Ten Minutes to Wake the Body First

Before the thinking begins, a sequence that lets the body greet the morning first.

There are mornings when the eyes are open but the body is still under the covers. The mind has already started counting the day's tasks, while the shoulders and back remain stiff from the night before.

On mornings like that, thoughts tend to run ahead of the body. When the day starts without the body along for it, it can feel as if you only truly wake up in the afternoon.

This routine asks for nothing grand. No timing, no counting reps. It is simply ten minutes of speaking to the body first.

It begins with a stretch and a glass of water — the gentlest greeting for a body that has been still all night. The back stretches and full-body stretches that follow slowly open up what has gone stiff, one place at a time.

Then comes a single minute of running in place, as hard as you like. Its shortness is the point. One minute is enough for the heart to notice the morning.

It closes with three minutes of 4-7-8 breathing. Inhale, hold, and exhale long, and the breath that just rose settles quietly back down. Opened by movement, closed by breath — like a small set of parentheses.

When these ten minutes are over, body and mind begin the day in the same place. Unhurried, the morning has already arrived a step ahead.

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