The Magic of Morning

Are you familiar with this feeling? Morning, the alarm clock breaks the silence, and your first thought is, “Back to the routine again.” Coffee, traffic jams, a to-do list. The days go by, and life feels like a backdrop for other events.

But what if everything could be different? Imagine that waking up is not a heavy duty, but a small miracle. That the morning brings not bustle, but quiet joy and clarity. That every day has its own bright note.

This article is not about strict methods or forced positivity. It is about simple steps that help you reboot the start of your day. It is about how to hear yourself amid the general noise and fill your usual morning hours with meaning and energy.

Let's put aside the usual “I have to” and try to wake up for real. Not just to get up, but to wake up and “sing.” Literally and figuratively. Ready to start this day in a new way?

Journalist, former editor-in-chief of Vogue and Tatler, author of the Telegram channel “Ksenia Solovyova”

Difficult times do not pass without leaving a mark, but they can make us stronger. They teach us patience, show us what is truly important, and help us rethink our priorities. After going through this, we often become more sensitive to the pain of others and wiser in our decisions. Imagine a place where you go not just for a haircut or manicure. A place where you can forget about the hustle and bustle for a few hours, feel cared for, and pay attention to yourself. A beauty salon is just such a place. Here, external changes are inextricably linked to an inner state of peace and confidence that comes when you feel good about yourself. Today, a salon is a whole world of services united by a common idea. The stylist behind the chair is an artist who creates your image. The skincare specialist is your guide to a world of health and radiance. Every detail, from the shape of your nails to the shade of your hair, becomes part of your self-expression. The light will definitely appear. It may not come in the form you expect, and it may not follow your script. But change is inevitable. Hold on to what supports you — loved ones, simple joys, belief in yourself. This streak will end someday, and you will be able to breathe freely again. When everything is falling apart, don't try to solve all your problems at once. It often helps to focus on small, simple steps. Allow yourself to get through this time without harsh criticism. Sometimes you just need to give yourself a break so that you can look at the situation with renewed energy later. I brew jasmine tea again (it's scary to say how many teapots I drink when I work from home). I turn on my laptop and get started.

Founder of the 10.GRAN brand, author of the Telegram channel “Tengran from 10.GRAN”

My day starts at 8:30-9:00 a.m., and my main morning ritual is breakfast. The process of preparing it is my morning mantra. I literally can't wake up after sleep without it and a couple of mugs of freshly brewed coffee. Speaking of mantras, after breakfast, my routine changes depending on my stage of life. For example, a year ago, my mornings were accompanied by kundalini yoga with my friend and kundalini teacher Natasha Gulyayeva. Now I live in Madrid, 10 minutes from Retiro Central Park — my dream of walking for an hour every morning before work without my phone and with music in my ears has come true. I mostly listen to classic Japanese jazz. These walks help me clear my head, set a direction for development, and, when you're pleasantly detached from everyday chores and tasks, the best ideas for jewelry or 10.GRAN projects usually come to mind. For me, mornings are always about getting in tune with myself and the world. If I ignore this, rush into work, or skip breakfast, the day will most likely be difficult. That's why I'm now training myself not to check work chats, email, or social media before 10:00 a.m., and on Sundays, I'm learning to live without my phone altogether.

Creative consultant, former editor-in-chief of Vogue and Interview, author of the Telegram channel “Doletskaya-Doletskaya”

I am, of course, a night owl. Why “of course” is unknown. I am a night owl who, unfortunately, was forced to be a morning person for most of my working life. That's why I neglected my rituals for quite a long time.

If it used to take me half an hour to jump out of bed and into the car, now I take a much more careful approach. My mandatory rituals begin with a shower and other ablutions, as well as a glass of hot water with various additions — it might contain a drop of freshly brewed tea or a sprig of mint, or lemon, something like that. I drink 250 milliliters without fail and then go for a warm-up, for example. If I'm doing well, it takes about 20 minutes. Then, without fail, espresso and hot cream. To be honest, my morning magic also includes my breakfast menu. I treat it like a sacred thing — when I fall asleep, I already know what I'll want in the morning. If I skip my morning rituals, which, by the way, no assistants or strangers are allowed to interfere with, everything goes downhill — my mood gets ruined, and so on. However! Sometimes, though, even this stress can be beneficial. I take a philosophical approach to this.

