Hey Steve, the search function here isn't always the best, I know you've mentioned meditating in the morning somewhere and wanted to include your words in this post. When I type, "morning meditation" in the search function I get 37 pages of results. So I've got a bit of work to do where patience is concerned.
I am intrigued by this topic and find so much of what we are looking for to be relayed by the Masters so I hope you don't mind my excessive quoting of both Paramahansa Yogananda and Hazrat Inayat Khan.
How to be in the world but not pulled by its forces...
One who meditates daily and cultivates the taste for peace and contentment, gradually forsaking indulging in the in sense pleasures, has a chance for spiritual emancipation. A very good habit to cultivate is the one of meditating immediately upon awakening from sleep. After that period of meditation, filled with the offerings of the soul, one may enjoy, with no feeling of compulsion or sensory attachment, the self-controlled use of the senses in such pleasures as eating, association with friends, and so forth. In this way man finds that he is spiritualizing or changing the quality of all material enjoyments.
Deceived by desire....
The difficulty is that the spiritual beginner- and even the advancing devotee when he temporarily falls into a negative state- can scarcely distinguish between his reason-governed use of the senses and his greed-governed sense appetites. His bad sense habits, even if they appear to be under control and friendly, may be merely waiting for the right moment to destroy him with their temptations.
Paramahansa Yogananda from GTWA page 155.
