Waking in the morning has been filled with varying emotions over the 5 decades of my life.
If my memory is right, I woke with a mild feeling of dread all through my years of education! Can you imagine how shitty it is to wake up and one of the first thoughts as you wake is about studies and one of the first emotions you feel when you wake is anxiety ...because studying is difficult and exams scare you...and this anxiety lasts a bloody life time...long after your study days are over! (I am sure my 'study-anxiety' is shared by more than a billion students from countries like India where most teachers induce fear than inspiration)
Like the moon, there was also the waxing and waning of anxiety as test and exam dates approached and finished; result dates approached and came in. I recall the waxing but not the waning.
Over the years, I have woken to other thoughts and emotions too. In summer holidays or Dussara holidays of my school years, I would wake with joyful expectations. The joyful expectations could be about comics and storybooks, ripe mangoes from the tree in the village, movies to be seen in theatres, visits from cousins, visit to circus, visit to 'Congress exhibition', or one of many other things.
I have woken up worrying about something or the other most of my life I think. There have been rare and brief periods when I did not have things to worry about. Then, I woke without anxiety or maybe I did have some vague anxiety...but the anxiety was 'generalized' and not 'specific' i.e. focussed on 'one' thing.
I get these respites from anxiety for a while after one worry has been taken off due to a change. For example after I passed an exam, I was worry free for a while until the next thing worried me; I was worry free for a while after my sister's marriage was fixed; I was worry free for a few months when my sister got a job; The worries centre round me and my family of course. I experienced worries about education, job, marriage, money, loans, etc for over three decades I think and now the same worries are going through my head but these worries are about the next generation i.e. my nephews and nieces! It would be a fantastic achievement for me if I could 'detach' and be worry-free!
Maybe I am rather prone to anxiety...but a part of me thinks that if circumstances were different maybe I would not have had such loads of anxiety...if parents did not store so much by good performance in studies; if schools were less punitive and so on. I am sure a comparison study of anxiety across different countries and cultures would prove my point.
About 20 years ago, after I got a boxer pup, waking in the morning, every single day, was a blissful experience. That pup put all thoughts out of my head! It demanded my attention all the time when I was at home! I would wake to it licking my face, barking at me to play with it, take it for walks, and it wouldn't let me daydream or have any time to myself.
I left it behind when I moved to Canada and I really missed waking to it's exuberance every morning! Boxers or any attention-demanding, hyperactive pets are a definite antidote to anxiety, depression, or whatever else is bugging you, I tell you! You simply don't have the time to worry or even think...these pets are in your face all the time demanding, demanding, demanding! Plus they are so contagiously happy! Maybe dogs should be considered as a treatment for subclinical levels of anxiety, depression, etc before considering other treatments.
Coffee and newspaper would have been a pleasant way to ''wake-up-in-the-morning-to'' if the Indian newspapers news wasn't so depressing.
For many years we started the day with TV. But again the news is not something which is a 'pleasant' way to start the day. I have tried not to see 'shows' early in the day as an effort at self-discipline. Anyway the ads were enough to deter me from wasting early morning hours.
The ad-free netflix too does not tempt me to start my mornings with shows...it's my amazing self-discipline!
After landing in Canada, if I remember right, I would wake with various thoughts in my head...but I don't remember feeling anxious when I woke. But my husband definitely was....until we got jobs that is about 6 months after landing in Canada.
After internet entered our lives, about 20 years ago, I would wake and make coffee while my husband got onto the internet and that was how we started the day. What I saw 'first thing in the morning the first thing after starting the computer. Now I seem to receive only junk emails and so I don't rush to my email box first.
I started the day by going to facebook first-thing in the morning. Now that people are posting sad and tragic stuff on facebook, I don't want to start the day with facebook! But I do love starting my day watching those cat videos on Facebook!
After acquiring a mobile phone(..first time in life...so LATE!) 6 months ago, the first thing I do when I wake is wear my glasses and check my whatsapp. But I am getting put off by the stuff my friends share... sad stuff, 'warnings', ridiculous unproved 'scientific-information' to help me improve my health, life-style, whatever. Now I don't want to start the day with Whatsapp either.
I am now starting the day with the daily set of puzzles on Flow Free, a online game. Sometimes I do it in the middle of the night if I wake. It is so neutral and calming. I am happy when some days there are many puzzles but I am okay when they have just 2 or 3 too.
