Your jarring alarm jolts you out of bed. And the race begins: You run through your routine like a robot. Brush your teeth, take a shower, put on clothes, eat breakfast, hope you have everything you need and sprint out the door. Your morning often sets the tone for the rest of your day. So enjoying your morning is important, even when you feel like you’re too swamped with other stuff. What is the key to great mornings? Moving through it mindfully, and creating habits that bring doses of joy into your day. Here’s a list of ideas to start your morning off right.

Margarita Tartakovsky, MS, is an associate editor at Psych Central and authors the body image blog Weightless. She writes about everything from anxiety and ADHD to creativity and couples to mindfulness and stress. You can learn more about her work at her website.