It’s almost a year ago since Vishnu contacted me for Life Coaching and we only worked together for a short period of time.

Mainly because he’s the type of person that the mere act of hiring me was enough to get him up and running.

He was an absolutely joy to work with because he’s smart, incisive and has a wicked sense of humor and we did a lot of laughing.

And one other thing, but please don’t tell him this or he may invoice me.

I’m pretty sure I’d learned as much from him as he did from me, he’s a very wise fella!

He has since started his own kick-ass blog and I have a sneaking feeling he’s going to be a blogging superstar in the not too distant future. Here’s his guest post.

7 Ways To Get Out Of Bed To Meditate

Sitting down to meditate can be hard work.

Especially when you fell asleep after midnight due to those damn new episodes of the Housewives of New Jersey or after having decided to stay out later than expected to help your ‘friend’ the bartender ‘close up’ the bar at night.

Not only do you get to bed late, but your neighbor’s dog, Rudolph, spent most of the night guarding your neighbor’s house like a high security prison; barking at cars, passerby’s, the late night bus, the very early morning sprinkler system and the dawn newspaper delivery.

After a restless night of sleep, all we’d like to do in the morning is squeeze in another 5 minutes of precious “z’s” to maximize our nocturnal rest!

But what do you do if you’ve committed to a formal meditation practice?

Let’s say you’ve just gotten back from Dharmasala. You had the spiritual journey of your life, met the Dalai Lama who gave you an “I love Tibet” t-shirt, and then gave you one parting instruction;

“Meditate, my son, until your practice makes you feel like the Buddha sipping a cup of oolong tea”.

You’re still scratching your head about that whole Buddha and oolong tea joke but you’ve taken the advice to meditate to heart and started a morning practice.

If not the Dalai Lama, maybe you were a lost soul that stumbled upon A Daring Adventure and were directed to the free book, Don’t Hesitate Meditate – A Guide for Beginners and Skeptics.

You downloaded it, read it and now you are committed to the sensible idea of meditation.

Tims note: It’s still free if you click the link above and you haven’t already got it and no e-mail details needed to grab it!

In my experience, sitting down initially to meditate is the hardest part about the meditation process especially if you’re doing so first thing in the morning.

When you have to get showered, get dressed, get medicated and travel 18 miles uphill in rain and snow to get to your local Starbucks to report for work in the morning, the last thing you’re thinking about is how to squeeze in 5 minutes of meditation.

Well, here’s 7 ways on how to wake up to meditate.

1) Set an alarm with spiritual music.

Wouldn’t it be great to hear a Gregorian chant or a jazzy gospel choir singing to you first thing in the morning?

Check to see if this kind of music will make you jump out of bed to seize your practice or will make sleep in an extra half hour.

If it’s the earlier, then rock some vibrant chanting or meditation music to get you in the mood for a power early morning meditation

2) Set your meditation mat right beside your bed.

Your cats Thelma and Louise may enjoy snuggling right by your bedside but those 2 freeloaders need to crash in a different part of the house.

Clear out your weigh-lifting dumbbells, the vodka bottles and your George Foreman grill and plop your meditation mat right beside your bed.

In the morning, you can literally roll out of bed and roll yourself onto your meditation cushion to start your practice. If you can’t go to your special meditation place, then bring your meditation place to you.

3) Create a spiritual environment around your meditation area.

Instead of those photos of JLo, posters of Cee Lo Green and life-size cut-out of Glee cast members, why not spiritualize your room a little?

How about some pictures of waterfalls and nature?

How about hanging up that wall-hanger of the mountains of the Himalayas you purchased when you went to visit the Dalai Lama?

How about turning on that lava lamp and disco ball (kidding folks!)

You get the picture; make your room or meditation area feel like you’d want to meditate there.

4) Go to bed at night after reading spiritual books.

If you read a good passage or two at night from your favorite scriptures, sacred texts or new age guru’s best seller, you’re more likely to think about meditation before you fall asleep.

You’ll be subconsciously planting in your mind that you need to need to hop out of bed in the morning, roll onto your mat and kick your mind into focus.

5) Focus on consistency, not duration.

From my own experience, I’ve found that the difficulty in practicing every day is not about how long you meditate for but how consistently you do it.

Spend your efforts and energy trying to build up your meditation habit by trying to sit to meditate every single day – be it 14 seconds or 15 minutes.

Build up your habit by continuing to sit ever day no matter what gets in the way.

6) Have some monks spend the night in your bedroom to kick off your early morning practice.

What better way to wake up to kick of your practice than having some classically-trained, orange-clad Tibetan monks in your room start chanting out loud first thing in the morning.

I guarantee you that the deep vibrational chanting and your co-meditators will ensure you jump out of bed and sit on your mat – sometimes for hours at a time.

Monks are also lovely house-guests – they don’t party, order pay-per-view movies or wreck your apartment.

7) Commit to meditation.

The most effective way to commit to meditating every morning is to realize the very real benefits of the practice.

Meditation can help you focus, clear your mind, be more centered and even be creative in resolving the problems in your day to day life.

If you realize the power of meditation, you’ll be on that mat like one of your caffeine-addicted Starbucks regulars you serve at work every morning.

While all of us know about the benefits of meditation, many of us resist the one practice that has the ability to transform our lives.

You’re in love with the idea of meditating and everyone tells you to do it. Don’t just be in love with it; use these 7 practices to sit and meditate.

(Disclaimer: Please check your local visa requirements in your country prior to inviting a bunch of Tibetan monks to fly over and move in to your pad.)

*Vishnu blogs at www.vishnusvirtues.com about spirituality and inspiration. If you’re a monk, nun, member of any mainstream cults or missionary you owe it to yourself to get in touch with him.