Today I started the day with a really pleasant article on msn i.e. garage sale finds which were worth a fortune. The link is below.
http://www.giveitlove.com/the-worlds-most-valuable-thrift-store-and-garage-sale-finds/?utm_source=tb&utm_medium=msn-can-home
It was such a relaxing pleasure to start the day by reading this article and feeling happy for the finders and fantasizing about myself finding one such treasure!
I would love to go for a walk or jog in the morning (in good weather only) but I find it boring to go alone and my husband refuses to accompany me saying, " I don't need to jog. I am not coming". He infuriates me with this statement!
These days, I cannot even say when my day 'starts' and what is my 'first' activity! I wake many times during the night and not sure when I have 'started' the day. I wake at night and check my phone messages; I wake to chat with people on the other side of the globe as it's day for them; I wake and play games on my cell phone; I wake and massage my cat who's sitting on my chest, kneading my neck and also asking for massage. I read in bed when I wake at any time especially if it's an interesting crime fiction. I keep doing stuff in bed (on my bed, within arm's reach are books, phone, computer & Ipad) until I drift off to sleep again.
I don't really mind the disturbed sleep and frequent waking as it does not bother me. I simply do something until I feel sleepy again.
What is the ideal way to wake and what is the most fun things to wake up to?
I would like to wake up and see good news on my email or no news; good news on the newspapers or no bad news;
See great but brief videos of babies and animals online.
It would be great if someone made tea for me and brought it to my bed but unfortunately I am the maker and bringer of tea to my husband. It's great to wake to the smell of 'filter' coffee in Indian households! That is one fond memory of mine and I would love to wake to the aroma of south Indian filter coffee!
It would be ideal if I could hear the birds and not the flow of traffic when I wake. (But the current noise level is fine with me. I am not a 'delicate noise-hating' person).
It would be ideal if the fragrance of the flowers in the garden wafted through my windows in the morning. But I did not have this experience in India, let alone Canada. We would have the fragrance of the flower called 'Ratri rani' wafting through the windows in the evenings; Unless I buried my nose into the flowers in the garden such as the jasmine, I could not smell them. My sense of smell is not acute enough to relish this pleasure I suppose.
Cuddles is great. Everyone knows that. I don't have to talk much about it. The perfect sheets on you when you wake... not feeling too hot or too cold is great to wake to. But if I am perfectly comfortable I can't get myself to get out of bed. It's easier for me to get out of bed only if it's too hot or too cold or something is imperfect and forces me to get out of it.
It's great to wake to the thought that you have completed today's chores yesterday! It feels fantastic to know that you don't have much to do now as it's already done!
It's great to wake up to an ideal sight to look at out of your window. Sunrise...a mountain...ocean...plants, trees, garden, forest. But few people in the world have that luxury. People who do wake up to beautiful picturesque sights every morning....may appreciate it daily or take it for granted after a while. I would certainly like to wake to something beautiful and new every morning. It would be ideal but impossible unless I am a millionaire waking up in a different houses all over the world. I think owning a house by a beach would be great...the views would be different as the, daylight, moonlight, winds, tides and waves change the scene every minute of the day! I am recalling a house on a cliff, overlooking the sea in California at a place called Fitzgerald marine reserve.
I would like to wake to ideal weather 365 days a year and that is possible only in a handful of countries. Living in these countries for the weather is fantastic but for the other challenges. Bangalore had ideal weather but now I live in Toronto. Toronto weather is ideal between May-June & August-September. The rest of the year, I don't want to get out of bed!
Waking to not having any worries is the perfect ideal waking up. Two ways of achieving it: the first is the incorrect way but I think I am constantly striving for this instead of the second!
(1) You have everything you need and you don't have worries
(2) You are a mentally healthy, resilient stoic person who can remain calm and take life's challenges as they come; you don't worry but deal with life's challenges. You don't become anxious or worried but enjoy life and remain positive and have a problem-solving approach to life than a worrying one. You wake every morning thinking 'Today is a great day'.
Waking up in Utopia...knowing that there is no one suffering anything anywhere...waking up knowing that every living thing on earth is free from suffering....I know I sound like a fool, but I did rather dream and sound like a happy fool you know, than a wise realist.
