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.