Breath in while saying wake up. The tone and substance of this message is simple. What does wake up mean to you? Breath out and say I am. Same message, what does it mean to you? To me, I live in a Jewish-christian culture. My culture makes me more like it than the other way around. So, I tend to belive I am being reborn or remade when I say wake up. I hope I wake up fresh and alert. I believe it. Breath out believing that I am dead.
To live and to die is natural. In our culture we tend to believe more in living than death, but we are in a cycle of both. And we believe the end is death. Again culture has a huge impact on our individuality. We believe we will eventually die. But perhaps it may help to realize we die a little bit at a time. Every breath out is a little symbol of this death.
Perhaps this is a good meditation. Breath in and say wake up. Breath out and say I am.