My day starts at 6 a.m. I have to get up so early to have breakfast, get myself and the kids ready, make school lunches, and leave the house on time. Of course, I grumble and complain about getting up so early, but to be honest, I like getting up and watching the sunrise. It feels like the sun is rising just for you — to cheer you up and send you off to a new day. I usually slide out of bed onto my yoga mat and do 10-15 minutes of stretching (right in my pajamas). There was a time when I skipped this ritual, but then I introduced the “two-minute rule” (if you want to make something a habit, start with two minutes — if you want to continue after the timer goes off, do so; if you don't, stop and start again tomorrow with the same two minutes). My joints come to life, blood rushes to my body, and I skip into the kitchen. I drink a glass of water, brew coffee, and spread nut butter on a croissant. These are priceless minutes alone with myself while the whole house is still asleep. Only our dog Flag watches with one eye to see if a piece of food will fall under the table. At 6:30 a.m., I turn on some light music and wake up the children, make them breakfast, and at the same time check the news, my email, and pack their lunch boxes. Every day I put notes with jokes and words of encouragement in them — I did it once, and they liked it. Now I have a separate box in my kitchen with pens and stickers. It not only helps to cheer up the children during their school break, but also stimulates my brain with creativity. While my daughters are having breakfast and telling each other their dreams, I go to wash my face. In the morning, I apply light moisturizers and invigorate my skin with Foreo Bear microcurrents. My daughters are also getting into “cosmetic procedures,” but they have their own children's themes — cream, lip gloss. Fortunately for me, my children don't like ponytails and braids, they walk around with their hair down, so a comb and a fun hair clip are enough. We check the weather, get dressed, take the dog, and go to school. Flag and I're return trip depends on the weather: either a run in the park, a trip to the dog park, or a brisk walk home in the pouring rain. That's where my morning ends, and my daily routine begins: work, household chores, meetings, phone calls… It looks perfect, and I try to stick to these rituals, but of course, there are glitches: someone gets sick, someone wants to wear their favorite sweater, but it's in the wash. Sometimes I oversleep, and then everything goes haywire — there's no time for yoga or notes.

Co-founder of the Telegram channel “Antiglyanets”

What time I get up depends on what time I went to bed. Ideally, I would get up at 9:45, but unfortunately, my schedule is very irregular at the moment — it is extremely rare for me to go to bed early and get up early. Moreover, it is not usually my alarm clock that wakes me up early, but a call from the courier — I always ask for deliveries to be sent to me between 9:00 and 12:00 in the morning: I have to quickly jump up, get dressed, tidy myself up, and open the door. But in general, I am not a morning person, and my brain does not work very well in the morning. However, due to circumstances, it has to work — while still lying in bed, I go on Telegram and respond to, thank God, numerous advertising requests, messages from readers, or messages from colleagues in the Antiglanz work chat. Yulia Posh and Natalia Arkhangelskaya, who has two children, get up earlier. At the same time, I order some food delivery. I generally love breakfasts on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, but lately I rarely manage to have breakfast there before noon. Also, for example, on Mondays at 12:00 p.m. I go to combat pistol shooting training — which is also early for me. I don't know how people get anything done in the morning. It's only by midday, when I'm already somewhere, that I come to my senses — in the whirlwind of things to do, I can only eat for the first time at lunchtime. So I don't have any specific morning rituals like some people do — yes, I read that discussion about morning rituals. I won't read a book in the morning. I won't watch YouTube either. Everything happens in a hurry, and I can't say that I really like it. There is no morning magic for me. I have magic, excuse me, f***ing magic — how to get everything done while working at the same time. Chaos, complete chaos. But what I like to do in the morning is withdraw money from my individual entrepreneur account — it improves my mood.

I usually get up between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. and, to be honest, I don't have any morning rituals. The only thing I do is take a shower: I feel like the day can't start well without it — it gives me a sense of wholeness and clarity. At the same time, I turn on some music. The most unpleasant thing is when I pick up my phone first thing in the morning and get sucked into work chats and tasks for several hours without even getting out of bed. I also hate rushing in the morning; I like to get ready slowly, so I end up having a late breakfast — around 11:00 a.m. Breakfast itself has an almost sacred meaning: in the warm season, there are a couple of secret places in Paris with an excellent microclimate and location — few people and a sunny side. On my way there, I take my sketchbook with me, turn on the music, deliberately avoid looking at my phone, and don't respond to messages.

