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I Meditated Every Day for a Month to Get My Anxious Mind to STFUCould 30 days of meditating be the secret to obliterating stress? |
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In reality, on the first night of the challenge I remembered to meditate only as I laid down to sleep. With my head still on the pillow, I reached for my phone, popped in my headphones and started my first meditation from the fetal position, totally ignoring my audio guide's gentle instructions to assume a comfortable seated position.
The rest of my first week I kept up this bad habit of squeezing in my meditations when I felt like it, most often when I was on the verge of dozing off. (And yes, if I'm being honest, I did drift off a few times). On the plus side, I sure was sleeping well. But I realized I as long as I half-assed my mediations, I wouldn't get everything I wanted out of them.
Both Goldberg and Winston emphasize the importance of picking a specific time to meditate each day and tying it to something you do every day. "Really make sure you do your practice at the same time," Goldberg says. "We say rise, pee and mediate." In other words, make meditation your first priority after hopping out of bed (and, you know, taking care of business).
"It's also helpful to have a designated space because your mind knows that when you're in this spot, it's your meditation spot," Winston adds. Fortunately, you don't need a plant- and pillow-bedecked meditation room; you just need a spot that affords you some privacy. "For the longest time I meditated in the bathroom. It had a lock, and I didn't want the kids coming in," Goldberg says.
Oh, and meditating while reclining in bed? Not such a great idea, it turns out. After talking with the experts, I moved my meditation practice to mornings in my living room -- thereby removing the temptation to nod off.
SEE NEXT PAGE: Building My Practice
