Waking up, in the morning

[GrandTrinity]

Sometimes when I wake up I feel like I have no energy. What to do? I dont want to waste an hour or 2 every day just laying in my bed until I wake up!

[thelerner]

Stuff I do <sometimes> before I leave bed. I'll try to recall my dreams. I'll do 'digital' drawings. Breath from my little toe to my crown, then down to hara. Then the next toe and repeat til I'm at the big toe. Then start at my pinkie, breath up to crown then down til hara. Then next finger etc til breathing up my thumb.

 

I also have my handy dandy collection of guided meditations by my bed. I'll listen to Minke de Vos's energy meditations from sexual to fusion to breathing. Or Anne Wise's from Deep Relaxation to Coming to Clarity. Robins Rice's Shamanic Drumming meditation, or Kaishan's Longevity Meditation.

 

The meditations take no physical effort and since your mind tends to be more easily focused in the morning making it an ideal time.

 

Before I get up, I'll circle my feet at the ankles and sometimes use one foot to give the other a pressure point massage.

 

Peace

 

Michael

[BobD]

Hey, one of my favourite topics! I have trouble with getting up in the morning sometimes, and lack the energy to do anything.

 

I did some research (on for instance powerfulsleep.com), and some of my comments are in my Blog & Personal Practice Discussion. The main recommendations from powerfulsleep.com are to stop thinking that you need to (or can) catch up on sleep at the weekend, and instead get up at the same time each morning (see below), and go to bed at the same time also, get sunlight immediately on waking/getting up, do physical exercise on waking to get the body temperature up, sleep in complete darkness, find your natural body rhythm (eg the time in the afternoon at which you feel most groggy), and of course do the normal diet/drinking water thing to help with energy levels.

 

I have done all of these things (although not consistently) and they do seem to help. By cutting out lie-ins at the weekend, and actually trying to get up earlier during the week also, I have found myself feeling more awake. I also do much more physical exercise than I used to (up to over an hour in the morning including Yoga and Chi Kung). Powerfulsleep.com also says that it make a big difference which sleep cycle you are in at the point you wake up, and that some will leave you feeling groggy, and others (or actually one 0 the Rem) won't. So by having a regular bedtime, you can predict what time in the morning equates to a good cycle to wake up in, set you clock for that time and bingo!

 

Its worth looking on powerfulsleep.com as even without buying the e-book (which I have) there are some chapters you can get for free.

 

Outside of that, I would say that getting up to exercise is good (I did that before my sleep research anyway) as it can motivate you. It also selfpropagates, as once you have managed to get up eg 30 days on the trot to exercise, it becomes easier to do so for the next 30 days because you don't want to break the chain of successful days. Well, thats my experience anyway

 

Also, I've found that it helps to do some energy meditations in bed before getting up, in a quick attempt to lose that groggy feeling, and any physical movements that can be done lieing down also help. Someone (I think it was Trunk) recommended doing ankle rotations in bed before rising, and I have found that helps.

 

If you find anything else that works for you, let me know!

 

[Edit] Just read Michael's post above I'll have to give that toe/finger breathing one a go, that sounds good. And another vote for ankle rotations. Found Trunk's origoinal post for rotations here

[neimad]

rubbing your big toe against your next toe a few times.

 

bending your feet back towards you a few times.

 

stretching all over the place like a baby.... in any way without sequence.

 

rolling over onto your stomach, standing on all 4's (knees and hands) and letting the organs hang relaxed.... followed by moving back to sit on your knees with your head close to the bed and arms outstretched (forcing the blood to rush into your head) then back to all 4's, a few times.

 

waking up thinking "great, a new day, im gonna get up now and not waste it all, i'm gonna do this... and this... and this today"

 

anyways man, dont worry about it too much. your just a young fellar and it gets easier as you get older.

im only a few years ahead of ya, but i know when i was not that much younger, waking up was like the hardest thing to do ever and as for doing something after i woke up??? no chance!!!

 

its gotten much better these days, and sometimes i may have trouble getting out of bed (especially when its cold) once im up im often full of vitality..... but part of this may be due to the shot of colloidal gold first thing, followed by the hit of oxygen supplement and several glasses of water every morning. the oxygen supplement definately helps ya out, especially should i happen to wake with a headache... theys are no match for the power of O2.

