The Meditation Experiment: Weeks 2-8
Well, I figure I owe you a summary of how my meditation experiment has gone, since about eight weeks have gone by.
Did I say daily meditation was easy? What I should say is that finding the time to meditate hasn’t been terribly hard—at least not for the first four or five weeks. But successfully quieting my mind has remained difficult. After trying to put my thoughts away for 10 to 30 minutes, I find myself a little frustrated: I’m not getting any better at this! I suppose improvement isn’t the point, though, is it? This isn’t quantifiable. There is no PRs here. Mind wandered only twice yesterday! Personal Record! Where’s my medal?
To be honest, I have to admit that over the last few weeks I’ve been slacking off with this experiment. When count yoga sessions as meditation, I’ve maybe been getting in meditation 3 or 4 times a week. And this number includes my “evening meditations” where I try my deep breathing and mantra repetition sitting in my kids’ room waiting for them to fall asleep for 10 to 20 minutes.
Here’s what’s changed since I started meditating in March:
I feel more creative: I’m feeling inspired to write more, and sometimes solutions to problems have come to me while I’m meditating.
I feel less emotionally reactive: My childrens’ shinanigans bother me less and the number of times I flip out on them is easily halved.
Here’s what hasn’t changed:
My immune system sucked: I got an ear infection, lost hearing for weeks, and battled a cold sore. But I usually get ill once a year and it’s in the late winter. Meditation just didn’t change that normal course for me.
I’m still no happier. But happiness is a complex beast and there’s no single solution.
The results of my meditation experiment are this: I think it’s worth it, it’s best done for at least 20 minutes at a time early in the day, and practicing it the same way each time most effective—repetition is key.
Tags: meditation
April 28th, 2011 at 4:28 am
Totally agree with all you said.. I’m doing a similar project with yoga (daily) and also incorporating meditation. I have a great timer on my phone which helps and I also find that if I practice yoga first I can sit for longer periods of time.
It’s helped me greatly by providing moments of silence.
May 1st, 2011 at 8:15 pm
I did and MBRS class this winter, and meditation is definitely both hard and wonderful at the same time. Mostly hard.
Once I really got that it is more about the continually returning to the present, and the moment of awareness that prompts you to return,I felt better about it. At first I measured “success” by how much time I spent being present, then I’d get annoyed that I mentally wandered off again. I couldn’t get myself to “improve” or be present for longer when it sounds so simple. But that’s not the point. The point for me is the moment of awareness (oh, look, my mind is back over there again!) and the returning, and that definitely started to feel more automatic as I did it more and more.
Good luck with it!