Expand Your Awareness in Less Than 5 Minutes a Day

You know what they say about “waking up on the wrong side of the bed.” Not so far fetched when we realize our thoughts first thing in the morning set the stage for the rest of our day. In essence they impact whether or not we experience a great day, and accordingly, what we attract into our reality.

Morning awareness practices or rituals are one of the most important things to set us up for smooth sailing. There are three simple things you can do that take less than five minutes a day to expand your awareness, allowing you to navigate with greater ease around the obstacles that you face each day.

After practicing these things each morning, you will experience greater ease when dealing with challenges, greater peace, prosperity and abundance. I wake up each morning looking forward to this morning practice because of these awesome experiences and I want you to experience them too!

Being in tune with the fact that awareness is not passive but directly related to actions that we choose to or choose not to take, allows us to create a shift in consciousness by changing certain aspects such as perceptions, beliefs, expectations, assumptions and feelings.

By taking responsibility for our own feelings, rather than blaming someone or something for them we move from contraction to expansion of awareness.

Set Your Day in to Positive Motion With 3 Simple Steps

1. The 4-7-8 (Relaxing Breath) Exercise. Highly recommended by Dr. Andrew Weil, this breathing technique has a tranquilizing effect on the nervous system and puts you in a light and relaxed state. It’s really easy and can be done at any moment to help you feel calm. Although it can be done in any position, at first, it’s a good idea to practice in a comfortable seated position with your back straight.

• Gently rest the tip of your tongue against the tissue at the back of your front teeth for the entire breath cycle. Exhale completely through your mouth, blowing out
• Now close your mouth and inhale through your nose while mentally counting to four
• Hold your breath for a mental count of seven
• Exhale completely through your mouth, blowing out for a mental count of eight
• This is one breath, repeat the same cycle three more times for a total of four breath cycles

*Watch the breath in action here and learn how 4-7-8 breathing works for other scenarios as well.

2. Good Morning This is Beingness. Many problems can be avoided if instead of allowing our ego, judgments and preferences to control us, we choose to accept things as they are and approach life as our authentic self with unconditional love. Expressing the following out loud each morning helps to prepare our ego that we are empowered to overcome challenges and face them gracefully as the moments arise.

GOOD MORNING THIS IS BEINGNESS!

I will be handling all of your problems today. I will not need your help, so have a miraculous day!!!

Stop being OFFENDED

Let go of your need to WIN

Let go of your need to BE RIGHT

Let go of your need to BE SUPERIOR

Let go of your need to HAVE MORE

Let go of identifying yourself on the BASIS of your ACHIEVEMENTS

Let go of your REPUTATION

BE KIND

Kindness toward YOURSELF

Kindness towards OTHERS

What you think of YOURSELF is what you think of the WORLD so release and love ALL!

*Feel free to copy this and print out it out to refer to daily.

3. Living a Life of Awareness Daily Meditation. We are where we are now because of decisions we’ve made. This cannot be changed, however the past no longer exists, the only thing that exists is this very moment. No good comes from thinking about how things could have been, or what we should have done differently. Changes can only be made in the present, in this very moment.

Living a Life of Awareness a guide from Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, is packed with short, invaluable daily meditations including how to practice and implement the meditation in real life situations throughout the course of each day. You focus on one meditation per day. It’s compact enough to stash in your purse, desk drawer, or car, in case you want to refer to it at any point during your day.

When we live a life of awareness, we realize we can create our own reality by the choices we make. Choosing to see that perfection and truth already exist, we realize that when we use the force of energy, which is intent, we are able to manifest our life. There are two things we always have; the moment and choice. Awareness teaches us that we can change things with just one choice, because we want to.

*You can pick up a copy of Living a Life of Awareness: Daily Meditations here.

Easy as 1 – 2 – 3

These three things can be experienced in less than five minutes, no problem.

I like to practice a sitting, guided, or sound therapy meditation after. Whatever you do, don’t let limited time hold you back – by now you can see that if taking time for yourself to expand awareness or the thought of meditation, let alone a regular practice, has ever seemed out of reach to you, it’s not. You can expand your awareness in less than five minutes a day, it’s totally doable and the time, easy to spare.

I hope I have opened a door which shows meditation takes many different forms (besides the form of sitting for thirty minutes to an hour at a time) each of which is extremely valuable.

Living a life of awareness takes work and even when one practices constantly with discipline to the point of mastery, it’s an ongoing practice, but it gets easier with time and offers limitless expansion. Carving out just five minutes a day to make these three things a regular practice allows us to experience true beingness and make meaningful choices every moment of our lives. Enjoy your practice :)

What are some of your favorite ways to practice expanding your awareness? Share below!