10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It

Now, let me first say that if you are a night owl, and that works for you, I think that’s great. There’s no reason to change, especially if you’re happy with it. But for me, switching from being a night owl to an early riser (and yes, it is possible) has been a godsend. It has helped me in so many ways that I’d never go back. Here are just a few:

1. Greet the day. I love being able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. I suggest creating a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, ” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ “
2. Amazing start. I used to start my day by jumping out of bed, late as usual, and rushing to get myself and the kids ready, and rushing to drop them to school and come in to work late. I would walk into work, looking rumpled and barely awake, grumpy and behind everyone else. Not a great start to your day. Now, I have a renewing morning ritual, I’ve gotten so much done before 8 a.m., my kids are early and so am I, and by the time everyone else gets in to work, I’ve already gotten a head start. There is no better way to start off your day than to wake early, in my experience.
3. Quietude. No kids yelling, no babies crying, no soccer balls, no cars, no television noise. The early morning hours are so peaceful, so quiet. It’s my favorite time of day. I truly enjoy that time of peace, that time to myself, when I can think, when I can read, when I can breathe.
4. Sunrise. People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereovision each and every day — the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors. I like doing my early morning run during this time, and I look up at the sky as I run and say to the world, “What a glorious day!” Really. I really do that. Corny, I know.
5. Breakfast. Rise early and you actually have time for breakfast. I’m told it’s one of the most important meals of the day. Without breakfast, your body is running on fumes until you are so hungry at lunchtime that you eat whatever unhealthy thing you can find. But eat breakfast, and you are sated until later. Plus, eating breakfast while reading my book and drinking my coffee in the quiet of the morning is eminently more enjoyable than scarfing something down on the way to work, or at your desk.
6. Exercise. There are other times to exercise besides the early morning, of course, but I’ve found that while exercising right after work is also very enjoyable, it’s also liable to be canceled because of other things that come up. Morning exercise is virtually never canceled.
7. Productivity. Mornings, for me at least, are the most productive time of day. I like to do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions, before I check my email or blog stats. I get so much more done by starting on my work in the morning. Then, when evening rolls around, I have no work that I need to do, and I can spend it with family.
8. Goal time. Got goals? Well, you should. And there’s no better time to review them and plan for them and do your goal tasks than first thing. You should have one goal that you want to accomplish this week. And every morning, you should decide what one thing you can do today to move yourself further towards that goal. And then, if possible, do that first thing in the morning.
9. Commute. No one likes rush-hour traffic, except for Big Oil. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and you get to work faster, and thus save yourself more time. Or better yet, commute by bike. (Or even better yet, work from home.)
10. Appointments. It’s much easier to make those early appointments on time if you get up early. Showing up late for those appointments is a bad signal to the person you’re meeting. Showing up early will impress them. Plus, you get time to prepare.

How to Become an Early Riser

• Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.
• Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. I suggest going to bed earlier, even if you don’t think you’ll sleep, and read while in bed. If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.
• Put your alarm clock far from you bed. If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.
• Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.
• Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.
• Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important. This reason will motivate you to get up. I like to write in the morning, so that’s my reason. Also, when I’m done with that, I like to read all of your comments!
• Make waking up early a reward. Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. A good reward is to make a hot cup of coffee or tea and read a book. Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.
• Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs, unless that’s a major goal of yours. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day! I like to use that time to get a head start on preparing my kids’ lunches, on planning for the rest of the day (when I set my MITs), on exercising or meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.

— ZenHabits

Read more about simple productivity, focus and getting great things done in The Power of Less.

I'm Not Smart Enough Is Not An Excuse

Where do you think you learned that you were somewhat shortchanged in the brains department? Well, you were enrolled in an educational system that assigned numbers to your intellectual capacity. A test gave you an IQ number to carry around for life. You learned to listen to a teacher whose lesson plan wasn't designed for the variety of learning modes in the classroom, so all of the students were being exposed to the same instruction.

At the end of the week, an exam gave you a grade that measured you against the performances of all of your classmates; you all had your place on a bell-shaped curve depending on your aptitudes that day, in that week, and on that particular subject area.

You developed a self-image based on what teachers, test scores, and academic performance indicated - you learned that you were average at spelling, above average in art, but mentally challenged in mathematics. Soon you had the makings of a great excuse (I'm not smart enough) that you hauled out whenever it was convenient.

