“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom” Aristotle
- What are the benefits of early to bed and early to rise?
- How early to rise is different from other hours of the day.
- How to create habits for early to rise.
- Early Morning Meditation Benefits.
- What time do successful people rise?
Benefits of early to bed early to rise.
When we wake early and meditate, it gives us a great start to the day with a contented, balanced feeling inside. And if we can carry that inner state with us out into our day, we will be able to handle anything that is thrown at us, no matter how challenging ( By Daaji )
- There is no disturbance from outside and inside. The world is quiet at this time. All are sleeping at the home. The outside environment is calm, with no noises. No mobile calls. No worry about work or household work.
- At this time our Mind is cleaner and purer, like a blank sheet of paper, during this auspicious period.
- It is MY time – Can devote time for myself, so that I am ready to face the day ahead. I can do Meditation, Contemplate, Introspect, exercise, plan the day’s activities ahead. Plan for top 4 priorities.
- By early to rise to feel fresh and energetic whole day.
- Get lots of fresh ideas, as the mind is calm, peaceful, by contemplation, can get solutions to challenges of day to life.
- Our Circadian rhythm which is the Biological process that regulates our sleep and wake cycle is set Millions of years ago by our ancestors who used to rise early. “The reason is that our circadian rhythm tells our brain when to produce melatonin, our sleep hormone.
- According to the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), the body’s master clock, located in the brain, produces and regulates circadian rhythms, which help determine sleep patterns over the course of a 24 hour period.
- Natural Cycles, such as daylight and darkness, affect circadian rhythms, too. When incoming light hits the optic nerves, information is passed along from the eyes to the brain.
- When there is little or no light — at night — your clock tells the brain to make more melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. But artificial lights in mobile, TV, laptop, etc blocks natural rhythm or cycle.
- Irregular rhythms, as per NIGMS, have been linked to chronic health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder.
- But Bright sunlight early in the morning creates a natural rhythm.
- If we break the natural rhythm, it affects both our body and brain which gives us problems like slower thinking, weight gain, and being impulsive.
- No wonder why World’s Top 1% of achievers are early risers.
- As per a study done going to bed after 3 am has an impact on our cardiovascular and increases the chance of Stroke, Heart attacks, and death by nearly 9%, it can trigger metabolic diseases and lifestyle disorders
- Famous quote by Ben Franklin ” Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise “
- In Ayurveda, it is said that a person who wakes up before sunrise, gets Satvik qualities from nature and also brings peace of mind and freshness to the senses.
- We are closely following our body’s natural rhythm, and by creating a habit- early to rise, we become happier and healthier.
- Once we make it a habit, we will find our quality of day improves, quality time to self improves and overall quality of life improves.
- It is also known as Brahmamuhurata, the time of Brahma ( pure Consciousness ) is the most auspicious time to get up. It is One and half hours before the sun rises, a great shift in energy fills our space. Inspiration and peace manifest at this time.
- How to calculate Brahmamuhurta timings: For example, if the sunrise is at 6 AM local time, the Brahmamuhurta begins at 4:24 AM and ends 48 minutes after that, and if the sun rises at 6:30 AM, Brahma muhurta starts at 4:54 AM.
- In this time we can easily connect with higher frequencies of the universe.
- If we are disconnected with higher frequencies it impacts our mind.
- Even after having great professional, intellectual accomplishments, we may face lots of trouble, if we away from higher frequencies.
- My productivity doubles, when I get up at 4 am, finish Meditation, and can finish work in 1 hour, otherwise could have taken 3 hours.
- Many of us find it difficult to read books, as they are busy whole, so they can fix time in the Morning to read their favorite books.
- This time is considered, best for attaining Brahma Gyan ( Meditation, Self Introspection, Contemplation), supreme knowledge, and eternal happiness. This time is pure and calm and soothing, and the mind is fresh after sleep.
- As per the Ayurveda, getting up at Dawn is good for our health too and longer life.
One should wake up during Brahma Muhurta for perfect health, and for achieving a life as long as one desires. Ashtanga Hridayam
- As per the International Journal of Yoga and Allied Sciences, waking up in Brahma muhurta boosts the immune system,
- increases our energy level.
