What is Early Morning Practice?

Doing something for your wellbeing in the morning is important, in this short piece I am going to talk about why. An early morning practice could be drinking some lemony water, or it could be doing some breathing exercises. A lot of people choose meditation or even yoga.

If you are bad at discipline then it's good to pick something simple and east to fulfil. This means it's more likely that you can do it, and avoid a negative feedback loop. Part of having an early morning practice is forming the habit, so even if its just 5 minutes of quiet time and a glass of lemon water - that can be a strong practice! and it can be forming the habit for stronger practices to come with time.

In my opinion doing a practice which is at lest partly physical is a good choice. This gets the blood flowing, and the lungs and heart moving. It wakes up the body and helps to move through toxins. Most importantly it charges you up with energy for the day ahead.

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Why the early morning time period?

All traditions of monks, yogis, and martial artists have used the early morning for specific practices - this enhances the value of the practice and also enhances the energy of these practitioners.

In the traditional Chinese medicine system, every time of day has a particular organ which is emphasised and stimulated. Around 4 or 5 in the morning in the 'lung' period of the day. Therefore exercising will be of added benefit to the respiratory system at this time. These systems have used observation over millennia to become established, so it may seem far fetched to some - but it is more scientific than most slap-dash 'scientific' studies.

The early morning period is also important because we have just come out of the sleep cycle, therefore we are quite relaxed and haven't started obsessing about things mentally yet. We can use the calm state to move into a practice like meditation, it will make the meditation more effortless.

Finally, by doing an early morning practice and bringing in good energy and intention - we carry that forward into the day. If we go to work for instance, then problems will seem like no big deal and we can laugh and smile about them. 10 minute of meditation in the morning could make 8 hours of work a much more pleasant experience with some spaciousness and calmness in the mind.

Detoxification

During the sleep cycle the body takes the opportunity to detox its self. This is why certain practices in the morning can help you to be healthy and toxin free. Drinking water or clean alkalising liquids can help to flush through toxins which have come to the surface at night.

Physical practices are also good in the morning such as yoga or tai chi, walking and running. Getting the sweat up with further detoxify the body, and moving the blood through will transport toxins out of the organs ready for disposal.

My Early Morning Practice Story

I haven't been able to consistently stick to one practice during my journey, nor have I been completely consistent with any of them. Suffice to say I am continually working toward implementing an early morning practice into my life, and I feel that I am getting there.

Every morning (which means most mornings) I do a 30-45 minute practice called 'Five Animals Qi Gong'. I could explain this as a rigorous and repetitive form of tai chi which stretches the entire body, strengthens the legs, improves balance, and brings a lot of energy into the body. Doing this I know for certain that my day will have greater clarity, my body will feel better, and I will not get fixated on mental stories which bring me down.

This practice is demanding, so I am less likely to do it if I feel physically exhausted - which I sometimes am due to also working a physical job. By chopping and changing with meditation of less strenuous kinds I can make it work.

I have played around with doing a kind of 'hardcore' mode where I do the training every day regardless of how my body feels. Yet I have found that it can become a bit senseless and injury can happen from overworking things physically. Over time though the practice has gotten easier, to the point where I feel it would be no big deal to do it even if I felt quite sore and tired already.

It can almost be a mind game in this regard, where you already feel tired but you will feel LESS tired after doing a physical practice.

In my time I have played around with seated meditation, watching youtube videos of my favourite spiritual teachers, drinking specific beverages, and doing yoga. All have been good, so I like my spontaneous approach of adapting to how my body is doing. Yet with the overall goal of bringing some lightness into my day.

Something as simple as thinking about what I am grateful for has actually proved to be one of the most powerful practices!

Would love to hear what you guys think, and what you are doing for a morning practice.