Five Steps to Meditating Every Morning
It can be challenging to find motivation for meditating in the morning, but if you try these five practical tips, you’ll be looking back wondering what you thought was so tough.
Starting your day with meditation is beneficial for many reasons. It helps you become more mindful and aware of your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Meditation can help relieve stress and anxiety which often leads to better mental clarity throughout the rest of the day. You'll have a higher chance of having a productive day when you start off on the right foot by meditating in the morning! Here are my top five steps for starting your day out with morning meditation.
Set up your meditation area
It’s important to make space both mentally and physically for your meditation practice. Whether you have a dedicated space or choose to sit in different places, ideally your chosen spot is private, relatively quiet, and as distraction-free as possible. Part of why ritual is meaningful to us is because it helps us create mental space around a practice. To the extent you’re able, define your practice area and set an intention around how you will use this space, how your practice is not the same as what comes before or after.
Make a list on your phone
Title this list: Why I want to meditate today. It’s for you to use in moments of laziness, doubt, or distraction. The best motivators are motivated themselves, so add to this list when you’re feeling really plugged-in and connected to your practice. Add your best reasons for meditating and list the benefits that you’ve experienced yourself. Each 'why' should be something you’ve experienced in your own life – not just stuff from articles and such. When you are feeling like skipping meditation, give this list a quick glance, and one of the items will do the trick for you on that particular day. Keep this list updated whenever you have a really good sit for the best self-pep-talk!
Do it first thing — really
Sorry, no - you can’t get coffee first. It would be cold anyway by the time you’re finished sitting. I know that most people won’t even give this a shot, but please trust me just enough to try it out. The experience of waking up while meditating is so easeful and relaxing, and it actually makes it a bit easier to see the stillness in one’s mind when it hasn’t gotten all stirred up already. By the time you’re off the cushion, you’ll feel accomplished and ready to take on any challenges the day presents. Try meditating first thing, and you’ll be hooked.
Anticipate the hurdles
You know what your own self-delusion sounds like, so plan for it. Call yourself out on your own BS, because you already know the ways you trick yourself into avoiding things. If you’re going to value meditation’s benefits, it’s about reframing these responses. So if you’re a snoozer, put the alarm clock across the room. If you wake up with your phone in your hand, keep it out of the bedroom. If you get too cold to get out of bed, get a nice cozy robe or shawl, or put a small space heater where you sit. If you plan for these to come up, then they can’t have power over you. Plan to mitigate the risk to your practice, but try not to judge. Just set yourself up for success.
Get to bed earlier
Well, you knew this one was coming, didn’t you? If you’re waking up earlier to meditate and want to get a full night’s sleep, then something’s gotta give. The amount of sleep I need is constant, so getting to bed earlier is essential to making your mornings pleasant and unhurried. There is so much information online about getting good sleep, I’ll not belabor this point, but there are a couple of things that help me. Keeping screens out of the bedroom is great, but it’s even more important to use the bed for sleep only – no reading, no phone, no iPad lounging. This helps my body remember that this place is where we sleep, not where we do all the things. Dimming the lights around the house earlier in the evening is helpful too. Use a reading lamp for extra light, but keep the ambient light low and soothing. And an herbal tea never hurt, if you ask me.
Hi there! I’m Malcolm.
I’m an RYT 500 yoga teacher, an ordained Zen Buddhist lay priest, and I teach yoga and meditation in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, California. Thanks for coming by my page today.
While you’re here, check out my weekly public classes, see what I’m offering in my new course, Awaken Your Practice, as well as my other meditation offerings, and use the arrows below to check out my other blog posts.
