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Weekly Experiments Episode 3: Meditation


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Weekly experiments (Episode 3: Meditation)

Welcome. I am glad that I have you are reading this because this could change your life to the better.

I decided to publish these weekly episodes in the main room instead of the journal section because they turned more of a blog/column-style, then a Journal. I also like to link these resources specific to the topic. If someone asks me about meditation for example I (or anyone who finds this valuable) can just link to this topic. @Cam Adair if you have any objections just say something and I think of another solution.

You can find first two Episodes with the topics kanbanflow and handwritten journal here.

Topic of the week: Meditation

What is meditation?

Basically you sit on your but and do nothing. But it is more then just that. You focus on something like your breath or your heartbeat. Sounds easy to you? It is surprisingly hard. First you focus on your breath. Breath in. Breath out. Oh that's easy. Was that a thought? How do I stop this? Damn! My nose is itching. Great.... now I need to pee and this shit won't work at all. Welcome to a average first meditation sitting. Why do I still sit there. Maybe if I put my ass an inch to the right this will be more comfortable. Ah screw this I am going to do something else.

Your mind is always rattling on and if you actually try to sit down and just observe you will be amazed how much mess is going on, in that "rational" mind of yours. The goal of meditation is to be mindful of these thoughts. I personally struggle a lot with realizing my feelings in the moment. If I think back I can see that I was scared and that was the reason why I lashed out or hide from my work. But in the moment I am not aware of this fear and can not act accordingly. This applies of other feelings to. Awareness helps you to think straight and also to appreciate the little good things that go unnoticed if you you are not trained to see them,

There is some scientific studies out there who shows that regular meditation lessens stress and even change the structure of your brain. Here is a short  forbes article about the benefits from meditation.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/#561f34e77023

Out of this reasons, but mainly because I feel like I need to improve my self-awareness to be a good husband and human, I started to meditate daily. The problem with this is that you won't see a lot of progress in one or two weeks. There are a lot of resources out there to help you get started on meditation but the thing I tried and which helped me a lot was headspace.com. They give you a 10day free trial of guided 10min meditation and is in my opinion a great way to try this practice out. You can restart the 10 meditations as often you want. But I decided to pay the 10€ every month to unlock the rest of their meditations and didn't regret it so far. I do 20min meditations which are getting less and less guided as I progress.

This kind of meditation practice is purely secular, which means it isn't bound to any religion (like buddhism) and doesn't has spiritual goals. It is used to train your mind. That means you don't need to have a fear of joining a crazy new agy cult.

But if you suffer from psychological issues I would be careful. This periods of silence in your life can lead to the rising of suppressed emotions and fears. If something like this happens while you trying to meditate, don't hesitate to stop and ask for professional help before you continue your journey of self-awareness.

Result of the  experiment:

 headspace  has helped me personally to become consistent with meditation. Not because of the streaks and "achievements" but because it is guided. You just have to do what the nice English monk says and it will be a medium/good meditation.

Am I super focused after around 2months meditating every day? Do I realize what I do every time I do it?

No. But it feels like I am doing better. Also the practice often times leaves me calm and peaceful after the meditation and reduces anxiety.

Next week:

I will talk about intermittent fasting and positive constraints

I try to keep things simple and just write down what I did and why I did it every week, whilst explaining one experiment every week. If the experiments are successful I'll integrate the tools/habits into my life. I do hope that this posts will inspire you to try out new things  along  with me and share your experiences. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to post them here. I am happy to help if I can.

See you next week or on the journal and always remember: It is a Work in Progress.

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