Your alarm clock failed to wake you. Your coffee creamy was chunky as it poured into your mug. And your car keys are playing a nice game of hide-and-seek. The odds are stacking against you this morning. But a few minutes of morning meditation can crash into those odds, kick-starting your day into a positive direction.
The benefits of meditation help to “enhance overall health and well-being,” according to outlets like the National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health. And with resources and gadgets that are helping to make meditation more approachable, this practice is gaining attention—something that we at Modernize are very serious about.
Benefits of the body and mind
By dedicating minutes of every morning, medication can strengthen the mind so it can build skills to help soften stress levels and establish positive energy. Stress and negativity does not stay confined to your mind. The effects of stress also feed into your physical self. Stress can weaken your heart, respiratory system, and your liver and immune system, to name a few.
And then there are the less than obvious benefits of morning meditation, like increasing libido, decreasing caffeine-dependency and bettering driving techniques. Yes, morning meditation helps with that, too.
Tools to help with mediation
Even with the benefits listed, morning meditation can still be intimidating. If not familiar with meditation practices, it can seem like a distant and unattainable goal. But there are tools to help you slow down and control your thoughts.
Headspace is a free mobile app and website, with its pitch to “help you train your mind,” like a gym membership for your brain. Through ten minute sessions, app users are introduced to beginning techniques to help find and maintain meditation. Then users can subscribe to Headspace or visit their website to receive supportive content, like guided and unguided exercises.
Transcendental Meditation is another approach to meditation and has a website full of supportive resources to begin and continue your journey. With validation through the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Forbes, TM’s website can pair you with instructors and other tools to finding your inner peace.
The resources are out there, but if just the idea of sitting in a deafening quiet room is too much to handle, websites like SimplyNoise.com play gentle noises through your computer speakers, to block out distractions and help slow down your mind.
How to get started with morning meditation
The benefits are impressive. And the tools to help get you there exist. But you still have to start.
The first piece to morning meditation is to be comfortable. Don’t put on your necktie or high heels quite yet, but instead, go for loose-fitting clothing. Once you are wearing that old and comfortable t-shirt, find a place where you can be removed. It helps if the space can be dedicated to your practice, with items to make it personalized and calm.
Now that you are loose and positioned, begin your techniques and don’t be too hard on yourself. This is your morning meditation, not anyone else’s. This is your time.
And remember that meditation is practice that takes practice. Some mornings will be easier than others to relax your mind. But keep going. That alarm clock will be more welcomed and those car keys will become easier to find.