This is an abbreviated transcript of Episode #2 from Wake Me Up.
Good morning, and welcome to Wake Me Up.
To have consistently great mornings you really just need to have a regular morning routine. That’s why Wake Me Up works. If you tune in consistently, you’ll become a morning person in no time. And you’ll find that if you consistently win your morning, you’ll consistently win your day.
Let’s get started.
Get Up
So as you’re lying there in bed, you can just listen to me, as we take the next few minutes to get up. Roll onto your back, and bring some gentle movement to your hands and feet. Circle your wrists and ankles - whatever feels good.
Open your eyes. Use the morning light to help you wake up. And begin to take some deep breaths. Draw the air deep into your belly, hold it for a moment, and exhale. Keep breathing just like that.
Now, let the movement spread to your arms and legs. Nothing fancy; just get the blood moving a little.
As you’re starting to wake up now, you don’t need to worry about the day ahead. It will come and go like every other day. There will inevitably be good moments and bad ones.
And that’s ok. You’ve handled good and bad before, and you’ll continue to for the rest of your life. You have everything you need. You’re enough. You’re worthy of a good day.
And your good day starts right here, right now.
So take one more deep breath in, and as you exhale roll over on your side, place your feet on the ground and stand up.
Feel your feet on the floor. Notice the blood beginning to move through your body. Allow yourself a minute to come to life after a night of rest.
Take a gentle stretch. Reach your arms to the sky. Bend over and let your arms fall to the floor. Keep it nice and easy. There’s no need to push yourself. We just want to get the body loosened up a bit.
Now that you’re body is beginning to warm up to the day, let’s take a moment to get ready for a bit of meditation.
Have a sip of water if you’d like, and make your way to a comfortable seated position. You can sit anywhere, just don’t sit in bed.
While you get situated, I’m going to share my tip of the day, which is a bite-sized piece of information that will help augment the morning routine you build with this podcast.
Nowadays, we are all pummeled with news, social media, emails, and notifications for anything imaginable. Studies have shown that this is stressing us out. I’ve felt it, and I’m sure you have to - that the baseline of stress we all deal with is more now than it was 15 or 20 years ago.
The connectedness of life that’s available now is great in many ways - it makes communication quicker and more efficient. But it also keeps us from moments of stillness and solitude, when we can really think about life and organize our thoughts.
Carving out time for yourself is becoming increasingly important and trendy. Self-care, we like to call it. And doing that in the morning is one of the most effective times for it. Many successful people, CEO’s and the like, refuse to look at their phones in the first moments of the day for this very reason. But if you’re like me, you’re hardwired to look at your phone when you get up - I want to see if I missed anything.
That’s why Wake Me Up is structured like it is. It could just be a morning meditation podcast, but it’s not. It guides you from bed to the start of your day, and gives plenty of time for you to settle into a calm and focused mindset.
So I really hope you make a habit out of tuning in to the podcast every morning. Hi-jack your tendency to look at your phone, and use it for something positive. The news can wait 15 minutes. Responding to that email or text can wait 15 minutes. You will be better off because of it.
Mindfulness
Now that you’ve found a comfortable seat, you can just listen to my voice as I guide you through a brief meditation. Today we’re going to focus on self love and acceptance.
So you can gently close your eyes and breathe deep into your belly. Hold that breath for just a moment, before exhaling slowly. Take a few more deep breaths just like that at your own pace.
As you take these breaths, notice any sounds around you, like the fan or street noise outside.
Begin to draw your attention inward. Your chest rising and falling with each breath. Pay attention to how you’re sitting, and feel if you to make any adjustments to get comfortable.
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While you sit, thoughts may come to mind. That’s perfectly normal. You can just note the thought, and watch it drift by like a cloud in the sky.
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Now, bring your attention to your heart. Feel it beating in your chest. If you’d like to, you can bring your hands to it, but that’s up to you. And think of a time you were really proud or glad to be yourself. It can be anything; it doesn’t need to be big or important.
Bring the image of that moment to mind, and watch it play back. . . Notice all of the details of this moment - where you are, what you’re doing and feeling, who else is there. . . .
Just let yourself bask in reliving this moment..
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How amazing, that you got to live this moment; that you have this as a memory. . . Feel the sense of joy, of gratitude, in your heart because of this moment. . . and let this sense of gratitude radiate through you. Down your arms, to your fingers. . . down your chest and your back. . . down your legs, all the way to your toes. . . and last, up your neck, your face, and around your head.
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You can begin to bring yourself back to the present moment. Leave that memory behind, but bring the sense of gratitude with you.
Feel the sensation of sitting in the chair beneath you. Feel your feet on the floor.
You can begin to wiggle your fingers and toes, bringing a little movement back to the body.
As that memory shows, you’re a special and unique person. And just think...you could have another moment like that happen today.
Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale slowly open your eyes.
Send off
Have you ever changed your mind about something? Experienced something and felt one way, and then later felt completely different about it? For most of us, this is fairly common.
Have you ever had a thought that surprised you? It wasn’t a thought you’d expect to have. That’s also pretty normal.
These point to something really simple, but really important. Our thoughts are not static. They change all the time. But the core of your person, your true self, that remains.
In other words, you are not your thoughts. Those are just neurons firing in your brain. And they don’t define you.
One thing’s for sure, humans like stories. They’re everywhere - from tv, to books, to podcasts - but we also create them in our lives. Our brains string thoughts together into narratives. And we use these narratives to make sense of things. It’s how we understand the passage of time, and our development as a person, the phases of our life.
And the more we repeat those narratives, the more we engrain them. But it doesn’t mean that those narratives are necessarily true - they’re just thoughts after all, and we’re not our thoughts. Or perhaps that narrative is true, but maybe it’s just not true anymore.
Have you ever made a career change, ended a relationship, moved to a different place, or changed your lifestyle? That’s changing your narrative. Like an old t-shirt, you decided your old narrative didn’t fit you anymore, so you moved on to wearing a new one.
So consider the thoughts you have about yourself. Are they positive, negative? Probably a mix of both.
What’s the narrative you have about yourself? Maybe there’s more than one. Do you like that narrative? When you think about that narrative, does it fit or have you outgrown it?
Only you will know. If you feel like a narrative isn’t serving you, remember that it’s just a bunch of thoughts strung together. And you are not your thoughts. You are greater than that.
But you don’t need to get rid of your old shirt, i.e. your old narrative. Sometimes old shirts are really comfy. Just know that you can get rid of it, at any time. You can re-write your narrative whenever you’d like.
Because don’t forget .. you are special. You have done great things, like the memory you recollected earlier during meditation.
So whatever narratives you have, I hope you choose to write ones that make you feel warm inside and proud of yourself. If you notice one of your narratives doesn’t feel that way, maybe it’s time to try a new one on.
Outro
That’s all for today, friends. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you are enjoying Wake Me Up, please share it with someone who may enjoy it. You never know - you might just make their day :)
I’ll talk to you soon. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful day.