Developing a Daily Morning Practice

The Essential Awareness Practice that I share  enables awareness through being open, loose, natural and flowing. I thought I would slip this into the post at the beginning to anchor us as these essentials are the basis of everything!

WHY AM I WRITING THIS POST?
Well I noticed that sometimes  I was becoming anxious in the morning when I woke up and felt under pressure to do my physical exercise routines, inspirational readings, meditation, yoga and dancing !! Ohpfffff….you get my point!
I was overcome with the thought of all of this!  I realised that I had to look at what was triggering this need and create a new attitude based upon a more loving and flexible approach. How could I develop a loose non judgemental approach to getting started in the morning that would help me with shame and waking fears. What I have written or touched upon regarding shame, fear and judgements can also apply at any time of the day not just the waking hours. I have focused on this time of day because when approached in a certain healing way it allows the remainder of the day to flow. The contrary is true also that if I become identified by negativity at the beginning of the day then it could mean that I am crazy by breakfast and off the wall by mid morning !!

AWARENESS of my mental state when I wake up.
For me It is about  becoming aware of what may be driving and motivating me to develop a practice that is natural and flowing according to what speaks to me each day. Trusting my wisdom and  loving myself I find is essential. It is also about acknowledging that a daily practice of keeping fit or meditating can be motivated by fear due to rigid thinking and control. One can be afraid and judgemental if we miss a practice! Fear comes mostly because the thought of loosing control or projecting into the future some outcome that is limiting or not what one wants. It can also be based on inner judgements. Some thoughts just come into our consciousness uninvited. There is also a negative bias to consider as well according to research. "There is a greater surge in electrical activity from these thoughts . Thus, our attitudes are more heavily influenced by downbeat news than good news." according to Psychology Today. This is connected with our primitive survival system. The brain developed systems that would make it unavoidable for us not to notice danger and thus, hopefully, respond to it. The problem is today we don't face death at every corner like our ancestors but the brain still operates the same early warning system but on things that are negatively biased today. Our worries our anxieties our fears etc...

DEALING WITH THE WAKING VOICES
I do my best to Pause and give myself space and time to not get into identifying with them or giving them attention. In many practices this is called “watching” and  to be able to feel the thoughts  and become unattached to them even if they are  painful or provoking. It’s like watching the sky and just noticing the clouds that move across it. These thoughts or voices can also be from our “Judge” who loves to put us down and criticise and ridicule us. The judge pushes us and takes the voice of many influential persona in our lives. “You need to do more”, “Your are not doing enough”, You are going to get fat”, “Look at the state of you” !! These are just examples of the judgements we can hear. The judgements have a “You.” statement. They then get personalised and adopted by our wounded self to become “I must loose weight”, “I need to smarten up”, “I am going to have to put more effort in to this”. It’s subtle as we sometimes don’t hear the judge and just hear our wounded self. 
These judgements then trigger feelings and we then react to them in some way as a habitual protection mechanism. I may tell myself I have to do more or I may just collapse and procrastinate. The “Judge” is the voice of our  shame and can be very active in the morning especially if there was unsettled business left over from the day before. If I am feeling bothered by something then I can usually tell that there is something that I am not embracing, acknowledging and dealing with.  We can’t get rid of the Judge as it it is part of us but we can learn to distance ourselves from the voice. To give ourselves more space. To pause and move out of the trance it puts us in. These trances can be so quickly upon us that we hardly have time to notice how we became under their spell.  


WHAT IS A DAILY MORNING PRACTICE FOR ME
For me it is something I do to help me  strengthen and maintain my mind, body and spirit on a daily basis.  It is also an ideal way of combatting the Judge and learning more mindful attitudes. Getting into action in the morning brings me alive and helps me shift into the right space to engage with the mind and spirit. In the case of the body I have found that with age I can’t neglect stretching and strengthening what would deteriorate and limit me if I did not give it some attention. So there may be some basic routines that are important for us to do for specific body areas as well as simply coming alive  through MOVING the Body!  Strengthening the centre and the frame helps us support better our  emotional life. I gained this insight from my Learning Love teacher Krish who strongly endorses exercise and building a strong container as a way to cope better with our emotions. There is a lot that can be done in this area alone but my core routines change according to my daily needs. I find that yoga to energise and stretch the body is great. In my case I do Kum Nye *** yoga from Tibet  for stretching and moving energy through the body. Then I do some Trauma Releasing Exercises  for gentle emotional release and also for widening my emotional window of tolerance to handle life better on life’s  terms.

