60 Days of 60 Minutes of Meditation - Let's Not Do Anything Together

[Formless]

Day 16

This was a pleasant session. I wore some noise cancelling earphones and it forced me to focus on physical sensations as the thing to be mindful of (as opposed to the sounds of breath.)Not sure I want to do it regularly because I don't want it to become a crutch - but a nice sensation nevertheless.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

Day 54
Meditating at 7 AM is so much better than 11 AM...lol. I still got heavily distracted once, but good session overall.

 

[xSylon]

@MTF
Thank you for your reply. It is definitely a good idea to implement more hip stretching in my day. I get inflexible through all the hours working in front of my PC what is also bad for my calisthenics progress.
+ Lotus position looks badass.

Day 2
The last 20 minutes were even harder than yesterday. I find it fascinating how our monkey mind works. Among others, I had to think about how my old Username "TH3 CHill3r" was a bad choice for my League of Legends Account and how I should have asked out the cute girl from bachata I have danced with because she has clearly given me signs that she likes me. The funny thing is I didn't touch any computer game for more than 3 years (LoL like 6 years) and I didn't see the signs the girl gave me when we danced one year ago. My mind is so messed up haha

 

[Andreas]

I failed at day 27. I tried to meditate, but within 20 minutes I was feeling way too tired to continue. I made the mistake of procrastinating until night time before sleep. I have to say that was one of the best sleep sessions of my life though. I'm also starting to use the pillow less and less when I sleep. I think the only reason I still use a pillow is because I got used to it.

I guess today it's Day 1 for me. Lately I have been procrastinating on many things, so I might practice more meditation since it's easier to do that.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

I respect the spirit. It's about making meditating a lifelong habit, not completing a 60-days challenge and then be done with it.

 

[Formless]

Day 17

Nice session after an evening run.

 

[Madame Peccato]

Day 55
The first half was perfect. I got distracted a couple of times during the second half, but overall very good session.

 

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[Bora.s]

I respect the spirit. It's about making meditating a lifelong habit, not completing a 60-days challenge and then be done with it.

Yes you are right, I am meditating already more then 20 years ( around 10 to 15 minutes daily) and this habit helped me a lot. I never talked that much with anybody about it. In the recent years I am noticing that more and more people are opening up towards meditation.

Day 38
It is nice to meditate somehow with all of you "together".

Thank you @MTF !!

 

[Andreas]

Day 2 Complete

Very hard session on the second half because I had an upset stomach. I think it would have gone very peacefully if it wasn't for that. At some point I had to stop the timer and go to the toilet, only to find that it was a false alarm -_-

 

[Formless]

Day 18

This one was rough, going through the motions. Tomorrow's another day.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

Day 56
Another peaceful session. I've had a couple of minor distractions but I kept focused for most of the session.

 

[xSylon]

Had no time to write yesterday but of course, did my session.

Day 3
Had no time in the morning. I postponed my meditation to the evening. I can confirm that meditation gets a lot harder when you are tired, very hard to focus on breath, and not fall asleep. However, I did it and like @Andreas, I was rewarded with the best sleep this year.

Day 4
Morning Session after waking up was a lot easier than the first 3 days. Still hard to focus in the last 15 minutes but my body didn't hurt as much.

 

[Andreas]

So today, I had a session with my therapist and he suggested that I use my work as meditation instead of just sitting down. I explained to him that I had some ADHD tendencies (regardless of whether ADHD is real or not, it is a convenient label for a pattern of behaviors) and so instead of opening another tab or going off to play video games, just stare at the wall or the computer screen and not try to make up new stories about the sensations and thoughts in my body.

I am oversimplifying what he said to me in an almost 2 hour session, but I will do what he said for a month to see what will happen.

The only time I will be sitting down and doing nothing is before sleep, but that will probably not last for an hour. It doesn't mean that I am closing off the meditation from this thread forever, but for now, I will change tactics and see where this goes.

 

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[Formless]

Day 19

Good session. (The irony of judging what are essentially non-judgement exercises is not lost on me.)

 

[Madame Peccato]

Day 57
Okay session. Great first half followed by a mediocre second half.

 

[MTF]

So just wanted to say that today I completed day 100.

It wasn't a particularly notable session because I didn't sleep well. But it doesn't matter - what matters is that I've been meditating consistently, every single morning, for an hour, for 100 days (or over three months) already.

Along with Michael A. Singer practices (which are actually way more important than meditation) I'm definitely seeing a big improvement in my quality of life. Sometimes I get joyful for no particular reason at all and stopped reacting to a lot of the little stuff.

I still have worse days (like today) but overall I'm very happy I decided to experiment with meditation and that I decided to keep at it for at least 60 days. I doubt I'd have the same conclusions if I tried it just for a week or two, and particularly if it was just for 15-20 minutes a day. You really need to put in more work to internalize it.

