January 7, 2013

100 Day Meditation Challenge: Week 1 Retrospective

I was wondering what I'd really do as an introspective after writing so much about my internal thoughts throughout this exercise, but I quickly noticed that this could be a way of homing in on problems I was having and helping others to overcome them.

Morning Meditation - I still firmly believe the best time for meditation is in the morning before any other people around you are moving around. It's more peaceful and it stops you from worrying about getting it done. If I ever get a handle on myself and get to bed at a decent hour I'm going to set the alarm a half hour early so I can do some pre-work meditating.

Monkey-mind Realization - This is talked about in the simple buddha and I had forgotten the phrase until Lee Eddy reminded me in the comments of my first post. The mind will jump around and cling to whatever it is given, especially noisy distractions. If someone in your life is watching television or being loud you'll need to try to get away from them lest it interrupt your practice. I must become a bit better at moving away. Music gets locked in and interrupts me in the worst way!

Fatigue - I don't get sleepy and yawn but when I'm fatigued the quality of my attention degrades rapidly. I must sleep more and meditate earlier to avoid this, I sincerely doubt a cup of coffee prior to mindful meditation will do me any good. Reducing my stress would help, but I need to be smart. Buying a car just to get it over with would be ridiculous!

Duration - Ramp up slowly or it will feel like a chore. I've been doing alright with 10 minutes to start but a part of me craves more.

Small Benefits - I've come to some interactions in my daily life that were slower then normal, I actually took the time to think about them and work them over in my mind before attacking them. This is odd for me, and I sincerely believe it has shown some improvement. I have been a bit more mindful as well, self-talking more positively. It's like these little pieces of the day I've taken and decided are for this have rediscovered the audience of myself again, and I'm more receptive to this input then I realized.

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