 Good morning. Hello. I'm kind of sleepy and tired, but welcome to my ideal morning routine. Welcome to my channel. My name is Nika. I am a 29 year old graduate student at Columbia University who is actually doing a year of nothing right now. I'm not taking classes and I'm trying to just really enjoy this time that I have left. Finishing up my program, writing my paper. This is my cat shop and can I just try to figure out what's next? So my ideal morning routine, ideally, I'm laughing because I literally just spent like 20 minutes just scrolling on like Reddit for clinical psychology PhDs and like just getting a little anxious about that. This is my five minute journal that I like to do when I wake up in the mornings. So let's do that and then we will do some other things. Also, look, I keep this huge jug of water next to my bedside so I can drink water when I wake up in the morning. Just finished journaling. I actually really love doing this in the morning because it kind of gives me like a north star for today. So one of the questions of here is like, what are three things you can do that will make today great? And I always kind of make it a minute to-do list. I'm trying to get away for that, but it does kind of help motivate me to like get out of bed. So now I have some stuff that I want to do today. So I'm like, oh, let's go. But before we go, I am doing a meditation challenge right now. I do, if you follow me on Instagram or TikTok, or I'll probably put on YouTube shorts too. I want to do like a mini meditation challenge, but I feared I should probably do one personally first before I tried to craft one to share it with others. So I'm going to just log into Insight Timer right now and start the fourth day of my reset and refresh meditation challenge. I really been enjoying it. And yeah, if you have Insight Timer, if you don't, it's totally free. And this challenge is free. And it's for the new year, but I didn't start it until like, honestly, I'm on day four, but I probably started it last week. Like, I don't think I've been doing it every day, which I want to change. But you know, just taking it one day at a time. So let's start day four of Insight Timer's reset and refresh challenge. Your call to break free from the ordinary, let go of what's been holding you back and step into your life with a fresh perspective. I want to make an in depth video about like, how I cleared my skin routine and my makeup routine. But it's honestly very intuitive. And so I have really very oily skin. And so it truly just depends on how my skin feels in the morning when I wake up. So right now it's not feeling oily or greasy at all. So that makes me feel like we had a really good moisture routine last night. So I'm not going to strip any of the moisture for my skin. And I'm just going to go in with this my sale, my seller cleansing water from Garnier just to refresh. And then I'm going to do this lightweight moisturizer from Ghost Democracy. This was actually a jargon that I got like, a couple of years ago now, I think like last summer. And it's really good. I love it for days when like, I don't need to do a lot to my skin. And then I'm just going to follow up with the Black Girl sunscreen. I use the kids version because it's actually a higher SPF and it's cheaper. So I'm going to do that quickly. And then we're going to start really getting our day going. My skin feels nice and refreshed. I do want to start incorporating like a little bit of makeup back into my daily routine. But because today's Sunday, like I'm not going to wear makeup on Sunday. I just don't see the point. But on Monday, next morning, can I do it will be on a weekday because I just got this yummy skin from Vanessa, my rick's beauty. So I'm really excited to try that. And then I got this walkery pencil, just because it's like the most beautiful pink ever. And then I also got this Nars pencil sharpener because if you use Nars pencils, you know, only their sharpeners fit their pencils, which is the most annoying thing ever, but like a smart marketing move for them. And then I also got the De Nessa, my rick's yummy like blurring powder. I realized like while a lot of people like liquid blushes, I really don't think I do. So I got this because it's like a balm that turns into a powder, which I really love like a nice powdery finish. I also kind of want to get the Nars like orgasm blush. And then I was also, I also ordered a few things online. So coming into 2024, we're going to have a new like little makeup routine that hopefully I will do daily. But right now I haven't really been doing any makeup, especially not on Sundays, but also I like washed my makeup brushes last night. So they're still wet. So I couldn't do it even if I wanted to. But I'm really excited to just be like using more like black owned beauty brands. If you didn't know De Nessa, my rick's, I believe that's how you pronounce it. She's a black woman. And I just feel like when I buy black owned foundation, it's just such a better color match for me. Honestly, if I try any of these like popular, not black owned beauty blends, like the browns just like are drowning for me. So with all that being said, makeup morning routine coming at a later date and time. I at this point now, I want to have a little tea. If you didn't watch my vlogmas diaries that might list it by God tea advent calendar. And they just have a bunch of little teas. And let's do this one. It's green tea flowers and red fruit called hanam tea. And they're just like, oh, look at how cute the little packaging is. Like I'm obsessed. And these are like really fancy teas. Like they come in this little cloth bag. It's insane, but it's a nice little treat to have. And it literally tells you like to have it in the morning to soak it for like three minutes. Like the temperature should even be at. So I usually when I wake up before I even make my bed, I'll put my hot water on because I just know that I like to have tea in the morning. It's a good way to like drink water too as well, but like just with a little flavor. So I'm going to have that and it's Sunday. So I'm going to go over my notion and just make sure that anything I didn't do last week, I move it into this week. I'm also taking this week off at the UN, which is really nice. So I have a lot more time for personal stuff. And I haven't even told you guys yet, but I have a really important interview coming up next week. So we'll not next week. I think I have two weeks to prepare for it, but I want to start prepping for it next week. So I'm really excited. So yeah, I have to update my financial planner too. So I'm going to have some tea and do that. So my little getting my life together this morning took way longer than expected because as I was clearing out my to-do list and everything