Day 4
Length: 12 minutes (timed)
Start: 7:30pm
Experience:
I spent the day working, then drove to my girlfriends and we went out to eat. After lazing around for an hour or so I decided I should get my meditation in while the night was young. This meant I had to work against the distractions of my SO. She happily lets me follow my practice but makes sure to chide me, and some of her words stick with me throughout.
I attempted to meditate while the television was on in the other room, sort of as a way of tracking my ability to ignore it. Looking back I was able to overcome it after a few minutes by concentrating on my breath. There was no frustration in my mind this time, which is a change. I'm no longer disheartened or frustrated by concentration difficulties. It just is.
I reach into the deep relaxation quicker now, with a slightly improved frequency. Unfortunately the deeper relaxation seems to feed into wandering thoughts of my life and situation. I think that if I was less stressed I would have less of a problem concentrating.
A positive though - despite two extra minutes of meditation time, I have almost no thoughts at all about the length or concerns about the duration I've been sitting. This is an improvement I can really get behind!
Closing thoughts: 'Active distractions' like a TV in the other room are very detrimental to my practice but may be unavoidable as I can't guarantee alone time some days. Despite this I am finding small incremental improvements; I spent less time thinking about the duration of my meditation and no longer feel bad about my own lack of concentration.
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