On this day, I had my phone next to the bed and I thought I’d film my first few minutes of my day. Note the blackout blinds, the caution around trying to extend or compress joints fulling first thing, focussing on some exciting test that needs to be put in place that day and getting the day started on a positive note.

If you want help with your RA from me and my coaching team, see www.rheumatoidsolutions.com/training-2024

Hey, it’s Clint, here it is, 7 a.m. in the morning. There is no light. I’m just going to walk you through my morning routine and things that you can look out for first thing in the morning, so you get your day off to a good start.

Now, the first thing that I do is I use block out blinds on my blinds so that I get the darkest possible room. And so what I’m doing right now is taking off the clips to take down that, what we call the green screen. And then I open up straight into the sunlight so that I get immediately light into my eyes, which sets my circadian rhythm. By doing this, typically I wake up at the same time each day because it’s like boom, light in the eyes, it’s morning time. And so I go from nice and dark, which is what I want to enable myself to get in the deepest sleep because the production of melatonin is greater When the room is dark to straight into light and it’s like, wow, time to get up. And so, block out blinds. Very helpful.

Notice my bed head couldn’t give a crap how I look right now because when we think about our appearance and worry about superficial things like that, like I used to. You realize that the brain becomes worried about stuff at a high level, no matter the real level of that sort of problem in life. Let me explain. So it’s like if the only thing you have to worry about is the way you look because you don’t have health problems, it becomes a significant thing in your life. But when you’ve been through a nightmare and back with rheumatoid arthritis or you’re still going through a lot of problems, then the last thing you care about is bedhead. So happy to shoot this video for you guys.

Now I have absolutely zero pain in my feet. If you’re stepping out of bed in the morning with painful feet onto the carpet, what I don’t want you to do is to scrunch your toes thinking is there pain there? I used to do this. So what I would do is before I’d even like move, I would do like a pain test, scrunch my feet together, squeeze my fists together, and at times there was months where I was doing it aggressively, trying to find out what’s there. And I would wake up and I would squeezed hard into my fists, squeezed hard into my toes, like curl them hard. But this first thing in the morning can actually irritate them. So these little experimental tests just hold off until there’s at least some movement through those little joints, especially mentally. When you wake up in the morning, it can be if you’re going through a lot of symptoms, you can think, oh, I don’t want to get out of bed, I’m in so much pain, it feels just like Groundhog Day, I’m miserable. It’s totally normal. Okay. Totally normal. In addition to those just physical observations, your gut bacteria are also producing unsupportive thoughts. When you’re in pain, they trigger this stress response. There is a correlation between the negative mood states and pain. This is also associated with lipopolysaccharide getting into the bloodstream.

So just know it’s not your fault. It’s just how it is at the moment, and years and years and years of this stuff I went through myself. It is like insanely difficult to manage the mental health, especially first thing in the morning. And so here’s a tip that I can give you. Have something to test, something to try, something to look forward to that day. Ideally several things so that even if one doesn’t work, you’ve got more as a backup that you can try. This could be as simple as a new type of workout that you’re trying. Like it could be a new stretch, it could be trying to go a little longer on a treadmill, it could be a new food that you’re experimenting with, something that you’re up to for example, in our program, if you’re trying something new that day that you’re up to. It could be something entirely different. It might be a new supplement that you’ve just got something, but you’ve got to be trying something. If we just keep doing the same things every single day, we’re only going to get the same results. And so whilst that’s obvious, it’s easy sometimes to lose several days in a row or weeks when we’re not trying anything different and we’re just doing the same thing over and over. So you’ve got to have something to look forward to. So before you get out of bed, think about those things and make just a mental checklist of 2 or 3 things that you’re excited to try that day, and then anchor the thoughts to that as you get up and you go and get dressed and so on, have your breakfast and so on, that you’re thinking about these things that you’re looking forward to.

There is a subtle amount of excitement in that. And excitement produces endorphins, and endorphins are anti-inflammatory. So as much as possible, try and anchor to things that are exciting, which help you to put less focus on the things that you’re worried about and the problems that you have. And those things, those exciting things are also productive things. Testing and experimental things for your body, and therefore it’s a win-win for you.

So you’re out of bed, you’ve gotten the blinds open from a dark room to light. Notice I’ve been doing this video looking at the light to produce cortisol. Get my body woken up here and you’ve not clenched the fingers that hurt first thing in the morning or clench those feet. You haven’t tried to test aggressively range of motion through your knees or elbows and other joints, but you’ve just gently got out of bed. And before that, you’ve focused on things that are exciting that day. These are a great little set of things to do before you get up. And in my case, walk out that door and face three little kids that need breakfast and get my day started as well. Thanks for spending some time with me and I’ll see you in the next video.