- Pure oxygen available at that time enters our hemoglobin which enhances our immunity and energy level, and better assimilation of vitamins and minerals.
- According to Ayurveda, there are three doshas found in the human physical body, called Vata (Air and Ether), Pitta (Fire and Water), and Kapha (Earth and Water).
- The increase or decrease of these three doshas is related to the cycles of time.
- Brahmamuhurtha occurs during the Vata phase of the morning, and Yoga Experts state that the best time to meditate is one and a half hours before dawn, because the mind is inherently still at that time, enabling one to achieve a deeper meditative state.
- There is the guna of sattva or purity in the mind at this time, as well as in the atmosphere.
- The mind is like a blank sheet of paper, free from worldly impressions.
- Material currents have not yet deeply entered the mind. The mind can be molded easily. You can infuse it with divine thoughts.
- During Brahma muhurta, the Sushumna Nadi flows predominantly and thus helps to enter into deep meditation without much effort.
- Help to create Best Ritual: Writing early morning
- Helps to create Best Ritual: Excercise early morning.
- When we are aligned with Natural rhythm
How to create habits for early to rise.
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. – Marcus Aurelius
Create Habit Sleep early to create a habit of early to rise:
- Managing our sleep pattern is a topmost priority so that we wake up fresh. Otherwise, we will wake up frustrated, moody, and grumpy.
- Don’t make drastic changes at one shot. Start slowly, by waking 20 minutes earlier than usual. Take your time to get your body used to this for a few days. Then after getting used to early to rise cut back another 20 minutes. Do this gradually.
- Then cut back another 20 minutes till you get your Gold Time ( 4 am )
- Allow yourself to sleep 20 minutes earlier than the usual time, another option -can read the book till you sleep.
- Gently suggest to yourself before going to sleep, I am going to get up at 4 am. ( Works wonders for me )
- This can be accomplished by Cutting down slowly on Mobile, TV, Social Media, etc for 20 minutes per day.
- Give one hour gap with Blue Lights before going to sleep. ( Laptop, mobiles etc)
- Get anti- Blue glasses, which may help – harmful impact on our eyes – excessive use of Mobile, Laptop, lights, etc
- Dring green tea or Chamomile Tea before going to sleep.
- Spraying lavender oil on my pillow helped me a lot.
- Put your alarm clock away from your bed, otherwise, we may snooze it and go to sleep again.
- Don’t allow the brain to talk you out to go back to bed, don’t give yourself this option by keeping the alarm clock away. from bed.
- Go out of your bedroom after turning off the alarm, as we unconsciously associate the bedroom with sleep.
- My personal example, after washing my face with fresh water, Oil pulling for 3 minutes, brushing my Teeth, altered my sleepy state of mind to a fresh mind.
- Before meditating we can take shower, or wash our face. The daily cleansing routine will also help you wake up for your meditation and staying awake. 2 minutes of Pranayama before meditation also helps.
- Slowly spending time in stillness in the morning becomes a sacred ritual.
- Set up something important to do early Morning so that you are Motivated, like Meditation, Hot cup of coffee, reading a book of your choice.
- Lots of studies have been done on the impact of people working night shifts. The two biggest impacts are on their health and faster aging. ( as immunity goes down )
- We can bring about automatism in our Early Morning Meditation practice.” The kind of depth that you achieve during meditation, you should be able to invoke that state with your open eyes. That is one aspect of automatism. The second one is that you must fix your timing. and also establish a biological clock in your practice.
- As per a study done on the top 1% of achievers, they reset their circadian rhythm naturally, which was one of the Seven Secrets to lifestyle routine change.
Some ideas to Motivate ourselves to do after getting up at dawn
- Meditate
- Prayer
- Subtle Suggestions
- Gratitude practice
- Say positive affirmations out loud
- Journal
- Yoga
- Go for a walk in the park.
- Come up with 10 new ideas
- Say your To-Do List aloud.
- Send a thank-you note to someone
- Work Out
- Run
- Visualizations
- Plan out your day on 4 Top Items
- Read inspiration books.
