Day 13: Meditation Challenge: You Hoo! Are You Out There?

Welcome, to my 28-Meditation Challenge.

If you have joined us late, that is just fine. If you'd like to "officially" join in, simply leave a comment here that says, "I'm in!" and I will add you to the Challenge Roster. Or, send me an e-mail through the Contact Box at my website: awakenedliving.com. You may want to catch up by reading the previous posts. We are glad you are here!

Each day we come here, even if we have not meditated as we'd hoped, we begin again.

Start where you are ... 

It's time to "Check-In." And, it's time to make a clear distinction between Meditation and Mindfulness, or can we?

We check in at airports a bit early, a bit into hotels. Let's follow The Middle Way and check in because we are almost halfway through the Challenge — that's if you started at Day 1.

Our Roster (right column) shows 98 Participants. Can you believe it?! Many of you did not comment here to sign up, but contacted me directly to be added to the list. To say I am wowed is an understatement. I am thrilled that so many people want to improve their lives through meditation.

But I am not quite sure how all of you are doing. How is the Challenge going for you — really??? 

Are you feeling a bit more regular—centered and calm? Or are you sporadic—frustrated and unsure? I'd really like to know. 

When I created this Challenge, I wanted something very simple for myself. I simply wanted to "sit" — to step away from my busy day and back into me, into a state of body/mind that was more calm and clear.

You see, I already live very mindfully. I discovered Mindfulness Practice in 1994 through the work of Thich Nhat Hanh. His book, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life.  became my bible. I was at a point in my life when I was sick and tired, literally! And I was sick and tired of being sick and tired! My life had become a blur, I was living on the fast track—trying to be the perfect wife, mother, entrepreneur, daughter, sister, friend—and I lost my health as a result. Mindfulness saved my life.  

Today, I live and breathe mindfulness. And as I have come to understand it, mindfulness IS a form of meditation. We bring conscious, relaxed awareness to everything we are doing. We wash the dishes, drive the car, change a diaper, tend to a screaming child, answer an e-mail, pay the bills, make love, go to work, all with present-centered awareness. We do so to be fully present to our lives, present to our thoughts and feelings. We do so to get in touch with ourselves so we can ultimately be in touch with others. (That's the short of it, anyway. )

In summary, I go through my day (most of the time, we all have lapses) quite meditatively. What I wasn't doing was "sitting."Coming to a cushion or chair to sit in the stillness and just "be" with myself, my breath, noticing thoughts and feelings as they arise, allowing them to move through. I wanted to know myself better by sitting.

Yesterday, in a comment to his own post here, guest "expert" Paul Martin wrote:

People are different, but from my personal experience, sitting meditation turned out to be a lot easier than people often seem to think it has to be. For me it didn’t require a guru or even a special pillow or physical position – just enough patience to sit in a chair starting with only a few minutes and working up to sessions that rarely went beyond 20 or 30 minutes once a day or once every other day.

He also said: I really do think that learning sitting mediation facilitates learning to release unhelpful thoughts as they come in a non-judgmental way.

Bingo! That's it for me. By sitting, I also desire to continue to untangle convoluted wiring; to continue to rid myself of lingering worry, fear, and anxiety; to be more well with myself and the world.  

Now the trick is, I also do this untangling/letting go stuff all throughout the day with mindfulness practices. That is why my teacher said she felt it was not crucial for me to "sit." Because I am doing low-level meditation all throughout the day engaged in mundane tasks. Mindfulness is my mindset, it is how I live. But I still wasn't "sitting." Am I making myself clear?

As I understand it from "the experts," sitting meditation enhances and deepens our ability to live mindfully. It brings awareness to the table in a way that we may not have experienced it before. And this is what I want for myself. To be DEEPLY aware of everything, to feel it all, embrace it all—yes, even the most difficult things—because doing so (instead of running away from them) creates equanimity. Creates peace. And more than anything I want to be a peaceful woman. I already am, but I want MORE.


Funny thing though, I came to mindfulness first. It seems most people discover mindfulness as a result of meditating. I'm doing it backwards, I guess, but that's OK. I followed my heart and it led me to where I am now.  

So that is why I commit to sit. That's my story. I would love to hear yours.

I really, really, really want to know how YOU are doing! 

And I also want to know how I (we) can help? Do you need support, techniques, tools?

I look forward to hearing from you.  

(You can let me (us) know by commenting here or by sending me a private e-mail through the Contact Box at my website: awakenedliving.com. )

Love and blessings,

Jan

Read on ...

From Where I Sit — Day 13, My Meditation Experience
Yesterday, I kept mindful attention throughout the day. I took several short breaks to just sit in the quiet, breathe, and be still. I more formally "sat" in my husband's office while I was waiting for him (about 10 minutes). I also did a brief meditation while in the bathtub. "Breathing in I calm myself, breathing out I smile."




Recommended Resources: 

RUN, don't walk to your nearest bookstore to purchase the March issue of Shambhala Sun. Even if you have no Buddhist leanings whatsoever, if you care about meditation and mindfulness, go! The entire issue is devoted to MINDFULNESS, and it is amazing. Every article is insightful and practical, discussing how to bring mindfulness to relationships, cooking, shopping, at home, at work, and, perhaps my favorite — to using the internet!!! It's a wow, believe me. 

Inspiration: 

In cultivating lovingkindness, we train first to be honest, loving, and compassionate toward ourselves. Rather than nurturing self-denigration, we begin to cultivate clear seeing kindness. Sometimes we feel good and strong. Sometimes we feel inadequate and weak. But like mother love, maitri is unconditional. No matter how we feel, we can aspire to be happy. We can learn to act and think in ways that sow seeds of our future well-being, gradually becoming more aware of what causes happiness as well as what causes distress. Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others. 

~Pema Chodron, The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times