Your morning routine can have a significant impact on the rest of your day. If you start your morning off on the right foot, it’s much easier to gain momentum for a day where you can be truly present, focused, calm, and even more confident. As an example, if you want to have a productive day, you can use morning affirmations before going to work.
Morning meditation is a great way to center yourself, open your heart, and to connect with a deeper part of you so you can access your inner wisdom easily. Morning meditation is a great practice for embodying the state of being that you’d love to be in more consistently throughout your day.
Do you want to be less reactive, more compassionate, joyful, and grateful? Your morning meditation is a safe space to practice this way of being by noticing anything that might normally prevent you from living in each moment more fully. How you live each day adds up to how you live your life so your morning meditation ritual can set the tone for your days in a way that allows you to live a more joyful and peaceful life.
The benefits of morning meditation
1.Take advantage of your’s alpha brain waves upon waking up
One of the reasons that morning meditation is so powerful is because it allows you to take advantage of that semi-sleepy state you’re in when you wake up. This is when your mind is in the alpha brain wave state which is associated with being relaxed, open, receptive, and creative. While meditation may naturally bring you into alpha, starting your meditation from this state can make it easier to meditate because your analytical mind is less active.
When you’re involved in activity throughout your day, including high-level thinking, your brain waves are in the beta state. While you sleep, your brain waves are in the delta state. But right before drifting off to sleep and before being fully awake, your brain passes through alpha. Morning meditation allows you to take advantage of this state when the door between your conscious and unconscious mind is more open.
Accessing the alpha state in your meditation allows you to train your mind to be less reactive as you intentionally practice your desired state of being, whether that means being more compassionate, calm, joyful, or grateful etc. Through neuroplasticity, your focus on this state of being strengthens it in your neural networks, making it easier to access throughout the day.
2. Stay focused with clear heart-based intentions
Morning meditation is a beautiful self-care ritual because it allows you to connect with your heart first and foremost. If the first thing you do upon waking up is check your phone, you’re immediately influenced by the expectations, desires, or worries of other people.
If you’ve ever felt like your day is running you instead of you running it, morning meditation can help. Using a guided morning meditation to visualize your day as you wake up can help you to tune into what’s most important to you at this time. Based on the inner guidance you feel in your morning meditation, you can then set clear intentions for the day ahead. This makes it easier to stay focused on what matters most, even when inevitable distractions come up.
After your morning meditation, set an intention for how you’d like your day to go. What traits would you like to embody more often? Can you notice that during your meditation, you’re more calm, compassionate and able to simply be without having to strive or push so hard? If you can feel these calm states of presence during your meditation, imagine extending that out into your day as you transition from your meditation into “daily life.” Try this guided meditation script to set an intention for loving-kindness and happiness when you wake up.
3. Awaken your senses and feel more connected to your body
When you start your day with a guided morning meditation that brings awareness to your body, it becomes easier to feel grounded throughout the rest of your day. Powerful mindfulness exercises that you can use to reconnect with your body upon waking up include a mindfulness body scan for body awareness meditation.
Another thing you can experiment with even before you start a morning meditation is to simply feel your inner aliveness as soon as you wake up.
If you have the ability to go outside in nature, it’s also a great opportunity to connect with the earth so that you feel even more refreshed and re-energized as you start your day.
Is there one guided morning meditation you should listen to each day?
You may be wondering if you should have a certain meditation that you reach for as part of your daily morning ritual. Many people wonder if they should be flexible or try to stay consistent with the same guided meditation every day?
Some people like the discipline of having the same meditation to show up for every morning while others like to change it up based on how they feel when they wake up. Try a mix of both. Allow yourself to experiment based on what feels right to your heart.
Pick one guided morning meditation and do it for 30 days in a row. Then, for the next 30 days, try a different guided meditation every morning. Make a note of how you feel after both 30-day periods and see which of the two routines brings you a greater feeling of ease and joy throughout your day.
Should you listen to music for morning meditation?
Perhaps you have days when you feel like you’d rather meditate without a guided meditation. In times when you don’t feel drawn to sitting in silence either, an alternative is listening to morning meditation music. If music brings you more into the present moment, then this can be a great way to start off your day.
Music can open you up to a different range of emotions as you immerse yourself in its changing flows and rhythms. Allowing yourself to simply sit and listen to meditation music can be a great way to slow down and arrive in your body. If you become really present, you'll be able to feel the music reverbraterate through each cell of your body.
For your morning meditation, find music that aligns with the state of being you want to feel. Do you want to feel more energized? Or do you want music that is more relaxing, calming, or soothing? Maybe you want the sound of nature or Tibetan bowls to start your day off? The music you choose will affect your body and state of mind, so be mindful of the vibe that the music instills in you and then choose whatever feels most like a “yes” in your body.
How to stick with your morning meditation habit
Sometimes the hardest part about morning meditation is simply making time for it. It often feels easier jumping into your to-do list or attending to the needs of your loved ones than sitting with your own mind. This is absolutely normal. Luckily, you can train your mind to actually make morning meditation a powerful positive habit that you’ll stick with.
Here are some tips for showing up for your morning meditation – without creating any specific expectations or judgements for how the practice should unfold.
1. Set aside time on your calendar
If you don’t consciously decide ahead of time that you’ll meditate in the morning, the day can feel as if it runs away from you. So block out a certain time the night before, wake up earlier if you have to, and perhaps even decide which guided morning meditation you’ll do the next morning. Do this on a consistent basis until it feels like a natural rhythm.
2. Tie it to another morning habit
One powerful way to make any new habit such as a daily mindfulness practice stick, is to tie it to something else you already do. Do you journal in the morning? Do you listen to music or read inspirational quotes? Make meditation the first thing you do before these habits so that they naturally lead into one another.
3. Use the RPM method
The Rise, Pee, Meditation (RPM) method by Davidji suggests making meditation the very first thing you do after using the toilet in the morning - even before brushing your teeth, making your coffee, or checking your email. This way, you make meditation a non-negotiable part of your morning routine.
4. Reconnect with your intention for meditating
It’s easier to stay motivated to stick to a positive habit when you’re clear on why you want to do it. You may already understand the benefits of meditation and living a mindful life, but if you don’t remind yourself of what these mean to you, then it’s easy to forget. Ask yourself what made you want to meditate more in the first place? Write this down and read it every time you don’t feel like meditating that morning.
5. Create a cozy morning meditation space
While there is no right or wrong place or position for meditation, having a space that you’re excited to come to every morning can make your meditation practice even more enjoyable. While meditating in bed is possible, the association to being in a place where you normally sleep might make you tired, causing you to drift back into sleep.
Free morning meditations to try
Here are three free mindfulness exercises you can use for your morning meditation practice to help you start your day feeling more resilient, calm, and heart-centered.
