How I have been getting up early effortlessly everyday for the last 10 years?

I have loved getting up early since my childhood.  My friends and I had a wonderful time running around in orchards in the summer and skating down the mountain nearby.  When I grew up, I had given up the habit due to office pressure and life-situation changes.  Then, a few years ago I felt the need to get back on track.  Like me, many people have given up the habit of early rising.  In the modern world, “early to bed” has been replaced with “late night this and that” and this, consequently, has made getting up early a difficult task.  So, a lot of people cannot go to bed at 9 p.m. and if you suggest this to them they will laugh it out and understandably so.  I use a strategy that helps me to sleep less and thus makes available to me more time than I had previously.  This has been my strategy for getting up early for the last 10-12 years for various reasons. And it is flexible, meaning you can modify it the way you want it.  But before I talk about my strategy, let us first look at things which one should avoid if one wants to get up early.

Things to avoid:

1. Heavy meals:
   
   
   This is a no brainer.  If you eat meat, oily food, and/or fast food then getting up early is going to be very difficult.  You can push yourself to get up early for a few days but when the exciting-tide recedes you will start to falter and then fail.  The remedy: “Sattvic foods”.  The East Indian Yogis have stressed on “sattvic food”.  Sattvic foods are fresh, natural and nourishing.  So, a fruit diet is considered “sattvic”.  The protein in sattvic food is not from meat but vegetables and dairy products.  Sattvic foods are light, provide loads of energy and are filling.  So, a vegetarian diet is appropriate. Meats, generally, make you lethargic.  Apart from the food, avoiding alcohol would be a good idea.  Alcohol is a no-no, if you want to wake up early.  The lighter your stomach is the night before, the easier it is going to be to get up early the next day.  Moreover, a light stomach will help you avoid gas, bloating and you will be able to do your physical activity with ease.
2. Sleeping too late: 
   
   
   We are all aware of the saying, “early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”.  This is absolutely true.  The body needs time to rest to repair itself and we need to respect our bodies.  If we do not allow the body to rest, the consequences are never good.  The body tries to compensate and one is not able to get up early. So sleeping early could certainly help.  Later in this article I will talk about how you can get up early despite going to sleep late at night.
3. Excitement or depression: 
   
   
   Excitement or depression can thwart your attempts to get up early. For e.g., if you are too excited about going for your first run or yoga session or other activity chances are you will be up by 2 a.m. and may not even sleep after that.  We can forgive ourselves for the first day.  It is understandable.  On the contrary, if you are depressed you will never get up as most probably you would not be excited to do the activity.  Besides these, watching television, surfing the internet, social media, whatsapp etc.  all these activities leave an individual in an excited frame of mind.  The internet is the most dangerous place in the modern age.  It is a digital trap.  Once you enter, it becomes very difficult to leave.  But before sleeping, one needs to relax.  Just listen to some instrumental music and go to sleep.  The more relaxed you are before sleeping; the better will be your quality of sleep. Consequently, it will be easier for you to get up early next morning.
4. Mind set: 
   
   
   Your mind set is very important in helping you getting up early. For e.g., I feel that I will get up early for the rest of my life.  This is not a short-term project which when completed will be discarded.  Other than that a lot of people are just lazy and do not want to get up.  When people get married, their priorities change and some may even think their life is complete.  Many are just too tired and under too much pressure from their jobs that they are just unable to do so.  So, nothing is going to work until you invigorate the fire within a little too brightly to motivate yourself to get up early.  And then you can work on forming a habit.

My personal strategy:  Now, I will let you know about my strategy that helps me get up every day.  I have picked up steps from all over and tweaked it for myself for the maximum effect.

1.  Alarms: Without an alarm clock, it would be difficult to start.  So either you can use an alarm clock or Mobile clock to set up an alarm.  You will need this for a little less than 3 months and then you may not need it at all.  I started with 5:45 a.m. and then automatically I would get up 15 minutes earlier and then gradually I brought it down to as early as 5:15 a.m.
2. Alarm clock/Mobile placement:  It is wise to keep the alarm clock or Mobile phone at a distance and make sure the snooze setting is off.  Most mobiles will let you set it to ring for an x number of minutes.  Make sure you set it to ring for at least 10 minutes. So if the alarm clock/mobile is at a distance then you will have to get up and switch is off.  This is the first step in getting up.  So now that you are out of bed, so far so good.
3. Choosing the Alarm ringtone:  It is important to choose a very loud alarm ringtone.  The more radical/loud the alarm tone, the better.  When you hear such a loud alarm ringtone in complete silence in the morning when everyone is asleep, one is scared that some will protest and some of the family members actually will.  Keeping this is in mind, one jumps out of bed to switch it off.  Once you are off, make sure you do not go to bed after the alarm sound is turned off.  Off you go to your running or pilates or yoga session etc.
4. My secret:  Even after following the above steps, some of us may go back to sleep after turning the alarms off.  We learn to cheat ourselves into sleeping a little more.  If you do this once, you will do it again and you will fail getting up early.
5. How I overcame this cheating?  My secret lies in preparing to get up the night before.  Every night before going to bed, I listen to a very small voice file.  It is based on YOGA NIDRA or in Western terminology hypnosis or you even call it suggestion.  It uses imagery to relax the body and then some affirmations about getting up early and achieving my set goal and seeing myself achieving it. And it will work for you too.
6. The Benefit:  It has worked for me for the last 5 years and I believe it will work for you too.  Not only do I get up early, I am motivated to go about my activity with full enthusiasm and commitment.  The voice file was recorded by me and is based on Eriksonian hypnosis.  I feel it will be useful for everyone. You can download it and use it instantly.  The voice file is free to download and use but you are advised against using it for commercial purposes.;;

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