You can do this Burst for free in the Bearmore app. It walks you through each activity, step by step. Pick a time and we'll get it ready for you.
Being in nature
Thirty minutes outdoors on foot to start the day. Brooks puts daily movement among the happiness pillars, but this walk earns its place by getting you outside and unhurried, not by asking you to smash your heart rate. Make it a walk you could think on, not a session you have to recover from.
This works well because the settled, attentive state from outside can carry into reading and make engagement feel easier.
Reading (mindful)
Fifteen minutes of contemplative reading. Brooks reads philosophy, scripture, and serious non-fiction daily; pick something that asks more of you. Aquinas or Aurelius if you want to go full Brooks.
These go especially well together because reading's single-point focus widens naturally into open awareness.
Open awareness
Fifteen minutes of meditation, no special method is required. Brooks frames the morning meditation as the practice that lets the reading and the writing settle in rather than be forgotten. Sit comfortably, eyes closed, no particular agenda.
This is one of the stronger pairings because with attention open and spacious, gratitude can come effortlessly to mind.
Gratitude
Five minutes writing three specific things you're grateful for. Brooks calls gratitude the highest-ROI happiness practice in the research literature: no-cost, easy to do daily, and durable. Specific gratitudes beat abstract ones.