The Best Morning Routine For Anxiety and Panic Attacks

If you are currently suffering from extreme anxiety and/or having regular panic attacks—you’re not alone. Fortunately, you’re also not doomed to this discomfort forever. With the right tools, you can find peace and groundedness. Creating and sticking with a personalized morning routine to heal your anxiety and panic attacks will be incredibly empowering.

How does a morning routine improve mental health?

A good morning routine can improve your mental health, boost your energy throughout the day, and lead to a more positive mindset overall. Not only can a morning routine soothe your mental health during the short time it takes to complete the routine, but it continues to pay dividends throughout the rest of your day. With that being said, here are five of the big ways a good morning routine contributes to healing your anxiety and panic attacks.

1. It Reminds You Who You Are

It’s incredibly important (and incredibly hard) while you’re suffering from extreme anxiety to remember that you are not your anxiety, nor are you doomed to being “an anxious person” forever. In truth, the anxiety you’re experiencing is just a part of your experience in this moment.

A morning routine that allows you to feel like your true self for even a few minutes a day can remind you that you are more than just your anxious thoughts. That’s important to remember as you endeavor towards becoming a healthier, happier version of you and is what will eventually give you back your self-confidence.

2. It Gives You Back a Sense of Control

When we’re in the throes of anxiety and panic disorder, one of the most disruptive side effects is a sense of not having control over anything—our emotions, our mind, or our physical world.

Creating and following through with a morning routine each day is an excellent way to build some autonomy into your day and to remind yourself that you’re capable of making decisions and doing challenging things. Not to mention, as you begin seeing tangible results from the routine, you’ll see the power you have over your external environment as well. (For tips on how to be more disciplined and follow through with your routine, check out this article.)

3. It Reminds You Of Your Priorities Throughout The Day

Sometimes when we are feeling especially anxious, it’s hard to keep a clear head throughout the day and remember what your priorities are. Not only do small daily tasks start to blend together and lose their inherent value, but the bigger picture of our commitments, goals and dreams becomes less clear as well.

Adhering to a healing morning routine for your anxiety and panic attacks will give you space to clarify your priorities each day before things begin to feel too heavy again. Over time, the intentional me-time also allows for new thoughts and ways of thinking to evolve and you’ll feel less trapped in the familiar thoughts and feelings of anxiety. This will eventually allow you to discover a sense of direction in your life that may be missing.

4. It Creates Space Between You and Your Stressors

If you’re like most people, the moment you wake up your stressors begin to crash in around you again. Most of us wake up, check our phones, and immediately start thinking about all the things that have gone wrong in the past and all of the things that might go wrong in the future.

By creating a healing morning routine, you are putting time and space between yourself and the anxiety-inducing external world. A morning routine allows you to put yourself in the best possible frame of mind before greeting the day. Not to mention, the elements of your routine will begin to train your brain to handle stressors differently even as they arise.

5. It Increases Your Energy Throughout The Day

A good morning routine is one that leaves you feeling more energized than before you started. Sometimes we just need to get the ball rolling first thing in the morning to keep that productivity going for the entire day. By starting your day with a morning routine that boosts your energy, you’re setting yourself up for more success all day long.

How To Build Your Personalized Morning Routine

You are a unique individual with your own wants, needs, and preferences. For that reason, there is no one size fits all morning routine to heal your mental health. It’s important for you to build your own personalized morning routine so that it is most effective for you.

The Two Elements You Must Include In Your Morning Routine

Although everyone’s perfect routine will be a little different, the most effective morning routine for helping your anxiety and panic attacks will have two important characteristics: being realistic and being holistic.

Be Realistic

The most important factor is that your morning routine is something you can realistically stick to. This means that it needs to fit within the time you have or can realistically create, and it needs to leave you feeling more energetic. Not less.

Be Holistic

The second vital characteristic of your morning routine is that it nurtures your mind, body and spirit. It’s impossible to heal anxiety and panic disorder without recognizing that you are an intricate system whose parts are working together holistically all the time. Your mind, body, and spirit all feel the effects of your anxiety and play a role in contributing to or easing it.  

Let’s take a look at some ideas to include in your personalized morning routine. Keep in mind as you’re choosing which habits to include to be realistic about the amount of time you have to spend each morning and how each activity will contribute to your overall energy. Remember it may take some experimentation to figure out the right combo to feel invigorated rather than depleted by your new routine.

Morning Routine HabiTs To Heal Anxiety and Panic Attacks

In the beginning, choose just one element from each section for your morning routine. This approach ensures that you’re being holistic and realistic with your routine. Then you can add or swap elements as needed to build your perfect routine for every stage of your journey.

Mental Health	Physical Health	Spiritual Health
Read/Listen To Something Non-Fiction and Enriching	Stretch	Read/Listen To Something Spiritually Uplifting
Meditate	Walk	Meditate
Schedule Out Your Day	Exercise	Affirmations
Journal	Make A Well-Rounded Breakfast	Visualization
Gratitude List	Drink Water	Gratitude List
Sit In The Sunshine	Drink Herbal Tea	Pray
Drink A Turmeric Latte	Do Yoga	Follow Guided Breathing
Skip Caffeine	Dry-Brush Your Skin	Listen To A Sound Bath

Pro Tip: If this is your very first morning routine, I highly recommend you make it as easy on yourself as possible. Try choosing something from each category that you can do all at the same time. For example: Go for a walk in the sunshine while mentally creating a gratitude list. Or choose the simplest options for yourself. Perhaps: Sit in the sunshine and drink a glass of water while you listen to a spiritually uplifting podcast.

The perfect morning routine to heal your anxiety and panic attacks will continue to change and evolve over time—just like you. So be patient with yourself as you begin your journey to improve your mental health. It takes time to make permanent changes.

But trust me, if I can do it, you can do it!