Listening
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The past few weeks, I’ve felt like I’ve been ignoring a message meant explicitly for me. A handful of times, I’ve been nudged toward meditation, but haven’t done anything about it except notice.
Finally, I decided I better do something about it, or risk missing whatever I was supposed to learn or experience.
Today’s blog entry is a recap of my first five days of meditation.
1st Day
Day 1: I began with a Google search for beginning meditation YouTube videos. I found a 10-Minute Meditation for Beginners by Goodful and found a quiet place in my home to begin. The soft male voice encouraged me that meditation is good for helping you think before reacting, something I could’ve used long ago. I got a couple minutes in, sitting in a relaxed position, eyes closed, breathing in deeply, when an ad interrupted - “Watch what happens when eating blueberries every day causes five pounds of poop to get stuck-”. I clicked out of the ad and right back to my “relaxed” breathing, but was definitely contemplating how many blueberries I’d eaten lately vs trips to the bathroom.
I did feel better afterwards than I had at the beginning and I was able to focus on what the video was saying, rather than letting my thoughts go in a thousand different directions. I’ll keep trying it.
2nd Day
Day 2: My Google search resulted in 10 Minute Relaxing Guided Meditation for Beginners by The Body Coach. I sat in the same place and as soon as it started, I was told to simply notice any aching or tension in the body. Found it! Next, we started breathing in through the nose and out through the nose. She instructed me to inhale, 1, exhale, and on the next inhale, continue on with 2, and then exhale. I was to keep going like that as long as my mind didn’t wander. Every time my mind wandered to something other than my breath, I had to start over again at 1. My breathing pattern looked like this: inhale, 1, exhale. Thinking about what else I have to do today. Inhale, 1, exhale. Thinking about some software I need to find the price of. Inhale, 1, exhale. Inhale, 2, exhale. Thinking about where we would take the dogs for their walk today. Inhale, 1, exhale.
By the time we wrapped up, I had only made it to 3, with a ton of 1s. The coach mentioned, as I opened my eyes, that focusing on the breath gets easier with time. She said some days she goes up to 15, and other times, she only makes it to 3.
I walked away feeling good about it, but realizing that I have little control over my thoughts.
3rd Day
Day 3: Today I chose 5-Minute Meditation You Can Do Anywhere by Mindful. I almost forgot to meditate, but fit it in right before bed. The one thing I loved was that it said, “to think about something that made you smile, made you thankful or appreciative.” I discovered a report today that I could feed my almost-half written book into. With the amount of positivity and encouragement the report gave me, it made me feel like I’m following the authentic path laid out for me.
The video also told me “to thank my body for taking such good care of me. And thinking about what I could do for others that would continue bringing me joy.” This also made me smile because I’m secretly creating something special for a weekend away with my friends. More about this later.
Today’s video made me realize that short meditations are just as good as the longer ones.
4th Day
Day 4: I was excited to find a Yoga by Adriene meditation. Adriene’s my gal for all things yoga related and I’m finding that the more meditation I do, the more it reminds me of her yoga sessions. With her as my yoga coach, the focus is always on the breath and it’s hard to think of all the things you need to do when you’re concentrating on how many counts your inhale is. The title of her video is 7-Minute Meditation to Start Your Day.
This was a bit different because even though I was in a comfortable seated position with my eyes closed, as I was inhaling and exhaling, she was directing me to bow my head and then look up to the ceiling. Then I was moving my head to the left and the right, so she managed to get a couple yoga moves in there, too.
I was just settling in when I felt a nose on my hand resting in my lap. My dog, Jill, needed some attention. She had been so quiet coming to find me that I was surprised by the nudge. From that moment on, it was hard to concentrate because if I stopped petting her, she put her paw on my arm, like, “Listen, Mom, I came all the way upstairs to find you, the least you can do is pay some attention to me.”
5th Day
Day 5: the best day yet! Today’s meditation was titled 10-Minute Guided Meditation for Complete Beginners by Jess Yoga. What I really appreciated about this video was that she explained so much of the reasoning behind what I had been doing all week.
She said, “To make yourself more comfortable, sit on a pillow. It helps elevate the hips above the knees to create a straight spine.” She directed that I could place my hands gently in my lap with the palms up, “to receive,” or palms down, “for grounding.” I like this as on most days I feel the best with palms up. Now I know why.
She mentioned that “the goal of meditation isn’t to control your thoughts, but to stop letting your thoughts control you.” Ah! Someone finally told me the why behind meditation. She also said that she wanted me to just be a non-judgmental observer of the way my body felt and of the thoughts that came and went. Such a great idea to be less judgmental of ourselves.
I’m only five days in, but I already see the power of this. Honestly, anything that encourages you to sit quietly for a few minutes focusing on your breathing is something I can get behind. I’ll try to keep practicing it at least five days each week and report in again later. Even if it means I have to give up a few blueberries.