Early Morning

 

I am a early morning person.
I love getting up before the rest of the house wakes to do my yoga practice. 
Some mornings it is very active and energetic, and others it is quiet and slow. 
It is a self-discipline to wake early that took me a few years to really appreciate.

Get up or sleep longer...at first, especially with young children I found I would choose the "sleep longer" option.
I often didn't find myself more rested though.  My yoga practice, when I really listen to what I need for that day, leaves me with more energy then less.

Jon Kabat-Zinn's sums it up wonderfully in his book, Wherever You Go There You Are; mindfulness meditation in everyday life, by writing, "The virtues of getting up early have nothing to do with cramming more hours of busyness and industry into one's day. Just the opposite.  They stem from the stillness and solitude of the hour, and the potential to use that time to expand consciousness, to contemplate, to make time for being, for purposefully not doing anything.  The peacefulness, the darkness, the dawn, the stillness - all contribute to making early morning a special time for mindfulness practice."

Beginning with this mindfulness and inner peacefulness can really help to start the day on the right foot.

Morning is when I am awake  and there is a dawn in me...We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.  I know of no more encouraging fact then the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.  It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium though which we look...To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
 

THOREAU, from Walden

 

So, try the 40 day challenge of getting up earlier then usual for yourself.  Maybe 15 minutes the first week, 20 the second and so on.  That time for yoga, breath awareness and meditation may be the wake up call you need.

 

Namaste.

Pamela Nelson

www.plnyoga.vpweb.com