Hello,
I'm Arianna Huffington,
Founder of Thrive Global.
Welcome to Day 5 of the Mindful Mornings Challenge here on Insight Timer.
I'm so happy to be starting the day with you.
In fact,
Morning routines are one of my favourite subjects,
And I want to share a little bit about mine before handing it over to my sister Agapi to guide us through a meditation.
In 2007,
I collapsed from exhaustion and burnout,
Breaking my cheek on my desk as I fell.
That was no pun intended,
A wake-up call about the way I was living.
After learning all I could about wellbeing and productivity,
I made a lot of changes to my life,
Including becoming much more consistent about both my bedtime and my morning routines.
And of course they are actually connected,
Which is why one of the most important steps of my morning routine starts the night before,
When I gently escort my devices out of my bedroom as part of the my nighttime routine.
I love my phone,
Like we all do,
But our phones are repositories of everything we need to put away to allow us to sleep.
Our to-do lists,
Our inboxes,
Our anxieties.
Plus,
The blue light from our devices can interfere with our melatonin,
The hormone connected to sleep regulation.
So charging my devices in another room helps me get the sleep I need to wake up refreshed.
It also makes it easier for me to not reach for my phone right when I wake up.
Instead,
I'll start the day by taking a few minutes to breathe deeply,
Be grateful,
And set my intention for the day.
Not just what I want to get done,
But what kind of day I want to have.
Then I'll do 20 or 30 minutes of meditation.
If I'm really busy,
I'll meditate even longer.
Meditation allows us to tap into that place of inner wisdom,
Strength,
And calm we all have inside us.
So it's even more valuable when we are facing a challenging day.
But start with five minutes meditation.
Never make the perfect the enemy of starting.
After my meditation,
I like to do 30 minutes on my stationary bike or walking or some physical movement and ideally a few yoga postures after that.
For breakfast,
I love my bulletproof coffee.
That's my absolute favorite.
And that's my morning.
I hope you have found a morning routine that allows you to begin the day feeling renewed and recharged.
And if not,
That's exactly what this challenge is for.
To help you learn from others and start to build rituals that work for you.
The most important thing is to break it all down into what I thrive we call micro steps.
Small daily steps,
Even 60 seconds that add up to new big healthy habits.
To help you start,
Here's my sister Gappi with a guided meditation called awakening your joy.
It's great for clearing our mind,
Energizing our body and setting us up for our day ahead.
So please get comfortable,
Close your eyes and let's get started.
Guided meditation.
Find a comfortable position and settle in inside yourself.
Take a deep breath and as you exhale,
Release any tension,
Any preoccupations and any worries.
Settle into your heart and evoke an inner light that protects you,
Fills you and surrounds you.
We are going to imagine some colors to help energize you and bring you into greater attunement with your inner consciousness.
Take a deep breath and imagine the color red.
As you exhale,
Allow the color red to leave you.
Now inhale while visualizing the beautiful color orange,
Energizing you,
Refreshing you and clearing up any cobwebs around your head.
Exhale and then inhale the beautiful color yellow.
Let this yellow bring you clarity and enthusiasm,
Piercing through anything inside you that feels disturbing.
Gently exhale and then breathe in a bright emerald green.
Place it around your eyes and see a healing energy filling your body,
Restoring you to your optimal health.
Exhale this green and as you inhale,
Imagine a beautiful blue that is bringing you a calmness and serenity.
You can even visualize a beautiful blue lake in front of you,
Making you feel ever so settled inside yourself.
As you exhale this blue color,
Inhale a beautiful lavender that is attuning you to your wisdom,
To your joy,
Bringing a presence of soulfulness to you.
Exhale this lavender and imagine a white light coming from the bottom of your feet all the way up your spine to the top of your head and circling around you.
Take this white light and all the other colors that you brought together and imagine a huge rainbow that is forming an arc around you.
This rainbow is sharing you with a wonderful feeling of happiness and joy about your life.
See yourself in a big open field filled with sunflowers.
See yourself walking freely with your feet touching the ground and with a breeze caressing your face as you feel the joy of your aliveness.
It's like a bright spring day when everything is blooming and fragrant.
You're like a child freely playing in this field.
Make friends if you wish.
Bring music that you love and make this scene as happy as you like.
Hear the birds singing.
Smell the fragrances of joy.
Experience yourself as a person who is finding joy in everything you do.
Bring that feeling of joy and infuse your life with it.
Your essence and who you are in spirit is naturally filled with joy.
See yourself waking up in the morning setting an intention that your joy will be present throughout your day.
Keep rekindling your joy throughout your day remembering that joy is who you are.
Take a deep breath and exhale slowly and bring yourself present keeping this feeling of joy alive.
Keep anything that awakens that joy in you vivid in your imagination.
Take a deep breath.
Exhale and imagine this beautiful big rainbow all around you embracing you.
And exhale with a joyful sound.
Now then let's take one more deep breath and open your arms and exhale with another joyful sound.
You are ready to have a day filled with joy.
Thank you for allowing Agapi and me to join you this morning.
Congratulations for taking this challenge and making the commitment to prioritize your mental health and resilience in the new year.
Good luck tomorrow for day six.