If my memory is right, I woke with a mild feeling of dread all through my years of education! Can you imagine how shitty it is to wake up and one of the first thoughts as you wake is about studies and one of the first emotions you feel when you wake is anxiety ...because studying is difficult and exams scare you...and this anxiety lasts a bloody life time...long after your study days are over! (I am sure my 'study-anxiety' is shared by more than a billion students from countries like India where most teachers induce fear than inspiration)
Like the moon, there was also the waxing and waning of anxiety as test and exam dates approached and finished; result dates approached and came in. I recall the waxing but not the waning.
Over the years, I have woken to other thoughts and emotions too. In summer holidays or Dussara holidays of my school years, I would wake with joyful expectations. The joyful expectations could be about comics and storybooks, ripe mangoes from the tree in the village, movies to be seen in theatres, visits from cousins, visit to circus, visit to 'Congress exhibition', or one of many other things.
I have woken up worrying about something or the other most of my life I think. There have been rare and brief periods when I did not have things to worry about. Then, I woke without anxiety or maybe I did have some vague anxiety...but the anxiety was 'generalized' and not 'specific' i.e. focussed on 'one' thing.
I get these respites from anxiety for a while after one worry has been taken off due to a change. For example after I passed an exam, I was worry free for a while until the next thing worried me; I was worry free for a while after my sister's marriage was fixed; I was worry free for a few months when my sister got a job; The worries centre round me and my family of course. I experienced worries about education, job, marriage, money, loans, etc for over three decades I think and now the same worries are going through my head but these worries are about the next generation i.e. my nephews and nieces! It would be a fantastic achievement for me if I could 'detach' and be worry-free!
Maybe I am rather prone to anxiety...but a part of me thinks that if circumstances were different maybe I would not have had such loads of anxiety...if parents did not store so much by good performance in studies; if schools were less punitive and so on. I am sure a comparison study of anxiety across different countries and cultures would prove my point.
About 20 years ago, after I got a boxer pup, waking in the morning, every single day, was a blissful experience. That pup put all thoughts out of my head! It demanded my attention all the time when I was at home! I would wake to it licking my face, barking at me to play with it, take it for walks, and it wouldn't let me daydream or have any time to myself.
I left it behind when I moved to Canada and I really missed waking to it's exuberance every morning! Boxers or any attention-demanding, hyperactive pets are a definite antidote to anxiety, depression, or whatever else is bugging you, I tell you! You simply don't have the time to worry or even think...these pets are in your face all the time demanding, demanding, demanding! Plus they are so contagiously happy! Maybe dogs should be considered as a treatment for subclinical levels of anxiety, depression, etc before considering other treatments.
Coffee and newspaper would have been a pleasant way to ''wake-up-in-the-morning-to'' if the Indian newspapers news wasn't so depressing.
For many years we started the day with TV. But again the news is not something which is a 'pleasant' way to start the day. I have tried not to see 'shows' early in the day as an effort at self-discipline. Anyway the ads were enough to deter me from wasting early morning hours.
The ad-free netflix too does not tempt me to start my mornings with shows...it's my amazing self-discipline!
After landing in Canada, if I remember right, I would wake with various thoughts in my head...but I don't remember feeling anxious when I woke. But my husband definitely was....until we got jobs that is about 6 months after landing in Canada.
After internet entered our lives, about 20 years ago, I would wake and make coffee while my husband got onto the internet and that was how we started the day. What I saw 'first thing in the morning the first thing after starting the computer. Now I seem to receive only junk emails and so I don't rush to my email box first.
I started the day by going to facebook first-thing in the morning. Now that people are posting sad and tragic stuff on facebook, I don't want to start the day with facebook! But I do love starting my day watching those cat videos on Facebook!
After acquiring a mobile phone(..first time in life...so LATE!) 6 months ago, the first thing I do when I wake is wear my glasses and check my whatsapp. But I am getting put off by the stuff my friends share... sad stuff, 'warnings', ridiculous unproved 'scientific-information' to help me improve my health, life-style, whatever. Now I don't want to start the day with Whatsapp either.
I am now starting the day with the daily set of puzzles on Flow Free, a online game. Sometimes I do it in the middle of the night if I wake. It is so neutral and calming. I am happy when some days there are many puzzles but I am okay when they have just 2 or 3 too.
