Enter The Morning Mindfully

An invitation to take up challenge of appreciating each new day for the wonderful undeserved gift that it is. Waking up to new day is a miracle repeated every day of our lives, such reliable benefit that very often we don’t even notice it. Background music is "Breathe Deeply" by Narek Mirzaei of Music of Wisdom.

Transcript

Dear friends,

Welcome to this meditation which is designed to get us off to a mindful start as we wake up to the gift of this new day.

With every breath I take today I vow to be awake and every step I take I vow to take with a grateful heart so I may see with eyes of ease their burden when I can and touch them with a smile of peace.

Let's pause for one minute now to give thanks for this day and this shared golden pouch.

You Welcome back.

We have a quote to help us on our way today.

This is from the Metta Sutta,

The Buddha's words on loving kindness.

This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness and who knows the path of peace.

Let them be able and upright,

Straightforward and gentle in speech,

Humble and not conceited,

Contented and easily satisfied,

Unbordened with duties and frugal in their ways.

Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,

Not proud or demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.

And so to our theme entered the day mindfully.

Each of us woke up this morning to the astonishing gift of a new day,

A brand new day.

Not only did we have one yesterday,

But here is another one.

The light of each new day is a daily blessing that we can take for granted.

It's not that we mean to take it for granted,

It's just that this gift has never ever let us down.

Some of us can bounce up full of energy,

But still without realising what a wonderful bounty this new day is and what a stroke of good fortune it is to be alive.

Others of us have to drag ourselves out of bed,

Reluctant to accept the gift of this new day.

We might be feeling a bit under the weather and we don't realise that each new day is a new gift with the potential for a new beginning.

Each new day is a new lodgement in the bank account of life.

All of us will remember the song,

Morning has broken.

Morning has broken like the first morning.

Blackboard has spoken like the first board.

Yes,

Morning has broken.

A reason for another grateful sixty second pause.

Welcome back again.

In this meditation we want to reflect on how we can enter the day more mindfully.

How we can enter each new day with a sense of gratitude.

So our first challenge is to try to appreciate each new day for the wonderful undeserved gift that it is.

We go to bed at night.

We close our eyes.

We surrender our control for a period of rest.

We do nothing to keep ourselves alive during the night.

Our heart and our lungs work away without any input from us.

Our brain and organs operate together to keep all our processes working in harmony and balance.

Until after about eight hours,

Or maybe less,

When we open our eyes again.

This is the miracle repeated every day of our lives,

Every morning.

So reliable that very often we don't even notice it.

But once the miracle enters our attention we are changed,

Completely and forever.

This is the gift of a new day.

We have paid nothing for it.

We have done nothing to earn it.

Nothing we could do could possibly earn this.

If we can instill in ourselves a sense of gratitude for this gift it will have two effects.

One,

It will lead us to want to make our contribution to the world around us.

And two,

It will fill us with happiness and contentment to see that our glass is half full.

In fact,

Our cup is flowing over.

For that reason a morning practice is encouraged.

We need to set aside a few minutes,

Even ten minutes makes all the difference each morning.

A short time when we pause to give thanks for our life renewed each day.

And to ask ourselves what can we do to make this a good day?

We know it's probably not going to be all plain sailing.

Hardly any day ever is.

So it's wise to anticipate trouble.

Now this is not to start the day with a mum.

It's not an invitation to see our glass as half empty.

We don't invite trouble.

We don't look forward to it.

We don't encourage it.

But we must resolve to meet any difficulties of the day with some sort of plan.

It's important to ask ourselves what will I do when I meet a difficult person today?

How will I react?

Can I create a space between the difficult word coming in and my response?

If we don't have a plan,

The danger is we will react as usual.

The danger is that we might respond to an angry word with angry words of our own.

This will get us nowhere.

It will add fuel to the fire.

At least let our morning resolution be not to inflame any already troublesome situation.

In our moments of morning reflection we can make plans for how we will deal with trouble if it comes at us.

In other words,

We can plan to make this a more calm day,

Whatever the circumstances.

Now thankfully not all our experiences during the day will be troublesome ones.

Unless we are very unlucky,

We will find that most of the time things will move along in a way which is positive or at least neutral.

For all these positive interactions we need to remain grateful.

We need to remember and appreciate the people in our lives who keep the wheels turning with enthusiasm and enjoyment.

People who bring joy to our day.

People who radiate happiness and possibility.

We must never take the good people in our lives for granted.

And in our morning reflections we should call them to mind and resolve to meet them in a spirit of gratitude.

Every day will give us an opportunity of coming into contact with people needing a helping hand.

It might be just a simple kind word that's needed.

