Hi Friends,
This post will be short and sweet. I just want to acknowledge and celebrate my 600th consecutive day of meditation and/or yoga according to my Insight Timer app. Yay! I guess I can count that habit as a consistent one, the practice of being mindful of thoughts, emotions, my body and sometimes the space around me as well.
There is probably a Buddhist admonition not to take pride in one’s meditation. Something about ego and all of that. But I am proud of establishing the habit and I am not Buddhist. So I am going to own it and celebrate! Cheers!
What daily or weekly habits serve you best in your life?
cristy@meximinnesota.com
mexi minnesotana 
How did you get started? What kept you going when you didn’t want to? I really struggle with consistency but feel SO much better when I practice either or both meditation and yoga. I’d love to learn from any pointers you might have to share.
LikeLike
Hi! Sorry it took me a while to respond. The best advice I can give you is to start small and I mean REALLY small. People always used to tell me I needed at least 15 minutes uninterrupted to start. But I couldn’t always manage to carve that out in my mind. So I took it even smaller. If I could find 3-5 minutes, I would do that. Or even 1-2 minutes of focus on the breath, once or twice a day. Sometimes I do guided meditations from Insight Timer or from a series of audio tracks I have from Jon Kabat Zinn. Yoga classes usually involve 5 minutes of meditation at the beginning and 5 minutes of savasana (or stillness in corpse pose) at the end. So I count my yoga classes as a “meditative practice”. Over time, that mere 5 minutes a day was making such a positive impact on my life (especially when I made time for it in the morning), I wanted to do more. I could tell a distinct difference between days when I meditated in the morning and days when I didn’t get to it at lunch. My productivity and calmness throughout the day always seemed to be better when I meditated. Now I cannot imagine NOT starting the day this way. I hope this helps. I don’t always do totally silent meditation, but I want to add more of this now that that routine has been well established.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, lady. Your words are so helpful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often.
LikeLike
Congratulations, Cristy; that’s an accomplishment! I always feel best when I do my (almost) daily walks outdoors in the fresh air.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Walking can be a form of moving meditation when done mindfully! I love walks as well and I try to get out at least 4-5 times a week for fresh air too. Very restorative.
LikeLiked by 1 person