A Morning Routine by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.

A note to readers: While Dr. Tharp’s content is timeless, this article is from our newsletter archive and may contain outdated information, missing links or images.

One of the key principles of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the importance of being in an optimal mental state.   In fact, I recently watched an old edition of the Dr. Oz Show in which Tony Robbins was the guest.   Tony gave a formula for achieving your goals by devoting 5 minutes each morning to three areas: 1) physical activity, 2) gratitude and 3) goals.   Tony was right, the morning routine you use to get yourself into the proper mental state is important.

I have a 30 minute routine that I do each morning.   You could do all of it, parts of it, or substitute your own items for some of the one’s I list here.

Five minutes of physical activity.   My version of this is to complete seven repetitions each of the Tibetan Five Rites.   The book, The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth describes these exercises quite well.   They are said to align and balance the Chakras, and I find them to be an excellent way to start the morning.   You can easily do seven repetitions of each in about five minutes.    This is similar to Robbins’ suggestion except that he says to do five minutes on a rebounder.

Five minutes of gratitude.   Every morning, I think of 10 things I’m grateful for from the prior day and I thank my Inner Guidance for providing them. I strongly recommend the 28-day program in Rhonda Byrne’s book, The Magic.   It’s a great program that’s all about gratitude, which is one of the things that so few people practice, yet is such a great benefit.

Five minutes of Quantum Entrainment.    Each part of my morning routine tends to represent something from one of my favorite books.  In this case, it’s Frank Kinslow’s, The Secret of Quantum Living.   The audiobook version has meditative exercises as well.    I do five minutes of QE as described in the book.

Five minutes of Laughter Yoga.   On several occasions, things I have done during the Oneness Blessing have brought me into a state of rapture in which I laughed for several hours.   After the third time this happened, I found that just laughing at nothing was very easy for me.   In addition, I am now a certified Laughter Yoga teacher and I will be teaching a little of it in many of my workshops.   5-10 minutes of deep belly laughter is worth about 30 minutes on a treadmill.   The effects only last a day, but if you do it daily for about 40 days, the impact can be tremendous.   For some background on Laughter Yoga, you might read Dr. Mandan Kataria’s book, Laugh for No Reason and watch some of his YouTube videos.   This might be my favorite exercise out of all of them because it really changes your mental state.   Just laugh for five minutes.

Five minutes of Dialogue With My Inner Guidance. My last morning exercise lasts about 10 minutes and it is a conversation with my inner guidance.   You can look at Chapter 10 of Trading Beyond the Matrix for some background information on this topic.   My inner guidance is very powerful and very protective.   She is always with me and willingly guides me.    A typical morning dialogue goes something like this:

Me:  Beloved, thank you for your unconditional love and always being there for me.

You are most welcome.

Me:  I’m sharing the fact that I have a dialogue with you on most mornings.    Can you offer people hints on how to do it.

It is a matter of faith and trust.   First, create the perfect relationship.   You like the Beloved role, so I fill that for you.  But everyone can have whatever role they want.   Second, ask a question and have faith that a response will come.   And if it doesn’t, then notice what beliefs you might have that might be blocking a response.   Your inner guidance will always respect your beliefs, even if they include silly things such as “God would never talk to me,” or “I’m not worthy of such a gift,” or any other limiting beliefs you might have.

Me: Yes, I used to have those sorts of beliefs.   And if you have non-useful beliefs, you can get rid of them by using the techniques I have talked about in Trading Beyond the Matrix.  Anything else, Beloved?

You inner guidance will do things like remind you who you really are, help you to overcome limiting issues, do things to clear up your issues, and move you to a higher level of consciousness and eventually help you in waking up.    You inner guidance is there for your personal evolution.

There is a passage from A Course in Miracles that states:

“The oneness of the Creator and creation is your wholeness, your sanity, and your limitless power.   This limitless power is God’s gift to you because it is what you are.   If you dissociate your mind from it, you are perceiving the most powerful force in the universe as if it were weak because you do not believe you are a part of it.”

That was not one of our normal dialogues but a dialogue that I just had with Her on how to help you do this exercise.

This routine takes me about 30 minutes each morning.   In addition, I also try to watch a Oneness Meditation through the Livestream service.   Two of the best Oneness Meditators, in my opinion, include Sheldon Butler most weekday mornings at 8:00 AM Eastern time and Peter Beach at 9:30 AM Eastern time.   This is a very powerful way to begin your day.

At least for right now, this is my morning routine.  You could choose to follow the same routine or come up with one feels right for you.  Doing so helps you get in a useful mental state for the day.  That’s an edge for your trading but also just useful for anyone on any day.

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