I have been very tired for the last two days. As a result, I failed to meditate on Saturday and only attempted 10 minutes yesterday. I returned to 20 minutes today but tried something different. I sat in the truck outside work after my commute but before heading inside. (I didn't want to do this... Continue Reading →

I haven't been good about blogging over the last few days, but I only skipped one day of meditation—I was just too tired yesterday evening. Since the last time I wrote, however, I exchanged emails with one of my friends who was part of the inspiration for me to try meditation. After reading through my... Continue Reading →

Today's practice marked two... what? ... milestones perhaps? I hit my target of 20 minutes. Moreover, I did so without almost no thought of time during my period of meditation. Early on I was cognizant of the increased duration and wondered very briefly if I would be able to keep from thinking about it as... Continue Reading →

Yes, I failed to post yesterday. So, I'll write about both yesterday (17 minutes) and today (18+ minutes). Both days had a similar pattern. I started off without much trouble settling into a focus on breath and awareness of the pulls on my thoughts. Both days had strong external factors that began pulling at my... Continue Reading →

I knew it would eventually happen. But it doesn't make it any easier. I started off fairly focused today. But being tired, keeping the monkey brain at bay was a challenge. Entire thoughts made it through before I was able to return focus. And then... I woke up. Yep, I fell asleep. As time is... Continue Reading →

I tried a couple of new things today. I added some quiet background music (Enya, of course). I tried something new in how I brought myself back to focus. But first the challenges for today's meditation. Today was a rather stressful day all day long. At work, I found out that the connection to the... Continue Reading →

Things went very differently today. I don't know if the changes were from the fact that I increased by another two minutes or something else. I should clarify—from the knowledge that today's meditation would be two minutes later. The changes were there from the very beginning, not just in the last few minutes. I only... Continue Reading →

Day 5 Today's 15 minutes fell into three distinct time blocks. I have no idea if they were or were not of equal length. First block—the same pattern of attaining focus, losing focus, regaining focus. Again the time to detect the loss of focus felt quicker and the duration of the times of focus seemed... Continue Reading →

Sunday 1 I put off meditation today until rather late. It had been a mentally stressing day (dining table stuff). It had been a long day. And I was tired. As with the last time I was tired going into meditation, the monkey brain was a little more active than yesterday. The first thing of... Continue Reading →

Day 4 I increased my time to 15 minutes today. I started out fairly strong—keeping focus on my breathing and keeping the extraneous thoughts vying for my attention at bay. But that only lasted a few minutes. Valerie didn't realize I was doing my new daily practice and asked me a direct question. That tripped... Continue Reading →