It is said that the best time for meditation is in the morning, just after one wakes up. While meditation can be helpful at any time of the day, it is particularly powerful in the morning, because our nervous system= is already primed for the day. As the day wears on our nervous system, meditation can recharge us, but if performed first thing in the morning, meditation can better prepare us for the challenges that can lie ahead in the day. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so meditation in the morning can be that prevention of stress adversely dragging you down. In fact, meditating in the morning can be extra assurance that you will do it again later in the day, because we can get so caught up in the day’s activities that we might forget otherwise!
Still, setting up a routine practice in the morning can be daunting. All of us face challenges in the morning that can get in our way of establishing a regular practice. Just as it takes time to make or break a habit, with a bit of concerted effort one can establish a morning meditation routine, but the below tips should help in facing the most common challenges.
Here are a few tips :
#1 This first tip might go without saying, but it’s one of the most fundamental tips: what time you go to sleep. If you don’t give yourself enough time to sleep, then how can you expect to get much of anything done in the morning, let alone meditation? The average adult human needs six to eight hours of sleep. While sleeping too much can get in the way of morning meditation, so can sleeping too little!
#2 Many people face the morning blues, and this can be detrimental to preparing for the day. In this regard, morning meditation can be seen as “one more thing to do” instead of something of benefit. However, morning meditation is a perfect antidote to the morning blues. If you can think of morning meditation as a way of conquering the morning blues, and a fundamental way of improving your day, you’ll be much more motivated to do it.
#3 Some people have extremely busy mornings. Since the morning is when a lot of things have to be done, many people may feel they don’t have enough time – or are too stressed with what they have to do – to begin a morning meditation routine. Meditation can help you get through your busy morning! It certainly can because morning meditation can help ease the stress of whichever tasks you do in the morning, thus allowing you to get them done more efficiently.
#4 Your meditation environment s important too. If you live in a busy household, see if you can set aside a private space to do your meditation. It doesn’t have to be a separate room, it just has to be quiet enough for you. Also, see if you can perform your morning meditation either before or after the peak period of hustle bustle in your household – see if you can do it before everyone else wakes up, for example.
#5 Lighting can be important too in establishing a morning meditation routine, because in the morning, it’s been scientifically proven that the body responds best to natural sunlight. See if it is possible for you to expose yourself to natural sunlight (you don’t have to be outdoors necessarily) when you do your morning meditation. This will help to ensure your morning meditation is more fruitful, and therefore give you more incentive to do.
If you can’t establish a regular habit of morning meditation right away, don’t beat yourself up, because it always takes time to change one’s routine. But if you don’t try in the first place, you will definitely not feel the rewards of morning meditation! Use the above tips to motivate yourself to meditate when you wake up, and soon you will know what it’s like to be truly ready to seize the day!
By Phillip Miner
Based on inputs by Neema Kamdar, Sahaj Samadhi Meditation Teacher
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