Morning meditation: how to kickstart your day

Start your day with silence

Everyone is busy. If it's not busy at work, it's busy in your head. If you get right out of bed and start your day as soon as the alarm clock rings, you're diving right into the rush of the day . Within no time, you look at your calendar and have already answered the first apps.

When you wake up in the morning, another full day is waiting for you. Because you're not quite "on" yet, this is the right time to decide how you want to feel for the rest of the day.

Meditation in the morning can set the tone for your day, in a positive way. You take a moment of silence to notice how you really feel, to start the day with peace and to keep stress at bay as much as possible.

What are the benefits of morning meditation?

The morning is often considered the best time of day to meditate. This is because your brain is still calm and fresh. Therefore, morning meditation brings several benefits:

1. Morning meditation sets the tone for the rest of the day

How do you want to feel for the rest of the day? Do you want to constantly have that rushed feeling or instead feel that you have everything under control? By doing a meditation in the morning, you can start your day calmly and carry this feeling with you throughout the day.

2. You experience less stress

Many people tend to immediately grab their cell phone after the alarm clock goes off to scroll through Instagram, WhatsApp or email. As a result, they are fully "on" for the first few minutes of the day. Through morning meditation, you push the pause button and bring silence to your mind first, even before all those thoughts can make themselves heard.

3. You can handle the day better

You will find that because of your morning meditation, you can handle what the day will bring much better. You are less likely to be irritated when you are stuck in traffic, forget your lunch or face an unexpected deadline. It makes you more resilient.

4. You get more energy

Already after 20 minutes of meditating, energy-boosting endorphins are released. These are real energy boosters that make you awake and alert. So although morning meditation allows you to experience deep relaxation, at the same time it gives you a nice boost to start your day. You will find that once you start meditating, you will need less coffee in the morning to start your day.

5. You experience more focus and awareness

Our heads are never 'off' and tend to jump from one idea to the next. This is not surprising with the 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts we have on average each day. Meditation in the morning will help you get these thoughts under control. With regular practice, you can learn to focus your attention and not get distracted by a jumble of thoughts.

6. You are better able to see the bigger picture

Meditation gives you a break from the chaos and busyness that life occasionally brings. You can step back and zoom out, so to speak, so that you are no longer affected as much by all kinds of events, but can see life from a broader perspective. You experience more clarity and clarity this way.

7. You feel more confident

We all deal with an inner critic. Our own thoughts that tell us what we are not doing well, cannot do or should not do. This is a form of self-protection: our inner critic is trying to protect us from negative experiences. Morning meditation helps you to silence this inner critic a little more often and find strength and confidence in yourself.

8. You feel finer and happier

Perhaps the most important benefit of morning meditation: it makes you happier! Meditating makes you happier. You can handle stress better, feel calmer, are less bothered by unexpected circumstances and experience less energy. Who doesn't get happy from that?

How can you meditate in the morning?

If you've never meditated before, seeing experienced meditation practitioners may put you off quite a bit. So should you get up at 4 a.m. and then meditate for 1.5 hours?

Fortunately, no!

Meditating can be done in just a few minutes. You may of course meditate longer, but starting with 5 minutes every day is a great start.

1. Choose a nice place where you want to meditate

You can do a morning meditation in bed when you have just woken up. However, there is then a chance that you will fall asleep again. You can also find another room where you won't be disturbed or distracted so easily.

2. Sit or lie down comfortably

You can meditate lying down, sitting on a meditation cushion or sitting on a chair. As long as it is comfortable for you. Also make sure you have nice clothes on. For example, keep your pajamas on or put on a comfortable jogging suit. Squeezing clothes will only distract you.

3. Set a timer

If you have all the time it's fine to "just relax" and meditate, but on weekdays it can be nice to set a timer. That way you don't have to worry about forgetting the time or falling asleep. Do try to set aside some time for your meditation and not do it quickly in between. For example, set your alarm clock 15 minutes earlier for your morning meditation.

4. Focus on your breathing first

The best tool for getting into your meditation is your breathing. First breathe in and out well and quietly a few times. In through your nose, out through your mouth. This will calm yourself and bring your focus inward.

5. Don't repress your thoughts

While meditating, try to experience complete stillness within yourself. You can do this by focusing your attention on something, such as your breathing. Do your thoughts wander off? Notice the thought, let it go and refocus your attention on your breathing. The more often you do this, the better and easier it goes.

How do you make your morning meditation a daily habit?

As with many things: the more often you do something, the easier it goes and the greater the effect is. This also works this way with meditating.

It is already incredibly good if you decide to meditate. But the effect is greatest if you do it more often, preferably every day.

By doing a short morning meditation every day, meditating quickly becomes a nice habit (and at a certain moment you can no longer do without it).

You don't have to set the bar high by, for example, wanting to meditate for an hour every day from now on. Take small steps. Agree with yourself that you will take a short moment of rest every morning. Sometimes that is a short morning meditation of a few minutes, while other times you are so wonderfully in the flow that your morning meditation lasts an hour.

Try this guided morning meditation with Michael Pilarczyk

In the beginning, it can be difficult to meditate in complete silence. You can therefore opt for a guided morning meditation. In a guided meditation, a person's voice guides you through the meditation. The Meditation Moments app features several guided morning meditations. These positive morning meditations will help you start your day on an energetic note.

The guided morning meditations in the Meditation Moments app last from 5 to 20 minutes and have different themes. For example, try a morning meditation on gratitude or a morning meditation for more energy. The morning is also a good time for setting an intention or naming daily affirmations.

All meditations will help you start your day from peace and with a positive intention. Have you become curious? Below is an example of such a morning meditation.