Wake Up Happy

Start your day the right way with these morning meditations – wake up happy! 

When the weather’s miserable outside, how on earth do you wake up happy in the mornings? If that sounds like you, then help is at hand. Here are a few quick-fix morning meditations and pontifications to get your day off to the right start.

Mindfulness:
Achieving balance may not be as easy today with the outrageous demands we place on ourselves and our children to do something with every moment. However, if you ask yourself about each activity, “Is this activity in service of my purpose in life?” it can help you decide whether to do it or not.
Today, consider the activities and obligations you’ve set up for yourself. What do you get out of each one, and how does it fit into your larger goals for yourself?

Self-awareness:
Real courage often happens in quiet moments with no fanfare; sometimes it’s in the simple decision to take one step and one day at a time. Try making a list of the large and small acts of courage you engage in daily. Post the list in your home to remind yourself of your own daily heroisms.

Change:
In life, many things are beyond our control. But we have some freedom. We can choose how we eat and we can choose what to focus our attention on and how we make sense of the world. By exercising those freedoms, we can create change in our lives. Tell yourself: I make dozens of decision a day – some big and some little. Today I will practice making each decision thoughtfully and with intention. I will do my best not to sleepwalk through the day. At the end of the day I will notice how different it felt to live each moment with meaning and purpose.

Communication:
Every interaction is a two-way street. In every conversation or exchange between two (or more) people, there’s a lot of mutual influence going on whether you’re aware of it or not. Usually, we’re not. In learning to become more open and connected to others, it’s crucial that we develop understanding of the mutuality of relating.
Become a close observation of your interactions with others today. Can you notice the influence (even if small) that others have on you (and on them)? What is happening in terms of your emotions and actions when interactions are going particularly well or particularly badly?

Goals:
Ultimately the greatest payoff for human behaviour may not be external rewards or punishment, not money, or pleasure, or avoidance of pain, or even the promised reward of a better life hereafter. The real payoff may be pouring all our being into reaching a goal, whether it be winning a race or saving another’s life. The goal is irrelevant; it’s the striving that counts.
Bring to mind a current or recent struggle. Can you find any satisfaction in your drive to overcome this challenge, whether or not you can (or did)?

Family:
When children sense that other people in their family want to know them – really know them – and also sense that, although there might be initial disappointment and conflict, they will be valued even if they are different, they are more likely to reveal themselves. How might you encourage your children or other family members to fully reveal their inner worlds to you? Is there anything you’re afraid of hearing? Are you sending out subtle signals to your children not to reveal their  true selves to you? If so, what work can you do with yourself to stop doing this, and to be more open?

There you have it – six quick-fix meditations to help you wake up happy!