(3 minute read – 915 words)

Toward the end of 2021 a friend and I decided to raise our motivation for the day ahead by challenging ourselves to do six amazing things, in six minutes, before breakfast each day.  For us, as for many people, what we do in the first few hours of the day sets the tone for what’s to come. I already have a morning routine, so adding six more things to what is generally the busiest and often most unpredictable time of the day seemed like a crazy idea, but my friend was keen, and I was up for the challenge.  After a bit of research, we took our guidance from Hal Elrod and his book ‘The Miracle Morning’.  Hal uses the acronym SAVERS, six letters, six amazing things, but could we do them all in six minutes?  It turned out we were both already doing all the amazing things, we just didn’t realise it.  Categorising our daily habits as amazing and ticking them off as the letters in an acronym seemed to make them all the more important, and to us, that made them amazing.  And while they took around ten minutes rather than six, we were actually doing them anyway, so the reality was that they took no extra time at all. 

SAVERS stands for: 

Silence.  This can be anything that brings silence to your mind and body. I teach mindfulness so for me this one includes a minute of deep breathing, combined with a minute to allow the muscles on my face form a gentle smile, something which always lifts my mood, and a minute to feel gratitude. In my silence I don’t think about anything in particular that I’m grateful for, this minute is solely for being mindful of the feeling of gratitude.      

Affirmations.  Hal defines this one as making statements that define who you want to be.  I’m a very practical and playful person so my affirmations are along the lines of ‘you have so got this day sorted!’, ‘you are amazing’, and one of my favourites ‘this day needs more glitter, and you my love, are the glitter’.  My friend prefers I statements about self-compassion, ‘I am strong, resilient and brave’, and ‘I am loved, and no one can take that from me’.  Affirmations are personal, and as I’m prone to repeating, are whatever works for you.

Visualisation.  This one is about visualising your goals, the people you might meet today, the things you need to do.  As we so often hear; if we can see it, we can (or at the very least, have a much better chance to) be it.  Visualise what you best day would look like.     

Exercise.  The human body functions better with movement, but in one minute?  Several years ago my friend and I started a Salute to the Sun yoga routine morning challenge which quickly became a morning habit. It takes several minutes to complete but it sets us up both mentally and physically for the day ahead.  My husband is a cyclist and combines his morning exercise with his trip to work. I also have a song of the day, something to raise my energy levels and get me going.  An early morning dance in the kitchen or the car is an amazing 60 second pick me up.

Read.  I might click onto the news to keep up with what might come up in conversations during the day.  Usually there’s a relevant research paper that I want to catch up with.  I might read through my goals for the day or week, and my friend and I are a two person book club, so both of us take a minute each morning to get through a few pages of our book of the month.

Scribe.  For years now I’ve started and ended my day with short entries in my journals.  Yes, I have two.  One is reserved for positive ideas, things I’m looking forward, goals I want to pursue, notes of things that went well.  I write in this journal first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  The second journal is for the lessons of the day and includes comments relating to the things that didn’t go so well, and this one is only completed at night.  It’s my way of processing my thoughts and ideas. As with the affirmations and visualisations, my morning journal entries are always positive, or at the very least, a positive re-framing of anything difficult I might have to face in the day ahead.        

SAVERS, simple, effective, and six to ten minutes that will help you make the rest of your day, the best of your day.     

My friend (hi Jill) and I wanted a new challenge that would add positivity to the end of 2021 and take us joyfully into 2022.  We discovered we were already doing six amazing things before breakfast, and we were delighted to discover that our challenge was no challenge at all, but a wonderful re-frame of the thing we already do, and to us, that is amazing.

I hope your year is off to an amazing beginning.  My plan for the year ahead is to complete one blog post a month, it could be more, we shall see what the year brings and what amazing things I find that I want to share.  If you have any ideas, I’m open to suggestions at bronwyn@letslaugh.com.au

Bron Roberts is a leading Laughter Yoga and Mindfulness teacher providing evidence based, tailored workshops for workplaces and community groups.  With a background in general and positive psychology, neuroscience and humour as a therapeutic modality, and as Australia’s only Certified Humour Professional and Laughter Yoga Wellbeing Master trainer she’s happy to be called a happiness nerd.  Her mission for 2022 is to help 100,000 people find their own version of happy.