Gay Hendricks' Morning Centering Practice

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My Morning Centering Practice

I like to do my main creative work early in the morning, so I usually wake up around 5 a.m. Katie gets up later, so for the first couple of hours of the day it's just me and Lucy, our beloved 16-year-old Persian, who sits Yoda-like by me while I'm writing. Before I start writing, though, I always prepare my inner space by a period of stretching, breathing practices and meditation. I stretch for about five minutes, until I can feel a flow of good feeling in my body, then I do a few minutes of the breathing processes we teach in our seminars. (If you'd like to try them out, free instructions for the two main practices I do can be found here: http://www.hendricks.com/breathingcoach/.)

After a few minutes of these practices my breathing always feels more easeful and expanded. Then, I sit down for about 20 minutes of meditation. After meditation I start writing and continue non-stop until I get hungry around 8 a.m. I've been doing this same basic sequence for so long now it's come to feel essential, like showering or eating. In fact, it feels so good and essential that I haven't missed a day of doing it for 40 years.

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