How to Wake up before you get up

Waking Up vs. Getting Up
Waking Up as an Awareness Game
Moving in your Chair as an Awareness Game
Neck, eyes and toes and the delight of Now?

When you wake up in the morning, how could you activate your awareness and ease before you get up in your body?

Here’s a quick and easy way:

Movement One: Move your head easily right and left.

Breathe and enjoy this.

Feel/ sense the back of your head moving on the bed.

Feel/ sense your neck moving.

Always go less rather than more.

Always go slow rather than fast.

Always go with ease rather than effort.

Do this eight times.

Smile.

Rest.

Later we can add on sensing the right leg, right arm, left arm, left leg as part of this.

For now though:

ROTATE YOUR HEAD EASILY RIGHT AND LEFT AT LEAST EIGHT TIMES.

Are you doing this sitting or standing, too?

If yes, good.

If no, great, and ….do it.

The neck is integral to survival of the human species. For millions of years, those who could pay better attention side to side survived far better than those who couldn’t.

Smile.

Movement Two: Eyes fixed, right and left with your nose

With eyes open or eyes closed, look straight ahead, and keep your gaze fixed there, as you rotate your head right and left.

Rotate it less far.

Rotate with more ease and slowness and pleasure.

Sense and notice the difference in your nervous system as you rotate your head with out the automatic and very useful synchronicity to your eyes.

Again, at least eight times. Perhaps twelve.

Rest and smile.

Again, do this in bed third thing in the morning, or do it right now.

Movement Three: Head one way, eyes the other

Again rotate your head, perhaps even more slowly now, and even less effort, and more enjoyment.

AND AS YOU ROTATE YOUR HEAD TO THE RIGHT, ROTATE YOUR EYES TO THE LEFT.

AS YOU ROTATE YOUR HEAD TO THE LEFT, ROTATE YOUR EYES TO THE RIGHT.

This may be hard, or a little crazy making.

Do smaller movements with both the head and eyes.

Again, humans who had coordinated head and eyes were the ones happiest and most likely to survive.

Breathing deeply and easily while you do this will help this new and non-habitual movement become part of your life. 

Rest. Smile. Feel yourself in the bed, or in your chair or standing. Wherever you are, feel the upgrade to your nervous system and to your YOU by using your awareness to move with attention, ease and delight.

Movement Four: Moving toes right and left with your head

Time to add on the feet in you are in your bed.

Leave the eyes out of the equation for a bit. More your head right and left, very slowly and with a lot of awareness, ease and delight.

As you move your head right and left, move your feet, the toe part, right and left as if they are windshield wipers.

Head right, toes right.

Head left, toes left.

In bed this is extremely relaxing and clues in your mind and awareness to the top of you and the bottom of you, and gives you a feeling of the fullness of you.

If you are sitting: Same. Rotate on the heels of your feet, toes right as your head goes right, and toes left at your head goes left. In sitting this does’t activate your hip as it does in bed, and that’s okay: you are still speaking out your attention to the toes and the neck at the same time.

Movement Five: Head one way, toes the other 

Toes right as your head goes left.

Toes left as your head goes right.

In bed the activates the whole spine in a very subtle way.

In sitting this activates the who brain in a very pleasant way.

Smile and rest.

Movement Six: Head one way, eyes and toes the other 

Toes left. Head right. Eyes left.

Go slowly. It’s as if your eyes are following your toes.

And then, slowly, slowly, breathing and delighting:

Toes right, Head left, Eye right (as if following your toes)

Do this a bunch of times. At least twelve.

Go slowly until it’s a charm.

Movement Seven: Easy — head and toes and eyes all the same.

Head and eyes and toes left.

Head and eyes and toes right.

Feel the fullness of you.

Feel your spine.

Feel the ease in your neck.

Soften your breathing.

Feel both arms and both legs and the fullness of you.

Smile.

Enjoy this.

Good.

Now you are ready to stretch a bit in bed and get up.

Or, now you are ready to get back to your computer and be more full and amazing in your life.

Hint: if you have done this from the sitting up world, you might want to take a walk before you get back to texting or to the computer or whatever your regular day commands.

If you found this from a link on Facebook, I’d suggest skipping Facebook for the next couple hours in favor of being present in your body.

Enjoy.