What is Your First Thought in the Morning?

What is the first thought that goes through your mind in the morning?

Did you ever try to notice it?

Or does it get lost in the rush of your morning routine?

The way it usually happens is that we tend to get up very quickly. Or we slowly roll out of bed half asleep and crawl into the bathroom. Which one is typical for you?

Looking back, I used to feel terrible. Hearing the alarm clock was the most dreaded part of my day. I didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want to do all the stuff that I had to do.

After some time practicing meditation, I started to notice this thought every morning, “I don’t want to get up because I feel disconnected. I feel empty.”

And that thought was always there, but it was unconscious. I didn’t really notice it. I just felt it as stiffness in my body, bad mood, and low energy during the day.

And it was normal for me. This realization shocked me. It showed me how miserable and unhappy I was.

But at the same time, it was an important step in my spiritual growth as a meditator.

All the unconscious thoughts and patterns started to reveal themselves to me. And with that knowledge, I had a choice to take action and do something about it.

I’ve tried different ways to feel better in the morning and found these three things (besides meditation itself) give me the best results:

1. Body awareness. When I open my eyes, I don’t get up right away. I lie in bed for 10 or 20 seconds and reconnect with my body. A brief body scan helps to ground me in the present moment and reveal the state of my mind. What are the thoughts that are going through my head right now? Are they negative or positive? Am I welcoming this day or resisting it?

2. Silence. I intentionally don’t do any of these things: turn on the music, look at notifications on my phone, read the news, check social media. I found that these things never bring any value to my wellbeing, only agitate and provoke negative reactions.

3. Doing everything slowly. I noticed that if I do every morning activity even 10 or 20 percent slower, I become more aware and naturally focus on the action at hand. Washing up, brushing my teeth, doing exercise, eating breakfast. All of these activities become more meaningful and more relaxing.

How are your mornings these days? What are your thoughts? Do you have any favorite ways of adding more calm into your routine? Let me know, I would love to hear from you.