Wake & meditate: Your guide to a mindful morninglog

Originally posted on sbcc.campuswell here.

I recommend meditating first thing in the morning to start the day from a place of calm, clarity, and alertness. Even if you just laughed out loud at the idea of a calm morning, stay with me for a sec. We all know that mornings can be rough—and sometimes rough is an improvement on chaotic. I’ve been there. Luckily, over the years I’ve found a few strategies that help me shake off my morning haze so that I’m mentally fresh and ready to meditate, or at least not totally averse to the idea of giving it a go. These strategies aren’t complicated. Give them a try.

1. Bring in morning light, even if you’re still feeling like a troll.

You don’t have to be cheerful about it, but throw those curtains open anyway and look at the sky for about a minute to wake yourself up. Not so sure about this? Fair, but there’s actually some cool science here. When it’s time to sleep, your endocrine system releases a hormone called melatonin that makes you drowsy. Bright light suppresses melatonin production and makes you more alert, studies show. So if you bring your melatonin levels down, you should bring your energy levels up. And that means you might get that meditation session in after all. (Tip: This works the same way at night too. When you’re getting ready to go to sleep, avoid bright lights and electronic screens for at least an hour before bed so they don’t trick your brain into thinking it’s time to be awake.)

2. Splash cold water on your face.

I know, it’s a system shock, but that’s kind of the point. The Buddha himself used to recommend exactly this to his students who struggled with drowsiness during meditation. (Hopefully, he didn’t do the splashing himself.)

3. Do 20 jumping jacks.

On one meditation retreat I attended, wake-up time was at 4 a.m. Woof. I needed some way to zap myself awake. Quick, vigorous exercise (along with cold water on my face) did the trick.

4. Give yourself a break…kind of.

If you’re still dragging a little after doing all of the above, sit down and meditate, but shorten your session so it feels like less of a commitment. A two-minute meditation still counts. And who knows? You might just want to do a little more once you get started.