A beloved friend mentioned the value of thinking about something that I’m grateful for when I first wake up… and I’ve discovered a lot of value in taking her quite literally.

I’ve noticed a lot of mind activity in the morning, a strong habit of starting to think about things immediately upon waking up. I haven’t even opened my eyes sometimes and my mind is off planning my day, making decisions, accessing the day before, etc, etc, etc. That’s a pretty tricky habit to break, since I’m not even awake yet!

A Distraction Practice

So, what to do to help the mind relax its early morning vigilance?

I stop the train in it’s tracks by focusing it on coming up with something that I’m grateful about. My eyes are about to open, my mind gets going and I say, “Hey mind, what am I grateful for right now?” This usually does the trick; the cycle has been broken and peace reigns. If not, if my mind is really persistent that morning, I can ask it to think of 10 things to be grateful for and that can keep it busy for long enough to disrupt the habit.

Morning Meditation Starts the Day with Clarity

Really, this whole focus started with the observation by some teachers on The Grand Adventure that a group of us were waking up with a lot of chaotic mental activity and bringing that into our mornings together. It was suggested that we all do a morning meditation. That we get up, go to the bathroom and immediately go back and sit on our beds and meditate for 15 to 20 minutes. No drinking water, no brushing our teeth, no shower, just wake up and meditate as soon as possible to clear the mind and start the day from that place. I’ve been doing this for months now, and wow is it helpful! It seems to make an enormous difference to my whole day whether I start with a clear mind or a mind set on automatic as you can imagine.

 

The few minutes between waking up and meditating were still getting to me though… those I wasn’t able to do much about. I noticed that if I started meditating right when I woke up, before I even opened my eyes, which is typically when my mind started working, I would just go back to sleep! So, the gratitude exercise has turned out to be a very useful one!

I imagine that there are lots of others, and ways to improve this one… want to share your’s?

Enjoy,

Elena