Welcome to Day Two of our 100 Day Meditation Challenge. The aim is to develop a strong habit of meditating daily through committing to sit. To support you, you’ll have an opportunity to share how things are going, and to learn from others.
Three “rules.”
- Sit for a minimum of five minutes. We hope you’ll sit for much longer — 20 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour — but if you sit for at least five minutes you can put that day in the “done” column.
- A “day” is the time between getting up and going to bed again, rather than clock time from midnight to midnight. So if you’re up late and don’t manage to sit until after midnight, you can count that “day” as one in which you’ve meditated.
- Walking meditation “counts.” And you can count one yoga session a week as part of your meditation practice, but we do want to focus on sitting practice.
If you join us late, that’s fine!
Some advice:
Fall down, get back up
Don’t turn a minor setback into a major setback. If you miss a day, then just pick yourself right up, forgive yourself, and keep on going. Self-forgiveness could be defined as giving up all hope of a better past. You can’t change the past, but you can make the most of the present moment and set up the intention to create a better future for yourself. You missed a day? Let’s just learn from that. What stopped you from sitting? What can you do to make it more likely that you’ll get on the cushion today and in future days? Aim to sit for every future day of the remainder of the 100.
Rejoice!
Our minds are prone to negativity. We sit for five minutes, and then we say “Yeah, but it was only five minutes. I bet other people are meditating for much longer. Besides, I was distracted most of the time. I’m not a real meditator.” Screw that. You meditated for five minutes? Punch your fist in the air and say to yourself “I meditated for five minutes! I rock!” Seriously, it’ll make you feel great, even if you just imaging doing this. If you don’t feel it, do it several times. Celebrating even our short meditations helps us to feel positive and confident and joyous about our meditation practice. Are you really going to want to do something regularly when your self-talk afterwards can be boiled down to “I suck”? No, punch the air! “I meditated! I rock! Yay, me!”
Use supports
Lastly, we have a ton of meditation instruction on this site. Here’s a link to our guide to the mindfulness of breathing practice. This is the most basic form of meditation, where we simply pay attention to the physical sensations of the breathing. This guide includes a number of audio guided meditations that you can stream.
12 Comments. Leave new
2/100.
Being of the British persuasion, would it be OK if, rather than punching the air and saying “I rock! Yay me!”, I just smiled affirmingly at myself and said “Well done, old chap. Good show. Every confidence in you” or something similar? ;-)
2/100 done. I like this 100 day thing. My meditation had become more regular lately but still nothing consistent. This is a great motivation. My knees and ankles don’t like this sitting much. I’m too young to feel this old!
https://journeyviamediation.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/2-of-100-2013/
2/100.
10-minute breathing meditation. I was mainly distracted by a noise in the corridor and by a music which i heard too much today and so couldn’t go out of my head. At least i feel calmer, but 10 min is definitely not enough for me. Let’s increase time by 5 min tomorrow.
So I started a day late. No problem, after all a really good paella can be a meditative experience in itself. But it feels good to sit again, really sit. Thanks for the inspiration.
2/100
10 min of sun salutations followed by 10 min mindfulness meditation.
I stumbled upon this site yesterday and am grateful I did. Seeing the 100 day challenge was exactly what I needed right then. Yet another tiny reminder that if you’re open to it, the Universe provides you with the tools you need to continue learning, growing, and living to your fullest. Thank you.
Thanks for doing this challenge! I wouldn’t have sat, most likely, since I slept in and was running short of time, I thought. But I figured I could sit 5 or 10 minutes, so I plopped down on my cushion and began. I have often thought in the past that if I didn’t sit for at least half an hour, then I wasn’t really practicing well–hmm, don’t know where that idea came from. But giving myself permission to sit only 5 or 10 minutes is working–and then I usually don’t want to get up after that short amount of time, so I end up sitting longer anyway!
Yes, those assumptions can get in the way!
[…] **They are currently on Day #2 listed here […]
Day 2 complete I am enjoying the virtual support.
That’s good to hear, Rachel.
3/100. Started off nice and easy on Tue with an 8-min ”grounding the mind” meditation (”Guided Meditations for Busy People”) and yesterday sat for 25 mins using a recording of a loving kindness meditation by Bodhipaksa. And now if I can just find a quiet place away from the noise of my husband’s circular saw for today’s meditation……!