Makeup artist, artist, ACC ICF coach, and author of the Telegram channel “What's Inside?”

I have been an early riser since school. Back then, I would get up at 6:00 a.m., and now I do the same with ease. On weekends, I wake up without an alarm clock at 7:00-8:00 a.m. Mornings are sacred to me because they are mine alone—there are no work messages yet, I am full of energy, and I don't want to rush anywhere. It's the perfect mix. I usually start with a little workout: when I lived in Moscow, I really loved Ashtanga yoga, but in Dubai, where I've been living for the past year and a half, I haven't found a type of yoga that I really like yet. So I do online workouts at home — it puts me in a great mood. I usually prepare my to-do list for the day in advance. I have a little tradition: I write down a list of things I'm grateful for and a hypothetical ideal scenario for the next day in a private Telegram channel that I created just for myself. It's important not to turn it into a to-do list that you'll have to grind through, but to mix it up with some enjoyable activities. In the morning, I also do everything related to coaching and art practice — I've been quite active in these areas for the last two years. I watch lectures, conferences, study a lot of foreign literature and sources — the morning is great for this, I think better then. I prepare breakfast while listening to a podcast, and in general, this is the most sacred meal for me: I can snack throughout the day, but breakfast needs to be substantial and, ideally, measured. By the way, I hardly ever do any beauty treatments — my skincare routine is completely standard, washing and moisturizing. Shoots are often scheduled for the morning, and the specificity of the Dubai market is that it is very hot here and they like to start very early — the team can gather at 4:00-5:00 a.m., which is considered a completely normal shift. Because of these shoots, my wonderful morning is disrupted, and to be honest, I find it quite difficult to cope with such moments, so I try to control them — otherwise, I'll be exhausted for the next two days. Well, I'll share a life hack that often helps me in the morning: I delete Instagram at night so that I don't reach for it when I wake up. Then the day starts much more productively — you don't get distracted by social media and don't look through a million other people's Stories, after which it seems like you've already spent half the day with someone else. I only restore it closer to lunchtime.

My ideal morning begins with a bath. It is extremely difficult for me to wake up, and I often have to get up early—either for filming or to get the children ready for school and kindergarten. A bath really helps me wake up and feel refreshed. During these magical 10-15 minutes “to myself,” I usually catch up on some sleep, plan my day in my head, and drink warm water with lemon. I have curly hair, which only looks perfect when freshly washed using the “curly method,” so this ritual also takes place in the morning. After that, I always use body oil and Augustinus Bader face care products. I also use eye patches — I'm currently using DNA6. A balanced breakfast is also important, and I never skip it.

TV presenter, blogger, founder of the Rogov brand, author of the Rogov Telegram channel

If I am in the filming period of my shows Rogov in Action and Who is Cooler than Rogov, I get up at 7:00-8:00 a.m. If filming is over, I wake up at 9:00-9:30 a.m. Sometimes I get a lie-in, and then I can sleep until 12:00 noon. But that's very rare. Checking social media helps me wake up — I'm active on Telegram, VK, YouTube, and several other platforms. Then I drink coffee, and if it's a training day (I work out three times a week), I eat a couple of hard-boiled eggs. If there's no training that day, I don't eat breakfast at all — I don't like to eat in the morning. I also don't see any magic in the morning. It's very difficult for me to wake up, and it's more of a torment than magic. Well, I'll let you in on a secret — I don't keep a schedule or a diary. I keep all my affairs in my head. At the same time, I manage to do everything and am never late: punctuality is the politeness of kings!

Journalist, founder of the YouTube and Telegram channels “Bez Filtrov” (No Filters), Head of Content & Production at TSUM

