5 morning rituals to do before wake up

It’s 7am, your eyes have pinged open after hitting the snooze button a couple of times.

What can you do before you get out of bed and start your morning routine to kick start your day?

Here are 5 easy, yet life-changing, morning rituals you can do to empower your day everyday, in just 5 minutes:

1. Honor the Sun

Life on earth is impossible without the Sun. It is our natural Father and represents the Self, ego and our soul. It also signifies the power to meet everyday challenges that life brings forth.

Ritual: Sit up, close your eyes, face east, the direction of the Sun, if possible and honor it with the simple Sun mantra “Om Suryaya Namaha” either 11, 21 or 108 times.

2. Be Grateful

Often we focus on the bottlenecks, the obstacles in our life – things that bring us anxiety, friction, unhappiness – we are selectively positive. Start your day by being thankful and clearing the way for new possibilities to emerge.

Ritual: Close your eyes and be grateful. For the little and big positive things. Reflect and appreciate the moments of joy that are happening in your life right now, that you might have overlooked or pushed to the back, behind the negative mind.

Be grateful for your Guru, your mentor and / or guide, essentially that person in your life whom you are inspired by – who is the person your heart turns to when it needs solace, guidance, strength and courage.

3. Honor Mother Earth

Mother Earth is the embodiment of compassion and patience, she carries us through our evolutionary journey – Mother Earth is the mother of every life.

For this reason we remind ourselves with this ritual of everything that she does for us and seek her forgiveness for touching her with our feet.

Ritual: Just as you’re about to get out of bed, before your feet touch the ground, close your eyes and either say the following words out aloud or in your head.

“Dearest Mother Earth, you are so precious and I appreciate everything you do for me, I am about to put my feet on you, so please forgive me.”

Alternatively you can chant the sanskrit version, known as the Samudra Vasane: Samudra Vasane Devi, Parvata Stana Mandale. Vishnupatni Namastubhyam, Paada Sparsham Kshamasva Me.

Which translates as: O! Mother Earth, who has the ocean as clothes and mountains and forests on her body, who is the wife of Lord Vishnu, I bow to you. Please forgive me for touching you with my feet.

4. Honor the Gods

It is said that the Gods that represent wealth, purity, knowledge, music, art, wisdom, nature and protection reside in your hands. Honoring the Gods in our hands with mantra that requests them to guide us to do good work that day, is a superb morning ritual.

Ritual: Raise your hands up with your palms facing your face and either say the following words out aloud or in your mind.

“May these hands do wonderful and good things today. May they conduct good karmas and may they lead me onto the right path”.

Alternatively you can chant the sanskrit version, known as Karagre Vasate Lakshmi:Karagre Vasate Lakshmi, Kar Mule Saraswati, Kar Madhe Tu Govinda, Prabhate Kara Darshanam.

Which translates as: Goddess Lakshmi resides at the tip of the hand, Saraswati in the middle and Gouri/Govind at the base of the palm – in this order start your morning by seeing these Gods in your hands as the entire power of the universe is in the hands.

5. Honor the 5 Elements

Everything in nature is made up of five basic elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space and each of the 9 planets are connected to an element, as are all the signs. The elements have their own qualities. For example, Earth grounds us by helping us to be present in our lives, however too much earth makes us stuck and Air brings creativity, but too much makes us ‘airy-fairy’. We need space for each of the elements to flow and function properly.

When you honor the five elements daily you balance and cleanse the elements.

The most purifying and healing vedic mantra to do this is “Om Namah Shivaya”. Often referred to as the five syllable mantra, evoking the five elements of existence, Om Namah Shivaya honors Shiva, the lord of destruction and transformation and one of the primary gods of the Hindu Trinity.

Ritual: Close your eyes and chant the mantra “Om Namah Shivaya” either out aloud or in your mind, as you bow down to the unknowable and unimaginable path of transformation as guided by Lord Shiva.

Additional advanced rituals you can do:

Honor your Ishta Devata

This is your personal preferred deity according to your birth chart. Honoring all deities is good – however, according to your chart there will be a specific deity that will be your “uber” deity – one that will shower you with anything you want and this is your Ishta Devata (Ishta means “desired,” “cherished” or “preferred”; and devata, means “godhead” or “divinity.” It translates as “cherished divinity.”) You can find your Ishta Devata on the Cosmic Insights app

Honor the Sun God

Each sign in the zodiac has an Aditya, one of 12 divine beings, that are each a different expression of Lord Vishnu in the form of the Sun God and the giver of all material things. When the Sun moves from one sign to another it awakens the Aditya in that sign and that Aditya shines.

Ritual: Chant the following Aditya Mantra related to the current month 3 times or 27, 54 108 times.

Aries – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Dhātāditya

Taurus – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Aryamāditya

Gemini – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Mitrāditya

Cancer – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Varuṇāditya

Leo – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Indrāditya

Virgo – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Vivasvānāditya

Libra – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Pusāditya

Scorpio – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Parjanyāditya

Sagittarius – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Aṁśumānāditya

Capricorn – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Bhagāditya

Aquarius – Aum Ghṛṇiḥ Tvaṣṭāditya