from last week, I realized I left a lot of like just little things that I just did not want to carry into the next week. So I spent a lot of time just like downloading the statistical software that I need in order to be able to see all the data for my lab because we just moved off of Qualtrics, which is probably really boring if you're not into statistics or clinical psychology. But anyways, so I did that. And then I also had to fill out some forms for therapy appointment. I responded to an email to get things moving on like my piano lessons. So all things really going forward. And I feel really good about that. At this point, my morning routine is when I make breakfast. I am a huge breakfast person. So today I'm thinking we're going to have a little veggie omelet. If you watched my last vlog, you probably saw it. I'm literally just going to make it again. But I don't have as any veggies this time. But I'm just going to, you know, use what I have in the fridge. It is Sunday. So I'm on like my last leg of just about everything. And then I'll probably make a little coffee with it. I typically try to delay my coffee until I have food, because I just learned from personal experience that if I have coffee before I put anything in my stomach, I literally will forget to eat for the rest of the day. It's like the caffeine becomes my fuel. And then like I just, I'm like, what is food? I forget all about it. So this morning we're going to have some hash browns, we're going to have a veggie omelet, and then we'll have a little ice coffee as well. So let's get the ball rolling on that. I also made a bunch of like these banana walnut chocolate chip muffins. They're so good. I ended up freezing like a handful of them just to have for later. But I'm going to have this as a snack because I'm actually really, really hungry. It's like I probably want to put it Sunday. So I usually make like posh posh things on Sunday. Just trying to use like everything in my fridge so nothing goes bad. And it looks pretty cute now. It's like yellow, green, red, all colors now. For sauteing, I'm going to go ahead and eat the omelet. I typically just do two eggs. If I'm really hungry, I'll do three. But two is usually good for me. I used to do like an egg yolk and an egg white. But honestly, I've just gotten kind of lazy. And I don't feel like separating the white from the yolk. And I also think nutritionally it's better to have the egg yolk anyway. I did want to show you guys what I season it with. So like salt, pepper, pouring, but necessary. I also put in a little of the shroom nami seasoning. It is so good. Like honestly, it is just like, it just makes everything like savory. And if you like truffle, then you'll like this. Like I love mushrooms. I love truffle. So like I just kind of like putting that and everything. And then also if you're someone who puts like hot sauce on your omelettes, I highly recommend adding a little bit of cayenne pepper to your egg mixture because it's just gonna give it that spice that you want from the hot sauce, but not be like super saucy. So I'll mix that just like this. You can't see it, but I don't want to like spill the eggs either. It's sweet, which is why I like putting the cayenne in it because I feel like it like takes out the sweetness of the milk. I'll just mix it all up. But sometimes get like little clumps of the seasoning in it. So I just like to mix it until there aren't any clumps in it anymore on the hash browns or they won't be done in 10. Okay, hash browns are in the air fryer. You guys might hear a terrible humming noise. I apologize. I'm going to take the bungees just put them off to the side. And then I think the key to making like the perfect omelette at home is to have a really small saucer. So like this size is perfect because it's going to be the size of the omelette. So I don't have to do too much thinking about it. I'll just take that little egg mixture and pour it on in here. And then I literally just let it cook until it's done all the way through. And you'll kind of see it like it'll be a little soft on the top. But you can kind of smush it around then give it a flip and it'll be good. That's what it looks like. And then I'll come back when it's a little bit more done so you can kind of see the difference. So hopefully you get a little difference but it's a lot more cooked. What I like to do is I like to kind of pull it around so I can get the egg kind of cooked on the sides just like that. And then eventually I'll flip it but not right now. I want to get it as cooked as possible before I even try to flip it. Like I'll even lift up the sides a little bit and then let the egg get kind of around and underneath it so I can cook a little bit more that way. All right the moment of truth now we can try to flip this over. Oh my god I just ripped it. But whatever I'm just going to put the filling in pretty decent. We're gonna cover all the stuff that looks bad with cheese. So it'll be fine. No one is the riser. Maybe she is. That really this heavy coffee was sent to me in a PR gift and I actually really enjoy it. Like it's so tasty. It doesn't need a little flavor so I got a coffee creamer with a french vanilla flavor just to add to it. But it's really good especially if you're trying to boycott Starbucks like right now as I am for the Gaza Israel Hamas conflict. So for an alternative coffee check it out. My discount code is on the screen and then also in the description box below. I hope you enjoyed this like little ideal morning routine. It was a very relaxed one because it's Sunday. The next one I do will probably be like a weekday and maybe we'll have a little bit more structure so make up and having to be somewhere by nine o'clock. Pretty much all I do I don't really work out on the weekends. I do have a question for you though. Is there something that you do that I don't that you think I should know about? If there is let me know in the description box below or maybe what is your favorite aspect of your own morning routine. I love learning about other people's morning routines because it's like ooh like thinking you're going to pick and choose and make your own best like custom morning routine. I was thinking about like including reading in mine but I just knew I had to get moving and I honestly not shown on camera I spent a lot of time doom scrolling about phd applications and then my cat threw up so that kind of you know it happens but it's not ideal so please don't think this is a perfect or accurate representation in the least. Well my breakfast is done and it's Sunday so some of my favorite YouTubers have uploaded so I'm gonna go watch some videos please make sure you leave me a comment and like and a subscribe subscribe a please a and I'll see you guys in the next video love you