From The Art of Total Thinking – Chapter 5

 The First Thought of the Day

When you wake up in the morning, observe the first thought that occurs to your mind. This will give you an idea of the predominant thoughts which were governing your previous day’s life, or several earlier days. Make this habit of noting down the first thought that occurs in the morning continuously for days together, or even months. You will be surprised that very often when we get up in the morning we rise up with such anxiety and a rush of a feeling of responsibility that we would not have the occasion to note down the first thought. We are pushed into activity by the impulse of anxiety in the direction of the duties of the particular day. But it is good to have a habit of trying to note down the first thought that occurs in the morning.

Generally what we like the most or hate the most will be the thing that occurs to our mind first. There are among the many ideas of our mind certain intensive propulsions of the psyche which lie as an undercurrent of the other ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., and these predominant ideas are those connected with what we intensely like or intensely dislike. No one can be free from these psychic habituations.

Why do these thoughts occur to the mind? They have a connection with far-reaching implications. They may be messages from distant realms. The distant regions may be spatially far away from us or inwardly deep in our own unconscious layers. However, on a careful investigation into the nature of these thoughts which occurred first in the morning, we will know what we are. Knowledge of what we really are will be given to us by a study of an average of these first thoughts that occur for a continuous period.

Each one of us is an individual, playing a role in this drama of creation, and we are neither necessary nor unnecessary. We have an importance, and we have no importance. Both statements are correct. Now, in this situation, who is a friend and who is an enemy? What is it that we can like, and what is it that we cannot like? Thus conduct your meditational activity in the early morning. These are the ways in which we can bring our thoughts to a concentrated focus of wholeness.

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“The Art of Total Thinking – Chapter 5: The First Thought of the Day” by  Swami Krishnananda

Inspiring messages from Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India