My colleague and meditation challenge participant Theresa was kind enough to write about her experience so far to share with you all. It was wonderful and brave of her to do so, and I hope you’ll be inspired to keep going like she has, no matter how it’s gone for you so far. Every moment is fresh, a brand new opportunity to begin again without self-judgement. I can hear Pema Chodron whispering to us all, “start where you are”…

Theresa wrote on 2/12/13:

The last two weeks of 2012 I was on a roll. I was gearing up for my meditation challenge to start in 2013, but I was already meditating everyday, so I figured I would just breeze into things. Well I had better think again. I spent the first few weeks of 2013 not meditating, not even attempting to meditate, and I noticed a considerable difference in my mood. I haven’t pin-pointed why exactly I didn’t follow through on the challenge and I am not going to waste time analyzing my past actions (I do enough of that already!) but I simply didn’t. I can honestly say I was less calm, highly anxious, and not sleeping as well. I kept telling myself, you have to meditate today! And then I wouldn’t.

Enough was enough and last Monday I sprang into action and meditated all week long. I fell asleep faster, I was calmer, and I was able to more easily dismiss the thousands of wild thoughts that came into my mind. I haven’t meditated the last two days, yesterday I chose to gorge myself with ice cream since I have decided to give it up for Lent, instead of doing anything helpful. I don’t know if it was the lack of meditation or the sugar rush, but I had a very hard time falling asleep last night. Needless to say, I will both be passing Dairy Queen by and meditating after work today.

What I hope you can take from this is that none of us is perfect and it’s likely we will have many challenges in trying to meditate everyday. But if it is beneficial, I do notice a difference, and if I am willing to do countless other activities on a daily basis, why not make meditation part of my routine? Getting over the initial hump, the forcing yourself to do something everyday, and actually doing it, is the largest part of the battle. I do struggle with self-compassion and with that I am letting go of any shame I feel for not meditating and just going to begin again the next day.

I hope any of you who are struggling with your journey do the same for yourself and pick it back up. And congrats to those who are not sharing my struggles! To all of us, no matter how “strict” we are to sticking to this journey, we deserve a pat on the back! Now get out there and listen to one of Cynthia’s meditations, she really knows her stuff and I can’t wait to say “I knew her back when…”

Brava, Theresa! Thanks for risking and sharing your journey with us!

I’ll be posting my own update in a couple of days. Anyone else who is interested in sharing their experience so far with a guest post, please contact me.

Meanwhile, you can listen to a guided meditation here.

Related articles

• Discipline is Overrated. ~ Nichole Gould (elephantjournal.com)
• Meditation – It’s Not Just For Monks Anymore (chris-griffin.com)
• Just say “Om!” Is meditation right for you? (massageenvy.com)
• Pema Chödrön (alanavr.wordpress.com)
• 10 Myths Of Meditation (miraculousendeavors.org)