Meditation is hard for me to incorporate, because it feels like I’m not doing anything.  That is, however, the point; it allows me to process.  To digest.  I have developed digestion problems of late, because I am inundating myself with all these powerful things, but I am not turning them into usable energy.  I need to digest, and meditation is a key way to do that.

Now I use a meditation chair.  I have a 10 minute meditation track on my phone, a pair of headphones and a sturdy chair.  In the morning I will shower, make a cup of tea, and sit and listen to these sounds as I keep my mind clear.  10 minutes, I can commit to.  There are also 20 and 30 minute trakcs on this cd, called Akshara Weave.  It is a magnificent chakra meditation cd; and it gives me the illusion of doing something productive while I meditate–focusing on each of my chakras in turn.

After this meditation, I will exercise, and then prepare for my day.  This new routine should keep me focused and driven.  I’m looking forward to it.

Step 1-Play some music

I like the chillout and dance stations on iTunes radio, but you can use any music playing on your computer.  (Just remember, due to copyright restrictions, don’t use other people’s music as an ingredient and sell the product as your own.)

Step 2-Get some affirmation lists

By googling “affirmations for success,” I found these three pages.  I opened them in different windows and resized them so they were all open for me to read.

Step 3-Record.

Play the music, read the affirmations out loud, for the length of one song.  Then you can export this track as an mp3, or play it on repeat.

Playing this track at low volume while at your computer will pour these affirmations into your subconscious.  You can listen to an example of what I made in under ten minutes by clicking here.

What do you want to manifest?  Go make it happen!

It doesn’t come naturally to me.  For a long time, I woke up grumpy and grouchy, and this naturally contributed to what I manifested in the day ahead.

Over the last year I’ve developed a few tricks to start my day in a great mood, and let me tell ya, the change in my life has been magnificent.

“What you think about, you bring about,” said Lisa Nichols in the Secret.  And your waking thoughts are especially potent, because you are still on the border between conscious and unconscious thinking.  Your unconscious mind needs to be tended carefully, because what you plant there grows, and grows rapidly.

I wanted to grow really positive thoughts so I could manifest really positive things.  So I started simple.

Happy Morning Trick #1:

Wake up with thoughts of gratitude.

Gratefulness is one of the most powerful emotions we can use for manifesting.  When Mike Dooley described this technique in the Secret, it really resonated with me.  Especially when he repeated his tagline, “Thoughts Become Things.”

When you wake up grateful, your unconscious mind picks up on that and begins to look around for more things to be grateful for through the rest of the day.

If you wake up groggy, thinking about how oyu don’t want to face the day, what is your unconscious mind going to be on the lookout for?  Things you probably don’t want.  And those things manifest, when your first thoughts of the day are grumpy.

Wake up and think of one thing you are grateful for.  And then use….

Happy Morning Trick #2:

Happy Snooze

For the duration of your snooze, repeat a predetermined affirmation.  Don’t actually go back to sleep; devote your snooze time to programming your subconscious mind with the thoughts you want to be carrying around throughout your day.

Brian Tracy gave me my current favorite affirmation:

“I believe something wonderful will happen to me today.”

I say this after I hit the snooze button, over, and over, and over.  And you know what?  My days have been pretty wonderful lately.

Happy Morning Trick #3:

Take Enough Time

If you wake up with just enough time to race through your morning routine and dash out the door, any unplanned occurence will throw you off and (quite possibly) derail your emotional state.

The unexpected happens.  Allow for it.  Wake up early.

I was initially resistant to this, because I was “not a morning person.”  Then I tried it for one month.  Waking up at five is tough on the body for a few days, but then you get used to it.  Especially if you use…

Happy Morning Trick #4:

Do something you love in the morning.

Have something to look forward to, something to be excited about, something that makes you look forward to rolling out of the bed in the morning.  What do you never seem to have enough time for?  Give yourself a half hour, first thing in the morning.

I love to read.  But I have kids, toddlers who haven’t developed the skills of parallel play yet.  For the last few years it’s been tough for me to find reading time.  Now, I know I have a half hour block every morning, when nobody else is awake, when I can drink a cup of green tea and read anything–anything I want.

It feels luxurious.

And starting your day in luxury helps you manifest anything–anything you want.

I love the fool.  I am ready for an adventure.

This is the year that it happens for me.  I can feel it.  My grand adventure is ready to begin, and I am finally ready to own it.  Because that’s all it takes to invoke your own greatness; owning it.  Becoming it.  Not letting the mediocrity of the past inform the choices of the future, and instead allowing the magnificence of your potential to actualize.

This year, I am amazing.

Buckminster Fuller successfully employed this sleep schedule for years.  He slept four times per day, for thirty minutes at a time, every six hours.

With a flexibly scheduled job, a nice car with heated seats, and a disciplined mind, I could put this lifestyle to great effect.  The opportunities it gives, a full six hours more of life every day, is extraordinary.  I would be able to devote three of those extra hours to personal projects that I currently have trouble finding time for, and the other three hours to transitions, an I would have quite an extraordinary life.

The only downside is that this schedule must be rigidly maintained.  Without regimentation, it falls apart; a skipped nap means your body is not dropping into the deep REM that it desperately needs on a daily basis, and falling off the horse means you lose fifteen hours to catching up on sleep.  Plus, I have heard the first week is very difficult to master, before you are in the groove.

But once in the groove, this lifestyle presents so many advantages, I feel I have got to try it.  You can have six naps a day for 20 minutes, but I like the four 30 minute naps better.  I would nap at 5 and 11 pm, am and pm.  The divisions of my day would follow the buddhist monk’s cycle of work, rest, play, and meditation.

The first quarter day, from 11 pm to 5 am, would be my personal time.  I could exercise, write, read, meditate, do anything and everything I care to, for the house would be mine alone.  The world would be all mine.

The second quarter, from 5 am to 11 am, would transition between home and work.  I would take these first two naps in the family bed, and probably leave for work early.  My mastermind meetings end just in time to get to my office, settle in, and then dash out to my car for a nap on the top floor of my parking garage.  I could work in the morning on my projects, my writing, and my true career path.

After this nap, I would work for my day job, and sell car insurance for five hours straight.  An intense five hours, I have found, is more productive than a lazy twelve.  Smarter, not hard, is the name of this game.

After my final nap, I would come home and be with my family 100% until they go to sleep.  Because I have completed all other tasks for my day, I would be able to devote my full attention to them, instead of the half focus I find myself giving when I am not complete in the other areas of my life.

To be a good father, and a good husband, I must be a complete man, first.  Polyphasic sleep could be a great help to those goals.