- Write a blog post
“The early morning has gold in its mouth.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Hitting the snooze button in the morning doesn’t even make sense. It’s like saying, “I hate getting up in the morning so I do it over and over and over again.”
— Dimitri Martin, Comedian
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Meditation Benefits- Early to rise
Early in the morning, nature’s energy flows in one direction towards the Source.
It is not a physical energy. It is best to meditate
when you are flowing with those currents. ( Daaji )
- Once we develop habits of Meditation before Dawn
- Meditation at Dawn is so powerful, and the same Beautiful Condition in the morning may not be easily accomplished, by Meditating any other hour of the day.
- Once it becomes a habit, it becomes automatic, no need to force it to get.
- Beautiful condition in early morning meditation is so intense and stays with us, even if try to shake it off, it will not go away. If our morning Meditation is hampered it may spoil the whole day and our moods.
- https://www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/sleep-well-to-meditate-well/
- As the sun rises, it triggers our hormones. if we follow the natural cycle, our wellness will automatically improve.
- We can observe our breathing patterns and energy flows at this time, we will find a tendency of going inwards, meditation will skyrocket at this time.
- Meditation at this time improves mental performance which improves the Satvaguna, therefore subduing mental irritation or hyperactivity and lethargy which is contributed by Rajas and Tamas Gunas.
- Meditation and sitting position at Dawn helps to balance the pituitary and pineal gland s.
- Another good benefit of meditating at Dawn is that your stomach is empty, allowing more ease and focus.
- The time when external heat ( Materialism) starts subsiding, and cooler effect starts, or meetings point of these 2 is known as sandhi-gati. Many saints say it is the best time for Meditation. Meditation at this time brings us up to the Ultimate state we have to finally arrive at. Thus early to rise and meditating at dawn brings us closer to our Destination.
- Early to rise at the time of dawn – The sun’s rays have the least influence. Sun’s heat is of material nature
- At the time of Dawn, the atmosphere is totally devoid of Maya ( illusionary energy of supreme).
- Doing Meditation before sunrise and early to rise is emphasized, as external heat is not present in our body, and may not creep again, as sunrises. So much spiritual benefit of this time.
- One progresses from a state of Grossness to a real state.
- By doing Meditation at Dawn, we automatically draw in power which leads to our final goal.
Source : Complete Works of Ram Chandra. Volume 1
We can be aware of Zen Buddhist monks sleep schedules- they typically had sleep schedules somewhere around 10-11 P.M. to 3-4 A.M.
My recent blog on Intermittent fasting benefits and tips please click here.
Famous successful personalities who get up early in the morning
Waking up early in the morning at Dawn is one of the top habits of most of the Top successful people globally.
Many vital business decisions have been taken at this time which has proved to bring great results.
There’s something powerful about accomplishing things in early morning.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at 3:45 a.m
- Michelle Obama is working out by 4:30 a.m
- NextDesk director Dan Lee starts his day at 3:30 a.m.
- Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey wakes up before dawn
- Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne starts working soon after his 3:30 a.m. wake-up.
- Virgin America CEO David Cush starts working soon after he wakes up at 4:15 a.m
- Ellevest CEO and cofounder Sallie Krawcheck wakes up at 4 a.m. for creative thinking time.
- Sushil Kumar, World wrestling champion- Wakes up at 4 am
- Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior gets up at 4.30 am
Summary
Even though we may be habituated to staying up late. We can try for few days, only our personal experience of all benefits explained above will convince us. We should also have proper sleep for 7-8 hours. Try to prepare ourselves gradually. However, the rewards are worth it.
According to ancient Indian texts, this period is Divine and allows us to connect with ourselves more easily.
Encouraging all of us to experiment with waking up early for a few weeks and see how it feels. We may be surprised to have all the extra time while the world is asleep and see our productivity zoom.
- Instead of saying to ourselves: “I HAVE to wake up at 4 am tomorrow.”
- we may say this: “I Chose to wake up at 4 am tomorrow!
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What time do you wake up each morning? How does that work for you? Let me know in the comments below.
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