A little while ago I invited all of you to join me for the 10 for 10 Challenge. This challenge was to practice meditation 10 minutes a day for 10 days. I had wanted to try meditation for a while. I knew that it could be a good way to manage stress. I had also heard that prayer was when you talked to God and meditation was when you were quiet enough to here Him speak. Did any of you take the 10 for 10 Challenge with me? How did you do?
I wish I could say meditation was a wonderfully enlightening experience. I wish I could say that I felt closer to God. I wish I could say I felt more centered (I have no clue what that means but sounds like a good thing). I wish I could say I felt less stressed. But unfortunatley I cannot say any of these things.
Here is the run down of how the 10 for 10 challenge went for me.
Day 1 - I forgot to note where I was located during my 10 minutes of meditation. During the meditation I kind of zoned out. The 10 minutes felt long. I felt kind of fuzzy minded afterwards.
Day 2 - I did my Meditation in the car.I had a hard time staying awake. I felt like I was starting to either dream or have a memory but then I got distracted and was unable to recall it. I tried to imagine the word Joy as I said "Joy" during the meditation. I forgot to breath correctly wit the pause before the exhale. One really interesting thing was that the heart burn I had been experiencing temporarily stopped during the meditation.
Day 3 - I forgot to do the meditation. I made a note to add a day onto the end of the challenge to make up for the day I missed.
Day 4 - I felt calm during the meditation. I forgot to note where I was located during the 10 minutes. I started to fall asleep during the meditation. I paid more attention to breathing properly and saying the word Joy. I wondered if it was important to say the word out loud. I found it difficult to say the word Joy in one exhale.
Day 5 - Again I forgot to note where I was located during the meditation practice. I tried to focus more on the breathing and saying Joy outloud. I had a harder time visualizing images of Joy. I did managed to do the entire 10 minutes without checking the clock.
Day 6 - I almost forgot to do the meditation. I did it while I was in bed before falling asleep. I had lots of thoughts competing with me focusingon images of Joy. I fond saying Joy out loud helped me keep from falling asleep.
Day 7 - I did the meditation the first hing in the morning while still in bed. I wanted to get it out of the way. After the meditation I felt a little dissapointed. I was thinking that I was not sure if meditation was for me as I was trying to "get it out of the way" as opposed to looking forward to it.
Day 8 - I was actually kind of dreading the meditation. I felt stressed about having to sit and focus. I felt dissapointed that I was not getting any positive feelings from meditating. I realized that the entire point of my trying meditation was to reduce stress and thereby increase my apptitude for experiencing Joy. If the act of meditatin was making me more stressed than it defeated the pupose of the challenge. I opted to not Meditate that day and ended the Challenge.
I do not think meditation is for me. I am glad I tried it though, as a major part of my journey Chasing Joy is trying new things. I have not written it off entirely though. I think I may have a better experience with some sort of guided meditation (does that exist). I notice during my 1st hypnosis session (which I'll be telling you about soon) that It was easier for me to relax and quiet my mind while listening to someone else talk.
Do you meditate? Did you or will you give the 10 for 10 challenge a try? What was your experience, are you a meditation convert or did you have an experience similar to mine?