Having a daily morning practice is also a great way to put my mind in a peaceful non reactive and non fearful worried space before I plan my day. This is entirely personal and I know that anxiety due to incomplete settling of issues or worries from the night before can prevent sleep and cause even more waking anxiety. Like this we come into the day with the weight of yesterday on our shoulders. If there is something that has the potential to bother me I may do more cathartic work like the Dynamic Meditation from Osho. This really does everything we need to clear the mind, move our energy and be present. 

SOME IDEAS  I USE TO GET INTO THE FLOW FOR THE DAY

• To Start I open to the day by just connecting to my body, becoming present and tuning in to the universe . This helps me to make decisions based on trust and not fear or ego based thoughts. It also helps me decide what may be of the most help for me to start my morning practice. For example choosing to do a Dynamic Mediation *, TRE ** or other practices. I ask myself what best serves my needs today? Is it releasing or soothing that I need or something else like dancing to music that inspires me?
• If I am feeling rushed then I  affirm that there is enough time and there is no rush and to do what I am inspired to do. This comes more easily if I am present. I reassure myself from my inner wisdom and not  from my functional adult who wants  to do more and perform the best.
• When feeling like giving up or skipping something important I then do things in small chunks with mindfulness knowing that I can always do more later if I want to.
• I enter into each activity with intention. I do my best to be  present, gentle and focused as I move towards doing the practice.
• It’s great to get the body activated. I move my energy so that I shake off any inertia and  feel the heart beating. I love elastic belts for stretching and getting warmed up. It can be quite creative. Of course  dancing is wonderful for getting into a good mood so I often play a few tracks that I have ready on a playlist.
• Then there is Just do it ! Like  the NIKE  advert tells us! Sometimes I just have to get going, knowing that I will feel better once I have started. Not too much thinking but more action.
• It is also OK to just give myself a day off and nurture myself in a loving way. No pressure. No performance. There is always time to be good to myself in the day.​

*
TRE® is an innovative series of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. The exercises safely activate a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system.

TRE Practice

** Dynamic Meditation
“This meditation is a fast, intense and thorough way to break old, ingrained patterns in the body mind that keep one imprisoned in the past, and to experience the freedom, the witnessing, silence and peace that are hidden behind these prison walls.
The meditation is meant to be done in the early morning, when as Osho explains it, “the whole of nature becomes alive, the night has gone, the sun is coming up and everything becomes conscious and alert.””

Dynamic Meditation - First Phase chaotic breathing

*** Kum Nye Yoga
Is a yogic practice from Tibet of working with energy. By inviting mind into the body, into the poses and movements, we can sense the inner experience of becoming alive. 

Kum Nye - Flying Drum

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Kum Nye - Connecting heaven and earth

CLOSING THOUGHTS
To summarise. Our waking consciousness in the morning has an influence on how we carry out our morning practice. Judgements and fears sabotage the start of our day and our daily practice. To deal with these we need to take a more accepting, present and space giving approach to ourselves. We put ourselves on a good course for the day by starting with being present and allowing our body and inner wisdom direct us  to what is needed that morning. I have outlined a few practices that I do and a way to get into the flow of a morning practice. It is mostly by experimenting and listening that we get to where we need to be. 
I have shared from my own experience and therefore it is entirely personal. I hope that some of the ideas around working with the Judge may be of use. Perhaps you may feel that this area is worth more investigation and awareness. In Portugal we have space to welcome people to explore this inner work and offer personal sessions around your specific needs. The Essential Awareness Practice is about finding a way through many avenues to open up our potential. Please contact me for more information or questions on this blog. I would love to hear from you. You can find out more on my website thefloorisopen.com

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