meditate daily

I did a Primordial Sound Meditation Course in Dublin last weekend http://www.thehappinessbusiness.com/php/form.php?id=78

I’ve been meditating, on & off for over a decade, and my main failing is lack of discipline when I’m not meditating with other people.

The Primordial Sound Meditation is similar to TM in that it gives you a specific Mantra allocated according to your date & time of birth. The Mantra is “thought” over again during the meditation.

I’ve found it a really good technique & have meditated far more than I’ve ever done on my own before- int he past I might have managed 10-15mins on my own, with this I have no problem doing 30mins, as long as I schedule the time appropriately!

I’m looking forward to continuing to use this method.

At the moment I feel like I’m almost nodding off- this morning myhead jerked several times as if I’d fallen asleep & just woken up, despite having had a full night’s sleep.

It’s good that I’m doing it. Although I haven’t made much progress on this goal I won’t give up on it. i see this as a continual work in progress.

one of the realisations that I had while on the course was that during the meditation practice it is a constant letting go of thoughts, issues, concerns etc & it struck me- for the first time that wasn’t that a great practice for real life :) When we let go we free ourselves up to find solutions :)

Today will be day 201, counting from Feb 25th. There have been challenges, not the least of which is that I still don’t have a routine down for when I sit. Actually, I think I have two routines. 1. I sit in the morning before work and 2. I squeeze it in last minute before bed. Guess which happens more frequently?

What sort of annoys me is that even on weekends and vacation, I still frequently squeeze in the 10-20 minute sit right before bed.

My discipline is so undisciplined.

Still, despite having considered giving this up as silly and far too goal directed, I have sat everyday, no matter what. Actually, a big part of the “no matter what” is the nagging thought that this is silly and too goal directed. Also, of course, a long list of other life thingies. Sick. Tired. Busy. Drunk. Healthy. Bored. Out of Town. Camping. Combinations of the above.

My brother has saved the day a number of times, including Tired/Drunk/Camping where I crawled into my tent and fell asleep to be re-woken by him with “did you sit?” I sat up and meditated half asleep in the dark in my tent.

It is also helpful that a friend of mine said I was an inspiration and it re-ignited her own practice. How can I quit because I’m a lazy sleepyhead when somebody called me inspiring?

I hope others of you with this goal are finding your practice rewarding and enriching. May you be calm, happy and peaceful and overcome all obstacles with confidence and gentleness.

It is still before noon. I think I’ll go sit. How about you?

Started again yesterday. Just for 30 minutes, and how that monkey mind was roaming. Meditation is one of those things that I KNOW is good for me, in so many ways. Why is it so hard, then, to light a candle, set myself down on a cushion, close my eyes and breathe?

I started a new job last year, Feb 11th. Doing so really made it challenging to meditate regularly since when working from home, my pattern was to sit after a few hours of work and then return to work. This is easy when working from home.

When going to an office, doing anything in the mornings before work or in the evenings after work is challenging for me. I still sat, but my goal is to sit daily.

I kept thinking about that metaphor about how brushing one’s teeth twice a day for 2 min is much better than brushing one’s teeth once a week for an hour.

On Shambhala Day this year, Feb 25th, I made a vow to sit everyday for the next year NO MATTER WHAT. I actually started a couple weeks before that to make sure I started with some momentum. To make it so that I could realistically do this when sick, or on vacation, or experiencing some kind of personal trauma, I set the minimum time low: 10 minutes.

This week I’ll make 100 days in a row of sitting for a minimum of 10 minutes. This last month, my set time has been 20 min, and I only reserve 10 min for when it is really difficult (super tired, extremely busy, out of town, sick… etc.).

How’s everyone else in the team doing?

Usually when I am refilling our giant water jugs at the coop, I make a game out of dashing up and down the aisles, seeing how many items I can cross off my list and still get back to the water jug before it overflows. This time I just stood there. And breathed. In. And Out.

On the second or third jug (we have 5) I started closing my eyes and listening for the change in sound as the empty space in the jug gets smaller when it’s almost filled up. It seemed kind of relaxing and meditative—except for the need to open my eyes quick when I hear the jug is almost full and shut off the water before it overflows!

Maybe next time I’ll skip the eye-closing part.

I have been doing this before bed every work night for a few months, with a brief lapse while I was sick. I feel like this is making a big difference for my stress levels and the quality of sleep I get at night. I’m not going to work on increasing to every single day for now. Just this is a fabulous change.

I got sick 2 weeks ago: I stayed home from work and I was sleeping all the time, some days I barely got out of bed. Since then I haven’t settled back into the before-bed meditation habit that I have been enjoying for a few months. Help! I miss my meditation.

For the last few nights I have fully intended to start again: into the bedroom at 9:30 for quiet time before bed. But each night something comes up at 9:25 and it doesn’t happen. Last night it was a program on aging that it was very important to my partner that I watch to inspire conversation about my aging parents.

OK team, back me up here. Tonight, nothing will deter me!

This morning I was ahead of schedule getting ready for work. I had 10 minutes before I had to leave, and all I needed to do in that time was check my hair in the bathroom mirror. But my roommate was in the bathroom. Instead of going to the computer to see if anything new was going on in my online world (here or on Facebook or on my email) since I had checked it 15 minutes before… I just sat. And breathed. And waited for the bathroom to be free. No need to rush. No need to let the computer rule my existence.

It was nice.

So last week I really committed myself to this goal. I blocked out time at 9:30 every work night to meditate for as long as I choose, and it made such a dramatic improvement in my mood, my sleep, my ability to focus at work… I just love it! I stopped keeping track of how many minutes I sit for. Now it’s just a binary: either I did it or I didn’t. My competitive nature used to love to tally the number of minutes and try to increase that number from previous time periods… so it seemed like a radical idea to just let go of that and stop keeping track. But I think this will be better for me. Now it’s more about the quality of the feeling I am trying to create, and less about the number of minutes.

Every time I see this message, it’s an opportunity to close my eyes and focus on breathing and relaxation.