While most people like to suggest that doing two meditation sessions per day, one in the morning and one before dinner or before sleep is the best way to go, I am a big supporter of morning meditation only. It’s not that I don’t think meditating twice a day is useful, it’s just that doing morning meditation only works best for me. It fits my schedule best and the mind-clearing effect works very effectively. Whether you are like me who meditate only in the morning or if you are thinking about how to start your meditation habit, this blog post should be some interesting sharing for you. Let me explain why I think having morning meditation is beneficial to you.
I Meditate 10 Minutes Only Everyday
I remember listening to a very intelligent investor talking about what the best investment strategy is. He simply said that it has to be a strategy that you can stick to. For me, meditation is actually the same thing. What is the best meditation strategy? The answer is the same, a meditation strategy or routine that I can stick to. I am not a super busy person, but I have enough work to do that don’t allow me to have hours of free time. If you ask me to meditate 40 minutes a day, I can probably do it sometimes but I can’t stick to it all the time. When you can’t do something everyday, it’s difficult to make it a habit. I am very honest with myself that 10 minutes a day is all I can stick to.
Why Meditate in The Morning?
Let’s revisit the goal of meditation, at least my goal of meditation. I simply want to have a clear mind that allows me to work effectively and be able to good and rational decision. I like to plan my day in the morning. (I usually already have the day roughly planned the day before but I like to revisit and confirm my plan in the morning.) I will need a very clear mind to finalize my plan so that that’s the best plan I can come up with at that very moment. Then, I just stick to that plan almost blindly because I believe I have the best version of my mind right after my meditation. In other words, the first reason for me to meditate in the morning is to so that I can plan my day with a very clear mind. The second reason for morning meditation is that if I schedule it in the afternoon, say after work, it is very easy to find excuse such as “I just had a busy day, let’s just watch some TV”. I am pretty sure that you have heard your own version of similar excuses. Don’t blame yourself for having those excuses. We actually run out of will power to do anything after a busy work day. That’s just how human brain works. Why don’t we just take the easy route by meditating in the morning when we still have a lot of will power left for the day so we tend not to come up with as much excuse.
A Clear Mind is a Faster Mind
Having a morning meditation session means that you can start your day with a very clear mind. You should have get rid of or at least reduce your ego and subjectivity. That’s like reseting your computer and free up all the memory that got occupied by all the random apps. Having such a clear mind make you think faster. You will see that you can just process data a little faster if you meditate in the morning.
A Clear Mind is Also a Better Decision Making Machine
Not only that you can think faster, you can also think better and more accurately. I am not just talking about processing data here. It also applies to making important decisions. Oftentimes, it is more ego and subjectivity that prevent us form seeing the reality, thus making bad decisions. I will use a personal experience to illustrate this point. I am the kind of person that easily fall for the shiny object syndrome trap. When I see new and exciting ideas, my minds goes: okay, now I am going to do it. But when I calm down and make you mind clear by meditating, the answer I have 9 times out of 10 is that: hey, I am falling for the silver object syndrome again. It’s my ego that pushes me to do something new and potentially big. It’s the clear mind that tells me that there’s nothing wrong with doing what I have been doing well and stay within my circle of competence.
How I Meditate in The Morning
For those of you who are just thinking about starting meditation, I think it is useful for me to briefly talk about my morning meditation here. For many people, they meditate the first thing in the morning. I meditate about 2 hours after I wake up, after finishing up an important 2-hour task. I simply sit on my sofa, with my back straight, my eyes closed and my hands gently put on my laps. Since I find mantra meditation the most effective method for me, so it has become my go-to method. I simply repeatedly read in my mind a two-syllable random word, referred to as the mantra. There will be thoughts that flow into my mind and I simply don’t over think and let the thoughts pass by. I do that for 10 minutes everyday.
Isn’t It Good to Reflect after Work or before Sleep?
Many people think that having another meditation session after work or before sleep each day is great so that they can have a clear mind to reflect and evaluate what they are doing good and what they are doing bad during the day. I actually 100% agree with that. I have tried that but I honestly could not stick to it. And in my case, since my Monday is almost exactly the same as my Friday, there isn’t really that much to reflect on. The only reflecting that I need is to see if I have completed my day very closely the way I planned it. I usually do that the next morning after meditating right before I plan the current day.