I’ve been getting up early in most mornings to get a little bit of “me” time before the chaos of the whole house waking up, breakfast and the school run. My intentions had always been to start the day with something akin to “The Miracle Morning” routine as set out by Hal Elrod (available here). Like all personal development books of this sort, it’s important to find what works for you rather than following blindly. This is not a religion, but it was certainly an awakening (hilarious pun alert, most definitely intended).
The routine as set out by Hal is to begin with silence, in the form of meditation, even if just for one minute. I must admit, meditation is something I’d been aware of and had been keen to try but never really to round to it until reading the book. I gave it a go for a few mornings but as with many things, I quickly got bored and dove straight into doing whatever I felt was most productive on any given day.
That was until last week. I had been feeling stressed and anxious, nothing particularly out of the ordinary above the usual stresses of daily life that were hitting me a little harder than usual. I woke up in the morning, before everyone else and decided to give the meditation another go.
Rather than sitting, I decided to stand, don’t ask me why, it just felt right. I pushed my legs apart a little wider than normal and lightly clenched my fists in a sort of power stance. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, trying not to let my mind wander on to anything. This mind control is surprisingly hard to do but extremely satisfying when you get the hang of it.
I stood for probably about 3 minutes, though I didn’t time it, it could have easily been much longer or considerably shorter than this. As I opened my eyes and looked around our office, I felt about 3 inches taller. It was a bizarre sensation, I saw the light switch lower down on the wall and the 7 foot high bookshelf to my right seemed almost to be smaller than me.
It sounds cranky, it sounds wrong and weird, but it felt amazing. I had a great day that day. I felt strong, I felt capable, I felt like I could take on anything.
Before this meditation, I was feeling anxious and overwhelmed and yet that 3 minutes of silence and respite, that momentary break from the daily grind, gave me a spiritual lift unlike anything else I could have done in that moment.
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