As I sit here writing this blog to all of you, I find myself looking at my son, as he sits in his swing smiling, playing with a blanket, and making facing as he swings back and forth. I wonder what is he thinking about? How does his little mind work? Is he planning on how he will solve world hunger, or just contemplating when the next time is he will be fed? Our bodies, specifically our minds are amazing machines capable of anything we set them to do. In the post below I would like to discuss a few things that can help us operate at higher levels. We could talk about a vast array of things, but I want to hone in on the morning routine, and specifically meditation.
A morning routine can set your day up for success, or at least get you started in the right direction. The thought behind it is that you get a few things done for yourself and your mind, so that during the day as everyone is needing something from you and the chaos is going, your calm, cool, and collected, as you have already taken care of yourself. This can happen in many different ways and forms, but we are going to focus on one that can make a huge impact and that is a meditation practice.
A meditation practice can come in many different forms, I know some of you are saying, I’m into that guru stuff, and that is ok, and it doesn’t have to be a mediation practice where you are chanting or humming. Meditation comes in many different forms, for some it could be as simple as taking a morning walk, or playing an instrument for a few minutes. For others it could be working out, or running, and for others still it might be the standard form of meditation where you practice controlling your mind.
I personally have tried all of these in some form, and while I use working out a good deal, I found that sitting down and trying to clear my mind was the truest form of meditation for me. I wanted to really harness the brain and be able to adapt to situations as they arose during the day. I tried and failed quite a few times before I found a system that worked for me. I stumbled upon the App Headspace and while I’m not huge on phone App’s, this one worked really well for me. There are other apps such as Calm, and a few others that can work the same, check them out for yourself. There is also the more traditional route of Transcendental meditation, where you have a chant. The only issue with the latter is the cost, but I have heard great things about transcendental meditation, and I look forward to trying it in the future. As for now I am working through various serious in the headspace app. Each session lasts 10 minutes and some have more guidance while others are less guided, more focus on your own. To use the App you have to do 30 sessions of the foundations as they call it, and then you can break off into different meditation segments. I found this form of guided meditation worked well for me, for two reasons. One my mind drifts off quite easily, and the guided part is a great reminder to bring my focus back into the body. This is the part I still struggle with the most, but the more often I work on the meditation practice the easier this becomes. The second reason the App has worked well for me is that it sets a time, before when I tried different forms on my own, I would always think I had been meditating for 10 minutes, when in reality it was only 2 or 3minutes. With the use of the headspace app, I no longer had to worry about the time, and I could focus my efforts on the mind.
By no means am I a pro, or even a novice, but I can say with 100% certainty, on days when I get a 10 minute meditation in, I am much more balanced and calm headed throughout the day. Meditation is a practice that has been around for centuries, and used in various forms by many cultures. So I challenge all of you to get your day started off in the right direction, by adding meditation to your morning routine.
