#8 - Meditate Every Day for 14 Days

I learned to really appreciate the power of meditation in 2015, when I traveled to Sri Lanka for a class. I'm sure I meditated for at least 14 days in a row during that time, but I found I had to be really intentional in making meditation a personal practice.

Last year, I meditated every day for 7 days. I had a timer on my phone that went off at 2:00pm each day. When at work, I'd shut my door, turn on my salt lamp, and start up the Headspace app, using the 10-day free Basics course. I found the middle of the afternoon was a perfect time to reset, to be quiet and just breathe. It gave me so much more energy to continue my day.

I loved using Headspace enough that paid for a membership and have continued that membership for a second year. While I don't use it to meditate daily, I find such value in the options, such as meditations for specific moments or situations and all of the sleep options, especially the sleep casts, which are basically simple stories without a plot, just a narrator describing what is around in some charming space, so it's completely fine to drift in and out without missing anything. The casts are so calming and are perfect for stopping my racing mind after a tough day.

My meditation chair
With cats

I have found I have to add meditation to my to do list to make sure I do it, otherwise I just won't take the time, even just 10 minutes. So to fit in 14 days in a row, I added it as the third thing on my list every day. I would start my day, and then eventually get to that point of my list, go to my meditation chair, and sit for 10 minutes, guided by the app, going through the Basics 2 course and the Motivation course.

I wish I could say the 14 days had been even more powerful than the 7 days last year. It wasn't. I made a go of it in late February, but then got caught up in the activities in one weekend and forgot a day, around 12 days into the 14. Then I started over again, just after quarantine for Covid-19.

I've found meditation to be extremely difficult when I'm anxious. I have trouble sitting still and find my mind wandering through things I need to do rather than focused on my breath. It's hard to say whether or not meditation helped in those days. Maybe I would have felt much worse without it. Maybe it helped immensely. I just don't know because of how hard those days were just in general. I've meditated a few times since then and still have trouble staying centered.

I still believe in the power of meditation and hope that soon I'll be able to practice some outside, with some green around me, as my regular space feels a little too jammed with stress to truly connect with myself. I am going to keep at it though because as Headspace reminds me, meditation isn't just for ourselves. It's so that we can better connect with others and serve the world, and I'm determined to practice in those hopes.