Resource Guide

The body is a treasure trove and an exquisite vehicle for our practice of waking up and being with what is.

Jill Satterfield

Sight

Practices

• Create an altar space dedicated to beauty in your bedroom. Include objects and images that delight you, words that inspire you, maybe a small mirror to include your own face in your morning pleasure gazing.
• Keep flowers or a green plant in your bedroom or bathroom and spend a moment admiring and connecting with this bit of nature in your space.
• Draw an oracle card from the deck of your choice as guidance for the coming day. Carefully observe the details of the art as the primary path to resonance with its message for you.
• Open the blinds or curtains on your bedroom window and notice weather and landscape. Pay attention to how your view changes with the seasons, what beauties are revealed as others fade, like the skyline that only appears after the leaves on the tree across the street have fallen, or the sky’s electric blue just before sunrise, more regularly visible when the days are shorter.

Resources

Oracle decks: The Wild Unknown, outiart oracle decks, Cosma Visions and Prisma Visions, Crow Tarot and others by MJ Cullinane

Smell

Practices

• Keep a bottle of essential oil in an uplifting scent near your bed for a quick breath of energy first thing in the morning. Try bergamot, citrus (lemon, orange, grapefruit, or lime), or bright spices (peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, or ginger). Drop a few drops in an essential oil diffuser in your bedroom to suffuse your whole morning with extra energy and sensual pleasure.
• Add a spritz of a scented hydrosol to your sheets before making your bed. Choose a relaxing scent like lavender, chamomile, clary sage, cedarwood, or a magical blend. Enjoy the fragrance of this moment of morning attention that sets the stage for restful pleasure when you return in the evening.
• Intentionally choose products for your morning shower (or hand and face washing) that smell delicious to you. This scent might remind you of childhood, or it might trigger a sense of luxury and delight in this life you are crafting to suit your own desires. Pay attention to the other smells of your morning routine to ground yourself in your own body as you re-connect with the world around you: maybe clean laundry as you get dressed, coffee or freshly baked pastries for breakfast, the scent of rain or flowers or woodsmoke carried on the breeze through your window.

Resources

Magical Fragrance: Sphere + Sundry, Rosarium Blends

Hearing

Practices

• Set music you love as the ringtone for your morning alarm or play music you love while you get dressed. Sing along—it doesn’t matter if there are words or not!
• Expand your consciousness to reconnect with the physical world using deep listening at multiple distances, stretching your perception to name each sound you hear. First, listen to the sounds in the room you’re in, like a clock ticking or a partner or pet snoring. Then expand your awareness to hear other sounds inside the building you’re in, like the coffee pot beeping or a shower running. Then expand your awareness to the immediate environment outside that building, like windchimes or your neighbor talking to their dog. Then stretch to the outer limits of your perception, at some point in the distance. What do you hear? Traffic? Constructions crews? Sea birds crying? Slowly telescope your perception back to your room.
• Chant a mantra that resonates in your heart. You can choose any tones or melody you desire, and you can choose any message that sparks energy and joy. A few easily remembered words helps create space to get creative with the vocalization. Consider I am Beloved, Beloved I am, or Beauty within and Beauty without, or Bliss flows to me, Bliss flows through me. You might also use mantra chanting as a prayer or devotion to the Divine of your choice, like IO Aphrodite IO HO. Try this practice in the shower.

Resources

Morning Spotify Playlist

Taste

Practices

• We all wake up with the taste of sleep in our mouths. Pay attention to this first taste of morning as you ease out of dreamtime. Can you still taste your dreams? Does the flavor change if you hit the snooze button and wake more than once? Approach brushing your teeth as a moment of pleasure, experiencing freshness and energy in the flavor of your toothpaste as a signal that you are fully awake and ready for the day ahead.
• Drink a full glass of water as soon as you wake up. Taste cool clarity rinsing away the clouds of sleep. Take each sip slowly and intentionally, with pleasure, feeling this vital essence of life hydrating your body, adding to the juiciness of your daily life. If you take morning supplements or meds that don’t require food, consider swallowing that nourishment with this practice.
• Create a ritual around your morning beverage of choice. Is it hot or cold? Does it change with the season? Savor that first sip with your eyes closed to increase your focus on the initial taste explosion. Is it sweet? Creamy? Strong? Spicy? Feel the liquid coating your throat and waking up your digestive system. Re-connect with your gut, the true seat of the body’s deep knowing and drive to action. Let your morning beverage serve as fuel that jump starts your day with pleasure.

Resources

Morning Beverages: Anima Mundi Apothecary

Touch/Motion

Practices

• Breathing deeply, slowly stretch and move your body from head to toe, stroking or patting each precious inch. This can be done standing or still lying luxuriously in bed. Stroke your own hair or scalp. Roll your head to stretch your neck. Reach high with your arms, running your hands gently down each arm from fingertip to shoulder. Arch your back and roll your hips to stretch the muscles in your torso as your hands wake up the skin in your chest and abdomen, over your hips and ass, down your legs to your feet. Bend and raise each leg, rolling and stretching each ankle. Move in ways that feel good to your body, ending with a gentle shimmy of aliveness and joy.
• Rearrange the items on your altar, or add or remove items as a tactile moving meditation on everyday beauties. Fill a small cup of fresh water to place on your altar as an offering to your own guiding spirits each day, emptying and refilling the cup anew each day.
• Use a mala or other beads as a tactile pleasure guiding you through your mantras or prayers of devotion. Choose beads that resonate for you personally as beautiful or energizing.
• Exercise! Do you already have an exercise habit that brings you joy? Take it to the next level of nourishment by adding intention and attention to the pleasure of being fully present in your moving, grooving body.

Resources

Mala/prayer beads: Mala Muse