Author unknown – may be Yogi Bhajan himself – submitted by Satwant Singh Khalsa, courtesy of MorningSadhana.org

Create a purification ritual that you never fail to perform. Wake yourself gently in the morning and do the standard wake-up exercises. Before you wake in the morning, your mind gives you a signal to awake.

At that signal, turn on your back with your eyes closed. Make your hands like cups and place them over your eyes. Look into the palms and slowly raise your hands to 1½ feet.

Do Cat Stretch several times to each side: One knee comes to the chest and across the body as the arm stretches up.

Stretch Pose for 1-3 minutes with Long Deep Breath or Breath of Fire. Relax for 2-3 minutes.

Then bring both knees into the chest to release gas. Rock back-and-forth to massage the spine.

Sit up and come into Easy Pose with the arms straight and the hands in Gyan Mudra on the knees. Take at least 26 long, deep, complete breaths. Feel energy charging the bloodstream and the breath recharging every cell in your body.

Then, to build your aura, put your arms at 60° for Ego Buster (fingertips pulled in tightly to the pads of the hands) with Breath of Fire for 1-3 minutes. Inhale and bring your thumb tips together over your head. Then exhale and continue your wake up routine.

Remember to drink a few glasses of water.

Take either a cold shower or do a sequence of cold-warm-cold showers. Traditionally as you shower and cleanse the body, you clear the mind with positive thoughts, mantra or spiritual songs. Let the clear flow of the water clean your aura of nighttime thoughts. Stimulate your circulation to flush the residues of nocturnal cleansing out of your body. You cannot meditate easily if your circulation is still in patterns suited for sleep or drowsiness. Massage the whole body, especially the feet, hands, face and ears while in the shower. If you are extra kind to yourself rub almond oil on your skin before you get into the shower. This simple treatment will maintain the health of the skin and calm scattered thoughts and anxious feelings.

After your shower, wear clothes that are comfortable, loose, flexible, and neat and clean. White is the best color for sadhana clothes. This color reflects all colors and it automatically adds several inches to the aura. Do not wear the same clothes to sadhana that you wore to bed. You must communicate to your consciousness in any way you can that sadhana is a special activity. Conscious attention to how you dress will help your mind be more alert and far more cooperative because it knows an important event is about to take place.

Before starting the practice of Japji and Kundalini Yoga, cover the head with a natural fiber cloth. Ideally this is white cotton. In many traditions it is a turban or scarf. It modulates the smooth functioning of the seventh chakra and creates subtle protection over the flows of energy released in deep meditation.

If you use a meditation blanket or shawl, choose a natural fiber—wool, silk, or cotton—and use it only for meditation. Over a period of time the shawl will gain the same qualities as the meditative space and anchor the attitudes of meditation. Eventually, just putting it on will aid your efforts.