Mindfulness Meditation

If you remember, waaaay back in January I said that I was going to try to focus on taking better care of myself this year.  Since I’m not one to procrastinate (ah, ya, right), I thought that maybe I should start working on this goal soon before it's time to get the Thanksgiving turkey.

Now one of the things that I really want to be able to do successfully is meditate. I believe it can be very useful and beneficial for everyone.

Last weekend I heard a speaker talk about “mindfulness meditation” and mindfulness in general. I realized that I stink at mindfulness. I think about a million things at once, am thinking more on what I might have to add to a story than listening to someone speak, can’t sit and enjoy reading a book without thinking about other things that I should be doing, etc., etc. So I googled “mindfulness meditation” and got a few simple instructions on how to practice it. And indeed it is something that does not come easy - it has to be practiced and practiced. Heck, I even signed up for a 21-day-meditation-helpful-hints-email to assist me in this journey.

Today is day two.

Let’s review day one. Headache upon waking. All day long while working at my desk, all I could think about was laying down on my couch. I clearly focused on one thing the entire time. Mindfulness? Probably not what meditation pros would call good mindfulness even though my main focus all day was on closing my eyes and sleeping.

Finally it was meditation time. Yeah! A great excuse to close my eyes! The instructions tell me to focus on my breathing. Only my breathing. If other thoughts come into my mind, I should acknowledge them and then begin to pay attention to my breathing again.

Let’s see….breathing…breathing…breathing…wonder how I’m doing…breathing…breathing…my friend Karen would like this…breathing…breathing…I remember when I called Karen after I had my Reikki treatment…we talked about grounding ourselves…breathing…wonder if she’s tried it…I should call her…oh, she’d really like this…I have to remember to ground myself daily…I haven’t done that…wonder if it would help…oh ya, breathing…LOL, I seem to think of a lot of things other than my breathing…breathing…I should blog about this…ya, that’s a good idea…breathing…wonder if I should do it tonight or wait until tomorrow…breathing…breathing…wonder if it’s been ten minutes…breathing…….

Well, at least it's a start - but if only I could be more mindful while getting there. 

It might be a long 21 days...