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February 22, 2021Starting your day with a morning meditation can gently release grogginess and help set the conditions for a more successful day, says Headspace. “Whether you wake up at 5:00 a.m. or 10:00 a.m., incorporating a daily wake-up meditation can become your anchor in a day full of often unpredictable situations and variables.”
Studies show that when we start our day with a morning meditation, we give ourselves the best opportunity to be fully aware, fully awake, and fully alive before “doing” anything. By creating a regular morning practice, we cultivate peace of mind and happier relationships where we are kinder and less judgmental of ourselves and others.
“Due to the current fast pace of many people’s lives, our days may include quite a bit of stress and pressure,” writes Headspace. “People assume this kind of stress is simply an unavoidable part of life, but meditation can help enable us to manage our home lives, and our work lives more skillfully. True peace of mind is always there, but we first have to let go of everything that obscures such calm and clarity — our confusion, our ruminating, our expectations, our inner chatter.”
Meditation can be beneficial at any hour of the day, but there are undeniable benefits of short morning meditation. Mornings can be the best time of day to incorporate meditation because of their quiet nature, whereas afternoons are more likely to be hectic with ever-changing to-do lists. Studies show that we are more likely to make health-minded decisions in the morning before we’ve left the house for the day.
Headspace says that if you can get up and work out, or make an excellent breakfast, adding a five-minute morning meditation is a great way to shift your focus from physical to mental. You can think of meditation as a morning stretch for your brain.
In a 2018 study showcasing over 300 successful people’s morning routines, one of the most critical pieces of their days is an adaptable morning routine. We aren’t always in control of our surroundings or amenities, especially when we travel and have unpredictable schedules.
Morning meditation is something that can be done anywhere: in bed, sitting in a taxi, on a plane, or while waiting for your breakfast smoothie to blend. It can become the foundation of your day, something you can always rely on to bring you to a sense of calmness, in body and mind.
In a generalized study on mindfulness, meditation appeared to shrink the amygdala (which is our threat detection control tower of the brain) while thickening the brain’s prefrontal cortex (which is responsible for higher-level thinking skills and behavior modification). Exercising the brain to strengthen your thought processes can provide the support and groundwork you need to control how you react to situations throughout the day.
Did you give this morning meditation practice a try? Follow CanScribe on Instagram and share your thoughts/results with us!
Tips from Headspace: How to start a morning meditation practice
- Where do you want to meditate? You are the only person who knows the best place to add meditation into your morning routine in a way that feels seamless, so choose a place that feels right to you.
- What type of morning meditation should you try? There is no one-size-fits-all to meditation. If time is of the essence, meditations can be as short as one minute or as long as a fuller 10-minute or 20-minute morning meditation.
- Try some of them until you find the format and style of meditation that feels like the best start to your day.
- You might enjoy the silence of an unguided meditation where you set the duration of time and sit comfortably with your early thoughts. An unguided meditation might include visualization or a body scan while profoundly connecting to the breath.
- Take one day at a time. You might overlook the benefits of your meditation practice immediately, but rest assured the subtle shifts in your thoughts, how you perceive and react to events. Newfound sustained energy levels will passively begin to enter your world.
- Carving out this time at the very beginning of the day can help bring you back into your sense of self and encourage positivity by choosing you, above all, as a priority.