A word of encouragement or praise.

It might be that someone just needs a listening ear.

We all need a listening ear at times.

Some people in our lives might be on the verge of despair because of some problem which is troubling them.

This may not be obvious and we need to keep an eye out for it.

In our morning meditation let's resolve to watch out for people who might need a helping hand.

Here is a Buddhist prayer to help us and encourage us along the way.

We are a link in Amida's golden chain of love that stretches around the world.

We will keep our link bright and strong.

We will be kind and gentle to every living thing and protect all who are weaker than ourselves.

We will think pure and beautiful thoughts.

Say pure and beautiful words and do pure and beautiful deeds.

May every link in Amida's chain of love be bright and strong.

And may we all attain perfect peace.

So to sum up,

Our morning reflection might be something like this.

First,

A period of quietness and gratitude.

Then point number one,

How will I respond to any challenges that come along such as having to deal with a difficult person?

Point number two,

Can I make time to give thanks for and encourage the good people in my life?

Notice what a gift they are.

And point number three,

Can I watch out for anyone who might need a helping hand today?

For a kind word,

Or for hope,

Especially a listening ear.

So let's take another one minute pause now to remind ourselves of the possibilities that each new day offers us.

Let's remind ourselves that each one of us can set out every day to make this world a better place.

And just before the pause for reflection,

We have a quote.

Every breath I take today,

I vow to be awake.

And every step I take,

I vow to take with a grateful heart.

So I may see with eyes of love into the hearts of all I meet.

To ease their burden when I can,

And to touch them with a smile of peace.

A one minute pause now.

A one minute pause now.

Welcome back again.

And now a final blessing for you today.

This is inspired by a beautiful version of Deep Peace by Carrie Grossman here on the Inside Timer app.

It's a traditional Irish blessing.

I wish I could sing it for you but I promise that would not be a good idea.

You have Carrie for that.

But here are the words.

Deep Peace to you.

Deep Peace to you.

And that is my wish for you today.

To which I would like to add the words that Carrie Grossman added to her beautiful recording of Deep Peace here on Inside Timer.

May you always walk in beauty.

May you always rest in love.

May you always feel at home.

May you never feel alone.

Namaste.

Reviews

So beautiful! Thank you for this healing morning meditation! 🙏🙏🙏

A very happy and thoughtful meditation. I find it comforting to have such a positive start to my new day. I always say thank you for another beautiful day (even if it is raining) as my feet touch the floor of my bedroom. Thank you for sharing this with me.

This will now be my go to morning meditation. I struggle with mornings and this brought me into the day feeling better. Thankyou 🙏 Lx

Thank you for this beautiful morning meditation. I love this so much. I have always appreciated the early morning stillness and this meditation felt like it was meant for me. ❤️

Thank you Tony for this uplifting and emotional guidance.. Deep peace to you 🙏

Beautiful. Thank you. "Deep Peace" is a favorite. My college choir sang it as an encore when we toured. Thank you.

Lovely…. and thank you for the beautiful music and pauses.

A beautiful way to greet the day! Deep peace in all things. Namaste!🙏 Thank you!

Thank you. Motivated &, inspired, it is what I needed to hear this morning. 🙏

So very lovely ~ terrific reminders of the many, many things I have to be grateful for!! Sharing. Thank you! Namaste
🌺🙏🌺

I always love any of Mr. Brady's talks. He's so enlightening & his voice is so full of character & joy. Thank you

Not really a meditation but has the same effect because of such beautiful words

Always so beautiful, so poignant, so uplifting. Thank you so much from my heart to yours Tony. Namaste.💖

The most beautiful morning meditation. Life changing 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 deep peace from the stars and the moon to you ✨️

Best morning prayer/meditation I have ever found here on IT. Thank you! I will come back to this one many, many times. 🙌🙏

Thank you. A wonderful start to my day giving me a sense of peace and purpose. I thought you said the words to the song with such warmth and meaning 🌸

Great way to start my day! Cultivating a sense of peace, gratitude and joy.

Tony, I have a fairly successful Buddhist practice (there’s always more one can do!) and feel so much better for it. Your meditations and talks here on Insight Timer have been consistently restorative, I love them. This morning I had become lost in a negative cycle of thoughts and needed a “factory reset”, and found it right here. ‘ Thank’ and ‘ You’ are small words, but I’m so grateful. May you always experience the peace, comfort and joy that you bring to others.
Namaste.

Thank you for the sweet reminder of the gift of life!

Good morning Tony thank you. Such a lovely way to start your day. Appreciating this gift here in Michigan. Looking forward to finding that beautiful song on Insight timer. 🫶❤️🙏. Have a great day