What you failed to learn is that intelligence tests only measure how well you take intelligence tests! It turns out that academic performance has nothing to do with your potential for intellectual mastery. Nonetheless, your young mind hung on to those school experiences and added them to the messages you'd already absorbed about how you're not as smart as your siblings, you've never been good at figuring out numerical problems, or you're not as talented as the kids next door. This cascade of criticism directed at your intellectual capacities can easily lead you to defend yourself from these jabs with excuses.

The fact is that since you're a creation who originated in the world of Spirit, you have exactly the right amount of smarts to accomplish all that you will do while you're here. It's all perfect... and so are you!

To me, a person like my friend Joe, who can lay a beautiful hardwood floor and have it come out flawlessly, is a genius. Whether or not he performed well in some aptitude test, Joe's genius is displayed in his artistic sense - in that magnificent mind that arranges and positions the grain of the wood, leveling and sealing, with endless measurements and computations.

You too have all the intelligence you need for anything that ignites your creative and problem-solving passion. Believe this about yourself and you'll never want or need to trot out the excuse of I'm not smart enough again.

- Excuses Begone! by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Seeing Who You Want To Be as Already Here

For all intents and purposes, what you actively imagine is authentically and undeniably already here, so you can absolutely change from self-defeating excuses to self-enhancing actions. Once your new thinking habits are truly in place, it's the same as saying that you're already actualizing what you want.

When I was in my early 20s, I used the imagination practice on the excuse "I'm too tired." I'd heard this so frequently that it finally became a mind virus I mimicked and employed regularly. It was a convenient but debilitating excuse, because thinking and talking about how tired I was made me more fatigued than I actually was. The more I said the words I'm tired, the more my energy seemed to be depleted, even when there were no physical reasons behind this.

One morning after listening to a friend tell me that he was too exhausted to carry out a planned weekend retreat, I decided to end my use of this excuse permanently. I pledged to never again tell others (or myself) how tired I was, and I began to imagine myself in possession of unlimited energy.

I didn't change my sleep habits, take energy supplements or change my lifestyle - all I did was imagine myself as a high-energy person. I was able to change the way I viewed myself in relationship to fatigue and started to see myself as a never-tired person. This all started with a new thought, which was placed first in my imagination. And to this day, some 40 years later, I've steadfastly refused to even think I'm tired.

One of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays includes a line that has always made an impact on me: "Imagination is a very high sort of seeing." To me, this is seeing with a capital S. Seeing myself with boundless energy all those years ago allowed me to eliminate the obstacles of fatigue and energy depletion, and I created a new me in those imaginative moments.

What thoughts can you start to incorporate now that will make a positive change your in life, beliefs and energy?

- Excuses Begone by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Yes, You Can Correct Your Mind!

A lot of time and effort has gone into convincing you to fit in and be like everybody else. That programming requires effort on your part to overcome. As poet E. E. Cummings explains: "To be nobody-but-myself-in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting."

You can accomplish being nobody-but-yourself without the actual fighting, although you may feel that you're battling something within yourself. As you let the Divine grow within you, however, you'll shift to a feeling of joy as the old discomfort retreats.

As a young person, you were inundated by a whole slew of "No you can't!" messages. These were subsequently internalized by you as I can't thoughts, which were buttressed by well-intentioned excuses. You internalized the notion that I can't because you were repeatedly told the following:

• "You'll never amount to anything."
• "You're worthless."
• "You're not smart enough."
• "You can never be good enough."
• "Money is hard to come by."
• "You don't deserve to succeed."
• "You'll never find someone to love you."
• "You'll probably get sick like your mother did; it's in your genes."
• "You'll never get ahead if you don't follow the rules."
• "You're just like your father, and he never amounted to anything."

These and thousands of variations on the same theme(s) seem to be erected permanent barriers within you. Excuses feel like they protect you from such awful sentiments, as well as the present disappointment with your life. Even though you've become an adult with no rational reason to hang on to such themes, they still produce a familiar reaction when it seems necessary to defend why your life isn't at the optimal level you'd prefer. And while you probably had no idea that these messages had infiltrated your brain, they nevertheless have a very strong pull on you.

Don't underestimate your power to change yourself. You can absolutely overcome the internalized conviction of "I can't" so that it quickly becomes I can by affirming the following:

• I can accomplish anything I choose.
  