I feel most comfortable getting up between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m., and although my workday starts at 11:00 a.m., I get down to work somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 a.m. I usually get up, quickly check my messengers, and turn on the tap to fill the bathtub. Through trial and error, I figured out that it takes exactly 15 minutes—just enough time to walk the dog (I have the morning shift, my husband has the evening shift). I come back from the walk and take a bath: on weekends, I enjoy lying in it for an hour, on weekdays, of course, less. By the way, I've only had an 11:00 a.m. start to my workday for the last three years. Before that, for many, many years in a row, I would open my laptop or come to the office around 8:30-9:00 a.m. — but even then, I would take a morning bath. After my water treatments, I apply face and body care products and style my hair. I often do my makeup at work, but I try to eat breakfast at home — I have a specific diet, and at home it turns out to be as tasty and nutritious as possible. If I don't have time to eat breakfast at home, I have two options: either a baked omelet, a glass of cherry tomatoes, something with carbohydrates, and fruit from Azbuka Vkusa, or an omelet without mozzarella and a salad without dressing from the TSUM café. I'm not really a morning person (moving my workout to 8:00 a.m. is a nightmare for me), and all my rituals are designed to ease myself into the workday as smoothly as possible. Answering The Blueprint's question: I do have a personal assistant, but his job description has nothing to do with my morning routine. The best part is being able to do them alone and in silence.

Model, member of The Blueprint 100 list 2025

I am both an owl and a lark—on workdays, I have to get up early for shoots or castings, around 6:00-7:00 a.m. (which, by the way, is usually not difficult for me), but on weekends at home in Abkhazia, for example, I can afford to relax and rest a little, postponing my wake-up time to around 10:00-11:00 a.m. I don't rush to get up right after waking up — I lie down for about 10 minutes and think about my plans for the day. Then I go to the bathroom to wash my face with cold water (I just love this in the winter). I also consider exercise to be a mandatory ritual — after my water routine, of course. Before exercising, I drink a glass of water, sometimes adding some homemade honey. My morning routine usually takes no more than 10-20 minutes if it's a day off, and twice as long if I have a casting or shoot scheduled — then it includes choosing an outfit, facial care, and checking my work email. If something from my morning tasks doesn't fit into my schedule, I simply move it to another free time: for example, I can replace exercise with a walk (if I'm at home, I take my dog with me), which is even better — I love walking.

Life often puts us on autopilot — we wake up, follow our usual routine, do the same things, and hardly notice how the days go by. But inside each of us there is something more: dreams, talents, desires that we put off “until later.” “Wake Up and Sing” is a call to wake up from numbness, feel the moment, start acting, without fear of being yourself. Because singing means living seriously, expressing yourself, moving forward, even if your voice trembles.

Designer, co-founder of the Vereja brand

I usually wake up between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. I have a fairly flexible work schedule right now, and I prefer to do all my creative work at night, so sometimes waking up at 10:00 a.m. is already a success. As soon as I get up, the first thing I do is drink a glass of water and go to the bathroom: I wash my face with cool water, brush my teeth, wash my beard (if I have one at the moment), and comb my eyebrows a little. In the cold season, after washing my face, I apply a little day cream to my face. I seem to shower every other day in the morning. And I prefer baths — I can spend half an hour in them, soaking up the moisture. Just recently, I realized that in order to finally wake up and somehow cheer myself up, I definitely need a cup of coffee — after that, I feel like I'm starting to function. And, of course, I need to eat — as soon as I get something into my system, I immediately become much happier and more cheerful. So, if I have free time, I make breakfast. If not, I just try to drink a cup of coffee. And I love McDonald's breakfast — sometimes I get up at 8:00-9:00 a.m. just to order it, stuff myself, and sleep for another hour. I used to smoke in the morning, but that has taken a back seat — I want to breathe fresh air after sleeping. By the way, I don't waste time thinking about what to wear — over the past year, I've developed a wardrobe for every day. I'll also tell you that if there was a party the night before, the morning is practically hell for me. I realized that if I want to sleep, I just turn off my phone and sleep — I don't care what's going on around me. That's why I don't hang out when I have important projects or meetings planned for the next day.

Don't rush into finding your calling with drama and stress. Sometimes it's right there in the stuff we take for granted or even think is boring—like loving music, enjoying singing in the shower, or singing along in the car. What seems like a simple hobby can actually be a powerful source of energy and a clue to ourselves.

Allow yourself this simple pleasure without worrying about your skill level. Singing means feeling, breathing deeply, and expressing emotions that words cannot convey. It is an act of liberation that is available to everyone at any time. You don't have to be a professional to benefit from it.

So the next time your favorite song comes on, don't hold back. Sing along. It's a small but very sure step toward making your life louder, brighter, and more harmonious. Perhaps your inner voice has been singing for a long time, and it's time to finally hear it.