Jump out of bed or slither out? Two opposite morning philosophies
Mel Robbins advises getting up the moment you wake, and Jocko Willink swears by early, immediate rising, but Robbins also presents 'slithering,' a slow and gentle exit from bed for anxious mornings. Comparing the approaches helps readers choose a wake-up routine that suits their temperament rather than forcing one ideal.
Both ways of getting out of bed have their place, and which one fits depends on what is pinning you there. If it is plain reluctance, get up the moment the alarm rings. If it is a physical dread that keeps coming back however often you push through it, move with the feeling and slide out slowly. Either way, do not stay in bed and do not get back in.
Mel Robbins argues for both, in separate episodes. In the first, she says she is not a morning person and lists reasons mornings can be hard, including shift work, genetics, trauma, anxiety and depression. Her first step is still firm: get up when the alarm goes off, with no snoozing. Cortisol is highest in the morning, and lying in bed while it is high increases rumination and anxiety. Her tool is the 5 Second Rule: count 5-4-3-2-1 and move. Then make the bed, drink water, get outside for light and take a 10-minute walk.
In the second episode she teaches slithering, which she learned from her therapist, psychologist Anne Davin. She admits the countdown got her up for years but did not remove the heavy feeling, which was waiting again the next morning. Davin traced that dread to a childhood trauma and called it a somatic residue. The instruction is the opposite of the countdown. You notice where the feeling sits, let its weight carry you onto the floor, move slowly until it breaks apart, crawl toward the bathroom and stand when ready. Davin's explanation: "Sometimes it's better to feel our way through rather than try to figure our way out." Over six weeks Robbins needed less and less of it, until putting a leg out of bed was enough.
Retired Navy SEAL officer Jocko Willink represents the pure get-up approach. "I don't debate with myself. I'm not negotiating." He does not claim to wake full of energy. He treats motivation as an emotion that comes and goes, relies on discipline, and says a workout will make you feel better. Andrew Huberman adds that the daily cortisol peak should come early and that morning sunlight and exercise raise it.
The real split is whether to override the feeling or join it. The countdown and Willink's rule treat it as noise to act past. Slithering treats it as something stored in the body that has to be moved through. Each solves a different problem: hesitation in one case, a recurring bodily dread in the other. In Robbins's own practice they are tools for different mornings.
What to do with it: notice what you feel on waking. For reluctance, do not negotiate, and keep your phone across the room. For dread, slither. Make the bed at once, move early, get outside light, and drink water before coffee. Watch alcohol the night before, which makes morning anxiety worse. Neither method is treatment. Robbins says slithering is a resource to try, not professional care. If mornings are consistently dominated by dread, anxiety or hopelessness, or tied to past trauma, work with a therapist or doctor alongside any routine.