A Year of Meditating

 In November 2020, I took up meditation.

I wrote about it before, shortly after I started. I had a strange reaction to meditation initially. As I wrote back then, I felt a lot of rage and was much more quick to anger than usual. I thought I was doing something wrong. But as it turns out, when you turn attention upon yourself, your mind, and your thoughts, of course that's very uncomfortable.

At this point, I've meditated nearly every day for about a year. I've listened to lectures on meditation. I've done my own mini retreat at home. And I've learned a few things.

First, once I got past the initial extreme discomfort of meditating, which led to so much anger, I found myself getting better at recognizing thoughts and emotions as they popped up, which meant they had less power over me. I became less reactive, which was most noticeable on social media. It's been pretty great, to be honest.

Second, I became a little less wrapped up in myself and felt more compassion for people around me. I was kinder. I had less of a tendency to judge other people and was more forgiving. I've been more generous with my money and my time. That, too, has been pretty great.

Third, I've been more grateful overall and have spent more time noticing the everyday things that make me happy and bring me joy. It's usually something as simple as sitting on my couch with my family with the fireplace on in the winter, or having an uninterrupted stretch of time to read a good book, or watching the gold and red leaves dance on the wind during autumn like fairies. This has also been great!

Fourth, my attention span has improved. Oh, I still get distracted, and I think ultimately I need to cut social media completely out of my life to really see significant improvement, but meditation has helped me focus better.

While I've meditated for a year at this point, I feel like I'm still just scratching the surface. It's certainly a lifelong endeavor, and it's hard to remember to meditate during super stressful situations or throughout the course of a busy day. But I'm gradually getting there. I would like to go on a short retreat one of these days (with other people around, OMG!), or even do another mini retreat on my own.

Some resources I've found helpful:

Waking up with Sam Harris--This is the app I use daily. There's an introductory series as well as other special series, plus a daily meditation. There are guests, a Q&A with Sam, and other tidbits of wisdom.

Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris--No relation to Sam Harris. There are lots of great guests, meditations, and other resources here.

Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation--Lots of great resources here, including How To's, apps, trainings, and more.