 

if you can find yourself a good oxygen supplement, then give that a go.... it may be what you are looking for (90% or more of the worlds population are now suffering from anoxia - not enough oxygen), and also make sure to drink plenty of water (not tap water! unless of course you have a good filter, e.g. wellness filter) in the morning too. 4 glasses or so is good. a bit of lemon juice in the first one is good too.

[Lozen]

Things that help me is getting regular excercise (I make myself do at least fifteen minutes a day), going to bed at the same time each day (if possible), taking calming herbs or doing breathing excercises or meditations before I go to bed, and finding some way to process the events of the day BEFORE I go to bed helps a LOT... Like if I had a stressful day I will obsessively update my livejournal or try to let it go through meditation--focus on it and then drop it somehow, or let it dissolve... My favorite herb ever is pedicularis aka wood betony cos it gets my mind to shut the fuck up once in a while so I actually CAN sleep and when I do sleep to not have to dream whatever it is I'm obsesing over.

 

Not eating heavy foods after dark helps a lot, I try to make sure my last meal is before 6 PM if possible, and after that I just eat light foods, fruit, herbal tea, stuff like that. (Not that I am consistent, I just ate zoom balls,

 

When I get up I have a glass of lemon water and a glass of regular water, followed by a piece of fruit... seems to get me going... and then I'll eat some kind of grain breakfast...I have been doing sun greetings every morning but just stepping outside really helps a lot. I agree that sleeping in complete darkness (except the moonlight) helps a lot. Vitamin B6 seems to help too, making sure I'm eating stuff with b vitamins. Any kind of morning ritual seems to help--some kind of routine, whether it's writing in my journal every morning, or doing qi gong and stretching every morning or even just looking at my calendar, watering my plants, and making tea. Just seems to tell me it's morning if I do it regularly.

 

Another thing that was really helpful for me was focusing on specific hours that I was having problems and looking at the TCM clock for biocardial rhtyhmns. So for example if I'm supposed to get up between 5 and 7 AM when the kidney is WEAKEST, and I just can't do it, I need to be looking at my water element, eat foods which nurture kidney, look at things that deplete kidney jing (stress, fear, overwork, insecurity, intoxicants, heavy metals, too much protein, too much sweet food, too much semen loss in men and women bearing too many children), etc. etc. Just something to look at.

 

Below is the chart, the organ mentioned is the one that is strongest during that period of time, and the one 12 hours later is weakest, make sense? (Example, 3 to 5 AM lunch is strongest, urinary bladder is weakest).

 

Let me know if you need more.

 

3 A.M.- 5 A.M. Lung

5 A.M.- 7 A.M. Large Intestine

7 A.M.- 9 A.M. Stomach

9 A.M.- 11A.M. Spleen

11A.M.- 1 P.M. Heart

1 P.M.- 3 P.M. Small Intestine

3 P.M.- 5 P.M. Urinary Bladder

5 P.M.- 7 P.M. Kidney

7 P.M.- 9 P.M. Pericardium

9 P.M.- 11P.M. Triple Warmer

11P.M.- 1 A.M. Gall Bladder

1 A.M.- 3 A.M. Liver

[neimad]

"(Example, 3 to 5 AM lunch is strongest, urinary bladder is weakest)." - LOZEN

 

3 to 5 AM is a little bit of a weird time to be having lunch, isn't it?

 

hahahahahahahaha

 

[Lozen]

heh, who's hungry? sorry, i made zoom balls the other day and sitll have 20 left. and it's all i've been eating...

 

"(Example, 3 to 5 AM lunch is strongest, urinary bladder is weakest)." - LOZEN

 

3 to 5 AM is a little bit of a weird time to be having lunch, isn't it?

 

hahahahahahahaha

 

3192[/snapback]

[Toni]

interesting thing. I have had always problems waking up early. For me it is even difficult to wake up early, and it is difficult for me to improve this

[MuadDib]

If you can manage to get out of the bed, take a cold shower. It will wake you up fully, you will feel full of energy, and you will start the day feeling you achieved some accomplishment.

 

It takes a while to get used to, though.