Dawn of Awareness: A Journey of Self-Discovery through Morning Meditations

Executive Summary

In my full post below, I emphasize the importance of a dedicated morning routine spent reading and reflecting on a variety of daily meditation books. Beginning the day with 30 to 45 minutes of reading without electronic distractions has become integral to my lifestyle.

My morning reading includes:

1. The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations,
2. The Daily Laws,
3. The Book of Awakening,
4. The Daily Dad,
5. The Course in Miracles Experiment,
6. A Calendar of Wisdom, and
7. Thriving as an Empath.

I also include Seth Godin’s daily blog and James Clear’s weekly newsletter. These readings provide a rich source of perspective and encouragement, aiding self-awareness and regularly challenging my preconceived thoughts. Although some concepts are difficult for me to embrace, the overall value derived from each book is life-enhancing. I encourage you to consider developing your own morning reading routine. Invest in yourself!

Full Blog Post

My morning reading is a treasured aspect of my day. The process of intentionally reading a mediation each morning began with The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on January 1, 2020. The encouragement of the stoic philosophy has resonated with me and my journey with Stoicism has grown more extensive. I have written a full separate reflection on “Why Stoicism?“

Reading a short meditation each morning has expanded to several books and other readings I work through daily. My process is about the first 30 to 45 minutes each morning – quiet time with my coffee and no phone or other electronic devices.

My morning routine now includes the following:

• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Livingby Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
  • Started January 1, 2020. In 2023, currently in my 4th year of reading the daily meditation.
  • Also receive a Daily Stoic email every morning.

• The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature by Robert Greene.
  • Started January 1, 2022.

• The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have by Mark Nepo
  • Started on February 26, 2023.
  • I discovered Mark Nepo when I came upon and read his September 2022 book Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity.
  • The Book of Awakening is a New York Times bestseller – Mark Nepo has been called “one of the finest spiritual guides of our time” and “a consummate storyteller.”

• The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids by Ryan Holiday
  • Started May 4, 2023 – book released May 1, 2023.
  • Daily Dad email is also available every morning.

• The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind by Pam Grout
  • It started on August 2, 2021.
  • Gift from Terri Tomoff in April 2021 – two months after her uterine cancer surgery. I hold this book of meditations with special gratitude.
  • The book is a rewrite of the A Course in Miracles Workbook – Pam Grout’s book back cover describes her book’s purpose: “Pam Grout to the rescue! Her book is for all those still struggling with the Course. Grout offers a modern-day rewrite of the 365-lesson workbook – the text at the heart of the Course. Unlike the original, it’s user-friendly, accessible, and easy for everyone to understand.”

• A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul – Written and Selected from the World’s Sacred Texts by Leo Tolstoy.
  • Started June 27, 2022

• Thriving as an Empath: 365 Days of Self-Care for Sensitive People by Judith Orloff, MD
  • It started on May 12, 2023
  • Discovered while listening to the Audible of the book Walk Through This: Harness the Healing Power of Nature and Travel the Road to Forgiveness by Sara Schulting Kranz.

• Seth Godin’s Daily Blog
  • Started in 2010.
  • Who is Seth Godin? (Seth inspires me daily, and he has changed my perspective on life)

• James Clear 3-2-1 Newsletter
  • Published every Thursday.
  • Clear is the author of the book Atomic Habits: an Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones

My list may seem ambitious to start each day, but the meditations are short and digestible. My morning routine helps me reach a frame of mind to go out and make a difference in my day.

I have grown to love the process of reading a short meditation by many different authors. My mission is to touch and absorb perspectives and encouragement that may help my thought process about how I perceive and approach my life. Awareness is key and touching topics that challenge my established thinking. My mission is to be aware and apply the topics to my life – many meditations have me cheering, while others trigger me to think, “I cannot get myself there.” Examples – the Stoicism concepts Amor Fati and Momento Mori are important to be aware of, yet living the concepts will be nonstop work for the rest of my life. The Daily Stoic Meditations are one example – the other books present similar challenges. However, on the whole perspective, the value I gain from each book is wonderful.

My intent with these meditation books to reread each year and keep them in my “rotation.” The time commitment each morning is negligible compared to the compelling value I receive. In Ryan Holidays’ introduction to The Daily Dad, he encourages reading meditations over each year:

“My book The Daily Stoic is now well into the second half of its first decade. With more than a million copies in print in forty languages, there are people who have read it every day for years [Bill T comment – into my 4th year of reading daily]. Even though the book is the same as it was when I submitted it to the publisher in the fall of 2015, it continues to connect with and be of service to people all over the world. There’s a Stoic observation about how we never step into the same river twice, for both we and the river are in a constant state of change.”

“On a minute-by-minute basis, your kids and life put you in situations you could never have imagined on your own (and that none of the books seem to anticipate). So while there is no sudden transformation in parenting, there is still a process, a working at it, that you must take up. That’s what this book—one page per day—is built around. Not a one-time thing but a morning or an evening ritual, a checking in, a continual process.

We will fall short. We will lose our tempers, get distracted, prioritize the wrong things, even hurt ourselves and the people we love in the process. What then? Just as with the pages of this book, we must pick back up where we left off. We must accept the fact that we are flawed humans while doing our best to learn from our errors and to not make the same mistakes twice . . . or any more times than we already have.

Dust yourself off. Recommit. Do better.

That journey—The Daily Dad as a book and as an idea—is, of course, not just for men. Our daily email, which has been free at dailydad.com, is received by thousands of women each morning. It’s called The Daily Dad because I happen to be a father—of two boys—and that’s about all you need to read into the name.”

One may ask the question, “When you travel, how do you keep up with so many books?” I have a hard copy of five of the seven books, but I have the Kindle e-book of all seven books. My meditations are read via the Kindle app on my iPhone when on the road. Very convenient, and I LOVE the freedom of having the content available anytime, anywhere!

What is your morning routine? Do you read and contemplate any books of meditations on a daily basis?