Try this 5-Minute Morning Shower Meditation

Multi-tasking meditation time with your usual morning madness routine certainly seems like a grand violation of the highest Zen order.

On the other hand, it may very well be the perfect opportunity to practice meditation in its truest, most organic form. Meditation, at its core, is the act of bringing mindfulness to the mundane, of creating an oasis of calm amidst chaos, of rooting oneself to the present with cerebral and sensorial anchors to keep you from being swept away by the powerful distractions of the thinking mind.

The soothing sensory experience of being haloed in water in the secluded cocoon of your shower makes for an ideal environment that cleanses not only your body, but also your mind.

Incorporating this short yet powerful water meditation into your morning routine helps you start every day off the right way, in a spirit of channeled calm, awareness, focus and serenity.

5-Minute Guided Meditation in the Shower

Adjust the water pressure and temperature to a very warm, soothing and comfortable setting.

Begin by closing your eyes and focusing on your breath. Inhale; feel the cleansing steam flow in through your nostrils and imagine it expanding in the empty cavity of your chest. Exhale, release your body’s waste products of tension, stress, negative thoughts and negative energy. Imagine these negative flows eagerly escaping out of your mouth. Repeat 10 full breath cycles this way.

Now face the shower stream, keep your eyes closed, lips relaxed. Relax your entire body. Make your arms and finger tips limp, drop your shoulders, drop your chin towards your chest and step under the water fall (as close under as you are comfortable, and making sure you are still able to breath easily). Imagine the water is a dark blue color. Feel the blue water flow smoothly down your head and stream all the way down your neck, your shoulders, your arms, your fingertips, your back, your chest, your thighs, your calves, your toes, and then run off down the shower drain. The blue water is coursing down your body, draining with it all of the tension, strain and anxiety from your head and body, pulling and washing it all down, down, down towards the ground, falling into the drain and disappearing deep into the earth. Continue deeply inhaling and exhaling as you gratefully feel the rivulets of tension coursing down along your body and completely running off you, leaving you forever down into the depths where you’ll never see it again. As the water pulls the weight of the tension down and out of you, your insides become emptier and emptier, your limbs and body get lighter and lighter…

Now step back out of the waterfall. Turn to face away from the shower stream and lift your chin back up to face forward. Imagine the water now changes to orange. Eyes still closed, step backwards now, back under the orange water flow so that you feel the water beat steadily down on the top of your head. Focus on the steady rhythmic drumming of the water on your head, then on your ears, then on your neck, then on your shoulders, then on your arms, then on your hands, then on your chest, then on your back, then on your legs, then on your feet. Every tap of the water on your skin wakes up the individual nerves beneath, making them stand up alive, keen and alert. Every inch of your skin is being tapped, tapped, tapped by constant drumming water fingers, stimulating every single nerve in your body, exciting every inch of your skin and making it course with electrical energy. Continue deep breathing, focus only on this tapping sensation all over your skin and the networks of vibrant energy flows that it activates throughout your entire body, waking up every part of you, making every part of your insides hum and pulse and course with bright, enthusiastic life energy.

Now imagine the water changes to bright white ethereal light. Keep your eyes closed, keep your lips together yet relaxed, and lift your chin slightly upwards. Stretch your arms up to the ceiling, feeling their reach pull the sides of your body upwards as well, opening your fingertips and reaching up to the sky. The white light of the water is positive energy, love, healing, forgiveness, joy, gratitude, confidence, giving, connection and oneness. It’s flowing down around you, on you, into you. Your skin, your hair, your organs, your entire body is an empty vessel that is thirsty, and every pore of your body is drinking up this white light eagerly, is absorbing it, is completely filling up with it, and becoming it. The white light pours into you, fills you and purifies you. You are cleansed by it, refreshed by it, embraced by it, immersed in it, in harmony with it. You are one with the white light waterfall. The white light waterfall expands and relaxes with life energy with each inhale and exhale that you continue to take. You are dissolved into the white light, pure, perfect, spiritually revitalized.

Take a few final refreshing breaths in this white light beam, then slowly step out of the water stream and open your eyes. Wriggle your fingers, toes, arms and legs, feel happy energy coursing and surging through you. Turn off the water.

You are fresh. Your body is at peace. Your mind is clear. Your sense are alert. You are ready for this bright day ahead of you.