Day 312 Had some delays in the morning, but I was able to stick with my minutes during the day. 'Just' the allotted 60 minutes today. 5 minutes: focus meditation 30 minutes: breathing meditation 15 minutes: breathing meditation 10 minutes: focus meditation 60 minutes of meditation - DONE
23/02/2024: Morning Meditation: Day: 328 Week: 48 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Extroceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Open ) - DONE (( Exceptional Morning )) ------------------------------------------- Evening Meditation: Day: 328 Week: 48 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Introceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Closed ) - DONE (( Exceptional Evening ))
Day 313 Had a busy day where I picked up my girl and we went on holiday. Made some long sessions to stick with my minutes. 5 minutes: focus meditation 24 minutes: breathing meditation 31 minutes: breathing meditation 60 minutes of meditation - DONE
your morning Zen wake-up call The YouTube algorithm, apparently aware I had lunch last week with an old friend who practices Zen, offered this video: Her favorite Zen poet writes: We come into this world To eat, to sleep, to shit And at the end one thing left To die - Zen Master Ikkyu She continues: "This is something that makes me very happy.". It's a really fun video. Seriously. So much laughter! EK sez, check it out. It makes me happy too, like an enormous burden has been lifted. a bigger, better, offer I've posted many times about Judson Brewer, an addiction specialist who asks addicts what would be the "bigger, better, offer" to displace the object of their current compulsion. The first post was almost exactly four years ago. I now know what that "bigger, better, offer", the "pearl of great price", is for me. Meditation. All the years of time tracking made one things very clear: I had many, many hours each day which I simply couldn't use. I would be too tired, the mind too cloudy, unwilling/unable to focus. I've been waking up 5 - 6 hours after falling asleep, heart pumping, fear and anxiety in my chest, mind racing. I realized last night I don't worry about it anymore. I just put on my headphone and a meditation timer set to two hours, lie on my back in shivasana, open my eyes and begin. When it's time to get up, the mind is clear and I feel great. What the hell, right? I have nothing to lose. I do the same thing in the mid-afternoon. I'm completely useless for work or anything else, so why pretend. Clock in another hour, hour and a half, and I'm ready to go again. Here I am, doing something semi-useful, or at least something that takes functional brain cells to do. (Though some readers may differ ) So I've turned all that dead time, three, four, sometimes five hours a day, into something that lets me shake of the things that torment me. Except "shake off" is too active. It's more like they "don't stick". I got tweaked (as usual) in the weekly meeting. Usually this means days of rehashing the meaning of a fleeting facial expression, followed by a long tortured email looking for reassurance. This time, I just hit the bed and an hour later it was not a problem. I used to organize my life around porn. Now I organize it around meditation. That's my "bigger, better, offer". -EK PS: No doubt Alan Wallace would say I'm not even a beginner. Please don't construe this as bragging. I'm not a "natural" at all. It's in the spirit of a success story. If you have some inclination to try meditation, it's worth a try.
24/02/2024: Morning Meditation: Day: 329 Week: 48 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Extroceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Open ) - DONE (( Exceptional Morning )) ------------------------------------------- Evening Meditation: Day: 329 Week: 48 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Introceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Closed ) - DONE (( Exceptional Evening ))
Day 314 Although I had many things to do, I had some of my minutes in. 5 minutes: focus meditation 21 minutes: breathing meditation 15 minutes: breathing meditation 41 minutes of meditation - DONE
25/02/2024: Morning Meditation: Day: 330 Week: 48 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Extroceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Open ) - DONE (( Exceptional Morning )) ------------------------------------------- Evening Meditation: Day: 330 Week: 48 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Introceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Closed ) - DONE (( Exceptional Evening ))
Day 60 20 minutes Sometimes life cannot be explained, and that's ok. We might feel frustrated by this, and that's ok too.
Day 315 I can manage my minutes of meditation. Even when I'm on vacation. 15 minutes: focus meditation 20 minutes: breathing meditation 10 minutes: focus meditation 15 minutes: focus meditation 60 minutes of meditation - DONE
26/02/2024: Morning Meditation: Day: 331 Week: 49 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Extroceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Open ) - DONE (( Exceptional Morning )) ------------------------------------------- Evening Meditation: Day: 331 Week: 49 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Introceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Closed ) - DONE (( Exceptional Evening ))
Day 0 of 100: I am back at it after 4 consecutive days without meditating. 20 minutes of meditation done today!
Day 316 Had a quiet holiday day today. We did some sightseeing and I had the opportunity to meditate. 15 minutes: focus meditation 15 minutes: breathing meditation 15 minutes: focus meditation (I fell asleep, so this one didn't count) 15 minutes: focus meditation 15 minutes: focus meditation 60 minutes of meditation - DONE
27/02/2024: Morning Meditation: Day: 332 Week: 49 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Extroceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Open ) - DONE (( Exceptional Morning )) ------------------------------------------- Evening Meditation: Day: 332 Week: 49 Month: 10 05 Minutes - Introceptive Mindfulness Meditation ( Eyes Closed ) - DONE (( Exceptional Evening ))