The 4 Things My Morning Routine Always Includes To Stave Off Anxiety All Day Long

That said, I'm often a hot mess in the morning. I'm naturally a night owl—when I used to make my own hours, I'd work until 3 or 4 in the morning, and then sleep until 10 or 11 a.m.—and I still have to cajole myself into getting into bed around midnight, when I read a book to fall asleep (If I have a book, I fall asleep within 15 minutes; if I don't, I might be awake all night). My mornings are largely focused on staving off my anxiety (something I've struggled with for years), setting myself up for a calm day, and feeding myself, my husband, and my cat.

I've been waking up without an alarm for the better half of a year, and it makes the biggest difference in my mood. People think I'm crazy when I tell them this, but my alarm would often go off only a few minutes before I would naturally wake up, and it would make me wake up in a state of panic that would lead to a rushed, anxious morning. Most days, even without an alarm, I wake up around 8 or 8:15, and I modify my morning routine to accommodate how much time I have. The very first thing I do—before I swallow or drink any water—is use my beloved brushing rinse. It's made from hydrogen peroxide, water, and essential oils, and it whitens my teeth and clears away all of the bacteria that built up overnight. Then I brush with my electric toothbrush. 

I drink a big glass of room temperature water. (I used to do the whole lemon water thing, but I felt like it wasn't adding much in the way of benefits, and I didn't love the effects on my tooth enamel.) And I take my probiotic and prebiotics to boot.

I've been working out every morning with a combination of dance, Pilates, and yoga. It makes me super sore, and I can bow out of the crazy athleisure runway show that so many yoga studios have become and just do the workouts in my skivvies on my living room floor.

I've been meditating every day for the last three years, and it's made a bigger difference in my life than any other wellness activity. I can really tell on days I don't meditate, which is, I think, the best reason to incorporate a new wellness routine into your life. Seeing benefits immediately versus in a far-flung, intangible future is the type of motivation I need. I do Vedic meditation, which involves a mantra, and I sit for 20 minutes. I don't look at all cute like the girls you see meditating on Instagram—usually I have headphones on playing white noise to drown out the construction sounds in my building, a cat on my lap, and a very serious look on my face.

I hop in the shower. I don't wash my face in the morning (at night, I oil cleanse, so I just rinse that off), and I rarely wash my hair because hoo-boy does that add time to my day. My showers end up being less than two minutes, which my husband (the king of 20-minute showers) is mind-boggled by. But I have things to do!

I also try to make a snack to bring to work so I don't eat all of the chocolate bars littering my desk (the perils of being a food editor!). Today, I made cookie-dough energy balls by adding some oats, Medjool dates, cashew butter, and vanilla powder to my food processor. I let it run until everything is super smooth, then pulse in cacao nibs and roll the whole sticky mixture into balls. I pop a few into my bag and a few into my husband's. Already looking forward to the afternoon.

Time for skin care and makeup! I don't wear much, but I like to put on a serum with vitamin C, E, and ferulic acid for extra protection from pollution. I do put on a nontoxic tinted moisturizer that has SPF 30 and evens out my skin tone (it makes me feel like such a responsible grownup to wear sunscreen every day—like, you're welcome, 80-year-old me). I use my fingers to pop on some blush and quickly pencil in eyebrows. I don't do mascara most days—I have super-sensitive eyes—but a friend once told me that French women look so chic because they leave one thing undone, so I tell myself that my bare eyes are just giving me that certain je ne sais quoi.

My husband and I work in the same neighborhood, and we often walk in together. We used to live in a different part of New York and had a 40-minute multi-subway commute to work, but we moved intentionally to make our commute shorter. I heard a money expert say that the best way to use your money to become happier is to invest in making your commute a walking or biking one, and it's made a huge difference in my daily mood. The sunshine, the trees, the casual conversation with my husband—if there's a better way to start a day, I'm not aware of it.