In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to feel like you need to be productive and start working the moment your feet hit the floor. Without taking a minute to slow down first thing in the morning, your day might not always get off on the right foot. If this sounds like your mornings, it might be time to introduce a new habit to your morning routine.
Taking just 20 minutes each morning to develop a morning meditation routine has the potential to completely alter your life in a positive way. You might not be sure if you can commit to slowing down, controlling your thoughts and participating in something from which you may not see immediate gratification. However, these incredible benefits of morning meditation, and the ripple effect it has through your entire day, may be enough to change your mind.
1. Enjoy a Sense of Peace
In the early morning hours, the world is generally much quieter than it is during the day. Your phone isn’t ringing, no one demands your attention and you’re not in the middle of an important task. This peaceful environment and lack of distractions are ideal for facilitating effective meditation.
Introduce Peace to Your Mind
Meditation allows you to introduce that environmental peace to your mind as well. One of the most noted health benefits of meditation is reducing stress and anxiety. Morning meditation allows you to carve out a piece of time for yourself to begin your day in a calm and relaxed manner.
By meditating every morning, you arm yourself with tools like happiness, better sleep, and a clear mind, all of which are effective at dealing with and conquering daily stress. Starting out your day in this way can help you handle the frustrations that arise throughout your day while reducing your overall stress and anxiety levels. Things like traffic jams, disagreements at work and other types of setbacks easily roll off of your shoulders.
2. Begin Your Day Feeling Refreshed
How many times do you press the snooze button before you actually get out of bed in the morning? While you feel like you’re getting more sleep, you likely awaken feeling tired and groggy. Hitting the snooze button may even cause you to oversleep and then rush around because you’re late. When you start your day in this kind of state, it’s harder to get going and you actually move slower. You may even find yourself making poor nutrition choices which slow you down even more.
Reduce Stress Immediately
Do you check your phone first thing in the morning? When you do that, your mind starts racing and thinking about work and what you need to do that day. You might even start to feel stressed out before you even get out of bed.
By introducing morning meditation, you set the tone for the rest of your day. You start your day feeling calm, content, focused and optimistic. Even if you only have five minutes to meditate, it is better than nothing.
If you only have a few minutes use them to practice breathing techniques. Close your eyes and slowly breathe in and out. This will help you practice a slow start to your day instead of rushing around. It’ll also help you focus on mental health and not the huge task list for your day.
3. Get a Boost of Energy
Many of us feel like we need a cup of coffee in the morning to get going. Researchers believe that meditation stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, which slows your heart rate and breathing and improves circulation. It also allows you to experience a much deeper relaxation experience. When you make time to just be still, the action forces your body and mind to slow down. The breathing techniques in meditation work to improve circulation throughout your body. If you’re getting more oxygen to your brain, that will boost your energy.
Coffee Not Required
It may seem counterintuitive that meditation would give you energy, but it triggers a release of energy-boosting endorphins that help you get going in the morning without a cup of coffee. Some people respond differently to coffee than others. While you may feel a boost of energy for a few hours, you’ll likely crash later on in the day. Starting your day with morning meditation first, will help give you the boost you need. Morning meditation gives you energy and calm.
4. Keep Your Mind Organized
When you wake up in the morning, do you immediately start dwelling on what went wrong the day before? By meditating first thing in the morning, you can do a mental reset and start your day with a clear mind and without the negativity of anything that might have gone wrong yesterday.
Filter Out the Unnecessary Noise
Additionally, meditation helps you filter out any unnecessary noise and negative self-talk that can cloud our minds. Rather than feeling scatterbrained, you can approach the day with clear and sharp perception and attentiveness.
5. Improve Your Diet
When you feel stressed or tired, you often don’t make the best nutritional choices. Whether you go for convenience foods, foods that meet an emotional need or foods that give you instant gratification, those bad-for-you foods can bring down your overall health.
Healthy Options Become Appealing
By practicing morning meditation, you may find that your cravings for those unhealthy options start to disappear. Instead, your body starts to want clean and healthy foods that allow your digestive system to work better and for you to operate at a higher level throughout the day.
Quick and convenient foods tend to have processed sugars that will slow you down during the day. Starting your day with morning meditation clears your mind and forces you to slow down. Meditation techniques, like controlled breathing, cause your body and mind to slow down and focus.
Begin your morning either lying down or in a sitting position. Try to find a quiet place without distractions. Let your body relax and close your eyes. Slowly breathe in and out and pay attention to your breathing rate.
This way, you begin your day in a slower state. You’re more likely to make better choices when you’re calm and rested.
6. Reduce Headaches
Instead of reaching for the medicine cabinet when you get a headache, take a few minutes every morning to meditate.
Ease Pain Naturally
Studies show that meditation can help ease chronic pain, including pain associated with migraines and headaches, making it an ideal addition to your approach to wellness.
When you take advantage of the most peaceful time of day by practicing morning meditation, you enjoy a number of benefits. Starting the day with a clear mind can help you cope better with the stresses of your daily life, and you may even see improvements in your overall health and wellness. Morning meditation is a safe, easy, and beneficial addition to your overall approach to health and wellness.
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