First Awareness - How to Wake Up
By Gregg Krech
Have you ever had this experience?
Your alarm goes off and you find yourself laying in bed as your mind and body begin to awake to the morning. Your mind quickly gets into gear like a computer booting up when you hit the “on” button. Thoughts begin to arise. You begin thinking about the day, about everything you have to do today. Meetings, deadlines, phone calls that need to be made. You begin anticipating the overwhelming demands that life will place on you today. Periodically, your mind slips in a wild card, like, “I should have gone to bed earlier”, or, “why did I wasted my time watching that stupid TV show last night?” You think about your schedule. Your to-do list begins to take form like a genie mysteriously emerging from a bottle, but instead of granting you a wish it’s reminding you of how much you need to do today. When you finally emerge from your warm bed and your bare feet make contact with the floor you’ve created some fuel for getting the day started. But what kind of fuel is it? It’s the fuel of anxiety, of stress over how much there is to do. It’s the fuel of depression about how impossible this life is and how challenging the coming day is likely to be. It’s the fuel of self-absorption and anticipation – the fuel of fear that you won’t be able to handle what life will place in your path today.
Is this the fuel you want to use to get yourself going this morning?
An alternative is to use those first few moments . . .