 

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[xSylon]

Along with Michael A. Singer practices (which are actually way more important than meditation) I'm definitely seeing a big improvement in my quality of life. Sometimes I get joyful for no particular reason at all and stopped reacting to a lot of the little stuff.

100 Days, wow, that is awesome. Keep it going. I will be there in 95 days
Do you have a good source to learn something about the practices you mentioned? Never heard of Michael Singer.

Day 5
It was an easy 1-hour session. I was even surprised that my alarm clock ringed so early.
I can recommend that you set a goal when starting your meditation, that makes your mind way more focused.
For example, I set myself the goal to be especially focused on my breath in the second half of the meditation and not to think about my day. Indeed, my mind didn't wander as much.

 

[MTF]

Do you have a good source to learn something about the practices you mentioned? Never heard of Michael Singer.

Start with The Untethered Soul:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TU29WA/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Then his second book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NDTUDOS/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Then his video course:
Living from a Place of Surrender (there's a link somewhere to get it for $100 off)

Then his audio lectures:

The Untethered Soul Lecture Series Collection

In this 11-volume audio series, join Michael A. Singer for an expansive exploration of the life-changing insights in his bestselling books. Michael A. Singer’s spiritual classic, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, gave us a lucid and practical guide to living an awakened life...

www.soundstrue.com

And other stuff on his site:
www.untetheredsoul.com

 

[Formless]

Day 20

Good session.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

Day 58
I was very distracted today.

 

[xSylon]

Start with The Untethered Soul:
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself - Kindle edition by Singer, Michael A.. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Then his second book:
Amazon.com: The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection eBook: Singer, Michael A.: Kindle Store

Then his video course:
Living from a Place of Surrender (there's a link somewhere to get it for $100 off)

Then his audio lectures:

The Untethered Soul Lecture Series Collection

In this 11-volume audio series, join Michael A. Singer for an expansive exploration of the life-changing insights in his bestselling books. Michael A. Singer’s spiritual classic, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, gave us a lucid and practical guide to living an awakened life...

www.soundstrue.com

And other stuff on his site:
www.untetheredsoul.com

Thank you. Will definitely check it out after finishing my current reads.

Day 6
My mind was very calm today. I really enjoyed the meditation. At some point, I had a thought about a potential project that I could implement in the future when I gain more programming experience. Of course, tried to return to my breath and calmness. I wrote down the idea after my session.

 

[KushShah9492]

Day 1: 5 minutes of meditation with headspace, in the morning. Looking forward to start meditating at night as well.

 

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[Formless]

Day 20

Really enjoyable session, got a lot of silence out of this one.

 

[Madame Peccato]

Day 59
Okay session, the first part wasn't that good, and it improved in the second part. Last one tomorrow.

 

[MTF]

I always find it incredible how sometimes you can go for a few days in a row really struggling during meditation (constantly losing focus, feeling mentally exhausted and like it'll never end) and then one day you can be so fine, quiet and connected with yourself that you could easily sit for hours and feel wonderful.

 

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[xSylon]

Day 7
Nothing special about today. My neighbor had the urge to loudly play heartbreak music the last few minutes. It was an interesting challenge to ignore Passengers 'only know that you love her when you let her go' singing and concentrate on not engaging in thoughts. Feel bad for my neighbor though

 

[Formless]

Day 21

Started poor but got better later. Had a couple of profound realisations during the session that took me straight to journaling right after the session.

 

[Madame Peccato]

Day 60
Good session, I had some distractions, but nothing too big.

Here is how this challenge impacted my life (and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future):

- I am much calmer and don't react as quickly to what happens to me
- I feel more confident because I know that what I do / happens to me doesn't have as big of an impact as I thought
- I'm more in tune with myself. I feel way more creative and thoughtful
- I enjoy myself more when I'm outside. I'll gladly sit out on a sunny day and just chill for 30 minutes without even noticing. I would have NEVER done this 3 months ago
- When I have to think about an issue I don't get stuck in silly patterns. My brain is more efficient

I am going to keep meditating for 1 hour every morning, these 60 days were just the beginning.

Thanks again @MTF for showing me this challenge, and to everyone else who contributed in this thread, you're a big reason I could stick with this challenge. If I had to do it alone I would have probably failed / given up within the first 3 weeks.

I will keep posting daily about my sessions.

 

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[MTF]

Great stuff, @Madame Peccato. Very glad to hear about the impact and that you're going to continue with one hour a day. You'll probably soon notice that the first 60 days were like pre-school and you haven't even started real work yet (neither have I).

 

[Madame Peccato]

Day 61
Very peaceful session. I let my mind drift away a bit in the middle of it, but nothing too big.