A Guide to Wake N’ Bake Meditation

So, you’ve decided to begin your study into the ancient art of the enigmatic wake n’ bake – the age-old technique that has been passed down from the most elite stoner lore.

While simple in nature, it does take monk-like patience and concentration to perfect, like catching a fly using chopsticks. But once you master it, your morning will be transformed into something truly profound, which has lasting effects that can inspire you to kick every day’s ass.

And it all begins with you getting your lazy ass out of bed before sunrise.

Defeating the Snooze Button

I used to be the worst at getting up in the morning. It always seemed as though no matter how long or well I slept through the night, it would always feel incredibly taxing to get out of bed in the morning. And if I had somewhere to be, like work or some other adulting thing, it would make the actual process of getting through it feel like hell. Throw in the occasional fit of depression and physical ailments, and mornings can be a recipe for the worst part of the day.

But the past few years, I’ve made it this habit to push myself to get up early, before sunrise, and created rituals around starting the day of right. At first, my intention was to wake up and work out, going to the gym at obscure hours when you can count on one hand how many other people are there.

The hardest part was defeating the snooze button. There is nothing eviler than the snooze button. It’s like a friend that always drags you down. It’s literally a tool designed to help and enable someone to procrastinate. Now it can save you, I guess, acting as sort of a backup alarm when you give a metaphorical middle finger to the first one, but maybe you need to miss that bus to work once in a while to overcome ever using it in the first place. I highly suggest throwing it out entirely, never using it, or better yet, never needing it. The key is getting to the point where you don’t need it – when that initial alarm goes off, you’re jumping out of the bed whether you “want to” or not.

I seriously get it – getting up early sucks, but I swear to you, it doesn’t have to. With a bit of planning and simply taking an initiative to make it not suck (like getting a decent amount of sleep, not falling asleep on an empty stomach, etc.), it becomes incredibly less taxing and actually something to look forward to. As someone who loves staying up late at night, I feel I’m missing out on something, but the mornings are truly where it’s at. Most people are still sleeping and you get to bear witness to dawn and all its beauty. And when I began to incorporate weed into that ritual, that’s when things really went to another level.

There is something incredibly inspiring about watching a sunrise, ideally in the solitude of some kind, while puffing a blunt, as the smoke swirls in with the morning dew. It’s the perfect moment to reflect upon yourself a bit and the day ahead. It’s a great time to prepare mentally for any hardships ahead and address any type of insecurities you may have.

Like a bowl of Wheaties for breakfast, this has become the perfect way to start my day. It has become something of a meditative experience, and pretty much an essential part of my day. Incorporating weed into my morning ritual also helped to ignore that snooze button so much easier because I began to get excited to get up so early. But if that’s not enough to help you backflip out of bed when your one and only alarm goes off, maybe you should implement some other kind of activity in your ritual.

Planning + Choosing An Activity

Technically anyone that smokes in the morning is wake n’ baking, but to intentionally make it into a meditative experience transforms it into something more than just getting high at dawn. Most people, even veteran stoners, tend to forget that marijuana is a mild psychedelic, and anyone who has experimented with other psychedelics will tell you that they are not drugs used to ‘party’ or ‘get fucked up’. So I firmly believe that people using pot to ‘get wasted’ are doing it wrong.

As a mild psychedelic, cannabis possesses the ability to give users mind-altering, perception-shifting experiences, and I don’t believe you need to eat an entire pack of death stars to get there. Sometimes a joint and a good experience with an open mind is all you need.

When it comes down to it, weed just makes everything better. So incorporating something fun and/or products into your morning wake n’ bake routine can be the beginning of something truly special. Personally, I like anything physically challenging and in nature. Going to the gym can be great, but Covid has made me wary of going back, so I’ve taken up home workouts and activities that don’t always have other people around, such as skateboarding. I also enjoy taking long hikes which I start about a half-hour before sunrise so I can catch the whole thing. And to make those hikes even more interesting, I try to take a new route each time, which lets me explore every nook and cranny of my town, explore some local graffiti art, while taking note of any secret smoke spots for later.

Think about what type of activity would compliment your wake n’ bake meditation. And if it’s your prerogative, you don’t even have to leave the house. I good book or study session can be uplifting. I also recommend doing an activity that is hard for you to do during your normal day to day; maybe something you don’t, but wish you did, have more time to enjoy.

Wake n’ bake and catching sunrises are really just a metaphor for doing whatever makes you happiest to help kick the day off right. The act of meditation helps make it a growing experience. Use the time to think about life, where you are going, and how you are going to get there. Build the confidence it takes to tackle not just the day, but the long road ahead. The ability to set the tone for the rest of your day begins and ends with you, and coming to terms with that and learning to seize it is a character skill that can truly change your life.

Seize the Day

Most people are not early birds, so the solitude of early mornings is what truly attracts some of us. City streets that are usually littered with cars, pedestrians, and noise are now eerily calm and quiet; and all those boring roads in your neighborhood that you think you knew somehow take in a new light as the sunrise hits it and your high is just right.

This wake n’ bake is YOUR time. Enjoy that weed as if you were smoking the last blunt in existence. If you don’t feel like being introspective or going to the gym, that’s ok. You can melt into the couch like the girl in that old anti-pot commercial if you feel so inclined.

As you get past the hard part of routinely waking up and overcoming that horrid snooze button, you should exploit the hell out of that routine with anything that you love, anything that puts you in a good mood and will help put you in the right perspective to seize the day.