Today I started the day with a really pleasant article on msn i.e. garage sale finds which were worth a fortune. The link is below.
http://www.giveitlove.com/the-worlds-most-valuable-thrift-store-and-garage-sale-finds/?utm_source=tb&utm_medium=msn-can-home
It was such a relaxing pleasure to start the day by reading this article and feeling happy for the finders and fantasizing about myself finding one such treasure!
I would love to go for a walk or jog in the morning (in good weather only) but I find it boring to go alone and my husband refuses to accompany me saying, " I don't need to jog. I am not coming". He infuriates me with this statement!
These days, I cannot even say when my day 'starts' and what is my 'first' activity! I wake many times during the night and not sure when I have 'started' the day. I wake at night and check my phone messages; I wake to chat with people on the other side of the globe as it's day for them; I wake and play games on my cell phone; I wake and massage my cat who's sitting on my chest, kneading my neck and also asking for massage. I read in bed when I wake at any time especially if it's an interesting crime fiction. I keep doing stuff in bed (on my bed, within arm's reach are books, phone, computer & Ipad) until I drift off to sleep again.
I don't really mind the disturbed sleep and frequent waking as it does not bother me. I simply do something until I feel sleepy again.
What is the ideal way to wake and what is the most fun things to wake up to?
I would like to wake up and see good news on my email or no news; good news on the newspapers or no bad news;
See great but brief videos of babies and animals online.
It would be great if someone made tea for me and brought it to my bed but unfortunately I am the maker and bringer of tea to my husband. It's great to wake to the smell of 'filter' coffee in Indian households! That is one fond memory of mine and I would love to wake to the aroma of south Indian filter coffee!
It would be ideal if I could hear the birds and not the flow of traffic when I wake. (But the current noise level is fine with me. I am not a 'delicate noise-hating' person).
It would be ideal if the fragrance of the flowers in the garden wafted through my windows in the morning. But I did not have this experience in India, let alone Canada. We would have the fragrance of the flower called 'Ratri rani' wafting through the windows in the evenings; Unless I buried my nose into the flowers in the garden such as the jasmine, I could not smell them. My sense of smell is not acute enough to relish this pleasure I suppose.
Cuddles is great. Everyone knows that. I don't have to talk much about it. The perfect sheets on you when you wake... not feeling too hot or too cold is great to wake to. But if I am perfectly comfortable I can't get myself to get out of bed. It's easier for me to get out of bed only if it's too hot or too cold or something is imperfect and forces me to get out of it.
It's great to wake to the thought that you have completed today's chores yesterday! It feels fantastic to know that you don't have much to do now as it's already done!
It's great to wake up to an ideal sight to look at out of your window. Sunrise...a mountain...ocean...plants, trees, garden, forest. But few people in the world have that luxury. People who do wake up to beautiful picturesque sights every morning....may appreciate it daily or take it for granted after a while. I would certainly like to wake to something beautiful and new every morning. It would be ideal but impossible unless I am a millionaire waking up in a different houses all over the world. I think owning a house by a beach would be great...the views would be different as the, daylight, moonlight, winds, tides and waves change the scene every minute of the day! I am recalling a house on a cliff, overlooking the sea in California at a place called Fitzgerald marine reserve.
I would like to wake to ideal weather 365 days a year and that is possible only in a handful of countries. Living in these countries for the weather is fantastic but for the other challenges. Bangalore had ideal weather but now I live in Toronto. Toronto weather is ideal between May-June & August-September. The rest of the year, I don't want to get out of bed!
Waking to not having any worries is the perfect ideal waking up. Two ways of achieving it: the first is the incorrect way but I think I am constantly striving for this instead of the second!
(1) You have everything you need and you don't have worries
(2) You are a mentally healthy, resilient stoic person who can remain calm and take life's challenges as they come; you don't worry but deal with life's challenges. You don't become anxious or worried but enjoy life and remain positive and have a problem-solving approach to life than a worrying one. You wake every morning thinking 'Today is a great day'.
Waking up in Utopia...knowing that there is no one suffering anything anywhere...waking up knowing that every living thing on earth is free from suffering....I know I sound like a fool, but I did rather dream and sound like a happy fool you know, than a wise realist.
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