mask are something I really like to do in the mornings. Ice rolling is how I wash my face in the morning, and I just like doing the LED mask in the morning. The one that I have, the brand is Mirabella, and you don't need to have it plugged in. So I usually just wear it as I'm making my matcha or my breakfast and things like that. And then my vibrating plate. I've been loving the vibrating plate. I know some people think it's so unnecessary, but just like getting my stretches in the morning on that, I can only go up to five minutes right now because it makes me so itchy, but I feel so awake and sharp when I get off of it, and it just helps lymphatic drainage. And honestly, I just love it. Or rebounder, I do have both. Depending on how I'm feeling that day. If I don't have like full time to do a whole workout, I'll go on the rebounder just to help my cardiovascular health. Just jump on that for like five to ten minutes. Maybe I do some twists while I'm on it, so I engage my core. Maybe I do some high knees, just kind of getting some movement in on the rebounder. Obviously, not non-negotiables, but do love. And if you don't have either, you can literally just do the twists and shake your hands. Like all the pumping and jumping motions are really, really great for your lymphatic system. So even if you don't have the vibrating plate or the rebounder, you can still do this and you will get the same benefits. And then ideally, I would have a morning scent. So whether that's my candle, I do also like to do like a citrusy scent in the morning, orange or like a lemon scent. Citrus scents actually have benefits for the morning. It helps to stimulate your nervous system so it increases alertness and improves your focus. So I could put some essential oil in my diffuser with my morning scent just to kind of signal to the brain. And then sitting at my desk, journaling whatever it is, whatever's on my mind, if I need to brain dump, if I want to talk about my dreams, whatever it is. And I'm very brie with the journal. I know some people like to do like three whole pages for the brain dump or they do gratitude. I just kind of do whatever I'm feeling for that day. I feel like if I feel forced to do the same thing every day, it's gonna make me less committed to keep the consistency. So when I don't feel the pressure of having to show up the same way habitually, it's just a little bit easier for me to commit to it. Whether I want to do gratitude or talk about something that pissed me out, whatever, I don't care. Anything that I feel like talking about that day, whether it's three lines or four pages, I don't care. I've been journaling like six years now, and that's just the way I'm able to stay consistent. I feel like sometimes I get off my consistent journal habits for like, I would say like the max I'll do is like three months at a time, like not doing it. But I do notice a huge, huge difference when I journal. And again, just like not putting any pressure on what you need to be journaling and the max that you need to be doing it about is what helps me be most consistent. But do love journaling, and it's been so nice for me to be able to have just like pages of my history and my mindset. I have, I don't know, maybe 10 or 15 journals, and just to go back on the year and see where my mind is at, I love being able to do that and see how much I've grown. So yeah, do love journaling. And then recently I've been trying to make my way through the Bible. Right now I'm reading through Proverbs uh just because I feel like it's the most digestible place to start. And I'll just read a chapter just to kind of make my way through it. And I don't know, that's just what's working for me, just so I can become more familiar with it and I'll highlight certain things that stand out to me or resonate with me. I'll pray over my Bible just to pray for my day, pray for understanding. And then after I read the chapter, I will write what I interpreted, or sometimes I'll go into chat and if I don't understand it, chat will help me kind of digest it a little bit more, and then I'll write down, you know, kind of the translation of what helps me digest it better. And then last but not least would just be to plan out the rest of my day. I already did the top three most important things the night prior. So I have a gauge of what my day is gonna look like, but just any other tasks that need to get done that day or that I want to remind myself of will go here and then I will start and go about my day. It's so funny. I put this routine into Chat GBT just to kind of better help me understand the importance and the benefits of this routine. And it said that the vibe that it's giving is future me is my bestie. And I kind of love that. And honestly, as you guys know, I can struggle with mental health, and I notice such a huge difference when I am at least doing my non-negotiables, but this ideal morning routine, it just helps you optimize your life, honestly. Sleeping good, you're being intentional, you're setting aside time for yourself, time away from all of the noise of the world, reflecting on how you feel, setting your priorities so that you can reach your goals, spending time in prayer. I feel like this really helps elevate my confidence. Something about just waking up, being intentional, moving my body just makes me feel so good. It's so crazy how we all know to some extent that these habits are positive ones, but it's really crazy once I start doing them and actually feeling the difference it makes and how I'm able to live my life and my perspective on it. Just like my will of living and wanting to, you know, be productive in all of these things. It's so amazing that we have the space to be intentional and I'm very grateful that I can set my priorities, set goals, and work towards them. I encourage you to try putting your phone in another room, see how your morning feels. Here's two calmer nights and brighter mornings, sharper minds, and to having habits that encourage more positive energy in your life. I love you guys so much. I will be working towards this ideal morning routine. I'm getting there. I did a good job today, we'll say. So I'm very proud. We'll continue to work towards these. I encourage you to sit down with yourself and create your own non-negotiables. I actually created a morning menu and night menu with just things that I can do. And it's like a list of like dry brushing, stretching, and things like that. Just things that I can refer back to if I do have extra time that I realize make me feel better. But then I have a list at the bottom of the non-negotiables. So I think get really specific about your non-negotiables, what your ideal morning would look like, but also give yourself grace. We can't always be hitting these every single day. And that's why I think setting the intentions of which ones are non-negotiables is super important. But, anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I love a routine and hearing about other people's. So I hope that you enjoyed this episode. New episodes every Tuesdays, and you can find me on Instagram at Stephanie underscore Mongi. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I love you guys so, so much, and I will talk to you next Tuesday.