Tidy up. Sit down. Clear your mind.
Just joining us? Quick context: I get a ton of q’s about my personal morning routine. With that in mind, I’m outlining exactly what that is.
Previous emails in this series can be found here: http://www.adamrosante.com/category/advice-from-adam/
The next part of my morning routine is to meditate.
For me, it’s not about mindlessly zoning out. Completely the opposite. Meditating helps my mind stay razor sharp. It’s about quieting the mental chatter and eviscerating the frenetic fragmentation created by too much multi-tasking. This helps with mental clarity, strategic vision and overall patience (something I’m constantly looking to cultivate more of!).
Long story short: meditation is the bedrock of great decision-making. It helps me in practically infinite ways. If you’ve never done it and want to give it a go, here’s my method. Try it every morning for the next 5 days and let me know how you feel!
- Pick a quiet space in your home where you won’t be interrupted by people or technology for about 20-mins.
- Spend a few minutes tidying it up.
- Set a timer for anywhere from 10-20 minutes.
- Sit down, draw your spine tall and close your eyes
- You can sit in a chair or on the floor. Whatever you prefer. If you sit on the floor, place something under your butt (like a folded blanket) so that your hips are higher than your knees. Trust me. Skip this part and your hips will be screaming at you in a matter of minutes.
- Focus your attention in your mind’s eye right at the tip of your nose, just outside your nostrils.
- Breathe normally, watching the breath as it goes out and comes in again.
- As you do this, try to count 10 perfect breaths.
- Exhale/inhale = 1 breath
- 10 perfect breaths means you’re able to watch 10 of these without your mind wandering.
- If (and when) your mind wanders, don’t get frustrated or try to wrestle it back to stillness. Just calmly direct your attention back to the tip of your nose and start over at 1.
- You may spend the entire time trying to get to 10 breaths. That’s totally fine. Remember, this is a practice! With time, you’ll get better.
- If you make it to 10 breaths, congrats! Now, the real good stuff starts.
- Turn your mind to a challenge you’re currently facing. From this place of stillness, examine the issue and how it’s impacting your life. See it from all sides and points of view. Think about how you’re contributing to and creating the problem yourself. This may be really hard at first because it means taking 100% ownership of your life. No more blaming others for your state of affairs. What actions are you taking (or not taking) that are creating this situation/issue/problem/etc.? How can you direct your behavior and actions in a way that will have a positive impact? You may not entirely solve the problem in this one session, but with time you’ll get there.
- When the timer goes off, give a small bit of thanks to yourself for taking this time to enrich your mind and your life.
- Get up and on with the rest of your day.
That’s essentially it. I’ve been practicing this form of meditation for nearly a decade and I simply can’t imagine my life without it. There have been periods where I’ve fallen off the wagon and abandoned the practice for a while.
No biggie. I just cut myself a break and get back in the game. Without fail, I feel and function better every time.
Give it a try tomorrow morning and let me know how you feel!
Till next time…
A
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