Join the illuminati: No, not those guys… A mindful morning starts the night before by making sure any devices are left outside your bedroom with the sound off. An alarm clock next to your bed will do, or if you can’t be trusted with the snooze button set the alarm on your phone so that you have to get out of bed to switch it off. If you still can’t fight the urge to crawl back into your warm cosy bed, consider investing in a sunrise simulation alarm clock which works by slowly illuminating over a period of about 30 minutes so that you wake up naturally. If you have small children none of the above will apply! Which leads to the next point...

Get ahead of the game: If you do have kids greeting the world in a mindful way may be hard to do if they’re the ones who wake you up. If you can get into a routine of waking up at least 20 minutes before they do, you are likely to feel more in control from the very start of your day. Get organised the night before and lay out breakfast before you go to bed, have a bath or shower before you go to sleep, prep your outfit and pack your bag. Having just one less thing to do at 7am helps you feel one step closer to calm.

No news is good news: News is available everywhere and at all times, and frankly it can wait. Do not reach for your laptop, mobile news apps, or the radio. If you need something to read whilst you have your morning cuppa consider making it a magazine or book that you might have fallen asleep reading the night before. That choice in itself is an empowering and mindful one, you are choosing to consume only life-enhancing material into your consciousness at a time of day when you’re mind is adjusting itself to ‘wake’ mode.

Practise gratitude: The first rush of thoughts in the morning can be like riding an unpredictable sea swell in a small dinghy. Don’t pay too much heed to them. Instead, focus on just one positive intention for the day, and most importantly, think about one thing you are grateful for: the sun shining through your window, the roof over your head or the breakfast you are about to enjoy. This brings you into the present and focuses your mind on what is actually happening rather than things that may never happen but cause you unhappiness to dwell on.

Productivity: The quiet of mornings can provide a truly unique opportunity to focus and channel productivity. There is quiet and calm but, unlike late evenings, there is also the promise and potential inherent in each new day. The phrase ‘start as you mean to go on’ seems particularly apt in this respect: the feeling of having achieved something (and it could be that the very act of waking up early is your achievement) turbo boosts your day with productivity. Now is the time.