6 months of daily meditation: review
I don’t have a photo of me meditating because I’m almost always alone with my eyes closed (not ideal conditions for a photo!)
I’ve just hit 183 - the halfway mark to my goal of 365 days of meditating! Here’s a review:
It’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve really been pushing myself to meditate in the morning no matter what. It’s such a relief not to get into bed at 12:30 and think “ah! I forgot to meditate!” I’m trying to make morning meditation a non-negotiable.
Some days, I do a 30 minute guided meditation, and other days, it’s 5 minutes of deep, focused breathing. I’m not regimented about it - I do what I feel like, which keeps it enjoyable and fun, and not a chore. I think this is a major key to habit formation. Keeping it FUN (e.g. I could be running harder and faster, I could be doing more push up training, but I’m determined to keep them enjoyable and fun, so I just focus on keeping the habits).
I’m most surprised about this: I don’t think I’ve progressed in terms of being able to focus on my breath for longer. I’m equally as distracted as I was when I began. I’m not sure if this is because I’m not working on it very much (e.g. 5 or 10 mins a day compared to hours), or if I’m just not “doing it right” - an idea that I very much resist, as that’s not my aim of meditating (see point 4).
My aim is to feel good and enjoy it in the moment. This isn’t really about “getting to 365 days” as a goal - it’s about forming the habit of taking care of myself. I just love a challenge - it gets me more excited than “meditate every day” would. (I’ve tried that too, for the past 10 years, and failed miserably, so tip, if you’re struggling to form a habit, make it a challenge!).
I love guided meditations the most. Today I did an incredibly blissful 5 minute one.
It still doesn’t feel like a habit, because I’m doing it at different times of the day. However, I know from past experience that if I stopped, after a few days I would really notice and crave it.
When I’m anxious or stressed, I often think to meditate as a solution. It works!
I’m looking forward to the next 182 days - I’m so grateful I started this challenge.
My top 3 guided meditation recommendations:
Do you have a meditation practice? Let me know about yours in the comments by clicking the blog title!
