I have always been told that if you have no time in your day-to-day life, you should meditate for 30 minutes daily. If you have all the time in the world, meditate for ten minutes. Meditation has always caught my interest and I’ve been curious to see how it would have an effect on my life. In the past, I have never been able to keep a constant routine in my stress-filled school week. So I decided to challenge myself.
Image via The New York Times
The Goal
Mediate every day during the school week. Every day. Ten minutes. Take a break from the day, take deep controlled breaths, and just relax! Because I am new to this, I decided to use something to help me manage the meditation session, something like a lesson to learn from for the future.
I decided to use a guided meditation to help me with my experiment. I wanted to see if I would notice a difference after repeated days of meditating instead of just the feeling of being calmer after one session.
The Results
Monday:
Today was my first midterm of the quarter and the stress was high. I decided to start my week off on a calmer note and take time to meditate before my midterm. I am definitely the type to stress out before a test, it’s just who I am.
I put my headphones in and was swept away for 10 minutes. My body felt super still and my limbs almost felt like bricks in the best way possible. The man’s voice that was leading the lesson made prevalent that meditation isn’t about stopping your thoughts, it’s more like a skill.
That was probably the hardest thing to “control.” I kept feeling the need to think about my thoughts, which led my mind to wonder. I realized the thing that helped me the most was to focus on my breathing and nothing more.
Tuesday:
Yet another day where multiple assignments were due and I felt that I couldn’t take time out of my day. Right before bed, I knew I had to organize my thoughts from the day. Taking the ten minutes to just relax was just what I needed. I felt like I was able to sleep better than I had in a while.
Usually I have a whirlwind of thoughts continually running through my mind organizing my to do list for the next day. But this day, I felt that even after my guided meditation lesson, I was able to put my head down that night and keep being conscious of my breathing to help me fall asleep.
Wednesday:
Out of the whole week, Wednesday is probably my longest day on campus and it definitely lives up to its hump day status. I was feeling really low on time today, so I decided to schedule in my meditation because otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten to it.
I am going to be honest; this was a tough session to get through. I couldn’t get past my consuming thoughts and the overwhelming amount of distractions in my apartment that night. I was feeling pretty defeated after this unsuccessful meditation session.
Thursday:
My body woke me up three hours before my alarm this morning. I took advantage of the quiet apartment and sat myself down to meditate. I know that meditation is to practice canceling out the distractions to focus on you, but I’m not going to lie, the silence was serene.
I was able to just turn my brain off and soak up the morning air. I decided that maybe the mornings were a better time for me to fit meditation into my routine. The stillness made my muscles almost feel like they were floating off my body.
Friday:
It was beautiful outside this day and I decided to bask in the beauty while sitting on my patio. This was the perfect moment to meditate and end my week on a high note. I decided to put the guided meditation on speaker and just listen to my breathing. Decompressing outside while breathing in the fresh sea air felt like I had no worries, nothing to rush to, nothing to worry about. It was amazing to see how much easier it was to meditate in this environment and finding out what works best for me.
Final Thoughts
Mission accomplished! Meditation is all about letting go, not trying, and in fact, not doing anything at all. Intimidated from the beginning, and having its ups and downs, meditation allowed me to escape which only helped me get stronger with my practice. For all my fellow stressed out classmates and peers, sometimes all it take is just ten minutes!