Postaday for January 21st: Two Right Feet. What are the things you need to do within 30 minutes of waking up to ensure your day gets off on the right foot? What happened the last time you didn’t do one of these things?
My wrist vibrates at 5:00am. I get up and go to the bathroom. I stumble into my office. I turn on the computer. I open up the Uniqlock website, and turn off the monitor. The Uniqlock wesbite plays a series of simple songs that are each exactly 60 one-second beats long. I sit myself on my meditation stool.
For the first minute, I breath in and out to the beat of the song. The next minute I breath in for two beats, out for two. Then the threes, the fours, and so on. I prefer starting a new minute with inhalation, so, on minute four, I actually do 4 threes first, so that I can end with exhalation.
60 can be evenly divided by each number, one through six. But not seven. So I breathe in and out for seven beats until the song ends, then finish the last seven with an extra breath. Effectively, this is an eight-breath count, and I continue with eights, which ends evenly right on the end of a song.
If you’re doing the math, that’s 7*8+8*8=120.
A similar bit of adjusting is needed for the 9th, 10th, and 11th minute. 9*6=54, +10*6=114, +11*6 = 180.
12 divides evenly into 60, so that’s easy. 5 of those. But 13 and 14 do not. So, on the 13th minute, I do a 12 first. Then 4 complete 13s,and 4 complete 14s.
And finally, 4 breaths of 15 seconds each.
Counting all of this out can somewhat keep my from thinking about things, but I’ve got so used to it, I can more or less do it without concentrating. So my thoughts can wander. But the goal is to shed myself of all judgment, which includes castigating myself for having thoughts. I let them flow however they want, and if it occurs to me, I push them away.
I don’t do this morning meditation 100% of the time, but most of the time. Days when I don’t do it aren’t necessarily worse— but the more days in a row I can do this, the easier it is to wake up. And if I think of it, and have meditation to look forward to, I tend to fall asleep easier the night before, too.
Its just 15 minutes, requires no skill, and doesn’t come with any expectations.