Posts tagged meditation

Of all of the new habits to form, all of the changes to make to oneself, why early rising? Why not stop chewing my nails (I’ve tried that before)? Or run every day? Or write every day? Because I feel that rising early will help with most of the other habits. I’m sure you’ve seen countless articles about the benefits of early rising, so I’m only going to regurgitate a few of those points here.

1. Time for reflection - Something about watching the sun rise and feeling the heavy silence over the earth is conducive to reflection, meditation, and prayer. By becoming an early riser first, I will have the necessary time and skills to reflect on my progress, my victories, and my setbacks.
2. Time for breakfast - Instead of waking up in rush, taking a quick shower and heading out the door before my hair is dry, I’ll have time to eat something. A lot of our bad eating habits stem from the fact we don’t eat breakfast. Many times when I wake up, I’m already hungry. But I don’t have time to eat, so I skip it. By the time I do get to eat, I’m usually starving and will tend to overeat. And it’s not usually healthy foods either. Breakfast is just one more way to start the day off in the best possible way.
3. Relaxation - This will mainly allow me to put myself in a good starting place to implement the changes I’ve been working on and meditating and praying over.
4. Reading/Catching up on work - Whether it’s writing a post here or over at Teach a Man to Fish, I’m always looking for some extra time when I’m super focused. These times tend to be either early morning, or late night. Hopefully I can get the most important tasks down for the day in the morning, so I have less to worry about during the day.

This is just a short list of the benefits, but they are definitely the most… well, beneficial. This will be a challenge to keep myself on a schedule of waking early every day, mainly because my job requires that I work until midnight several nights a week. Combine that with the fact that I take about two or more hours to fall asleep every night, and you have one tired student in the morning!