I’m actually starting to feel like my mind is more like the pic to the right! Yay!
I’m feeling pretty awesome about my achievement today. At the time of writing this post I’ve managed to meditate for a minimum of 10 mins per day for the last 14 days. Pretty cool eh? I’m most impressed with myself. What I’m more impressed about is the positive impact I feel it is having on my life, particularly my mood. Parenting is a tough gig as anyone will tell you and as the kids jump up and down on your buttons it can get harder and harder to hold it in and not break the good dinner set or smash your head into the wall. But since meditating I feel my breaking point has shifted.
Do I still get irritated? Of course. But not nearly as much. Hardly at all really. It’s quite amazing. By not losing my head every time my buttons are pushed I am able to more clearly look at the situation and figure out what might be happening to make my child act out and be naughty. Is he overly tired? Hungry? Have I been ignoring him while looking at my phone or computer? Is he hot/cold? Is there something about the environment that is upsetting? I couldn’t do that before. I was too busy feeling irritated and annoyed and telling him off. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes he still is just naughty and depending on the circumstances he still gets in trouble but we do more talking about it and less yelling and crying about it.
I was on my way down this path before I started the challenge but it has definitely been easier in this past week. Funnily enough I did grumble a bit last night and this morning but it would be about a 4 rating on the Orange Rhino scale (if anyone is doing that) which is the last tier in the acceptable ranges of telling off your kid so I think we are doing ok.
As for the week of meditation, here are some fast facts for you:
- The week started off with a one hour meditation at a Buddhist center. That went much more quickly then you’d imagine. I was quite surprised by the whole experience (it wasn’t without its weirdness though). There’s another post coming about that.
- My longest solo meditation this week was for 18mins. I don’t think I’ll ever be one of these people that goes at it for an hour or more on a regular basis. Twenty mins seems about my max and I’m all good with that.
- Wednesday was a cracker of a day. My best so far. I meditated in the sun which was so awesome. I felt all white and light. Like those pics you see of people wearing white linen and meditating in the sun.
I actually felt a bit like this.
I also had an aha moment when I saw a really cranky chick at the service station. She was swearing and carrying on over something really tiny. Her comment was “Fuck, that’s what my day’s going to be like now”. And all I wanted to say to her was “Only because you think so”. But I didn’t as she may have scratched my eyes out. She was big and angry. I also didn’t say it as it is a bit condescending and part of me felt for her. I used to be like that. I’d have one bad moment and then let it take off in my brain and hate my day. I’m so pleased I’m not anymore.
I write notes every day on the challenge website, kinda like a journal, so you can go and check them out here if you want more details.
If you think you can’t meditate because your mind is too busy then please, check out my posts about that in the related posts area below. I used to think that too.
