29 days of meditation

I went to write this blog post and had to change the title, it’s a leap year! 29 days this February.

For 2020 I decided to do something new every day for each month. I have been such a ball of anxiety for the past few months that I decided to continue my destressing January resolution (yoga) with meditation for February!

Previously, I hated meditation when I tried it. I found that it got me more anxious and my mind would wander to places that weren’t helpful for destressing. That being said, I probably wasn’t trying very hard if that was the result haha. Also, you’re supposed to learn these skills so that they’re easy when you need them! Trying to learn to meditate in crisis mode probably won’t work.

Meditation is definitely having a moment right now, especially in the “wellness” space, and it is actually something that isn’t expensive and out of reach. Plus it can be done any time and anywhere, which was really appealing to me. Although I loved yoga, it was definitely a time and place commitment.

I started meditating just whenever it worked for me in the day at the beginning of the month, which gradually transitioned to doing it every night before bed.

Not for long, definitely no more than 10 minutes total, but I did find that it got easier and easier.

I’d been reading so much about meditation and listening to podcasts where it was mentioned that I didn’t feel the need to do a tonne of research before getting started.

Basically, you focus on your breath and feeling your body move with your breathing, and when your mind starts to wander you bring your focus back to your breath.

Another helpful trick I learned was to “label” any thoughts that did manage to sneak through. For example, I found myself thinking of words or phrases that I heard Venetia Falconer say on her podcast, Talking Tastebuds, with Michael Miller. This would immediately bring me to other episodes that I had listened to, yada yada, rabbithole.

Once I started to “label” my thoughts, I found this lessened. When I would think of something to do with this meditation podcast, I would consciously label it as “instructional.” I didn’t know much about meditation and so I was bringing in all the knowledge that I had about it, while I was doing it.

Counterproductive!

Labeling really helped with thoughts that would keep coming through no matter how hard I focused.

So, was it helpful? Life changing? Am I a new person?

Sadly, no. I think people who are that affected by these things must either be hyping themselves up or incredibly unintentional in their day to day life.

But! I did find that I fell asleep faster and slept better in February than I had in the previous few months. I also was able to bring in the breath work that comes with yoga and meditation when I was feeling particularly anxious, which for me is often when I drive.

So all in all, I would call that a success. I am going to continue meditating before bed, and maybe try out one of the apps that are available.

Now that the truly dark days of winter are over, I’ve set up walking every day for my March theme. Lots of health benefits, and a great way to enjoy the nicer weather. So far so good!

Here I’ve linked Venetia’s website: https://www.venetialamanna.com/ where you should be able to find out more about her and her podcast.

Here you can find some simple and easy to follow information about meditation: https://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/beginners-guide-meditation