• I am a worthy and valuable person.
• I am intellectually capable.
• I deserve the best because I am good.
• I attract abundance in all areas of my life.
• I deserve health, happiness, and success.
• I am loved by others, and I love myself.
• I am guided by my desire to serve others rather than following the rules.
• I am unique and independent of the good opinions of others.

If you look closely at the preceding affirmations, you may note that they all represent a movement away from your old excuse-making mentality and toward thinking like God must think.

- Excuses Begone by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

How To Handle Anger

When others are mean and nasty to you, it is difficult to stay compassionate. Anger needs to be controlled, but not hidden from yourself. Recognize your reactions; do not deny them. If you do, your compassion will be superficial.

There are two classes of emotions. One class needs to be expressed, talked about. Take depression, for example. Perhaps someone close to you has died, and you are grieving privately. If instead of hiding your feelings, you express them openly, the overwhelming power of that sadness will be weakened. The other class of emotions includes anger, strong attachment, and strong desire; there is no natural end to these.

For instance, if anger is expressed, tomorrow there may be more; whereas if you try to minimize your anger, it will weaken. We can see this in our own experience. Giving your anger the instrument of words and actions is like giving a child a pile of straw and a box of matches. Once lit, anger feeds off the air of exposure and can rage out of control. The only alternative is to control anger, and the way to do this is to think, What is the value of anger? What is the value of tolerance and compassion?

When those who do not consider afflictive emotions such as anger to be disadvantageous are distressed over an incident and get riled up, they feel they are perfectly right, even if they have a tiny bit of concern about how people might view them. Since they consider getting riled up to be normal, they make no effort to reduce anger. On the other hand, those who consider afflictive emotions to be negative and harmful do not voluntarily accept anger.

Sometimes anger might win out and control them, but deep inside they do not happily receive it - there is some reluctance. Even if they do not take sufficient countermeasures, their inner reluctance about getting angry makes a great difference in the long run. Thus, it is important to reflect on the drawbacks of anger.

Use your good common sense. Is anger useful? If you get angry at someone, the result is good neither for you nor for the other person. Nothing helpful comes of it. In the end, anger does not harm others; it hurts yourself. When you are angry, good food is not tasty.

When you are angry, even the faces of your spouse, children, or friends are irritating, not because their faces have changed but because something is wrong with your own attitude. When an unfortunate event happens, you can face and handle it more effectively without anger. Anger is almost useless. Perhaps a harsh word is needed sometimes to keep someone from a stupid deed, in the course of which anger may arise, but such anger should not be the primary motive; love and compassion should be. Actions stemming solely from anger are of no use at all; realizing this can serve to strengthen your determination to resist them.

It is not easy to have an intense bond of commiseration with each and every being, so do not be discouraged if a biased attitude interrupts your meditation. You will need the courage of unwavering effort throughout your life and for many lifetimes to come.

Such a profound transformation cannot take place overnight, or in a week, or a month, or even a year. However, you will gradually notice changes in your reactions to individuals and the world. When old reactions creep back in, do not think this indicates the failure of meditation; rather, take such incidents as prods to meditate more.

- How to Expand Love by His Holiness the Dalai Lama



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Incorporate The Four Gates Practice Into Your Daily Life

Whenever you're troubled by a particularly bothersome train of thought or feeling, or when you're tempted to say or do something that you're not sure about, put yourself through these four questions, or "gates," which will help make you a real team player:

1. Is it truthful?
2. Is it helpful?
3. Is it kind?
4. What is my motivation and genuine intention here?

If you can say yes to each question - if you can pass through each gate - then go ahead. If not, stop and go no further. You do have the ability to control whether you stop or go, even in the deepest recesses of your mind.

Please don't think you are powerless to do whatever is good for yourself as well as whatever is good for others. Remember: the two acts are one and the same.

- Buddha Is As Buddha Does by Lama Surya Das

Healing Hugs: Would You Give Or Accept A Free Hug?

I always enjoyed a good hug now and then. But since I started my consulting practice, I now understand the power of a healing hug and how that simple act can bring a smile to a person's face and encourage a moment of peace. When was the last time you shared a healing hug with another?



Who are you going to hug today?

Master Your Fear - Staying Positive In Tough Times

Many people today are experiencing financial challenges that are having an impact on their entire life. One of the critical things you can personally do is to think positively.



What do you do to stay positive during tough times?