The International Day of Peace is around the corner on September 21st, and it was created in 1981 by the United Nations to encourage all humanity to commit to peace. 

If you’re interested in doing your part, the first step is finding peace within yourself. Once you have peace in your life, it’s easier to look outside yourself and help create peace in the rest of the world. 

We’ve got a morning ritual you can try that will help you find zen in your day and set you on the right path to peace. With five simple steps, you can open yourself to the power of meditation and set the stage for a great day without stress. It sounds too good to be true, but it is true. Give it a try!

1. Start With a Supplement

Get your body ready for peace by mastering your zenergy with ZenWell. This supplement uses stress-reducing ashwagandha root extract along with L-Theanine amino acid. The result is less anxiety, better quality sleep, improved health, and a burst of energy throughout the day.

2. Set the Stage

If your family is running around asking for help getting ready, your alarm is going off, and your stomach is growling, you can hardly relax and meditate. To get the benefit you need from meditation, you will need to plan ahead to set the stage. This might be more work than you imagine.

Start tomorrow morning and pay attention to what’s happening with you and around you. Is there a time in the morning where you can spend five to 10 minutes quietly meditating? If not, can you get up a little earlier to carve out this time for yourself? 

The next step is to try to figure out where you’re going to meditate. Do you have space, a comfy chair, a soft pillow, whatever it is that you need to comfortably sit for a while? 

Once you’ve found your place, add those little extras that will help you feel more at peace. Think about soft music, candles, incense–anything that helps you feel calm and zen-like.

3. Use a Timer 

In the beginning, sitting still and focusing on your breathing for two minutes may feel like an eternity, but when you get better at it, you might find that your allotted 10 minutes slip by before you even realize it. 

This means that when you start, you can’t quit until the timer goes off, no matter how distracted you get. Quickly you’ll discover that the time seems to go faster until you’re surprised it’s over so soon.

4. Focus on Breathing

Meditating requires a lot of thinking about nothing, which for many of us is just about impossible. As soon as you close your eyes, you’re trying to figure out if you’re doing it right, if your time is up, and what you’re going to have for breakfast. 

If you want to be successful at meditating, you need to have something to focus on to train your mind to let go of outside thoughts. Thinking about your breathing is the perfect distraction. Your breath becomes rhythmic and soothing, the cadence of it lets your mind slip away and not be pulled in a million different directions. 

If you find yourself thinking about other things, return to your breathing and be more intentional about it. Try to take deeper breaths and exhale for longer. 

The more you focus on breathing, the better it is for your meditation as a stress reliever. Breathing exercises will help you begin your relaxation process. After that, you can slow to a regular, rhythmic breath for the rest of your meditation.

5. Select the Thoughts That Matter

Don’t beat yourself up over being distracted and having thoughts pop into your head, in fact, you may want to pay attention to some of them. 

If you’re working through some stressors in life or struggling to make a decision, you may find that this is the time that it comes to you. In those times, it’s important to pay attention to what your mind is telling you.

On the other hand, if your brain is running a mile a minute to plan dinner and organize your errands, then it’s best to let those thoughts go. There’s a time for that, and this isn’t it. 

Some people choose to use their meditation time to manifest their dreams. If this is the route you want to take, use your breathing to remind you to focus on what you want. Let other thoughts go, and tie your dreams to your breathing.

Your Morning Meditation Is All About You

Don’t forget that you’re doing this for you. Planning a morning meditation ritual can help you feel healthier and happier. It can also help you get through stressors that you encounter during your day. The only way meditation will work for you is if it’s focused on you. 

As you approach your morning meditation and get into the habit of it, you may find things that aren’t working, or you might want to try new things to see if they work better. 

Your meditation can be structured, or you can have something that’s more fluid. This is where you get to customize what’s happening and enjoy the ride.

Waking Up To Wellness

Getting into a morning habit of meditation can help you bring more peace into your life and make you a better person. While that sounds easy and brilliant, it actually takes some work and dedication to make the most of it.

Use the five steps above to prepare your body for peace, create the perfect space, and make time for your meditation. Then focus on your breathing to keep your meditation process where it needs to be, whether it’s open to anything or focused on your dreams. 

Finally, practice. The first time you meditate, it’s probably going to feel impossible and like a big failure. Keep trying. Each morning it should get a little bit easier to focus on your breathing and to relax. Not every day will be the same, and some will be harder than others, but you will be amazed at the results.