Yes, it is good to meditate in the morning! And it is important to understand why.
Why it is good to meditate in the morning?
I think of my morning meditation practice as part of an overall system that sets the direction of my day, creates alignment with my long term goals, and primes my nervous system for the day ahead.
Sets Direction
Meditation helps set motivation and reminds me of why I do what I do. And it is best to do this in the morning as it sets my psychology for the day.
Primes Your Nervous System.
It also primes my autonomic nervous system (ANS) as I incorporate breathwork into my meditation practice. This creates a balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the ANS.
The Benefits of Meditating in the Morning
There is a myriad of benefits to daily meditation but here are my top five.
1 – The Compound Effect
The compound effect is the strategy that garners large rewards from small actions.
The power of this is found in the fact that each day you are not starting at zero. That is, you are not learning meditation all over again.
So the formula might look like this ((((1 + 2 ) + 3) + 4) + 5 = 15
By making meditation a daily practice the practice will compound over time such that 30 days of daily meditation can have the effect of 465 days of meditation that was not daily.
2 – Discover Authenticity through Developing Self-Awareness
Reflexivity is a natural part of meditation, and thus a byproduct of meditation is an increase in self-awareness. And if you are more self-aware, you have more chances of successfully navigating through life without becoming someone you’re not.
3 – Increase Your Ability to Focus
Attentional skills are fundamental to success. By meditating daily you will increase your chances of success by increasing your ability to remain focused single-pointedly on any activity for an extended period of time.
4 – Decrease Negative Minds
By increasing your ability to focus, a natural result of this is lessening of dysfunctional states of mind such as depression, anxiety, as these are “over-thinking” types of cognitive behavior.
5 – Find Your “Why”
Life’s purpose can seem nebulous. Analytic meditation in particular makes life-purpose clearer by allowing you to focus on a single thread and pulling on said thread to deconstruct the pros and cons without distraction.
6 – Protects Against Burnout
Meditation protects against burnout because it keeps your autonomic nervous system healthy and lessens the impact of the causes of burnout such as stress and overwhelm. Thus protecting both your psychological and physiological well-being.
How to Create the Habit of Meditating Each Day
A daily meditation practice in the morning starts with a decision but, you are likely to need more than sheer will-power to sustain that decision over the long term.
Therefore, you need to create daily meditation as a habit.
Track momentum not quality
When you track the momentum rather than the quality of meditation you place yourself in a better position to show up each day. And it is only through showing up each day that it will become a habit to do so.
So how do you make certain you show up each day?
Sinfield Strategy
Use the same strategy as Jerry Sinfield used to create the habit of writing daily.
- Print out a yearly calendar and pin it on a wall.
- After you meditate mark that day on the calendar with a big red cross.
- Build a chain of red crosses!
What to Expect When You Meditate Each Day
As we know from the studies and books written on habits, just one-percent improvements each day can yield incredible changes over time. We also know that the human condition is such that we can often be our own worse enemies. And we know that mindset is plastic.
Now if the mind is primary and plastic, and therefore possible to change how you think, it goes without saying that meditation plays a key role in success.
What To Do Now
You may also have a few questions such as; Is meditation good in the morning? How do I start daily meditation? How long should I meditate?
I answer these questions, and detail the benefits gained from more than 25 years of personal practice, and give you practical tips on how to stay the course.
