Day 6 Meditation Thoughts

Had a rough week, so today is the first day of progress in a while. I'm not beat up about it, undue pressure isn't the way forward with this.

I've tried meditation a few times, and regularly find myself without much in the way of thoughts. I find myself just looking at the colours on the insides of my eyelids (if this makes sense?)

Even through that, I can see the benefit of a few moments of calm to just centre yourself. I come away feeling far more connected and at peace. It helps with my anxiety and similar, because I can just let thoughts go for a few moments, because that's all they are. Thoughts.

My only wish is that I did it more frequently, and got into a better habit of doing it.

 

This is excellent, @GAC ! I agree, it’s so great to meditate, but hard to establish the habit. Once when I was having a debilitating period of anxiety (I was having panic attacks and I was housebound) I started meditating and I did it faithfully for a year. My anxiety was almost cured by this. The trick was I meditated at the same time every day, sitting in the same chair. I really need to do this again! Maybe we both can.

 

You can do shorter meditations a few times/day every time you have a small break/pause.
2 min or 3 min, even if you do just a breathing exercise for one min and then a 2 min meditation. It will help you tremendously. It's not hard to implement this habit. You can practice it even when you are using the bathroom. I'm serious here, no shame in mentioning this. Or before you start eating. Or at work, just close your eyes for one min and relax the mind.

Another tip is to never think about whether to start meditating or not. Just do it, without thinking about starting or not. If you start thinking about it...you'll come up with 1000 reasons not to do it. So...just do it and that's it.

Take care.

 

Love this advice, @Sita !!!

 

This is fantastic advice. And really quite thought provoking and addresses many of my previous issues: Scheduling time. Finding the time. Finding an appropriate place.I think I became too wrapped up in ensuring the perfect environment and having the right length of time, without appreciating that 5 times of 3 minutes is better than failing to find 10 minutes each day.

With your method I'm already thinking that I can find a few minutes on the toilet multiple times a day. Or those spare 5 minutes after a video call at work a few times.

 

Ha ha, that was funny. )

Yes! We do what we can.

 

I'm laughing at this but at the same time thinking that I regularly spend my bathroom times reading (depressing/negative) news articles on Reddit! Which has the opposite effect of meditation. I'm actually going to make it my goal to implement toilet meditation!

I just did my first eight minute meditation in about a year. I actually had a hard time being in the moment, bc I would very quickly fall into short daydreams, which I would suddenly "awaken" from and at that point I'd remind myself to continue the body scan / muscle relaxation.

As long as I don't fall asleep on the toilet!